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LauraS
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"Seasoned" is OK -- I like the term "Survivor" - all of us who have made it past 55 (as I did a dozen years ago) have surley survived a fair amount -- children, college tuition, corporate down-sizings, some even are to be complemented for having survived former spouses.

 

Holland America's single share program is a good thing - too bad all lines do not do it - or at least have a less aggressive single supplement pricing policy. Still, I manage to sail a couple times a year -- finding Carnival's carnival atmosphere a bit too reminiscent of Fort Lauderdale at Spring Break, I leave them to the yahoos - Celebrity and HAL have good mixed crowds -- as does NCL - but the Freestylye approach means that I do not get the oportunity to meet a bunch of people at diner -- they really are not geared for solo travelers. I have yet to try Disney and Princess.

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I am 57 and my husband is 61. Still work. I am a supervisor, handling worker's compensation claims for a third party administrator. Interesting work but stressful so I really looks forward to cruising. I have a twin sister and we are lucky enough to still have our parents with us. They are 80 and 85. Now they did get into cruising late in life, within the past six years. They love it and we have traveled as a family for the past 6 years. We have a Mexico trip planned for next March. This will be with all of us and coming along will be two brothers and their wives, so we are really looking forward to that trip.

 

Will look forward to reading the posts on this board.

 

Take care,

Carol

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I am 55, my sister is 57...we just returned from an Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Mariner of the Seas (Royal Caribbean) last month. We found a ship that size to be just right for us. There were so many different things to do on board a ship that size that we had a hard time fitting some of them in. There was something for ALL age groups to do. I saw 2 people on scooters and they seemed to have a great time. Another lady was on oxygen and she sat in the shade by the pool reading a book. One lady celebrated her 80th birthday while at sea. However, if you don't like large crowds then a smaller ship might be for you. My brother is 67 and he likes Holland America the best because of the size of the ship he was on...generally speaking, most of the passengers are over 50...there are fewer people thus fewer lines, etc. I understand that they have the midnight buffet at 10:00 pm so the passengers can get to bed. I would like to sail on one of their ships to see for myself if I would like it. I have sailed on older and smaller ships...once in 1985 (Celebrity's Gallileo...later refurbished and called Meridian), 1995 (Celebrity Meridian) and 1997 (Carnival's Fantasy)...they were not for me...not enough to do, but times have changed and with that ships have changed too. We are cruising July 17 on the Mariner again...this time my 56 year old husband and our children, 18 & 22 will be going so it will be interesting to see who has the most fun!!!

 

Betty

babs2750@aol.com

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I am 57 and love to cruise. I have been on 5 so far, and looking forward to

number 6 in March. I have always went as the 3rd person, but at some

point I am sure I will book solo. This is a great board to meet someone

to share expenses with. I too will come back often and check this

thread.

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I am 55 and my dh is 58. We are both teaching school and will be for a while. Been on 15 cruises, going on the NCL Sea on July 22. When are the cruise lines going to add more adult only areas. On almost every cruise I see children using the hot tubs as kiddy pools with no parents in sight. I work with children for a living and would love to cruise without them. PH

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My husband and I love to cruise..we are 60 and 62 and still working. Right now we manage 1 cruise every year but look forward to retirement so we can do more. Our philosophy is to spend our son's inheritance now. As a nurse for 40 yrs, I've had too many folks say that they waited till retirement to start their traveling only to have some awful illness spoil their plans. So off we go into hock...but having a great time and making memories doing it. Hope to meet some like-minded cruisers out there.

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I am 55 and my dh is 58. We are both teaching school and will be for a while. Been on 15 cruises, going on the NCL Sea on July 22. When are the cruise lines going to add more adult only areas. On almost every cruise I see children using the hot tubs as kiddy pools with no parents in sight. I work with children for a living and would love to cruise without them. PH
You need to pop over to the Solariaum Zoo thread...this topic is getting beaten to death! - you are not alone in your opinion:rolleyes:
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Hello everyone, I'm Larry, 55, and my wife Mayla, 51. I retired from Chrysler Corp 5 years ago and we've cruised 5 times so far since then. 4 with Royal Caribbean, which we love, and once with Celeberty. We like taking the longer cruises, 10 to 12 days. We took our granddaughter on a 4 day Bahamas cruise in April and she loved it. We didn't though, too short. No days at sea to relax.

Looking forward to cruising on the new Royal Caribbean Fredom of the Seas next year maybe.

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Greetings all :D

 

Another couple of senior (68 & 75) cruisers here :p Cruising is THE best vacation for us--for all the usual reasons--unpack once, meet new friends, your "hotel" takes you to your next destination, all your meals "catered", pampered the whole time, the ship is a no stress zone, the ocean is so calming and the night sky is glorious on a moonless night! AND a lot more!! :) Our kids don't mind if we spend their inheritance and we are trying to get rid of it as fast as we can ;)

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I'm another 55+ cruiser. Actually, I'll be 58 next week. That means "only" 8 more years of work before retirement. Nasty of them to raise the age on me to 66!

 

I have no idea where I got the travel bug, but I've been traveling as much as I can since 1970. I didn't do any cruising until 1985 and that was on a Windjammer. Lots of fun, but definitely nothing luxurious about it. I've just finished my 12th cruise and have 13 and 14 booked. I've become more hooked on cruising the last few years. My prefered line is Celebrity. It really is a step above.

 

I think this is going to be a great forum! Lots of fun!

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Hi.

 

Here's another single "over 55" - try 69 in about 3 weeks. I usually travel solo, and lately have gone with NCL. I like their Freestyle dining - I can eat when and where I want. I usually find a waiter I like and follow them to wherever they are working - I strike up conversations with whoever is sharing the table with me. Can't think of a better way for an older single lady to travel than cruising. I'm taking an RCCL cruise from Vancouver to Alaska and back to L.A. in September - should be fun. I have two more cruises booked for next year, but I am still working - have to have the salary to pay for the trips - and may have to either cancel one or retire - God willing. I need to win the lottery - so many trips to do, so little time.

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I envy those who are still in their 50's and have been able to quit work and travel. I am so tempted but from a financial stand point, probably not the wisest thing to do. Since we own a home in California, might be able to make enough money to move out of state and retire. Just have no idea where that would be. My husband will be 66 in four years and I will be 61. Not sure if we should hold off selling the house or sell now and get out of Dodge.

 

Carol

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Nice thread! I love cruising but try to do it in the dark months. I live in CA and have wondrful weather the rest of the year. My next cruise is theme driven. I am going on Aunties Beading Cruise the end of September out of Galveston, TX. I always travel as a single as I really am not use to having someone around all of the time. Wish there were more cruises going out of CA.

 

http://www.mypetlane.com/sallyann.jessie.aspx

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What fun this is! I'm new to CC, but this thread looks great. I'm presently posting on Princess Roll Calls. My daughter turned me on to CC and we've been chatting on two threads for a couple of months now. My daughter, five year old grandson and I are headed out on the Golden Princess for a B2B starting 11/26/2005. This will be my first time on Princess. Two years ago I was on Cunard with my Dad cruising the Mediterranean. Good fun, but a little stuffy.

 

I'm pretty excited about spending two weeks with the daughter and grandson. Both daughters live hours away. One is an atty living in SFO and the other, the one with the grandson, works for the Palace Hotels, living in Cancun. I'm in ATL, so I'm actually closer to the Cancun daughter. I try to see each daughter, separately and together, as much as possible. It's tough being so far away, but thank god for email and phones.

 

I'm a paralegal, working full time. Actually more than full time, but that goes with the territory. It doesn't look like I'll be retiring soon, so now I just work to save money for the next trip.

 

I'm pretty adventurous. I'm hoping by posting I'll find a diving buddy/kayak partner/hiking companion/sailing mate for my up and coming cruise or maybe some future cruising.

 

Have a nice evening everyone.

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What fun this is! I'm new to CC, but this thread looks great. I'm presently posting on Princess Roll Calls. My daughter turned me on to CC and we've been chatting on two threads for a couple of months now. My daughter, five year old grandson and I are headed out on the Golden Princess for a B2B starting 11/26/2005. This will be my first time on Princess. Two years ago I was on Cunard with my Dad cruising the Mediterranean. Good fun, but a little stuffy.

 

I'm pretty excited about spending two weeks with the daughter and grandson. Both daughters live hours away. One is an atty living in SFO and the other, the one with the grandson, works for the Palace Hotels, living in Cancun. I'm in ATL, so I'm actually closer to the Cancun daughter. I try to see each daughter, separately and together, as much as possible. It's tough being so far away, but thank god for email and phones.

 

I'm a paralegal, working full time. Actually more than full time, but that goes with the territory. It doesn't look like I'll be retiring soon, so now I just work to save money for the next trip.

 

I'm pretty adventurous. I'm hoping by posting I'll find a diving buddy/kayak partner/hiking companion/sailing mate for my up and coming cruise or maybe some future cruising.

 

Have a nice evening everyone.

 

Hi there!

 

I'll be on the Golden on the 4/22/06 sailing-- enjoy, and let me know how it is when you get back!! I love their pools-- very pretty; I was on the Grand, her sister ship, a couple of years ago. This time I've booked solo, and I'm trying to find a friend to travel with, but I do think I'll go either way!!

 

Linda

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I married an older woman but we're both over 55, both still work, and both travel as much as we can, and plan on doing much more in about 7 years after we say by-by to out working carreers.

I think I'm gonna like it here.

Thanks, Laura :)

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Walt and I are also 55+ but feel 40. I'm 61 and he's 56 and have been cruising for almost 20 years. We have our diamond status with RCCL now and we're only a few cruises away from diamond+. I have a small greenhouse business and Walt has a forklift rental and repair business.I take a few months off, after I sell all the garden mums, so we always travel in Nov.Neither of us are ready to retire yet but I have cut back. Our next cruise is a B2B on the Radiance in Nov./Dec. We have the same cabins both weeks so this should be fun. We both love animals and CLASSIC cars! We each have a 55' Chevy convt. and spend as much time in them as we can. We reside in PA. Mimi

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Hi ya all . . . what a fantastic board/thread. I'm a divorced fifty-eight year-old attorney who loves to travel. Think it came about after having spent twenty-years as a flight attendant. Got my law degree at age fifty-two (it's amazing what a divorce does) . . . :p

 

After three cruises with my former spouse . . . I was hooked. After the divorce in 1995, thought I'd never be able to take a cruise again. I even begged my now twenty-eight year old son to go with me (we'd traveled a lot together - all over Europe and fly fishing trips, etc. locally). Unfortunately, as a Coast Guard helicopter pilot stationed in Miami . . . he had no interest in taking another cruise (last one he took was with his parents to Alaska years ago) . . . especially to the Caribbean. About four years ago, he said . . . "Mom, just go . . . you don't need anyone to go with you . . . you make friends faster than anyone I know." He was right . . . booked a Celebrity cruise in 2003 and I had a ball! So much so, I went on another one last May. I'm now looking forward to my third solo cruise (on Carnival's new Liberty) in April. :)

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Walt and I are also 55+ but feel 40. I'm 61 and he's 56 and have been cruising for almost 20 years. We have our diamond status with RCCL now and we're only a few cruises away from diamond+. I have a small greenhouse business and Walt has a forklift rental and repair business.I take a few months off, after I sell all the garden mums, so we always travel in Nov.Neither of us are ready to retire yet but I have cut back. Our next cruise is a B2B on the Radiance in Nov./Dec. We have the same cabins both weeks so this should be fun. We both love animals and CLASSIC cars! We each have a 55' Chevy convt. and spend as much time in them as we can. We reside in PA. Mimi
ok, so you are Mimi -- where does the "booze brothers" come from? ...where in PA????:) ladycaveat: all I can say is that you have more energy than any other "senior-seasoned" person I know!:D Laura: when are you gonna set up our GroupCruise???:cool:
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Well, this thread is exciting, with lots of vivacious people out there.

 

Chillcat: What's "Aunties Beading Cruise?" A theme cruise?

 

Razmom: Sure, I'll tell you all about the Golden. It'll have to wait until I get back though. My daughter made all the arrangements for our cruise in Nov/Dec so I know nothing. Where are you going on your cruise?

 

BoozeBrothers/Mimi: It's really cool that you have a greenhouse business. I went back to school in environmental horticulture. I bought a place in 2001 and wanted to know what to put in the ground. I went at night and really enjoyed the learning experience and the people I met. Tree huggers are great.

 

LadyCaveat: Law school, wow. I've been a commercial real estate paralegal for almost 20 years and have often thought about law school, but time, money or kids were always an issue. Now I'm having too much fun doing stuff. I'm thinking about culinary school in January (I'd start in the fall, but the cruise gets in the way). Tell me about Liberty Castaways on 4/1/06.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome...

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Hello everyone,

Larry and I are 55+'rs too. He's 57 and I'm 59. We're in the countdown to his retirement at age 62. Luckily he's been working the 401K to give us the opportunity to do some nice things when he kisses work goodbye. Me...I have the best of both worlds, I'm a domestic engineer (remember that term?;) ) and a published author, which means I'll sort of work till I can't type anymore:rolleyes: . We're taking early retire because he's been a Type I diabetic for 30 years and it's time for him to leave the stress behind. We're taking our son and DIL on a cruise this November on the Princess Grand, our first on this line. It's our 3rd cruise and we're definitely cruise-fanatics.:cool: We're planning the Alaska cruise/land excursion in 2011, shortly after he's non-working seasoned senior. We love the idea of this group and look forward to getting to know everyone and all your life experiences.

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