[PRCo] Re: Off to see the Wizzard

[Edward H. Lybarger]

It isn't obligatory do any of the things Fred mentioned while cruising.  We
don't.  And you can see the same things he'd like to see for a lot less than
land tour prices.

P.S.  Alaska's not nearly as beautiful as Yosemite National Park!  But we
wouldn't have learned that unless we had gone.

P. P. S.  The Inside Passage is traversed at night.

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org]On Behalf Of Fred
Schneider
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007 6:47 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Off to see the Wizzard


Now I recognize the similarity with the Italian Quanto costo....   OK.

Jack May was tracking the fares for months until he found the right
fare.   I had found a Used Air fare of $195 out of Philthydelphia of
$195 last September but it expired before I could talk anyone into
going with me.   What Jack May found was $202 round trip from Newark
to San Juan on Continental.   Phil Craig, who went along with us,
missed the cheaper fare and ended up paying $240.   (Phil came back
with me on Thursday and Jack and his wife Clair took a three day
cruise over the weekend, then come back to Newark on Monday.  It was
their first cruise and I'm anxious to see what they thought about it.)

The hotel advertised $150 a night plus applicable taxes and
surcharges ... when we checked out it turned out that $ 3.00 a day
for internet access was a surcharge whether you wanted it, used it,
had a computer or not.   The $150 a day or $450 for three days
escalated with the add-ons and taxes into $586 for the double room
that Phil and I shared and that was a cheap hotel in the tourist
district of San Juan.   The city is not cheap.  Finding meals good
under $15 to $30 a plate plus drinks plus appetizers plus desert is
also not easy unless you want to take everything at fast food
restaurants and I do not.   I think the French dinner was close to
$50 plus tip.   The night before was around $30 plus tip.  Since I
wasn't driving they both included a glass of wine.

And in response to what EHL said about my working for the "Puerto
Greaso Tourist and Convention Bureau" and not wanting to take a
cruise in the past ... I still really don't want to take a cruise.
I had my fill of ships when the army made me cross the Atlantic Ocean
twice on troop transports.   I would be bored silly looking at the
ocean and their idea of on-board recreation is not in accord with my
tastes.   I really don't want to eat myself into a coma and then
exercise the weight back off and then collapse in a theater seat.  I
really don't want to go from port to port to port to port, getting
off at each one so I can buy from stores near the docks that are
owned by the cruise ship companies.   That sounds to me like a
controlled vacation which was set up to exploit Fred's (or Fred's and
Marie's) wallet(s).   There are other ways to get 80 degree
temperatures...while photographing palm trees, houses, girls on
beaches, birds on cows.   Hmmm.     I bought in on the Alaska tour
(which I think you all know got postponed to this year because of my
wife's stroke) because there is at least scenery on the inside
passage from the ship's rail.    But I have nothing against a week in
the winter exploring a single island and then coming home and then
going to another island next year.   Cuba might even be worthy of two
weeks but we'll have to see what happens after the next revolution.



On Jan 28, 2007, at 10:00 PM, Mark McGuire wrote:

>  I think Herb was asking something about how much a flight to Puerto
> Rico was. I know very little Spanish as I took 2 years of it way back
> in high school. It was amazing how similar Italian and Spanish are. I
> grew up with my mother and Italian grandmother babbling away in
> Italian.