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I just assumed it was just our luck with CocoCay. 😂 They said it was high winds each time. Labadee, once was weather, the other two times were changes to the itinerary to remove Labadee after we had the cruise booked, if I remember correctly (long time ago). And we haven’t had an itinerary with Labadee included since. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Before the dock, we missed 3 of 4 stops there due to weather. After the dock, we’ve not missed one stop there. And we’ve missed 3 stops at Labadee as well. Still haven’t made it to Labadee. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thanks for sharing your pics with us. We’ve really enjoyed them! 🙂 Have a great time in Australia!

We also look for variety in ports and sailing different areas. We mainly sail the Caribbean when there is a great price on a suite, or on a cruise that others we have met here are sailing. But we prefer sailing other areas. The majority of our cruises are still with RCI. We really enjoy the energy and the shows, and will continue to sail them when there is a bargain to be found, but I agree that the itineraries have gotten stale. 🤷🏻‍♀️ We just booked another B2B, sailing the Caribbean, with X. Because the price was right on a suite. We now search multiple lines for the best bang for our buck. RCI making changes we didn’t care for, including $$$ increases, encouraged us to do that. Guess we have them to thank for it. 🙂

And the people working in the trenches have to deal with the angry results of their ivory tower decision-making. 🙄 I feel sorry for the employees who have to face the angry travelers.

I think most of this was around back then too, but if not, some “do ahead” planning: 1. Book any specialty dining ahead of time, and/or dining packages, if you want those, 2. Book the shows that need to be booked ahead, usually released the beginning of the month before your cruise, 3. If going to CocoCay, it has been amped up since you last cruised. If you want to get into the Beach Club, water park, or other additional pay area, watch the prices and book when on sale. You don’t have to pay to enjoy CocoCay, so I suggest watching videos to see if you are interested in any pay areas, 4. if Diamond or above, a # of drinks are available free each day. Lost of threads about those. Also, look at the drink packages and see if those would be of interest to you. Have fun on your cruise. We are sailing Symphony for the first time ourselves next Feb. 🙂

I understand and think that would be the hardest part for me too, on an extended cruise. 🙂 One of the ways I “love others” is to serve/ cook for them. And I enjoy coming up with something that tastes great…and uses healthier/better ingredients.

I think many businesses, especially the Travel industry, has beaten that “staffing shortage” excuse to death. 🤷🏻‍♀️ That, and supply shortage. After cutting them slack for quite some time, I see the issues as trying to squeeze the budget more and more, to see how far they can push profits before they start losing customers. It’s much like restaurants on land. We personally eat out less often, and in better quality restaurants these days, I’m an excellent cook, and love cooking. Most restaurants use substandard, or lesser quality, ingredients these days, and it shows in the food they offer. That’s why we are seeing restaurant chain closures. People have decided they aren’t willing to spend on inferior products in those restaurants. There will be a tipping point to cruises too. If there isn’t, like many others, we will sail less, and spend our $$$ on a better travel product. We aren’t the only ones who would rather reserve our travel budget for better choices. 🙂

👍🏼 🙂 And the alternative bars might have a better view.

Other lines have gone up too. What we have discovered is that all lines have particular cruises that are less expensive, at different times. You have to hunt for them. By doing that on multiple lines, you can find more bargains. For example, we love Celebrity’s suite class (much better than RCI), and shop until we find a great price. We don’t really have a preference on when we go, other than I won’t cruise the Caribbean during the summer (after decades on the Gulf Coast, this Tennessean hates the heat then). We found an itinerary we loved on NCL Prima from Iceland to GB, sailing the Norwegian Fjords. It was priced less than RCI’s older, smaller ships doing similar itineraries. If we had only been willing to sail RCI, we would have paid more, for a lesser experience. So yes, the more lines we are willing to consider, the better bargains we will find. 🙂 At least, that’s what we are finding.

We are sailing the occasional other line now. RCI is still our preference, but we are booked up till Feb 2026 with decent group pricing. We do have a ceiling of what we are willing to pay. We don’t max out our benefits for D+, but do factor that in. Jason Liberty still thinks RCI is priced too low compared to land trips. 🙄 Guess he is comparing them to Disney…we don’t travel there because of the ridiculous pricing. If we can’t get decent group prices going into 2026, we will travel more on land. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Which is less expensive for us, contrary to what Jason thinks. We cruise because we enjoy it, but we do enjoy land travel as well.

And posted about it on their feed on X (Twitter)?

One of us should be able to take care of that. Hoping all goes well, Laura!

I have to confess we enjoy staying onboard some port days too. 😁 And I would never bet against anyone saying this is the last world cruise by RCI.

One of the reasons RCI stays at the top, IMO. They get that, obviously. 🙂And provided two options.

We would want ports. Lots of interesting places to visit. But that’s us. 🤷🏻‍♀️

They also have to take into consideration the number of sea days, though. 🙂 Option 2 could be interesting on TicTic, with all the sea days and potential drama resulting (for TicTocers not even onboard 🙄), but I would be surprised if people chose that many sea days after so many thus far. I agree though, that 50% off may be enticing for some. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. 👍🏼

Option 2 was provided so RCI could say, “Well, there was a cheaper alternative, but our world cruisers chose otherwise, so sorry! Hope you don’t need medical attention after checking out the prices on these segments.” 😂 All kidding aside, I hope the majority chooses Option 1, and we get to enjoy the trip vicariously thru them. What an adventure and opportunity for a unique cruise for the full world cruisers! 🙂

Somehow I missed this and now I have 39 pages of reading to do. 🤦‍♀️🫣😵‍💫 Thanks for sharing….and headed back to the first page. Hope you all had a great time! 🙂

Still looking good there, John! 😁😉

I struggled with that at first. So I got a leather cover that opens like a book. I love mine now, and typically have 4k books (read and unread) parked on mine. 😁

After a week of below freezing temps, we finally got up to 32° and even made it all the way to 41°. I’m with your SIL. It’s almost shorts weather! 😁

I hope you have many, many more years of traveling enjoyment! I’m sorry your job affected your health negatively. ☹️ Glad you stepped out when you did. My work stress has been awful for the past couple of years, and has affected my health. That’s why I am retiring early, and my hubby shortly after. 🙂 I seriously love what I do, but the workload isn’t changing. It would be the same elsewhere. So…time to go!

Ah, but you can still do what you want, when you want. 😁 We will be traveling at least 3 months each year, until we aren’t able to physically. If this WC was a year later, we would have booked some of it with these wonderful people. 🙂 Patricia and Laura’s photos have made us want to sail around the Cape now, and we never thought we would be interested in that. I’ve seen some of you say the same, and I bet there are more of you thinking the same. 🙂 Thanks Patricia, Laura and all the other photographers who are sharing your photos and anecdotes. SO appreciated!

Absolutely! Thank you for that perspective. I’m working 12 hour days all this month and am 😵‍💫. Your words of encouragement made me smile. 😁