Nothing to look foward to, after my cruise

[dmart82]

It doesn't seem right to look at all these message boards after my cruise is over. My husdand and two sons where on the pride 4-18 to 04-25 and had a great time. I am not sure if we can go next year because my oldest son is off to college and i don't know if we can afford it. I want to pick a cruise and do a early saver discount but i am afraid too, not knowing if there will be any money left with Kyle in college.

[marylp]

I know how you feel, I have been on 5 cruises. Each and every one I have booked up to 9 months in advance. Between the booking and sailing I am "actively" saving for this vacation. There are many things you can do to start saving for any trip. I have made and sold crafts, Christmas trays with pastry items, yard sales, bake sales, Avon, curbed spending, dropped change in jars etc.. I actually enjoy the waiting period and now I am the QUEEN of savings and frugality!! My friends call me cheapo but they bite there tongues when I go for a 7 day Carribean Cruise and the best they can do is a trip to Seaworld. AAhhhh yes, that is the best revenge :D

[Isa65]

I understand your feeling....

 

While I don't know your financial situation -- can't you find a cheap cruise for next year and book Past Guest? Why don't you just book 1 guest in the room and put down 1 deposit. At the end of the month you can pay off little amounts until you're done. The second guest can be added at any time. Even a cruise in 2014 will give you a countdown clock and will ease your post-cruise blues....

[cruzegurl104]

Cheer up! Planning the next cruise always keeps me going. Could you do a shortr cruise booked far in advance with Early Saver? Could you drive to the port? Save change in a special jar labeled cruise fund,, it adds up fast!

 

Good Luck!!:)

[rferr]

I understand how you feel. We did over a dozen cruises from 94 (first being our honeymoon) through 2004. Our daughter came in 2001 and my parents watched her when we took one cruise then we took her on a spring break cruise out of Charleston when she was around six and we drove seven hours to the port to save on airfare that time. Swore we would never do another spring break cruise again and its impossible to take her out of school for a week. After that we really have not been able to afford it until this year. Daughter is 11 now and was driving us nuts to take her on cruise so we are taking her on our original honeymoon itinerary out of San Juan on the Victory this July. She is more excited than we are!

[fergusonvt]

I hear you about college. It does suck your money away. Is he going in the fall? If so you must have some idea of the cost, what the school offered, what the gov. offered etc. I have college expenses in an Excel spreadsheet so I know exactly what we are getting (not much!) and what we have to pay out. We luckily had quite a bit saved but only because I got laid off 5 years ago when my company was bought out and got a year's salary as severence and was lucky enough to find something else right away. As someone else mentioned. Book something that can be easily changed or canceled without penalty or plan a non-cruise trip where you can drive and cut costs. I know its not the same thing as a cruise but it gives you something to look forward to.

[susie8862]

It doesn't seem right to look at all these message boards after my cruise is over. My husdand and two sons where on the pride 4-18 to 04-25 and had a great time. I am not sure if we can go next year because my oldest son is off to college and i don't know if we can afford it. I want to pick a cruise and do a early saver discount but i am afraid too, not knowing if there will be any money left with Kyle in college.

Is it too late to put the little tyke up for adoption? :D

[Mikel1733]

Send the kids to trade school instead of college and use the difference to cruise. :D

[fergusonvt]

Is it too late to put the little tyke up for adoption? :D

 

 

Haha, I like this idea. Too late in my case though. He was talking about continuing on after he gets his BS. I said, good for you but you are on your own financially after 4 years.

[michelle1836]

try and book an inside cabin.

 

and dont forget scholarships!!

[jmcancruise]

For various financial reasons we cannot afford to cruise often, so we always book as far out as possible and get the best room we can for our money. Yeah, it can be a long wait, but at least we have something to look forward to. If you notice my countdown clock, I am at 129 days. We started over 700 days out, so now it seems close to us.

[going2cruz]

My kids choose to go out of state so hey I'm having them pay half of it so there taking loans for it. I'm not putting my life and my good years on hold for there decisions. If and when I can help them out on the other end of the loans I will. The good years in life are to short to put on hold. I pay there way to cruise.....this also shows them what the finer things in life if you work hard.

Book the cruise and use the Stafford loans for school to free up the therpy (cruise) funds if you cant get it paid off.

[Silent Penguin]

Life can be such a downer when you're not anticipating an upcoming cruise. Don't get me wrong. I like my life, and I live in a beautiful country setting with vistas, starry nights, and picturesque sunsets I never get tired of, so I'm not trying to say my everyday life is as dreary as March rain, but I know what you are going through. Cruising is a unique pleasure experience that you can't take off the ship with you and relive any old time you want to enjoy that happy and relaxed cruise feeling. You have to be on one to enjoy one. Knowing it aint gonna happen for a long, long time can be depressing.

 

The last time we cruised, about a year and a half ago, dh and I agreeded it would be years before we would be able to cruise again due to the cost of having two sons start college close together and no reason to believe our income was going to increase enough to fit college and cruise into the same year. For us, there are a lot of bills that loans, work study, and scholarships aren't going to cover. Furthermore, our vehicles each had over 240,000 miles on them, and our barn roof needed to be replaced (and still does). I was really bummed about the prospects of being landbound for the foreseeable future. It was painfully tempting to charge a trip or use our tax refund, but we don't do things that way. (Not judging those who do).

 

Finally, last November, I sat down with dh and proposed that if I could book us a cruise for under a certain dollar amount, would he allow it. You probably can guess some of the strategies I employed to find a cruise plan within the budge dh ultimately approved. First of all, we decided to go off-season. This is usually when we travel anyway. We also decided to travel without the kids. Cha-ching! One less room to book. We saved hundred switching from Disney Cruise Line to Carnival so we could leave from a port within driving distance. Then, I booked the cruise through AAA and switched our old AAA credit card to a different flavor of AAA card that earned bigger travel vouchers to use toward paying off the reservation. By paying for as much as possible with the new card (too bad we can't pay the mortgage with it), I have earned enough voucher money to pay about 25% of the balance. (Of course, we pay the balance every month or what would be the point, right?)

 

I hope you find a way that works for you to cruise again soon.