Why I Will Never Book Another Cruise at the End of the Summer Again!!!

[Cruiser1969]

1) I spend my precious summer days pouring over the DISboards and planning every detail of our vacation instead of enjoying the beautiful weather and time off work (I'm a teacher).

2) All summer long, I buy new, cute clothes for the cruise and never wear them out because I want them to be brand new for the cruise.

3) I live in this torturous limbo of wanting the cruise to come sooner but not wanting the summer to end! URGH!!!

I can't seem to settle in to summer and relax in the moment of now! I think next time I will book a cruise for right after school ends and enjoy my summer as it should be!

(This is half joking and half serious, by the way ... I can't decide which.)

 

[Justacruiser]

1) I spend my precious summer days pouring over the DISboards and planning every detail of our vacation instead of enjoying the beautiful weather and time off work (I'm a teacher).

2) All summer long, I buy new, cute clothes for the cruise and never wear them out because I want them to be brand new for the cruise.

3) I live in this torturous limbo of wanting the cruise to come sooner but not wanting the summer to end! URGH!!!

I can't seem to settle in to summer and relax in the moment of now! I think next time I will book a cruise for right after school ends and enjoy my summer as it should be!

(This is half joking and half serious, by the way ... I can't decide which,)

but actually, doesn't that make your summer drag by?? hummmmm......

 

[Cruiser1969]

but actually, doesn't that make your summer drag by?? hummmmm......

Hmmmm, yes, I suppose it does! I guess it's quality that's suffering.

 

[Justacruiser]

Hmmmm, yes, I suppose it does! I guess it's quality that's suffering.

so I might suggest 2 cruises a summer!

 

[tajz90]

1) I spend my precious summer days pouring over the DISboards and planning every detail of our vacation instead of enjoying the beautiful weather and time off work (I'm a teacher).

2) All summer long, I buy new, cute clothes for the cruise and never wear them out because I want them to be brand new for the cruise.

3) I live in this torturous limbo of wanting the cruise to come sooner but not wanting the summer to end! URGH!!!

I can't seem to settle in to summer and relax in the moment of now! I think next time I will book a cruise for right after school ends and enjoy my summer as it should be!

(This is half joking and half serious, by the way ... I can't decide which,)

Totally agree with you. Booked Med cruise for July. Spent June waiting and planning. Now August seems boring. Next time I'm booking June! No waiting.... And then maybe I can enjoy the rest of the summer.

 

[Justacruiser]

Totally agree with you. Booked Med cruise for July. Spent June waiting and planning. Now August seems boring. Next time I'm booking June! No waiting.... And then maybe I can enjoy the rest of the summer.

nope, you will wishing you were back on the ship! That's why I have done 11 cruises in the last 3 years, and 3 already this year. We are hopeless!

 

[Cruiser1969]

so I might suggest 2 cruises a summer!

... or perhaps spending all summer on a cruise! Wouldn't that be something!!

 

[Justacruiser]

... or perhaps spending all summer on a cruise! Wouldn't that be something!!

I already spend a lot of time between September and May on board. I am just waiting on some military discounts to come out and then I am off again. At least 2 by the end of the year. After you get back in school

 

[tajz90]

Seriously, we're over the July cruises. It puts me in limbo and that's speaking from experience. Two Med July cruises, one July Baltic & a July Alaska. Next time will be in June. We have always enjoyed our June cruises and have managed to throw in another vacation in August. Seems much more satisfying to us. .

Of course, any cruise - any month - is MUCH preferred to NO cruise :0

 

[ladyleslie]

1) I spend my precious summer days pouring over the DISboards and planning every detail of our vacation instead of enjoying the beautiful weather and time off work (I'm a teacher).

2) All summer long, I buy new, cute clothes for the cruise and never wear them out because I want them to be brand new for the cruise.

3) I live in this torturous limbo of wanting the cruise to come sooner but not wanting the summer to end! URGH!!!

I can't seem to settle in to summer and relax in the moment of now! I think next time I will book a cruise for right after school ends and enjoy my summer as it should be!

(This is half joking and half serious, by the way ... I can't decide which.)

As a fellow teacher I know exactly what you mean. So thats why I .... Teach Summer School!!!! After summer school is over Im off to my cruise and WDW... I try not to go back home until it's time to go back to work.

Last year we cruised DCL went home for two days, did laundry and then hopped a flight to Hawaii.... We got back home the morning I had to report back to school!!!!

Wear your new cruise close to non food orientated event and splash em up with different accessories until you find something you love.... Do one cruise orientated thing a day .... Every night I go home and complete one FE gift....

Hang in there .... you'll be cruising soon!!

 

[PoohJen]

To OP - same with us. We always have to book in August after travel baseball is over (seriously, it's 3 weeks off in August and a month off in December!) and b/c DH is a teacher as well.

The reason I don't prefer late summer vacation is b/c I spend the summer (my favorite season!) "waiting" for the cruise, then once we are back, summer is over!

But also like you, I save all the "new" and "cute" summer clothes for the end of summer cruise! Fortunately this time around, Dillard's just had a massive clearance sale and I got some new, cute summer clothes that I only have to store for a few weeks! Yay!

 

[Cruiser1969]

Seriously, we're over the July cruises. It puts me in limbo and that's speaking from experience. Two Med July cruises, one July Baltic & a July Alaska. Next time will be in June. We have always enjoyed our June cruises and have managed to throw in another vacation in August. Seems much more satisfying to us. .

Of course, any cruise - any month - is MUCH preferred to NO cruise :0

Yes, and that brings up a missed point:

4) Limited summer local weekend trips because we have "the big vacation" coming up soon! Sigh!

LOL ... I'm just having fun with this!! I wouldn't trade my vacation for anything! I know how lucky I am. But, these are real first world problems and the reasons why I will avoid BIG late summer vacations from now on.

I'm off to buy more clothes for our cruise now ... I hope I don't forget where I've stored them before I pack!

 

[mcd2745]

1) I spend my precious summer days pouring over the DISboards and planning every detail of our vacation instead of enjoying the beautiful weather and time off work (I'm a teacher).

2) All summer long, I buy new, cute clothes for the cruise and never wear them out because I want them to be brand new for the cruise.

3) I live in this torturous limbo of wanting the cruise to come sooner but not wanting the summer to end! URGH!!!

I can't seem to settle in to summer and relax in the moment of now! I think next time I will book a cruise for right after school ends and enjoy my summer as it should be!

(This is half joking and half serious, by the way ... I can't decide which.)

Completely agree, and can totally sympathize with you.

We always vacation the last week of August as it is a "gap" week for us - the week after the kids' summer camp ends and before they go back to school. We did WDW in 2010 & 2011, double-dip Dream cruise last year, DIS cruise on RCI cruise this year, and Fantasy cruise already booked for next year during the last week of August.

We absolutely strugle with wanting to the vacation to finally get here but also don't want summer to end. We also have done the "saving new clothes for the vacation" thing. I don't, however, spend most of my summer pouring over the DIS boards....just mostly the times I should be working (like now!) and I can't be outside anyway.

 

[tajz90]

Yes, and that brings up a missed point:

4) Limited summer local weekend trips because we have "the big vacation" coming up soon! Sigh!

LOL ... I'm just having fun with this!! I wouldn't trade my vacation for anything! I know how lucky I am. But, these are real first world problems and the reasons why I will avoid BIG late summer vacations from now on.

I'm off to buy more clothes for our cruise now ... I hope I don't forget where I've stored them before I pack!

Agreeeeeee! It's a great problem to have! I'm guaranteeing you no one feels sorry for us! Haha

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

I like having something to look forward to. I like accumulating outfits at good deals (instead of cramming at the last minute) same with shoes, I enjoy having a reason to continue to eat broccoli and kale and run and workout (except I've been laid up for a week due to a stupid procedure for an infection I picked up at a water park! boo! I'm definitely skipping lazy rivers and wave pools of people soup from here on out...) and anyway, even though mine is 9 months away, I'm quite happy. I have lots of time to get more financially squared away, and more points to accrue on my Nemo & Squirt card, and a reason not to get fat this fall/winter (when I always do!) Its my little piece of sunshine.

Now if I can only get up the nerve to tell my boss I forgot about that pesky primary election in May...being gone for a week 2 weeks before it is going to put them in a major bind, but I can't put my entire 2014 year on hold for the election so it's just gonna have to happen... I think I deserve my anniversary week!

 

[Cats12]

I cruised at the very end of April this year and it was perfect. I spent February and March doing FE and buying cute spring stuff, which is wasn't warm enough to wear at home anyway. Then cruise and when you get back, it's almost summer! Dreading when my little ones are too old for that, though.

 

[Cruiser1969]

I cruised at the very end of April this year and it was perfect. I spent February and March doing FE and buying cute spring stuff, which is wasn't warm enough to wear at home anyway. Then cruise and when you get back, it's almost summer! Dreading when my little ones are too old for that, though.

This is exactly what we used to do when the kids were in elementary school (up to grade 8 here). We would go in May (I teach Sept.-April), use the new clothes for the cruise, and have a whole summer to enjoy afterwards! Our kids are in high school now, so we travel in July or August! I don't want them to miss school now as there is more pressure on them to catch up. It's certainly not my preference to travel in summer as prices are sky high and, well, you know, all the other reasons I listed in my first post.

 

[GatorMomInNC]

My kids go to year round school. We had the month of June and the first week of July off. I was so busy in May with end of year school stuff, but i was so eager for it to be over so we could go on our vacations, it was all i could think about. We spent the first week of June in Orlando, 3 weeks at home, then did a Canada cruise ( our first time on HAL, I need to do a review/comparison with DCL). So now the kids are back in school, starting the new year ---and ALL I can think about is our September EBPC cruise on DCL!! I have actually been saying to my kids, "Just 26 school days left until the cruise!"

So, for me, if I have a cruise planned, it doesn't matter what time of year it is, I'm gonna be obsessing about it!

 

[wendyoconnor]

That's why I always have to have a cruise or vacation planned, to have something to look forward too. The downside to buying cruise clothes ahead of time is that my DD has outgrown everything I bought for her first cruise. Granted at the time I was buying the clothes she wasn't born yet and we didn't expect to have an 8lb 14oz baby who would be wearing 6 month clothing at two months old.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

I'd like to read your cruise line comparison!