How Much Longer ?

I also plan to continue cruising as long as I can. I have travelled the world in my younger years, and now I find that I just want to either cruise 7-10 days, once a year or when I retire next year, hope to do that twice a year. I also enjoy a week or two in Florida at Gulf beaches destinations. My perfect vacation would be a week or two in St Pete FLA, and a cruise tacked on out of Tampa, or even a b2b cruise better.

We used to have a condo in St Petersburg, but sold it (too soon IMO), I really miss the place, and for years it was our second home outside Canada.

I will continue to cruise as long as I enjoy it and physically capable. Where we tend to dine alone, we meet people all over the ship and have a great time. We have met several couples we have stayed in touch with now for years.

I always book a large table and assigned seating so that I can get to know table mates. On a 14 night transatlantic the dinner table mates also went out to some of the clubs with us and we toured some islands together. Through the years I have kept in touch with some of them and have become friends.

I think assigned seating is just more social then free style or anytime dining. I like to get to know the dining staff and table mates.

We have met some great folks on the cruises we have taken. Our comfort zone is not large so we tend to stay with our own demographics. We try to get to a large table a couple of times during the cruise, however, we enjoy each others company and tend to have private dinners.

See ! That's just it ! We all keep to ourselves now. Used to be we would meet new people, usually at dinner on the first night. Now, with all the your time/my time/ mountain time dining, everyone gets seated as couples. Meeting new people was one of the things we enjoyed.

We have had to cancel a couple of planned cruises due to time restraints. But I am working on booking a nice cruise in the near future. Now, I usually book an inside cabin, but with the advent of the nickel and dime process, I may upgrade because of the items and services that are included. The next cruise will actually be the test. If we have no issues, then we will continue as time allows, However, if it turns out to be a high pressure, spend, spend, spend sales promo, we will reconsider.

I agree with CM as to the quality of some passengers, but we tend to keep to ourselves and really don't socialize outside of our comfort zone.

Since there are many golf courses I've yet to play, we may do more golf resorts and less cruises. Unless it's a golf cruise.....

Norwegian sails year round out of NY, so we take them a lot. But, we do enjoy what they offer, and the prices are comparable. We feel the experience is much better than Carnival. Fortunately, we can get on a ship and get away any time we feel the need. I think in the future we will be consigning ourselves to special occasion cruises on better ships ( HAL ), or boutique cruises. We are intrigued by what the RV industry has to offer, and what we can see in our own country.

We plan to continue for the foreseeable future and have 11 cruises booked through early 2017. Why so far ahead? We have to do this in order to get accessible cabins.

The changes which are affecting most of the budget-minded lines harder have caused us to move from NCL, RC and Carnival to Celebrity and Princess. If the same trends begin to hit those lines harder, we are likely going to bring our business to the next level up. . . but it won't stop us from cruising.

As for fellow passengers, we agree that of the nouveau passengers are some of the most ignorant people we have come across on land or sea in the US and abroad. This is nothing less than a very tragic commentary on the direction of civilized society in general. The MDR dress code issue aside (which is a suggestion), the fact remains that we have encountered so many rude and clueless individuals on our last couple cruises that it is impossible to keep count. The "me-me-me" attitude runs rampant on the high seas. It's just plain sad.

~putting my soapbox back under the desk~

We simply try to keep smiling and go about our business of having a fabulous time.. and let the others spin and spin around in their own little universes.

I will keep cruising, nothing like being on the sea. Granted "cruising is not what it used to be but is better then it will become." Cruising used to be an upper middle class and upper class vacation, now with low prices on lines like Carnival and NCL it is for everybody and anybody. (on carnival Glory we had a toothless Tennessee truck drive that was drunk most of the cruise and for formal night was in a tank top." You do have to set your expectations to your fellow passengers by what line your on.

I am seeing a class segmentation coming back to the base cruise lines, NCL has the Haven , MSC has the Yacht Club, Celebrity has Blue for suites and Aqua class, Even Carnival is going to have the Havana suite section with separate pool on the Vista. Cunard has different dining rooms and menus depending on your cabin type.

I will continue cruising but I will keep my longer cruises to Celebrity or may even try some of the more boutique cruise lines and river cruises. I will keep going on Carnival for the quickie 3 and 4 night cruises out of Los Angeles because it is the only ships running out of my local port for a quick getaway when I do not have a month to do real vacation.

I plan to continue cruising. Yes I have seen plenty of changes few for the better but cruising is still a good deal financially. I see myself cruising for several more years, at least. I am taking longer cruises now, in fact. I never expect a perfect cruise experience.