I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[Haley R]

Our Alaskan cruise (on Princess though) was amazing! I highly recommend one.

And that has been our first and only cruise lol

I don’t think we’d sail with Disney because it’s just so expensive. I’ve heard good things about princess. Is it less of a party atmosphere?

 

[Haley R]

Both are definitely excellent Of course, any day at sea is a good day for me. DCL and ABD receive a lot of my money, though, so I'm slightly biased.

I’m not sure we’ll ever do an ABD. They’re just so expensive! If we do an Alaskan or European cruise we may go with a different company since Disney is so expensive

 

[gottalovepluto]

I’m not sure we’ll ever do an ABD. They’re just so expensive! If we do an Alaskan or European cruise we may go with a different company since Disney is so expensive

I’m tempted by @Andysol ’s DIY ABDs! I can absolutely see myself doing something like that someday.

 

[tink1970]

I’m not sure we’ll ever do an ABD. They’re just so expensive! If we do an Alaskan or European cruise we may go with a different company since Disney is so expensive

Understood. I have serious reservations about some of the other cruise lines and their practices so I cannot in good conscience contribute to an umbrella company that is so dismissive of waste disposal laws. So I save more and pay more and sail slightly less guiltily. ABDs are crazy expensive, which is why I'm only on #5 next week and not in double digits like others I envy. I value experiences over things, travel to pretty much anything so it's one of my priorities, for sure. Churning helps mitigate some of the costs, as well.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

I don’t think we’d sail with Disney because it’s just so expensive. I’ve heard good things about princess. Is it less of a party atmosphere?

Definitely not a party atmosphere We didn't go to any of the shows (didn't appeal) but we hung out at one of the lounges. Excursions started so early every port day that people tended to go to bed early.

 

[tink1970]

Hi everyone!! I’ve lurked on this thread for a while but posting for the first time with questions.

and congrats on your CSP-it's a great card!

Here's your first dance party!

 

[smmco]

Anyone else read online that DCL is tightening up the placeholder deals? Sounds like no more OBC starting this week (depending on which ship you're sailing). I guess this has to do with the new ships coming online in 2 years...

Just returned from our 23rd DCL cruise. If I were to rank the cruises I’ve been on from best to worst this cruise would be in last place. A lot of it was the weather. We missed two ports and had six straight sea days. I was extremely bored. I did a ltransatlantic last year with 7 sea days and was never bored, but the weather was awesome. It made me realize how little there is to do on the Magic when your stuck inside. Food and entertainment was just so-so. Service was stellar as always.

I’m getting an itch to try some other cruise lines. I’ve got a week and a half off in February and kicking around ideas. So far I’ve booked 3 days at Universal.and 5 days at CSR. I’m thinking of swapping out WDW for a cruise. Money is a big factor for this trip so it may be a good time to give Carnival a try or cruise Royal again. I need to make a decision pronto I didn’t realize the Super Bowl was in Miami when I requested this week off. I want to fly with AA points so I need to book my flights before flights fill up.

Not all was bad. My point redemption at the Waldorf in London was fantastic and the Conrad in NYC was pretty nice.

 

[Haley R]

I’m tempted by @Andysol ’s DIY ABDs! I can absolutely see myself doing something like that someday.

I had so much fun planning our Japan trip and it made everything more personalized. Not to mention we saved probably like $15k+ by not doing an ABD

 

[Haley R]

Understood. I have serious reservations about some of the other cruise lines and their practices so I cannot in good conscience contribute to an umbrella company that is so dismissive of waste disposal laws. So I save more and pay more and sail slightly less guiltily. ABDs are crazy expensive, which is why I'm only on #5 next week and not in double digits like others I envy. I value experiences over things, travel to pretty much anything so it's one of my priorities, for sure. Churning helps mitigate some of the costs, as well.

So for Disney cruises and ABD do you mostly cash out points?

 

[Haley R]

Definitely not a party atmosphere We didn't go to any of the shows (didn't appeal) but we hung out at one of the lounges. Excursions started so early every port day that people tended to go to bed early.

Okay good lol. We most likely won’t do royal Caribbean or carnival cruises

 

[kylenne]

I charge to my on-site room so that’s all I know. Anything you charge to your room will code as “lodging- travel” fwiw

Congrats on getting out of an abusive relationship and rebuilding your credit...
My CSR coded as food and drink...at the flower and garden booths...so I would think the food and wine booths would code the same

Thank you both so much! I tend to charge to the room 99% of the time too, but have the JetBlue Plus as my mobile ordering card when Discover IT doesn’t have Restaurants as a 5% category. (I capped it out this quarter ordering GCs from BJs with PayPal for last month’s trip) It’s very good to know that room charges are travel with Chase.

It’s been a long hard trip toward financial stability but it is paying off in spades. 2 years ago I had a Discover IT secured card, no FICO to speak of and hardly a dime to my name. Now I have a solid set of rewards cards and I am building a nice pension and retirement fund, and was promoted to an important position at the city agency I work for. And I can travel the way I want, with an amazing lady who loves it as much as I do. Especially Disney!

 

[tink1970]

@Haley R I do a combination of opening new cards and buying discounted DGC. I have a stack "this high" of DGCs I'll be throwing out after this ABD and cruise in December and a "system" for them all that still doesn't rival Lain's spreadsheet on everything and amalone's mathing, lol.

I also use a TA that provides OBC so I know gratuities are covered so other than Palo (we have 1 meal covered but I usually eat both brunch and dinner) no OOP once we board.

Our TA (Kevin from DU that sponsors these boards) for ABDs provides a small discount as well, then discounted dgcs, and new credit cards as well.

I definitely give myself 2+ years to plan and save for ABDs.
For DCL, I think you'll find FL resident rates pop up and are good-we utilize the MTO (military rates) which are often better than FL resident rates, and cannot lie, those help-it's how I sailed Alaska twice in 10 months!

 

[mmmears]

I would love to do an Alaskan or european cruise.

Well, there you go. Now you have a use for those MRs since you can use them for flights to those destinations. Honestly those were amazing trips. We do sail with DCL but I'm not opposed to trying another line if the itinerary looks better to me. For us, we don't cash out the points, we just pay for the cruise using whatever discounts we can (look into booking a placeholder when you sail), but our airfare and hotels in Europe are all booked on points.

 

[Haley R]

@Haley R I do a combination of opening new cards and buying discounted DGC. I have a stack "this high" of DGCs I'll be throwing out after this ABD and cruise in December and a "system" for them all that still doesn't rival Lain's spreadsheet on everything and amalone's mathing, lol.

I also use a TA that provides OBC so I know gratuities are covered so other than Palo (we have 1 meal covered but I usually eat both brunch and dinner) no OOP once we board.

Our TA (Kevin from DU that sponsors these boards) for ABDs provides a small discount as well, then discounted dgcs, and new credit cards as well.

I definitely give myself 2+ years to plan and save for ABDs.
For DCL, I think you'll find FL resident rates pop up and are good-we utilize the MTO (military rates) which are often better than FL resident rates, and cannot lie, those help-it's how I sailed Alaska twice in 10 months!

Our cruise in November was booked on a Florida rate. I thought it was a pretty good rate. But honestly it’s hard to compare when we went to japan for so long and it was super cheap by using points. Doing stuff through Disney is so much harder on the budget

 

[smmco]

Our cruise in November was booked on a Florida rate. I thought it was a pretty good rate. But honestly it’s hard to compare when we went to japan for so long and it was super cheap by using points. Doing stuff through Disney is so much harder on the budget

We’ve taken most of our cruises with last minute discounted rates. Planning years out doesn’t work for us.

 

[orangecuse]

We loooove cruises. Celebrity is our favorite line but we will likely stick to DCL while our kids are young and then when they are older mix it up. Carnival long cruises are usually not party atmosphere.

My parents are on their 30th celebrity cruise. They have even done the Galapagos! If you want a subdued crowd do Canada on Celebrity; my dad aaid my mom was the hot young thing on board and she was 60 at the time

 

[GlamMistress]

I know, right? Because DCL already is pretty much at the bottom in terms of having anything special for their repeat customers, now they take this away, too. I kind of hope it ends up hurting them like what happened at DL this summer, but I doubt it will.

Because Disney cruises aren't expensive enough. Good grief, they are already 3x as expensive as other lines - and sometimes more than that!

I was already on the fence about booking another one when the lines open next week. It's all about price.

The Mouse sure is (apparently) making money like crazy right now. All these nickel and dime changes, plus constant gate increases and making DVC unaffordable for most folks period. Boy I dunno but the next recession is probably gonna hurt Mickey with out of whack pricing...

 

[kylenne]

We loooove cruises. Celebrity is our favorite line but we will likely stick to DCL while our kids are young and then when they are older mix it up. Carnival long cruises are usually not party atmosphere.

My parents are on their 30th celebrity cruise. They have even done the Galapagos! If you want a subdued crowd do Canada on Celebrity; my dad aaid my mom was the hot young thing on board and she was 60 at the time

We loooove cruises. Celebrity is our favorite line but we will likely stick to DCL while our kids are young and then when they are older mix it up. Carnival long cruises are usually not party atmosphere.

My parents are on their 30th celebrity cruise. They have even done the Galapagos! If you want a subdued crowd do Canada on Celebrity; my dad aaid my mom was the hot young thing on board and she was 60 at the time

Can confirm. I went on a Canada/NE sailing on Celebrity and at 33 felt like I should have been in the kids’ club!

Royal Caribbean isn’t a party atmosphere on the 7nt sailings either from experience though. We took an Eastern Med. with them a few years ago on Navigator and it wasn’t at all the kind of booze cruise type antics you see on YouTube lol. But pax were mostly Europeans and so the ship was still pleasantly lively later into the evenings. We were going to try DCL for the first time for Western Med next year but then my other half got Lapu Lapu fever again so...

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

Can confirm. I went on a Canada/NE sailing on Celebrity and at 33 felt like I should have been in the kids’ club!

Royal Caribbean isn’t a party atmosphere on the 7nt sailings either from experience though. We took an Eastern Med. with them a few years ago on Navigator and it wasn’t at all the kind of booze cruise type antics you see on YouTube lol. But pax were mostly Europeans and so the ship was still pleasantly lively later into the evenings. We were going to try DCL for the first time for Western Med next year but then my other half got Lapu Lapu fever again so...

It's a real affliction

 

[MKTokyo]

still waiting for my new card to arrive so I can spend money!!!!

In other news, the 15 yo came home with a girl's scrunchie on his wrist. He thinks I am ancient so I am thinking I'll have to tell him that scrunchies were super popular "a long time ago" in the early 90's... and that I used to wear them in my hair all the time.

Tell him you were an original VSCO (rhymes with "disco") girl. It will blow his mind.