FoodWineTravel

On 1/28/2024 at 3:05 PM, D&N said:

You probably need to have six alcoholic drinks per day to make it worthwhile. We have between six and eight per day and save money. We drink wine, aperitifs and liqueur for nightcaps. Beer drinkers would probably not benefit unless they drank far more.

Our calculations include coffees, teas, hot chocolate, soft drinks and bottled water in restaurants and lounges. On BC we get bottled water in the cabin.

Do you know if they carry eagle rare or buffalo trace bourbon?

On 5/12/2019 at 2:19 PM, Hlitner said:

Dave,   I have never used a Big Box store to book a cruise :).  I talked about "shopping around" and this does include the Big Box stores...but we have always found much better overall deals looking elsewhere.   We are members of 2 Big Box stores but not for the travel perks.  

 

With the cruise agencies we use (there are currently 3 on our "favored list") a FCD is not an issue.  If I book on the phone they will apply that deposit while making the booking (they are tied directly into the cruise line computers).  If there are any issues about credits they simply put me on hold, call their contacts at the cruise line, and resolve it within a couple of minutes.  But we tend to book a majority of our cruises on-line with a few clicks of the mouse (we have done this for even expensive multi-month cruises).  If we have any kind of existing credit with that particular cruise line we will follow-up with either a phone call or an e-mail to the cruise agent and it is quickly resolved.  The agents I use will handle dozens of booking in a single day and these folks are good (or we would look elsewhere).   They work for me...not the cruise line :).  If there are any issues/problems I have a high volume agent/agency as my advocate and they have a lot more clout (and contacts) with every cruise line then me.   If I later notice a price drop (or change in promotions that gets my interest) I just send a quick e-mail (takes me less than a minute) to my cruise agent and he/she takes care of it.  

 

Also consider that we do quite a few longer (measured in weeks or months) cruises to pretty exotic places that involve complex pre and post cruise travel planning.  All things being equal we prefer an experienced agency that has some understanding of issues related to that kind of travel/cruising.  My current favorite cruise agent (she is very young and still learning) understands our cruise and travel habits and gives us a lot of support (when requested).  But I have often teased her that my "loyalty" to her (and her agency) is only as good as the last booking...and she is aware that we will book elsewhere (in a heartbeat) if we can get a better deal.   We have also discovered that certain cruise lines seem to have special relationships with specific agencies.  So we often book RCI products (Celebrity and Azamara) with one particular agency while are CCL products usually are booked through a different agency.  MSC tends to frustrate all cruise agents but our young cruise agent seems to have figured out how to deal with that company :).

 

Hank

So what are these top 3?