Are You Still "Talking Up" Cruising to Family/Friends?

[Schplinky]

Wow...I'd love to be retired at age 40 ;)

 

No, I meant that the average age on our RCL cruise was 40 and the average X age is older, according to these boards.

[MISSYLOU]

Hi Chuck:

 

Most of the folks I work with don't even take vacations so I don't try to talk them into a cruise. Convinced sil and bil and they took the Mercury cruise and are now hooked.

 

MIL thought she was just to old to cruise (75) but FIL always wanted to. MIL passed away last month and FIL is sailing with us Nov 26, 2005 and is so excited.

 

So for the rest of our friends and family who choose to work or wait for retirement or "maybe sometime we'll go" I give up. We probably have a more relaxing time without them.

[TechKnowBabble]

No, I meant that the average age on our RCL cruise was 40 and the average X age is older, according to these boards.

 

My apologies....I obviously misunderstood. But I would still like to retire at 40 :D

 

I am curious to see what the difference in age is between Royal Caribbean and Celebrity is. Personally I enjoy hanging out with those younger AND older than I. Especially if those older than I, have 'seen the world' can guide me to things I just must see/experience myself.

[catmand]

Hi Karen....Hi Paul,

Good to hear from you as I know you two have been sailing non stop recently..:D

Funny, I just had a situation that covers this exact topic. I had a doc appointment today. This man is probably in his early 40's he is very, very smart and pretty outgoing. He got back last week from a 3 week trip to Europe. I told him we had gone on the NCL 2-day since I saw him last. He told me the reason he has never been on a cruise, he is afraid of "going down" with the ship. The water would be really cold. An airplane is OK because the problem would be over so fast but a ship would take a long time to sink. I did inform him that all ships SINCE AROUND THE TIME OF TITANIC carry lifeboats. If he is that concerned that he has never cruised, I don't want to be the one that gets him on his first.

[MISSYLOU]

Chuck: I emailed you and Wanda from the Zuiderdam did you recieve it? Also emailed you one day last week? Did you get that one or do you have a block on me.:(

 

My other sister in law doesn't want to cruise because she can't swim very well. Not sure what that has to do with cruising. Paul told her they don't make us jump overboard and push the ship.:p

[flashdog_1]

I, too, have extolled the merits of cruising and have only succeeded in finding a couple of friends who want to go with me (one actually did and loved Alaska and Summit). My husband tried it once, and what did he do while I was going thru the Panama Canal? He shopped for booze at Colon2000! Said he'd seen all the documentaries and didn't need to see the canal. so I've given up on him. I'm taking my two adventurous kids, 32 and 29, on a 2 day cruise to nowhere to see if they like it, and if so, will have companions to travel with.

 

I've asked my sister and bil and they just say, without explanation, that cruising is not for them. What do do with their dog while they're away, don't want to meet new people (threatening?), might get seasick, too confining a space, don't want to look for the birth certificate or get a passport, too fancy for them? I just don't know.

 

I was always a land traveler, even lived abroad, and I think my hesitation was the cost. But I calculated the airfare to the farthest port and added hotel bills, restaurants, and you know, it is not expensive to cruise in comparison. Granted, you don't have days to spend in a single port.

 

Friends took a river cruise in Russia recently and hated it because the pier was so far from town. they felt they wasted half their day to get to the center of town and will never do it again. Yes, the food was wonderful, made new friends, etc. but it's just not their style.

 

So we have to live with that. Cruising is just not for everyone, at least today. Maybe tomorrow they'll change their minds like I did.

[ger_77]

We took our first cruise in 1989 and became addicted immediately. We spent lots of time with good friends over the years since, and have tried to convince them to try a cruise with us, just once. We finally stopped asking, and would simply update them with our tales of wonderful destinations, new friends made, excursions, food, drinks, etc after we returned.

 

Out of the blue in July this year, they called to say they were booked on an Alaskan cruise and told us they would call us when they returned. A few minutes later I had a call from a colleague who said she and her husband would be on an Alaskan cruise - the same one our friends were going to be on. I told both couples about the other, and hoped they would be able to get together onboard.

 

Two weeks later our friends called to say they had not enjoyed the cruise experience at all - too crowded, too expensive, didn't like having to pay for drinks and shore excursions, the casino was too tight, people weren't friendly, and the food wasn't as great as we had said. They had been approached by my colleague and said they didn't seem to have much in common. I was very disappointed.

 

Next day my colleague called to say she was so happy we'd told them about cruising because they had just had the time of their lives. In fact it was so wonderful they booked another one while onboard. They met our friends and felt they were so negative that they didn't really have much to do with them during the cruise, other than meeting a couple of times for drinks in the lounges. I received a lovely bouquet of flowers from my colleague for having provided the impetus for them to take the plunge and try cruising for a vacation. I was thrilled.

 

Lesson learned: let people know about our cruises, but don't try to convince them it is the be-all and end-all ... you just don't know what they will be like on a vacation. I'm just glad that we hadn't convinced our friends to take a more expensive trip and be responsible for their bad time. We have friends that we cruise with - that we have met on previous cruises and we have a blast when we are together. We'll continue cruising with them in the future. Just my 2 cents worth on this subject.

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

[Schplinky]

My apologies....I obviously misunderstood. But I would still like to retire at 40 :D

 

 

Some days, I feel as though I HAVE retired, I just haven't told my boss yet. :)

 

 

I am curious to see what the difference in age is between Royal Caribbean and Celebrity is. Personally I enjoy hanging out with those younger AND older than I. Especially if those older than I, have 'seen the world' can guide me to things I just must see/experience myself.

 

I'm interested in that, too. We're on a cruise the same length, same general price range and school will be in (as it was for our last one) and so those things shouldn't affect it. At the opening show, the CD told us about the pax on RCL. He said there were folks from 80 odd countries, there were 30 honeymoon couples, three celebrating 60th anniversaries, etc. He also told us the average age was 40. I wonder if they will do that on X?

[halos]

I find that people either love it or they hate it...do I talk it up anymore?...NO WAY. The ships are crowded enough already.:D

I'd like to keep cruising a secret from now on........;)

[EmJakeBubbie]

Short Story: Dear Friends resisted all chatter to join us on a cruise. The final straw came when they said "No" to a group cruise on which we had deposited; so, we cancelled. (GALAXY to Alaska). About 3 wks prior to when the ship was to sail, he informed us he was going on this ship afterall because his brother convinced them to share an inside quad for a real deal. No way was I going to have them go on "my cruise"! Our last minute airfare about broke the bank and we booked ourselves a balcony cabin (not a deal!) - DH and I had such fun planning our "surprise". Day of embarkation was high excitement looking around to make sure we weren't discovered. DH created a "telegram" which we slid under their door - we even made a ship-to-shore telephone call, complete w/static (and me in the background with a fit of giggles!). They totally bought into all of it - they later admitted it added to the fun and excitement of TheirFirstCruise. The afternoon passed w/o discovery - time for dinner. Such an impressive dining room on the GALAXY, yes? It ended up we were only 6 tables away from them - we "spied" but were never discovered. Our tablemates and wait staff bought into it - everyone had such fun (we were glad to see happiness at their table, too). Now it was time to exit the dining room - we were going to hide ourselves to surprise them as they came out of the dining room. Lo and behold as we were on the first level trying to figure out a hiding place....here he comes down the staircase and immediately sees us! I still remember the look of surprise on his face! They were so happy we were on TheirCruise (a.k.a.MyCruise!) - The week was lovely. We ended up making new lifetime friends out of our tablemates for the week. All of us had such fun - even now we still speak of that cruise. We have since enjoyed very many cruises with those dear friends and our new friends. Sometimes it's just the way for someone to discover on their own....no amount of words can convince people to do what we think they should do, yes?:rolleyes:

[constantcruiser]

Our whole family loves to cruise and we are constantly talking it up to friends & business colleagues. I keep telling my TA that she owes me a commission for all the business we've sent her way. Now, I just have one request...would the rest of you please STOP revealing "our" secret? The ships are getting too crowded!

[catmand]

ger-77....................what you wrote about the two couples is so typical and we get evidence of this all the time here on the message boards. Someone comes off a cruise and tells us all how "bad" it was. Two hours later someone else writes a glowing review of the same cruise. Also often a first time cruiser will read a poor review and focus on that and begin to stress out. When I see these I always try to point them in the direction of the ten positive reviews.

Another thing I find interesting, I don't know if I have ever read a post by a husband who cruised alone or with a friend or child because his wife didn't like a cruise vacation. Wonder why that is?

[kay0522]

We brought home lots of information and pictures from our Alaska Celebrity cruise on Mercury last year for our 25th anniversary. We were so excited about Celebrity, the Alaskan experience and the wonderful service we experienced, that we just gushed to anyone that would listen. My sister and her husband borrowed our pictures and info to have a closer look. They had cruised once before on Carnival with their 3 boys. They were so impressed that they immediately contacted their TA and are cruising the same itinerary and ship for their 25th next August. Next month is our 8th cruise, (2nd on Celebrity) on Galaxy - and I will continue to give glowing reports to anyone interested in a truly great cruise experience.

 

We just found out about Cruise Critic last January, and everyone's posts have enhanced our knowledge about cruising. We love Celebrity and Cruise Critic. Thanks to everyone - I pass along the Cruise Critic site to everyone we know that are cruisers.

[poetic license]

Another thing I find interesting, I don't know if I have ever read a post by a husband who cruised alone or with a friend or child because his wife didn't like a cruise vacation. Wonder why that is?

I could be flamed for this, but it will be worth it:D:

 

Imagine a woman turning down a week or more of someone else making beds, scrubbing bathrooms, doing laundry, planning/shopping/cooking meals, catering to everyone else in the family and time managing their activities/lives, too.

 

Which is why I can't understand why it is so darn hard to get my family and lifelong friends to come with us just one time on a cruise. And it usually is the guys who are the holdup. The gamut of ‘reasons’ is: "The last ship I ever intend to be on is the frigate I served aboard in the Navy. I don't think of being on a ship as a vacation."

 

to:

 

The what-if crowd: "what if ....”

I get seasick

the ship sinks

this ship has the norovirus

something happens to me in another country

I get left behind in a port

I get claustrophobic

I don’t like the food

I get bored

... ad nauseum. But those same people are really enthusiastic about renting a huge beach house/ski house/cabin and schlepping off for a week or so. Maybe it's because they WILL be on vacation: It's always the women who wind up packing everyone, cooking, shopping, and generally just transferring their everyday lives to another location. The women come home pooped, needing a vacation from their vacation.

 

I've given up on my family and friends, and have focused on meeting people who have, like us, discovered that the worst day on a cruise is still better than the best day in day-to-day life. It’s more fun to share a vacation with someone who is having just as good a time as you are instead of worrying if their expectations are being met. As for family? I’ll host a dinner a few weeks after we come home, pass out souvenirs and trinkets, and show our pictures around. This is about as much involvement in a cruise as they want. It's not like we haven't tried.

[EmJakeBubbie]

poetic license: this is exactly why we cruise critic cruisers get along so swimmingly;)