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

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Ohhhhh thought of another one. Sea World.

At least San Diego... maybe San Antonio...
We went to San Antonio in... early 2000s? Fond memories of show as a kid, like the trainers being in with the orcas :rolleyes: DH and I did San Diego in 2015 and I was like, I think I'm good for about 5 years... And see, now we will visit Orlando with the Daily Getaways tickets :rotfl: I have higher hopes for Orlando though.

I grew up going to Sea World in Ohio (wonder who thought that was ever a good place for a Sea World???) and took the kids to Sea World San Diego and I thought the shows were the exact same as they were 30 years ago. Like exact same. I wondered if the Clyde and Seamore show still said the same jokes. lol
 
I believe you are in the Mid-Atlantic area also and we have never had to use the mental health services but I absolutely love when the doctor says go get X-rays or bloodwork, I walk down the hall or to a different floor and I am done. They know exactly what I need done. We have had nothing but a great experience for almost 25 years. Maybe the federal emp plan is different but my OOP expenses have been extremely minimal. Pretty sure it’s $2500 or less in those 25 years.

We did add extra dental coverage since that aspect was more limited and we couldn’t find a dentist we liked.
I’m not sure that’s a function of the insurance as much as the doctor/ facilities. We have a number of facilities in the area that are health centers or hospitals with outpatient where you see the doctor and have everything else there too. The hospital my mom goes to for an outpatient infusion has the hospital, infusion (chemo and other,) pharmacy, therapy, radiology, etc.
 
I saw this on another blog and thought it would be fun to do here. Name one place you've travelled to that you wouldn't return. For me it would be the Bahamas. Been there, done that. Not impressed. There are much better islands in the Carribean to visit such as Turks and Caicos, Aruba and Grand Cayman.

The blog responders said :Thailand, Dubai, Qatar, Bahamas and Ireland.
DH and I went to Thailand many years ago before kids, and I found the people to be gouging us everywhere we go. I know this happens a lot to foreigners in 3rd world countries, but here I thought they were downright abusive and threatening. For example, I bought a little too much souvenirs and needed to buy a carry-on bag/backpack. The 1st shop we went into the woman got mad at us for not buying, and when I handed the bag back to her, she pinched my arm so hard it was red for hours afterwards! Also, the driver we hired for one day to tour the major sites tried to charge us some outrageous amount at the end of the day. I forgot the exact amounts, but maybe $500 for an original quote of $200? He threatened to call the police on us. Luckily the hotel staff stepped in as mediators and we settle for midway between his original quote and the new made-up amount. After that trip, I said never again.

On the other hand, I had a fantastic time in Ireland. I spent most of the time up and down the southern and western coast. The people were friendly, scenery and countryside were beautiful; I can't wait to go back!

Now I'm curious... Does anyone here have experience with Kaiser?

I have a love/hate relationship with Kaiser. I hate the administration / billing side. They nickle and dime everywhere (but that could be all plans?). I think it also depends on what your particular employer signs up for. Both DH and I have Kaiser as an option, but when I was pricing out our oop costs based on what we know we'll need, his plan was significantly cheaper.

I absolutely love the care team at our Kaiser. The labor & delivery department is outstanding. If you're thinking about that for the near future, we did tours of various hospitals prior to selecting our plan. Most hospitals have tours of their L&D rooms. Friends of ours expecting at the same time chose Stanford for the name, and didn't realize their L&D rooms were shared! Having a private room was non-negotiable to me. :)

I can also credit my DD's life to the pediatrics team here. She was diagnosed with a rare immune disorder in May, after having a fever for 7 straight days with meds not helping. They immediately hospitalized her, and gave her IV antibiotics. If not treated within 2 weeks, her risk of a heart attack increases to 90%. All of her follow up care has been outstanding. We just feel blessed that they took action quick rather than dragged out office visits or "waited and see."
 


I saw this on another blog and thought it would be fun to do here. Name one place you've travelled to that you wouldn't return. For me it would be the Bahamas. Been there, done that. Not impressed. There are much better islands in the Carribean to visit such as Turks and Caicos, Aruba and Grand Cayman.

The blog responders said :Thailand, Dubai, Qatar, Bahamas and Ireland.
Colorado Springs for me. I wrote about that in May. It was nice, just not more unique than other places we've been and didn't like the homeless situation.

Nashville & Atlanta. Neither was bad, just a once and done.

I have seen some CVS recently at my Staples. They look to be the generic CVS card which should work for pharmacy or just store purchases.
I've gotten these at Staples when I had Amex offers. I use at the pharmacy.
 
I grew up going to Sea World in Ohio (wonder who thought that was ever a good place for a Sea World???)
After moving to Ohio in 1987, we went a few times to Sea World in Ohio. Not surprised it closed. Also went to the one in San Diego. You are right, they had similar if not the same routines/shows.
 
We had kaiser for last 6 years. Just got on Cigna with dh’s new job. I hated kaiser. Just awful experiences all around for us. We had to go through treating my dd’s Lyme with kaiser and they covered exactly $0 of about $30k of treatment :furious:
My ds10 needed OT for social-emotional issues. Kaiser will cover OT for any other diagnosis pertaining to sensory disorders but not that one.

I could go on and on regarding what they don’t cover. All we’ve done with kaiser is pay out of pocket. I despise kaiser.

Sadly, thats how I feel about Cigna at times. They use a 3rd party claims processing company for certain things, and I swear this other company simply denies stuff at random. Sooo frustrating at times.
 


I saw this on another blog and thought it would be fun to do here. Name one place you've travelled to that you wouldn't return. For me it would be the Bahamas. Been there, done that. Not impressed. There are much better islands in the Carribean to visit such as Turks and Caicos, Aruba and Grand Cayman.

The blog responders said :Thailand, Dubai, Qatar, Bahamas and Ireland.

As someone who has lived in MA for 11 years - I have never understood the love for Cape Cod.
 
I believe you are in the Mid-Atlantic area also and we have never had to use the mental health services but I absolutely love when the doctor says go get X-rays or bloodwork, I walk down the hall or to a different floor and I am done. They know exactly what I need done. We have had nothing but a great experience for almost 25 years. Maybe the federal emp plan is different but my OOP expenses have been extremely minimal. Pretty sure it’s $2500 or less in those 25 years.

We did add extra dental coverage since that aspect was more limited and we couldn’t find a dentist we liked.
But what about your healthcare premiums with Kaiser? I thought they were high.
 
Many thanks to everyone for the suggestions with my back! I apologize for not finding the exact individuals to thank personally. I am really hoping to be better quickly! I have never seen a chiropractor in my life but I love a good massage so I am going to see if I can find something for tomorrow. Too bad it won’t be at the Hershey Spa which is my favorite local location.
 
Back from Germany and can’t recommend it enough as a wonderful vacation spot. Easy, activities for all ages, interests, activity levels. We toured history from Roman times to modern day, my kids did paragliding, city tours.
Our CSR PP cards got us all in to the No. 1 lounge at LHR. None of us had never been to a lounge so we were all suitably impressed. Free food! Free wine and cocktails! Free soda! I calculate it saved me at least $150 on lunch.
I saw the conversation on Rick Steve’s, I think for @speedyfishy trip to Rome? We used his audio tour for Munich and can’t recommend the app enough. It makes a huge difference to understand what you are seeing and to have a logical route to take. It really helps you get your bearings so you can revisit places you’ve discovered.
Couldn’t have done this trip without the advice on this thread - now just trying to get house and life back together but will jump in to credit cards apps ASAP.
My bestie lives in germany and I have never visited. Maybe I should work on that.
 
But what about your healthcare premiums with Kaiser? I thought they were high.
It looks like they are $209 every 2 weeks for the family plan. That doesn’t seem too bad to me but I’ll admit I haven’t looked in years to see what other options cost.
 
Outer Banks (snore city).

Things must have changed in a (cough) few years..in high school OBX was the place to be for grad week. I learned at the age of 15 that beer is good in cereal AND as shampoo! :drinking1

Mexico (Cancun, Cozumel, costa maya), Nassau,

ITA with these locations-I don't even leave the cruise ship!
 
Im trying to set up a budget for our 2020 vacations. We didn't budget this year and I think we went too crazy. I have totaled everything up yet and im not sure I want to lol. I was originally thinking 12,000 for four week long vacations and maybe a few long weekend trips. But now I do not think that will be enough. We have our ABD (5,000) two annual passes (2,000ish) Rome is covered except for excursions and food (1500?I could probably get this cheaper but I wanted to rent a fiat and have a driver for the day and that was like $300 lol) our trip with SO's family to their lakehouse (Car rental $500, Boat rental $1000 and a nice meal to treat his family $300 (we spent this this year and I had a heart attack because I was not expecting that much maybe like $150), plus helping out with the occasional groceries and taking his niece out for a day another $200) (I could cut the boat rental, but thats a lot of fun) DVC dues (500) That leaves $1000 left over for a weeklong Disney Trip and long weekends. Yuck, im not sure if I want to up the budget or start cutting things. I think considering I mostly use points for flights and hotels 12 grand on incidentals is ridiculous, but idk maybe im out of touch. My family traveled maybe once a year and my SO only went to the lake house for a week and his family only continues to do that so 12,000 seems like a lot, but maybe it isn't, idk? any thoughts?

There was a time that $12,000 would have been an inconceivable and out of reach number for our vacation budget. In time circumstances changed, we discovered travel hacking and this year we are doing the Japan ABD with the post stay added on and that trip alone will be well over $25,000 when all is said and done. Clearly, we have increased our vacation budget as time and circumstances have allowed.

In my opinion, it’s perfectly ok to adjust the budget and increase the funds allotted for vacations, if the household income and current expenses allow for it and it doesn’t impact emergency fund and retirement savings. You can’t take it with you and tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.
 
It looks like they are $209 every 2 weeks for the family plan. That doesn’t seem too bad to me but I’ll admit I haven’t looked in years to see what other options cost.

I don't think that's bad at all for a family plan, and looks comparably priced to what my plan was when I was actively working. My plan was less but that's 2 years ago, and we all know nothing is getting cheaper. My best buddy is under a federal gov Kaiser plan through his wife's former job (she's retired) and even though our plan was at the time a better value pricewise and deductible wise, he loved Kaiser so much he wouldn't even think of changing. I used to argue about the deductibles with him as we had $25 er, 10 for your regular dr, 20 for a specialist and 0 for being admitted, but he'd smile and say I love Kaiser.
 
I don't think that's bad at all for a family plan, and looks comparably priced to what my plan was when I was actively working. My plan was less but that's 2 years ago, and we all know nothing is getting cheaper. My best buddy is under a federal gov Kaiser plan through his wife's former job (she's retired) and even though our plan was at the time a better value pricewise and deductible wise, he loved Kaiser so much he wouldn't even think of changing. I used to argue about the deductibles with him as we had $25 er, 10 for your regular dr, 20 for a specialist and 0 for being admitted, but he'd smile and say I love Kaiser.
I’ll admit I have no idea what my ER co-pay is (since we have never used it) but my doctor and specialist are the same at $10 and $20. I believe it is a $20 co-pay for the after hours care. Whenever we put funds into our FSA, the $s always end up spent on dental and massages.
 
I don't have an answer for you, other than to say I know when I booked mine they said to change outside the date would be about $100 too I think. But I would be really interested to know if these can be extended. I'm hoping that maybe we can get another one for Hawaii next year and time it right for a December trip. We got one for the Sheraton Kauai but it expires next August, and I'm not going to pay the $599 or whatever it was to not have it for sure work for our trip.

I don’t know about the Sheraton ones but I recently got an offer for Hawaii with Hilton and took it. The expiration was well before I’d be able to use it even with an extension offer. I was told that I could extend the expiration by 3 months longer for a $50 fee. That seemed reasonable enough.
 
DH and I went to Thailand many years ago before kids, and I found the people to be gouging us everywhere we go. I know this happens a lot to foreigners in 3rd world countries, but here I thought they were downright abusive and threatening. For example, I bought a little too much souvenirs and needed to buy a carry-on bag/backpack. The 1st shop we went into the woman got mad at us for not buying, and when I handed the bag back to her, she pinched my arm so hard it was red for hours afterwards! Also, the driver we hired for one day to tour the major sites tried to charge us some outrageous amount at the end of the day. I forgot the exact amounts, but maybe $500 for an original quote of $200? He threatened to call the police on us. Luckily the hotel staff stepped in as mediators and we settle for midway between his original quote and the new made-up amount. After that trip, I said never again.

On the other hand, I had a fantastic time in Ireland. I spent most of the time up and down the southern and western coast. The people were friendly, scenery and countryside were beautiful; I can't wait to go back!



I have a love/hate relationship with Kaiser. I hate the administration / billing side. They nickle and dime everywhere (but that could be all plans?). I think it also depends on what your particular employer signs up for. Both DH and I have Kaiser as an option, but when I was pricing out our oop costs based on what we know we'll need, his plan was significantly cheaper.

I absolutely love the care team at our Kaiser. The labor & delivery department is outstanding. If you're thinking about that for the near future, we did tours of various hospitals prior to selecting our plan. Most hospitals have tours of their L&D rooms. Friends of ours expecting at the same time chose Stanford for the name, and didn't realize their L&D rooms were shared! Having a private room was non-negotiable to me. :)

I can also credit my DD's life to the pediatrics team here. She was diagnosed with a rare immune disorder in May, after having a fever for 7 straight days with meds not helping. They immediately hospitalized her, and gave her IV antibiotics. If not treated within 2 weeks, her risk of a heart attack increases to 90%. All of her follow up care has been outstanding. We just feel blessed that they took action quick rather than dragged out office visits or "waited and see."
I can’t believe you were ASSAULTED in Thailand!
 
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