For the first go round of checks you could use the Get My Payment tool on irs.gov to see where you stood. Unfortunately when attempting to try that for this second go round the following was found.
The stimulus check just means we are not near the top of the income scale. Comfortable, with no financial worries, yes, but far from the ability to take our family on Tauck's Private Departures (have you noticed how they are now specifically mentioned near the beginning of the recording on Tauck's reservation call line. Anyone taken one of those yet?
My plan for several years has been to take the family, nine of us in total, on the Bridges Safari in 2024, our 50th anniversary and we have been budgeting accordingly. As soon as this pandemic hit, I wondered if things would normalize by then. I read about the private Tauck departures, they have always been available, just not promoted so much. I doubt our group is big enough and I dread to think of the price difference. Tauck just seems to be catering to a more and more exclusive type of customer .....which often means entitled, moaning people....good luck to them! I get fed up of some of the folks who brag about their many homes, cars and the like, and laugh at all the jewelry they deck themselves with on the tours. I just want to travel with fun, punctual people.
British
I just want to travel with fun, punctual people.
And poise for them in your swimsuit!!!
The price differentials for the Private Departures were a function of how many fewer people you take relative to the Small Group size. Basically Tauck will let you schedule a trip with however many you want as long as they make the equivalent amount of money as a normal Small Group Tour. It wasn't clear to me how much ability you have to customize the itinerary on a Private Departure tour. If you can customize, then that might also impact the cost differential.
Hey, in a private departure, I could forgo the swimsuit in one of those private plunge pools we sometimes get, with just the odd passing elephant around 😂😂😂😂
I’ve been sorting in the basement this morning...just looking at those unused suitcases looking lonely and neglected!
Anyone got any vaccine to sell....I’m trained in giving vaccines and taking blood, easily give it my hubby and self. Preferably Pfizer , but any will do, just not the ones that someone deliberately left out to spoil.
I see the Private Departures as a natural evolution from their Group Tours and the covid "bubble" concept. Most people aren't aware that Tauck has a Group tour dept, but our first river cruise with them was such. The sailing was only offered to the group - members or friends/family. We didn't know anyone beforehand but all were Navy so we had something in common.
Interestingly the prices initially offered were higher than the final cost. They had factored in that the ship might not sell out. When we arrived we got a letter that there would be a refund of about $800 because the cruise had sold out.
I think the Private tours are a good idea. If a group just wants to tour with people they know, it's better they are on their own. We did a land tour that included a family of 8 who mostly didn't have anything to do with the rest of us. Caused some problems a couple of times. If it keeps Tauck and the TDs employed, go for it.
British, I'm doing sorting out as well. As always the clothes closet but also trying to make some storage room in the kitchen. It's hard to minimize grocery trips and have room for the extra.
cathyandsteve
8:25AM
But I am a nobody....just a poor retiree living on a pension
Too funny (made me laugh), since as I recall you have travelled to almost every state in the country (not sure if you completed New England states), travel to Jamaica yearly, have been to several other places on tours, and plan to visit Antarctica.
Yep, you're just like the rest of of poor, retired Tauck travelers.
According to another post this morning about Treasures of the Aegean being cancelled at least through May, and, if as expected, our March J&E is cancelled, we will be 0 for 4!!
Smiling Sam
10:40AM
Yep, you're just like the rest of of poor, retired Tauck travelers.
I take it one step farther when we receive phone "charity" solicitations from unknown organizations or ones who we will not ever support- I respond with, "Sorry, I can't help you out, I am unemployed." A true statement that has a much more negative impact than saying I am retired.
AlanS
10:19AM edited 10:21AM
According to another post this morning about Treasures of the Aegean being cancelled at least through May, and, if as
expected, our March J&E is cancelled, we will be 0 for 4!! :/:(
Based on posts from you in the past, it's likely that you have already booked one or two future dates for each of those 4 cancelled tours for 2021 and 2022 just in case. Just curious, how many tours do you have reserved, booked, paid in full, etc. I would wager that it is more than the 2 you mentioned (Treasures of the Aegean and J&E).
I was 0/2 in 2020. I have one rebooked for 2021, paid in full (Iceland, since the 2020 tour was already paid in full when it was cancelled), and deposit funds for the cancelled Egypt: Jewels of the Nile in the Tauck Travel Wallet, waiting for 2022 dates to become available. Although, depending on how travel goes we may use those Travel Wallet funds for a North American tour of some sort in the fall.
We are just juggling 3 - J&E, XMAS Mkts, and Treasures of the Aegean. The first two are paid in full, both re-booked from 2020 to 2021 but at least one, J&E, will likely be cancelled again, soon, and the third was just unofficially cancelled. We are on the waitlist for J&E 2022 so ready for a trifecta as soon as we get confirmed dates from Tauck. Hopefully XMAS Mkts 2021 will go, but who knows with the way things are going!! We are also on the waitlist for Treasures 2022 as well. If it hadn't been for our Yellowstone in Winter last February, we might have gone almost two full years without a Tauck trip! At this point in my life I would rather be spending on travel than reinvesting dividends.
AlanS - So three on the books for 2021 and on the waitlist for two of those three that are booked, as a backup plan for 2022.
If it hadn't been for our Yellowstone in Winter last February, we might have gone almost two full years without a Tauck
trip!
For most of us our last Tauck trip was in 2019, so no sympathy there. Your travel addiction as been fed much more recently than most of us. For me it was September 2019 since my last feeding.
It seems my pessimism has been correct, I’m very sorry to say. Instead of being optimistic, I totally assume and get past in my head, those tours we have booked for April and July are not going to happen. If they do happen, then that will be a wonderful surprise. The flights for those have been booked with Tauck, so that’s a headache for them and not me. We asked Tauck for the deposits back for our past cancelled tours, but Tauck has all those insurance premiums. We did rebook our Singapore Bali tour for September 2022 because Mr B wants to do it very much, to see the Komodo dragons. We had to make a completely new booking.
As far as the stimulus is concerned, our income is over the limit since Mr B does a little consulting. He is so lucky that for him, though missing traveling, he just sails along as if life is pretty normal mentally. He is so good at compartmentalizing, which I am definitely not. This past month has been hard for me...several friends have died, others have been newly diagnosed with cancer. Two friends had brain aneurysms. My mental state has been on edge. Clearly not as hard as the millions who have lost their jobs, members of their family, can’t afford food, of course. Having married young, scrimped and saved, invested, you might know we would miss out on a freebie. We would probably have given ours to our daughter who lost her job and can’t return back to work while school is on and off at literally hours notice. Our grandson goes back to school full time again today. Boy does he need it, he’s an only child but fortunately takes after his grandad, a walking encyclopedia! Ok, feeling better, we all have things to feel blessed about. Look how I cheer up Sam with my swimsuits modeling.
Smiling Sam
It had nothing to do with being an infinitely wealthy, real estate mogul, that spends his spare time skiing with the rich and famous in Colorado?
Are you spying on me? I was skiing today Toughest day of the season, so far. 7 inches of fresh powdah overnight. Ninth day of the season for me, but the legs weren't ready for the powder and bumps, especially after taking off the last 2 weeks to avoid Xmas crowds. And the other problem I'm still trying to solve is how to keep my goggles fogging up from the mask. For some reason, it fogged up like crazy early this morning, but was fine after 11 AM. Maybe temp related. It was in the teens when I started at 9 AM and was probably close to 30 by 11 AM. Any suggestions Mr. Engineer?
BTW, real estate had almost nothing to do with it. It was mostly dividend income, and I say almost because I do have a few REITs in the mix.
And it's been busy around here today. Checked the forum around 7 AM and came home to 17 new posts!
REIT dividends took a hit big time this year, two of ours suspended dividends for a few quarters and only now are barely starting to come back! Luckily with time on their hands, hobby woodworkers have been buying tools and accessories, so my royalties have held steady.
It must be fun to get royalties Alan, I guess you never know when you will go thru a good patch.
During one of our basement sort outs this past week, my hubby came across a sheaf of patents, trouble is, when you work for a company, any patent you get you have to give to the company and you get one dollar for it. Still it will be fun to have in the family archive history.
Bkmd, fogging likely temperature related. My glasses fog the most when going from cold outside to warm indoors. My husband tried RainX which helped a bit right after using.
British
January 4
It must be fun to get royalties . . .
It is nice.
Only one of my widgets is patented. A patent can cost big bucks- USPTO only charges $2k - $3k for filing, however patent lawyer fees can be much, much more than that. If USPTO denies the patent you get nothing back, so, since I just do this as a hobby, it didn't make financial sense for me to apply for the patents. It would eat up my royalties for quite awhile, so I told my licensees if they want a patent they would need to pay for it. Since one paid, I had to sign over the rights to that widget, but if they want out of the licensing contract then I get it all back. My name will always be on the patent as "inventor." One of these days I'll get a fancy version of the patent document (USPTO just provides a plain one) and have it framed.
Yes, fogging glasses is temperature related, it’s a bit of a problem for me on my early morning walks in the cold here in the north east. However, recently I was not wearing one of my usual masks, but one I had bought early on in the pandemic and it’s thinner. My husband had on one of our usual masks. His glasses steamed up, mine did not. It made me realize that my thicker mask was doing the job of being probably more effectively protecting me from any passing Covid virus. We don’t usually wear masks on that route became we rarely see anyone. That day, I suggested putting them on to keep our noses warm as it was so cold. If we did come across anyone, at least they would not think we were weird or robbers. So there is a good side to everything. The masks I made myself at the start of the Pandemic had three layers, I really liked them but I made them with shoelace ties which are more comfortable but they mess up your hair.....I don’t know whythay should bother me these days, but I’ve gotten out of wearing those ones.
I thought Alan S was going to chip in and say to spit on your glasses and dig it over the lenses just like when you put swim googles on. I’ve thought about trying it.
Comments
No Stimulus for us.
British - That's because you're a Stimulator, not a Stimulatee! Whereas, AlanS, with his back issues, definitely needs Stimulation!
Happy New Year to All!
Didn't get it the first time, won't this time.
So does the S in AlanS stand for Subsidy?
😀😀😀😀Happy New year everyone
For the first go round of checks you could use the Get My Payment tool on irs.gov to see where you stood. Unfortunately when attempting to try that for this second go round the following was found.
What a 'stimulating' conversation!
The stimulus check just means we are not near the top of the income scale. Comfortable, with no financial worries, yes, but far from the ability to take our family on Tauck's Private Departures (have you noticed how they are now specifically mentioned near the beginning of the recording on Tauck's reservation call line. Anyone taken one of those yet?
Happy New Year
I didn't know they had such a thing, not that I would use it...
My plan for several years has been to take the family, nine of us in total, on the Bridges Safari in 2024, our 50th anniversary and we have been budgeting accordingly. As soon as this pandemic hit, I wondered if things would normalize by then. I read about the private Tauck departures, they have always been available, just not promoted so much. I doubt our group is big enough and I dread to think of the price difference. Tauck just seems to be catering to a more and more exclusive type of customer .....which often means entitled, moaning people....good luck to them! I get fed up of some of the folks who brag about their many homes, cars and the like, and laugh at all the jewelry they deck themselves with on the tours. I just want to travel with fun, punctual people.
And poise for them in your swimsuit!!!
The price differentials for the Private Departures were a function of how many fewer people you take relative to the Small Group size. Basically Tauck will let you schedule a trip with however many you want as long as they make the equivalent amount of money as a normal Small Group Tour. It wasn't clear to me how much ability you have to customize the itinerary on a Private Departure tour. If you can customize, then that might also impact the cost differential.
And poise for them in your swimsuit!!!
Hey, in a private departure, I could forgo the swimsuit in one of those private plunge pools we sometimes get, with just the odd passing elephant around 😂😂😂😂
I’ve been sorting in the basement this morning...just looking at those unused suitcases looking lonely and neglected!
Anyone got any vaccine to sell....I’m trained in giving vaccines and taking blood, easily give it my hubby and self. Preferably Pfizer , but any will do, just not the ones that someone deliberately left out to spoil.
I see the Private Departures as a natural evolution from their Group Tours and the covid "bubble" concept. Most people aren't aware that Tauck has a Group tour dept, but our first river cruise with them was such. The sailing was only offered to the group - members or friends/family. We didn't know anyone beforehand but all were Navy so we had something in common.
Interestingly the prices initially offered were higher than the final cost. They had factored in that the ship might not sell out. When we arrived we got a letter that there would be a refund of about $800 because the cruise had sold out.
I think the Private tours are a good idea. If a group just wants to tour with people they know, it's better they are on their own. We did a land tour that included a family of 8 who mostly didn't have anything to do with the rest of us. Caused some problems a couple of times. If it keeps Tauck and the TDs employed, go for it.
British, I'm doing sorting out as well. As always the clothes closet but also trying to make some storage room in the kitchen. It's hard to minimize grocery trips and have room for the extra.
We joined AlanS in the Stimulus Payment Pending group!!!
Ours cleared and has been deposited (in our 'future travel' account)- so it is real money.
I’m surprised that being a Tauck client is not a ‘disqualifier’ for a stimulus check. (;-)
It disqualified me
It had nothing to do with being an infinitely wealthy, real estate mogul, that spends his spare time skiing with the rich and famous in Colorado?
Too funny (made me laugh), since as I recall you have travelled to almost every state in the country (not sure if you completed New England states), travel to Jamaica yearly, have been to several other places on tours, and plan to visit Antarctica.
Yep, you're just like the rest of of poor, retired Tauck travelers.
According to another post this morning about Treasures of the Aegean being cancelled at least through May, and, if as expected, our March J&E is cancelled, we will be 0 for 4!!
I take it one step farther when we receive phone "charity" solicitations from unknown organizations or ones who we will not ever support- I respond with, "Sorry, I can't help you out, I am unemployed." A true statement that has a much more negative impact than saying I am retired.
Based on posts from you in the past, it's likely that you have already booked one or two future dates for each of those 4 cancelled tours for 2021 and 2022 just in case. Just curious, how many tours do you have reserved, booked, paid in full, etc. I would wager that it is more than the 2 you mentioned (Treasures of the Aegean and J&E).
I was 0/2 in 2020. I have one rebooked for 2021, paid in full (Iceland, since the 2020 tour was already paid in full when it was cancelled), and deposit funds for the cancelled Egypt: Jewels of the Nile in the Tauck Travel Wallet, waiting for 2022 dates to become available. Although, depending on how travel goes we may use those Travel Wallet funds for a North American tour of some sort in the fall.
We are just juggling 3
- J&E, XMAS Mkts, and Treasures of the Aegean. The first two are paid in full, both re-booked from 2020 to 2021 but at least one, J&E, will likely be cancelled again, soon, and the third was just unofficially cancelled. We are on the waitlist for J&E 2022 so ready for a trifecta as soon as we get confirmed dates from Tauck. Hopefully XMAS Mkts 2021 will go, but who knows with the way things are going!! We are also on the waitlist for Treasures 2022 as well. If it hadn't been for our Yellowstone in Winter last February, we might have gone almost two full years without a Tauck trip! At this point in my life I would rather be spending on travel than reinvesting dividends.
AlanS - So three on the books for 2021 and on the waitlist for two of those three that are booked, as a backup plan for 2022.
For most of us our last Tauck trip was in 2019, so no sympathy there. Your travel addiction as been fed much more recently than most of us. For me it was September 2019 since my last feeding.
It seems my pessimism has been correct, I’m very sorry to say. Instead of being optimistic, I totally assume and get past in my head, those tours we have booked for April and July are not going to happen. If they do happen, then that will be a wonderful surprise. The flights for those have been booked with Tauck, so that’s a headache for them and not me. We asked Tauck for the deposits back for our past cancelled tours, but Tauck has all those insurance premiums. We did rebook our Singapore Bali tour for September 2022 because Mr B wants to do it very much, to see the Komodo dragons. We had to make a completely new booking.
As far as the stimulus is concerned, our income is over the limit since Mr B does a little consulting. He is so lucky that for him, though missing traveling, he just sails along as if life is pretty normal mentally. He is so good at compartmentalizing, which I am definitely not. This past month has been hard for me...several friends have died, others have been newly diagnosed with cancer. Two friends had brain aneurysms. My mental state has been on edge. Clearly not as hard as the millions who have lost their jobs, members of their family, can’t afford food, of course. Having married young, scrimped and saved, invested, you might know we would miss out on a freebie. We would probably have given ours to our daughter who lost her job and can’t return back to work while school is on and off at literally hours notice. Our grandson goes back to school full time again today. Boy does he need it, he’s an only child but fortunately takes after his grandad, a walking encyclopedia! Ok, feeling better, we all have things to feel blessed about. Look how I cheer up Sam with my swimsuits modeling.
I appreciate it too!!
Are you spying on me? I was skiing today
Toughest day of the season, so far. 7 inches of fresh powdah overnight. Ninth day of the season for me, but the legs weren't ready for the powder and bumps, especially after taking off the last 2 weeks to avoid Xmas crowds. And the other problem I'm still trying to solve is how to keep my goggles fogging up from the mask. For some reason, it fogged up like crazy early this morning, but was fine after 11 AM. Maybe temp related. It was in the teens when I started at 9 AM and was probably close to 30 by 11 AM. Any suggestions Mr. Engineer? 
BTW, real estate had almost nothing to do with it. It was mostly dividend income, and I say almost because I do have a few REITs in the mix.
And it's been busy around here today. Checked the forum around 7 AM and came home to 17 new posts!
REIT dividends took a hit big time this year, two of ours suspended dividends for a few quarters and only now are barely starting to come back! Luckily with time on their hands, hobby woodworkers have been buying tools and accessories, so my royalties have held steady.
It must be fun to get royalties Alan, I guess you never know when you will go thru a good patch.
During one of our basement sort outs this past week, my hubby came across a sheaf of patents, trouble is, when you work for a company, any patent you get you have to give to the company and you get one dollar for it. Still it will be fun to have in the family archive history.
Bkmd, fogging likely temperature related. My glasses fog the most when going from cold outside to warm indoors. My husband tried RainX which helped a bit right after using.
It is nice.
Only one of my widgets is patented. A patent can cost big bucks- USPTO only charges $2k - $3k for filing, however patent lawyer fees can be much, much more than that. If USPTO denies the patent you get nothing back, so, since I just do this as a hobby, it didn't make financial sense for me to apply for the patents. It would eat up my royalties for quite awhile, so I told my licensees if they want a patent they would need to pay for it. Since one paid, I had to sign over the rights to that widget, but if they want out of the licensing contract then I get it all back. My name will always be on the patent as "inventor." One of these days I'll get a fancy version of the patent document (USPTO just provides a plain one) and have it framed.
Yes, fogging glasses is temperature related, it’s a bit of a problem for me on my early morning walks in the cold here in the north east. However, recently I was not wearing one of my usual masks, but one I had bought early on in the pandemic and it’s thinner. My husband had on one of our usual masks. His glasses steamed up, mine did not. It made me realize that my thicker mask was doing the job of being probably more effectively protecting me from any passing Covid virus. We don’t usually wear masks on that route became we rarely see anyone. That day, I suggested putting them on to keep our noses warm as it was so cold. If we did come across anyone, at least they would not think we were weird or robbers. So there is a good side to everything. The masks I made myself at the start of the Pandemic had three layers, I really liked them but I made them with shoelace ties which are more comfortable but they mess up your hair.....I don’t know whythay should bother me these days, but I’ve gotten out of wearing those ones.
I thought Alan S was going to chip in and say to spit on your glasses and dig it over the lenses just like when you put swim googles on. I’ve thought about trying it.