Economy Worries = No Travel?

There's been a lot of talk lately about people being scared to spend their money for fear that the economic times ahead are not going to be good.

Here's what I think. I'm not going to stop living my life. If my job is affected, I'll deal with it then. What about you?

A lot of people are saying that they're giving up vacations. Seems to me that now's the time that we all need some serious vacations. I'd give up eating out before I gave up vacations - but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't look for a good deal.

There are tourist services around the world that are seeing the effect of people cutting back on their vacation spending. That's why they are slashing prices and offering incentives like crazy to attract travelers to their products.

Take, for example, Princess Cruises. They are offering some fantastic cruise prices to Europe in addition to bonus incentives. When you book and make a deposit on a 2009 Princess Europe cruise from today through November 15, you also get

-- $100 onboard credit per stateroom
-- Reduced deposit of $100 per person
-- Coupon booklet worth up to $120 in on-board savings

Plus, you pay for the cruise and shore excursions in U.S. dollars, and you don't have to worry about the exchange rate or the dollar taking a plunge.

If you're thinking of taking a cruise next year, now's the time to get an awesome deal. Leave me a comment or send me an email at CarmenandJim@cruiseshipcenters.com, or visit the Web site at www.cruiseshipcenters.com/CarmenandJim. (Though a lot of these deals aren't on the site.)

Where Do You Want to Go?

Well, I want to go to Las Vegas! At least this week, anyway.

After Las Vegas, who knows? One of the destinations I've been starting to look at is Dubai - can you believe that the city has built up like that in only 35 years? I want to see the tallest building (they build about a floor every 3 days). I want to ski indoors in the desert. I want to shop for gold for cheap.

I've even downloaded the podcast to teach me to speak Arabic (basic phrases anyway, not that I'd need it in Dubai, but I think it's polite.)

I also want to go back to Europe, which means that somebody, somewhere is going to have to do something about this crappy economy. The Euro is way too expensive. But in the end, I may have to suck it up and go anyway.

I wouldn't mind trying to get to the Galapagos, either. Pretty expensive, though.

I'd take Tahiti or Fiji, too.

So this week, while I'm on a vacation from the blog, tell me where YOU'D like to travel!