A real quandary....how to spend it all

[NW-Bound]

I noticed that the long cruises are priced much, much higher than the shorter cruises, even after adjusting for freebies and no-charge luxury items. The "efficiency" habit in me has a hard time with $550 a night per person when I can get a shorter (14 day or so) cruise with similar port-density cruise for between 1/5 and 1/3 the long cruise price...

My aunt and her husband have taken several cruises of 30+ days. I look on Web sites, and their per-day costs are not at all bad. But then, these are not inclusive and cover laundry costs, shore excursions, etc...

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

My DW and and I are savers, but just took a World Cruise on Regent Seven Seas. This is an all inclusive trip, meaning no additional cost for alcohol, for laundry, medical, shore excursions, wi-fi, gratuities, etc. We went to 30 different countries, 62 different ports and learned what places we would want to visit in the future. It took 137 days to complete the cruise, so it is like 10 two week vacations....but you only have to unpack once!
Think about it...seriously. Expensive on the front end, but well worth it when it was done.

That is exactly the cruise (or a very similar one) that I was thinking about when I started the Retirement celebratory splurge? thread! It's still a few years off for us, but I'd definitely like to do something like that to celebrate our retirement and give us ideas about where to travel afterwards.

 

[DAYDREAMER]

It helped that we gave ourselves each a monthly allowance that we could spend or save as each of us wished. We transfer $2,000 per month from Vanguard into each of our 'his' and 'hers' bank accounts.


It's only half our total annual spending (3.3% of assets at age 63), but we both feel the freedom in that neither of us have to ask the other before spending or be concerned about spending as we individually wish. It works well for us.

We do the same $2000/month into each of our accounts after our $1900/month living expenses. During our work lives, we were always heavily saving or paying off houses, and discretionary spending took a back seat. It's a liberating feeling to be able to splurge, but finding I'm still saving too much of the spending money.

Decided to bust lose $6500 and bought a really nice dump trailer. Bitchn toy! Maybe next toy will be a trackhoe to haul around in the trailer. I love tractors.

 

[athena53]

Yesterday, I went on the Regent Seven Seas Web site, and saw that they were having a special deal on a 130+ day world cruise for $66K/person. Everything is included, including all the shore excursions you want to take.

Well, I'd try that but the Single Supplement would kill me! And I haven't found a travel companion with whom I'd want to share a cabin and whose travel budget is quite that extravagant.

 

[audreyh1]

As mentioned before, the cruise included a lot of items that are normally add ons from other cruise lines. Business Class airfare to/from departure city, a night in a luxury hotel before departure with gala evening event to get us in the mood. Our room was good size (355 sq ft) with walk-in closet and a bathroom that had a separate shower and bathtub. Most of the rooms (90%) on the ship were the same as ours. No additional charge to have any meal in your room if you felt like having breakfast in bed, or your filet and lobster on your balcony. They also have Fedex ship 4 additional suitcases to the ship since we needed extra clothes for a long journey like this.

On normal cruises, 20-25% of passengers take shore excursions...on our cruise, it was closer to 80% because they were included in the price. That meant we were not walking around the port city looking through souvenir shops. We were taking 2 hour bus rides to bathe elephants in a river, or going on 4 hour safaris, climbing 1200' sand dunes, snorkeling in the Maldives. Each port was like an appetizer for that country to help us decide if we wanted to return for a full portion (multi weeks) of that location.

Back to your question...$150K for the both of us. That works out to about $7600/week for the equivalent of 14 week long, all inclusive vacations...back to back. We would do it again.

Now, you do need to work out a few things...like hard copy mail, who will take care of the cat, how will your yard work get taken care of...but those are relatively minor.

Wow, definitely worth posting on the Blow that Dough thread! I think you’ll take the cake and even beat the Tesla car buyers.

What a fantastic thing to do!

Thanks for sharing the cost and details.

 

[levindb]

I noticed that the long cruises are priced much, much higher than the shorter cruises, even after adjusting for freebies and no-charge luxury items. The "efficiency" habit in me has a hard time with $550 a night per person when I can get a shorter (14 day or so) cruise with similar port-density cruise for between 1/5 and 1/3 the long cruise price. What you don't get is the same kind of clientèle. That can be good or bad. I usually get along well with people who are also trying to get their money's worth. They're spending some decent money for longer cruises than those quickie ones, for sure, just not 5X for the very long cruise.

For each 14 day cruise, you have to add the flight to from the departure port...in my example, that would be 10 flights and maybe an overnight stay in a hotel to make sure you did not miss the cruise departure. Since this was a world cruise, those departure cities could be 1/2 way around the earth. Our flights were included in the price, as well as transportation to the dock from the airport. Alcohol/drink packages are $60/day/person on Carnival. The excursions could run about $150-$200/per person on a normal cruise, but half the days we were at sea, so on average $75-$100/day/person.

The average age on the World Cruise was 73 and there were no children that did the whole cruise. We have a couple children who joined for a 3 week segment. The entire cruise was broken into six 3 week segments. You could sign up for one or more segments if you wanted just a portion of the world.

Our excursions were not just walking around the port city, or shopping tours. It was not unusual for us to travel 2-3 hours to get to some of the activities we participated on. Excursions were broken into different categories that we could choose from based on physical difficulty. Of the 500 passengers on our ship, only 200 did the entire World Cruise.

Here are some of the things we elected to do:

Snorkeling with stingrays and sharks, kayaking, bridge climb in Sydney, volcano walks, catamaran, river by longboat, jet boat, Komodo Dragons, Tabletop Mountain, scuba, camel ride through desert, tequila tasting, Tango Lessons in Rio, Bike tour, ostrich farm, and so much more. We held koalas and kangaroos, hiked through deserts and rainforests, swam in waterfalls, and climbed mountains. Our families followed us with Facebook postings, and grandchildren tracked us on world maps.

We did not make our shore excursion decisions by how much something costs, but rather on the experience we would have. We did not make a decision whether to have a drink of wine, or whether to have dinner in our suite based on the charges. We could eat in the specialty restaurants on the ship or the main dining room. We could eat early or late...or even not at all. Sometimes you may miss out on things if you visit Sri Lanka and not spend $5 to give an elephant a bath in the river.

...that really made us focus on enjoying the journey. At this stage of our lives, we are collecting experiences and not things.

Again, if you have the resources and the time, I would highly recommend it.

 

[Retch The Grate]

well I'm sold, seems like I need to drastically up my travel allowances in my retirement planning sheet.

 

[googily]

Well, I'd try that but the Single Supplement would kill me! And I haven't found a travel companion with whom I'd want to share a cabin and whose travel budget is quite that extravagant.

Ditto. But I'm hoping that the cruise lines are starting to grasp that there has to be a better way to deal with the people who want to throw money at them but dare to want to travel alone.

 

[athena53]

Ditto. But I'm hoping that the cruise lines are starting to grasp that there has to be a better way to deal with the people who want to throw money at them but dare to want to travel alone.

Some tour companies get it. I took Overseas Adventure Travel to India and Nepal a year ago. No Single Supplement, small groups (a dozen people) and the only optional excursion that comes to mind was a plane flight over the Himalayas; I think it was $300 but you had to get up crazy early and the road to and from the Kathmandu Airport is in terrible shape- still recovering from an EQ a few years ago. Everything else was included.

I'm looking forward to taking them to the Galapagos next year.D

 

[sengsational]

...that really made us focus on enjoying the journey. At this stage of our lives, we are collecting experiences and not things.

Thanks so much for those additional details. I was curious if the embarkation and debarkation ports in your case were in distant locations where business class seats to/from the US would be expensive, and I see that's the case.

I "get it" that there certainly is value in just doing what you want, without looking at the price of it. Well, without having a price to even look at. We did a river cruise (just 7 days) that was like that, and the per day price was similar to your long ocean cruise. We were off the ship all day, every day, with the included excursions. And the beverages were included. The best thing about that experience were the people. From a travel and sight-seeing perspective, not really my style to be so regimented, but that's cruising for ya.

It took me a while, but when I go on the standard cruise lines, I just get what I want, for the most part (excursions, beverages, specialty dining). I might go to the spa if it were included on a fancy cruise line, but I'm not that into the spa to pay extra for it. I don't buy the beverage package because I simply don't drink enough to make it pay off. I think they charge a lot for those packages so people like me feel free to just pay-up whenever the urge strikes, knowing that the total will be less than the package.

My aunt and her husband have taken several cruises of 30+ days. I look on Web sites, and their per-day costs are not at all bad. But then, these are not inclusive and cover laundry costs, shore excursions, etc...

It seems like the 30 day ones are not quite as high as the longer ones, but that's just a gut feel. I might need to build yet another spreadsheet

 

[jjuneau]

Start Giving

My best suggestion; giving. We have been having much fun providing scholarships for high school seniors (5 last year, anticipating more this year) donating to our church, various ministries, and veterans support groups. I suggest a visit to Charity Navigator to look up charitable organizations to see how responsible and efficient they are.

 

[Amethyst]

Since we have been doing upscale travel, we have become aware of the large proportion of old, dilapidated customers. Basically, travel and eating are all they have left, and their money will way outlive them. Don't wait too long to enjoy the good things.

 

[MrLoco]

I noticed that the long cruises are priced much, much higher than the shorter cruises, even after adjusting for freebies and no-charge luxury items. The "efficiency" habit in me has a hard time with $550 a night per person when I can get a shorter (14 day or so) cruise with similar port-density cruise for between 1/5 and 1/3 the long cruise price. What you don't get is the same kind of clientèle. That can be good or bad. I usually get along well with people who are also trying to get their money's worth. They're spending some decent money for longer cruises than those quickie ones, for sure, just not 5X for the very long cruise.

You are correct in your assessment of the longer "all inclusive" cruises.

My wife and I have cruised often....usually Holland American or Oceana.. A few Seabourn cruises. The issue I have with the all inclusive cruises is that you pay for all the freebies whether you use them or not.



Not a big drinker? You will pay for those who do. Don't like going on a shore excursion in every port? That's ok....you pay for those that will.
I prefer a line where I can pick and choose what I want to spend my money on while I am onboard and not feel that I "must" indulge in all that is offered cuz it is included.

 

[sengsational]

...not feel that I "must" indulge in all that is offered cuz it is included.

On the river cruise where the excursions were included, we made sure to go on every one, even though we would have been at least as happy laying on the bed and watching the river flow by on a morning or two.


But I'm glad the all-inclusive cruises are priced high...that way when I do go on an à la carte cruise, I don't hesitate to get whatever I want, knowing I'm coming in under the price of the all-inclusive cruise anyway.

 

[levindb]

...
I prefer a line where I can pick and choose what I want to spend my money on while I am onboard and not feel that I "must" indulge in all that is offered cuz it is included.

While each traveler has their own preferences, with the all inclusive approach, we no longer made a decision on each port excursion whether it was worth the cost based on the description provided. Instead, we forced ourselves to DO SOMETHING at each port and were often surprised by what we experienced and what we learned. Did we do things that were a bust?...certainly.

We ate when we wanted and where we wanted. We drank if we felt like it not based on the cost of a bottle. By not trying to minimize costs, we got more out of a once in a lifetime journey.

Again, each traveler has their own preferences, and for us NOT trying to optimize cost/value every day, let us focus on things that seemed to be more important to us.

 

[Earlygirl]

So what cruises have you taken? It's time we took another one, as we didn't go on one last year.

We have gone to Alaska, to the Caribbean East and West multiple times, and to Mexico. We have decided the longer the better! My husband is not retired yet, and the longest we have gone is 21 days.

What we would like to do is take a transatlantic to Europe and cruise some more in Europe and do some land travel there also. That would be a real adventure. We would also like to cruise in Australia/New Zealand and to Tahiti. It would be awesome to cruise around Japan also. We have a land trip planned with our son and his family to Hawaii in June for two weeks. We have been to Hawaii twice so this will be the third time. We'd love to go and stay in Hawaii for a month. A Hawaiian cruise would be wonderful also!

As someone mentioned, the very long world cruises are much more expensive per day. I am hoping to put together a longer itinerary composed of shorter cruises with land travel in between. We'll see! Husband needs to retire in order to accomplish that, and we want to sell our house and downsize. I think it could happen within the next year.

We have met such nice people on cruises. If you live in Florida (we don't) you can take advantage of last minute deals. We met a couple that took a cruise every month! Haha.

 

[sengsational]

You can get some fairly long cruises that are really cheap on a per-night basis if you look for repositioning cruises. The port density is typically pretty light, but if you're expecting to be disappointed by a port because you won't be able to keep reading your book (hehe!), then these are for you!

 

[audreyh1]

Thanks so much for those additional details. I was curious if the embarkation and debarkation ports in your case were in distant locations where business class seats to/from the US would be expensive, and I see that's the case.

I "get it" that there certainly is value in just doing what you want, without looking at the price of it. Well, without having a price to even look at. We did a river cruise (just 7 days) that was like that, and the per day price was similar to your long ocean cruise. We were off the ship all day, every day, with the included excursions. And the beverages were included. The best thing about that experience were the people. From a travel and sight-seeing perspective, not really my style to be so regimented, but that's cruising for ya.

It took me a while, but when I go on the standard cruise lines, I just get what I want, for the most part (excursions, beverages, specialty dining). I might go to the spa if it were included on a fancy cruise line, but I'm not that into the spa to pay extra for it. I don't buy the beverage package because I simply don't drink enough to make it pay off. I think they charge a lot for those packages so people like me feel free to just pay-up whenever the urge strikes, knowing that the total will be less than the package.

It seems like the 30 day ones are not quite as high as the longer ones, but that's just a gut feel. I might need to build yet another spreadsheet

I like to do what I want even when expensive. But I always look at the price, and I always look for a deal or try to time things to catch the better deals. I would feel foolish if I overlooked an easy nice discount even on expensive excursions.

If no discount is offered - no problem - but that doesn't mean I'm not going to look for one. If it's tiny - I don't care. But if I can find a substantial one - then that is sweet.

 

[robnplunder]

I applaud the op's post. Too many ER folks in this forum will leave a lot of money behind when they die, myself included. I am thinking to revise my yearly budget which is currently just under $100k. I may boost it up to $120/year soon. I am also seriously considering buying a 2nd car - Tesla. May also install a solar panel.

 

[audreyh1]

I applaud the op's post. Too many ER folks in this forum will leave a lot of money behind when they die, myself included. I am thinking to revise my yearly budget which is currently just under $100k. I may boost it up to $120/year soon. I am also seriously considering buying a 2nd car - Tesla. May also install a solar panel.

Every few years we re-evaluate our spending "budget" (not a hard one, but we tend to stick to the guideline) and decide whether to increase it.

I don't have the budget automatically increasing due to inflation. I like to look at our spending, our desired spending, and how much our spending is falling behind the (varying) income we withdraw from our portfolio.

I think the only criticism of the OP's post is expressing it as needing to "spend it all". Spending it all is virtually impossible without courting disaster in later years. We might need a cushion, and you just don't know how close you can might be able to cut it until you're in that last decade. Even then it's a bit risky as you don't know it's your last decade until you reach your 90s! Maybe aiming to spend half is a more prudent goal.

 

[sengsational]

Yeah, but if you invest in the solar and Tesla, then with the inevitable rise in fossil fuel prices, you'll have even MORE money to "get rid of"

 

[audreyh1]

Yeah, but if you invest in the solar and Tesla, then with the inevitable rise in fossil fuel prices, you'll have even MORE money to "get rid of"

Uh oh! LOL!

 

[robnplunder]

Spending it all is virtually impossible without courting disaster in later years. We might need a cushion, and you just don't know how close you can might be able to cut it until you're in that last decade. Even then it's a bit risky as you don't know it's your last decade until you reach your 90s! Maybe aiming to spend half is a more prudent goal.

+1. I think there is a fine line between spending it too close to court a financial disaster vs hording $$$ unnecessarily.

 

[robnplunder]

Yeah, but if you invest in the solar and Tesla, then with the inevitable rise in fossil fuel prices, you'll have even MORE money to "get rid of"

I intend to lose money on both investments. I will drive a Tesla for a few years and give it away to DS. I will sell the house before realizing the gains on solar panel. Savvy?