Logistics for Longer Cruises

[ldubs]

16 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

Hmm, the thing I can't wait to start each morning, is to not wake up in the morning. 😄

 

 

 

12 minutes ago, 2wheelin said:

Well, at least not until later in the morning. Lol

 

And, there is that too!!   

[clo]

6 hours ago, 2wheelin said:

Well, at least not until later in the morning. Lol

My favorite thing about retirement is making a cup of coffee (I only have one a day usually) and sitting down and drinking it.

[DarrenM]

I get up really early every morning usually between 5:30am to 6am.

 

Its my favourite time of day. I get up settle in the chair, watch the early morning news, or post on here, drinking my very strong black coffee.

 

In total bliss as everyone else is still knocking out the Z's in bed.

 

I may even be a rebel and have a second cup.

[iancal]

Our first post retirement trip was seven months.  Were sold our home, placed what we wanted to keep in storage, and travelled.  That was followed by three month of living in a furnished suite.  Sine then we typically do two longer trips a year...usually 8-10 weeks each.  Plus shorter ones in between.

 

We moved everything possible to electronic.  We each travel with multiple ways to access credit and cash.   We have set up payments for taxes, utilities to be automatic.  Either through our current account or credit cards.   We have a travel credit card...one that does not charge a premium for FX transactions, provides car insurance etc.  

 

We also made sure that this card has lots of credit room.   We are currently travelling in Cyprus.  We declined the agency  rental insurance so the agency just put through a $4K hold on our card.   That would not be great if we only had a $5K limit.  Our experience is that it is not unusual for certain cards to be rejected by the vendors credit card processing bank.  Especially foreign, regional airline tickets purchased on line.  So we travel with three.  We each keep them separate so we do not loose everything in case of theft.

 

Prior to leaving home I prepay the credit card that we use for recurring household charges.  Very simple to determine the amount.  I mean really, at today’s interest rate who cares if you slap down  a few thousand dollars in advance. This greatly reduces the number of times that. we have to access our financial accounts while travelling.

 

One other thing...this is not for everyone.  We travel with carry on only.  International size rollers.  Not because of baggage fees but because of our own physical limitations.  We only take what we can each handle independently.  Since retirement, if we do a cruise it is always a component of a longer independent land trip.

 

Over the past eight years we have save a considerable amount by shopping for cruises, hotels,  air,  tours etc internationally.  The best savings to date..over 30 percent by booking a cruise by calling RCI in Sydney, Australia vs buying from our US on line TA.  We are today ending five days at a resort in Cyprus..We bought our one bedroom sea view apt on line from a travel vendor in the UK.  It was about half what the resort direct or the booking.coms of the world we asking for the same room, same dates.

 

Edited October 19, 2019 by iancal