I love credit cards so much! v6.0 - 2023 (see first page for add'l details)

[IFlossU]

So...he got a CIU 3/15/23 and a CIP on 6/15/23. No other Chase cards (business or personal) since 2019.

This pace would have him at 3 cards in 6 months. That would give me some pause. I wouldn’t do it. The only thing I would consider is applying for a CIC, and if I had to recon I would explain that I wanted all 3 cards for the benefits. However, if it was for DH I wouldn’t want him to have to call. So for me this would be a no. But you may have a different risk tolerance than me, and may have luck going for it. If you decide to I would then lay off for quite a while.

 

[GZanta77]

What are you guys doing next year? What cruises have you done? I’ve tried convincing dh to do a cruise but he thinks ds is too young. I think we want to wait until he’ll go in the kids club alone. He also likes to stay in one place longer instead of stopping for a day.

We only have Japan next year and nothing planned for 2025. That’s my next plan. I think we’re really only planning one big trip a year

We have cruised many times with our kids all over the Caribbean and Europe. We started when DD was 4 (and DS was 7). They loved the kids clubs and rarely wanted to leave. Whenever we were planning vacations they only ever wanted to go to Disney or on a cruise. Funnily enough, we never combined the two for a cruise with our kids, but we have just returned from an Adults only 25th Anniversary cruise on the Disney Fantasy. We loved the cruise and the ship, but as adults I don't think we can justify the Disney premium for our cruise vacations when I can get 2 or more cruises on other cruiselines for the cost of 1 Disney.

I'm glad we did get to experience a Disney cruise and if our kids were younger, maybe our view on the cost of a disney cruise might be slightly different.

 

[Haley R]

We have cruised many times with our kids all over the Caribbean and Europe. We started when DD was 4 (and DS was 7). They loved the kids clubs and rarely wanted to leave. Whenever we were planning vacations they only ever wanted to go to Disney or on a cruise. Funnily enough, we never combined the two for a cruise with our kids, but we have just returned from an Adults only 25th Anniversary cruise on the Disney Fantasy. We loved the cruise and the ship, but as adults I don't think we can justify the Disney premium for our cruise vacations when I can get 2 or more cruises on other cruiselines for the cost of 1 Disney.

I'm glad we did get to experience a Disney cruise and if our kids were younger, maybe our view on the cost of a disney cruise might be slightly different.

Ds is very attached to us. I don’t see him wanting to stay in the kids club by himself but maybe I’m wrong. Which cruise lines did you do with your kids? I don’t think we would do Disney again. It’s too hard to justify the price

 

[punkin]

This pace would have him at 3 cards in 6 months. That would give me some pause. I wouldn’t do it. The only thing I would consider is applying for a CIC, and if I had to recon I would explain that I wanted all 3 cards for the benefits. However, if it was for DH I wouldn’t want him to have to call. So for me this would be a no. But you may have a different risk tolerance than me, and may have luck going for it. If you decide to I would then lay off for quite a while.

I need a card with no foreign transaction fees. So it's either a CIP or possibly a Sapphire MDD (I believe he's just over 48 months on that). The bonuses aren't great on those right now and the reserve is expensive.

 

[Lord Manhammer]

Same here, 2024 is fully booked, but we're beginning to think of 2025. We'd like to do a May 2025 Europe trip. Has anyone here been to Hallstatt? It looks gorgeous from pictures/instagram, but is it just an "insta-famous" spot and nothing more? We are now thinking we'll do Munich, Salzburg, Hallstatt (?), and maybe Zurich together, as they are all close enough to drive and could be a shorter trip (less than 2 weeks). As opposed to what we were previously trying to plan (Germany, Austria, Italy). I think we'll plan a return trip and do just Italy separately, since there's so many cities I want to see there, and could probably easily do 10 days in Italy moving around.

If you end up in Vienna and have a car, you are only 45 minutes from Bratislava in case you wanted to see another very beautiful capitol that is quite close. I believe they might even be the closest capitols proximity-wise in all of Europe. Just a suggestion.

 

[wanderlust7]

I need a card with no foreign transaction fees. So it's either a CIP or possibly a Sapphire MDD (I believe he's just over 48 months on that). The bonuses aren't great on those right now and the reserve is expensive.

Chase velocity applies to all Chase cards (personal and business). Ideally, the period before the MDD would be more than 3 months. A MDD with this velocity would be beyond my risk tolerance. I would think a CIP is fine. He's less than 2 weeks away from 3 months from the last card. The next Chase card he can wait a little longer like 3.5 or 4 months.

 

[havaneselover]

Ds is very attached to us. I don’t see him wanting to stay in the kids club by himself but maybe I’m wrong. Which cruise lines did you do with your kids? I don’t think we would do Disney again. It’s too hard to justify the price

You may be right. My DS (now 18) never wanted anything to do with the Kids' club. We cruised DCL with him when he was 1, 4, 8, 10, 11, and 13 and it was not his cup of tea. DD could take it or leave it. On my last cruise pre-divorce my ex and I were having dinner in Palo and we were getting texts from the kids' club that DS was requesting to be picked up. So I hear about these people that can't get their kids out of the kids' club and realize my kids must be very unique.

All that said, even with DD now almost 20, it's still our cruiseline of choice. Maybe because it's comfortable and a safe bet. I maybe can see doing another cruiseline for a port-intensive cruise (Greek Isles).

 

[Judique]

So...he got a CIU 3/15/23 and a CIP on 6/15/23. No other Chase cards (business or personal) since 2019.

Go for it.

 

[Narnia_girl]

An Alaskan cruise as always been a "someday" vacation for us. Well, friends are going next September and asked us to join them. I'd appreciate any suggestions on what to do, what not to do, and how to save money. Is there any way to pay with points, other than flights?

 

[wanderlust7]

You may be right. My DS (now 18) never wanted anything to do with the Kids' club. We cruised DCL with him when he was 1, 4, 8, 10, 11, and 13 and it was not his cup of tea. DD could take it or leave it. On my last cruise pre-divorce my ex and I were having dinner in Palo and we were getting texts from the kids' club that DS was requesting to be picked up. So I hear about these people that can't get their kids out of the kids' club and realize my kids must be very unique.

All that said, even with DD now almost 20, it's still our cruiseline of choice. Maybe because it's comfortable and a safe bet. I maybe can see doing another cruiseline for a port-intensive cruise (Greek Isles).

My kids weren't into the kids' clubs either. DCL was the only one that they didn't mind. DS is still traumatized by the one on MSC that made him dance lol.

An Alaskan cruise as always been a "someday" vacation for us. Well, friends are going next September and asked us to join them. I'd appreciate any suggestions on what to do, what not to do, and how to save money. Is there any way to pay with points, other than flights?

Which cruise line and what ports?

You can use points by going through Chase Travel. You'd get 1.5 cent per point with a CSR and 1.25 with CSP. I would argue you get less than that though since a TA can often give you around 10% off or as onboard credit (I always use Cruise Compete). You also can't take advantage of Amex Offers or savings from gift cards.

 

[GZanta77]

Ds is very attached to us. I don’t see him wanting to stay in the kids club by himself but maybe I’m wrong. Which cruise lines did you do with your kids? I don’t think we would do Disney again. It’s too hard to justify the price

Over the years with the kids, we did Royal Caribbean (5x), Carnival (5x), NCL (x2). If you asked our kids they would tell you that Royal Caribbean kids clubs were their favorite. There was only 1 NCL cruise where they hated the kids club and refused to go after the first couple days. That was on one of the older ships - the Pearl.

FWIW, our DS had separation anxiety issues as a kid and would get quite nervous if he couldn't see us. It eased a little once he started school, but whenever we were out as a family he would always stay close. On our first cruise he was 7 and initially stated he wanted to stay with us, but we encouraged him to go to the kids club on the first night. We were waiting for the call to come get him but it never came and he couldn't wait to go back again the next morning. I appreciate your DS is much younger, but I guess the point is, you never know - if he's having fun.........go with whatever feels right.

Our DD on the other hand would happily wander off wherever if we didn't keep an eye on her - I remember one time at Kennedy Space Center she started wandering - she was 3 at the time - I discreetly followed her and it must have been 15 minutes before she stopped to look around and realized none of us were with her. She wasn't even fazed - just kept wandering and it was only the intervention of a well-meaning person who thought there was a 3 year old wandering alone that forced me to come out the shadows. Needless to say at 4 years old on her first cruise, we would barely see her somedays - I even remember her wanting to stay on the ship in Sicily while we went ashore.

 

[orangecuse]

That’s awesome you’ve done so many cruises! We’ve only been on one cruise and it was a Disney cruise. We had fun but dh doesn’t feel like he wants to do another one. If we do one it would have to be somewhere besides the beach since we live at the beach lol.

Which cruise lines have you done? Do you pay for them with points? I’m worried ds won’t have enough to do on the ship at this age. He’s so active and wants to be outside running all day. I’m also worried he won’t sit through the shows

We have done Disney and its probably 3rd place for us with kids (controversial to say here, I know haha).

Royal Caribbean is a great intersection of kid friendly, price friendly, and a little nicer than budget lines. For example on our RC cruise there was a free carousel my kids rode approximately 100 times, an ice skating show and free ice skating time, an aqua show, pools, a splash pad, and lots of little play areas. They also had a family theater with programming specifically geared toward parents and young kids to watch or participate in. Different ships have different activities so that is key. Some of their nicest ships go cool places like Europe!

Carnival has similar ships (again stick with longer itineraries and newer boats). The one we have booked for next year has a trampoline park and they have special build a bear times etc.

Disney is SO nice for kids who love character meets, but turns out those aren't our kids and we feel the other lines offer a lot more variety in that case. Also a lot more variety of food for the other ships.

Oh points- any redeemable for travel purchase currency is great (citi/cap1), or chase via pay yourself back. We like to book directly w/ the cruise line so we haven't booked via a travel portal.

Oh also also- we don't use the kids clubs. Our kids stay with us the full time and we never feel restricted/bored! They will play in them for open hours times (and we don't leave them because they both get nervous and we don't want to push it).

 

[Haley R]

You may be right. My DS (now 18) never wanted anything to do with the Kids' club. We cruised DCL with him when he was 1, 4, 8, 10, 11, and 13 and it was not his cup of tea. DD could take it or leave it. On my last cruise pre-divorce my ex and I were having dinner in Palo and we were getting texts from the kids' club that DS was requesting to be picked up. So I hear about these people that can't get their kids out of the kids' club and realize my kids must be very unique.

All that said, even with DD now almost 20, it's still our cruiseline of choice. Maybe because it's comfortable and a safe bet. I maybe can see doing another cruiseline for a port-intensive cruise (Greek Isles).

I feel like this would be my ds. He’s still pretty young so maybe it’ll change but as of right now he wants to be with us all the time. Some of that might be because we have no family around so he’s never watched by anyone but us except for the two mornings a week he goes to school (which he also doesn’t like lol).

 

[Haley R]

We have done Disney and its probably 3rd place for us with kids (controversial to say here, I know haha).

Royal Caribbean is a great intersection of kid friendly, price friendly, and a little nicer than budget lines. For example on our RC cruise there was a free carousel my kids rode approximately 100 times, an ice skating show and free ice skating time, an aqua show, pools, a splash pad, and lots of little play areas. They also had a family theater with programming specifically geared toward parents and young kids to watch or participate in. Different ships have different activities so that is key. Some of their nicest ships go cool places like Europe!

Carnival has similar ships (again stick with longer itineraries and newer boats). The one we have booked for next year has a trampoline park and they have special build a bear times etc.

Disney is SO nice for kids who love character meets, but turns out those aren't our kids and we feel the other lines offer a lot more variety in that case. Also a lot more variety of food for the other ships.

Oh points- any redeemable for travel purchase currency is great (citi/cap1), or chase via pay yourself back. We like to book directly w/ the cruise line so we haven't booked via a travel portal.

Oh also also- we don't use the kids clubs. Our kids stay with us the full time and we never feel restricted/bored! They will play in them for open hours times (and we don't leave them because they both get nervous and we don't want to push it).

This is great! Thank you! I think we need to look at the other cruise lines. Since we’ve only done a Disney cruise that’s the only experience I have and I remember there not being a ton of play areas for kids his age. It sounds like some of the others have awesome things to offer! He would love the carousel or trampoline park. He likes character meet and greets but he doesn’t actively ask to do them.

Maybe I can get dh on board (no pun intended lol) if we find one with ports he likes. I think he doesn’t like getting on and off the ship and would rather stay put somewhere. But again the only cruise we did was to the Caribbean and we’re not huge beach people so I don’t think it was a good fit for us

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Got back last night from driving with dd to the east coast for her 3rd last semester of uni (she finishes in December, 2024). It is (or seemed like) a long drive -- day 1 was 8 hours and day 2 was 8.5 hours. I packed fruits and sandwiches for lunch so the only stops that we made were for gas and bathroom breaks.

Day 1 we drove to Levis, Quebec, which I am sure not many people have heard of. We stayed at the Four Points Sheraton, which is a 7 min drive from the ferry dock that takes you right to Quebec City (the ferry ride is 15 mins). Next year we will leave a day early so that we can spend a day in Quebec City -- it killed me that we were so close but too tired to venture over. Hit a glitch at the Four Points because I forgot to call ahead and let them know that we had dd's kitty traveling with us and they are not pet friendly. Totally my fault, but she has paperwork showing him as an ESA, which they accepted after I spoke with the duty manager (thankfully). I didn't take any pictures of the room because we were both tired and hungry, so we sat at the desk and ate our take-out. After dinner I walked across the street to an amazing chocolate store and had a small dipped soft-serve cone that was delicious. This Four Points does not offer breakfast of any kind, instead they refer guests to a small cafe, ES Cafe, across the street (no discount for hotel guests). I picked up two "overnight oats" (more like chia seed pudding) and a smoothie for us to eat in the room before we hit the road. I'd recommend this hotel (it was built in 2008 and fully renovated during COVID) and staying on the Levis side of the river because hotels in Quebec City are expensive and they probably a lot charge for parking. Plus the ferry seems like such a nice way to get there. This was booked and paid for cash direct with Marriott (need to get to 50 nights this year to maintain platinum).

Night 2 was in Truro, NS, the small town where dd attends Dalhousie. The best option there is the Hampton Inn and Suites and it was nice. My fav part of visiting the Maritimes is that the people are SO nice and the staff at the Hampton Inn were exemplary (for example, I asked Daniel at the front desk if he had milk for a cup of tea and he opened the breakfast area and handed me a carton; contrast that with the Four Points who I asked for a bit of milk for my tea and they told me how to drive to the nearest grocery store -- I ended up getting some from the chocolate store / ice cream parlor). Daniel was so nice (he's a cat lover too and loved dd's kitty!) -- he upgraded us to a huge junior suite with a massive bathroom). The only downside to the hotel was there seemed to be 2 ball teams (8-10 yr old boys) with 1am curfews -- I say this because there were kids running and screaming up and down the hall until that time. We were so tired that it didn't bother us too much; I would def stay here again versus driving 45 mins further to Dartmouth. For breakfast we both enjoyed blueberry make-your-own waffles and an orange. I rank this hotel higher than the Four Points for the breakfast and amazing staff even though the hard product at the Four Points was nicer. Booked and paid for using the AmEx Expedia spend $150.00 save $20.00 offer.

Flew home in economy class on AC (supposed to be 2.5 hours but we were 30 mins at the gate before pushing back, so over 3 hours in my seat). I had an extra legroom seat in row 12 (right behind biz class), but this particular plane had a solid partition separating biz and economy so I had nowhere to put my legs. Grrr. Next time I'll book row 13 so I can stretch them out under the seat in front of me. Flight was uneventful -- watched Painkiller on Netflix and am loving it so far. I will continue to fly economy class between Toronto and Halifax because I refuse to pay double the points for a domestic biz class flight. Only exception will be if I can get a seat in biz class using eUpgrades.

 

[djmeredith]

Any tips for booking midwest or east coast biz class to Dublin with UR? They have Delta pts for repositioning if needed. My "part-time" P3 is planning a trip for next year around Memorial Day. I know some people here have done Ireland in the recent pas, just can't remember who.

 

[orangecuse]

This is great! Thank you! I think we need to look at the other cruise lines. Since we’ve only done a Disney cruise that’s the only experience I have and I remember there not being a ton of play areas for kids his age. It sounds like some of the others have awesome things to offer! He would love the carousel or trampoline park. He likes character meet and greets but he doesn’t actively ask to do them.

Maybe I can get dh on board (no pun intended lol) if we find one with ports he likes. I think he doesn’t like getting on and off the ship and would rather stay put somewhere. But again the only cruise we did was to the Caribbean and we’re not huge beach people so I don’t think it was a good fit for us

We are also not beach people so we usually find places where we can do something else! One of the tricks I use to evaluate ports is to look up each port of call followed by "carnival shore excursions". Carnival doesnt require you to be booked/logged jn to see their lists for each port and most cruise lines offer similar things so you can get an idea. Another option is cruisecritic and searching the ports there (also don't need to be logged in). A mass aggregator site like cruises.com will also let you search multiple lines at once while filtering by date and destination.

 

[punkin]

Ok... after discussing this with DH we decided to wait until he hits 90 days before applying for another CIP. Some of the expenses can wait until then and we'll just have to put some of the spend on another card. Not ideal, but it's ok.

 

[EACarlson]

Any tips for booking midwest or east coast biz class to Dublin with UR? They have Delta pts for repositioning if needed. My "part-time" P3 is planning a trip for next year around Memorial Day. I know some people here have done Ireland in the recent pas, just can't remember who.

Just heard Aer Lingus is going to be flying DUB-MSP again. That should bring down the prices on Delta out of MSP also.

 

[Alexle2007]

Crazy question- I am taking DS to his first college football this weekend at the University of Alabama. He is hoping to go college there next year. Has anyone been and have any advice? I have never been to a college game so this is brand new territory. Roll Tide!