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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Oct 19, 2022 8:57:23 GMT -5
The stockholders benefit is intriguing, but not sure I'm ready to risk 5K in an individual stock for $100, I could lose way more than that pretty fast!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2022 15:29:40 GMT -5
I'll take a look at Costco, too. If you use Costco you may want to look into their Executive Membership if you don't have it already, which gives you 2% back, and their credit card. No annual fee and 3% back on travel. They give out rewards only once a year but I've done well charging travel expenses on the Costco card.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Oct 19, 2022 15:57:24 GMT -5
Thanks Athena. I do already have the Executive membership along with the Costco credit card.
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finnime
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Post by finnime on Oct 20, 2022 3:40:10 GMT -5
Now I'm planning that we'll definitely take Viking for a cruise in Europe, either north or south, depending on available itineraries. DH's comfort is a priority as we see countries we have never seen before. He'd really like to go to the Baltic Sea area but is also happy to look at Mediterranean cruises.
Plus, if $$ allows, do a shorter cruise or at least less expensive, maybe to the Virgin Islands or Mexico, or maybe to Spain from Florida as a transatlantic repositioning, or perhaps down the California coast. I've seen some very aggressive pricing on those. I know the experiences will be very different. There's so much out there!
I guess we need to get passports.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2022 7:33:53 GMT -5
The stockholders benefit is intriguing, but not sure I'm ready to risk 5K in an individual stock for $100, I could lose way more than that pretty fast! FWIW, Jim Cramer likes NCL stock. I agree, though, this is a dicey time to buy. You have to be in it for the long run.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Oct 20, 2022 8:10:50 GMT -5
The stockholders benefit is intriguing, but not sure I'm ready to risk 5K in an individual stock for $100, I could lose way more than that pretty fast! FWIW, Jim Cramer likes NCL stock. I agree, though, this is a dicey time to buy. You have to be in it for the long run. How does he feel about RCL? NCL I might jump on getting 100 shares as it's only $13/share. RCL who we're cruising with is at $46
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2022 12:30:51 GMT -5
How does he feel about RCL? NCL I might jump on getting 100 shares as it's only $13/share. RCL who we're cruising with is at $46 He thinks NCL is the best of the bunch. I got an e-mail form UnCruise with their latest destinations. I love them but they're getting out of hand for a solo traveler. Belize, even with a $700 discount because of my many trips with them, would be $8,000 for 7 nights, for a single traveler excluding airfare. Sadly, I don't know anyone who shares my travel budget with whom I'd want to share a stateroom. Maybe I'll see if they offer promotions but those prices are too rich for my blood.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 20, 2022 13:44:55 GMT -5
How does he feel about RCL? NCL I might jump on getting 100 shares as it's only $13/share. RCL who we're cruising with is at $46 He thinks NCL is the best of the bunch. I got an e-mail form UnCruise with their latest destinations. I love them but they're getting out of hand for a solo traveler. Belize, even with a $700 discount because of my many trips with them, would be $8,000 for 7 nights, for a single traveler excluding airfare. Sadly, I don't know anyone who shares my travel budget with whom I'd want to share a stateroom. Maybe I'll see if they offer promotions but those prices are too rich for my blood. If you want to do Belize by land, I can recommend a place to stay in Ambergris, then you can do the rest of the stuff in the area by land. Apparently Tauck does not have a single supplement. My neighbor used to use their services. I know we saw tours when we were in Alhambra in Spain while we were there but not sure if it was a land or ocean cruise. I do know that they have river cruises. Sending a PM about India.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2022 14:41:47 GMT -5
If you want to do Belize by land, I can recommend a place to stay in Ambergris, then you can do the rest of the stuff in the area by land. Apparently Tauck does not have a single supplement. My neighbor used to use their services. I know we saw tours when we were in Alhambra in Spain while we were there but not sure if it was a land or ocean cruise. I do know that they have river cruises. Thanks for that thought. My travel is pretty much planned out for awhile- South America/Galapagos in May, more Eastern Europe next October, MAYBE using part of my inheritance from Dad to take DS and family to Costa Rica in Spring 2024. Now that you mention it, though, Belize is probably an area where I'd feel comfortable exploring on my own and finding vendors for excursions. That might even be a good alternative to Costa Rica. I can sort of read Spanish, DS and DDIL both studied it in HS. Youngest grandchild turned 3 in late June so it's still way too early. I'd love for all of them to enjoy and remember it.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 20, 2022 14:45:35 GMT -5
If you want to do Belize by land, I can recommend a place to stay in Ambergris, then you can do the rest of the stuff in the area by land. Apparently Tauck does not have a single supplement. My neighbor used to use their services. I know we saw tours when we were in Alhambra in Spain while we were there but not sure if it was a land or ocean cruise. I do know that they have river cruises. Thanks for that thought. My travel is pretty much planned out for awhile- South America/Galapagos in May, more Eastern Europe next October, MAYBE using part of my inheritance from Dad to take DS and family to Costa Rica in Spring 2024. Now that you mention it, though, Belize is probably an area where I'd feel comfortable exploring on my own and finding vendors for excursions. That might even be a good alternative to Costa Rica. I can sort of read Spanish, DS and DDIL both studied it in HS. Youngest grandchild turned 3 in late June so it's still way too early. I'd love for all of them to enjoy and remember it. Belize used to be British Honduras, English is spoken here by everyone.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Oct 20, 2022 15:05:14 GMT -5
Tauck is an excellent company. My in laws and two of MIL's sisters and spouses took a tour to Italy with them. They raved about the private tours and so on. Not cheap but an excellent experience for them.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 20, 2022 15:12:14 GMT -5
Tauck is an excellent company. My in laws and two of MIL's sisters and spouses took a tour to Italy with them. They raved about the private tours and so on. Not cheap but an excellent experience for them. That's what my neighbor says.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Oct 25, 2022 11:27:10 GMT -5
So did anyone buy any of the cruise line stocks? I picked up Carnival since we love Holland America and plan to take a couple more cruises with them. It's up 10% since I bought lol.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Oct 25, 2022 11:40:00 GMT -5
So did anyone buy any of the cruise line stocks? I picked up Carnival since we love Holland America and plan to take a couple more cruises with them. It's up 10% since I bought lol. I'm torn. I have no cash, so would have to use money from either my Traditional or Roth IRAs, but don't want to sell those when they're down 20% either.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 25, 2022 11:45:21 GMT -5
Now I'm planning that we'll definitely take Viking for a cruise in Europe, either north or south, depending on available itineraries. DH's comfort is a priority as we see countries we have never seen before. He'd really like to go to the Baltic Sea area but is also happy to look at Mediterranean cruises. Plus, if $$ allows, do a shorter cruise or at least less expensive, maybe to the Virgin Islands or Mexico, or maybe to Spain from Florida as a transatlantic repositioning, or perhaps down the California coast. I've seen some very aggressive pricing on those. I know the experiences will be very different. There's so much out there! I guess we need to get passports. Generally on Viking, repositioning cruises tend to be cheaper. Our first cruise was Lisbon to Miami. We went several days early because we had never been to Lisbon. Our other stops were Azores and Bermuda. Azores was a bust as it was socked in with fog. We had several sea days after that. I will warn you that the Med cruises tend to be the most port intensive. While you can chose to be as mobile as you want, some of the places I wanted to see really required a lot of walking. Our 54 day cruise was really 3 cruises back to back. Athens to Barcelona, Barcelona to Buenos Aires and BA to Santiago. For me, the hardest stretch was Athens to Barcelona because we were in a port each day and doing a lot of walking. Rome was the hardest for me. Considering your DH is walking impaired, you might want to look for cruises that have sea days to recover. Another thought is to do a river cruise. We did Amsterdam to Budapest in the spring. Like with the Med, there is a new port every day but you really do get to see a different flavor of Europe.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 25, 2022 11:48:33 GMT -5
So did anyone buy any of the cruise line stocks? I picked up Carnival since we love Holland America and plan to take a couple more cruises with them. It's up 10% since I bought lol. TD bought a bunch of Carnival at the beginning of Covid when it was waaaay down. I think he bought at $11, sold at $30.
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jerseygirl
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Post by jerseygirl on Oct 25, 2022 11:52:28 GMT -5
I bought Royal Caribbean at about $85 last year but is down about 50% now But bought for long term as think more cruising as Covid continues decreasing
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Oct 25, 2022 12:03:34 GMT -5
So did anyone buy any of the cruise line stocks? I picked up Carnival since we love Holland America and plan to take a couple more cruises with them. It's up 10% since I bought lol. I'm torn. I have no cash, so would have to use money from either my Traditional or Roth IRAs, but don't want to sell those when they're down 20% either. I really didn't have extra cash available either. I just got some dividends from Fidelity Balanced Fund, so I sold some of that. I've had that fund for about 20 years, so even though it's "down," it's still up plenty from when I bought it years ago.
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justme
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Post by justme on Oct 26, 2022 0:27:14 GMT -5
The stockholders benefit is intriguing, but not sure I'm ready to risk 5K in an individual stock for $100, I could lose way more than that pretty fast! Yea, I cruise a lot. I got at ncl at $1000 and already got $100 (would have been $200 if my sept cruise didn't cancel) plus stock is higher, carnival I'm down about $300 and haven't used it, and Royal I'm about even and also haven't used it. I figure I'll use all of them frequently over my life and I'm quite positive they'll all rebound. Royal is the only one that's not in roth and will kinda suck when it gets back up to the previous $110 when I got it at $40 if I ever sell it. But I've also been on like 20 cruises since 2016 lol. I can see that it's less useful for less frequent cruisers. Though, uh, technically you only send them a statement so they have no idea if you sold it the day after the statement.
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justme
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Post by justme on Oct 26, 2022 0:34:27 GMT -5
Now I'm planning that we'll definitely take Viking for a cruise in Europe, either north or south, depending on available itineraries. DH's comfort is a priority as we see countries we have never seen before. He'd really like to go to the Baltic Sea area but is also happy to look at Mediterranean cruises. Plus, if $$ allows, do a shorter cruise or at least less expensive, maybe to the Virgin Islands or Mexico, or maybe to Spain from Florida as a transatlantic repositioning, or perhaps down the California coast. I've seen some very aggressive pricing on those. I know the experiences will be very different. There's so much out there! I guess we need to get passports. Closed loop cruises out of the US don't need a passport for US citizens. Meaning if the cruise returns to the same port it leaves you don't need a passport - but there are some exceptions. I would definitely take a test cruise before jumping on a transatlantic. It's a lot of sea days so if you don't like them you'll be miserable. Plus the seas can be rougher on the crossing and you don't want to find out on day 2 of 16 that you are going to hate life for the rest of the trip.
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finnime
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Post by finnime on Oct 26, 2022 4:04:58 GMT -5
I did it. Booked a cruise to the British isles for the end of next May on Viking.
DH's health is not going to hold out indefinitely. He really got excited about the prospect of visiting all of: England, Wales, Ireland and northern Ireland, Scotland and at the end, Norway. He really is thrilled. I'm happy, too. We're going to take the 2-day extension from Bergen to Oslo, Norway, at the end. We got the last stateroom on this particular cruise and the last open slot on the train in Norway.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Oct 26, 2022 8:01:17 GMT -5
Do you fly to the British Isles and get on the ship there?
I have never cruised so I don't know how this works.
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azucena
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Post by azucena on Oct 26, 2022 8:34:05 GMT -5
Good for you Fin. Looking fwd to a trip can do wonders for your souls!
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finnime
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Post by finnime on Oct 26, 2022 9:09:27 GMT -5
Do you fly to the British Isles and get on the ship there? I have never cruised so I don't know how this works. Yes, we'll fly to London and then fly home from Oslo. This cruise has 12 ports of call. Oh, and TheOtherMe, it includes Liverpool.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Oct 26, 2022 9:14:52 GMT -5
Closed loop cruises out of the US don't need a passport for US citizens. Meaning if the cruise returns to the same port it leaves you don't need a passport - but there are some exceptions. Even on the Alaskan cruise in and out of Seattle if you want to do some of the excursions in Canada you need to have a passport. Trying to decide if I want to get the kids new ones for that or not. Might not be worth the expense/aggravation.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Oct 26, 2022 9:17:17 GMT -5
The stockholders benefit is intriguing, but not sure I'm ready to risk 5K in an individual stock for $100, I could lose way more than that pretty fast! Yea, I cruise a lot. I got at ncl at $1000 and already got $100 (would have been $200 if my sept cruise didn't cancel) plus stock is higher, carnival I'm down about $300 and haven't used it, and Royal I'm about even and also haven't used it. I figure I'll use all of them frequently over my life and I'm quite positive they'll all rebound. Royal is the only one that's not in roth and will kinda suck when it gets back up to the previous $110 when I got it at $40 if I ever sell it. But I've also been on like 20 cruises since 2016 lol. I can see that it's less useful for less frequent cruisers. Though, uh, technically you only send them a statement so they have no idea if you sold it the day after the statement. LOL Now I can add stock price to the list of reasons I wish we were cruising NCL again instead of RCL.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Oct 26, 2022 12:23:47 GMT -5
Closed loop cruises out of the US don't need a passport for US citizens. Meaning if the cruise returns to the same port it leaves you don't need a passport - but there are some exceptions. Even on the Alaskan cruise in and out of Seattle if you want to do some of the excursions in Canada you need to have a passport. Trying to decide if I want to get the kids new ones for that or not. Might not be worth the expense/aggravation. When we went to Alaska and Victoria via Seattle (both ways) we went with our travel club. They required us to provide passports in advance. Then we got to Victoria and the folks there said, "Welcome to Canada!" They didn't check anyone's passport. We got back to Seattle and they were checking all passports, had dogs sniffing everyone and patted-down about half.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2022 12:41:55 GMT -5
I did it. Booked a cruise to the British isles for the end of next May on Viking. DH's health is not going to hold out indefinitely. He really got excited about the prospect of visiting all of: England, Wales, Ireland and northern Ireland, Scotland and at the end, Norway. He really is thrilled. I'm happy, too. We're going to take the 2-day extension from Bergen to Oslo, Norway, at the end. We got the last stateroom on this particular cruise and the last open slot on the train in Norway. That looks wonderful! DH and I loved the Orkneys- a lot of history, many wild and beautiful spaces. I've been to Edinburgh 3 times with DH and once since he died. Some of his ashes rest on the top of Arthur's Seat, a mountain just outside of Edinburgh. I haven't taken Viking but they're definitely one of the good ones form what I've heard/read.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 26, 2022 12:46:45 GMT -5
I did it. Booked a cruise to the British isles for the end of next May on Viking. DH's health is not going to hold out indefinitely. He really got excited about the prospect of visiting all of: England, Wales, Ireland and northern Ireland, Scotland and at the end, Norway. He really is thrilled. I'm happy, too. We're going to take the 2-day extension from Bergen to Oslo, Norway, at the end. We got the last stateroom on this particular cruise and the last open slot on the train in Norway. That looks wonderful! DH and I loved the Orkneys- a lot of history, many wild and beautiful spaces. I've been to Edinburgh 3 times with DH and once since he died. Some of his ashes rest on the top of Arthur's Seat, a mountain just outside of Edinburgh. I haven't taken Viking but they're definitely one of the good ones form what I've heard/read. We are doing this one too. In fact, I got a friendly reminder from Viking that I need to pay the balance! Viking is great. When I was looking to go on a cruise, it checked all the boxes. I had narrowed it down to either Viking or Oceania. At this point, I have no interest in looking any further. We get on a ship and it's like coming home!
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 26, 2022 12:50:29 GMT -5
Even on the Alaskan cruise in and out of Seattle if you want to do some of the excursions in Canada you need to have a passport. Trying to decide if I want to get the kids new ones for that or not. Might not be worth the expense/aggravation. When we went to Alaska and Victoria via Seattle (both ways) we went with our travel club. They required us to provide passports in advance. Then we got to Victoria and the folks there said, "Welcome to Canada!" T hey didn't check anyone's passport. We got back to Seattle and they were checking all passports, had dogs sniffing everyone and patted-down about half.You never know. There are a few travel groups I belong to that ask questions about things, usually about luggage size and weight. When we were sitting in the waiting area for one flight, someone came around and weighed about half of the passenger's carry on bags. They didn't weigh our bags, but you never know if someone is going to check and if they do you're going to have to scramble if you are outside their weight limits.
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