Time 2 Cruise

Pretty much all of the cruise operators have done away with the fuel surcharge for 2009 bookings with the price of oil dropping way down over the last two months. With oil now hovering around $40 a barrel, its is hard for the cruise lines to justify the added charge that varied from $7 to $15 a day per passenger depending on the cruise line. There is no saying how long this could be. If oil shoots back up, it wont belong before the surcharges get reinstated so this could be as good enough reason to book now. But oil is down for a reason, and that reason is the economy is down as well. This is going to have some impact on bookings for 2009. Just how it will affect bookings will not be known for some time but dropping the surcharge can't hurt their image and hopefully encourage those who may have not booked before change their mind. Ships don't want to cruise empty and people will be looking for deals. I don't see the former happening, but a lot of the latter being th...

The holiday flight season has been a hectic one this year and it does not look like its going to get much better. The weather around the country has caused delays everywhere as people are trying to get home to friends and family. This is a time for cooler heads to come forward. Passengers who argue are not going to get home any sooner. In fact, they may be increasing their odds of increasing the delay for themselves. So if you are flying this holiday season, keep a positive attitude and may it get you home faster.

With the price of oil hovering at $40 and just under lately, it may be time for the airline industry and cruise industry to think about trying to lock in prices for the future. While there is talk of gas which is around $1.50 right now possibly going as low as $1 there is really no way to know for sure that it will. OPEC has already started to announce decreases in production and made promises (or threats) of decreasing output even more. If/when this happens, prices are going to go back up. The members of OPEC have become increasingly dependant on the high price of a barrel of oil in the past couple of years and some are actually hurting financially with the current drop and will do almost anything to get prices to rise. Knowing this, the odds of the price going up is better than the odds of prices dropping much more. Everything is a gamble, but being that the current prices are "good" for business now, is taking the gamble worth it? It may just be.

Las Vegas is hurting for visitors and the hotel prices show it. Right now you can find deluxe rooms for under $30 for Christmas Eve and Christmas night. The weekends go up a little but not much with rates in the $50 dollar range per night very common. Look hard enough and you can even find incredible rates in luxury hotels right on the strip. But if your looking for a New Years getaway expect prices to be much higher. Even in the current economy, Vegas is a destination of destinations for New Years.