Anyone else starting to NOT miss cruise \travel.

[CPT Trips]

Ah, steak houses - I so miss Bonanza and Outback.

[mnocket]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

That is actually a tough question so like any smart husband I asked DW:).  She quickly mentioned "the grounds" which are always immaculate and well landscaped and the no-reservation policy.   We recently spent 4 nights at Sandals Grand Barbados and truly hated the place because of their absurd reservation policy (we could not get any reservations because we were only there for 4 nights), and the Butlers (for the Butler Suites) out and about by 5am saving all the best loungers for their charges.  At the Excellence we all had an even playing field.  Since the Excellence Club folks had their own designated areas which did not interfere for those outside of the Excellence Club.   Speaking of Sandals we thought the place was so bad we will never, ever, stay at any of their facilities again!   

 

Getting back to the Excellence is sounds like the Valentin operates in a similar manner.   Next time we go to the Cancun area we will take a good look at the Valentin and compare prices/amenities to the Excellence.  We are pretty adventurous and enjoy variety (trying different places and cruise lines).  As to the Excellence cuisine we thought it was typical of the better AIs which is to say pretty good but far from gourmet.   But these days we can spend a day at a decent AI (or on a cruise ship) for less money than a top gourmet restaurant :).  Even a mid priced steak house can easily cost over $250 a couple for decent steak and a mediocre bottle of wine.  

 

Hank

 

 

Thanks for the reply.  It seems the Excellence and the Valentin are very similar.  I actually started looking at AIs in the Cancun area because of a post I read on CC.  I may be wrong, but I think it may have been a post of yours🙂  The specific AI wasn't mentioned in the post, but my research boiled it down to the Excellence and the Valentin.  I couldn't get a poolside suite at the Excellence so I booked a swim-up suite at the Valentin.  Sounds like one of those situations where you can't go wrong either way.

[ldubs]

On 12/31/2021 at 8:19 AM, CPT Trips said:

Was it John Maynard Keynes? “In the long run we’ll all be dead.”

At the moment, I’ll avoid travel.

 

I think it is official with us now.  We are going to cancel both cruises we had previously booked for 2022.  But, we are not planning to completely avoid travel.  We will hopefully replace the cruises with self guided land trips, which we always enjoy immensely.  

 

PS: Always been more partial to Milton Friedman. Lol.  

[navybankerteacher]

1 hour ago, ldubs said:

 

…

 

PS: Always been more partial to Milton Friedman. Lol.  

As, I think, are most people who enjoy cruising.

[CPT Trips]

4 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

I think it is official with us now.  We are going to cancel both cruises we had previously booked for 2022.  But, we are not planning to completely avoid travel.  We will hopefully replace the cruises with self guided land trips, which we always enjoy immensely.  

 

PS: Always been more partial to Milton Friedman. Lol.  

 

3 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

As, I think, are most people who enjoy cruising.

They really shouldn’t . . . if anyone, they owe much to Arthur Laffer.

But we digress

[weltek]

I feel the same way as the OP. I have been fortunate to travel a lot (still plenty to do) for work and pleasure. I've kind of enjoyed the easier pleasures of just being at home and taking trips closer to home of late. We camp a lot (throughout our lives), and have really enjoyed the relative ease of those trips. 

Just seeing how things are locally (restaurants & stores short staffed and shifting hours, entertainment being cancelled, service sometimes lacking...makes me dread bit travel that involves airlines, cruises, etc. where we are so dependent on other factors out of our control. So both cruising and air travel have lost luster to me.

I don't feel a ticking clock because I've already traveled a lot and find home a happy place to be. I might feel different if I'd just retired and had a ten-year travel plan or something that I wanted to accomplish while I felt my best. Or if I felt I was truly near my expiration date, and wanted to feel those rushes of "big travel" excitement a few more times.

 

That being said, we are in a "use it or lose it" situation with a small amount of cruise credit, so we booked something from Dec. 2022...the farthest out we could.  I'm excited about it, in theory, but am making zero associated travel plans because I feel it's likely we'll end up cancelling (and loosing our small amount of credit). And I pretty much accept that and don't have any strong feelings about it. I mostly just miss that it's been years since we've escaped Wisconsin winters! Everywhere that's guaranteed a lot warmer is a very, very long drive for us, and I do not want the hassle of flying right now.

So I'll get back to travel at some point, but I'm not really sad that I'm staying closer to home these last few years.

Edited January 27, 2022 by weltek

[lenquixote66]

I miss Sorrentos on RCI ships

[SelectSys]

3 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

I miss Sorrentos on RCI ships

Do you like to order a whole pizza or are you content with slices?  I have never ordered a full pizza, but plan to do so on my next cruise which may happen at the end of April.

Edited January 28, 2022 by SelectSys

[lenquixote66]

1 hour ago, SelectSys said:

Do you like to order a whole pizza or are you content with slices?  I have never ordered a full pizza, but plan to do so on my next cruise which may happen at the end of April.

Slices only

[ldubs]

20 hours ago, SelectSys said:

Do you like to order a whole pizza or are you content with slices?  I have never ordered a full pizza, but plan to do so on my next cruise which may happen at the end of April.

 

18 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

Slices only

 

I have never had pizza on a cruise ship!  Next cruise I am on, whenever that may be, I will make it a point to have at least a slice!  Maybe two!! 

[lenquixote66]

10 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

 

I have never had pizza on a cruise ship!  Next cruise I am on, whenever that may be, I will make it a point to have at least a slice!  Maybe two!! 

I had my very first slice of pizza at age 16.Since then I have been a pizza holic.

[ldubs]

1 minute ago, lenquixote66 said:

I had my very first slice of pizza at age 16.Since then I have been a pizza holic.

 

The older I get the more I like pizza.  I figure it is good to have as many objectives as possible when we return to cruising.  Having a slice or two seems like a good one.  Haha.  

[Ashland]

Ummm....are we still talking about cruising? I didn't realize just how much I've missed it until we spent last week onboard Navigator...so good to be back.

[Joebucks]

Just sailed recently after a nearly two-year hiatus. While some things were different, most was the same. We missed it. I feel bad for people who look for the negatives and let it ruin enjoyable moments.

 

And oh yea, the pizza was the same (Carnival). Missed that too.

[Keksie]

I have a lot of our cruise photos loaded on photo frames and remember all the fun times and wish we could cruise again.  Living where we do I just can't think that we would get much enjoyment out of a cruise right now.  We are near beaches and the last two days we went out to eat and not even the servers had to wear masks.  

 

Having to worry about finding a test, getting the results back in time, passing the test just to get on the ship.

Wearing masks on the ship.

Wearing masks in ports.

Worrying about contact tracing and having to isolate during the trip.  Worrying about then testing positive and having to quarantine in a cabin of lesser value for days on end. 

All the above make it not an enjoyable trip for us.  We have a couple things planned for the first part of the year that don't require those things.  As soon as all those things go away we will be cruising again.

[iancal]

Miss travel, cruising not so much.

 

Working on a few extended land travel options. This is probably the first time we have not looked at a cruise to complement those trips.

 

Being stuck on land is one thing.  We have desire to be stuck on a ship.

[pris993]

Still miss cruising.  Just got tested today to prove I am negative for Covid to board a ship in two days.  I must admit having to jump through all these hoops is stressful.  But at least I can take a taxi to the ship vs fly which has to be stressful today.  

 

My DH and I have never been up for road trips, so it is either cruise from our home port or stay home.  We have been staying home since 2/2020.  Ready to go now.

[Kmkub]

We just enjoyed a lovely 10-day on The Enchanted Princess. The pax capacity was just around 45%.

 

We had a fabulous time and never once felt like we were being exposed to anything bad. The crew was diligent about cleaning up. It was ever present.

 

I won't hesitate to go again.