vespertino

Moved from Manhattan not long ago, but all of my cruises were out of Port Liberty and were wonderful! My favorite was the New England/Canadian Maritimes/Quebec City cruise during the fall leaf-peeping season.

Cruiseelady: I would absolutely recommend a Bermuda cruise if you've been thinking about it, and there are some eastern carib cruises that stop in Bermuda for a day on the way further south if you want more than one destination. The Bermuda only cruises are nice, you get plenty of time to explore the island in depth.

I love specialty dining, good to know that solo cruisers are welcome and accommodated. I've always gone with a companion but hope to do a solo soon, I like the MDR but I find the specialty dining I'd experienced on Celeb in the past to be well worth the up-charge. I just wish I could eat more at one sitting, I found the potions to be too big.

Dharish,

Did there seem to be enough solo dining seats when or if you requested it using the dynamic option? In the last cruses I went on it seemed there just wasn't enough solo table set-ups in the MDR, although they were smaller ships (RCCL and Celeb) and I haven't been on the Quantum.

Thanks for the cruiseplum link, that was extremely helpful. I've only cruised with a companion before and this made shopping around easier for going solo.

Oof. You have a draining job AND you do all the shopping/cooking/cleaning AND he won't let you go on a vacation by yourself? I know these things can look a lot worse on paper (especially to strangers, without context), but if nothing else this is a great example of why we can't let up on gender equality yet.

Oh I was just venting about the bad things I suppose and it looked worse than it really is. The cooking nearly always falls to me since I'm much better at it and not due to gender roles. For context the marriage is mostly good and he does 75% of the cleaning (he is clean and neat), almost all of the non-food shopping and errands, ALL of the laundry (he folds it perfectly and put it away too!), always makes the bed, knows how to listen (most of the time), takes care of me and cooks for me when I'm sick.

Anyway the travel/vacation thing is one of the few things we clash about for a number of reasons. I get burned out during "staycations"; while I like eating tasty meals cooking is "work" to me and I don't consider anything to be a true vacation if I'm the de facto breakfast, lunch and dinner fairy for the duration. He doesn't seem to "get" that or why I enjoy cruises so much.

I'm hoping to time a cruise during a week that he's normally gone anyway so it won't feel like he's losing quality time with me. My decision will stand and he'll just have to deal with it, it won't kill him, he'll get over it.

I'm looking at some of the single-occupancy cabins on some of the various ships to avoid the penalty fees. I'm a little bummed out by the lack of options or maybe I don't know where to look quite yet.

I'm considering traveling solo. I'm married..but he is a chronic complainer who doesn't want to travel much anymore and our kids are 15 to 25

 

So any married women with kids who travel solo out there....would you mind telling me your reasoning? Does dh get pissed? I know mine doesn't care when I go with the girls and is no way jealous of other men anyway.... Frankly he doesn't care nor do I lol.... But I know he would be difficult if I went alone

 

Just would like to hear some various reasons and stories of solo travel

 

Thanks

 

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A complainer, eh? Are you sure your hubs and mine aren't twins separated at birth? Mine complains so much that vacations aren't enjoyable with him and he's got a sour temper with strangers. He travels all the time for work so he just wants to stay home and relax, I completely empathize and understand the latter but I'd love to travel and rarely get the chance. His idea of the perfect vacation is a "staycation" but I get stuck with having to do all the cooking and grocery shopping so it's not a vacation for me at all, it's just another ordinary day filled with chores. Whenever I talk about traveling alone he does one of three things:

1) Says we don't have the money for me to take a solo cruse (although we do)

2) Insists on going with me despite not wanting to go, which I don't want since he'd spoil the vacation for me

3) Insults my desire to travel, puts me on the spot to justify why I enjoy traveling when he feels its such a loathsome thing, and generally has an incredulous attitude to my responses

He has his shining redeeming points and is a wonderful hubby, but this is becoming a problem. I will be going on a solo cruise whether he likes it or not at some point, I don't need his permission. He doesn't object when I go with my mom because her and I rarely get any quality time together and she is aging. But I want to go alone for solitude and sanity once in a while, I have a mentally intense and draining job so I've been craving peace, quiet, and someone else to cook my meals and clean my room when I go on a shore excursion!

I'm looking at doing a shorter solo cruise in 2016 but don't have any solid plans yet.