Should I Be Worried?? World Cruise...

[UUNetBill]

So my wife and I were talking about cruises last week and I mentioned how I was following some of you on the world cruise blogs.  She said, "Yeah, if only we could ever afford a World Cruise - they're well over $100K per person."  And stupid me, I said, "No, no, not at all - they're quite a bit less than that if you can live in a smaller cabin for 4 months or so."

 

She got strangely quiet and I looked over and saw the wheels turning.  With work and all I'm sure it's still a few years away, but did I make a terrible mistake planting that seed?  My biggest challenge would be my dog - he's very attached to his daddy and I don't know what I'd do with him for that length of time.  At 82 lbs he's probably a bit big to try and sneak aboard.

 

Did I make an unrecoverable mistake?  

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Oh oh, probably you did, Bill.  I'd stick with the dog for now, but don't leave it too long.  We're in our 70's now and have left it a bit long with the 2021 WC, mobility is now impaired somewhat.  

 

But yes, if you don't mind a standard suite on Mariner, it's certainly not  $100K pp, especially if you book early enough to get the Early Booking Discount. We figure we can cope since we love Mariner's public spaces.

 

And the 2021 is only 4 months, so if you have someone who loves your dog and could take care of it for a while...there's availability still in category G!

[travelwell]

Yes, you did! May have been an expensive mistake.  15 years ago after Kids though college I asked our financial advisor if we’d ever be able to retire. His now infamous response was it was all in how we saved. He asked what our big dreams were and I said 1/2 joking, a retirement WC. That night I looked at my husband and said that would be my dream. So years later we booked a 2021 WC.

Like you, our biggest concern is our fur baby, our deaf 5 year  old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. My kids watching him have been ruled out as they have big dogs and my little one( the dog not good at predicting their behavior) gets stressed with them. My niece would love to borrow him for the cruise and we are doing a week trial run this fall. She lives 600 miles away so complicated. But she can take him to work and she loves him and he, her.  I work with some just out of college folks that I may try a deal where they live in house rent/ utility free for watching dog. I will be asking at church too. It by far is my biggest concern.....Oh... did I mention the 93 yr old Mother in law and 84 year old parents!

I am not sure there is ever a good time but insurance much more $$$ as you get older. We got a break as I was 59 and my husband 63 when booked. Parents and dog would only be older if we delayed.

 

Happy Shopping and Dreaming!!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Hope you find someone to watch your fur baby, sounds like your niece would be perfect 'cept for the distance.

 

We're between pets right now (my ancient cat died last fall), so I'm resisting the urge to get any other pet until after this big cruise.

[IndiTravler]

Oh Bill -- if you have to ask, yes you did...…     

 

Enjoy your cruise

 

[Travelcat2]

Bill, not necessarily.  A few years ago we decided that pets were more important than a world cruise (not that we do not want to take as many cruises as possible - just not long ones).  Plus, if we did a world cruise, we likely would not do any other cruises for a year or two and that is not okay with either of us.

 

Think you have to wait until you both retire and see what you think then.  Before we retired, there were so many things that I thought that I wanted to do.  It was fun thinking about it.  Within a week of retiring, we moved 1,200 miles from "home" and never looked back.   

 

Retirement is an interesting state - one that takes time to get used to.   

Edited April 30, 2019 by Travelcat2

[bissel]

Travelcat, I believe you have summed up retirement very well.  

[cwn]

 

I agree with Wendy and Travelwell and go sooner than later!! Go for it!!

 

 We had talked about doing a WC some day but were working on other trips on our bucket list since retirement in 2009. Two years ago, May 2017, DH was looking a flyer for the 2019 Princess WC. He asked if I was still interested...well yes!! He liked that Princess ship and the itinerary caught his eye.

 

I went to work checking the 2018 and 2019 WC itineraries and prices on the several ships we like to sail on. The rest is history, as they say. On the first of June we booked the Navigator Jan 8, 2018 WC, the last cabin that was open at the time, and had a wonderful time!

 

My point is don't wait! I You never know. If we had waited till this year, which was tempting since we had to pay in full because we booked in the 6 month window and we already had a Seabourn Alaska trip booked for Sept, we would not have made this dream trip. I had a stroke on Jan 9, 2019. I will ever be thankful DH saw the flyer and we made the trip in 2018!!  We will sail again some time, but not on that kind of trip.

 

Carolyn

Edited May 1, 2019 by cwn

[ronrick1943]

World Cruise, don't if it would be for us.  However cruising is, we have booked a 30 day cruise with a few extra days in the beginning and at the end 5 extra days for a total of 37 days.  Which is long for us to be away from our Gucci.  We found a person that lives in while you're gone.  Very good person, yes we did a background check and used them 2 short trips before this trip we're on.  They send photos during the trip and Gucci is happy in her home.  She is an older lady, but we feel better about her at home even if a kennel is one of the best.  There is nothing like home.  As retirements I have no idea how we had time for for work.  Yes we did plan for retirement, years and years ago and plan to enjoy everyday ahead of us.  You will too.

[travelwell]

Ronrick,

How did you find your lady? People keep recommending HouseSitters of America but I do not know anyone who has actually used them.

[ronrick1943]

40 minutes ago, travelwell said:

Ronrick,

How did you find your lady? People keep recommending HouseSitters of America but I do not know anyone who has actually used them.

The person is a him,  the lady is are dog.  We found him though friends of ours who had used this person for sometime.  In checking it turned out that 3 of our friends used him.  However being our baby we still did a back ground check just in case.  I would ask around, once you find the right one, book we'll in advance because they fill up fast if they are good.

[UUNetBill]

Thanks, everyone for the input.  I'm kind of 'halfway thinking out loud' as a WC is out of our reach right now work-wise, if not money-wise.  We've never been gone more than maybe 18 days total so moving to a WC would be a big jump logistically.  But when you look at the per diem, it really does make sense - but it would definitely put a big dent in the cruise budget for several years and that's also a concern.

 

Short term it's probably better for us to do several short cruises every year or so rather than one humongous one.  DW and I are both in our 50s (her VERY early 50s, me on the tail end of 50s) so we still have a little time to plan barring any sudden issues.

 

I really do appreciate all of the replies - it's something nice to think about and we'll probably at least keep that on our radar...but a bit further out on the scope...

 

For those of you currently on WCs or planning WCs, I'm going to count on you all to let us travel vicariously - keep those threads and blogs coming!!  

[Wendy The Wanderer]

1 hour ago, UUNetBill said:

Thanks, everyone for the input.  I'm kind of 'halfway thinking out loud' as a WC is out of our reach right now work-wise, if not money-wise.  We've never been gone more than maybe 18 days total so moving to a WC would be a big jump logistically.  But when you look at the per diem, it really does make sense - but it would definitely put a big dent in the cruise budget for several years and that's also a concern.

 

Short term it's probably better for us to do several short cruises every year or so rather than one humongous one.  DW and I are both in our 50s (her VERY early 50s, me on the tail end of 50s) so we still have a little time to plan barring any sudden issues.

 

I really do appreciate all of the replies - it's something nice to think about and we'll probably at least keep that on our radar...but a bit further out on the scope...

 

For those of you currently on WCs or planning WCs, I'm going to count on you all to let us travel vicariously - keep those threads and blogs coming!!  

 

Funny Bill, our longest cruise so far is 18 days!  But you're right, it does put a big dent in the cruise budget for several years--we cruised last fall (2018), and won't cruise again until January 2021 on the WC--aargh!

 

World cruises begin to appeal as you get older because many of those short cruises mean long, painful air travel.  This is a large part of the attraction, plus getting to see bucket-list places all in one go while re-visiting some favourite destinations.

 

I agree about the blogs--want more of them, and I promise, I will blog when it's my turn.

[travelwell]

Actually Bill, 16 days is our longest cruise. You certainly have years to dream. Consider a segment on our 2021 WC. You Carolina boys (DH went to USC) can commiserate on who invented ties😉. 

[Kwaj girl]

Bill, we are in our early 60's and semi-retired 4 years ago.  We've sailed Regent since 2005. Our 'retirement' trip was an 87-night Grand Voyage on the Voyager from Tokyo to Southampton.  Prior to that our longest cruise was 14 nights.  We wondered how that would work for us, making such a big jump.  But to be truthful they had to drag us off that ship!  The next year we did the 72-nt Circle South America on the Mariner and added two more voyages to that one while onboard (Bermuda & Caribbean) totaling 98 days.  A couple of shorter ones the next year (I think we met you in the hallway on the Explorer) & then the WC in '18.  Regent just keeps growing on us....and yes, we booked WC '21.  Talk about sheer addiction!

[ronrick1943]

Bill, open up a Vacation Club account at your bank....😈just kidding!🙃But planning is important no matter what you do.

[DavidTheWonderer]

12 hours ago, Kwaj girl said:

...  The next year we did the 72-nt Circle South America on the Mariner ...

Wendy mentioned our longest cruise was 18 nights.  It was the Miami - Lima segment of the Circle South America on Mariner.  And I wanted to stay on for the rest of the cruise. That experience is a big reason why, to the horror of our financial advisor, we booked the 2021 World Cruise on Mariner.

[GrJ Berkshire]

Like this link.

We are also now just retired and have only booked 20 days in one go but have Jan 2021 Buenos Aires to Lima booked with the 3 days in BA prior to cruise on the Voyager.  Made us think about our availability to do a longer trip !! ( Bank manager sighs!!) . However we are now in early 60's and if we are going to do next 10 years are the time whilst we have our health and stamina to cope having got the next 24 months planned with 3 Regent trips and New England in the fall already in the diary along with a few European city breaks.

We will dream on but it's on our Bucket list to do.

[papaflamingo]

I retired in 2016.  My retirement gift to myself was 44 nights Honolulu to Sydney last Nov.-Dec. on Mariner, also our first Regent cruise.  Our longest cruise prior was 19 nights, a b2b on Holland America to Royal Caribbean.  And the 12 night portion was with a group of friends.  So 44 nights on a NEW cruise line was a giant leap of faith.  My wife was more concerned than I was about how long the cruise was, not knowing anyone on the ship, the smaller size, and the fact that there was less "bells and whistles."  Well, part way through we started seriously looking at adding the 36 night Circle Australia, but had commitments we couldn't get out of.  We also looked at the 2020 World Cruise.  She gave it serious thought, however she wouldn't "pull the trigger."  So we've compromised.   We booked 29 nights New York to Dublin in 2020, and just booked 16 nights New York to Miami in 2020.   And we're looking at adding 10 nights Montreal to New York to make our 29 night cruise a 39 night cruise.  

So... here's the problem....we not only caught the "I love Regent" bug, but we've caught the "I love long, itinerary based cruises on a fantastic luxury cruise line" bug.   

Oh yeah... we were never bored, we loved the small ship, and we met fantastic people on board.

I say go for it.  Don't put off until tomorrow, you aren't sure what tomorrow brings.  

Did you make a mistake? Oh yeah!  But what a GREAT mistake to make!  😎

Edited May 2, 2019 by papaflamingo