Prices of cruises have increased significantly so what can you do?

 I normally take 3 cruises per year but with the increased prices that will decline to 2 this year. How do you mitigate the price increases?

- book early ie. 6 to 9 months before the cruise as the cruise lines will decrease prices if bookings are not where they need to be

- watch the cruise’s you like and track the price of the cabin you want. I have saved several hundred this year

- do transatlantic or repositioning as they are cheaper 

- downgrade your cabin type from balcony 

- book your shore excursions and internet when they are on sale pre cruise

- watch for obc’s or other savings, like free gratuities

- ask your travel agent for an obc

- book longer vacations and use your cruise to spend time in a new city. you can get good deals on city add ons

- make sure you get your stockholders benefit

- watch for air sales

Hope this helps

Marcia

How to get the UK ETA for you next trip to the UK - its easier than I thought

 I was quite nervous about how difficult it would be to get the new UK ETA for my trip to the UK in April 2025.  Some of what I read on line made it seem quite difficult.  The one thing I did learn was that it was easiest if you download the app. So here is what you need to do

- download the UK eta app onto your phone

- have your passport and  access to your email ready'

- once your enter your email on the app they send your a verification code to your email address 

- you must enter in the code and press next

- then you need to let them scan the picture page on your passport (it will tell you it did it successfully)

- then they want to scan the chip on your passport - I tried unsuccessfully 4 or 5 times and then it gives you an ability to skip - press skip (as I think it has a hard time scanning it on Canadian new passports)

- then it wants to take your photo.  It needs a white background (I stood against a door) and you must look directly not down as your eyes must be fully open . It will tell you when its successfully taken it. 

- Then you add your address and  phone details and answer a few questions re any criminal background etc.  

- then you pay - note that Canadians pay in USD - it was 13 for me

- then they send you a confirmation email to email address and it tells you it will take up to three days

However - I got approved in 32 minutes as I guess its automated.  They tell you to print out the confirmation (note it also tells you it is now linked to your passport with the last four digits .... )

The cruise lines want to see a printed copy of  the confirmation when you check in a the port, so print a few copies of the confirmation.  

It was a bit tricky with the taking the photo to get it right and I had to skip the chip scan part, but all in all much easier than I thought.

Hope this helps

Marcia