Travel & Holidays Living on a cruise ship

Discussion in 'Living Room' started by skyfall, 8th May, 2019.

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  1. Scott No Mates

    Scott No Mates Well-Known Member

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    Like this one?

    upload_2019-5-8_22-30-0.png
     
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  2. datto

    datto Well-Known Member

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    I wouldn't like to be on that in the high seas.

    Hoist the yardarm. Splice the mainbrace. It's gonna be a big night captain.
     
  3. SatayKing

    SatayKing Well-Known Member

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    Burial would be cheap and quick. Zero need for a funeral service.
     
  4. Lizzie

    Lizzie Well-Known Member

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    I am totally not interested in cruising, for cruising sake, but there are two that interest me - the Alaska Glaciers - and this guys (max 120 people):

    Coral Adventurer | Kimberley Cruise Centre

    Might have to save my bikkies
     
    Last edited: 9th May, 2019
  5. albanga

    albanga Well-Known Member

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    I have to say I have been cruise adverse my entire life. That is until a few years ago my wife won out and we booked 10 nights on the Celebrity Solstice.
    We have done a bit of traveling but that was without a doubt our best ever holiday! It was just SO easy and we met a lot of new and fascinating people who we are now friends with.

    If I was retired I could definitely do a few months on one. Years would likely be pushing it but once in routine who knows.
     
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  6. Islay

    Islay Well-Known Member

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    With you on this @Lizzie. We did do a Kimberly cruise a number of years ago. I think 2010? It was perhaps one of the best places I have ever been. It was a smaller boat 40 passengers, Kimberly princess I think.
     
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  7. Marg4000

    Marg4000 Well-Known Member

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    I’m with you!

    We have done the Alaskan glacier cruise, absolutely fabulous, and the Kimberley cruise is on the list!
    Marg
     
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  8. geoffw

    geoffw Moderator Staff Member

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    I'm not a cruise type of person myself, but we loved our Nile Cruise a couple of years ago. There was always something to see, the entire time.

    We were very fortunate with our timing. It had just gone into summer season, with prices halved, and we also were bumped from our boat - so that we got a suite instead of a cabin on the new one.

    These are very small vessels as compared with the ocean going liners, so much more intimate. We made friends there that we are still in touch with.
     
    Last edited: 9th May, 2019
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  9. skyfall

    skyfall Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the comments and mentions about travel insurance. I will ask a travel agent for a quote and get a policy before I go. On my previous cruise I had to see the onboard doctor and the bill was about US$280 for consultation and antibiotics so I'd hate to think what an emergency would cost.

    I put on 3kg during my cruise, it was easy to do with room service and all the food available so I'll need to eat properly and swim regularly, plus go to the gym. Cruise ships aren't all beer and skittles. Sacrifices need to be made to stay healthy and enjoy the journey. I think I'll start with a 60 day world cruise then cruise the Carribbean as I've heard scuba diving is good in Belize and Mexico.
     
  10. skyfall

    skyfall Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the link. I've found 2 people living on cruise ships including this lady and a guy who's been doing it for 20 years.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/post...ts-like-to-live-on-a-cruise-ship-for-8-years/

    What it’s like to live on a cruise ship for 8 years

    I still remember his words. “Don’t stop cruising,” my husband told me the day before he died of cancer in 1997. Mason was a banker and real estate appraiser who introduced me to cruising. During our 50 years together, we had taken 89 cruises.

    Alone and struggling to maintain a large four-bedroom home after his death, I took my daughter’s advice, sold our house and a lifetime’s accumulation of furnishings and collectibles and became a permanent resident on a five-star cruise ship.

    That decision took quite a bit of soul searching. I worried about distancing myself from friends and family. But as I thought about it, I realized that my children were grown and doing their own thing. Nothing was holding me back.

    Here I am today, nearly eight years later, turning 88 in May, sailing to Sydney. I’ve been on this 12-year-old vessel longer than almost all of its 655 crew members. At the captain’s cocktail parties, I’m often honored as the passenger with the greatest number of Crystal cruises (400 altogether, including 15 world cruises).

    I rarely go ashore nowadays because I’ve probably already been there several times. When most everybody else goes, it‘s so quiet, and I have almost the whole ship to myself. I’ll read, watch a movie, continue my needlepoint work or just take a nap.

    What most I miss, of course, is my family. I manage to get my mail and keep in touch with my three sons and seven grandchildren with my laptop. I’m also blessed with a 2-year-old great grandson who’ll be getting twin brothers in July. I hear from a family member almost everyday, and visit with them whenever we dock in Miami. Last year we docked there five times.

    Cathy Lee, my daughter, died five years ago at age 59. Most of my close friends in Florida are also gone. Now, as a longtime cruiser, though, I get to make new friends all the time.

    Three other women live on the ship like I do, but none for nearly as long as I have. Perks come in the form of nice floral arrangements, occasional shipboard credits and actual cash rewards upon reaching high-level cruise number milestones.

    About $450 is my daily average cost. It’s pricey, but luckily my husband was an excellent provider.

    Crystal Cruises’ reputation and the availability of dance hosts for passengers traveling alone (there are meet-and-greet cocktail parties and other events for people traveling alone) are what really sold me on the Crystal Serenity.

    I enjoy dancing, and this I believe is the best cruise line that still uses dance hosts. My husband didn’t dance, just didn’t like to, but encouraged me to dance with the hosts. Before the Serenity, I lived on a Holland America liner for three years. The day they announced they were stopping the dance host program was the day I decided to leave.

    I love to eat and regularly dine at a table for eight. You meet interesting passengers that way. Since coming on board more than seven years ago, I’ve put on 23 pounds. To shake them off, I went on a four-month liquid and fruit diet. It was working, but the pounds came back after resuming my normal eating habits. I just order half portions now and believe what they say. “The older you get, the harder it is to lose weight.”

    Most days I spend quite a bit of time in the bright Palm Court lounge doing needlepoint work. It’s my second love. Been doing it for 50 years and have helped teach it to other passengers. Whatever I make, I give to crew members. They really bend over backward to keep me happy. If they don’t have what I want, they get it even if they have to buy it off the ship or custom make it. One crew member built extra storage shelves for me. Another made a neat framed cushion wall hanging that holds almost all my earrings.
     
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  11. skyfall

    skyfall Well-Known Member

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    This guy has lived on a cruise ship for 20 years :eek:

    This Man Has Been Living On Cruise Ships for Twenty Years

    There’s a home-made sign on deck 11 of Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas that reads ‘Super Mario’s Office’. Every morning, a dapper, tanned passenger perches there, quietly tapping away at his keyboard. An office corner rather than a corner office, this is the HQ for 65-year old Mario Salcedo’s investment management business—at least when he’s not ballroom dancing, scuba diving, or smoking a Cohiba in the cigar lounge on board. While for most people, a cruise might be an annual vacation, for Mario, it’s his everyday life. Though he keeps a condo in South Florida, Salcedo has effectively lived full time on a cruise ship for almost twenty years, making him part of an élite cabal of permanent passengers.

    He didn’t initially intend to become a full-time cruiser. “When I hit 45, I wanted to start a new chapter in my life traveling around the world—that was my vision,” he explains, from onboard the Navigator of the Seas, en route to Grand Cayman. “But I didn’t know about the logistics, whether air, train, or sea.” Living in South Florida, he’d seen plenty of ships berthed at the Port of Miami, so he decided to start with a cruise - and never looked back. Salcedo shopped around, road-testing different lines until he booked a stint on Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas. “It was the biggest cruise ship in the world at the time, and so revolutionary - the first ice skating rink, the first rock climbing wall, so many elements that took cruising to another dimension,” Mario recalls. He has not stepped foot on another liner’s ship since and is about to celebrate his 6,000th night with Royal Caribbean - that is around 850 individual cruises. “Nothing could lure me away from them, because I get treated like royalty,” he chuckles, punningly, “The captains all know me.” Indeed, it was Liberty of the Seas captain Charles Teige who first called him Super Mario a decade ago, a nickname that’s stuck from ship to ship.

    Salcedo budgets around $60-70,000 per year for his travels, paying for the voyages by credit card so that the miles earned will cover any flights in between sailings - if he lived in London, of course, that could be a saving on his regular rent. He books an interior stateroom - “I don’t do anything in my cabin other than shower, get dressed and sleep,” he says - and schedules trips around two years or 150 bookings ahead. That way, he can remain in the same room for an extended period of back-to-backs, as continual sailings are known. Usually solo travelers like Mario are charged a 200% single occupancy supplement, but thanks to his status in Royal Caribbean’s Crown & Anchor Society loyalty club, he’s only levied 150%. And though most cruisers gain around a pound a day when sailing, Salcedo has remained trim. “I don’t eat like a regular cruiser. I skip one meal a day, and eat smart,” he says. “I do lots of dancing and walking. I only put on a couple of pounds when I’m on land eating at McDonald’s and Burger King.” Otherwise, on port days, he skips most excursions, preferring to indulge his passion for scuba diving. Sea days are his favorite, since they’re a chance for the night owl to make new friends. “I go dancing in the lounges, or enjoy a nice cigar after dinner with a cognac, watching basketball or football games on TV. Everything I do on the ship provides an opportunity to socialize.”

    Salcedo’s most memorable trip was a 72-day crossing on Voyager of the Seas from the U.S. to China via the straits of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal with port days including the Canary Islands, Egypt and Israel He wanted to travel with that ship, his first love, to its new home port of Shanghai. “I decided not to get off the ship when it arrived, and booked two back to backs with 3,000 Chinese people, just to see what it would be like,” he says. “I felt like a fish out of water, and it was the only cruise I’ve ever done when I never spoke to a single guest. But there were so many interesting ports of call - Vietnam, Indonesia, several stops in Japan.” He doesn't suggest a cruising newbie book such an outré adventure; instead, Salcedo recommends a transatlantic crossing for first timers, from Barcelona perhaps or Southampton. “Those are my favorite itineraries when you get the real flavor and romanticism of the seas.” (As a bonus tip, he suggests westbound journeys, when the clock adjustment offers an extra hour in bed every morning.)

    As for Salcedo himself, he only logs 15 days or so on land every year, almost all of them isolated one-offs when he’s flying between ports or spending a day filled with appointments at the doctor or the bank. He never overnights at the two-bedroom condo he’s retained in Miami as his base - one bedroom’s been co-opted into what Salcedo calls a "cruise museum," full of memorabilia from his various trips on Royal Caribbean’s ships. It’s only when he’s there, though, that he experiences the sole downside to his full-time life on the high seas. “I’ve lost my land legs, so when I’m swaying so much I can’t walk in a straight line.”
     
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  12. skyfall

    skyfall Well-Known Member

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    Nice but looks too pricey for me
     
  13. skyfall

    skyfall Well-Known Member

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    Yes on my Holland AMerica cruise I found it's mostly older people, 60+ but also found some around my age
     
  14. skyfall

    skyfall Well-Known Member

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    Hi Josh, it sounds like you guys have sussed it out! Thanks for the advice to stick with one cruise line for loyalty points. An agent told me Princess have the best program with practical discounts. I went on HAL's Westerdam to Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. My preferred destination is the Caribbean so I can scuba dive and visit Cuba. Would also like to cruise the Mediterranean and visit some European ports but not too fussy.
     
  15. skyfall

    skyfall Well-Known Member

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    Thanks I might do a blog or I'll update this thread. I'm aiming to leave in August.
     
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  16. skyfall

    skyfall Well-Known Member

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    Yes believe it or not but it's legal, the only regulations for full body burials at sea in the United States require the site be 3.5 miles from land and at a depth of at least 600 feet
     
  17. timetoact

    timetoact Well-Known Member

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    I reckon you need to re-think the inside cabin bit. Maybe ok for a cost effective holiday but if you are going to be living onboard, you need a balcony, or a at least a window...
     
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  18. Gockie

    Gockie Life is good ☺️ Premium Member

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    i reckon an inside cabin is ok. Your room tv tells you what the weather is like, and you can always get out of your room to get fresh air. Re: cruises, the last one I did was a Baltic cruise. Highly recommended, but not recommended if you are seeking a tropical climate for your holiday!
     
  19. Marg4000

    Marg4000 Well-Known Member

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    We had a great time on our Baltic cruise.
    Our balcony cabin was well worth the extra cost.
    Marg
     
  20. geoffw

    geoffw Moderator Staff Member

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    Did the Baltic cruise have scenery? That can make a huge difference as to whether one gets the value from a balcony cabin. We loved the cabin on the Nile cruise, where there was something going on all along the way; whereas a Pacific cruise might be a little different. Sea views are only interesting for so long.