When Will They Start Shutting Down?

[AlinaMaria]

[quote name='MadManOfBethesda']Actually, I don't remember unemployment being at 11% in 1998.

Sorry, :o typing late last night I made the mistake of typing 1998 when I meant to type 1978.

If you don't remember the gas lines of 1973-1974 and the interest rates of 21-22% of 1978-79, you are definitely very young. I spent many hours in gas lines while in college and my auto loan to buy a car for school/work was 11% in 1973. :eek:

I agree there are a lot of free loaders in our country. :mad: They can't pay their mortgages but they can buy expensive stereo systems, bling-bling jewelry, and weekly beauty shop appointments for nail and hair (there are more oriental acrylic nail businesses in Miami than gas stations).

We also export billions of dollars for wars and promoting abortion/birth control that could be invested here to provide jobs for others. We also export jobs and dollars for manufacturing businesses such as in the clothing and automobile industries. Lets not forget the "call centers" outside of USA....

Unfortunately, when the so called "rich" is threatened with higher taxes, they will take precautions such as pulling their money out of the market, reducing their workforce in order to pay less employment taxes and benefits, increase their prices.... At the end, is us the ones at the bottom of the totem pole paying the price.:o

I am not trying to be negative. I want this country to continue to be the greatest in the world and the leader of world's economy. I am a proud Naturalized American Citizen, the proud product of Cuban Immigrants that have worked very hard for 45 years in this great country without ever taking any government assistance. I have been working since I was 17 years old and never collected unemployment (I'm 56 years old); I have never taken one penny from anyone to pay for my education (RN degreee, Bachelor of Business Administration, presently a Graduate Student at Barry University), all my students loans have been paid in full including interest.

I am grateful for the education I've received. My parents and my Church taught me not to overspend, not to live beyond my means. Very young I was taught how to budget my income and to always save "for a rainy day". When I cruise by the time I board the cruise ship I have already paid in full for the cruise ticket, specialty restaurants, and excursions. I only charge for the usual soda, wine at dinner, and evening drink. I'm not that smart, I just plan my annual budget the year and stick to it. I drink moderately and dress reasonably; cook at home and bring lunch to work every day. I refuse to pay hundreds of dollars to advertise a designer's name in my handbag (heck, if anyone wants me to advertise his/her name, better give me the bag FREE). It's nobody's business the brand name of the clothes, shoes, or handbags I own.

I do pray our country, like the phoenix will rise above all triumphant! Our Founding Fathers sacrificed too much for us to turn this great land to a poor and hungry socialist inferno.

GOD SAVE AMERICA!

AlinaMaria

[AlinaMaria]

[quote name='sail7seas'][B] That's a lot of Carnival ships sailing the Caribbean 12 months a year? As I mentioned, of the 8 days we spent in FLL last June, we saw three ships sail from Port Everglades. One of those ships was Carnival. I realize they mostly use Miami. But do none of the ships listed not reposition for spring/summer/fall? If Miami has that many 12 month ships, I'm really surprised to hear it. Wonder why Port Everglades has so few?[/B]

[B]None of the cruise lines have ships sitting empty. They all sail 12 months but a great many reposition to Alaska, Canada/New England and Europe for spring, summer and fall.[/B]

[B]I am not in travel business and only sail HAL so really am not familiar with the itineraries of many other lines. All I know is what I see.[/B][/quote]


Sail7Seas: come down to Miami once in a while, it's beautiful, it's fun, and is much closer to the Caribbean than Ft Lauderdale! ;)

Visit Bayside on any Friday/Saturday/Sunday and you will see a parade of cruise ships sailing to the Caribbean year round!!!!

[sail7seas]

[B]Miami is fine. We've been.
HAL sails from Port Everglades and we sail only HAL. :)

We love FLL area and even when not sailing (because HAL had no ships in the Caribbean) last June, we chose to vacation there.

I am still speechless that Carnival has 14 ships sailing Caribbean 12 months. I had no idea. Do they sail nowhere else in the world? Only Caribbean?[/B]

[mariemorgan]

[quote name='sail7seas'][B] That's a lot of Carnival ships sailing the Caribbean 12 months a year? As I mentioned, of the 8 days we spent in FLL last June, we saw three ships sail from Port Everglades. One of those ships was Carnival. I realize they mostly use Miami. But do none of the ships listed not reposition for spring/summer/fall? If Miami has that many 12 month ships, I'm really surprised to hear it. Wonder why Port Everglades has so few?[/B]

[B]None of the cruise lines have ships sitting empty. They all sail 12 months but a great many reposition to Alaska, Canada/New England and Europe for spring, summer and fall.[/B]

[B]I am not in travel business and only sail HAL so really am not familiar with the itineraries of many other lines. All I know is what I see.[/B][/quote]

Not all of them leave from Florida..

2 from Galveston, 1 from New Orleans, 1 from Mobile. Then Tampa, port canaveral, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Baltimore, New York, San Juan, Barbadoes

This year carnival isn't going to europe either.. Only europe cruises from carnival is on their new ship being built and it's only a few sailings until it comes over to port canaveral

I have not sailed HAL yet.. but someday!!! I hope to try every line.

[jhannah]

People come in all flavors. Their practices do, too. While many misuse (live off of) their credit cards, many are like MadManOfBethesda ... including me. I charge everything I can. I enjoy the fruit of the benefits (points and cash) that I get. I also pay my bill in full each month, and don't charge anything -- even cruises -- that I don't already have funds for. Sadly, lots of folks don't do this, and their spending has caught up with them.

[MadManOfBethesda]

[quote name='sail7seas'][B] That's a lot of Carnival ships sailing the Caribbean 12 months a year? As I mentioned, of the 8 days we spent in FLL last June, we saw three ships sail from Port Everglades. One of those ships was Carnival. I realize they mostly use Miami. But do none of the ships listed not reposition for spring/summer/fall? If Miami has that many 12 month ships, I'm really surprised to hear it. Wonder why Port Everglades has so few?[/B][/quote]

For the same reason that if you stayed in a hotel across from the Port of Miami for 8 days you wouldn't see any HAL ships. Carnival has been sailing out of Miami since the 1970s, their HQ is in Miami, so that is where their ships (for the most part) are docked. The only reason that they would have a need to use Ft. Lauderdale, would be if they ran out of room in Miami. Carnival also sails out of Jacksonville & Tampa as well (not to mention Mobile & New Orleans year round). And starting this fall, they will be sailing year round to the Caribbean from Baltimore. (Which is great for me since I am about 45 minutes away from the port!)

[MadManOfBethesda]

[quote name='AlinaMaria']
If you don't remember the gas lines of 1973-1974 and the interest rates of 21-22% of 1978-79, you are definitely very young. I spent many hours in gas lines while in college and my auto loan to buy a car for school/work was 11% in 1973. :eek:[/quote]

Not only do I remember the gas lines, I was working at a gas station in 1973 & 1974!:D

Man, those were some fun times, I'll tell ya!

Of course, my father loved it, because he never had to wait in a line. I was able to fill up the family's cars either before the station opened or after it closed. And while we sometimes had to limit the amount that customers could purchase due to shortages, I was always able to fill up our gas tanks completely.

And at 32 cents/gallon!

Boy, those were the days!

[sail7seas]

[quote]For the same reason that if you stayed in a hotel across from the Port of Miami for 8 days you wouldn't see any HAL ships. Carnival has been sailing out of Miami since the 1970s, their HQ is in Miami, so that is where their ships (for the most part) are docked. The only reason that they would have a need to use Ft. Lauderdale, would be if they ran out of room in Miami. Carnival also sails out of Jacksonville & Tampa as well (not to mention Mobile & New Orleans year round). And starting this fall, they will be sailing year round to the Caribbean from Baltimore. (Which is great for me since I am about 45 minutes away from the port!)
[/quote]

[B]Yes. That is all true but not fully my point.

My point wasn't only about Carnival but rather ALL cruise lines.
Princess, Cunard, HAL, Celebrity, RCI, Carnival, Costa, and how many other cruise lines use Port Everglades.

None of them had ships in. Just 3 ships total the whole time we were there.

That would be great for you if you can board 45 minutes from home. :) We do that with Maasdam doing Canada/New England and it is fabulous!



[/B]

[CowPrincess]

[quote name='MadManOfBethesda']Don't jump to any conclusions by that. I charge everything I can (and of course pay the bills in full each month) in order to get either AmEx points or 2% cash back on my Visa. I've traveled to Europe & Asia free (air + hotels) as a result of such charges.[/quote]

Yup, when DH & I met we were "mature students". He put EVERYTHING he bought on his credit card. I'd see him buying coffee with it. I felt soooo bad for him. HAH! Took a while, but finally he told me (when I offered to buy his groceries) that he was earning points for Habitat for Humanity! He owned his own house, paid cash for his car, had no student loans, no debt at all.

He still does this, but now we earn $$$ for ourselves (the laws in Canada changed about what is/was permitted for "bonuses")

[mamaofami]

[quote name='jhannah']People come in all flavors. Their practices do, too. While many misuse (live off of) their credit cards, many are like MadManOfBethesda ... including me. I charge everything I can. I enjoy the fruit of the benefits (points and cash) that I get. I also pay my bill in full each month, and don't charge anything -- even cruises -- that I don't already have funds for. Sadly, lots of folks don't do this, and their spending has caught up with them.[/quote]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3]I do exactly the same thing. Charging everything I can also lets me track exactly what we spend. I pay off the credit card in full every month and don't charge anything I can't afford.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]

[babyher]

[quote name='kryos']If the Dean of Harvard Business School was one who encouraged giving inflated mortgages to those who truly couldn't afford them, then frankly, I don't care what he thinks. As far as I'm concerned, in that case, he's an idiot too.

Blue skies ...

--rita[/quote]


I drive by a low income public housing project everyday to work.

You have to see the parking lot. Escalades,Lexus, BMWs, Mercedes, and all these other cars with $50,000 worth of pimped out, tricked out hydraulics and NOS.

Gone are the days of the candy apple red 64 Chevy Belair, lower to the ground with the twice pipes and the fuzzy dice and the little dog in the rear window with the bobbing head.

It looks like the parking lot at the Beverly Wilshire out there

How the hell do you live on the dole and pay the note on a $50-60,000 vehicle.

I would like to meet the knucklehead that approved those loans :(

[swedish weave]

[You have to see the parking lot. Escalades,Lexus, BMWs, Mercedes, and all these other cars with $50,000 worth of pimped out, tricked out hydraulics and NOS.

Gone are the days of the candy apple red 64 Chevy Belair, lower to the ground with the twice pipes and the fuzzy dice and the little dog in the rear window with the bobbing head.

It looks like the parking lot at the Beverly Wilshire out there

How the hell do you live on the dole and pay the note on a $50-60,000 vehicle.

They sell drugs and pay cash .

[annierie]

[quote name='sail7seas'][B]Yes. That is all true but not fully my point.

My point wasn't only about Carnival but rather ALL cruise lines.
Princess, Cunard, HAL, Celebrity, RCI, Carnival, Costa, and how many other cruise lines use Port Everglades.

None of them had ships in. Just 3 ships total the whole time we were there.

That would be great for you if you can board 45 minutes from home. :) We do that with Maasdam doing Canada/New England and it is fabulous!



[/B][/QUOTE]


If you paid attention to the evolution of cruising in general instead of your focus on HAL, you would know that ships have greatly expanded their home ports and that many of the cruise lines that use Ft Lauderdale in the winter still have Caribbean sailings all year round.

Explorer of the Seas does a cruise out of New Jersey, and RCI cruises out of Miami, Norfolk and Port Canaveral as well as Ft Lauderdale in the summer.

Caribbean Princess is doing nine night cruises out of New York, to Bermuda, St. Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk.

As stated before, Carnival has lots of ships in the Caribbean.

Plus, NCL is sailing three ships to Bermuda from Baltimore, Charleston, New York and Boston.

Expanding their ports to allow people to cruise from the East Coast has been a bonus for all of us who love to cruise, since you can get to the Caribbean now from New York, New Jersey, Norfolk, Philly, Baltimore, Charleston as well as the Florida, Texas, Alabama and Louisiana ports.

So it's not unusual for Florida to see a drop in sailings when ships are repositioned to farther north on the east coast.

[babyher]

[quote name='swedish weave'][You have to see the parking lot. Escalades,Lexus, BMWs, Mercedes, and all these other cars with $50,000 worth of pimped out, tricked out hydraulics and NOS.

Gone are the days of the candy apple red 64 Chevy Belair, lower to the ground with the twice pipes and the fuzzy dice and the little dog in the rear window with the bobbing head.

It looks like the parking lot at the Beverly Wilshire out there

How the hell do you live on the dole and pay the note on a $50-60,000 vehicle.

They sell drugs and pay cash .[/quote]


Well then if they have such a profitable street corner pharmacutical business they shouldn't be living on the taxpayers dime.

[jimmy2x]

[quote name='babyher']Well then if they have such a profitable street corner pharmacutical business they shouldn't be living on the taxpayers dime.[/quote]

They are drug dealers and, as such, most do not even have social security numbers. They are not drawing welfare checks - although we would all be better off if they were and were not selling drugs.