When we began discussing the idea of a 9-month world cruise, as you can imagine many factors came under careful evaluation. We are met with one of either two reactions when we tell others – I am so jealous or I could never be away from home that long.
First, we are not established cruisers – we have only done 2 very distinct cruises to date. The first was a Mediterranean cruise with Costa Cruise lines squeezed into 10 days with extra days in Paris and Nice. We went so hard with excursions in every port trying to see as much as we could. We arrived home absolutely exhausted. The second was earlier this year and was a bucket list cruise of the Galápagos Islands with Celebrity. It was more physically demanding during the day and absolutely no real night life after dinner. It could not have been a better experience. We don’t know much about cruising – what to bring to organize and decorate your state room, how to pack for theme nights, no gowns or tuxedos…. That said, you can’t argue the following:
How else could you more cost-effectively, time-efficiently do a taste-test of the world?? We spent our last trip moving from place to place, in and out of airports. That, is tiring. With a world cruise, we have a single home-base where we can unpack and organize for 9-months – very appealing.
Critical to us was the stateroom – affording a suite was out of the question for us but we would only move forward with a ‘spacious balcony stateroom’ and even better we are mid-ship on the 9th level. We love the outdoors and having a scenic spot where we can relax and enjoy the ocean view as we cruise the world.
It will be our community for 9 months…. At a time where we are ready to focus on what retirement means to us, we have access to a running/walking track, gym, multiple dining options, days at sea when we can focus on our interests and hobbies in a way we have not ever been at luxury to do since retiring. We are looking forward to a whole new routine ready to be established on our terms.
We both are ready to see the world but also spend time focusing inwardly too. We are flying to Miami tonight for a couple days there, a gala Saturday night before we board and take off on Sunday. This has kept us going the past 2 years through some very hard work down-sizing – we just finished and now we enjoy our reward!!
