The Part I Hate About Cruising

[osiebosie]

No, not disembarkation, although that's next. It's leaving my pets behind.

 

They know when I pull the suitcases out that they are not going with me. Or rather, my two dogs know. My cats could care less (but they sure punish me when I get home!). They pout. They're sad. And the day we leave, well, it just breaks my heart...

 

...for a minute or so, and then it's ON TO CRUISING WE GO!!!

 

I have a good friend who's going to literally move into our house and house/dog/cat sit, so I know they'll get great care. Thank goodness!!

 

We're leaving in exactly one week, and the dogs know it. :(

 

Leavin' em behind,

 

Shay :)

[Hflors]

The parts I hate most about cruising, again besides disenbarking the ship, is the travel to and from. I hate the plane ride (next cruise going from San Juan) This trip we are going to San Juan two days before the cruise just to rest up before we board our ship. I thought about going from a local port, but I want to start and end my vacation in warm weather. That isn't possible doing a cruise close to home in March. I use to enjoy the travel part, but now with all the restrictions, and the security and getting to the airport so ahead of time it is just a major hassle. Good thing I like to cruise because I wouldn't be flying for any other reason!

 

I do know what you mean about your dog knowing about the suitcases. Our old dog would get up on the bed and lay in the suitcase as soon as I would get it out to start packing. He was always so sad to see us go. My son told me on one of our last trips before he passed that he went up on my bed while I was gone and cried, you know with that low whinning sound. It was pittiful. Now our new dog goes to the kennel since the kids are grown and moved out. He seems to really enjoy going there. I think he thinks he's the one on vacation!

[janetz]

We hide our packing and suitcases from our dog. :D

[Tatka]

We even have to hide our suitcases from case.. they know we are leaving and they usually become very sad, they even sleep on top of suitcases.

 

As for cruising itself... I HATE packing and unpacking, absolutely hate. Yes cruising has made me lazy. :p

[garykool81]

Our cats both make it difficult to pack. I am sure they know that we are going somewhere, and their anxiety seems to go up once the suitcases come out.

 

But, during packing they LOVE to hop inside the open suitcases on top of the clothes I just finished de-linting and try and start a nap. This probably happens at least half a dozen times while we're packing for a trip.

 

I also hate leaving them at home, but that led us to get the second cat so our original wasn't all by herself for up to two weeks.

[osiebosie]

I keep the door closed to the packing room so the cats won't nap in the clean clothes. I have a black and a gray cat, so if one color of fur blended in, the other wouldn't. It's their way of sabatoging our trip...

 

Shay

[rebeccalouise]

They sure do know it when you are leaving. As soon as i bring the suitcase up from the basement- my dog sulks and gives me that sad look. She wimpers when I rolls them out to the car but she is in good hands with the house sitter. Dogs just love their parents the most! And I know my Dog thinks i am her Mom. why wouldn't she.:(

[TeaBag]

Glad we are not the only ones with this problem. We have a neighbour who takes our dog into her home and even lets her sleep on her bed!! However, she still hates it when we leave. We do not take the suitcases out before we take her to the neighbour's house, but she still knows, several days ahead, we are leaving. We have tried to figure out how she knows but we just can't. I guess they really do like their parents and why wouldn't they when we spoil them so much!:p

[Karynanne]

The part I hate about cruising....waiting for my next cruise....

 

Karyn

[drfun48]

No, not disembarkation, although that's next. It's leaving my pets behind.

 

They know when I pull the suitcases out that they are not going with me. Or rather, my two dogs know. My cats could care less (but they sure punish me when I get home!). They pout. They're sad. And the day we leave, well, it just breaks my heart...

 

...for a minute or so, and then it's ON TO CRUISING WE GO!!!

 

I have a good friend who's going to literally move into our house and house/dog/cat sit, so I know they'll get great care. Thank goodness!!

 

We're leaving in exactly one week, and the dogs know it. :(

 

Leavin' em behind,

 

Shay :)

 

Sitting at dinner with people who only want to talk about their pets.

[Arubalisa]

I hate all those clothes-- packing and unpacking and then onto the laundry and IRONING :( :(

 

The ONLY good thing about coming home is seeing my cats :D

[Sheik]

The part I hate about cruising is always the long flight from Europe to the US, Hawaii, etc. Flights of 12 hours is just minimal and that's frustrating.

[osiebosie]

Ah, well, drfun48, this year I'll be talking about my grandbaby to be... :D

 

Shay

[dmarch@islc.net]

Our mini Weenie dog gets in our suitcase and refuses to move. Now we do as another poster said and make sure he's not around. Stress him out. Wish someone would start a pet friendly line.

[cat616]

Disembarkation!!! :mad:

 

It means the fun is over and it is time to head back to Reality. I DO NOT like Reality.

 

Happy Travels

 

Cindy

[Drew B]

On my last cruise, a week before, my friend who was supposed to housesit and take care of my dogs had to go out of town for work, so she had to back out. Finding an acceptable replacement at the last minute was very trying, and I almost had to back out of the trip entirely (and lose thousands of dollars...) My love for my dogs has made it difficult (both practically AND emotionally) to leave home at all, for any length trip.

[1coconut]

My dog is starting to look pretty sad. I think he knows I am going somewhere. :( But. . .He'll get over it!!!!!

 

The least favorite part is flying on the plane to the location. I am usually bone tired and the in-between time is looooong.

[DonLou]

Our cat was rather nonchalant when we left on our cruise vacation. Our daughter came by several times a week to watch and keep him fed and watered as we were gone for over three weeks. When we returned, the cat was a little wary of us at first but then warmed up. After unpacking for a bit we got hungry and decided to go out to eat since we were in no mood to do any cooking. As my wife left the house, the cat came up and gave her a painful bite in the leg. :eek: I guess he cares.

[suntan]

What I hate about cruising is that the job always gets in the way of enjoying the moments up until the day I leave. For the past two years some idiot in this world has decided that it would be a great time the week or two before my cruise to serve our company with requests for information and documentation. :mad: Which means I'm searching, researching, photocopying (with others mind you) up until the day before I board the plane. Which leaves me with little to no time to do last minute shopping. So history has taught me that I have to have everything done a month before I cruise.

 

I also hate leaving my cat. He gets boarded into a nice facility however it's not home. I always pay for leaving him behind - usually he will pee in the bathroom sink, :eek: which is his favourite punishment for me.

[Culaquis]

I can't say I hate Disembarkation, I always seem to find some other cruiser's that I had chatted with, and on this last one as we disembarked off the Zenith I met, a lot of people who had just disembarked from a 21 day cruise on the QMII..absolutley had me drooling, and what a HUGE ship!! especially compared to the very quaint, yet wonderful Zenith. They had me setting some goals. As far as my cat he is in good hands I have three people , all fellow cat lovers check in on him, so the chances of all 3 backing out ,pretty slim. Being a typical cat he doesn't miss me when I'm home he wonders where the girls went!!...Nope the thing I hate about cruising is....when it's over, I then have to cook for myself!!!! uggh. even a 1 day cruise can spoil you on that note!!!

[SPARKLE10]

Hi:

 

I know what you mean about leaving your pets behind. My two dogs know what the suitcases mean and when I look at my dogs,:( they seem to read my mind, even without the suitcases. We only cruise now when we can get our grown kids to come to our house to take care of them. We had a disaster when we left them at the only kennel in our area that was suppose to be "top notch". I checked them; visited them, did everything I could to make sure they would be ok. There was even a hospital attached to the kennel and I thought, well good, if anything happens they'll get the approrpriate care. Boy was I wrong. One of my dogs got injured and they did nothing about it. We left them for a 16 day Hawaii cruise. My daughter had to take them out of there after a few days, they were in such bad shape. Now that my kids are grown, my two dogs are my kids. I went in there and talked to those people at the kennel and all they said was that they did nothing wrong. I've never sued anyone before but I should have sued them. Next we tried a dog sitter. We checked out her references and everything seemed ok, and the day before we were to leave she was a no-show and I couldn't reach her by phone, e-mail nothing. So now...we only cruise when we can leave our dogs in their own home and one of my two grown children can take care of them. I should start my own business in my town, because there is absolutely no reliable place to go. I even tried asking my vet's office for recommendations to no avail. The other thing I absolutley hate about cruising (and it never used to be this way)....is our airport. We've traveled quite a bit, but the TSA agents at our airport have to be the worst I've ever seen. I've never encountered anything like it in any other airport and ours is a small airport compared to most. The airplane ride itself is miserable, and I just hate everything about flying, when it used to be a fun part of traveling. These two things haven't stopped me from taking cruises, but they're the two things I hate to deal with every time. I really miss my two dogs and feel so guilty when I leave them. And then it's our dreaded airport. Ewwwwwwwww.

 

Sorry, I just had to vent.

 

Happy Cruising.....Sparkle 10

 

PS I just hate it that this says it's my second post when I have several hundred. I had to start over with a different screen name after my old information was lost and they couldn't fix it for me.

[evert9]

Or rather, my two dogs know. My cats could care less (but they sure punish me when I get home!). They pout. They're sad. And the day we leave, well, it just breaks my heart...

 

 

Ditto!! The kitten hides inside of my bags. The dog lays on my clothes and steals my shoes. Dh says that she stares out the windows for HOURS waiting for me just to get home from work so I can't imagine what she does when we're both gone.

[evert9]

Sitting at dinner with people who only want to talk about their pets.

 

Hey now, if that's the worst someone could talk about, you've had good luck with tablemates!!

[osiebosie]

Ohmygosh, Sparkleten, that is a horrible story. I always have a niggling fear that something will happen to my pets while I'm away. The person I have dog sitting is very, very reliable. She's my scheduler at the office, and I trust her implicitly. She's a godsend, and one in a million. I don't know if I'd go if it weren't for her. I hope I'm not jinxing myself. :rolleyes:

 

Usually my daughter and sil go somewhere and we dogsit for her, and then vice-versa. But this time we're going together, so that posed a new problem. Knock on wood, but we've got it figured out.

 

Shay

[tuggers]

I am fortunate enough to have a friend who has been housesitting for me lately, but that could end at any time if she gets tired of it. She won't take any money but I do bring her neat gifts,

I board the Great Dane at a wonderful place run by a friend of mine where they call her the Cruise Director because she makes sure all the new dogs get along. She's a trip!

That leaves the Wire Doxie, the 15 year old cat and the parrot for Marcia to deal with.

Oh, and I just am getting ready to adopt a mini schnauzer I was fostering! But my friend encouraged me to do that. Maybe it won't be too much for her.

So, yes, leaving my pets is the thing I hate the worst. I don't mind the money for the boarding or whatever because I took that on when I got the babies. It's just the making sure they are all right and cared for that worries me. If I can't make good arrangelments for them, I would have to stay home.