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I went on my first cruise in March. I wrote a report about it in the Cruise forum.
I just returned from my first cruise (Central America). My ship was the NCL Star. I can now say "been there, done that". Please do not let my opinions and feelings affect your interest in cruising if you have not experienced a cruise yet...
You can't affect my interest - because I have none .
One big problem IMO is not enough time in interesting ports - and everything is strictly "by the clock". When we went to Stockholm last year - I considered a cruise - because I wanted to see Helsinki. But there's no cruise that spends more than 8 or so hours in Helsinki. If I thought Helsinki was only worth 8 hours - not even a local dinner and an overnight - I wouldn't want to go there.
Also - a lot of cruises to places like Alaska have activities that look interesting - but probably won't work for a lot of older people. The last time we were in a Zodiac was on a trip to Hawaii 15 years ago. We couldn't do a Zodiac trip today.
Also - what's the point of being older and retired if you can't do things when you want to do them and feel like doing them? This same point applies to packaged tours as well as cruises. What if you have jet-leg - or your back was killing you all night and you didn't sleep well - and you don't feel like reporting for "sightseeing duty" at 8 am?
Note that I've only been on 2 cruises. One for a week up the Nile. It was wonderful and perhaps the best/only way to see what we saw (we docked every morning in a different place and went sightseeing). Probably not a great destination today. Also an overnight charity "cruise to nowhere" out of Miami. Not relevant to this discussion. But the normal run of the mill cruise doesn't interest me at all.
When we were younger - we used to do a lot of driving tours (both in the US and elsewhere). These days - we usually book a week or so in a big city in a nice hotel. Settle in and explore - AT OUR LEISURE. Will sometimes combine multiple big cities where there are good trains between/among them.
Other people may have different concepts when it comes to travel - but this is mine. Robyn
...I was the only non-Japanese in the water and stuck out...
And that would still be the case today in many many places in Japan. Even Tokyo. On our first trip - we went to a major shrine on a minor holiday. And there were lots of student groups there. We saw one - and were thinking of taking pictures. But were shy about approaching a group of children. But they motioned to us. And - in broken Japanese (ours) and broken English (theirs) - they indicated that they wanted to take pictures of us with them. Because they were from far north Japan - and had never seen people from the west before. They wanted proof to show to their parents!
Travel distances can be very daunting - especially east to west and vice versa - but north to south and vice versa too. During the course of our travels - we have met many an Aussie taking a 2-3 month tour in the US or in Europe (they seem to have a really good time - I recall an especially jovial group on a train in Norway).
And many of us - including me - are geographically challenged. I remember our first trip to Japan. Thought we must just "drop down" to Australia for a few days. Didn't realize Tokyo is about 5000 miles from Sydney. Guess my view of the world was it is flat ! Robyn
thanks for sharing the Japan pictures - appears to be a very colorful, beautiful, neat country
It is honestly one of the nicest countries I've ever been in. Which is why we're returning this year for a relatively short trip (one week) for my birthday and our anniversary.
In some ways - it's a perfect country for tourists. In some ways - it isn't. On the minus side. The language barrier can be a problem (40 year old Japanese people remember their compulsory school English about as much as we remember our French or Spanish). But not in places like the subways in Tokyo/Osaka - where signs in most stations are written in something called Romaji (Japanese names written in the letters of the Latin alphabet). Also - at just about every decent hotel - the concierge can print out the details of where you want to visit - in Japanese - with maps. If you learn the phrase - "excuse me - do you know where this is" - and point to your map - people are ridiculously polite to a fault in terms of helping you. On the other hand - addresses in Tokyo - a city of 30 million people - are crazy. They're by district - then street - then number order in which the buildings on the street were built (and there are some very long streets). You always have to leave time to get lost.
Another minus is some subway stations aren't very handicap friendly - at least they weren't when we were there in 2006. I'll have to see how things have changed this year.
A third is it's a long trip from the east coast of the US. I recommend flying business first. I'm a frequent flyer miles/points junkie - and our trip this year cost $2200 for both of us front of the plane.
On the plus side - unless you wind up in some crummy gangster bar (hard to do unless you try to do it) - it's about the safest most honest country in the world. Probably the safest most honest most exotic country a visitor from the west going to the east can visit.
There is a lot of stuff to see - much is exotic. Our first trip was during cherry blossom season - absolutely beautiful.
The food is great. To die for. Low end to high end. Multiple cuisines from many countries.
THERE IS NO TIPPING. ANYWHERE FOR ANYTHING. It's a cultural thing. So you don't have to engage even 1 brain cell to figure out tipping.
As for hotels - I can only speak about luxury hotels. Four Seasons in Tokyo cheapest rooms are about $400 give or take - Ritz Carlton in Osaka about $250. Like 25-50% of what similar places cost in New York/London/Paris. Plus food costs are in general very reasonable to downright cheap (depending on choice of eating venues). If you use a Four Seasons Preferred Partner or Virtuoso agent - your room will include free breakfast - room upgrade if available - and usually some other "freebie".
Japan has unfortunately for it had 10-15 years of deflation now. It is our gain as travelers. Robyn
We love Hawaii and have been there 8 times. But it's been a long time since the last one and I "hear" the whales calling me!!
The only trip we definitely have planned is about a month in Australia in 2015. Our daughter is going to be on a 2 year work assignment there starting next June, so we will have a place to stay at least part of the time. We were there for 3 weeks in 2005 and absolutely loved it. The Australians are some of the nicest people that we have ever come across. As soon as they heard our American accents, they couldn't wait to welcome us and suggest things for us to see and do. We felt very welcomed. We used 2 weeks of timeshare exchanges and 1 week of free hotel via frequent hotel points. Hotel in Sydney, timeshare in Brisbane, and timeshare in Ballarat (outside Melbourne). Unfortunately we were a bit tied down to the timeshares so we didn't really get to see a lot of areas, so that will be fixed this next trip.
The big thing I remember is actually seeing the Sydney Opera House for the first time. We arrived at night so only saw lights and could have been anywhere except for the Australian accents. In the morning we took the train to Circular Quay and when I stepped out into the open and saw the Opera House, I just stood there in awe and thought........I'm really in Australia!! BTW, we flew from LAX non-stop to Sydney on Qantas. 14 hours over and 12 back. But I have to say that Qantas was the absolute best airline I have ever used. They went out of their way to make everybody feel appreciated and treated us very well, even in coach. I only hope it's still the same this time!
My second favorite sight was the Twelve Apostles. Just magnificent. And of course there is nothing like driving home at dusk and coming around a corner and seeing a huge field filled with kangaroos! Just like deer here. And then there was the time we came upon a huge, and I do mean HUGE, flock of cockatiels in the wild. Beautiful! Never did see a koala in the wild, though.
I am not very interested in leaving the country because of medical care but I have a dream. We have belonged to RCI since 1998 but have used it only once. I keep looking at the RCI last calls and planning a 6 to 12 week trip where I stay in a condo that is only one day away from the last condo. That means I will travel one day and spend a week at each location. I may leave with a suitcase that has about three outfits--a dress, a capri with top and a pair of long pants and top and jacket; three pairs of shoes, sandals, sneakers and a pair of dress shoes in colors to match that are all neutral. I plan to do some shopping on the road and fill up my suitcase by the end of the trip. I may need to take two suitcases for purchases.
I think I am going to have to do this by myself or with a lady friend since my dh is not interested. He likes to be home. I want to see natural rather than tourist wonders.
In fact - we'll be in Toronto middle of this month for 4 days (fun part of a trip that will wind up at a family wedding in the Detroit metro area). Do you have any favorite restaurants? We have a reservation at Shoto - and know we want to have dim sum at least once (our Chinese food here is awful). But - otherwise - we're open to suggestions. We like trying ingredients/cuisines that are relatively local - including the local beers! Robyn
Well Robyn, the sky's the limit. I'll see if I can dig up a couple of names of dim sum places. Where are you staying?
As for beer, I'm kind of down on Canadian beer right now, since the microbrewery situation in the States seems to have trumped us with so many great brews. Do you like dark beers, ipas, lagers? Steam Whistle, Flying Monkey, Muskoka Brewery, Beau's come to mind, as well as (now) more mainstream brews like Creemore, Alexander Keith's.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NCN
I am not very interested in leaving the country because of medical care but I have a dream. We have belonged to RCI since 1998 but have used it only once. I keep looking at the RCI last calls and planning a 6 to 12 week trip where I stay in a condo that is only one day away from the last condo. That means I will travel one day and spend a week at each location....
Sorry, what is RCI (the only thing I can think of is Royal Caribbean International, and I don't think that's it?) Your plan sounds really great--what part of the world would you do this in?
Well Robyn, the sky's the limit. I'll see if I can dig up a couple of names of dim sum places. Where are you staying?
As for beer, I'm kind of down on Canadian beer right now, since the microbrewery situation in the States seems to have trumped us with so many great brews. Do you like dark beers, ipas, lagers? Steam Whistle, Flying Monkey, Muskoka Brewery, Beau's come to mind, as well as (now) more mainstream brews like Creemore, Alexander Keith's.
Sorry, what is RCI (the only thing I can think of is Royal Caribbean International, and I don't think that's it?) Your plan sounds really great--what part of the world would you do this in?
As for the beer, try New Holland Brewery in Holland, MI. They bottle a lot of home brewed micro beers.
RCI is a marketer of timeshares and other vacation packages.
We are going to Glacier Park, Waterton, and Calgary next month. Looking forward to some excellent wildlife, scenery, and will be visiting several American Indian museums.
Unfortunately - Holland is too far away from the metro Detroit area. Robyn
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! Robyn
