Living Well

I’ve been on 5 cruises before with Carnival and Royal Caribbean and on each alcoholic drinks cost extra. I was wondering if there are any cruises out there that have an option to get an "all-inclusive" type deal where alcoholic drinks are included.

cruises make the majority of their money on gambling and selling drinks. If drinks were included the price would go up substantially and you would therefore be paying for the drinks in the price. That would not be fair for non drinkers.

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I’m looking at starting a high performance boat dealership long term (Cigarette, etc.) Obviously, very few boats are sold in this market so what markup can i expect on these boats. If you have experience in this field, is there any money in this.

Thanks

I spent a few years at a Fountain dealership, here are some observations. As the value of the boat increases, the margins drop. For instance, on a boat that retails for $50,000, you might have a markup of 25%. On a $500,000 boat, your margin can be as low as 6%. The costs on keeping an inventory of performance boats is much greater, most manufacturers do not offer terms, so your line of credit at the bank costs almost as much as any profit you may see. You can recover your costs in after sale service and accessories, fuel sales, berthing, etc. Most of the manufacturers will have a minimum purchase amount for there dealers, so you may have to carry $2-3 million in inventory. If you don’t sell this inventory, there are no returns to the manufacturer, so you may end up having to sell the non-current boat at a loss just to make room for this years models. You had best have a large circle of friends and aquaintences who have an interest in performance boats, this is where your sales will come from.
We sell a river racer style boat and outboard package, a 21′ boat with a Merc 250 XS. Our suggested retail is $46,000, the last one we sold for $38,000, which is about the break even point. Since the sale, we have sold the owner another $ 7500 in upgrades, and a couple of grand in fuel. The motor is coming in this winter for some tweeking and upgraded fuel delivery system, so i’ll make a bit more in labor.

Good luck in your venture, but if you think you’re going to get rich fast, think again. The only reason people stay in this business is because of a passion for boats, so if you don’t love boats, you are better off trading sow belly futures.

I want to look into purchasing a time share, but 1, I don’t want to get taken, 2, I want it to be a decent price…where do I look? How do I know its the real deal, and how do I know its a good price?

I own a time share and am very happy with it mostly because I have an interval international (II) membership in which I get fantastic last-minute travel deals to stay at resorts. So, my advice is this:

Go on ebay first. Get educated about all the fees, points, seasons, red-weeks, trade programs like Interval, etc.

Then, unless you are planning on going to that ONE place over and over again (that’s why Disney makes sense to so many), buy the one with the lowest cost and annual maintenance fees (you can pay the fees forever). It doesn’t matter where it is because if you can trade with Interval or another, you’ve gotten the best deal. I also own just an efficiency and I’ve never stayed in an efficiency. You can always upgrade to a 2 bedroom and sometimes it doesn’t even cost anything.

Interval has a standard for it’s resort partners (they probably all do) and I’ve never been disappointed with my trades.

If ebay doesn’t work for you, try timeshare.com or timesharesonly.com. There are a few of them out there. Shop with the criteria above in mind and go go go!

My best friend saw her friend die in a skiing accident (the girl didn’t have any lessons). And her family is taking me to Colorado. I really want to go skiing or especially snowboarding, but I know I can’t ski if she doesn’t. How do I convince her. Will snowboarding lessons be better? Help!

Her parents will have to deal with her reluctance, if any, to ski. Just be supportive and kind.

Ok, so I recently got a job offer after interviewing with the founder of the company. I would basically be working as his personal assistance and dealing with secretarial tasks. I will be meeting with him in a few days to go over the contract and wanted to know what I should mention and what I should not.

Due to recession, he had to let go alot of his workers and currently he’s trying to build his company back up again. So, it would just be the founder and I for the moment.

Should I mention about future vacations that are unplanned to my new boss?

u mention only if your future vacation is long (3 weeks or more in one shot); otherwise, just dont mention it and see your workload will be and whether additional assistants will be hired at later day

i really want to see egypt, greece, rome and spain.
is it possible to visit those countries all in one cruise? if so what cruises do you recommend? and dose it depart from australia?
thank you.

Cruises departing from Australia typically go to Australian ports and then to New Zealand ports. A few cruises go to those ports and end in Singapore.

YES!! you can cruise to all of the ports that you want to see but you’ll have to first fly to the Mediterranean to begin your cruise. There are several cruise lines, like Holland America, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Princess and Norwegians that cruise to all of those ports. IN addition, you will likely have to take a cruise that is about 12 to 14 days or more in order to make all of the ports that you want, OR, you can book two cruises of maybe 7 to 9 days each back to back.

Here’s some examples:
http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/cruiseDetails/itineraryAndPricing.do;jsessionid=0000mZnY06RTyxPGNqHNxyzIjmq:12hdhu6tq?packageCode=VY07M065&region=EUROP&ship=ANY&date=ANY&selectedCurrencyCode=&promoType=&hasSenior=&hasMilitary=&hasFireandPolice=&state=

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/cruiseDetails/itineraryAndPricing.do;jsessionid=0000mZnY06RTyxPGNqHNxyzIjmq:12hdhu6tq?packageCode=BR12M129&region=EUROP&ship=ANY&date=ANY&selectedCurrencyCode=&promoType=&hasSenior=&hasMilitary=&hasFireandPolice=&state=

http://www.princess.com/pb/itineraryDetails.do?voyageCode=R023&tourCode=&date=0910&noOfPax=2&resType=C&definition_name=

http://www.princess.com/pb/itineraryDetails.do?voyageCode=7018A&tourCode=&date=0910&noOfPax=2&resType=C&definition_name=

Check out these cruise line web sites:
PRINCESS:
http://www.princess.com/index.html

CELEBRITY:
http://www.celebritycruises.com/home .

ROYAL CARIBBEAN:
http://www.royalcaribbean.com/gohome.d..…

NORWEGIAN:
http://www.ncl.com/

I have really no experience in playing guitar, but I want to play the song boats and Birds by Gregory and the Hawk for my school talent show. I want to know how long it’ll take to learn, and if it’ll be hard.
I don’t want to learn how to actually play guitar, just this one song.

Or would piano be easier?

sorry if my english is not very well,
I am rijal from Indonesia,
nice to can help you

when I first learned how to play guitar, I was also confused where to start from

but now I’m so glad that have met and online learning in there I get jamorama.com guitar playing technique that is very easy to learn and these techniques do not get anywhere else, now I have advanced to play guitar and I got it in a very brief.

if you want to learn how to play guitar properly I recommend you study in my partner site at: http://www.jamorama.com/?hop=masrijal

I just got invited to attend a 90 minute time share presentation. In return for my time they are going to give me 2 plane tickets a two night stay in a hotel and a $40 meal card. Are they worth it? Or is it just a scam?

It’s a hard, unpleasant way to earn a "free" holiday. They will attempt to completely control you and prevent you from leaving until you agree. Some places will skate out on you if you don’t buy, and you’re stuck with the costs of what you thought was "free".

Now even if it’s legitimate, ask yourself where the money to pay for all of this is coming from. If you answered "The pockets of anyone they can persuade to sign up," you win the prize! They have to charge more in order to make this proposition pay.

I skied at Vail about 4 years ago, but my wife and I are looking at staying somewhere in Avon close to Beaver Creek, and I was curious to how the skiing was there compared to Vail mountain. Thanks!

Beaver Creek is a smaller, quieter, and more intimate resort. The skiing is great for families as you can ski almost the whole mountain and not worry too much about finding yourself overlooking a cliff as the only way to get back to the base. Vail on the other hand and as you know, is HUGE! Whatever terrain you want skiing-wise, you can find. The lines may be long at first, but as you get farther out back they will diminish. The village has everything, but it is also very large, and busy. Beaver Creek village is a great, fun, intermediate resort with challenging areas if you want to seek them out. If you want a romantic trip with your wife or a family trip, take Beaver Creek. If you are traveling with your college buddies or several families and need something for a wide range of folks, take Vail. Either way you will have a blast.

I may be studying abroad next year in Norway and was just curious as to know what holidays and vacations they have off. Thanks.

Summer holidays are end June to beginning of August, then there’s the Høst ferie which is the last week in September, then two weeks at Christmas, the week long winter holiday in February, easter which is 2 weeks and then odd days for 1st may, 17th May, Ascension Sunday.

It will depend on if you are at a state school or an international or private school though.