TexasAggieOfc

We had to back out of our cruise for next year today, it was to be our first. We'll be back, but I work for a small county, and 50% of our tax base is a Fortune 500 company that is on the brink of bankruptcy. They're already telling us to start looking for employment elsewhere, just to be safe.

I believe that you tip in relation to the service received. Granted there are cheap skates out there who will low ball or skip out and claim they received poor service, but follow your own guidelines in tipping. Whatever you think is appropiate for that person for that service is appropiate.

I added it for our first Cruise (Conquest July 09) for several reasons: 1. We are expecting our son to be born around Christmas this year, and you hope that nothing happens with him, but it's not implausible for a 7 month old to be extremely sick, and so we needed the security of getting our investment back if need be. 2. I'm a deputy sheriff, so I'm at a high risk of being injured in the line of duty. Not just fatally, but I already got laid up for two weeks earlier this year after spraining my ankle while chasing a little punk (still got him though) 3. We're flying from Dallas to Houston. Some people told us we were fools it was dirt cheap to drive to Galveston from Dallas, all it took was the rows of submerged cars for me to decide that the $600 round trip through Carnival was a sound investment. Between not wanting to fight Houston traffic, North Texas weather being unpredictable, and of course the chance of another Gulf hurricane, it just made sense.

Thank ya'll for the warm welcome!