Posted on 10/29/2026 9:23:30 AM PDT by fella
What began as an extraordinary opportunity to spend retirement exploring the world has turned into a financial and logistical nightmare. A residential cruise ship promising years of international travel has abruptly suspended operations, leaving more than 200 passengers, many of them Americans, searching for accommodations thousands of miles from home.
(Excerpt) Read more at retirement.media ...
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I’m not bobbyvotes, but here are our two cents.
We’re long-time Princess cruisers — 20+ cruises. As with most things, the quality isn’t what it used to be.
Have done Celebrity. It was OK; entertainment sucked.
Did Carnival in the ‘80, which was beyond terrible. Sounds like it still is.
We’ve looked at Explora, but it looks more snooty-patooty than we like.
You can probably control amount of food to eat. I can’t resist the 4 desserts offered with dinner. I remember ordering all 4 when I was younger 😂 But I can see your point about all the prep necessary to go on a cruise.
I am 90 minutes drive from home to port Canaveral, so will book a last minute bargain cruise as short as 4 days round trip. It’s just me getting a break from chores and cooking.
I really miss the cruises from 1988 through about 2010. I miss the dress up nights and the festive midnight buffets with decorations, live music and cherry jubilee desserts. There were no all you can drink packages but drinks were not expensive. Now all I see is crowded bars.
Princess cruises was big in those days. We achieved platinum status on princess. Now I prefer Royal Caribbean ships with ice skating shows, such as Oasis of the Seas.
“I am 90 minutes drive from home to port Canaveral, so will book a last minute bargain cruise as short as 4 days round trip.”
When we lived in Simi Valley, we were 60 miles from San Pedro, so took a few last-minute cruises when ships weren’t filled. Our suitcases were packed and under the bed, so we could go with a couple days’ notice. Those were the days. Now it’s a long one-day drive, a comfortable two-day drive, or a flight to reach the port.
Hubby eats all the desserts. I prefer carbs over sweets, so enjoy the pasta dishes.
On every night’s menu in the early 2000s, on Princess, the standard pasta dish was Farfalle alla Rustica (Bowtie Pasta with Veal). It was my favorite. I don’t know when they stopped serving that, but it’s been gone for at least 10 years now.
Princess just announced a 129 day Grand Tour World Cruise leaving from Sydney in 2029.
Grab the new Qantas nonstop from JFK (get the first class suite) and enjoy!
In my experience, the ship matters more than the cruise company. One of my best cruises was on a Royal Caribbean ship, and my worst cruise was on Royal Caribbean ship Monarch of the Seas. It was a small ship, but always long line to get seated in dining room. Oasis of the seas sailed with 6000+ passengers, and it was the least crowded ship I have sailed on. May be because there are so many dining rooms and cages on the ship, there are no lines. The bigger RCCL ships usually have ice skating shows which I can’t get enough of.
Not cages 😂
Cafe’s. Thank you autocorrect 🙄
“I really miss the cruises from 1988 through about 2010. I miss the dress up nights and the festive midnight buffets with decorations, live music and cherry jubilee desserts.”
YES!!! All of that. We started with Sitmar before Princess took it over. It was the best. Besides formal nights, they had costume nights, and that was fun. (A royal pain dragging costumes from Alaska to Florida, though. That was when there was no limit to luggage on flights.)
We’re Platinum on Princess now. It doesn’t have the perks that it used to, sadly.
That sounds good, except you have to get TO Sydney which requires flying. We’re done with that.
My and BIL have a great suite on Island Princess now. It’s their first suite and they love it.
Well, as you see, I love those ships.
Back in the Nineties, we had a couple as friends who did a lot of cruises, and they said Royal Caribbean was the best.
We ended up going on two cruises with them, and had a blast. The first one was a 10 day cruise aboard the Nordic Prince (now scrapped) and it was the best.
We don’t go on cruises anymore, those ones that carry 6,000 passengers seem completely insane to me. I was in the Navy on a ship that had 5,000 crew, and that was enough for me.
We switched to going on sailboat voyages with friends that included some with a lot of sailing experience, and those were the best vacations in my life. (the sailboats were 42’ catamarans out of various places around the Caribbean.
Nothing like them. Just wow.
Yep, that's the way to go, it's beautiful in those waters and tons of stuff to do, towns to visit, swimming etc.
The great thing about it was the two physicians who had a lot of sailing experience knew every single island, and every single restaurant and beach to go to.
It was unbelievable.
Little out-of-the-way places that most people didn’t know about, beaches that nobody went to. We always had a very loose itinerary, and we were all good friends, so we all got along… Nobody got bent out of shape, nobody had temper tantrums, nobody pouted. When someone suggested a place to go for a meal, we all just cheerfully went: “OK!”
They were wonderful people. It was four couples, all in our late 50s to mid 60s. And we were all medical personnel, so if anything happened, we weren’t totally dependent on getting help from some Caribbean country which is always spotty.
Those were the best vacations I ever had in my entire life, and I’ve had some damn good ones.
LOL
yep, that’s probably the hard part, just getting along and saying fine to things with no power struggles. I spent some summers on a sailboat in the Bahamas, truly a once (twice) in a lifetime experience.
We are lucky, are we not, to have experienced things like that.
If I die tomorrow, I cannot ask more out of life than the wonderful things I have experienced in my life, which are more than most people get to do.
And those three sailing trips I took are included..
I have sailed on 50,000 tons ships, and (3) 226,838 tons RCCL ships with 6000+ passengers and anything in between. The largest ships were the least crowded. There was so many places on the ship to dine, shop, and play sports, there were no lines anywhere! The small ships are the worst, with very few dining rooms, very few things to do.
Best part about the large ships is, with 6000+ passengers paying the tab, they can hire top class entertainment shows.
Also most of the very large Royal Caribbean ships also have ice skating rinks, with ice skating shows in the afternoons, which are a bonus and very entertaining.
It is impossible to get bored on a Oasis class or the one class bigger ships. You can do water skiing, ice skating, nerve wrecking water slides, more live music choices and ride the wire lift crossing over 15 stories deep cavern in the middle of the ship. We had breakfast at Tiffany’s LOL where the while gloved ladies served us breakfast in the Tiffany jewelry shop. You have none of those venues on a navy ship. Totally different!
Morons are very creative at getting themselves into completely untenable positions. America’s gain Cambodia’s loss.
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