Royal Caribbean Cruisers -- How Are Things Where You Are? (was "Routine" ​ 😁 ​day in lockdown... how was yours?)

[MJSailors]

@firefly333 Re: spending money due to  highly inflated prices?

You are not the only one!!!!

MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

[bobmacliberty]

Inflation can definitely sneak up on you.  It seems like just yesterday that I could buy a takeout lunch meal for a little more than $5.  Now, it's more than $10.

 

Out of curiosity, I looked up the average US inflation rate for the past 20 years, smoothing out the shorter-term impacts of world events, politics, etc.  It's 2.43%.  That means something that cost $10 in 2004 would cost more than $16 today.  Inflation over the last few years has been higher than average, peaking at more than 9% in June 2022, so increased prices recently are real. Obviously, some items will see a higher inflation rate, and some will see a lower inflation rate. 

[cruiselvr04]

14 hours ago, Coralc said:

Wow! Thanks Jim. And that is a lot of boxes. Our move is looking that way. We can pack the boxes, but we can't load it all ourselves. I can't lift stuff anymore. This is entirely too much work, as it is. 

 

Since we only plan to live at the other house for two years. Some boxes may never even get unpacked. But I am absolutely amazed at how much stuff we have discarded, donated, or sold. And how much is still left to pack. 

 

There is something to be said for a minimalist lifestyle. Our neighbors were like that. I went over there and asked, where is your mail, and magazines and celery rubber bands, and paperwork and gadgets and other stuff? She just said they don't get keep any of that. Amazing. 🙄 I guess it is something to aspire to. 😊

Everyone should move every 10 years just to rid of stuff!  I’m kidding of course. 
We moved 11 years ago.  We also used ABF and it went well. We boxed everything ourselves.  We hired someone to load and unload at each end.  The grand piano was the worst.  That required an extra hire to load it on a piano board and secure in the truck.  ABF would not insure the piano so we just kept out lingers crossed. We used an entire trailer plus a quarter of another one.  
I’m trying to do a move clean throughout this year.  By that I mean going through every closet and drawer and getting rid of stuff.  How do we accumulate so much stuff!

[Jimbo]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

It was a one off event due to a highly unusual situation. Not one of the hundreds of clients that I had affected by this questioned it as much as you are.

Sorry I asked.

[NHProud]

@Jimbo I like your attitude. 
 

@cruiselvr04  I think it’s called Swedish death cleaning . My friend told me she was doing that . How morbid! 
 

@firefly333  My neighbors moved in and I never saw a truck .  We don’t see them at all . Never !  We alerted our neighbors on our cul de sac that we were coming with a large moving van that took a day to unload.  Allied had 5 men to load and only 2 to unload. We told them they needed more men which they got . 
 

 

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

Sorry I asked.

I am one who agrees with you. That's why we book ahead to lock in the price.

 

When I objected the loyal to royal attacked me and said do you expect royal to just eat the new taxes. .. well yes, that's why i locked in the prices. I agree with you but it's not worth cancelled over a $20 extra charge. Didnt you know royal can do no wrong?

[h20skibum]

Reading all these moving posts, and my back is aching just thinking about it.  Last time we moved was 39 years ago, and it was a short one with a rental truck and lots of friends. 
 

I did help my son with a couple of cross country moves, NY to California, then California to NY.  Both of those, he used PODS.  They set the pod in front of your place, and you pack it full of furniture and boxes.  The trick to reduce the chance of damage is to pack things tight, with little room for shifting.  Both of those moves came through with no damage.

 

 I was glad, that when he made the third cross country move from NY back to California, that his company paid for the move, plus they paid for the movers to pack things for them. 

[George C]

43 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Reading all these moving posts, and my back is aching just thinking about it.  Last time we moved was 39 years ago, and it was a short one with a rental truck and lots of friends. 
 

I did help my son with a couple of cross country moves, NY to California, then California to NY.  Both of those, he used PODS.  They set the pod in front of your place, and you pack it full of furniture and boxes.  The trick to reduce the chance of damage is to pack things tight, with little room for shifting.  Both of those moves came through with no damage.

 

 I was glad, that when he made the third cross country move from NY back to California, that his company paid for the move, plus they paid for the movers to pack things for them. 

I was moved from New York City to a Dallas suburb by my company in 1982 , they did everything, didn’t cost me a cent then they gave us all a extra months pay tax free, gave us a thousand for a down payment for a car and a 5k interest free loan . Also told us if we didn’t like Texas they would give us a severance package and pay for our move back to New York. 

[Ocean Boy]

20 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Just seems petty though doesn't it? not like they aren't going to make up the few extra bucks when you are onboard spending $$ with your sea pass card.

 

Are all the cruise lines doing stuff like this after you put a deposit on a cruise?

I tend to agree with you. When you book you lock in a price. RCI wants people to book early and they make it very enticing to book non-refundable deposits. That involves risk as things happen in life and plans may change. In return for that RCI can take on some risk too. If taxes or fuel go up then too bad. That is the risk that RCI should be taking in exchange for those early bookings.

[Jimbo]

3 hours ago, firefly333 said:

I am one who agrees with you. That's why we book ahead to lock in the price.

 

When I objected the loyal to royal attacked me and said do you expect royal to just eat the new taxes. .. well yes, that's why i locked in the prices. I agree with you but it's not worth cancelled over a $20 extra charge. Didnt you know royal can do no wrong?

 

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

I tend to agree with you. When you book you lock in a price. RCI wants people to book early and they make it very enticing to book non-refundable deposits. That involves risk as things happen in life and plans may change. In return for that RCI can take on some risk too. If taxes or fuel go up then too bad. That is the risk that RCI should be taking in exchange for those early bookings.

So true!

 

Who knows,there may be a time Royal comes back and says one day,you know that price on a cabin you booked when prices just came out that you booked? 

 

Well we messed up and started prices to low so now we are going to charge your credit card on file an additional $500 for your cabin

 

Is everyone okay with that? Never know that time may be coming sooner then we all think.

 

Everyone okay with that?

[dbancroft]

Thanks @Ourusualbeach I had a brain malfunction

[Ocean Boy]

Billy Joel, Live at MSG is on TV. He still sounds really good!

[reallyitsmema]

4 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Billy Joel, Live at MSG is on TV. He still sounds really good!

 

It is a rebroadcast because the Masters ran long on Sunday.  Some local markets decided to cut to the 11pm news instead of running the whole concert and people went nuts!  

 

He did sound really good though.  We have recorded it Sunday night and have watched some.

[aussielozzie18]

Had a lovely time in Victoria BC.  Last morning spent at Butchart Gardens.  Photos courtesy of DS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aussielozzie18]

Mid-April in Butchart Gardens - lovely to visit on a quiet Friday morning.  We self drove.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[grapau27]

5 hours ago, aussielozzie18 said:

Mid-April in Butchart Gardens - lovely to visit on a quiet Friday morning.  We self drove.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful photos.

Thank you for posting them.

[grapau27]

Good morning.

I had a nice bacon bun and coffee at the beach.

I hope everyone is safe and well and y'all have a wonderful weekend.

[bobmacliberty]

11 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

Billy Joel, Live at MSG is on TV. He still sounds really good!

 

Great show in person.  I've recorded it but haven't watched it yet.

[bobmacliberty]

Fun night last night with a bonfire on the beach.

 

Edited April 20 by bobmacliberty

[grapau27]

9 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Good morning.

I had a nice bacon bun and coffee at the beach.

I hope everyone is safe and well and y'all have a wonderful weekend.

Pauline was at the hairdresser's this morning so after I picked her up from the hairdresser's we went back to another beach location with our McDonald's snacks.

[HBE4]

I only moved once in my life, about 30 years ago, from my parents house to my new house about 45 minutes away. Rented a box truck from Hertz, had some help from friends, made a few stops to pick up donated furniture from friends and family & it still only filled out two-thirds the truck

 

Now that I have 10 times the possessions & furniture I had back then and reading the stories & looking at the pictures (thanks @Jimbo), I'm not looking forward to my next move.  In fact, it might be easier and cheaper for me to pack a couple suitcases, a few boxes of pictures & mementos'  and leave behind whatever doesn't fit in the back of an SUV.

 

I'm only joking of course but I will need to do some major downsizing first, which I'm also not looking forward to. What's it called again? The Swedish Death Cleaning?

[bobmacliberty]

30 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

In fact, it might be easier and cheaper for me to pack a couple suitcases, a few boxes of pictures & mementos'  and leave behind whatever doesn't fit in the back of an SUV.

 

We moved less than half of what we owned.  Some things wouldn't look good in Florida and needed to be replaced (according to Micheline, happy wife... 😁).  We, in order, gave some to our kids, sold some on FB Marketplace or a local consignment shop, donated some to Goodwill, left some for the new owners (who confirmed that they wanted it), and threw the rest in the 1-800-GOT-JUNK dumpster.  I know that someone got a really nice, solid mahogany dining room set in nearly perfect condition for a LOT less than we paid for it many years ago.

[George C]

I am hoping I will never move again , I am surprised that my wife agreed to our current house even though it was 500 sq Ft bigger than last she would want something bigger, love our one story , quiet street with pool . It just the two of us and hopefully we will be adding two kittens very shortly.

[Sunshine3601]

We have been in the same house for about 24 yrs.    I had been doing really good with getting rid of unused items and had lived by the rule that if I hadn't worn it or used it in 1 to 2 years then I would donate it or post online for sale.    

 

Then in 2018/2019 my parents passed away and I had cleaned out their home and sold it.    I bought home too many items that were family keepsakes including some favorite pieces of furniture that are in our basement family room.   

 

Then Eric's Mom passed away Nov 2022 and we cleaned out and sold her home last Fall and again we kept several boxes of family keepsakes and a couple pieces of furniture - such as nice white leather recliner that was hardly ever used.    

 

So even though we didn't move I felt like we did with the whole house clean out for both of those homes.   

 

Now we have way too much stuff again!    I have been slowly going through closets, basement storage, holiday decorations, etc. and so far I have gathered a total of 13 large black trash bags and boxes of items that purple heart will pick up on Monday.    Still have a lot more to go through but with Spring here and being outdoors again means the stuff in the basement will probably be there until next winter when it's too cold to be outside.   Ugghhh!

 

It's sad there is no real value to china these days.    I now have 5 sets of china.   My Nana's (2 different sets), her Mother's (my GG), my Mom's, Eric's Mom.     That is my next project to clean them out and keep my 2 favorites that I use for holidays and special occassions.   

 

Candles is another thing that I have way too many of. 

 

No plans of moving, especially with all the stuff stored in the basement.

Edited April 21 by Sunshine3601

[Husky1987]

Fresh crack celebration for Saturday night.  House walls are all textured and they started priming today!  Should be painting by the end of next week.  The end is near, tentative move in date of June 1st (which I’m sure will slide a bit with inspections, etc.)…pics of painted walls to come next week 😊