dmattinson

MSC just dumping money into building cruise ships, Virgin coming online in the last couple years, bargain cruise lines like Margaritaville at Sea, etc. all have an impact.  Coupled with the new ships coming online for NCL, Disney, Princess, and Carnival and you now have a glut of overall cruising inventory.  The older ships need to go offline (aside from a few niche itineraries or seasonality destinations) and cruise lines need to stop discounting the older (but still new within the last 5-8 years) as soon as a new ship comes into the fold.  The old model of capturing revenue when cruisers are on board isn't what I see as the new way of going.  Sure, you will capture liquor sales revenue and some shopping, but photography isn't as big as it was 10-15 years ago.  Shore excursions seem like poor value for the dollar especially if you do a little research on tours available at and just outside the port and again, not like it was 15 or longer years ago.  Casinos make money I'm sure, but they still seem to be giving away free cruises for fairly low throughput which tells me that perhaps the gambling isn't like it was pre-pandemic.  

I also think that the packages they offer in advance takes some of the revenue away.  If I can pay about $86/day (gratuity included) to drink whatever I want while on the cruise or one of the cruise island destinations, I'm drinking more than if I pay out of pocket for those drinks. A couple coffees, a couple beers, 4-5 bottles of water, a few whiskeys and I'm taking advantage of the package, not adding revenue while paying per drink.  Same with dining, if they charged cover fees and didn't offer the packages, it might net into more overall people trying paid dining vs. catering to the person that bought a package that can get mostly what they want for something like $30/day.

I like staying in Coconut Grove.  Its a little south of the hustle and bustle but close enough to Bayside if you want to venture up there.  At 9 miles from the cruise port, it isn't terribly far and on the weekend, should be about a 20 min drive max.  The Marriott Courtyard on Bayshore is a recently redone and modern facility that has a Fresh Market and a CVS across the street plus some dining options all within a few blocks of walking (I'd recommend Bombay Darbar if you like Indian food).

Carnival jumped because they entered into an agreement to issue bonds to pay down their debt (by putting up 12 ships as collateral BTW).  The market liked it as it pretty much avoids bankruptcy at this point and it took the other cruise stocks with it. 

1 hour ago, mac66 said:

Well, the key is to buy low, sell high but I think the key to buying cruise line stock at such low prices is to off set the price so you at least break even some day.  We probably won't sail Carnival again but may give Princess, Holland America or Cunnard a try in the future. That's the only reason I bought CCL stock.

On the other hand CCL & RCL is in pretty deep debt i.e, billions of dollars. Making 100s of millions doesn't even pay the interest so what's next? Bankruptcy?  Is this billion dollar industry too big to let fail? Bailout by the govt?  It's a risk and only time will tell.

I look at these as long-term holds.  

The cruise lines may be deep into debt but they have interesting ways of restructuring the debt by borrowing to pay off the current due notes.  As the cruise lines continue to go out with full ships and fares stay high, they will start to see better returns.  The investment into the refurbishment of old ships and the building of new ones surely doesn't help but as new ships come online, if the older ships are no longer fitting into the plans of the company, they can sell them off to smaller operators to recoup some money, transfer them to one of their other divisions, or sell for scrap.   But government bail-outs won't happen for US companies operating foreign flagged vessels.

On 10/4/2022 at 8:20 AM, mac66 said:

Carnival dropped to $7.33 share on Friday. Maybe now is the time to get your 100 shares. Just need 10 Carnival/Princess/Holland America cruises to break even.

It actually dropped to $6.58 

On 9/29/2022 at 9:54 AM, mac66 said:

 So is it more snooty to wear them, or to look down on somebody who does? 

 

 

I look at it like:

1 - you can wear them but if you are a braggard, then you get looked down on

2 - if you look down on someone wearing them, it better be because they were braggards and not just wearing them

On 9/19/2022 at 2:32 PM, mac66 said:

I also bought 100 shares of Carnival @ 9.37 at the same time because we may go back on Princess once in awhile or maybe Cunard or Holland America. You get the same benefit as RCL.  Carnival is at 10.74 but it's bound to jump up higher. It was at 27 a year ago.

I was watching CCL and when it dropped down into the $8.80s, I picked up a small position.  We'll see what Friday's news brings.  Might set a trailing stop loss on it to see what happens.

On 9/17/2022 at 9:23 AM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Unfortunately no. Could not find a way to justify leaving the 15 and 17 year old home alone for 12+ days....

Yeah, that's tough.  A week, maybe.  More than that becomes a worrisome challenge.

I think back to when my parents went on vacation and my sister and I couldn't go because we still had summer school. We didn't get wild (my grandmother lived across the street) but we capitalized on limited supervision for the week.

16 hours ago, Larry Muster said:

All the examples are good, but just a reminder that if you bring one with a EU adapter, you get a "free" outlet by using the EU plug and leaving all the other traditional plugs open.

Note that the EU adapter also needs a voltage regulator unless you are plugging in items that are rated up to 220/240V.  Plug in a standard device that is rated only for 110/120 and you will fry it.

Taken this one on two cruises this year - no issues.  I keep it in my backpack with all my other electronic devices and chargers.  https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08B3986P8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Never a problem going through security.

28 minutes ago, CrimsonCruiser said:

I second that it probably makes things easier for the check-in staff. I don't know/ remember if they were printed at the check-in desk or if they were already printed and then pulled by name, but either way there would be several minutes there getting all that sorted.

I remember the days of showing up and showed them the paper reservations, they looked you up in a computer terminal (not a PC, but a terminal), captured your passport and scanned it, set-up your credit card payment/pre-authorization (or took and held cash if you didn't have a card) and then had to look for your room cards that were preprinted.  Then it was "go wait in xyz section and someone will come grab your boarding group".  You could wait minutes or hours.  

I much rather have the efficiency of connected tablets and having to wait 2-3 hours or so to get my cards than the old way.

I'm very pleased with my recent gains on RCL - I dumped a bunch of turds I had been holding onto that weren't moving and decided to put faith in RCL.

Bought on Jul 18 @ $35.49 and as of today, I'm up over 40%.  I would have liked to have invested more but cash on hand was tight with all the recent bookings made

I'm very pleased but I'm also a little sad because I missed on the chance to buy more, especially to get to the 100 shares needed to get the OBC.

Long term holders are still down but it looks positive provided travel continues to stay on track and doesn't have any more interference due to pandemic concerns.

On 8/17/2022 at 5:37 PM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I might be on it,  and I might be on deck 10 with you lol

Did you wind up keeping the reservation?

12 hours ago, CrimsonCruiser said:

Nassau and Grand Cayman were kind of boring to me. I want to give them another chance, maybe do better excursions or something...

Can't help with Nassau, but Grand Cayman was blast for us with Turtle Farm, glass bottom boat tour, Sea Grape Beach (via cab) and a stop off at Hell.  I absolutely love GC

Jamaica followed by Nassau

looks like the Philippines and Malaysia may not be the hiring hot bed they were before with the outreach to the areas listed - interesting

Absolutely check the Facebook group for your sailing and then make sure you look for events.  There is usually a slot pull event and a bar crawl event too (sometimes they even have t-shirts you can order from Etsy with all the bar names on them).  Sometimes there is a sail-away meet-up or a Schooner Bar meet on the 1st sea day to get to meet the people you interacted with online (if you'd like to do that).

My wife is in a mobility scooter and up to current, was able to walk short distances so she was able to park and walk down a step to the last row and take a standard seat. 

Next cruise, she will not be able to do that due to reconstructive foot surgery and no weight bearing restrictions.  We plan to have her park in the accessible seating area and either staying in her scooter or transferring to a folding chair immediately next to her scooter.  Despite having preferred seating available to us, we will be sitting in the back of the 1st section  

the 3rd and 4th person promos only apply to kids - adults and adult children should be placed in their own stateroom for everyone's sanity

I'd suggest talking to a travel agent to help figure out how to best plan your cruise vacation  

On 5/22/2022 at 8:43 PM, JCWag said:

Just got off of Explorer of the Seas - had (free) Lavazza at 6 a.m. every morning from Cafe Promenade; took it to the helo deck where I was always alone and drank that wonderful cup of coffee!!! Since the Cafe was on deck 5 and you got to the helo deck (bow of the ship) from 5 it was easy to get all the free refills you needed. Watching the sunrise with that delicious coffee was awesome.

Are you referring to the carafe of coffee off to the side that is complimentary?  If so, I have found that coffee to be not the best (but it's included) and my experience doesn't seem to be one-off...

I like to hit it up late night when people are asleep - never a line!

1 hour ago, TXcruzer said:

No one wants tipped with a coin 

But Canada doesn't have $1 or $2 bills anymore...they are coins and have been since 1996 for the $2 and 1989 for the $1.  Since Jan 1, 2021, $1 and $2 bills are no longer legal tender.  So for Canadians, coins it is. 

I always like viewing the eye of the storm paths on the National Hurricane Center's site:  https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

3 hours ago, Klinkor said:

When I tried to call Danette it took me to a call center that had nothing to do with MEI travel. Has she switched jobs? Does anyone have an MEI agent they would recommend today.  When I requested an Mei agent through the website they gave me one but she is very non-responsive and I seem to be doing more work than she is.

Me too…I mean, the one I’m working with does respond but seems like they may have a professional day job that occupies time. I get it but when I ask about a pricing adjustment and they say that they have a bunch of e-mail alerts they just haven’t been able to get to yet, I wonder how much I may be missing if I wasn’t repricing my sailings every day or two?

If you have taken a cruise recently, you probably saw but didn't think anything of it, a crewmember having their mask under their nose or consciously pulling it down to be heard easier or just because it was hot and they needed to pull it away from their face.