Questions - Doing an extended cruise

[CaveDiving]

I would love to do a world cruise, but DH says that is too long. I am surprised he agreed to the 22 day

 

 

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Obviously, get your DH involved in some ship's activities, and he'll like the longer cruises.e.g.Trivia, bridge, jigsaw puzzles, movies, excursions with a theme, etc.

 

Scott & Karen

[OlsSalt]

Obviously, get your DH involved in some ship's activities, and he'll like the longer cruises.e.g.Trivia, bridge, jigsaw puzzles, movies, excursions with a theme, etc.

 

Scott & Karen

 

I got DH hooked by helping me join the Travel Century Club - 100 countries visited. We plotted cruise choices and shore excursions just to add up as many new ones as we could. Which included even a $300 taxi, just to cross the Finland border from Kirkenes, Norway.

 

And in the process he reached 100 countries too. Now we are shooting for the Travel Century Silver club - 150 countries - 12 more to go. So thank you HAL for keeping the unique and more off the beaten path itineraries still going from time to time. The whole reason we started on HAL is I could get one more country out of our first cruise over equally competitive Princess in the Caribbean which was our starter HAL cruise.

Edited January 7, 2017 by OlsSalt

[carolmacey]

You forgot the parts about not making the bed, doing laundry, cooking, grocery shopping, picking up the towels in the bathroom, dusting, vacuuming and unsticking ice cube trays ....... :p

 

Don't forget, answer the phone for sales calls, deal with junk mail, babysit, unless you really want to, taking out the trash, doing the dishes.

[OlsSalt]

Don't forget, answer the phone for sales calls, deal with junk mail, babysit, unless you really want to, taking out the trash, doing the dishes.

 

Well, there is that unhappy chore of unwrapping that piece of chocolate on the pillow every single night. There are some downsides to long term cruising. Or figuring out what exactly is that towel animal that night.

 

My sister gave me a HAL towel animal book for Christmas and they are all pretty hard to make, especially the main form of the bodies.

 

New respect for this arcane bit of HAL lore, though some of them do give me pause, even in the book. I got close to making the donkey, but never got both ears right.

[harrodsfan]

We have been on many long cruises and the ones I like are port intensive. The thing I like about cruising is the adventure of going to bed and waking up in a new place. Sea days can mean rough seas.. not my cup of tea. The longer cruises have a lot of sea days.. so probably wouldn't do a world cruise..Have done part of one though.

[socreader]

I am looking at an extended cruise with 3 other friends for Jan '18. Extended defined as greater than 14 days. Three of us are retired and one works but is able to take a long vacation.

 

Whether its the South America/Antartica or Asia/Aust,NZ - my question is probably more for those first timers who took this type of cruise. Its a simple question - did you get bored or feel confined?

 

dave

 

Dave,

 

Our longest was about 9 weeks and we never got bored. There was always something to do and see at the next port. We did a circumnavigation of Australia for 30 days. Then a transpacific from Sydney to Vancouver for 30 days. We did have 4 days between the 2 cruises in Sydney and 4 days before the Aussie cruise. We love sea days and enjoyed games and meeting new friends.

[T Tail]

As a graduate of three world cruises I have to say yes I do get bored! I know that's not the approved solution here, and my thoughts are in the minority, but I thought I'd give another viewpoint.

 

I seem to always find something to do during the day. I do get bored at night. Now that I'm an old curmudgeon I just go back to the room and watch a movie. The bars and discos are empty. The deck cushions are all put away for the night. The casino is a rip off, and after 500 days at sea I gotta tell you that the shows all run together. The names of the flutists, jugglers, magicians, singers are different....the shows however are for the most part not unique, and unless there are special reviews I no longer bother.

 

No dancing? No Casino? No Shows? means nothing to do for me in the evening. Some like the quiet. Me? I admit i get bored with it all in the evenings.

 

I know, a strange duck.

Edited January 9, 2017 by T Tail

[OlsSalt]

As a graduate of three world cruises I have to say yes I do get bored! I know that's not the approved solution here, and my thoughts are in the minority, but I thought I'd give another viewpoint.

 

I seem to always find something to do during the day. I do get bored at night. Now that I'm an old curmudgeon I just go back to the room and watch a movie. The bars and discos are empty. The deck cushions are all put away for the night. The casino is a rip off, and after 500 days at sea I gotta tell you that the shows all run together. The names of the flutists, jugglers, magicians, singers are different....the shows however are for the most part not unique, and unless there are special reviews I no longer bother.

 

No dancing? No Casino? No Shows? means nothing to do for me in the evening. Some like the quiet. Me? I admit i get bored with it all in the evenings.

 

I know, a strange duck.

 

Not a strange duck at all. Just not yet old enough to want to go to bed immediately after dinner. :cool: HAL passengers do have a high self-containment quotient - they read, play cards, do hobbies.

 

How about writing about your travels in an on-going cruise blog at night? Using the always speedy HAL internet service. :eek:

[iancal]

I believe that it depends on your personality and preferences.

 

We have done numerous cruises-the longest being 17 days. We have also done a TA, which we disliked. Too many sea days. We were ready to jump.

No interest in trivia, bridge, etc.

 

We find that after two weeks the food all starts to taste the same and there is too much of it. The entertainment, often fairly bland and stale on day 1 seldom gets any better as the cruise progresses.. We get tired of our stateroom...it seems so antispeptic and plain compared to the colour of some of the ports we visit. We sometimes feel that we could be at home at our local Courtyard or Marriott minus the public announcements.

 

We now do a fair amount of independent land travel and intersperse cruises as a bit of a change. Just our personal preference.