If you cruise/travel A WHOLE LOT, why?

[clo]

21 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

That’s what I’m sort of hoping for.  Worst case: my nearby son and daughter have powers of attorney (and, I hope, sufficient smarts,  good memories, support of their siblings, and character to pick a reasonable and affordable option).

The guy who did all our planning is both a lawyer and a CPA.  Great skills sets, eh?

 

And we want something "nice."  We spend time in Seattle where one daughter and her family are.  There's a very nice place right across from our favorite pizza place 🙂

 

And we really hope to "die broke."  But so far that crystal ball hasn't given us enough info for planning purposes 🙂

[navybankerteacher]

54 minutes ago, clo said:

...

🙂

 

And we really hope to "die broke."  But so far that crystal ball hasn't given us enough info for planning purposes 🙂

Here’s a success story:  the last check my father wrote bounced. Fortunately, it was just for $10, so it wasn’t tough to cover it.

[clo]

1 minute ago, navybankerteacher said:

Here’s a success story:  the last check my father wrote bounced. Fortunately, it was just for $10, so it wasn’t tough to cover it.

My hero!  When Bob's stepfather died, way up in his 90s, he had something like $150k in a CHECKING account.

[Extra Kim]

Normaly we cruise to getaway from the winter, doing a b2b or side by side in January or February and maybe fly down to the Med for a week during the summer. 

I really don't like the cold and DARK Swedish winter, I need the sun to feel good. Last two years have been different since we became parents in December 2017. That made it impossible to travel during the 2017/2018 winter. Instead we booked cruise a cruise in April 2018 from Italy to Germany, very different from what we normaly would book. Our thought was that it would be easy to fly home if it wouldn't turn out well with our baby. In June we took a ferry cruise to Estonia.

We then booked a Caribbean cruise in August, a cruise in the west Med in September. 

With the up coming cruises for this year, our daughter will have done 65nts at sea before she turns two. 

We find it very easy to travel on cruises with children and I think that we will keep doing that for a long time.

 

She will have 38nts on Royal later this year, my guess is that she will be Diamond before she turns 4, guaranteed before she turns 5.

[linda1453]

I retired in 2014 at 60, husband at 59 1/2. Never had children. I traveled a lot for work. Husband lived away from home a lot for work, right before he retired he lived away from home for almost 2 years, coming back home every couple of weeks for weekends. Saying that because for 5 years we've been retired we haven't traveled much, enjoyed being home together, working around house/yard. Nothing more to be done on house, always work needed in the yard, which we love doing, but decided it is time to do more traveling. We've done many road trips in CA where we live and neighboring states, we like outdoors, national/state parks, etc. Our longest away from home was 2 1/2 weeks and I really missed my home and kitties. Luckily we have a good friend who stays at our house while we are away. Now we decided to venture further afield and do international travel (I travelled internationally in my younger days, prior to marriage). We've done a few cruises on bigger ships, now looking at river type cruises/smaller ships, don't care for all the rigmarole of bigger ships. Going to start small with a 2-3 week trip, if you are going to fly hours to get somewhere it seems logical to stay awhile. Looking at Asia/China/Japan cruises for 2020.  Also planning Alaska land trip because can't see everything I want on an Alaskan cruise. 

Edited July 20, 2019 by linda1453

[davekathy]

Retired with excellent retirements (RDINKs). 

Edited July 20, 2019 by davekathy

[linda1453]

23 minutes ago, linda1453 said:

 

 

Edited July 20, 2019 by linda1453

[linda1453]

 

 

[wwcruisers]

While my DH and I don't cruse nearly as much as we would like (he's still working) -- over the past couple of decades, cruising has become our favorite vacation venue. Guess one of the reason is: I love to travel, but HATE flying.

[SRF]

I like traveling.  I do a lot for work (average a bit over 40% of the year international).

 

But still enjoy traveling for personal.

 

New places to see.  New foods to eat.  Or traveling to favorite places to eat favorite foods.

 

Longest I have been gone has been 5 weeks.  I find it does not matter how long the trip it. At about 3 days from the end, I am ready to go home. 😄

 

From a cruising standpoint, I like the down time.  The time to do something or do nothing.  

 

Oh, and one other reason I travel.....  I am in a long distance relationship, so SOMEONE has to travel. 😄

[clo]

3 hours ago, SRF said:

Or traveling to favorite places to eat favorite foods.

Like Barcelona!

[SRF]

Barcelona for tapas

 

Hungary for goulyash

 

Greece for lamb and calamari

 

Heck, Kenya for grilled tilapia with ugali and summawiki

 

etc, etc, etc

 

 

[George C]

Best pizza ever Naples

[navybankerteacher]

26 minutes ago, George C said:

Best pizza ever Naples

After New Haven, or course.

[clo]

1 hour ago, SRF said:

Hungary for goulyash

 

So far the best meal of our lives was at a wonderful place in Budapest.  I read about it on a food site and made a res.  After I made it the place got a Michelin * (but not expensive).  Hungary is the second, behind France, of foie gras in the world and this place was so great that we had it as a main...and then again as dessert! 🙂

Edited July 21, 2019 by clo

[Bookish Angel]

We travel a lot because we love it, have the means to do so because we are debt-free and especially like remote places where animals far outnumber people.  

 

More importantly, far-flung travel helped save my mental health.  I dealt with a serious depression after the deaths of my parents (less than 2 years apart) concurrent with difficulties with my then-teenage child.  I saw a documentary on Antarctica and it was the first thing in many months that interested me.  I said to my husband, "I want to go to Antarctica!!!" and we went a few months later.  

 

I felt so much better with all of the planning, reading, etc. that we set a huge goal to travel to and set foot on each continent before I was 50.  I had to have something to look forward to while the day to day misery slowly got better.  

 

A wonderful husband who never questions the cost of our travels and time (it really does heal all words) returning to work at a non-profit I respect and a love of experiences, not things, has healed my mind and soul.  I am never happier than when we are off to another location on our new bucket list.

 

 

 

Edited July 21, 2019 by Bookish Angel

[clo]

9 minutes ago, Bookish Angel said:

We travel a lot because we love it, have the means to do so because we are debt-free and especially like remote places where animals far outnumber people.  

 

More importantly, far-flung travel helped save my mental health.  I dealt with a serious depression after the deaths of my parents (less than 2 years apart) concurrent with difficulties with my then-teenage child.  I saw a documentary on Antarctica and it was the first thing in many months that interested me.  I said to my husband, "I want to go to Antarctica!!!" and we went a few months later.  

 

I felt so much better with all of the planning, reading, etc. that we set a huge goal to travel to and set foot on each continent before I was 50.  I had to have something to look forward to while the day to day misery slowly got better.  

 

A wonderful husband who never questions the cost of our travels and time (it really does heal all words) returning to work in an industry I love and a love of experiences, not things, has healed my mind and soul.  I am never happier than when we are off to another location on our new bucket list.

 

 

 

Angel, thanks so much for sharing your experiences.  Time and distance can go a long way in helping us heal.  Take care and best wishes, Cath

[Bookish Angel]

Thank you!  Being quite ill has helped me adjust to things I cannot control and to focus more on changing me.  Uphill all the way but I have become more compassionate, more knowledgable about mental illness, etc. so it is all good. 

 

I hope I might help someone else who might struggle in a similar fashion.

 

Namaste, y'all.

[iancal]

I think we travel because we both have a great deal of natural interest in other countries and how people live.

 

Shortly after we were married, 40 plus years ago,  we sold up, went to Europe, bought a second hand van, and traveled.  The first thing that we did after retiring early was to sell our larger home.  The second decision was to put whatever was left after downsizing in storage and travel internationally for an indeterminate period.  The third decision was not to make any immediate decisions about how long to be away or where to live when we returned.   We came back after seven months with an even longer travel bucket list that we had before and a desire to return to some places again.  So it has been for the past eight years.

 

The list does not get shorter.  There always seems to be a renewed interest in some other country or region.    We love where we live, except during the winter, but that does not in any way negate our desire to travel to other places.  I think that it comes down to an interest in other lands, cultures, and peoples.  Or perhaps we just get bored easily.

[JRG]

15 hours ago, SRF said:

I find it does not matter how long the trip it. At about 3 days from the end, I am ready to go home.

 

Us too,   and then we re-discover the joy of owning the American Akita.   We have two.

 

 

Edited July 22, 2019 by JRG

[ilikeanswers]

I think the need to travel was probably instilled by my parents, we did a lot of road trips when I was a child. I do prefer longer trips and if I had no obligations I would travel longer than 6 weeks (the longest trip I have been able to take thus far). I don't cruise a lot, mostly land trips but I would love to do more expedition cruises. I certainly got a taste for them.

 

Living in Australia certainly makes me favour longer trips as nearly every destination is a long flight, to Europe is 24hrs one way so I would rather stay longer than fly more often. So far I never miss home when I travel and have never felt like I was over a trip. 

 

I guess I am not that attached to home, nothing of materiel value interests me at all so I don't have things like art and books that make me attached to being at home. I do like cooking but that can also be done overseas in fact it can make cooking more of a fun challenge when navigating foreign shops and kitchens. Truth be told as soon as I get home I am already planning the next trip 🤣. 

Edited July 22, 2019 by ilikeanswers

[Luckiestmanonearth]

In addition to the value of cruise vs land vacation, minimal effort and brain power is expensed on a cruise.

 

Your accommodations and dining times are set.  The entertainment is available.  You don’t have to drive anywhere.

On a land vacation , you actually have to plan this out and then plan and drive to get to all these places.

 

I really don’t like to use my brain to make decisions on a vacation

Edited July 22, 2019 by Luckiestmanonearth

[geoherb]

DH and I started taking cruises in 1989, not quite one year after we met. We both love taking cruises because they offer both relaxation and a way to see several different places. We can do things together or go our separate ways on a ship. He retired three years ago at 60 and I retired two years ago at 55. We planned for our retirements by timing to pay off our mortgage at the same time. He went back to work part-time on a contract basis (April-August, October-January), which cuts back our timeframe to take cruises together. So I went on my first solo cruises this summer--back-to-back to Alaska. I had a great time.

 

We're going back to England for our second transatlantic cruise in September. This is our third year of taking a cruise out of Southampton. The first time was a British Isles cruise. I'd love to go to England every year if possible. I lived in London right after college and have never lost my love for that city. The longest we've been away from home has been three weeks. DH's mother is turning 93 this fall. As long as she's alive, we won't be taking any vacations that are longer.

[clo]

10 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

I do like cooking but that can also be done overseas in fact it can make cooking more of a fun challenge when navigating foreign shops and kitchens.

Love airbnb-esque for that reason.  I remember going to Mercado La Boqueria in Barcelona.

 

Edited July 22, 2019 by clo

[lenquixote66]

I have never traveled to Europe ,Asia or most of South America.

I have gone cross country in the US stopping in 43 US cities and cross country in Canada stopping in more towns than I can count.