We Sold The Patio

We Sold The Patio...

Friday 3/8.   The phone rang at 4:00 this morning.  It was Santa Clarita calling, corporate headquarters of Princess Cruises.  Did they have a deal for us.

Have you ever wondered what happens when a cruise line over sells their available rooms? Well, just as with the airlines, they have to make offers to people in order to get them to take a different flight/cruise. We have known about these oversell situations for many years, as the Internet bulletin boards are full of stories, and we have received similar offers in the past to forego our cruise but were not interested in giving up the vacation and/or we were traveling with others.

Except in this case, we don’t have to give up the vacation; we received the email on Thursday asking for volunteers to give up their balcony and sail instead in an inside cabin. The offer is that you get a full refund of your paid fare and thus cruise for free if you switch. We considered the offer and said what the heck and called the yield management office and said we would be interested.  Michelle called us back at noon Thursday (California time— still 4 am for us) to cut the deal.  She gave us a midship, unobstructed ocean view instead of an inside, too. So in essence, we sold our patio. 

But we’re still taking the cruise, we still have all our original onboard credit, and we still have everything except the patio.  Oh, and we have a bit of money to put back into the travel bank. 

Remember yesterday’s post about real estate prices here in Singapore? That lovely little apartment in Marina Bay... the one that costs about $1800 per square foot in a 99 year lease?  That works out to 5 cents per square foot per day.  Our hotel room is costing us about $1 per square foot per day.  We sold the patio for $3.50 per square foot per day.  Crazy, yes?  😁

For the rest of today’s adventures, after we managed to fall back asleep, we got up late again, had another large breakfast followed by a day spent on the HOHO bus.  There are seven routes through Singapore, but we managed to decide on just two routes.  Just sitting still in the heat brings on a massive sticky feeling, so the breeze from the bus was delightful, even if I had to hang on to my hat.

The HOHO took us by all the big tourist areas, and it was fun to see the old classic buildings adjacent to, or incorporated into, the modern glass high rises.  And the abundant and lush plant life and orchids are everywhere. 

There is even a bit of history and trivia in the narration provided.  Favorite nugget learned on this trip: The Five Foot Way was a building code requirement for all construction to include a five foot wide covered walkway or veranda on the street side of all buildings. The code intended that this space was for pedestrians. The shopowners and stalls had other ideas, however, and the space soon became extended storage, shop displays, even rented out as living quarters.  The situation went back and forth, but still today you will find random mini shops set up in the five foot way portion of buildings in Singapore. Sorta like selling the patio space, come to think of it.