Month: October 2022

It is typical for cruisers to watch the cruise rates and flight rates and request the lower rate when available. Being that we anticipate not having internet frequently, it made sense to have someone on land manage this. I will have one of my children do so for me, giving them 25% of anything they are able to save us.

The assumption is that the deposit for the cruises would be $125/person/cruise. The full amount of the cruise will be due 90 days prior to departure and only one price change after that time. This may differ from cruise line to cruise line, but these are the assumptions we are going to make.

We opted to get credit cards with the major cruise lines. This way we would get any additional perks through their cards. We also have a credit card that has a favorable rate for foreign purchases. Payments to the credit cards would be automatic.

We own stock with the major cruise lines which provides us with additional cruise credits. If you own a certain number of stocks, you get cruise credit on each cruise you take. For this virtual cruise, we are going to make the assumption that this is not our first cruise – in fact, we will say that we’ve done one 7-day cruise with each of the major cruise lines. We can then investigate the perks that we would gain as we go through our adventure.

Additional expenses to consider will be per diem tips on the cruise. Travel & excursions while at ports. Hotel, food, & expenses on nights not spent on a cruise ship. Ongoing necessities such as hair cuts, laundry, etc. Flights from one location to another as needed. Cell phone and insurance expenses. Without maintaining a car, we figure we will need non-auto car insurance for at least one driver. We will also need health insurance, prescription costs, and co-pays. We will have a monthly fee for our storage unit.

Finances we won’t have will be our mortgage, utilities, groceries, cleaning supplies, lawn care, car repairs, home upkeep/repair expenses, appliance repair/upkeep, cable/internet, pet expenses, or streaming services. Since we won’t have much suitcase space, we will not be purchasing many souvenirs (and if we do they will be wearable or small).

The idea is that by eliminating regular day-to-day expenses that we would be able to afford this perpetual cruising lifestyle. The emphasis is on having experiences, not possessions. Today we fly down to Miami. And it begins…..

So when you pack for an adventure like this, you have to be mindful of what you pack. There will be occasional flights, occasional hotel stays, and of course the change from cruise ship to cruise ship. We need to be able to carry what we bring. We believe that we can do this with one large suitcase, one small one, and a carryon. This means we have very limited space to pack items.

So what is important? Obviously clothes is the on the top of the list. Our theory is that we need to have clothing that would be easy to launder by hand if needed, but we would try to find a way to launder them. Eventually, we would have enough cruise perks to get some of our laundry done for free. But even that would be limited. There are times we may just have to pay to have them done. Maybe we could find a laundromat at one of the ports. I think this is one of my biggest worries.

Here is my packing list.

Shorts – 6, pants – 2, shirts – 9, dresses (light weight) – 2, wrap, thinsulate coat, sandals, tennis shoes, undergarments – no less than 14 pairs, bras – 3, socks – 7 pairs, swimsuit, personal hygiene products (toothbrush, toothpaste, deoderant, leave-in conditioner, etc), prescriptions (3 months supply), hairbrush, electric shaver, OTC meds/bandaids (small first aid kit), tweezers/nail clippers, q-tips, nasal spray, make-up, hair ties, hat, bug spray wipes, sunscreen, laptop (1 between my husband & I), magnet hooks (for the walls), collapsible hamper, power strip with long cord, notebook of paper, card games, my phone, select jewelry, passport, license, credit cards, cash, crochet hooks & yarn, small scissors, my glasses, charging/power cords, detergent sheets, reusable water bottle, and travel CPAP machine. My husband would also need similar clothing. He will need a dress shirt and pants & a belt.

I am sure I must be missing something, but my husband’s theory with travelling is that with a few exceptions, anything you forget you can buy during your travels. For the most part, he has been right on this – hope that continues!

Some of the items that might seem odd on my list – crochet hooks & yarn. I like to crochet – it relaxes me. I’ll not be making large afghans, but I can make small things. Maybe I’ll give them away. Or, I can unravel them and start over. If I run out of yarn, I’m sure I can buy more at some point. Another item is the card games. My husband and I enjoy playing card games when we are at sea. We have a small carrying case with our favorite cards that we travel with. Cruise ships have lots of activities, but face it, we are going to have lots of time where we will need to entertain ourselves. I like to read – I plan on spending a lot time doing that. We will also probably download our favorite movies to our laptop.

The count down is on – five days until our first cruise launches! At this point we are probably staying with one of our children, getting ready to leave on this adventure.

Our perpetual virtual cruise will start in 6 days. In order to get to this place, this travel from cruise ship to cruise ship in order to get the most out of our retirement, there are important steps that we would have taken.

We decided that we would not maintain a house while we traveled. It just didn’t make financial sense to have an empty house that incurred expense and worry. Our house isn’t in an area where we could rent it out as an Air BnB. Perhaps if it was in an ideal location, this would be an option. Even then, someone would need to manage the rentals, make sure the house was cleaned and maintained. We expected that we would be downsizing our house anyways – so we sell our house and are in between homes while we travel. I cannot imagine ourselves as homeless – so saying we are in between homes gives us some security. This is a deliberate choice – right? Right!

We decided that we would only keep the best of our furniture and only those items without cloth. So we keep the bed, toss the mattress. Couches were sold or taken to the dumpster. We packed the items we want to keep in a storage unit except for our valuables. These we leave with our adult children for safe keeping.

When we decided to do this several years ago, we decided to let our cars age out. We are able to sell the cars and minimize our insurance expenses. We aren’t at retirement age yet, so some of our retirement expenses will be for health insurance.

There is so much to take into consideration. That is why we are doing this virtually before we really take the plunge!

Denise