How often do you all cruise?

[cruisemom42]

7 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

 

Fingers crossed it all works out and you can get back to your bucket list.  I kind of find your travel focus captivating, if that is the right word.  Mrs Ldubs planned her retirement for early this year before we had even heard of coronavirus.   We planned on ramping up our travels.  Well, the retirement happened but the travel part ain't happening for awhile.  Still, compared to many, we feel blessed and we know better times will return.   Just frustrating to think how long that might be.  Hang in there.   

 

Thanks -- captivating is one word.  I've also heard "obsession" and "fixation" ... and that's from friends and family, lol. 

 

As I've said elsewhere, I've had some wonderful travel experiences already, but I'm in no way convinced that (my kind of) travel is over. It'll be back. But filling the void isn't easy....

[iancal]

No cruises.  Looking a Greece in the fall, but more likely in spring.   Also Morocco but not too sure about their numbers.  We can fly direct to both.  Don't want any stops in the UK or in the US.

[MamaFej]

How often do we cruise? Interesting question.

 

1989-1

1991-1

Twenty three years without cruising

2014-1

2016-1

2017-3

2018-3

2019-4 (including Hubby's retirement cruise, on which we eagerly discussed traveling nearly full-time once our youngest graduates from high school in May 2020)

2020- Celebrity announced moving the Millennium from Asia to the West Coast of North America, we booked four cruises on her. Those got cancelled. Our Princess cruise to Alaska in May/June got cancelled.  We have B2B2B2B cruises TP to then around Asia, the first two of which have been cancelled, and the next two of which should be soon. Then we were to spend some time on land in Asia, then sail to Australia. That will be cancelled. We were to fly home for the holidays.

2021- we were to fly back to Australia for B2B2B cruises around Oceania, followed by three weeks of camper van-ing around New Zealand, then fly to Tahiti for a ten day cruise around the islands followed by a 14 day cruise to Hawaii then San Francisco. We are confident the Aus/NZ/AP Islands cruises will be cancelled. We expect the Tahiti to California cruises to be cancelled. We also have a Galapagos cruise and potential replacements (pseudo Lift & Shift) for the 2020 Asia cruises booked. Will they be cancelled? Who knows? We also booked a replacement for this year's cancelled Alaska cruise.

2022- we have one cruise booked. We might Lift & Shift/ rebook the Oceania area cruises.

 

How often do we cruise? I have no bleeping idea!

 

For now, we are land cruising in our 20 year old motorhome, on our way to Montana to help our oldest son move. We will take our time getting home.

 

Our younger two adult kids attend colleges that are less than an hour away. They were to be our house sitters as we travelled the world. We had joked that we weren't going to be empty nesters, our kids would. Maybe they still will be as we travel on land, easily socially distancing in our RV, waiting for cruising and international travel to return.

 

 

[TNcruising02]

Since I went on my first cruise in 2013, I've cruised between 1 to 3 times per year.  We've only driven to the port once.  I wish I lived in central Florida and was within decent driving distance from so many ports.  Since we do fly, we fly in a day early and always have a night in a hotel.  

We like to cruise more than once a year and aren't into anything fancy, so our costs are relatively low as far as the actual cruise.  My last cruise was in March, but it sure does feel like a long time ago.  At that time, I was looking forward to my cruise in April.

My mom and stepfather always talked about traveling when they got older.  He died several years ago and it never happened.  I told myself that would not be me.  I want to live life and make the most out of every day.  Cruising makes me happy and my husband feels the same. way.  Someday...

Edited June 27, 2020 by TNcruising02

[sprint180]

1 hour ago, TNcruising02 said:

My mom and stepfather always talked about traveling when they got older.  He died several years ago and it never happened.  I told myself that would not be me.  I want to live life and make the most out of every day.  Cruising makes me happy and my husband feels the same. way.  Someday...

 

That is my thought too.  We have cruised once a year since 2011.  With the flight, hotels etc it does get more expensive.  I too feel I have to live my life while I can.  My mom always talked about going to Alaska.  After I started cruising I offered to take them.  But by this time my dad had alzheimer's  and she didn't want to go.  My in-laws often criticize my "traveling all the time"  My FIL told me I needed to quit vacationing and save my money for retirement.  Wastes more money in a month then I spend on my yearly vacay.  Then complained to me that he has never gotten to use the giant RV he bought in 2003 because he just didn't have time.  Well his is dieing now and has still never used that RV.  But I've seen some awesome things.

[ldubs]

6 hours ago, Lois R said:

Sounds like your wife and I had the same thing happen.........I retired this year too. Actually Dec 31st was my last day.

And the travel part? Well, I had 2 big trips planned for a celebration and the travel part was a no go as well.

 

My wife's last work day was Jan 31.  We did get one trip in including a short cruise in Asia.  We were staying in Singapore prior to the cruise and received an email about anyone traveling from or through China not being allowed to board.  That is when it hit that things were getting serious.  Everything went OK, but if we have been fully aware of what was going to happen we would have cancelled the whole thing.  

 

Anyway, congrats on the retirement & hang in there.   

[MamaFej]

I'm so glad we took long RV trips when the kids were growing up. We got them to their 50th state at ages 17, 13, and 10 and their 50th state Capitol four years later. They earned Jr. Ranger badges at over 100 National Park Service sites. PapaFej and I discovered a love of cruising and international travel in the last four years and have been to 25 countries on three continents in that time. 

 

We really were looking forward to the retirement of our dreams, however. 

 

We can be both grateful and disappointed simultaneously, and we are.

[Lois R]

1 hour ago, MamaFej said:

I'm so glad we took long RV trips when the kids were growing up. We got them to their 50th state at ages 17, 13, and 10 and their 50th state Capitol four years later. They earned Jr. Ranger badges at over 100 National Park Service sites. PapaFej and I discovered a love of cruising and international travel in the last four years and have been to 25 countries on three continents in that time. 

 

We really were looking forward to the retirement of our dreams, however. 

 

We can be both grateful and disappointed simultaneously, and we are.

Hi,🙂 sounds like you have a nice family and the road trips must have been a lot of fun.  Life is so different for all of us.

I have been divorced since the 80s---no kids.  I did a few land trips but when I found cruising in 2003? I haven't gone

on a land vacation since that time....done nearly 50 cruises and your last sentence says it all. I am grateful for those

trips but disappointed we all cannot cruise now.  I retired on Dec 31st and was supposed to take a celebration cruise

for nearly 5 weeks back in April........maybe I will be able to take that trip in 2021.

[Mike981]

5 hours ago, MamaFej said:

For now, we are land cruising in our 20 year old motorhome, on our way to Montana to help our oldest son move. We will take our time getting home.

 

Our younger two adult kids attend colleges that are less than an hour away. They were to be our house sitters as we travelled the world. We had joked that we weren't going to be empty nesters, our kids would. Maybe they still will be as we travel on land, easily socially distancing in our RV, waiting for cruising and international travel to return.

 

 

Sounds quite lovely in your RV.

 

5 hours ago, TNcruising02 said:

My mom and stepfather always talked about traveling when they got older.  He died several years ago and it never happened.  I told myself that would not be me.  I want to live life and make the most out of every day.  Cruising makes me happy and my husband feels the same. way.  Someday...

 

 

Our first two cruises were with a couple that were older than us. They were just starting to enjoy their money. We really enjoyed our trips together. Shortly after our second cruise the wife was diagnosed with cancer and passed away, way to soon.

After that, my wife and I readjusted our spending so we could afford to travel, AND, take trips with our kids.

 

To travel is a gift~

 

 

[clo]

On 6/25/2020 at 9:24 PM, GlamorousGirl said:

creator

What's that?

[clo]

7 hours ago, MamaFej said:

I'm so glad we took long RV trips when the kids were growing up. We got them to their 50th state at ages 17, 13, and 10 and their 50th state Capitol four years later. They earned Jr. Ranger badges at over 100 National Park Service sites. PapaFej and I discovered a love of cruising and international travel in the last four years and have been to 25 countries on three continents in that time. 

 

We really were looking forward to the retirement of our dreams, however. 

 

We can be both grateful and disappointed simultaneously, and we are.

We've done a fair amount - compared to others here - of intl travel, a lot independent and on land and about ten in the last 20 years on a cruises. Now we're going to focus on the US in our RV.

[Mike981]

One of my favorite pictures is the look of our two young kids when we got to the mountains in Montana. Mouths open and just memorized.

We have such a wonderful country to explore and enjoy.