If you could never cruise again, what would you do in place of it?

[Oxo]

Stay home with my wife & partner of 58 years and think of all our past 125 cruises. Enjoy the memories, places we have been. Most of all the people we have met on each and every cruise from around the world. 

What more can we ask for? 

Happy Cruising!

[lenquixote66]

39 minutes ago, Oxo said:

Stay home with my wife & partner of 58 years and think of all our past 125 cruises. Enjoy the memories, places we have been. Most of all the people we have met on each and every cruise from around the world. 

What more can we ask for? 

Happy Cruising!

Great post and congratulations on 58 years.My wife and I will be 54 in January.

[OBX-Cruisers]

13 hours ago, cruiseguy1016 said:

My wife and I have been to just about every island in the Caribbean that a cruise ship stops at. A few years ago a business trip took me to New Orleans, I had never been there. After I got home I told my wife we needed to go back and spend more time seeing the sights. It was then that we realized that the United States has so much to offer and we've never visited "our own back yard". We decided we needed to start vacationing in our country. For the last several years we have taken our annual cruise in the spring and then later in the year we spend a week or two visiting other parts of the U.S. i.e. Alaska, the Colorado Rockies, the New England coast, the National Parks in Utah, the Great Smokie Mountains..... We've only begun to see it all but we have thoroughly enjoyed seeing some of the beauty this country of ours has to offer.

One year our cruise down the West Coast from Vancouver was cancelled when the ship lost an Azipod.  We still had plane tickets so flew anyway, rented a car and did a 1,500 mile loop from Vancouver to Banff with multiple stops along the way including Jasper, Kamloops, Whistler and a final night at the newer Chinese sector of Vancouver near the airport.  We drove leisurely, saw incredible sights in Banff and north up the Icefields Pkwy and met many interesting people.  THAT was a landtour we will never forget.

[time4u2go]

14 hours ago, BND said:

My husband's aunt and uncle live in Ocala.  I never understood the draw.  They only moved there because she had a couple of aunts living there.  We visited and I never felt like I was even in FL.  

Agreed about Ocala.  It's just...there.  Nothing special about it.

[Milwaukee Eight]

13 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Why no love for Ocala.  We are really enjoying it. The beach is nice, but it has huge downsides as well

Did you check out “Big Daddy’s” museum?

[John&LaLa]

23 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

Agreed about Ocala.  It's just...there.  Nothing special about it.

 

Well, you could probably say that about 85% of the country😉

[John&LaLa]

Just now, Milwaukee Eight said:

Did you check out “Big Daddy’s” museum?

 

Not yet, soon though

[Milwaukee Eight]

14 hours ago, BND said:

My husband's aunt and uncle live in Ocala.  I never understood the draw.  They only moved there because she had a couple of aunts living there.  We visited and I never felt like I was even in FL.  

As a true Florida Cracker, Ocala has a good past history. Before Disney, we visited Ocala often. Ocala was famous for Six Gun Territory and Silver Spring. Six Gun long gone. Silver Springs still open but not what she once was. The water park long closed and no longer has the shops it once had. I remember the long lines waiting to get on the glass bottom boats. You could spend most the day there. 
 

Between Silver Springs, Six Gun Territory, and Marineland St Augustine, that’s all we had within easy driving from East Central Florida. 
 

M8

[bouhunter]

10 hours ago, Oxo said:

Stay home with my wife & partner of 58 years and think of all our past 125 cruises. Enjoy the memories, places we have been. Most of all the people we have met on each and every cruise from around the world. 

What more can we ask for? 

Happy Cruising!

Nice post 🙂

We've moved all cruise reservations to late 2021 and into 2022.  So glad we did 6 weeks on ships last winter, might be the last carefree cruising for quite some time.  We'll be in condo's in Florida for 2 months next winter.  Also booked 2 weeks in St. Maarten in January.  If they won't let US passengers in, the resort is refundable and we only have under 400.00 total MIA-SXM airfare to lose, no big deal.  As much as we love cruising, it's liberating and stress relieving to have put it all off for 1.5 years and move on.  And we don't have to send any money to any cruise line for a long time.

[bouhunter]

3 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

As a true Florida Cracker, Ocala has a good past history. Before Disney, we visited Ocala often. Ocala was famous for Six Gun Territory and Silver Spring. Six Gun long gone. Silver Springs still open but not what she once was. The water park long closed and no longer has the shops it once had. I remember the long lines waiting to get on the glass bottom boats. You could spend most the day there. 
 

Between Silver Springs, Six Gun Territory, and Marineland St Augustine, that’s all we had within easy driving from East Central Florida. 
 

M8

OMG, I remember visiting 6 Gun Territory as a child 50 years ago.  Thanks for the memory!  🙂

 

[Milwaukee Eight]

2 minutes ago, bouhunter said:

OMG, I remember visiting 6 Gun Territory as a child 50 years ago.  Thanks for the memory!  🙂

 

There is a site on FB. Check it out. Interesting stuff there. A lot of past employees (Gun Slingers and Dancers). Kirby Family Farm bought the train and has set it up on their property. They have Six Gun recreation events throughout the year. 
 

Visit the site, brings back good memories of my childhood. 
 

M8

[BND]

14 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Why no love for Ocala.  We are really enjoying it. The beach is nice, but it has huge downsides as well

Is that where you moved to?  Actually in Ocala or in The Villages (northern part)?

[Ukigirl]

See more of the U.S. especially the national parks. Since two of our cruises have been cancelled we rented a condo in South Haven, Michigan right on Lake Michigan and late fall a Traverse City trip. We are lucky to have beautiful lakes here and right now enjoying our boat on Lake St. Clair. Only problem is that I have to make my own meals and cocktails lol but at least there are no chair hogs!

[bouhunter]

1 minute ago, Ukigirl said:

See more of the U.S. especially the national parks. Since two of our cruises have been cancelled we rented a condo in South Haven, Michigan right on Lake Michigan and late fall a Traverse City trip. We are lucky to have beautiful lakes here and right now enjoying our boat on Lake St. Clair. Only problem is that I have to make my own meals and cocktails lol but at least there are no chair hogs!

The cherry's will be here soon in TC 🙂

 

They closed Front St. to traffic and opened it up for the restaurants to put tables outdoors.  Pretty nice idea.  But the now two way traffic on State Street is causing some confusion 😁

[retired dude]

15 hours ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

No, it doesn’t even vaguely resemble the Florida I know.  I lived in Naples for seventeen years before moving here.  I am here because my late boyfriend’s late wife’s best friend used to live here 🙄.  He died very unexpectedly two months after I retired and we moved to the house he owned here, and then circumstances kept me here for a few years.

it reminds me of the bluegrass country of kentucky....we raced thorougbreds for many years and ocala is the closest thing to ky that we have found. Beautiful farms that the horses love, but no beach. It is what it is. we live in clearwater but have friends in ocala and love visiting there, reminds me of a better time in our lives. wish everyone well.......

[John Reid]

19 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

Billy Cunningham is correct .The pride of Erasmus Hall HS in Brooklyn and the Philadelphia 76 ers.I posted on CC about him before and the people who live or lived in Philly agreed with me.

Billy had game.

[John Reid]

I'd raise turtles.

[CanobieFan]

Land based trips have always been my priority with cruises being an afterthought or being added in addition to a land-based trip. So realistically I don't think I'd care *that* much? The convenience of Island Hoping might be gone but so would the idea of only being somewhere for an extremely limited time (hours) before needing to head off to the next place.

[mets07]

13 hours ago, HBE4 said:

Same here.. I've already found  a few state parks within easy driving distance that I never knew existed. 

We had the same experience. We have some state parks 30 minutes from our house that we had no clue about and discovered during the last few months.  We also walked over the Tappan Zee (Mario Cuomo) Bridge in NY yesterday. There is a new walk and bike "path" that  recently opened up. 

 

For those discussing national parks, last summer we visited Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone. Also stayed a few days in Jackson Hole.  Loved it. (We actually started in Salt Lake City and drove up from there).

Particularly loved Jackson Hole and Grand Teton. 

 

We have been enjoying the Long Island NY beaches (nothing new there for us!) a bit lately and hope to head south sometime soon to visit some other US locales and beaches. 

 

Enjoy, everyone. Make the most of whatever you can do. 🏖️🌲🚗

[balkor2]

On 7/5/2020 at 12:18 AM, drsel said:

Once the virus is controlled, land tours will always be available and are also cheaper than cruises

 

 

 

I have been having a hard time topping a trip where everything cost less than 110 a day.

Hotels cost start out at 100+ a day, food usually runs about 60 per person per day [10b + 15l + 35d].  Unless you wana live off the dollar menu for everything.

[vettprincess]

On 7/5/2020 at 9:10 AM, fredflint said:

Depending either a 2 week rental on a beach or an all inclusive depending on how the world is, we changed our TA cruise in November that has not yet been cancelled ( thanks Royal how can it happen?)  to a week at a condo on the beach at Turks and Caicos, once we get groceries no need to go out in public for the week!

 

This is how far the room is from the beach

 

No fancy service or bed made every day, but we can get by I think.

 

View=priceless

[cruiselvr04]

Land trips are not always cheaper....we usually cruise for about $150 pp per day. A nice hotel or B and B and food and gas puts you right about there. For us it's about the same.

Right now my work won't let me go to Florida, or Arizona. Every time I come with a land trip idea (grand Canyon, the Keys) work adds them to the quarantine list. With states added to the list all the time I'm thinking we'll be staying in Texas this fall.  Not my first choice as we've already seen alot of the state but will attempt to enjoy some small inns and B and Bs that are new to us.

Land trips are  not a bad alternative but we will really miss the evenings on a ship. Happy hours aren't quite the same when you're paying for each drink and driving, no one to chat with at dinner and no entertainment.  

By all means if you're not limited get out there and see the USA.  Our country is big and beautiful!

Edited July 6, 2020 by cruiselvr04

[GA Dave]

This is 20 minutes from my house.  Tybee Island.  Not the Caribbean, but it works for us.

 

Edited July 6, 2020 by GA Dave

[Oxo]

2 minutes ago, GA Dave said:

This is 20 minutes from my house.  Tybee Island.  Not the Caribbean, but it works for us.

 

Do you offer Categories?

I would like a Balcony, please. 

Beautiful! No need for you to cruise. 

Thanks for sharing. 

[ZoeyVictoria]

18 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Why no love for Ocala.  We are really enjoying it. The beach is nice, but it has huge downsides as well

It is not the beach as much as it is the water (although the beach is way up there on the list of things I love).  There is something special about water, along with the shore, the boats, the birds, etc.    Literally every time I drive across any kind of bridge (even on I-75), I really notice it.   It immediately wipes any less-than-positive thoughts from my head.  I want to see water frequently and casually while doing routine day-to-day things;  I do not want to see an endless line of banks, chain restaurants, and stores.  I enjoy looking at “exotic” cars and palm trees while waiting at stop lights, rather than the same old, same old average vehicles.  I would like the option of going to Trader Joe’s and Chicken Salad Chick.  I would like to think, “Oh, what a cute outfit” when I see other women shopping, instead of looking at the same old, same old baggy capris with tennis shoes.  The horse farms are beautiful on the occasional times we take back roads for a change of scenery, but on a day-to-day basis, what I see in Ocala is just not what gives me pleasure.  And I won’t even go into the large percentage of people with canes, walkers, and scooters at our end of town, or the way they drive 🙄    I will just say I would enjoy being around people with a more varied range of ages and interests.