Did you plan a special retirement cruise?

[Mary229]

1 hour ago, Belgian fry said:

My husband is due to retire in early 2024 and we have a Japan cruise booked on Celebrity Millennium. Japan is somewhere he's always wanted to go

I would like to go also.  Hopefully by 2024 Japan will have completely lifted their pandemic style restrictions.   

[rkacruiser]

5 hours ago, Belgian fry said:

Japan is somewhere he's always wanted to go

 

An interesting country and well worth a visit.  If possible, a visit to Hiroshima is recommended and Nagasaki as well.  I didn't get an opportunity to visit Nagasaki's Atomic Bomb Museum, but, I would have liked to do so in order to compare it with the Hiroshima museum.  I have been told that they are somewhat different in "how the story is told".  I'd like to see that for myself and see if I agree or not.  

[rkacruiser]

5 hours ago, Belgian fry said:

Japan is somewhere he's always wanted to go

 

An interesting country and well worth a visit.  If possible, a visit to Hiroshima is recommended and Nagasaki as well.  I didn't get an opportunity to visit Nagasaki's Atomic Bomb Museum, but, I would have liked to do so in order to compare it with the Hiroshima museum.  I have been told that they are somewhat different in "how the story is told".  I'd like to see that for myself and see if I agree or not.  

[TigerB]

I retired in August and to celebrate we are taking our three adult children and their partners on a Baltic cruise onboard Britannia, sailing next weekend. Four of them are first time cruisers so we'll see if they catch the bug.

 

We have several more booked or in the planning stage, just the missus and I; we have been toying with Japan for some time now. One day!🤞

[MamaFej]

On 9/8/2022 at 5:24 AM, TigerB said:

I retired in August and to celebrate we are taking our three adult children and their partners on a Baltic cruise onboard Britannia, sailing next weekend. Four of them are first time cruisers so we'll see if they catch the bug.

 

We have several more booked or in the planning stage, just the missus and I; we have been toying with Japan for some time now. One day!🤞

You might want to check out Celebrity’s Asia itineraries for 2024. They have some very interesting ones, including lots of Japan. 

[CptBoatface]

Planning Oceania, Baltic to Brit isles, Transatlantic to ny. Aug 2024

[crystalspin]

On 3/10/2020 at 7:57 PM, crystalspin said:

Cancelled our special (28-day) retirement cruise today. Only 20 minutes on hold, so not too bad. May try to go (to So.Pacific) in the fall, although the next FOUR of the Hawaii/Tahiti/Marquessas itineraries are on R-class ships not our favorite Vista class... 

 

I thought I had posted an update to this thread (may have been a different thread "When will you cruise again?" 

 

I have booked (and cancelled) and booked (and cancelled) so many times (expand my signature to see). We are finally going to use the pandemic FCC on a B2B sailing 29 December'22, which was the pretty much the last we could (although I read on CC that HAL was extending the credit as long as it was BOOKED by end of this year).

 

As far as the So.Pacific, we have a reservation for February 2024, or just about four years after DH retired and the first SP was cancelled. 

[CptBoatface]

Just booked a month long cruise on Oceania for August 2024!

[simplelife]

Sailing Sept. 16. Thanks to my upcoming retirement June 1 from working 46 years as an educator,  thisi will be the first cruise we will be able to take outside of the high-dollar academic-year holidays.

 

[9tee2Sea]

Im in the planning stages for a 2025 cruise.  Im hoping it's an Antartica adventure.  Going around Cape Horn.  Just have to stock up on Seasick meds.

[MamaFej]

1 hour ago, 9tee2Sea said:

Im in the planning stages for a 2025 cruise.  Im hoping it's an Antartica adventure.  Going around Cape Horn.  Just have to stock up on Seasick meds.

Excellent! We leave for our Antarctica cruise in six days! Happy planning!

[simplelife]

Not exactly, but a cruise opportunity sealed my decision of when to retire. I had in mind  for some time that I would retire a the end of the 2022-2023 academic year (age of qualifying for full SS benefits, number of years at the job, etc) but was leaving it open to change. As time went on it felt right. A little over a year ago, I got an email from Carnival of new sailings to the Caribbean from Charleston (our closest port, which we had not used before because they only did short cruises to the Bahamas).  Turned out they were offering an 8-day to St. Thomas and St Martin (Two of our favorite ports) and there was a VERY attractive price for mid-September. 2023.  It was a sign. I booked the cruise and let my boss know I had one more academic year. I'm into my last semester and very happy with the decision (and I am still loving my job)

Edited January 30 by simplelife

[SmoothFlying]

4 hours ago, simplelife said:

Not exactly, but a cruise opportunity sealed my decision of when to retire. I had in mind  for some time that I would retire a the end of the 2022-2023 academic year (age of qualifying for full SS benefits, number of years at the job, etc)

My job pretty much did the same thing in 2012 when they can out with a surprise retirement plan.If you had all the necessary items (years of service, age ( I was 63, etc) you could apply. They gave a retirement bonus and a medical retirement package. My SO almost snatched the copy of the package out of my hand and spent almost the whole night doing the math and looking at our fiscal situation and budget ! Next day she announced, " Go for IT! With everything paid off, we can make it'.Well, the BIG day was Sept 7,2013. We had already planned a 7 day cruise for the 15th of Sept wayyyy back in the previous winter, so without knowing it, we had, in effect, planned my 'retirement cruise'. Now YOU can 2,3 a year or even better, one a month !! LOL ! You surely deserve it. Enjoy your retirement and cruise till your heart's content. 

 

Mac

[kochleffel]

I retired in June, but had booked a transatlantic itinerary more than a year ago.

[CptBoatface]

Shifting gears to ncl bliss Alaska July 13-20 2024. Used the savings from cancelling the Baltic to pay for 9 friends to cruise with us.  Many are new cruisers, so the plan is to get them hooked 😸😸😸

[Fergus]

My husband retired earlier this year, I'm planning the same for April 2024, so we've booked a 7 day Med cruise for May.  We plan to arrive in Italy a few days ahead of time - mostly to hopefully avoid a repeat of a horrific luggage situation that happened to us on our 2022 cruise to Norway, lol.  But those extra days will also be a great addition to our trip. We're very excited to celebrate our new status as retirees.  Our daughter, 33, who has mild/moderate disabilities will travel with us and she is excited as well.

[CDNPolar]

I will retire many years before my husband, so I would think that it would be a bit sad for him to celebrate my retirement on a cruise ship when he cannot retire...

 

We cruise a couple times a year anyway, so we don't necessarily need a celebration cruise for anything.

[mtnhiker]

Not retired yet but getting close:  The three cruises I am keeping an eye on are Holland America Amazon River, Princess transpacific Seattle/Vancouver to New Zealand/ Australia, or a Transpacific to Japan, probably in that order.