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

[Alexle2007]

I was looking at the getaway package which is $46/person for tubes, snorkeling, and biking. Do you think that’s too much? I didn’t even think to bring our own snorkel stuff

You will find lots of tubes just abandoned throughout the day. We always just pick those up to use. DH and DS really enjoyed the jet ski tour at CC. They were bummed last time the water was too rough and it was canceled.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Does everything have to be prepackaged? We can't take like bananas and apples then?

Nope, no produce at a foreign port. The uncrustables would be allowed in sealed packages. So bring snacks like granola bars, protein bars, pretzels, etc in sealed packages. They took an apple from DHs backpack when we were getting off the ship at our first Alaskan port.

 

[Haley R]

You will find lots of tubes just abandoned throughout the day. We always just pick those up to use. DH and DS really enjoyed the jet ski tour at CC. They were bummed last time the water was too rough and it was canceled.

Yeah I don't think we'll do the package. It sounds like the tubes are either unnecessary or like you said we could find some abandoned.

 

[Haley R]

Nope, no produce at a foreign port. The uncrustables would be allowed in sealed packages. So bring snacks like granola bars, protein bars, pretzels, etc in sealed packages. They took an apple from DHs backpack when we were getting off the ship at our first Alaskan port.

Ah this is good to know. Thanks! I would've for sure packed bananas because I usually eat one every morning with my breakfast.

 

[jhoannam]

OMG I fell down the rabbit hole of the Excursionist perk and I can’t stop thinking about it. Now to see how United does out of MIA or FLL.

I do the same thing every few months, our trip up Europe isn’t until summer 2021 and I’ve already have it all planned out, with plan A and Plan B and Plan C & . Now to earn the miles and wait.

Plan A, United with excursionist perk: TUL (home airport) to AMS. AMS to MAD with a 12 hour layover hopefully in Munich but will pretty much go for any place we can get a 12 hour layover. BCN to TUL.
Plan B: Same as above but fly out/back from DFW.
Plan C use AA miles: TUL to MAD, BCN to TUL.
Plan D: Same as C but DFW instead of TUL.

 

[Alexle2007]

I do see an excursion for Trunk Bay so I'll look into that one. Quite a few of the excursions are sold out already.

We were going to Trunk’s Bay during the gov’t shutdown. It is a national park it was supposed to be closed. St. John said heck with that and didn’t want to lose the tourist $s and opened anyways. We were so glad they did. The water is just beautiful!

 

[mmmears]

Little boxes of cereal would work, too! I'm thinking the Uncrustables probably wouldn't stay cold so I'm not sure if we want to go that route or not.

I asked for frozen ones and then kept them in the cold part of the little mini fridge, but then again it was cold where we went, so nothing was going to melt ashore. The cereal was my favorite, since there were quite a few to choose from. We also brought those little sealed bags of almonds and some Kind bars from home.

Does everything have to be prepackaged? We can't take like bananas and apples then?

Yeah, I believe in the Caribbean it does. No fruit ashore, but they have lots of it at breakfast. In Europe nobody seemed to care what we took off the ship, so maybe it's different there, but we didn't want to chance it and had plenty of options in any case.

 

[disneybirds]

@1st*toright @kidsfirsttrip @SouthFayetteFan Thanks for all the suggestions for Boston. Two of you mentioned the Residence Inn in Seaport. It is showing 35K (Marriott points) a night for a King bed and sofa bed. The Hilton Faneuil Hall doesn't have availability. My youngest would love the Liberty, but it is 60K (Marriott points) a night! The Custom House isn't bookable on points, the rate was $380 and is nonrefundable. The Hyatt Centric Faneuil is 20K (Hyatt points) a night, but it is double beds. It is running $550 a night, so I great use of points but not sure I can deal with the double beds. Thanks for all the great options! I booked the Residence Inn for now.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

With the Max8 changes to our HI trip we will now be spending one night in Oakland. I was looking for a hotel near the airport with shuttle. There seems to be a new Springhill Suites by Marriott with a free breakfast and shuttle.
I went into DHs Marriott account to see if he had any points to combine or use and I’m seeing 2 free night Certs . When he got his personal Bonvoy card he got 2 free nights. We had a reservation last winter that we cancelled. I thought we cancelled to late but those certs are just sitting there. The trouble is, they expire 12/2 and we need them 12/19. What is the likelihood that Marriott will extend the certs?

 

[wendow]

Oh wow! I haven’t seen anything yet and I’ve had a Red card for about 6/7 years.

Did you have just a Target Red card or a Red card Visa? I wonder if they’re changing the Visas to MCs?

I would hope it doesn’t take a 5/24 slot because the account changed. You didn’t open a new one. I assume it will retain the old date on your credit report. It reminds me of the Costco Amex going to Citi.

I just had a red card. Not the visa. I had no issues when our Costco Amex became a citi card but the email to my dh is unnerving.

 

[wendow]

i was upgraded many years ago but it is one of the few cards DH was not an AU on. I highly doubt it counts.

Your red card got upgraded to a MC years ago?? The letter I got acted like this was some new thing

 

[AmyAnne]

Any tips of someone with a poor credit score? (high 500/low 600)? Haven't applied for credit card in over 24 months but was always declined then. Know it wont be possible to qualify for a nice cc with good rewards right off the bat but I'm willing to work for this. Is there some kind of credit builder that gives perks?

I would recommend looking into a secured Discover card. Several of my kids got this as their first independent (non-authorized user) card. They started with $500--you send the money to Discover and then that is your credit limit. The nice thing is that after six months (or possibly a year; it's been a while) of on-time payments, Discover automatically converted the card to a non-secured and sent back the $500. Now it shows up on their credit reports as if it has always been an unsecured card.

 

[DisCatz]

I would recommend looking into a secured Discover card. Several of my kids got this as their first independent (non-authorized user) card. They started with $500--you send the money to Discover and then that is your credit limit. The nice thing is that after six months (or possibly a year; it's been a while) of on-time payments, Discover automatically converted the card to a non-secured and sent back the $500. Now it shows up on their credit reports as if it has always been an unsecured card.

The Discovered Secured seems the way to go from my research. Thank you!

 

[Lain]

those certs are just sitting there. The trouble is, they expire 12/2 and we need them 12/19. What is the likelihood that Marriott will extend the certs?

Almost certainly. Just give Marriott a call and ask if they can extend them as a courtesy as you’d like to use them 2 weeks later. They’ll extend them out a year.

 

[AmyAnne]

I just had a red card. Not the visa. I had no issues when our Costco Amex became a citi card but the email to my dh is unnerving.

Thank you for posting about this. I was thinking I need to cancel my Target card because I never use it, so I keep getting those letters that say we will close your account if you don't use it (which apparently they don't actually do) . . . I would be super angry if my Target card got "upgraded" and that counted as a new card.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

With the Max8 changes to our HI trip we will now be spending one night in Oakland. I was looking for a hotel near the airport with shuttle. There seems to be a new Springhill Suites by Marriott with a free breakfast and shuttle.
I went into DHs Marriott account to see if he had any points to combine or use and I’m seeing 2 free night Certs . When he got his personal Bonvoy card he got 2 free nights. We had a reservation last winter that we cancelled. I thought we cancelled to late but those certs are just sitting there. The trouble is, they expire 12/2 and we need them 12/19. What is the likelihood that Marriott will extend the certs?

Almost certainly. Just give Marriott a call and ask if they can extend them as a courtesy as you’d like to use them 2 weeks later. They’ll extend them out a year.

Agreed!! The odds are VERY good. This is one area that Marriott has always been good about!

 

[brownhaired_girl]

Almost certainly. Just give Marriott a call and ask if they can extend them as a courtesy as you’d like to use them 2 weeks later. They’ll extend them out a year.

Agreed!! The odds are VERY good. This is one area that Marriott has always been good about!

Thank you. I’ll call tomorrow.

 

[Alexle2007]

Your red card got upgraded to a MC years ago?? The letter I got acted like this was some new thing

I am pretty sure it is a MC. It seems no love anymore. Reminds me I do need to use it for a small purchase so they don’t close it.

 

[AmyAnne]

I am pretty sure it is a MC. It seems no love anymore. Reminds me I do need to use it for a small purchase so they don’t close it.

I have received at least two and possibly three letters reminding me to use the card or they will close it . . . But I just closed it myself! And not without a fair amount of somewhat aggravating arguing about how I could enroll in auto-pay and how I could opt out of any future changes to Mastercard. The guy I spoke with said they "just did a big batch" of converting to Mastercard so I probably wouldn't have to worry about it until next year. I was slightly tempted to ask more about the process just because I am curious how they decide what accounts to upgrade, but by then my goal was to say as little as possible so he would stop talking and close the card.

 

[PolyRob]

@marsh0013 I still don't see award travel for 8/17