Are cruises your priority for travel?

[GloriaF]

Just wondering what others do for travel/vacation.

 

We cruised more when still working, and now since retiring we divide our time between doing 2-3 month cross country RV road trips (visiting US National Parks, and seeing the beauty of America), and cruising. I would imagine as we age and driving becomes more tiresome, we will cruise more often.

 

What do you do?

[nukesubsailor]

Just wondering what others do for travel/vacation.

 

We cruised more when still working, and now since retiring we divide our time between doing 2-3 month cross country RV road trips (visiting US National Parks, and seeing the beauty of America), and cruising. I would imagine as we age and driving becomes more tiresome, we will cruise more often.

 

What do you do?

 

We are just the opposite---- we cruise more since retirement. When working, we had neither the time nor funds to cruise like we prefer which is 14 or more days per cruise. We also drove everywhere on vacation before retirement. I now hate driving. Different people have different preferences and peoples' preferences change over time. That is what makes the economy work.

[Pam in CA]

I've been fortunate to travel by land, sea and air to Europe, South America and throughout the US since I was a teenager back in the 50's. I've taken many land trips, including a month-long drive throughout Europe in 1956, a month's stay in South America visiting friends in 1958, lived in Europe for a year on my own for my junior year (college) when I was 19, etc. I've taken several river cruises in Russia, Europe and China. I'm other now (76) and mostly cruise. I still travel in the US but otherwise, it's a ship for me.

[casofilia]

Only started any travel when the children were no longer a "burden" and we were fully retired. We did a couple of "normal" holidays and now cruise, cruise,,cruise!!

[Bill B]

I love cruising but it's not my main way to vacation.

 

With five months a year vacation, if I cruised all that time I'd quickly 'eat up' all my retirement savings! :( I live in China, but don't want to vacation here. However, I can get cheap airfare to SE Asia and stay at 4-star beach resorts with beautiful pools for $30 per night (including taxes & service charges) with a great buffet breakfast - so I don't need to buy lunch... only dinner. I can rent a scooter for $5 per day; and on on the Cambodian Riviera: Sihanoukville, Kampot & Kep, a pint of beer for 50 cents and a pack of Winstons is 80 cents. I can get dinner for anywhere from $1.50 for fried noodles with beef/chicken/pork to $8 for lobster.

 

As single paying (usually) 100% single supplement to cruise (then add: taxes, port charges, tips, captive onboard spending and excursions) I only do it when the base fare is extraordinarily low. Even then, cruising costs approximately 5-6 times as much as a comparably luxurious land vacation. Of course, it's an 'apples & oranges' comparison. But... the bottom line is...

[Lucky TGO]

I love to cruise 🚢. That's it for me. I don't like to drive at all!! I did when I was younger. When there was a lot less cars on the road.

Tony

[riclop]

Just wondering what others do for travel/vacation.

 

We cruised more when still working, and now since retiring we divide our time between doing 2-3 month cross country RV road trips (visiting US National Parks, and seeing the beauty of America), and cruising. I would imagine as we age and driving becomes more tiresome, we will cruise more often.

 

What do you do?

Cruises is #1.

[Go-Bucks!]

When I was younger and the children were young, I took more land vacations not too far from home. As they grew up I took land vacations to Europe. But once I started cruising, I got addicted and now pretty much just cruise. And those cruises are getting longer and more exotic. Once I retire (in 21 months!), I'd like to also do some land trips to places in the USA that I haven't seen yet.

[geoherb]

I'm still trying to figure out my retirement--which started February. DH retired in August. We've taken two cruises since he retired and had to cancel a third one. The retirement celebration for me was a 10-day cruise to the Panama Canal. That was great.

 

I'm looking at some cruises for June/July/August. I haven't narrowed down my final choices yet--still wide open possibilities. I've also looked at taking a land trip in Ireland instead. We'll also be enjoying our beach place in May and early June (before the rental season gets going strong).

[Cruzinnana47]

We mix things up a bit between land and sea vacations--in the past 24 yrs. (since our 1st cruise in 1993), we've averaged 1 cruise every 1-1/2 yrs. Still have some land trips (like geoherb--would love to visit Ireland) and cruise itineraries left on our bucket list.

[OCruisers]

A nice longer cruise at least once a year is #1.

This doesn't mean we don't also enjoy doing other vacations.

[taxatty]

We're about 50/50. Some vacations lend themselves to cruising (for example, Alaska and the Baltic), others don't (big inland cities--can't see Rome, Paris or London in a day, Switzerland, etc.)

[puli]

We started cruising at least yearly in 1984, alternating with vacationing in Hawaii (silly because at the time we lived on the East Coast) now having retired and moved to the West Coast we have cruised in Europe (sillier still) and of course Alaska, Mexico, and the California coast.

 

I think about doing land vacations again but always return to cruising.. love the idea of unpacking once and yet being able to go to various locations. (also no cooking ,cleaning or even bed making!)

[firegal2539]

Since retirement a few years ago I try to cruise every 6 to 8 weeks. I hate driving and walk with a cane so a walking vacation doesn't suit me. My very first job for 17 years was travel all over the US, so I have seen a lot of it. Now it is time for me to see other countries. I, too, am a solo cruiser but between my brilliant TA and my research we get great deals on cruises and air.

 

 

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[Robinsoncruiseso]

Myself (turning 50 on next cruise) and DH (60) still work full time. We try to take three trips of a full week a year and then throw in a few long weekends. Usually two of those weeks are cruises and one week is Land. This year was Caribbean cruise in March, Alaska cruise in May and Puerto Vallarta in November. I am guess once we retire, the land travel may increase as we use our timeshare and it is just simply less expensive...and we will not be working. Hope to always keep cruising 2 weeks plus a year...

[jennybenny]

Love cruising, we go as a family at least once per year, more if possible. However, I prefer land vacations, which we only do once a year as well. Love to lay out on a beach and enjoy the sun and surf.

I find cruising is cheaper than land trips, but I enjoy a great beach and swim up pool bar :) My husband and kids don't really fancy spending the entire day at the beach or pool, so cruising suits our needs as a family better.

[jasbo49]

Since retirement, we take three kinds of vacations: Cruises, the 10-day-to-2-week beach vacation in Hawaii or Mexico and the "let's get out and see the world" vacation.

 

Each has its own benefits. But cruising would be the easiest to give up and the exploration vacations the hardest. Coming up soon is a few days in NYC, where we've never spent any time, and two weeks in Ireland, which I expect to be fascinating. Both are places we visited on cruises and will enjoy being able to linger and explore.

 

P.S.: Don't be surprised if this thread gets moved. It really has nothing to do with Princess.

 

Jim

[GlamorousGirl]

We have 2 travel priorities: land based casino resorts and cruises. Really works out for us because the land based casinos comp us the cruises! We especially like Atlantic City. We also like road-tripping rather than flying, making stops along the way and exploring.

[LSGDRG]

I have been disappointed in all the recent cruiseline cutbacks. Although I will still cruise in the future, my spouse and I are looking at doing more RV and all inclusive resort vacations.

[Elorac123]

Because I have a lot of relatives in UK for 30 years the only holidays we had were to UK but by every conceivable route with stopovers of a week or more and a few times with a side trip to Turkey and Greece.

Then time to explore our own large country but as beautiful as Australia is I get itchy overseas feet.

Canada lured me and that is where I took my first cruise on the Noordam,that was four years ago,loved it but think the 7 days was enough for the both of us,we have a 7 day on the Sun to the Pacific Isles booked for September and a land tour in US next year.

I suspect it will be our last big land trip far away we are both now in our something 70s and maybe then the cruise will be our first choice.

Cheers Carole :cool:

[shepp]

My husband and I have always been enthusiastic independent travelers, especially to "exotic" places, and luckily we can still do both cruises and what I like to think of as Real Travel. Last winter we spent several weeks in Bhutan and Nepal - no ships stopping there! - and then a Mexican Riviera cruise. In a couple weeks we're off to three weeks in Ecuador and the Galapagos (OK, we'll be on ship there) and then maybe an Alaska cruise and definitely a Transatlantic from Barcelona before the end of the year. Best of both worlds, and as we get older, we want to do as much as we can while we still can.

[dides]

Our main holidays are road trip visits to the USA, usually twice a year since we are both still working.Between 2005 and 2012 we managed to visit all 50 states! And it was this that got us into cruises - I wasn't about to drive up to Alaska so we picked a 4 day cruise from Vancouver to Ketchikan in 2009 on Sapphire Princess and was hooked! Fittingly, our final state was Hawaii and we did the 15 day roundtrip from LA on the same ship. We have done a small number of cruises since but are still drawn to USA roadtrips, we visited Chicago and surrounding states last June and LA last November (drove to Seattle and back but added on a 5 day trip to Cabo on the Crown Princess at the end). This year we are trying a few small cruises around Europe (just done the Majestic) for the first part of the year but plan to try out the Regal Princess Ocean Medallion launch cruises mid-November followed by a road trip around the south.

[Esprit]

Snow skiing in the Alps is my priority. Cruising keeps the wife happy and gets me through the summer to the next winter.

 

If only I could helicoptered from a cruise ship anchored off Alaska for off piste skiing in fresh powder. Returning to the ship each day for some fine dining before sailing to the next ski destination. That's my dream holiday.

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Thanks to the OP for starting this thread. It is so interesting to read about everyone's vacation choices. I'm always looking for fresh ideas and I'm glad to see them here.

My husband and I like to take longer vacations interspersed with long weekends. On our month long land vacation many years ago in France, Dresden, Berlin and Prague we were like honeymooners (we'd been together 11 years at that time). In my memory I was Audrey Hepburn and he was Gregory Peck on a Roman Holiday.

 

We've done multiple three week north east coast and north west coast road trips. The most memorable from Boston to Nova Scotia and back again.

 

This year we are going to Madras Oregon for the total eclipse of sun in August. You can bet we will be singing You're so Vain with Carley!

 

That said we've just discovered cruising and we are both hooked. Longer 2 weeks or more for us in shoulder season! If I don't have 4 in my Princess Cruise Personalizer I start going through withdrawals. (So now it's about Princess please don't move our thread)

 

We plan when we retire in about 6-10 years to do at least 6 months driving around Canada and the US. We've already seen a lot but there are many places still on the list. But we are also looking forward to a 35-50 day South Pacific cruise (amongst others) when we retire. Princess has one RT out of LA that I keep eyeballing.

[GUT2407]

For us, it's first choice.

 

Mrs Gut isn't allowed fly, I can't drive long distances anymore.

 

So cruise it is.