How does everyone cruise so FREQUENTLY?

[Stockjock]

If I could have eliminated a disastous divorce from my life (by not marrying :D ), I would be through working, cruising every week with tons of money in the bank. AND I MEAN TONS AND EVERY WEEK ! ! :D

 

Although I was never physically assaulted, marriage is just not for some. I'm not good at marriage, PERIOD.

 

Just got off the phone with my last ex-wife who called me to wish me what "might have been" our 30th anniversary today. A real sweetheart, smart, beautiful, great wife, and great Mother . . . but I always put my business FIRST, unfortunately, and as I said, I'm not good at marriage. :(

 

I know better now. :)

 

As the old saying goes, "Know Thyself".

 

It sounds like you do now, as do I. If I got married, I'm virtually certain that I'd end up divorced. I know that sounds like a negative attitude, but again, the "Know Thyself" rule is in effect. Because I can predict what would likely happen, I can eliminate costly mistakes before they occur.

[cathyoo]

I think the folks who push marriage and children just can't believe that some people don't understand what they are missing. Truthfully, you can't miss what you don't know.

 

Tomorrow if my husband & I ended our relationship no matter how bitter, costly, or nasty that break-up would become there are somethings that I could never lose. For all my days I will have memories are being so well loved, of having beautiful dreams (even if they didn't come true) of being on top of the world, I will have spent many years waking up with someone who cared if my day went well, of going to sleep knowing if I had a bad dream someone would comfort me.

 

My children have cost me countless dollars, countless hours of lost sleep, unbearable heartache, a scratched cornoa and a few bloody noses. Would I change one moment.. not on your life.. I'll always have those memories of little hands in mine.. of secrets in my ear, of being beautiful and wise in little eyes. Of Christmas morning memories and graduations and grandchildren. No matter what happens in my future no one can take those away from me. I don't care if my children visit me in a nursing home, in fact I'd rather they went cruising. My children are not here to take care of me in my old age, they've already given me everything I need for my golden years... golden memories.

 

I can't tell anyone of the wonder of children... not even my own children.. it would sadden me greatly if they chose to never experience all that joy just like it would sadden me greatly if they never love with all their hearts.

 

I think we should never limit our possibilities by saying "never" (ha, ha). Leave a little bit of your heart open on the outside chance that you might want to reach for more, might want to take the chance..

[CEWayfarer]

I can't tell anyone of the wonder of children... not even my own children.. it would sadden me greatly if they chose to never experience all that joy just like it would sadden me greatly if they never love with all their hearts.

QUOTE]

 

My husband and I both knew when we were young that we weren't cut out to be parents. We both came from really dysfunctional families, but survived all the angst and are fortunate to be in a happy, stable, fun relationship and we're still madly in love after 22 years of marriage.

 

When asked why we don't have kids we just tell people we come from 'bad breeding stock'. It usually gets a laugh without a lecture....

[G'ma]

Marriage is grand

Divorce is twenty grand

 

Marriage: Too much investment, not enough return......

 

Single for 26 years...and planning on staying that way.

[G'ma]

I get the same thing. I think that the bottom line is that we all try hard to make the decisions that are best for each of us respectively and hopefully they play out as planned. One person wants to be married and have children, you want to be married with no children and I don't want to be married or have kids. Different approaches work for different people and it's potentially all good.

 

I agree with you. The most important thing is to do what YOU want to do when it comes to relationships. Too many people jump into the "romance" of marriage, start having kids and find it's not for them. Divorce is painful for all involved......

 

My adventurer son never wanted marriage or children. He has spent most of his life climbing mountains, scuba diving, trekking, traveling. He goes on 30-day trips to wonderful places....camps out alot (he loves it). He moved to Hawaii about 9 years ago and that has been his base. He's traveled throughout Indonesia, Asia, Australia. In Maui, he met a like-minded woman and they have been together for 7 years....she being the adventurous type herself.

 

Much to my surprise (and secret delight), they married July 4th!!!! Why? Because they wanted to. Not for children (they still don't want kids...and are a little long in the tooth anyway) but because it seemed a natural thing to do.....

 

They seem to be a matched pair, for sure....they are both even redheads!!! He's 44, she's 42........first marriage for both. I'm betting it lasts......

[Cuizer2]

I am in a position where I can afford to cruise. I will end up taking four cruises this year (have taken three - the fourth next month).

 

The first one was a one way from Los Angeles to Miami via the Panama Canal in a suite. So I took a limo to the port and flew home.

 

The second one was a one week cruise out of San Juan, and I flew to that one. However, I took a red eye (the only non-stop available) and thus didn't have to pay for a hotel. I also took an ocean view cabin (though I may not ever do that again for a one week cruise - I felt I lost touch with the ocean).

 

The third one was a short weekend cruise to Ensenada. No airfare and I was in an ocean view cabin (fine for the short cruises).

 

The last one will be a five night cruise out of New York that I am flying to two days early so I can spend one full day in New York. I also have a balcony.

 

Last year I took two cruises. One a one week cruise out of Miami. We flew, stayed in a hotel the night before and were in a suite. The other was a weekend cruise to Ensenada. One airfare and I was in an ocean view.

 

Next year I have two cruises booked. I will fly to Texas and stay in a hotel the night before. I am in a promenade view cabin (just so I can say I've been in one - after spending one week in an ocean view cabin feeling like I lost my connection with the ocean I am not likely to repeat an inside cabin, even with a window, again). Then a one week Mexican Riviera cruise out of Los Angeles. No airfare and I will be in a balcony again.

 

At this stage in my life I am fortunate enough to be able to cruise at least once per year, and sometimes more often than that. On longer flights (Miami and San Juan) I fly first class. On shorter flights (Texas) I'll fly coach. I worked hard to get to this position and now I am enjoying the benefits.

[livestocruisetoo]

Yep can be to 7 ports in about 6 hours. Makes it a lot easier to cruise. I love interior rooms, except on the Alaska cruise it had to be a balcony. I don't spend too much time in the room except sleep and shower/change clothes.

 

 

Greetings from Maryland, a more expensive state to live in. A year ago we spent a weekend in Savannah looking at homes andthe citu. My DW only requirement was to be close to the water. GA was just about the nicest place, evertone was friendly, etc and the governor likes people like us, at least me, old. :D How do you like Saint Mary's? I can see that most of the residents are not old. I see you are a nurse and one of the drawing points of Savannah was the number of hospitals there. Since we are both healthy and expect to leave this current world when the ship we are on hits an iceberg, notice we tend to cruise the caribean, it is nice to know something is available should the need arise. Sorry for hijacking the thread...now back to regular scheduled programming.

 

To answer the question of the OP:

 

Keep an eye out for bargains and book far out to have something to look forward too. Really good deals seem to pop-up between the pricier cruises and it is hard to turn them down.:eek:

[SFAM]

Reading the responses here, I can see why I don't do cruises more often. I'm happily married (18 years now) with two kids, living in the rather expensive Northern VA area. I have lots of other hobbies including redecorating rooms in the house. Truly, I never even thought about a cruise until a year or so ago (we stupidly thought they weren't for us), but decided I absolutely HAD to see Alaska.

 

We had a truly awesome time (HAL Amsterdam) and have decided to go again. But we also love the shore excursions (mostly whale and nature watching). This time we're splurging with a balcony suite and a 3 day day excursion. All told with airfaire, the balcony cabin, the excursions in each city and the trip to Denali, we'll be thrilled if we get out paying 17K or so. As much as we love the cruises, we also love seeing more of Alaska as up-close as we can, so we'll happily take less cruises but go all out on the ones we get.

 

We normally do an expensive vacation one year (like Cozumel, for instance), followed up with a cheap one the next (Camping in the Great Smoky Mountains, for instance - although this year we're doing Ocracoke Island, which I highly recommend to those on the east coast). From now on I think we'll be trying for cruises in the off-year. If we do eventually go to Europe or Asia or the Carribean, I don't think we'll do the balcony thing (I agree that this makes more of a difference in a place like Alaska or perhaps Hawaii). In any event, at this point I wouldn't be surprised if we want to go back to Alaska for the next 5 cruises, so who knows.

[bonniemari]

We are self employed and work together so for us cruising is a nice way to get away from it all. We can still be "together" but can still have a little space from each other. Being debt free and empty nesters helps a whole lot also. We are planning on retiring in Feb. 2009 so more cruises for me. I usually take at least one "girls only" cruise a year.

 

My DH is really easy going and will vacation when and where I want and since my choice is usually a cruise he just goes with the flow and is glad to have a few days away from the phone ringing and hassles of owning your own business. We are very fortunate to have wonderful employees that take care of the business while we are gone.

[Sandgnat]

Greetings from Maryland, a more expensive state to live in. A year ago we spent a weekend in Savannah looking at homes andthe citu. My DW only requirement was to be close to the water. GA was just about the nicest place, evertone was friendly, etc and the governor likes people like us, at least me, old. :D How do you like Saint Mary's? I can see that most of the residents are not old. I see you are a nurse and one of the drawing points of Savannah was the number of hospitals there. Since we are both healthy and expect to leave this current world when the ship we are on hits an iceberg, notice we tend to cruise the caribean, it is nice to know something is available should the need arise. Sorry for hijacking the thread...now back to regular scheduled programming.

 

I love Savannah. Have had a lot of fun there. St. Marys is still a pretty young area. More and more people though are retiring here. The average age of the workforce on the base is 50. I have now lived here 20 years, a lot has changed in that time. It was a real shock moving from the Napa Valley California, to say the least. Homes are still very affordable here and we are close to a lot of things. Jacksonville is real close. The Navy base will not be closing any time soon since it is the only nuclear submarine base on the east coast. The weather here is pretty good. We did have snow one Christmas, 1989. No equiptment to take care of it so a lot of accidents occured. I stay inside most of the summer so the heat does not bother me too much. Savannah normally stays cooler but I have had some hot nights there too. We don't have the pretty falls like New England has though. My avatar is me standing on the dock in St. Marys.