gcornell

Personally, I insure only what I can’t afford to lose and will have a big impact on my finances - life, health, liability, home and autos. Everything else I self insure. Even better, take 10-20% of those expensive premiums you aren’t spending, put them in a savings account, and there’s your insurance policy for the future. Most likely you will have a nice size savings account in a few years. Sure every 1 in 10 make out on those policies but it’s the same at going to Vegas. No one tells you about the time they lost money. Only the winners

Wow! So it did come from corporate. Another money grab from companies providing the same (or less) goods/service and trying to get more money from my wallet. Hard NO.

If they leave a letter like that in my cabin the chance of me tipping twice goes from 1% to 0%

I always do the math to see what works out better. For our Med cruise last year (family of 4) we paid the deviation fee and an additional fee because we wanted certain flights and it was still $7,000 or so less than booking ourselves. We paid Blacklane for an 5 extra miles and again it was still less than the credit offered and booking on our own. For our upcoming Iceland cruise we choose P2P and did our own arrangements as SS D2D would have been significantly more.

Sorry if I was not clear. I still have the original price when I booked for the Select. For now at least! I think the post before yours nailed it. They underestimated the cost a year+ in advance and are now trying to pass it along to clients.

Update: I had my TA reach out to his contacts and got a canned response that excursions aren’t guaranteed…. I called customer service and well you know how that went. I then resorted to what I call the nuclear option and emailed every VP and up. Got a very prompt and courteous reply that they will review and get back to me by end of week with a “fair outcome”. Also, just and FYI, I did book some Select excursions originally and the published price is up 30-40% since I booked. Thankfully, I still have original price. I know inflation is still a little warm but that’s it’s nowhere near that hot. When will the money grabs end?

It gets worse. They have now started cancelling my grandfathered Included Excursions and but they are still available under Selected Excursions.

Wondering if anyone has had similar issue and resolved successfully. I booked my 7/3 Iceland cruise a while ago and immediately booked shore excursions. 7 of 8 were included so no additional cost and a nice variety as well. Since that time SS moved 6 of the 8 to Select excursions but since I booked prior I was honored the original cost ($0). So far so good. SS cancelled 2 of my excursions yesterday and because the vast majority of excursions are now Select (except some walking tours) the additional cost is $2,100. We are a family of 4 so it adds up fast. Anyone successful in getting them to at least give a credit for the cost of the originally booked tours? Frustrating because it seems like every day companies are figuring out new and creative ways to get more money out of their customer's wallets for the same product or service.

Crazy. I was recently on a liveaboard (scuba boat) with my family for 7 nights. They added on a $2,000 service charge or $285 a night. It was a lot but the service was amazing and the staff to guest ratio was 1:1. At the end of the trip the was an envelop in our cabins for extra tips on top of the $2k. It remained empty.

Since we are all sharing…. I tip once! When did tipping twice become the norm? Would tipping 3 times be even better? When will it end?

My kids still love Disney and their favorite cruise line is Silver Sea. Go figure.

I think you are underestimating some kids. We have been traveling with our kids to remote, mostly adult destinations with no dedicated kids activities and no entertainment or other kids - Africa, scuba liveaboards, expedition cruises, etc. Not once did they say they were bored, they interacted with other adults and are much smarter, mature and worldly as a result. In fact, we refuse to do normal family vacations. Boring!

Update. I heard from my Virtuoso agent who received my email at the same time he was having lunch with a VP at Silversea and confirmed that once booked as Included there should be no charge.

Thank you both. I checked and you are correct. Benefits of booking early I guess. That would have been a big additional expense. Whew.

Booked these a while ago and I just logged on to check my upcoming July Iceland cruise and 5 of my excursions were reclassified from Included to Selected which, for my family of 4, will cost close over $5,000. Has anyone seen this before? Thanks

Depends on the kids. We started traveling to “adults mostly” destinations when ours were around 7 and have done it now at least 15 times. Silversea cruises, 100’ scuba liveaboards, safaris, etc. They loved every trip, still talk about them and usually they were the only kids on the trip. In fact, in February we are bringing them on a trip that never has seen kids before.

Good choice. I booked the same for first week July 2025 for my family of 4 (two teens). Already booked and paid for excursions for 4 too. That hurt.

I was faced with same decision recently and it was an easy call. My whole point of doing a Japan cruise was to see Japan not sit on a boat. Celebrity has a much more port intensive itinerary. At least that’s what I found when reviewing my dates. Easy call for me.

“To each their own” is just a cute way of judging someone else’s decisions similar to when one insults someone but prefaces it by saying “no offense but”. Anything that comes before or after any of those words probably isn’t nice.

The hospitality business must a miserable career choice these days

We were on the spirit in July and going again in June. If you spend enough time on the cruise forums (every line) and reviews you will soon realize that people just like to complain. If you look for problems and issues that’s what you will find. There’s a reason why fares keep going up and people keep paying. 99% havr good time, enjoy their trip and don’t post reviews or comments.

I fear triple tipping is coming in 2025. Once when you pay for the package. Again when you sit down so you get good service and then finally a third time when you get your drink. Why? Well just because others tell me I should. 😜

Tipping beyond 20%? At some point this has to end.

Some children can be irritating but it’s the adults that scare me traveling these days. Not a week goes by without another meltdown video

Maybe not. My kids have been on several Silver Sea cruises, some they were the only kids. They have been on a bunch of 100’ Liveaboards and were the only kids every trip. They enjoyed every minute of it.