Just Curious

[Sky Sweet]

I've noticed that there are quite a few retired people on these boards who spend a significant portion of the year on a cruise. For those who do, I would like to ask a few questions.

 

Do you consider cruising as a substitute for a second home or do you do both?

 

Are your expectations from a cruise different than when you were still in the work force and only had the time to cruise once or twice a year?

 

When we are on a cruise we try to refrain from contacting people at home or checking our E-mail because we feel the best part of a cruise is getting away from it all. Does that feeling change when you cruise a lot more often?

 

I am curious because we are thinking about taking a lot more cruises instead of buying a second home when my husband retires.

[Petert]

Hi Sky,

 

There are many factors that determine how you spend your retirement years. We traveled a great deal, due to business and recreational pursuits, before we retired, and planned on enjoying carefree travel in our retirement. Our retirement plans revolved around flexibility achieved by paying off our home, and not making large financial committments that could tie us down.

 

We traveled by rail through Europe and the far east for vacations, and enjoyed this mode of travel, but it was labor intensive. We didn't enjoy packing and unpacking every couple of days, and dragging our bags all around. We found that by cruising we could unpack once, and we could enjoy getting away at sea, and yet experience new and fresh places by just walking off the ship.

 

Having the flexibility to come and go when we please allows us to shop for bargain cruises, during the off seasons or on long repositioning cruises. We look for interesting itineraries, new departure ports or combining cruises with visits with family. On our next cruise to Hawaii, in two weeks, we will have time to visit my sister in Oahu, and will soon sail out of Galveston after visiting our daughter in Houston. Living in southern CA allows us to take last minute cruises out of San Pedro or San Diego, with a minimum of effort.

 

Our expectations for cruises has changed somewhat since we retired, primarily in regard to how much ancillary travel we will invest in. The long flights to places like Australia, Beijing, Santiago and Istanbul are to be avoided now. But we still enjoy the change of pace from relaxing days at sea, the pleasure of discovering new places to visit and meeting new people.

 

A second home is nice to get away from the daily routine, but I think that when you retire that is no longer that attractive an option. I find that the planning and research involved in optimizing our cruise experiences is also very enjoyable. There is also the fact that if cruising loses it's attraction you do not have a significant investment involved, and you can change you activities quite easily.

 

petert

[C 2 C]

We're up to cruising for over 110 days per year.

We live in an area (In Ontario 50 miles from Detroit) where winter is a great inducement to leave. Some of our cruises have been to Europe in the off season combined with a transatlantic.

The flight to Australia is beyond our medical endurance level but someday... when HAL includes NZ Asia-Australia Pacific roundtrip cruise at per diem rates similar to Celebrity it might be possible.

I'm a great believer in cruising frugally but frequently. Many people opt for a home in Florida or Arizona but so far we're very happy with life on board..

So far we have cruised for 367 days on Celebrity and 302 days on all the rest and have bookings for another 100 days.

Everyone of our cruises involve flights of at least three hours so we must plan those costs into our plans.

I'm almost at the point where I can get on a ship in the Caribbean for 8 weeks from mid Jan to Mid March and not care where I go... as long as I go. I just wish there was a cruiseline that would give me a long term lease.

[Kathie44]

We bought a second home almost 11 years ago, 7 mos. before DH retired the first time. It's only an hour N. of here, on a sheltered lagoon accessing the big lake by a channel, with our own dock and pontoon boat. We are still pinching ourselves that we were in the right place and the right time because we probably couldn't afford it today. We were inspired by vacations spent at my relatives' cabin in central MN, but didn't want a 14 hr drive.

DH was only 55 when he retired in '97 and worked for a consulting contractor for several years, retiring permanently 6/30/05. We started cruising in Jan. '02 and have just come back from our 7th with #8 booked for next Jan. We will probably not do more than 1 per year ('03 was an exception) so having the lake house is really a treat for us. We go year-round, but not as much in the winter. We do most of our entertaining there, except around holidays. Since the second retirement, our long weekends during boating season are often Thurs-Tues. Our kids and grands love to visit, mostly in the summer when they fish, swim, boat and have campfires with S'mores in the evening. They often stay over on weekends. For us it's a legacy they will enjoy long after we're gone.

Even if we do cruise/travel more, the lake house will remain a treasured get-away that we wouldn't dream of selling. We would like to move up there eventually and have a permanent get-away. We won't move as long as my 90 yr.old M-I-L, is still here and needs us.

All in all--life is good! :D

 

1/02 Explorer E. Carib.

1/03 Explorer W. Carib.

8/03 Summit Alaska cruise/tour

2/04 Adventure S. Carib.

2/05 Galaxy Panama Canal

6/06 Jewel Brit. Isles/Nor. Fjords + 3 days in London

1/07 Mercury Mexican Riviera

1/08 Mercury Aust/NZ

[Sky Sweet]

Thank you for the responses to my questions. We are planning to book a lot of cruises during the winter months after my husband retires, instead of having a second home in a warm climate.

[bigreckster]

We retired early (55) and enjoyed cruising before that, but only when we could adapt to the work schedule. Now we can escape the cold in Jan. to the Caribbean (or next year on Mercury to NZ/Australia), do the Med. in July or another time and simply spend a month in the fall and a month in the spring in Fla. No, we didn't want to be tied down with purchasing/paying the expense of a Fla. condo...it's so much less expensive to rent one when and where we want to go. West coast Fla. is deserted in Oct. and the rents for fabulous condos is incredibly cheap...and the weather is always perfect! We like to cruise and as we get older we return to various places with a whole new agenda and perspective. We did a river cruise on the Rhine/Danube which was great to see the towns up close and personal, but VERY laid back and too "inactive" for us at present. We'll probably return to that venue in the future as we "slow down" or pace. Keep cruisin' and enjoy it all!