Originally Posted by
breakthrough37
I only have 500 shares of ONVC the minimum amount about $750.00 in an IRA account the year I purchased it the stock traded from about $1.25 to $1.65. The Market was crashing an the stock held its price. I purchased 500 shares with a limit order took a couple of days. Not a major investment nothing to chase.
You should join Cruise Critics lots of information on cruises. We did Abu Dhabi to Rome on Celebrity a couple of years ago. We purchased one way tickets on Delta codeshare KLM LAX to AMS to AUH. We stayed a couple of days in Rome flew to Munich used miles on United to fly from Munich to Los Angeles. You can PM we do two or three cruises a year.
AA miles can book EY from US to Abu Dhabi - it is just an hour or so drive between AUH and DXB. Too bad the spat between Qatar and Saudia / UAE continue - much longer than last time - so now it is a hassle to go thru DOH. QR is one of our favorite airlines to fly. There are a few routes using AA miles to fly QR are great deals. (US to Africa via DOH QR to QR, EU to Australia / New Zealand via DOH QR to QR, off the top of my head.)
Virtually all our international long haul air are business class awards with different programs depending on the availability and the routing. Star Alliance is much stronger for TATL, and TPAC too primarily because UA still allows routing thru Europe between Asia and US while AA does not. Aeroplan is almost anything goes only limited to MPM allowance. Therefore the AMEX Membership Reward pts to us are very valuable due to it is the primary way we gather our Aeroplan miles.
Abu Dhabi to Rome would sail thru Suez Canal. Celebrity Constellation has such sailing in March, but UR cannot book it. I dont like the itinerary primarily due to the arrival time to Aqaba too late at 10pm. By the time you get off the ship and with the over an hour car ride to Petra, you are there right around noon or 1pm - the hottest time of the day! No good. We were to visit Petra in a 2017 trip for Middle East and Asia. Alas, things happened and we modified the itinerary and dropped Jordan so no more Petra. Hence I would like to go to Petra on an itinerary that has Aqaba as port of call - but the Celebrity Constellation schedule makes it while possible would be very uncomfortable.
Also Constellation crosses Suez Canal at night with only the next morning for the last stretch - another poor schedule. The cruise is dirt cheap though at this moment, but the taxes are over $300. Still cheaper than Seabourn's $600 taxes on a reverse itinerary in the Fall. But Seabourn enters Suez Canal in the morning while Celebrity enters at night - may make a difference.
Yes, I used cruise critics for many years - usually would drop by a few weeks before a cruise to check on the latest, such transportation at the ports, if there are any interesting private tours posted on the Roll Calls, things of that sort. Our cruise agent was by referral thru a long time cruise critic member 10 or more years ago. Generally when I found a couple cruises we like, I emailed our agent and she would check on what prices she could offer, while she put the cruise on hold for 24 hours, often could be extended but not always. We tend to book cruises that are well after their final payment deadline - so the cruise lines have more solid ideas on how many unsold cabins therefore adjust their pricing accordingly. We use her exclusively but before that we used CruiseCompete and other sites before.
I will PM you when and if we pick an Oceania cruise to learn more on Oceania.
We do at least one TATL cruise a year, sometimes with the extension. (the back to back). There were years we did both directions - one in Spring to, and the other in Fall from. We had some really crazy years that had multiple long cruises, with long land trips in between. We really like doing TATL and then tag on weeks long land trip post cruise for the Spring crossing. We also add land portion pre cruise for the Fall crossing but we do less often the Fall crossing.
Can't do South America as needed Yellow Fever shots - family doctors both advise against the shot, and we dont want to take the health risk given the Yellow Fever outbreaks in Brazil in recent years, nor the health risk taking the shot. Hence Brazil and a good part of South America is a no go!