*OFFICIAL* CC Group Cruise 02/15/2014 Cupid's IV Southern Caribbean - Carnival Breeze

[HeidiHo]

Good Afternoon!

 

I got an email form Carnival today saying that they will once again be printing brochures. They should be available in January. So if you like having that brochure physically in your hand, you will be able to do that. I think we are going to be seeing quite a lot of changes in the future. I am hearing rumors that they will simplifly their pricing structure too. I hope so. Right now you need a masters degree to understand all the different rate codes. I really hope they get rid of Early Saver. The prices may be good but I don't like the restrictions and it's a pain in the butt for travel agents. Not only will Carnival not talk to passengers who booked through a TA but they won't talk to us by phone either if it's Early Saver. EVERYTHING must be done on line. Also, if a client sees a price drop, they have to call the TA to get it. Because we are not working 24/7, there can be a time delay and the rate might be gone by the time the TA can submit it. It's not that I mind doing it, I just don't want clients calling me at midnight or leaving me messages about price drops and then getting mad at me if they don't get it because I couldn't submit it right away. People who book early saver are better off booking directly with the cruise lines, then they can submit the price drops themselves as soon as they see them.

 

I guess that's enough of a rant right now. LOL. Have a great day. :)

[Cruisin Dave]

Good Afternoon!

 

I got an email form Carnival today saying that they will once again be printing brochures. They should be available in January. So if you like having that brochure physically in your hand, you will be able to do that. I think we are going to be seeing quite a lot of changes in the future. I am hearing rumors that they will simplifly their pricing structure too. I hope so. Right now you need a masters degree to understand all the different rate codes. I really hope they get rid of Early Saver. The prices may be good but I don't like the restrictions and it's a pain in the butt for travel agents. Not only will Carnival not talk to passengers who booked through a TA but they won't talk to us by phone either if it's Early Saver. EVERYTHING must be done on line. Also, if a client sees a price drop, they have to call the TA to get it. Because we are not working 24/7, there can be a time delay and the rate might be gone by the time the TA can submit it. It's not that I mind doing it, I just don't want clients calling me at midnight or leaving me messages about price drops and then getting mad at me if they don't get it because I couldn't submit it right away. People who book early saver are better off booking directly with the cruise lines, then they can submit the price drops themselves as soon as they see them.

 

I guess that's enough of a rant right now. LOL. Have a great day. :)

LOL! Glad you got that off your mind. I do agree about all the different rates and the Supersaver is a pain to explain to people.

September was one of the warmest, hottest, on record. And October is starting out the same way. It's almost 90 here and will be that way all week. Hopefully we will cool down this weekend.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Dave

[HeidiHo]

LOL! Glad you got that off your mind. I do agree about all the different rates and the Supersaver is a pain to explain to people.

 

 

I've actually been lucky and have only booked one client with Early Saver and she never put in for any price drops because her category sold out very early. I've sold a few Carnival cruises now but I think Early Saver was already gone by the time they booked. On a lot of cruises, Early Saver was replaced with the Fall and Winter Sale which didn't have restrictions. I really do just want to do right by my clients and would feel terrible if say, I got an email at midnight from someone asking for a price drop but maybe I wouldn't even see the email till the next day and by then the lower rate could be gone. That's why I say it's better for people booking Early Saver to book directly from Carnival. I even check prices myself to see if there are price drops. Just recently I had some clients who booked the Fall and winter Sale and I was checking for price drops (before final payment). I saw that their category had gone down a lot and was about to call Carnival to see about getting a price drop but 5 minutes later the category was sold out so I couldn't do it. My clients didn't even know I was trying to get them a price drop. Probably what happened was, there was one cabin in their category open because someone cancelled or something and then the cabin was snatched up by soemone else right away.

[Flick]

One of the primary reasons I left being a travel agent (my second career after my first retirement) was that people were doing their own thing on the computer, screwing up, then coming to me to "fix it" all for no money! No matter how much you try to be "customer-oriented" this just plain didn't work for me anymore.

[momofzeke]

Hey gang!

 

I have NEVER been in a rainstorm like the one during Saturday night's Duck game!!! It wasn't bad walking over to the stadium (we park and walk about a mile), but as soon as we got to our seats it was like the sky opened and it absolutely POURED. I've been to games where it rained hard for a while, but nothing like this. The first quarter was like a monsoon, then it did lighten up a bit at times but rained the entire game and walk back to the car. But, Ducks won! Woo Hoo!

 

I haven't felt the best since we got home, so haven't had a chance to look into the sunset cruise. If Bounty is doing the Carnival one, maybe we should just wait a while and see if we can book it once that shows up on the Carnival website?

 

September for us was record rainfall all over Oregon. We haven't been able to cut our pivot because of rain, and then it froze pretty hard so the crop is a bit wilted and brown on top but should still make decent hay for our cows. We are supposed to have a week or so of dry weather, so we will cut soon.

[Cruisin Dave]

Good afternoon Cupids,

 

Sue, hope you feel better real quickly. I know Dave has your swather ready to go.😀 Hope you had real good rain gear for the game.

 

Rick, glad to see you here. Has the repairs been completed.

 

Heidi, hope you have a good day. Are you working at the OG today. I need some new stories.

 

Dave

[HeidiHo]

Good Afternoon1

 

Today I start physical therapy for my back. it's actually feeling pretty good. My doctor put me on a 10 day course of Prednisone and it has helped a lot. it has also made some of my other aches and pains much better. Too bad it's not a drug I want to stay on long term. Too many side affects like weight gain. i was also afraid of it causing insomnia but that hasn't been a issue except for maybe the first couple of nights

 

 

Heidi, hope you have a good day. Are you working at the OG today. I need some new stories.

 

Dave

 

Actually, I don't work at the OG till Sunday now. I am normally off Wednesdays, Friday's and Saturday's but for some reason I didn't get scheduled for my usual Thursday lunch. I don't really have any crazy stories right now. Sorry.

 

My kids however, are driving me crazy. I'm just not used to having them around all the time. When Eric wasn't living here, I took over his desk in his bedroom for all my TA stuff. Then when he moved home I gave him his desk back and moved all of my stuff to a tiny little table in the living room. When I'm actually working, I usually just spread everything out on the dining room table. So now, for the past 2 days, Eric has been using his computer at the dining room table instead of at his desk in his room. Today I needed to do a bit of work and I didn't think I'd really need much space so I decided just to work at a tiny table. Well, that was a big mistake. Before I knew it I had papers and things spread out all over the floor around me and I couldn't find anything when I needed it. I told Eric that next time I am kicking him out of the dining room when I need to work. I just can't work this way. I also told both of the kids when they moved home that Wednesday is laundry day for so they can do laundry any day other than Wednesday. So when I went to stat laundry this morning, Eric had a load of wet clothes in the washing machine and dry clothes in the dryer. :mad: Staci isn't bugging me much though. She is either at work or if she is home she's in her room reading. When she realized I was doing laundry today though she was very quick to add some of her stuff to it though. LOL.

 

I have to go to physical therapy now so have a great day.

[Cruisin Dave]

Heidi, sorry to hear that your back is still bothering you. Did the doctor put you on one of those Z-packs. So many the first day then less each day. Hope you feel better soon.

Dave

[HeidiHo]

I do have a funny story about our neighborhood chicken. Originally I was calling it Mrs. Chicken but it turned out to be Mr. Rooster. I think it was just very young when our neighbors first brought it home so it didn't crow. Anyway, I thought it was a hen because it didn't crow but it crows now. Staci has complained tht it wakes her up. Even though it belongs to the people 2 houses down from us it has pretty much moved into our front yard garden. We have an area with bushes and flowers and the ground is covered in mulch. It makes nests in our mulch every day. There must be about 8 nests out there right now. The thing startles me every morning when I go out to get the newspaper. I always forget it's there so when I walk out side it always gets up and moves and scares me. It mostly just hangs out in our front yard. Today Eric and the dog were chasing it all around the yard. It just ran around in circles. So now we have a cat that doesn't belong to us (we still have Eric's ex girlfriends cat that we were only supposed to have for a couple of weeks. It's been about 3 months now. :rolleyes: and now we have a rooster. LOL.

[HeidiHo]

There is a tropical storm forming just off the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula and my nephew and his wife are supposed to be in Cozumel today. :eek:

[HeidiHo]

I just want to remind everyone booked in the group that final payment is due on 11/02/13. According to my invoice, Crucon will process final payments using the original credit card on or up to 5 business days BEFORE 11/02. That would mean they may process your final payment as early as 10/28. If you need to change your credit card, you need to call Erin at least 2 weeks prior to the final payment date. You can call her at 800-493-6609 or email her at custserv7@crucon.com.

[Flick]

Heidi I just went thru the physical therapy thingy and it lasted for probably a good three weeks at most. Of course I am doing all the exercising I can do-both floor and pool but I found one that is just wonderful. In addition to a "lousy back" (official doctor diagnosis!) I have some sciatica in my left hip. You probably know what a water "noodle" is, it is a 3 1/2 foot long foam tube that is not closed and is used a s a float in a pool. At any rate, I hang suspended by my arms in deep water so my feet don't touch for 15 minutes. Gravity draws everything down and I am pain free when I leave the pool. It literally "stretches" you!

Dave, all the repairs except to my wallet are done. Thanx for asking but no thanks for reminding me.LOL

[Cruisin Dave]

Bad news at work. The shutdown is effecting things here. Most of you know where I work, well, the shutdown is causing our production line to come to a stop. With Defense inspectors we can't sell anything thus nothing moves. We were informed that furloughs and layoffs may start Monday. This may mean no cruise for me. This really sucks. I'll keep everyone informed.

[HeidiHo]

Bad news at work. The shutdown is effecting things here. Most of you know where I work, well, the shutdown is causing our production line to come to a stop. With Defense inspectors we can't sell anything thus nothing moves. We were informed that furloughs and layoffs may start Monday. This may mean no cruise for me. This really sucks. I'll keep everyone informed.

 

Oh wow, I hadn't even thought of that. Dave hasn't said anything about that happening at his company but I suppose it could. I'll have to ask him. Hopefully things will go back to normal very soon.

[Cruisin Dave]

Oh wow, I hadn't even thought of that. Dave hasn't said anything about that happening at his company but I suppose it could. I'll have to ask him. Hopefully things will go back to normal very soon.

 

Thanks for the support. Hopefully things will get back to normal soon. I don't think I'm in any danger. Being in the union and having 30 years in will help. Hope Dave is safe.

[AKB10]

Bad news at work. The shutdown is effecting things here. Most of you know where I work, well, the shutdown is causing our production line to come to a stop. With Defense inspectors we can't sell anything thus nothing moves. We were informed that furloughs and layoffs may start Monday. This may mean no cruise for me. This really sucks. I'll keep everyone informed.

Dave, OH NO!!! Like Heidi said, I hope things get back to normal soon. Our youngest son moved to Mississippi about 6 weeks ago to work with a friend down there. They work for a steel company that is doing contract work for the NASA station there. He has not worked since Monday and hoping things get back to normal soon also.

He is also right in the way of tropical storm Karen. I sure hope it doesn't turn into a hurricane. I need to go check that out here in a minute.

 

Heidi, thanks for the reminder of final payment coming up. I e-mailed my boss to remind her of the time I will be off. (I have had 2 denials of time off this year. :mad:) At first she said yes, but then called and said it might not work out. :mad::mad: The person who takes over part of my responsibilities will also be gone. It was decided I could train someone between now and then to take care of any problems if they occur. I would not have been a happy camper if I had to cancel a cupid's cruise for the 3rd time.

 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

[HeidiHo]

I talked to Dave and he said they received an email saying that the company didn't expect to have to lay off anyone. Of course, that could change depending on how long the shut down lasts. Dave's company doesn't have that many government contracts anymore (at least the division he works in here) and supposedly they are finding other things to do for people who do work on government contracts. Dave said he is not working on any government contracts right now.

[Cruisin Dave]

Announced today, Pentagon returning most of the civilian employees back to work. Hopefully DCMA will be back at work Monday. Now if we could get the Senate and House to talk to each other.

[Flick]

Announced today, Pentagon returning most of the civilian employees back to work. Hopefully DCMA will be back at work Monday. Now if we could get the Senate and House to talk to each other.

Possible good news for you but why in the world would the House and Senate want to talk to each other? They are getting so much publicity they're falling all over each to get in front of the cameras to show the "folks back home" their "concern". It's called election politics for want of a better word and besides it's real cheap......

[momofzeke]

Dave - sure hope you don't have to cancel the cruise!

 

Kathy - really glad they got it figured out at your work so you don't have to cancel!

 

We cut our pivot, but the crop got frozen so hard, we decided there isn't enough to bale. We'll turn the cows in and let them eat it. It should be about a week's worth of feed, which we are quickly running out of. Just hasn't been our year.

 

Hope everyone has a great week.

[ktravel]

DH and I are t gulf shoes Alabama. We Could see Carnival ship frpm our balcony. Waiting to get in port the last couple of days Hearing the waves and being in the gulf I am soo ready for Feb. I decided to retire at Christmas Break. So this will be my DH and my retirement cruise Can not wait to hear stories from past cruisers . We can finally take. Cruise when we want Not when school is out.

[hatched4]

Hi Heidi

 

We're newpids and would love to join your group. We'll be sailing the Breeze with our kids ages 18, 12 and 10 February 15 and cannot wait!

[HeidiHo]

Hi Heidi

 

We're newpids and would love to join your group. We'll be sailing the Breeze with our kids ages 18, 12 and 10 February 15 and cannot wait!

 

 

Welcome aboard, hatched4! :D Tell us a little more about yourself and your family.

 

I got my flu shot today. I went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for my cat and saw the sign for the flu shot so I decided to get it right then. My insurance covers completely anyway so there's no reason not to get it plus I get it at the pharmacy that is part of the grocery store that I shop at and they give you a coupon for 10% off groceries so I'll save that for a day that I buy a lot of groceries. I didn't buy any today. I just needed the cat's medicine.

 

I turned on our furnace for the first time this morning. We have had such nice weather that we haven't needed it till now. We usually turn it on earlier than this. Day before yesterday we almost needed the air conditioning again. It wasn't real hot (78 degrees) but it was terribly humid. We just kept the house closed up though so we didn't need it. Then that night some storms moved through and it got chilly. It's still very nice out though. Mid 60's and sunny so for October we can't complain.

 

Have a great day.

[Cruisin Dave]

Work is back to normal today. Their still can be problems later.

 

I've been busy today. Got up early to take the car in for an oil change. Had an email from a credit card. Someone in Arkansas was using my number. We cancelled that card and blocked all purchases. Nothing is safe today.

 

Hope everyone has a nice evening.

[Flick]

a warning to everyone on Facebook. The chinese have placed a worm in several home computers called Koopface that will when needed take control of your computer to link with other compromized computers to create a Super Computer. This worm got into our computer by cancelling the firewall. You really, really need to check to see if you have this worm. Go to msconfig then type in tree and you can see if it exists on your harddrive. It cost me $69.99m to get it removed and now I am going to be very careful about facebook or other social media outlets. I also have a new firewall both on the computers as well as the home network. This is serious stuff and not some crazy wacko email!!! Take care cruising buddies.