We Lived On Cruise Ships For 45 Days

[@lisakirk7210]

I did a world cruise in 2019 on the Oceania Insignia...192 days! It was an amazing life changing experience; they almost had to drag me off! Two months later I took 2 BTB cruises for 30 days, then 2 months later a 58 day circumnavigation of South America. I would have kept going but the day after returning, the port closed because of covid. All my fellow world cruisers loved it too.

[@simonegruenig8361]

Are you retired?

[@simonegruenig8361]

Still cruising or back to work?

I absolutely love you guys . I have watched all of your train videos. I am so glad I found you all . U guys rock … from Birmingham, Alabama

[@scottlenyo8579]

I have often wondered about how difficult it would be to move between terminals at one of the large cruise ports. I could see how an Uber would be happy to take one from Miami cruise terminal to Ft Lauderdale, but might be reluctant to take someone from terminal 2 to terminal 6 in the same port. Switching between cruise lines makes so much sense while doing a B2B. Different entertainment, different cuisine/restaurants. Plus a new ship brings a variety to the table. Thanks for sharing the details of the transfer.

[@michaelgore115]

you will have to realize that a world cruise is quite DIFFERENT from a 15 day cruise the food is not repetative and it is scheduled for 180 days and not the way a "normal" cruise is layed out

[@FraserAtSea]

Really enjoyed this - I'm living on cruise ships for most of this year (started in March and finish in December, and it's QUITE the ride!)

[@davidmarsden305]

I've been cruising for 35years and done over 40 in that time, I used to think I would love to live on a ship, not any more, still love cruising but 14 to 21days a year is enough for me, just turned 60, so hopefully a few more to come, thanks for the insight thou, I will be looking out for your further adventures 👍

[@SusanJMT]

I've been on several HAL ships on long repositioning cruises across the Pacific and the Atlantic, including the Zuiderdam. I find that menus for the 7th to 16th day between resupply ports on any cruiseline will depend upon the sturdier vegetables and foods that survive well, like spinach and smoked salmon, which I happen to love. The Zuiderdam has a few restaurants beside the dining room and buffet - Canaletto and the Pinnacle Grill, and another in the Crows Nest area. The pool deck hamburger bar may have been closed in March. I cruised on three back-to-back cruises on the Statendam from the US, and didn't realize that we should have disembarked at the end of our first cruise in Italy, hence, we did not have our passports stamped at the port of entry. After two more cruises in the Mediterranean, and weeks on land in Italy, our Swiss departure control person was perplexed to not find our EU entry stamp. We explained how that happened, and she shrugged, said "Italians," and stamped us out. I enjoy how HAL not only features different kinds of music but showcases them well, rather than treating music as some kind of audial wallpaper. I often end my evenings at the piano bar, singing with the crowd, or solo.

[@ShirlyMoody]

I would like to see you do European river cruises and check out the different ships and stops they do. Your opinion would be appreciated.

[@beachbasket8695]

What an adventure! We love 14 to 30 day cruises, but we do those on one ship. However, I love your idea.

[@DanetteSWhite]

I like living through your adventures. Lots of places to see and visit.

[@floridaFla]

Enjoyed your video, we found we are not happy on a ship if no tv channels and no wifi calling. Carnival has neither. We love the big ships

[@gaynellbuffington6620]

I have done 20 days. On 3 different ships.I could not do 45 days.sounds like you had fun. Thank you for your videos!

[@sherickoos]

Wise advice! It has always been a dream of mine to do a 180 day cruise. Excellent video!

[@junenelligan1729]

wow what an experience - thank you for sharing

[@Musing_about_cruising]

I think the cruise line is an important choice when considering the longer cruises. We spent 35 days on a Celebrity ship doing a transpacific and didn’t want to get off. Last winter we spent the 3 months doing B2B’s with 21 days on the HAL Rotterdam. Although we enjoyed it, we looked forward to it coming to a close. The entertainment choices and overall deck/evening events were lacking… that’s a big factor on the longer itinerary

[@MartySalo]

Yeah, night life on HAL tends to be less impactful when most of the ship tends to be older.

[@luvtravel6207]

Loved this breakdown of your long trip, spot on with the advice .

[@justjudycrafting7401]

This is the first time I have seen your channel. Sure did like your interaction together. Now subscriber.

[@brandikorte8151]

Very interesting take!

[@pamelapennington4015]

We are booked for the World Voyage 123 days on Cunard QM2 in January. Will let you know.

[@simonegruenig8361]

You did it go?

[@simonegruenig8361]

How did it go?😊

[@pamelapennington4015]

@@simonegruenig8361 Yes, we did, in fact we are currently sailing to SouthHampton before our final transatlantic back to New York. It has been an amazing experience. So much happened, our itinerary was changed due to the disruptions in the Red Sea and Suez Canal, expected but oh so disappointing as that meant we missed all of the Middle East ports, the Suez Canal transfer and the Mediterranean ports originally scheduled. We have had other mini issues, gastrointestinal issues in large numbers on the ship twice (both times right after our South Africa changeovers, go figure), boredom, hilarity and a lot of relaxed days to go along with our abundance of new experiences in so many ports and countries (30). We have been looking forward to returning home, it has been a long trip, one that I don’t believe I would ever repeat. I am not opposed to a lengthy cruise but 123 days was too much for us. Am I sorry I did it? Not for one minute. It has been a trip of a lifetime for my husband and I and many of the destinations we went to we probably would never have seen if it was not for this cruise. I do not fly well and too many of our port stops are too far away for me to get to unless we sail. Australia and Asia were beyond description, and I can say for that I am happy I did it. We also believe if the itinerary had not changed we would still be looking forward to being on the boat. The last month changed drastically as we only got to 2 new ports (7 we visited on the way) so I think just mentally our attitudes were different on the way back around the horn. It is the way with cruising and we did not let the changes wreck our cruise. Cunard did what they should do and make us safe first. All in all I will walk off the ship with so many memories and happy to have been able to take this cruise! Would I recommend it? Yes if you do some soul searching about your expectations. Cruising in the best of times is not for everyone but you do have to be prepared for things to not go along like the original plan says it will go. Happy cruising!

[@Ambykind]

Great information, thank you for putting all those details out there for us. My cousin & I will do the Oasis of the Seas from Barcelona to Miami for 14 days next year & we are looking forward to it & she says that the Oasis is awesome & will be great for the 7 days it takes to cross the Atlantic, which is exactly what you said. I can't wait to try out some large ships over the next 2 years since we will be doing the 2 week Panama Canal cruise on the smaller Serenade of the Seas. My cousin & I have been on this ship before for a 12 day mediterranean cruise many years ago & we do like it, plus we get 7 stops during those days, which we plan to explore the ports.

[@kathryncashner3294]

A couple nice things about VV. Of you arrive early, you can drop your luggage and take a complimentary shuttle to Bayside, a shopping and eating area. Unlike most other lines, your cabin is ready when boarding starts and check in is FAST. On each of our cruises, we have been in our cabin by 15 minutes later than our scheduled terminal arrival time. You can also stay ON the ship until 10:45 and enjoy a lovely brunch before you disembark provided you are not in a hurry. Interesting to hear of your 45 days....our longest on a ship has been 28 nights.

[@PamelaVMason]

How did you do your laundry? We did a TA cruise in April on Celebrity Reflection and we had to handwash quite a bit. Then in Spain we bought a few things (we threw out some older items and replaced them). ALSO! How did you entertain yourselves for 15 days? I was on a knitting cruise with classes and teachers and fun stuff (to me). Interested to hear your answers and I enjoyed your video here. Thanks!

[@704musicent]

Would love a video or your thoughts on where you experienced the best thermal spa. As someone who cruises to spend the most time in the spa as possible would really like to know your thoughts. Was on the Divina and the Sunrise and there spa areas left a lot to be desired.

[@karend885]

Thanks for sharing!

[@garyh2018]

I'd like to see you try some of the smaller ship lines like Azamara, Oceania, Viking, or Windstar

[@StraightTalkinFedoraChic]

they tend to travel on a budget so unless they find some really super deal on those lines, it's not likely to happen.

[@cyoohoos]

Not ground hog day on the food. Good advise on the testing out longer cruises

[@wakie442]

Really good advice.

[@dena-mo118]

An Oasis class ship, The Symphony of the Seas did a trans Atlantic last spring. We totally enjoy the Oasis class of Royal. It will be coming back to the US in October. Just have to get a flight to Barcelona to embark on her. Downside since one way ticket prices are usually expensive.

[@diamondlowe8319]

We love an aft balcony

[@sabrinaellis8434]

Hi we love your reviews! My husband and I want to just Cruise when I retire we could use any and as many tips as possible, My husband is retired I’m getting ready to retire and we are looking forward to just cruising

[@fedupred]

I enjoyed your review!

[@johnwm7039]

You typically don’t have a lot of kids on cruises longer than seven days. You’ll always find an ‘older’ crowd on those cruises. HAL 7 day cruises have a lot more kids than their longer cruises.

[@alyssasimon3940]

1. awesome video 2. how did you plan it all so perfectly? 3. laundry ?

[@RJ-ii1ij]

My wife wants to know about laundry. Did you use a service over the 45 days?

[@carolinehughes3819]

I may be generalising but a lot of retirees have a pet that they have. I know as I have a little cat and I have to think about her and her care.

[@Richard-f3j]

Awesome sounds fun

[@blush1967]

On a transatlantic, is the seas rockier?

[@WendySmith-b1d]

I dream of doing something like this! Can I add a technical detail, you need to move your speaker a bit lower as you can hear heavy breathing at different times that is very distracting. I edit podcasts, so I tend to notice things like this. No offense meant! Thank you for your videos!

[@alicewilliams7129]

When it comes to cruising you are living our dream life LOL I wish we could get off work to do B2B2B2B. One day... :)

[@travisalmouth2745]

Choose carefully! I will be on Holland America's Koningsdam for their 35-Day Hawaii, Tahiti & Marquesas RT from San Diego in 2024.. It's a Pinnacle Class ship at 99,500 GRT with the full Music Walk, 4 Specialty Restaurants, 4 casual dining options, room service with full breakfast, afternoon tea, and main dining. Large enough for variety, but small enough to not be overrun with passengers (2650). The itinerary features overnights in 4 ports. With the flight savings of a RT airfare to San Diego, booking early allowed me a free upgrade from oceanview to balcony plus the Have it All package for the price of a standard oceanview. They will do this cruise again in 2025 which will be the 3rd year in a row that they offer it; clearly it's popular! I find that cruises like this are better than repeatedly doing side by sides with the constant moving from one ship to another. Have fun wherever and whenever you cruise!

[@juliabouzan1739]

Sounds amazing 🤩

[@michaelgore115]

also if you talk to the cruise line in advance asking for a long term deal 100 days + you can get a very reasonable price sometimes under $5000 a month so shop around for your best deal

[@gavinnaylor1428]

What a great vlog

[@tomgalinski8256]

Didn’t the Zuiderdam have a burger/taco/frankfurter bar at the pool? It also has a pizza joint, 2 specialty restaurants and room service is included. These class ships are small, no need for show reservations. We’ve done 45 days on same class ship and found food variety not to be redundant, different strokes, I guess.

[@MiriamPrell]

Great advice based on your experience. You presented considerations I needed to hear. After taking my first two cruises this year - the first on Royal Caribbean for five nights and the second on Holland America for seven - my idea after discovering in my early 60s that I love cruising is to cruise around the world but stay for awhile when I disembark. If I have to fly or take a train to the next port to continue the journey, I would do that. I’m tempted not to overplan and just “wing it” from time-to-time, which goes against my personality. However, now retired, I don’t have obligations to anything in particular, so maybe I should relax a bit and accept come-what-may occasionally. I wonder what your take is on having the flexibility to change courses on a whim.

[@optiskeptic4746]

Variety of food on the Oasis sounds good, but did you try every one of the 18 restaurants on the Scarlet Lady? Did you try the Test Kitchen, which is the definition of variety? In any event, great info from your perspective, thanks!

[@rifkymasri1065]

Aft balconies, usually are larger. I did not see that your balcony on the dream was that big.

[@wjekat]

I‘m surprised that you didn‘t mention a major concern for retirees - healthcare. The good news is that there will be a physician and nurses onboard. Of course there is a limit to what they can do and Medicare will not cover the charges. Depending on the ports, the quality and cost of healthcare onshore will vary. If you have something really serious, the cost of medical evacuation can be exorbitant.

[@settinger14]

How did you do both transatlantic cruises for $5000 total? Were you able to get great deals? Did you choose the lowest-cost cabins?

[@MartySalo]

We found Holland America Line's internet to be a bit more complicated than I would prefer. We did a 28 day out of miami to aruba, panama canal transit, panama city, then ecaudor, chile, falkland islands, uruguay, argentina. Flying back from argentina was a process. I don't do well traveling at night, usually, stranger cities. Oh well. Nice that you enjoyed the travel. You could always string together 10 5 night cruises on oasis of the seas. Same ports might get old.

[@carolynknisely2383]

Would you consider cruising from our west coast to Asia?

[@Randilynn66]

About the maximum we can do is twelve days. I'm more particular with my food and I usually come home with a weight loss. We usually cruise celebrity or oceana

[@rallegra]

Wow. This is amazing. Thanks for doing the research. How long were you wobbly once back in solid ground? Ha. Unrelated to cruising, your mention of your AirBnB makes me think: Maybe some time you could do a video about choosing ABnb and VRBO wisely, red flags, etc. for example I was just looking at a place and discovered the owner has her place listed on 3 sites all at different prices, and the reviews are different in each (the majority negative - Yikes!). Glad I happened to find those.

[@bethonetwo]

We did a 60 days around SA and loved it. The only complaint was the food did get a bit monotinous afterwhile. The longest period sea days wise was 3 days so, that was not bad.

[@WildBillTurkey]

A quarter of the video devoted to y'all walking from ship to ship and waiting in lines. I feel like I've been waiting on lines for something to happen.

[@blush1967]

West most definitely would be the better option. I love sleeping.

[@autobotdiva9268]

45 days sounds wonderful. im trying to get 15 days

[@jbug1227]

Have you cruised through the Panama canal?

[@dorothymarsh-aller3336]

What about the around the world 🌎cruise, takes 4 1/2 months long ,would you guys do it?

[@colemant6845]

Gotta ask... You are both young . How do you pay for these trips and not work?... Or... are you both still working and can do this while cruising?? I'm sure I am not alone in this thinking. Great video... and presentation. Thanks

[@kendrawaterbury2328]

They work on these trips, plus their channels help.

[@BlueHeron654]

He is a famous photographer and travel expenses are a write off.

[@Ilovemesomemj1]

This sounds amazing, but after 7 to 10 days, I have to get back to my house. So did you guys have jet/boat lag when you got back?

[@gavinnaylor1428]

Virgin is going to be a top liner love red night

[@christieo2739]

I’m very glad you all did this video. I’ve always wanted to do a round-the-world cruise later in life as well. But I also like variety in my food options. I very rarely eat the same thing for more than 2 days. So it is a very good point that you made.

[@lindajackson9247]

Thanks for the informative video on cruise 45 days, I am booked on my first 15-day cruise from Miami to LA. I have done a b2b cruise on same cruise line and different, I am Looking Forward to my first 15-day same ship, and yes, I love the thermal spa also. Question how you do your laundry?

[@rifkymasri1065]

So you did side to side, not b2b. We are doing a b2b2b for 20 days on Anthem. We love that ship tho.

[@anda1anda2]

Had you never done a transatlantic before this?

[@JustOnePageAway]

Wow!

[@harperwood3562]

They won’t us to leave because they have to turn it before it embarks that same day. Much like hotel hospitality need us to check out in time for them to turn the rooms. I worked a meeting for a decade at a popular destination resort, and I always checked out early because of making friends with many there…it is a push to turn the rooms for them.

[@MannetteVG]

Please consider cruising in Cunard! Would love to see your take on it! Thanks for all your amazing content!

[@charlottewilson4680]

I would like to try it for 3 months at a time. I think.

[@gaynellbuffington6620]

Have you ever done a river cruise?

[@bobbilaski4102]

How did you manage laundry? Did the ship do it for you?

[@dperson5390]

I love Holland America for their food. Carnival doesn't have any dark fresh baked bread and smoked salmon for a proper breakfast. Amazingly many Americans like the food on Carnival. Maybe the newer ships are better?

[@faleciahenry9646]

😮 $$$! Good for you!

[@juliarivera1878]

Y’all are so cute 🥰

[@kristinpowell7853]

I sailed on MSC December 2023 they lost my suitcase and to this day February 2024 I do not have it. They offered$100 dollars. I did not accept . Any suggestions?

[@DMAC1301]

I have no knowledge of this but would the world ship offer any long term cruise options? I do believe the cabins are owned but are some available for rental? 😊

[@damnimloomin]

The longer 180 day cruises seem to have fatigue in mind though

[@stephenplocher8981]

My wife and I have a 32 day cruise set for 2025 with 7 sea going and 8 sea days coming back, now I am beginning to wonder if maybe we made a mistake

[@gielharrisbateman]

Nice

[@glolevan]

Senior cruiser adjustments?

[@brentshuffler1234]

It makes no sense to me at all that you could be complaining about variety of foods on a cruise-ship! Across all the buffets, dining-room menus, other complimentary restaurants and self-service beverage stations throughout the ship, and the 24/7 options of room-service, a typical cruise-line offers over 300 items per day! That is more food options and variety in one day/week than most people will ever have at home. Secondly, I cannot understand your complaints about being on a cruise-ship for 15 days or 30 days or 45 days....when almost everyone in the whole world lives in the same apartment or home for YEARS or even decades or even a whole lifetime! And their home, problems, foods, etc. hardly change... And certainly their home or apartment does not travel anywhere EVER! By contrast, you can have endless variety on the same ship across itineraries and across seasons of the year . . . and then more variety across all the other ships within that cruise-line's fleet . . . and then more variety across all the other cruise-lines in that company's portfolio of Cruise-lines (e.g., Carnival group has nine cruise-lines and Royal Caribbean group has three cruise-lines in its portfolio). So you could sail on a different cruise-ship living experience every month for ten years and not exhaust the different cruise-ship options within just Carnival group's 9 cruise-lines, which collectively have over 100 ships and, by the end of the decade, you would have many more new ships within just that fleet of fleets...plus all the other cruise-lines in the world... So you could travel on a different cruise-ship living experience every month for the rest of your LIFE and not (need to) experience the same ship even twice in the next 50 years. Nobody that I know has tried every cruise-line, never mind every cruise-port or cruise-ship. Astonishing variety beyond any other lifestyle on land.

[@kim11757]

If you were really going to live on a ship could you not get your own satellite internet?

[@havaseas]

You could!

[@silverfox5732]

You guys are amazing, it's hard to get black men to wrap their heads around anything that cost a lot of money, I can't get my husband to move to another home less lone cruising for that long 😂😂😂

[@tscoffey1]

Disney has zero attraction to me. It's a 100% family-oriented experience (we are empty nesters now), and they charge 60% more for reasons I cannot figure out. Give me Celebrity over Disney any day.

[@comment5884]

⛴️

[@donnaparker8489]

I would have liked to learn more about your experiences on the ships, instead of what happened in between. Really ... who cares what happens.on land. PLEASE ... get focused! Which ship did you prefer? What was service like ... entertainment like ... cabins like ... food like ... ??? How did you feel on the ships?? How did the atmosphere of each ship affect you? By the time you got to Oasis of the Seas ... you were telling us a little more ... however ..... . Thank you for your efforts ... it just seems very scattered. Also, I don't think you can compare 'around the world' with what you did.