Another lunch, another friend....

 

Today, I had another lunch date on my docket.  This time, it was with CCS, my friend from the Census. One wouldn't know it looking at her, but she and her husband have had successful careers.  They just live modestly, save for the upper middle class area in which they live.  (She's a perfect person to have as a friend, as I'll bet that she could smell pretentiousness and BS from miles away.)

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I got dresses and met CCS at the Mexican restaurant down the hill.  And as usual, we caught each other up on what has been going on in our lives.  Again, I recounted the story of our "Moved Over" cruise, and dealing with the summer heat.  While having lunch, I received a call from our co-op's managing agent.  They didn't have copies of our meeting minutes for 2025.  So I left lunch more quickly than I'd have liked and sent 7 months' of minutes to him 15 minutes later.

Now that I had nothing to do until a zoom meeting later in the evening, I decided to look for a summer weight cotton blanket for my bed.  It's hard to believe that after Bed, Bath and Beyond closed its stores, that these blankets seem to be only available on Amazon.  So, another item will get added to my Amazon shopping cart soon.

Once home for the night, I started up a Zoom meeting with our Texas friends. First, I told the story of our "Moved Over" cruise, then I encouraged RQS to recount the trip into NYC to see Rakugo.  Later on, RQS noted that it was much more lively than usual, one of our friends opening up more than usual  It was good to know that I could lay back a little and let someone else chat for a change.... 

What would you do in my shoes?

Normally, when someone says that they snagged a deal way too good to be true, it means that the person with the deal may have been scammed.  I recently snagged a deal way too good to be true, and I have yet to feel that I have been scammed.  (I'll write more about this when I return from my cruise.)  Yet, I have a very minor gripe.  The price of my mini suite has dropped $250 since I booked the cruise, and I'd like to get some kind of freebie from the line (such as a soft drink package) to say thanks for booking the cruise at this price.

If you look at the map above, there are 6 staterooms in orange and brown.  (Port: 11632-11636, Starboard: 11132-11136.)  I have one of these staterooms.  From what I read, there are only 4 mini suites on the ship - all "Aft". But I could be misreading things, and there could be another 4 "Forward" mini suites as well.  As of the time I'm writing this entry, there was at least 1 "sail away" mini suite available.  This means, that if I rebooked my cruise to get the lower price, I might get a room of a lesser perceived value.  If one assumes I'm in room 11636 (only because it stands out from the rest), should I risk getting assigned one of the other cabins?

Although I am happy with the price I paid, and that I'll be spending more than that $250 on other things, Is it worth the effort to get the lower price?  How much effort is it worth to save money?  One person I cruised with would jump at the chance to save $250, and use this for other purposes.  As for me, I'm far from rich.  But not trying to save every last dollar has value too - it allows me to focus on getting acceptable value for what I spend, and not waste my valuable time chasing after ever decreasing savings.

So what would you do????