Gloria Mundi

As the ex-wife of a gifted man who eventually drank himself to death, I have a healthy respect for alcohol. I won't give up my nightly glass of wine, but neither will I give up my afternoon workouts, even on vacation. What keeps me from overdoing the alcohol is that I won't drink before a workout and if I overdo alcohol I get migraines.

I'm a little more relaxed about food and alcohol on vacation but don't use vacation as an excuse to go crazy on either.

Exactly! The same people who ask me how I can afford to cruise have cleaning ladies, lawn services, buy their clothes at Macy's and have someone detail their cars.

 

I clean my own house, water and mow my own lawn, buy my clothes on sale or at the thrift store and wash my own car..................

 

.....................and cruise once a year...............

LOL! When I took my first trip to Europe at age 26 my co-workers gave me the "must be nice" rap. I pointed out that I was single, drove a POS car (1973 Hornet in 1978) and lived in an apartment. I'd saved double the cost of the trip so that I still had a cash cushion when I came home.

Our financial advisor laughs when I tell him we mow our own lawn, DH does the cleaning and cooking and we rarely go out to eat because we like our house. I cut DH's hair (he doesn't have much) and brown-bag my lunch. The one car we own is an unimpressive sedan bought from a car rental firm. I suppose that for people who want to live high off the hog that would sound like a miserable life, but we feel blessed.

The problem with those numbers about saving for retirement includes everyone. there is a huge population of folks that aren't saving (or saved) for retirement because they can barely put food on the table. then you have another huge group of folks who have lived most their lives on welfare, food stamps, etc. who assume they will continue to be supported.

Totally agreed- if you're trying to support a family at a McJob there's no money left in the budget for savings. My concern is with the portion of the population who can afford new cars, smartphones, boats, and taking their kids to Disney World but claim they can't save for retirement, and I believe there are a lot of them.

Really good points but worth mentioning that just by our traveling/cruising to every corner of the world we are contributing to those less fortunate. The tourism industry provides the majority of revenue for many location. It is the largest segment for providing work and revenue for village, town and city services.

 

A great many families depend upon tourism dollars/pesos/yen etc to put food on their table.

 

That's not a terribly efficient way to help people in developing economies. Most of the jobs generated are of the "do you want fries with that" variety- probably better than subsistence farming but not much upward mobility. How much of the revenue from Diamonds International is channeled into providing better schools for the local kids? If you want to help people in developing economies, give directly to charities you trust- don't count on money to trickle down from what you and the cruise line spend in port.

Personally I would not scrimp and save for 30 odd years just to have a cruise once a year once retired. Life isn't a dress rehearsal it's for living ... NOW! I am a great believer in the saying Carpe Diem.

There's a happy medium. I'm 15 years younger than DH and I hope he's up for travel when I retire but I can't count on it. It's one of the reasons we take a major trip every year. OTOH, those stats about what the average person has saved (or doesn't have saved) for retirement are downright scary. One way or another the taxpayers are going to end up supporting them in the forms of Medicaid nursing homes, subsidized housing, food stamps.. and I fully expect my SS to be taxed away completely to be given to those who could have saved, but didn't. I shudder for my son's generation which will have to foot the bill.

I'd rather live frugally and be able to travel to great destinations on small ships every other year than take five cruises to the same Caribbean and Bahamas ports on a lower end mass market cruise every year. Life is just too short for that.

We're in a position similar to yours. We live frugally for the most part, own one car (DH is 75 and does a little freelance work from home, I'm 60 and work FT). Last year's cruise cost $6K for the cruise alone, next year's will be similar, so not quite in the stratosphere the OP cited. This year we went to Paris but used airline and hotel points so not a lot out of pocket. Our kids are out of college and on their own, we're reaping the rewards of a lifetime of saving, and we live in a flyover state with low fixed costs. People who knew our net worth would consider us rich but we don't look or live like it other than our travel.

Thanks for the beautiful pictures! We went to Alaska last year and are going again next year, and this just makes me look forward to it even more. Amazing flowers- the ones that can handle that climate are all so beautiful.

And you're right- $7 for a big breakfast was a very good deal. Food up there was very expensive compared to the lower 48 because so much of it has to be shipped there from far away.

You state you got $5500 trade in value for her old ring. What did you pay for it? Perhaps DI inflated the value of this old ring to make you feel good?

 

This. Car dealers do this all the time with your trade-in. Do you think DI would have actually PAID you $5,500 for that diamond if you offered to sell it to them? I doubt it. (In fact, even legitimate appraisers will put in disclaimers that, while they believe the retail value of the stone to be $X, that does not mean they are offereing to buy it from you for that amount.)

You may not have been ripped off as badly as you think. Still, it's worth pursuing if only to make themm uncomfortable and give DI some well-deserved bad publicity.

DH and I live pretty lean compared to most in our income bracket because we put a big emphasis on saving for retirement and on travel. We don't buy each other splashy gifts, we rarely eat out (we're homebodies when we're not traveling), we keep our house in good repair but don't run out and buy new furniture or collectibles that have to be dusted. One car, no debt except a mortgage thaat will be paid off in 5 years when I'm 65.

I manage the finances and keep our checking account register on a spreadsheet. One of the "virtual accounts" is for our next cruise and we add to it every month. Like the others, we'll probably over-save, leaving the excess for expenses we run up on the trip. We'll make final payments on a Rewards credit card and pay it off in full when the statement comes in, which we always do.

My fiancée has decided that she would like to go for a quick swim while we're in Dubrovnik. Since we're going to be walking the walls, it appears that Buza Bar and Banje Beach are the most convenient choices. Is that correct?

When we were there I went swimming daily in a little cove on the far side of the castle- in fact, if you looked straight up you could see the castle. DubrovnikTravelLady, is that one of the beaches listed above? It was a public beach, there was sand, and because it was a bit sheltered you weren't out in the full currents. It's a short walk from the main square- maybe 10-15 minutes down a street with the Croatian version of "Tobacco" in the name. In September the water temp was fine for me. Since I was staying in a hotel nearby all I had with me was a T-shirt, sandals and a room key and they were always there when I got back, but I agree that it would be better if one person is always on shore with the valuables.

I'm never sure if we save anything, but I much prefer booking things independently for the reasons you mention, plus the ability to redeem points and miles where possible. We booked our actual cruise through a TA, but I booked everything else- hotels and B&B for land days, flights, the ferry from Wrangell to Ketchikan, etc. I know what airlines I do and don't want to take, what minimum layovers I want in various airports, for example. IT was a great tripa nd more than once I patted myself on the back!

I never travel with more jewelry than I can wear at one time unless the pieces have little value. Hard learned lessons.

 

I leave my best stuff in a safety deposit box and travel with lessor items.

 

I travel with a plain gold wedding ring that has no sentimental value.

 

Never put valuable items in your checked bags.

That's my philosophy, too. I might bring 2 rings, 2 pr of earrings, one chain and a couple of pendants, plus my good watch and my plain platinum wedding band. The rest is locked in the safe at home and I never bring anything with me that would be heartbreaking to lose.

A little OT but I wonder what will happen to all the jewelry in various niches of the Costa Concordia. I'd be happy to have escaped with my life but then I'd start wondering if I'd ever see my bling again.

While the cruise lines will TRY to ASSIST, they are under NO OBLIGATION to get you to the cruise, particularly not for free. Whether you get to your cruise in a timely fashion (before 50% of the cruise is over) is a function of the airlines, NOT the cruise line. I believe the exact wording on the Choice Air website is "will work with". Weasel words. No guarantees.

Is this recent? I swear I read years back that the one way to prevent problems when flight schedule problems interfered with your cruise was to be sure to book flights through your cruise line. I guess now, as with air travel in general, you're S.O.L unless the protections provided by the EU apply.

Not a problem in our case- I plan to use miles to get us to Alaska for our cruise next year and will be padding the itinerary with at least one overnight in each direction to allow for slip-ups.

My husband and I are looking for this type of cruise for next year. I'd already found Innersea Discoveries and this looks like an good choice as well. We've never taken a cruise before and what's important to us is a small boat, and being up close with nature. We are not interested in the typical activities on the mega-ships.

I keep hearing that discounts from posted cruise rates are easily available but so far I'm not seeing that. One "competitive" site doesn't even have 2012 in its drop-down menus for Innersea. Ar we too early? Or are discounts less likely on the smaller ships?