Could You Envy This Person?

[SeaPeaInn]

Got to thinking today about the fact that we will be spending two of the next six months on a cruise ship.

 

Can it get better? Yes. I met a person a few years ago while on a hunting trip who the men especially might envy. His wife likes cruising and he can take it or leave it. They spend six months a year cruising together. He spends five months a year hunting and fishing all over the world with a friend who is also a retired executive of a major retailer. They stay home the other month. Don't know if he is still at it.

 

Paul

[meow!]

In that case who cooks the meals, cleans the house, cuts the grass, pays the bills from month to month and make sure that burglars don't get into the house while they are away?

[brian_uk]

NO.......not in the slightest

[Mercury]

I certainly don't envy someone who hunts for 5 months of every year. :eek: Couldn't stand killing so many animals. But that's me...

[hrprof]

I certainly don't envy someone who hunts for 5 months of every year. :eek: Couldn't stand killing so many animals. But that's me...

 

Me too

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Me three.

 

Not sure I would want to spend 6 months a year on a cruise ship either. It's nice to fantasize about having multiple houses around the world, but when it comes down to it, it's nice to be home, and 2 is enough. Now, going on 2-3 cruises a year, with some land trips thrown in, would be very nice.

[Dale Jr]

They spend six months a year cruising together. He spends five months a year hunting and fishing all over the world with a friend who is also a retired executive of a major retailer. They stay home the other month.

 

If it were me and I spent six straight months on a cruise with my wife I believe I would be ready to go hunting for 5 months without her after getting off the cruise. My guess also after six months at sea is that my wife would be ready to pick up that gun and hunt me for the next five months as well.

 

LOL

[SeaPeaInn]

Dale Jr -

 

I see you post on the Azamara board also. We are about to decide on a cruise today to SA in Jan 09. Azamara is considerably less expensive for about the same cruise. They have over a year to get their act together. What would you advise?

 

Paul

[Dale Jr]

Dale Jr -

 

I see you post on the Azamara board also. We are about to decide on a cruise today to SA in Jan 09. Azamara is considerably less expensive for about the same cruise. They have over a year to get their act together. What would you advise?

 

Paul

 

Small world as we are booked on Insignia for December 2008 for Buenos Aires to Valparaiso.

 

If I were you I might double book with Oceania and Azamara and see how Azamara pans out this year in South America. You only have your deposit out there which you get back if you cancel prior to final payment.

 

Based upon the reports of returning passengers I don't think Azamara is near up to Oceania standards yet. Best however to solicit opinions of people who have been on both (Jan could step in here). As for us - very satsified with Oceania and until I hear Azamara is equal you could not pay me to switch.

[hondorner]

Small world as we are booked on Insignia for December 2008 for Buenos Aires to Valparaiso.

We're booked on that cruise, as well. I started a roll call at this location but there are no replies, as yet. Want to be the first? :cool:

[ChatKat in Ca.]

We've been really lucky this year. We had already planned two cruises, we did 3 last year, and won a 12 day cruise (Istanbul to Athens on Nautica last June). That put us on board 31 days this year.

 

We still work and while I have loved loved loved the cruising, it's made it hectic in between. I also think it's made some of the travel a bit (not by much) less special and left us with no time at home to do much else but work since we are self employed. Next year we're only doing the Oceania Baltic's itinerary and some small trips. Of course, something big could come up and I might not refuse...but...31 days was just too much for us at this stage of the game.

[dbh62ark]

Got to thinking today about the fact that we will be spending two of the next six months on a cruise ship.

 

Can it get better? Yes. I met a person a few years ago while on a hunting trip who the men especially might envy. His wife likes cruising and he can take it or leave it. They spend six months a year cruising together. He spends five months a year hunting and fishing all over the world with a friend who is also a retired executive of a major retailer. They stay home the other month. Don't know if he is still at it.

 

Paul

No, I don't envy that person at all and feel kind of bad for them. While we love to travel (we're in our mid-40s and still have full-time jobs too), we have a very full life at home and love spending time with family and friends. I would be very homesick for them and for our pets, my pillow, my house, etc. We were gone for 31 days on one trip, and I still remember how glad I was to go home. :) Three weeks is our max now, so we fall into the category of those who strive for balance in this area.

 

Happy travels,

Donna

[cruzagain]

Envy?--Not at all, obviously these people have no family or don't care about their family to spend time with, sure they must have friends that's why he goes hunting & she goes cruising, or, they might just be filthy rich they don't know what to do with their money!!!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Kathy, I agree with you about the "less special" part. Being working stiffs like you (and my financial advisor tells me I should try to work another 5 years), I treasure our "special" trips, usually in our case just once a year, although sometimes twice. We have our Voyager one-week in December (R&R), and then we probably have a trip to Scotland in July (land), then our two-week Marquesas cruise next December. In between we have our cottage to go to in the summer, our favourite bands to go and listen to, our son to see, let alone the cat. Oh, and our new condo to decorate, that we'll be moving into in February, followed by the sale of our house.

 

But I do look forward to slightly longer trips--3 weeks has been about our limit, and our longest cruise so far has been 14 days.

[Beach Nut]

I love my home, garden, pets, friends and life here too much to want to be away from them for 6 months at a stretch.

 

What we are striving for is four 7 to 18 day trips a year, with one to three of them cruises.

 

We like taking long weekend trips around California in our convertible with our rescued Pomeranian, Sunny. Seeing him enjoy himself so much wherever we take him is a source of constant wonder and joy, not to mention comedy.

 

I really haven't ever met a person who I would want to trade places with, if it meant giving up living inside of me and being them, living their life instead of mine.

 

Thanks for beginning this post. As Thanksgiving is just around the corner, it's been good to think of all I have to be grateful for. :)

 

Susan

[rettiga]

Pleasant to see so many posts from people who feel in various ways that "less is more." As much as we love our (roughly) two cruises a year, plus our frequent land vacations, six months aboard ship would be stifiling, and as other have said, could logically lead to a five-month divorce of one kind or another.

 

We're retired and can do pretty much what we want, but I have no idea how we could possibly cope without family and friends for six (much less eleven) months of the year.

 

An overwhelmingly unattractive prospect.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Here's a story from the other side:

 

When my mother (a long-time widow) retired, she moved up to her cottage in the north country, sold the house in the city, and booked herself on a freighter trip around the world. This was early-1970's, and there were many more freighter trips. She was in her early sixties. She was gone 5 months that first trip. She made great friends, and on subsequent trips that were in the 2-3 month range. She and her new buddies travelled together quite a bit while they were hail and hearty, and when they started getting too old to do that sort of thing, they visited each other regularly. She made great friends with the chef on one of the ships, and visited him and other crew members in Norway.

 

So, just another perspective. She loved the sea.

[lahore]

Sounds like a pretty dysfunctional relationship to me, and also one with very unfortunate taste in 'sport'.