pinniped

When you guys quote a percent "saved", what is your basis? I see ads that say "80% off!!" I realize those may be a complete joke, but how do you estimate the baseline value when you know that neither the 80% off or the absurdly high rack rate represent reality?

Refinements as we've discussed this further:

- One big thing we want to avoid is nickel-and-diming once we're on board. We don't need ultrapremium liquor or a 5-star dinner every night, but I don't want to be relegated to Miller Lite, cheap wine, and buffet food either. Some of the references to drink credits or numbers of meals permitted in certain restaurants leads me to believe that some ships lure you in with low rates and then every is extra onboard. I'd probably pay a higher base rate and accept a 1-2 day shorter cruise to have a more truly all-inclusive price.

- We realize we'd have to pay extra for guided tours and other types of shore excursions, but we're also hoping we have a few ports where there are ways to escape the cruise crowd. When my wife and I have traveled in tropical places before, we've purposely avoided places with a lot of cruise traffic. Now we're going to be in the midst of it - I know this might not be easy - but we're going to want to get away from it for a day or two where possible.

One of our family members shot out a link to a bunch of potential cruises. I noticed it was from vacationstogo.com. This whole travel agent thing is going to be a hard point for me - I frankly do not trust any of them whatsoever. Full stop. I'm going to have to get over that, maybe the site where you get 4-5 of them to basically bid for your business will help.