Our first Much longer cruise

[Tampa Girl]

5 hours ago, rucrazy said:

The person I spoke with indicated that unless regulations change, this would be HAL's last voyage to the white continent.. if this is true so glad we are booked! 

2021 S.America and Antartica.pdf 774.74 kB · 1 download

 

Thanks for the update.  

[Tampa Girl]

On 6/8/2019 at 5:31 PM, Wayfairers said:

I believe the amount of time you are happy traveling varies by person.  As I said earlier, we are routinely out 4-6 months and usually we aren’t feeling the need to get back home until the 5.5 month mark.  Others feel that way after a week, your limit sounds like around a month.  I work hard to keep things varied and interesting for us during a trip and special things scattered along the trip - that makes a difference too.  However, we learned on our very first long trip that you cannot be touring every day.  Some days have to be relaxation days, some days have to be catch up on paperwork days, etc.  We’ve found at least one day a week needs to be a down day, sometimes a couple of days per week if we are very busy the other days.  If you try to tour every day the days run together and you get worn out.

 

E

 

[Tampa Girl]

Just now, Tampa Girl said:

 

I think that it may also depend on the type of long trip.  We had our first really long trip last fall on the 89-day Grand Asia.  The menus always changed according to the local cuisine of the countries that we were visiting.  The entertainment was superior to any of the 15-25 day cruises we had previously taken, and there was more than enough to keep us busy on the ship during sea days.  These voyages tend to be port heavy, and one does tend to get tired, so down town is very welcome.  We hated to get off.

[rucrazy]

1 hour ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

Thanks for the update.  

You Bet!!

[Hawaiidan]

On 6/9/2019 at 11:59 AM, Cruising-along said:

Why on earth would you keep taking longer cruises then?  

I'm a port person, I can't get enough of seeing different parts of the world -- never could be boring! But we don't do the same cruises over and over, I can see how that could get "old" fast.  Combining with land travel also keeps it interesting and fun.

 Short answer   I do not do longer than 24 days....

  I took in years past longer cruises   but was paid to do so. I understand not doing the same ports over and over.    However after   a decade of taking a 21 day + cruise every year you pretty much run out of places ships can go.... without wheels.     Most itineraries  I see now fro even a 180 day world cruise I have been to...  like 80%.      Repetition  becomes the norm..  Today its almost impossible to find  so much repetition   that is gets mundane and yes boring.   

  I now do a lot of land travel and only cruise fro the ship experience which I relish much more today than fighting crowds today

Good luck in your travels

[Wayfairers]

3 hours ago, Hawaiidan said:

 Most itineraries  I see now fro even a 180 day world cruise I have been to...  like 80%.      Repetition  becomes the norm..  Today its almost impossible to find  so much repetition   that is gets mundane and yes boring. 

 I always wanted to do a world cruise but now that I can I don’t feel the need for this reason.    World cruises tend to go to the more common ports and I’ve been those those...sometimes many times.  I tend to take the longer cruises that go to more unique places instead of 5e world cruise 

[AncientWanderer]

16 minutes ago, Wayfairers said:

 I always wanted to do a world cruise but now that I can I don’t feel the need for this reason.    World cruises tend to go to the more common ports and I’ve been those those...sometimes many times.  I tend to take the longer cruises that go to more unique places instead of 5e world cruise 

 

That's us, too.  We've been around the world in segments, and seen so many wonderful places.  I think segments count!  😉

[Hawaiidan]

18 hours ago, AncientWanderer said:

 

That's us, too.  We've been around the world in segments, and seen so many wonderful places.  I think segments count!  😉

In retrospect, its  many wonderful segments over the years, with a chance in between to rest and absorb that which you experienced.      I agree segments far better.     I think there is a magical urban legend about cruising around the world that makes it seem like a fantasy come  true.   You work all your life 30-40-50 years and the reward at the end is a "cruise around the world"     

[scluvsrain]

Once you have cruised over 50 days in one sailing, you will think nothing of sailing more days.  My first long one was 35 days and it was a test to see if I could handle the 111 day world cruise I had booked the following year.  At the 35 day mark, I did NOT want to leave the ship!  So I knew I could handle longer cruises.  On my first WC, I got to about day 90 and all of a sudden had horrible homesickness.  I cried every morning for about a week, and then I was over it.  I was only homesick for my two little granddaughters, however.  I didn't miss being away from home, just their little smiling faces.  What helped was facetiming with them.  Now I do that regularly when I'm away.  

 

As for eating/food/drink -- you have to discipline yourself just like at home.  This last cruise of 80 days, I picked up about 5 pounds.  It disappeared pretty quickly once I got home.  I think it was the desserts that I couldn't always say no to......

 

 

[Cruising-along]

10 minutes ago, scluvsrain said:

Once you have cruised over 50 days in one sailing, you will think nothing of sailing more days.  My first long one was 35 days and it was a test to see if I could handle the 111 day world cruise I had booked the following year.  At the 35 day mark, I did NOT want to leave the ship!  So I knew I could handle longer cruises.  On my first WC, I got to about day 90 and all of a sudden had horrible homesickness.  I cried every morning for about a week, and then I was over it.  I was only homesick for my two little granddaughters, however.  I didn't miss being away from home, just their little smiling faces.  What helped was facetiming with them.  Now I do that regularly when I'm away.  

 

As for eating/food/drink -- you have to discipline yourself just like at home.  This last cruise of 80 days, I picked up about 5 pounds.  It disappeared pretty quickly once I got home.  I think it was the desserts that I couldn't always say no to......

 

 

Our longest to date was the 38-day Voyage of the Vikings last summer -- and I didn't want to get off the ship either.  That was my test.  We have 65 cruise days plus 10 land touring days coming up this fall and like you, I'm sure the only thing I'll miss will be the grandchildren.  We also do Face Time with them -- sometimes the time differences can be a challenge when we're 8-10 hours difference, but we somehow manage to work it out.  They're only 4 and 6, so bedtimes have to be taken into consideration too!