I thought I'd take a sea day to answer questions that we're frequently asked by people who are curious about what it's like to spend four straight months cruising. We tend to get asked the same questions over and over again...here's my attempt to answer the most common ones.
Why don't we do a World Cruise?
There are several reasons we don't, although we did talk seriously about it last summer. The biggest reason is the timing; we want to be home in March, long before the World Cruise ends in early May. Other reasons: we aren't particularly fond of sea days (but you already knew that, didn't you?); we've already been to many of the places a World Cruise goes; it's much easier to be gone for four months if you can count on being in the country for two days out of every ten, where our AT&T phones work; World Cruises are a lot of planning work for excursions and offer little flexibility (if you're in Bangkok for one day, you're going to do an all-day excursion regardless of how you feel or the weather); and we like the passenger turnover that 10-day cruises provide. No one has time to get too territorial and new passengers bring new energy onboard.
Why don't we do a World Cruise?
There are several reasons we don't, although we did talk seriously about it last summer. The biggest reason is the timing; we want to be home in March, long before the World Cruise ends in early May. Other reasons: we aren't particularly fond of sea days (but you already knew that, didn't you?); we've already been to many of the places a World Cruise goes; it's much easier to be gone for four months if you can count on being in the country for two days out of every ten, where our AT&T phones work; World Cruises are a lot of planning work for excursions and offer little flexibility (if you're in Bangkok for one day, you're going to do an all-day excursion regardless of how you feel or the weather); and we like the passenger turnover that 10-day cruises provide. No one has time to get too territorial and new passengers bring new energy onboard.
Do we ever get bored?
No, never, except when it relates to TV selections in our cabin. We've been to all the places that Princess cruises to from November to March, and the Caribbean is the easiest, cheapest and, frankly, our favorite of all of them. It helps that we truly love the Caribbean and its people. We simply scratch our heads when we hear someone say that the islands are all the same; they're not, not at all. We love beaches, walking, history and watersports, and we get to do all of them on a different island everyday. It also helps to be endlessly curious about things that most people don't even notice (like man overboard drills, dockside arrival and departure activities, port agent responsibilities and pier-side activities on turnaround days).
However, saying that, we do need to work on compiling more TV shows to watch on our laptop or iPhones. G went stir crazy each evening after they took away TCM and TNT during the dry dock. Those two channels had previously saved us, because they weren't showing the same programs over and over again all day, and then repeating again on the same day of every cruise. Luckily, G falls asleep in about 30 seconds, so he wasn't stir crazy very long.
To tell you how desperate I became...I now consider a 35 year old Love Boat rerun to be good TV and Sonny Bono to be funny.
That's...really desperate.
Does the ship feel like home to us?
Yes, absolutely. We've been on the Emerald for 300 days, 280 of them in the same cabin, which is actually longer than I've lived in some places. However, it also feels like there's always company in the house, which, as you know, is slightly less comfortable than being home when there's not. Or, as G puts it, it feels like our home's been invaded by 4000 strangers.
How do we handle mail?
Our friend Martha gets our mail from our locked mailbox every so often, throws always the junk mail and boxes up the first class mail to send to us once a month or so. By the time we receive most of it, we've already paid the bills or seen the statements online. What catches us more than anything are medical bills that have worked their way through our insurances after several months. By getting those once a month or so, we can get them paid as quickly as possible, phoning to pay with a credit card from St. Thomas or Fort Lauderdale (that's why it's harder for us to be in those places on weekends or holidays).
G is completely organized on his iPhone with the timing of bills, statement cutoff dates and deposits, so while I spend a lot of my free Internet minutes on board blogging and texting and phoning and generally having fun, he's much more dutiful in his usage.
Why not switch ships for more variety?
We have always loved being settled in the same cabin all winter, which saves us a lot of time every turnaround day, and also being with crew members that we know and who know us.This year, the entertainment on the Emerald Princess has been less repetitive from one cruise to the next than it has been in the past (when it was "if this is Day 3, it's Rollin' Jay Moore night") and the bands have been particularly good.
Do we get a special deal from Princess?
We get asked this a lot too but the answer is no, not at all, not one bit. We get the same price that anyone who's cruised before with Princess can get. We book individual 10-night cruises and have them all linked together, which eliminates the need to complete our immigration information for every cruise...we do it once, and print out boarding passes just once, for the first cruise.
If we were willing to move to a different cabin every turnaround day, we could wait until after final payment, hope for a drop in prices and then book a Guarantee cabin. This would probably save us $2000-$3000 over the course of a winter. But we weren't willing to have that disruption this winter (that could change in the future). The winter would have a different feel if we moved cabins every 10 days. We also love our cabin location...it's the only way we can do 120 nights in an inside cabin.
How early do we book our cruises?
We book the day the itineraries are opened for reservations, about 18 to 22 months before sailing dates. We book more than we think we'll take, using Future Cruise Credits to hold them, and then firm up our plans closer to final payment.
Will we do this again?
Probably. We're booked for next winter already. But one of the benefits of this lifestyle is that we're not locked into anything until final payment. Even then, we purchase Princess insurance with its Cancel for Any Reason coverage. We can change our minds at any point during a winter and return home, and any cancellation fees would be available for future travel.
However, we are having discussions about perhaps doing the last two Mediterranean and Greek Isles cruises on the Ruby Princess next November, followed by the transatlantic back to Fort Lauderdale before switching to the Emerald Princess. It's very tempting. If we don't do that, it will be because of the three sea days, then Madeira, then seven sea days at the end of the transatlantic. We need to seriously consider if we'll be happy doing that. (Personally, I don't think so).
Do we gain weight?
G does, every year, about 20 pounds, which he easily loses once he gets home. I actually lost weight this year, but I think that the tooth issue and bronchitis helped in that regard, and I'm sure the carb splurges I've enjoyed this cruise have taken their toll. Luckily, it's much easier to eat healthily on a cruise than it is at home, with much more variety and many seafood options. Of course, it's much easier to eat unhealthily too. We don't snack at all, except for popcorn most evenings, and I don't generally eat any bread, but I'm certainly not deprived.
With food, as with everything else (spending, drinking, gambling), cruising for four months is completely different than doing one cruise. It's all about moderation. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and we cruise (and by that I mean eat, drink and play) with less intensity than most other cruisers.
Do we get special treatment?
We get the same wonderful service as everyone else. Our only special requests are that we have a table for two by a window in one of the Anytime Dining restaurants at dinner, and we do get that. And, G likes brioche rolls in the bread basket at dinner and I usually get a plate of broccoli or spinach at dinner. That's it. Oh, and a decent mattress. Having one made a huge difference in my back this winter compared to last winter.
I think the true measure of a cruise line is how it treats its first time passengers, not its most traveled passengers, and Princess does very well in that regard.
Do our fellow passengers drive us nuts?
We usually get asked this, followed by a story about how someone drove someone else nuts already after only a few days. Honestly, this really isn't an issue for us. There was that one family over the holidays with the ill-behaved twin girls, but I later felt bad for even mentioning them on this blog. And since then we've subconsciously decided not to get too riled, and we don't even notice things anymore. I don't think we're highly tolerant...I think we just don't go there. It's not worth it to get too irritated about others' behavior when you share your home with 4000 other people. For example, I haven't noticed a single instance of a passenger being rude to a crew member all winter, I couldn't tell you who wore what on formal night, and if I've heard anyone complain about their cruise, their issues seemed pretty legitimate to me. People are basically good. And kind. And interesting. Passengers and crew members alike.
Is it hard to go home after 120 days on a cruise ship?
Our joke is that, a few weeks after we get home, our neighbors will realize they haven't seen us. They'll come in our house and find our skeletons, silverware in hand, sitting at the dining room table waiting for our napkins to be placed in our laps and food to be served.
Of course it's hard to go home, just as it's hard to leave home in November. We will miss the crew, we will miss the food, we will miss the islands, the entertainment, the service and the simple act of living on the water. I haven't driven a car, gone grocery shopping, cooked or done cleaning any more strenuous than wiping a sticky spot off the vanity for four months. Our weather has been always warm and mostly sunny, and, frankly, the crew is much better at greeting me with a happy smile first thing in the morning than my own husband is. It's going to be painful.
On the other hand, I'm so desperate for high speed Internet I could weep. I miss friends. I miss work and the kids at school. And although I'm not a big TV watcher, I miss watching more than five TV shows over and over and over and over again. My clothes are showing the effects of too many trips to the ship's laundry. My Tevas are trashed, as is my hair, from too much salt water and sun. I can't wait to abstain from alcohol. And carbs. And hair coloring. At least for a few months.
In the end, leaving this year is much less angst-filled than leaving last year was. Part of it is that we've done this before. Part of it is that I know we'll most likely be back in eight months. But most of it is that, in the end, 120 days was the exact right number of days, not one cruise too long or too short.
And now we know.
Life is good.
:-)
