Are there people who will ONLY travel by cruising?

[Lois R]

11 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

I used to travel with Gate 1 fairly regularly and I agree their guides are generally top-notch. I got annoyed with them, though, following a trip to Israel where there was far too much time devoted to a mother and daughter in our group who only wanted to shop. After visiting the "diamond factory" (which in itself was not high on my list, but for a brief stop -- okay), the rest of us were all back on the bus at the scheduled time and ready to go to the promised historic site. The mother and daughter were still shopping. Our guide kept the busful of us waiting for another 45 minutes, and even then the M-D were not ready to go, so he finally arranged a taxi to bring them to the site and got started with the rest of us.

 

As a result, our time at the site was cut short by the amount of time we waited (an hour), which was MOST unsatisfactory for many of us. The guide should have handled it better and arranged the taxi for them from the moment the delay started. 

 

This same mother and daughter would constantly ask when the next shopping opportunity would be. After the incident mentioned above, this just set my teeth on edge every time. If it's one thing that gets my goat, it's people who insist on taking a cultural/educational tour and then only want to shop....

 

I haven't traveled with Gate 1 since then.

 

Hi, don't blame you a bit...…...selfish people on a group tour can be a BIG PITA

[clo]

9 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

I haven't traveled with Gate 1 since then.

 

We had a similar, though not as extreme, thing in Patagonia. We'd stop for what was supposed to be a 15 minute 'walkabout', that she would then change to 30 and once even to 45 (which we didn't even know about). And our lunches were sit down, multi-course events (evidently that's the standard there). So our days ran so long that we basically came in and it was time for dinner. I spoke to her about that and she denied it! Last time for us. But we did Turkey, Israel, SE Asia and they were fantastic.

[donaldsc]

I would prefer to do mainly land trips.  My wife prefers to do mainly cruises with short land trips either before or after the cruise.  Guess what we end up mostly doing.

 

DON

[navybankerteacher]

54 minutes ago, Lois R said:

Hi, don't blame you a bit...…...selfish people on a group tour can be a BIG PITA

The sad fact is that a lot of tour guides (either directed by their agencies or free-lancing) earn “referral fees” from merchants to whom they bring their groups:  they are too often tempted to accommodate the determined shoppers at the expense of everyone else.

[sparks1093]

6 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

The sad fact is that a lot of tour guides (either directed by their agencies or free-lancing) earn “referral fees” from merchants to whom they bring their groups:  they are too often tempted to accommodate the determined shoppers at the expense of everyone else.

Unfortunately.

[donaldsc]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

I used to travel with Gate 1 fairly regularly and I agree their guides are generally top-notch. I got annoyed with them, though, following a trip to Israel where there was far too much time devoted to a mother and daughter in our group who only wanted to shop. After visiting the "diamond factory" (which in itself was not high on my list, but for a brief stop -- okay), the rest of us were all back on the bus at the scheduled time and ready to go to the promised historic site. The mother and daughter were still shopping. Our guide kept the busful of us waiting for another 45 minutes, and even then the M-D were not ready to go, so he finally arranged a taxi to bring them to the site and got started with the rest of us.

 

As a result, our time at the site was cut short by the amount of time we waited (an hour), which was MOST unsatisfactory for many of us. The guide should have handled it better and arranged the taxi for them from the moment the delay started. 

 

This same mother and daughter would constantly ask when the next shopping opportunity would be. After the incident mentioned above, this just set my teeth on edge every time. If it's one thing that gets my goat, it's people who insist on taking a cultural/educational tour and then only want to shop....

 

I haven't traveled with Gate 1 since then.

 

 

Did anyone speak to the guide during the trip to express their displeasure.  I would have.  We also did a trip to Israel but with another agency.  There was one man who would wander off, come back late and then have to take smoking breaks.  The group talked to the guide about this problem and it she made sure that it did not happen again.

 

Complaining after the fact accomplishes nothing.  Complaining when the problem is occurring can often do wonders.  I am not afraid to open up my mouth and make my displeasure known.  This should not be necessary but sometimes it is.

 

DON

[cruisemom42]

51 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

The sad fact is that a lot of tour guides (either directed by their agencies or free-lancing) earn “referral fees” from merchants to whom they bring their groups:  they are too often tempted to accommodate the determined shoppers at the expense of everyone else.

 

This is exactly what, I'm convinced, happened in the example I gave. It was quite clear that the guide did not want to give up a lucrative kickback. And yes, several of us did speak to him at lunch-time on that day and he did not do anything as egregious again.

[clo]

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

I would prefer to do mainly land trips.  My wife prefers to do mainly cruises with short land trips either before or after the cruise.  Guess what we end up mostly doing.

 

DON

Land!

[clo]

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

Complaining after the fact accomplishes nothing.

I spoke up during and then with corporate afterwards. I do remember in Israel that we left a couple who didn't show up with maybe five minutes of the stated time.

[donaldsc]

12 minutes ago, clo said:

Land!

  

Have you sever seen the PBS show featuring "She Who Must be Obeyed".  Cruises.

 

DON

[clo]

3 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

  

Have you sever seen the PBS show featuring "She Who Must be Obeyed".  Cruises.

 

DON

Guess Bob (and I) are lucky.

[davekathy]

1 hour ago, clo said:

Land!

Cruises. Unanimously. 

[clo]

25 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Cruises. Unanimously. 

It still kinda/sorta amazes me that a lot of people, not having health issues, only want to cruise. The other day I went through the Oceania 'catalog' of cruises for 2021.  I believe there were two that PERHAPS sounded interesting to me. And we adore traveling!

[davekathy]

11 minutes ago, clo said:

It still kinda/sorta amazes me that a lot of people, not having health issues, only want to cruise. The other day I went through the Oceania 'catalog' of cruises for 2021.  I believe there were two that PERHAPS sounded interesting to me. And we adore traveling!

But I never said we only cruise. Just we agree unanimously about cruising and all our other trips. Variety is the spice of life. 

Edited December 2, 2019 by davekathy

[clo]

58 minutes ago, davekathy said:

But I never said we only cruise. Just we agree unanimously about cruising and all our other trips. Variety is the spice of life. 

I thought you were replying to Don C. Sorry.

[BirdandBaby]

I hate driving more and more, so no long car trips for me. I wouldn't say "only" cruising, but we tend to look at cruises as our default option. For instance, our next plan for a major vacation is either Scandinavia or Italy. We'll look at cruise options before we consider land tours. I'm at the point where cruising seems so much easier I will only do land-based if a cruise doesn't go there or if it's a "fly into the big city and enjoy the big city" vacation.

[sanger727]

28 minutes ago, BirdandBaby said:

I hate driving more and more, so no long car trips for me. I wouldn't say "only" cruising, but we tend to look at cruises as our default option. For instance, our next plan for a major vacation is either Scandinavia or Italy. We'll look at cruise options before we consider land tours. I'm at the point where cruising seems so much easier I will only do land-based if a cruise doesn't go there or if it's a "fly into the big city and enjoy the big city" vacation.

 

The only downside to that is that you are either limited to coastal destinations or you are doing long drives to get from the port to the city.

[clo]

41 minutes ago, BirdandBaby said:

I hate driving more and more, so no long car trips for me. I wouldn't say "only" cruising, but we tend to look at cruises as our default option. For instance, our next plan for a major vacation is either Scandinavia or Italy. We'll look at cruise options before we consider land tours. I'm at the point where cruising seems so much easier I will only do land-based if a cruise doesn't go there or if it's a "fly into the big city and enjoy the big city" vacation.

You might like escorted land trips. Or trains. We're thinking our next trip to Italy will be trains.

 

In the spring we're flying to Oslo, taking the supposedly magnificent train ride to Bergen, northbound six day cruise to Kirkenes, and then fly to Paris for five days. No driving.

Edited December 3, 2019 by clo

[BirdandBaby]

13 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

 

The only downside to that is that you are either limited to coastal destinations or you are doing long drives to get from the port to the city.

Definitely - I'm definitely not into those 10 hour excursions from the cruise port. We think about our priorities carefully. If we want to see Rome, we'll just fly into Rome, stay in a nice hotel and fly home. I'm all about the easy these days - still want to explore and see stuff but have to weigh the cost/benefit ratios.

[BirdandBaby]

4 minutes ago, clo said:

You might like escorted land trips. Or trains. We're thinking our next trip to Italy will be trains.

Agreed. We loved our escorted land trip to Ireland - when you want to see the countryside and a mix of small towns and cities I think it's easier than trying to rent a car and drive in a foreign country. Haven't done trains so much - although I did a lot of train travel in Japan several years ago and it was a blast.

[navybankerteacher]

4 minutes ago, BirdandBaby said:

Agreed. We loved our escorted land trip to Ireland - when you want to see the countryside and a mix of small towns and cities I think it's easier than trying to rent a car and drive in a foreign country. Haven't done trains so much - although I did a lot of train travel in Japan several years ago and it was a blast.

In Ireland it is difficult for someone over 70 to rent a car (I suspect it might be part of an employment program - making work for drivers and tour guides.),  Trains work well to see cities - but tough to experience small towns and countryside.

[pacruise804]

20 hours ago, clo said:

It still kinda/sorta amazes me that a lot of people, not having health issues, only want to cruise. The other day I went through the Oceania 'catalog' of cruises for 2021.  I believe there were two that PERHAPS sounded interesting to me. And we adore traveling!

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the impression that cruising for you is a means of transportation to the destinations you want to visit.  For many the cruise is part of the destination (it is for us), and some cruise for vacation/relaxation and travel - visiting ports, exploring different nature and cultures - is a very minor part of the decision if at all.  

 

I feel there are pros and cons to both cruising and land travel.  Cruising lets you unpack once but get tastes of many locales, enjoy the ocean (or river), not have to navigate driving, and generally have less decision fatigue; cruising also has muster drills, less adventurous food choices, and risk of motion sickness.  Land travel gives many more options, but also generally has more logistics and "hassle" factor.  

[clo]

6 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

In Ireland it is difficult for someone over 70 to rent a car (I suspect it might be part of an employment program - making work for drivers and tour guides.),  Trains work well to see cities - but tough to experience small towns and countryside.

Well, I'm glad we did Ireland when we did. It was so wonderful. I even went horseback riding on the Dingle Peninsula.

[clo]

6 minutes ago, pacruise804 said:

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the impression that cruising for you is a means of transportation to the destinations you want to visit.

Pretty much yes. We've done B2B Caribbean (a story there), Alaska and TA. Would never go back and have zero interest in Mexico having visited a few places over the years. You saw our trip above. Having seen the O book for 2021 I wondered about Dubai (if I could find a time of year when it's not blisteringly hot!) just to see how completely over the top it is. But maybe I should just rent a film 🙂 We're doing this next fall:

[pacruise804]

That looks like a good trip (although I'd want a TA when done for some relaxing sea days 😉 ).  I'm curious about Alaska - what didn't you like?  We plan to take my in-laws for their 50th anniversary (cruise/land tour combo), but I expect with the scenery they will be pleased (especially since they picked it 😉 )