How do you cruise so often?

[weluvlife]

My job offers OT for working Sunday. I work every Sunday throughout the year (except the three weeks I have off for vacations). It allows me to cruise 3 times a year including airfare. It sucks working 6 1/2 days a week but I would not be able to cruise as often as I do. I don't want to be 65 years old and say I wish I had traveled more. I can rest when I retire.

 

 

I have said this more than once. I save where I can so I can spend when I want, and I can rest when I retire!! :D:cool:

 

Have I said 8 days today?? I think not! :eek::D

[jonbgd]

2 incomes & NO KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!

 

We do 2-3 cruises a year. When we were living in SF airfare was pretty cheap doing MR cruises and Coastals and than flying to MIA/FLL once a yr.

Now being in TX it is more expensive to fly to either coast for a cruise. So we look forward to next year, cruising on the Mariner/Magic, out of Galveston.

[tnincy]

while i don't cruise several times a year or even every year, we do vacation 2-4 times a year. it does help that i live in florida, outside the tampa bay area. having several cruise ports within driving distance helps with travel costs. living in florida also has it's advantages for travel deals to the caribbean and mexico, not to mention places in our own "backyard". i do spend a lot of time looking for the best deals to places we might like to go. we also don't live a lavish lifestyle and have very little debt. we believe in traveling and that is what we put our money towards.

p.s. we also have no children and no real responsibilities other than work.

[Nezmo]

2 incomes & NO KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!

 

...

I remember those days, just, lol. Now it's two kids and single income. Not a week goes by I don't write a check for something at school (not small checks either) and that's on top of $8K per year in school taxes. But I love my kids :). I'll take them over a cruise any day.

[enveno1]

DH and I are blessed to have 2 incomes.

 

I own my own business so I can travel whenever I want to. DH has been at his current job 11 years and therefore has 4 and 1/2 weeks vacation.

 

We have learned from our mistakes and are living debt free. If we don't have the cash for it, we don't buy it.

 

We decided to stop getting new cars every 2-3 years and really enjoy no car payments.

 

When business picks up and profits are high I save anything that is above what I normally bring home.

 

We use our Visa debit card to get points that we use for air tickets.

[Donray]

When we retired at 63 we made sure that we could budget 25K a year for travel.

[Pineapple Princess]

Now that we are retired it's a money issue rather than a time issue. I either book ES or book very last minute for max savings. I always book an inside room now. We live within a 2 hour drive of Galveston and 3 hours from New Orleans. Due to gas prices we will sailing much more from these ports. We hold more income tax from our checks than is required. It makes a nice little "cruise fund" at the beginning of each year. Pay for everything using my Discover Miles card. (including paying bills online) The rewards add up fast. I was surprised at how much each month I could put into my cruise fund, when I finally learned to buy when I really need something instead of when I wanted something. We are doing the Alaskan cruise next month. I booked Monday at a good rate. A nice reward for disciplined spending.

[Fascinationfinatic]

Our income is what is classified as middle class (means you make enough but your generally always broke) my cruises are paid for by my little tax breaks. We had 5 kids in the house and both of us claim 1 or 2 through out the year and come march of every year uncle sam sends me a big fat check, and i in turn sign it almost straight over to Carnival.

 

Alot of downers on airfare. My last cruise (Freedom out of FLL) was the first time i had ever flown for a cruise. I shopped around for awhile and landed $250 round trip for two ATL-FLL, now that beats driving 6-12 hours to the port any day, and nothing sucks worse then ending the best vacation ever with a 12 hour drive (Miami to my home).

 

I also use to try to cheap out my cruises, always 3-5 days, always inside or ocean view and always arrive at the port at the end of a very tiresome drive that had me in the stateroom asleep for the entire first day of the cruise. I however learned a few things on Carnival Freedom.

1) If the ship leaves out of Miami or FLL or Tampa, got to fly it was sooo easy.

2) Balconies rock!!!!!!!

3)Jamaica sucks!!!!

 

So ive decided to go all out every chance i can with airfare and balconies, especially since tax break number 6 came to us last week, god i love my crumb snatchers!!!

[spideyfam]

2 incomes & NO KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

YOU ARE A DINK !!!!!

That's Double Income No Kids!!!

 

[Tapi]

We can fly non-rev as well, but don't do it for cruises. I'm afraid of missing the ship.

 

Have you ever missed the ship flying non-rev?

 

We've been very "creative"

 

If we are planing on flying down a few days early, we've non-revved. If we have a tight window, we well buy tickets. Other times, I've purchased one way tickets and non revved back. And other times, I've purchased a ticket for my wife and then I'll try to jumpseat.

 

One time, we were trying to get to Ft. Lauderdale but all the flights into Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach were full, with an ever growing list of standbys (I think that at one point in time, there were 72 non revvers on the list!). So we switched gears, flew to Melbourne instead, rented a car, and drive 2.5 hrs to Ft. Lauderdale.

[Duncarob]

Cruising is a tremendous value. C'mon.....shop smart and you can get a 7 day cruise for less than $400pp. And that includes all your food and entertainment! You can get a shorter cruise for $279......I' ve even seen them as low as $199! You can't even go CAMPING that cheap!

[elcuchio24]

Some people ARE rich. Some are frugel. Some are retired. Some are young and have no kids and a ton of vacation time (that would be us):)

[jonbgd]

you are a dink !!!!!

 

that's double income no kids!!!

 

lmao :D

[silverado44]

DW and I cruise about 4x/year and take 3 weeks of land based vacations each year. We have paid off 2 of our 3 homes and have great jobs. Two of our homes are in port cities. We will vacation even more when I retire in 5 years.

[makeda]

Cruising is a tremendous value. C'mon.....shop smart and you can get a 7 day cruise for less than $400pp. And that includes all your food and entertainment! You can get a shorter cruise for $279......I' ve even seen them as low as $199! You can't even go CAMPING that cheap!

 

But the airfare is over $400.00!!!!!!!

[John1928]

:( For the life of me I cannot figure out how everyone here can cruise so much? I am an average person from Ohio. Not rich by any means but we have money for a trip or two. I see some taking 5 or more cruises a year. I just don't get it.

 

All it takes is time, money, and the inclination to do so. If you can answer which one (or more) of those three are the limiting factor for you, then the "how" becomes elementary...

[elcuchio24]

YOU ARE A DINK !!!!!

 

That's Double Income No Kids!!!

 

 

So am I. You've been listening to too much Bob Marley bub!

[ihibernate]

I remember those days, just, lol. Now it's two kids and single income. Not a week goes by I don't write a check for something at school (not small checks either) and that's on top of $8K per year in school taxes. But I love my kids :). I'll take them over a cruise any day.

Good answer! That is the most important thing to keep in mind. If you are fortunate enough to take them along they do get really important life lessons. Friends are taking their kids to Belize to see how families in other countries live. We give $1 Million to the winner of "Survivor" but what do the people who really live there have? It is good to see how lucky and blessed they really are. I can't wait for my grandsons to get old enough to go with us!

[firefly333]

I misread the subject line and thought it said WHY do you cruise do often .. lmao.. and thought good question.

[alexieb]

:( For the life of me I cannot figure out how everyone here can cruise so much? I am an average person from Ohio. Not rich by any means but we have money for a trip or two. I see some taking 5 or more cruises a year. I just don't get it.

 

 

If you live near a port it is the most economical vacation by far! We live in South Florida and are able to cruise so cheap!

[AQW]

I cruised six times in 2009 largely due to the swine flu scare driving West Coast departures to record low prices. We paid $89pp for an inside cabin on a 3-night, and could have paid $169pp for an inside on a 7-night but decided to go all-out and grab a balcony... for $359pp! We will probably never see that again, so I'm glad we went cruise-crazy when we had the chance. :)

 

Now, back to 1-2x/yr for us...

[MissDiva1]

If you book 1As and don't spend a lot onboard I can see it easily.

 

And yes, living on top of a port must help.

 

I don't cruise for cruising sake. I'm not one of those with the mantra "as long as I'm on a ship I'm happy." Rather, I like to be comfortable and get the best I can go for so I go all out and am happy with one trip or less a year. I would not be happy with five cruises a year if I had to stay in a tiny room.

 

 

Ditto! Ditto! Plus I would get cruised out.......we use to cruise twice a year now it is once a year and the rest land vacations.......

[Mike&Shell]

We would cruise more..

But I have to Visit the Big Mouse because I love me some Disney.

 

This is my 3000 Post... Mile Stone for me..

[tropicaledrink]

We've sailed twice from Mobile and once from Port Canaveral in the last year. My first cruise on the Legend was paid for by parents.

 

First cruise on the Elation (5 day) was paid by my in-laws as a honeymoon gift. 2nd on the Elation (4 day) was a BARGAIN (we paid under $50 per day person) and was a quick weekend get-away. (The port of Mobile is 2 hours from us. We can get up and drive there the morning of departure).

 

The last one on the Dream, we still paid well under $100 per person per day. And even though it was almost a 10 hour drive, we still drove.

 

In the last year, we have discovered that we just aren't short cruise kind of people. We will be pretty much exclusively booking 7 days or longer from this point forward....which also means the number of cruises we take will go down. So now, we aren't looking to cruise until at least Summer 2012.

 

Also? We don't have kids, we budget, we actually have to pay very few bills because my job covers some living expenses, and pretty much only splurge on vacation. We don't gamble or drink in excess on the ships - our last sign and sail bill was $250 (including $140 in gratuities). Of course, we did have $100 FCC certificate helping us out. :)

[Carnivalcruiselady]

I work for a school district and my hubby is an independent contractor. I have to go on cruises during high season when they cost more. We always go on a cruise in February during President's Week when my school district is off. My hubby can take off anytime he wants. We also go on a cruise during August. We also go away during Christmas recess, April recess and a week in July. We also have 2 timeshares. I just retired so now I am a snowbird; 6 months in Florida and 6 months on Long Island. We both worked very hard to make money so we could enjoy our lives. I have taken 19 cruises in 9 years and 6 months. We just recently tried a cruise getting on the day after Christmas and being on the boat for New Years Day. Again that is high season. Now we can book cruises during off season and get cheaper rates which means we will probably go on 3 cruises a year.

 

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