Some travelers are taking advantage of discounts to go places they have long dreamed of at once-in-a-lifetime prices. Maureen Meixner, a psychotherapist from Lakewood, New Jersey, had wanted to visit the Galapagos Islands for years. “It was on my bucket list,” she said. So when she saw that Adventure Life was offering US$1,200 off seven-night Galapagos cruises, she knew this was the year to go. “It was, well, why not?” said Meixner, who traveled with her husband, Arthur; his brother, Bernard; and her sister-in-law, Diane, in February, paying US$3,495 each for the cruise.
Vincent Orza, dean of the Meinders School of Business at Oklahoma City University and an avid cruiser, has sailed on more than 70 cruises with his wife, Patricia, and daughter, Alixandra, sometimes as an onboard lecturer. But he had never taken a Seabourn cruise because of the high cost of the luxury line.
“It’s always been one of the priciest ones out there,” he said.
GUILTY PLEASURES
So when he heard that Seabourn was offering as much as 50 percent off, he not only jumped at the offer, he also booked two. For the back-to-back cruises, which sail along the Cote d’Azur of France and the Spanish islands, beginning and ending in Monte Carlo, Orza paid about US$6,100 a person — more than half off the brochure price of $14,280.
Some vacation vultures can’t help feeling a pang of guilt when planning a trip while many others are losing their jobs. But the guilt isn’t significant enough to keep them home.
“I feel sort of bad where we’re going for three vacations, and you read these sad stories in the paper,” said Paul Kovac, an 82-year-old retired electrical mechanic from Sycamore, Illinois, who has plans with his girlfriend, Dorothy Shultz, 77, to visit Central Europe, Greece and Hawaii this year, with Cosmos, a budget tour operator based in Littleton, Colorado.
Last month the couple spent five days in Las Vegas after finding a deal too good to pass up: hotel, airfare and tickets to a Cirque du Soleil performance, all for less than US$500 each.
“We couldn’t refuse,” said Kovac, who said past trips to Las Vegas have run the couple upward of US$1,400. “Everybody is hurting, so there are great prices.”
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