My husband and I are taking a delayed 20th anniversary trip to Lake Louise in Canada this summer (our 20th was last year). We’re splurging on a few nights at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise hotel, so I’m trying to keep all other trip costs to a minimum. I already booked our flights to Calgary last […]

Increasing annual fees and adding partner benefits (payable via monthly credits) is the hot trend with credit cards right now. I’m not a huge fan of this development, as I don’t like paying higher annual fees and keeping track of spending these monthly credits. Yesterday, Chase announced changes to its lineup of United MileagePlus personal […]

Last week, my family of 5 cruised on Royal Carribbean’s Icon of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship. Overall, we had a great time! Of course, no vacation is ever perfect. Here are hits and misses from our experience on Icon of the Seas. Hit: Shows and Entertainment By far, the shows and entertainment […]

Note: I’m traveling this week with limited access to internet. Responses to comments and emails will be delayed. Even though I have several exciting trips planned in the coming months, I’m always researching and dreaming about future vacations. My husband can attest to that. After 4 trips to Europe in the past 3 years and […]

My husband and I recently got back from an 11-night Southern Caribbean cruise on Holland America, and I want to share my overall impressions in this post. But first, here are some of the obstacles we had to overcome before we could even set foot on the ship. It started about  a month ago with […]

Note: I’m traveling this week with limited access to internet. Responses to comments and emails will be delayed. Between my husband and me, we have almost 800,000 miles and points in various currencies (bank points, airline miles and hotel points). How did we get these miles, and what trips are we booking with them? Earlier […]