Time to jump ship?

I know someone that does both river and ocean cruising. Quite frankly, he prefers the ocean cruising, even with all the cutbacks.

I'm not cruised out at all, we still love cruising. My wife and I did a few Caribbean cruises and found it like Groundhog Day, every island the same. So, we mostly do European cruises and they have gone up the most I think. It's in Europe where the other options are looking better, but we do have a cruise in the Med next year already. Hoping the scary prices we see so far in 2025 might come down

Remember that PEANUTS strip? "psychiatry .10?

Please try to curb your enthusiasm.

Good for you CK, we loved camping when we were younger. We would probably still be doing it if my back and my wife's knees could handle it.

I don't know. I still enjoy it all, especially things like the smell and beauty of the sea, or ocean sunrises/sunsets while sitting on my balcony, or marveling at the sight of seabirds flying miles and miles from land. Dolphins, flying fish, storm squalls way out to sea etc.,.... etc............ I suppose I could have all those things on a daily basis if I was able to plop down a million or so for a beachside condo, but then I wouldn't get to experience the vibe and culture of our brief stops at the various islands. Just long enough to get a taste, which is all we want.

No one enjoys paying more for less in anything in life. But it's just a reality we have to live with. If it's the "resort like amenities" of a cruise ship one misses, we all have the option of migrating to higher end cruise lines where we may enjoy most of the things that the mainstream lines have scaled back or eliminated.

Or perhaps for some of us, this might (just might) be a natural progression. Maybe those of us with dozens of cruises under their belts are "cruised out" and maybe a bit bored with it (if perhaps only on a subconscious level). They are looking for a new experience, or at least the excuse to try one.

Still having the occassional discussion with the boss about what happens after our bookings run out... 4 to go...by now we'd be well into 2025...after all this time i don't think either one of us wants to actually discuss the possibility that we're done with it...spending all that dough for an increasingly poor experience...well....I guess we're sort of willing...sort of...thats a long way from hot to trot ain't it??

Been on 35 cruises so far, different Carnival ships, etc. Same ports, same food, etc. Prices going up, food rationed(no all night eating) unruly passengers, hogging this and that, loyalty stuff now junk. We love cruising, but we rethink on how many cruises we do a year. We now going to do one a year now starting next year only one on Jubilee. We just got off a week camping trip in our pop up camper, good food and drink no rude people, no beaches shoved down our throat, our own movies, all for $250, $2500 approx for a week cruise or $250 for week of camping?

Understand your thinking. We still enjoy ocean cruising even with the food being less than ideal, but it gets us away from home, meeting new people and as long as we are able actively walking around. Not sure what will be our turning point, but I'm sure it's out there. Sometimes you just need to do something else for a while and then maybe check back in to see if cruising has improved or not. Life is too short to be unhappy with your vacation choices.