Embarrassed by DCL cruising so often?

[Club Disney Chandler]

I don't feel embarrassed as much as I feel judged by some people. We've got 3 cruises, (not DCL), booked for next year and may do a Christmas cruise,(DCL), if the stars align properly. I've shared it with nobody because I don't want to brag and I hate the judging associated with it.

We live very modestly in a basic 4 bedroom house, my wife and son drive Hondas and I drive a 2002 Chevy Silverado that I love. We could have nicer cars and house but years from now, we'll remember the vacations we spent with each other a lot more than our cars and house.

 

[xlxo]

I am a huge convert.... just started 3 years ago.

• inside and oceanview cabins can be cheaper than a road trip or flying
• convenient in not looking for food and shelter every night. It's planned for me.
• port time is just enough for me to see the highlights.
• vacation time from the office is the only thing limiting me from cruising more.

While some cruiselines and balconies can be pricy.... I show newbies the cost of an oceanview and cost comparison to the alternative of doing the trip without a boat.

One way repo's are another great way to get introduced to cruising.

 

[Love2Cruz]

We have done 14 cruises in 5 years. I dont tell other people what we do. Everyones financial sitiation is different. We are not 1 percenters not even close. We just live well below our means.We got married young and are still in the same house we bought after we got martied 22 years ago. We have more disposable income than a lot of people, but its not because we make more money then them so I dont feel embarrased by it.

This is pretty much us, as far as living below our means. I make a decent salary in healthcare management and also dabble in real estate investment, I take risks, work hard so I reward myself and my DD every chance I get.

Also, I get the snarky comments like " another cruise?" I don't only cruise DCL...but I cruise ALOT, living close to 3 ports and 5 ports if you count the whole state makes cruising very accessible. But I really don't care if people judge....I get to spend my discretionary income however I please. I cruise at least twice a year, I don't have to pay for airfare in Florida...however lately I've been eyeing cruises overseas so maybe two will be my limit.

 

[Otimon]

Our 28th DCL cruise will be coming up this Christmas. Not embarrassed at all - just feeling very blessed to have been able to take them all.

After all, you can't take them with you so enjoy the here and now. Bon voyage.

 

[ludari]

I'm not embarrassed that I cruise often and I might get teased a bit from my coworkers but my friends and family don't flinch an eye about it (they all know that I have a Disney addiction).

 

[Danilu]

Wow so glad I read this today... I do feel judged by some people, I just share my plans with my family and close friends whom are aware of my Disney obsession. I shouldn't feel like that or have to keep quiet about where im going or doing on my next vacation.

And you are all right, I will start seeing it as a blessing, as i have the means and time to even go for a WDW or DCL vacation

 

[imahistorygeek]

We go to Disney a lot and just really kinda started cruising. Our fourth cruise will be this October. We never really say anything about it anymore. I used to be weird about posting pictures on FB because I was worried about the judging. I'm sure there are many that think we are wasting our money, but I've come to realize it just doesn't matter anymore. We work hard to be able to vacation at Disney.

I think some of the criticism stems from a lot of people thinking Disney is just for kids.

 

[gwmort]

We just got back from a once in a lifetime for us vacation to Europe. We started in Disneyland Paris and ended with a 7 day disney cruise in the Med. In between we toured some on our own and saw different sights.

I had a number of people ask me why we were so into Disney. I didn't feel embarrassed, except for my own inability to explain it clearly to them.

I told one friend that part of it was nostalgia, I grew up with great disney memories and I want to make more with my kids; and part of it was the standard of care and comfort, even going into a foreign environment I knew generally what to expect in terms of cleanliness, accomodations, and customer service. On our own touring that was a bit hit or miss, which was adventurous and fun in its own way, but not relaxing and comforting the way we feel with Disney.

 

[lorimay]

We have people ask why we don't try another cruise line, we tell them nope we know exactly what DCL is giving us and we like it.
Its our floating hotel and we have seen many new places and some of the same ones too.
DCL makes us happy and I will continue to sail Disney exclusively.

Do what makes you happy!

 

[hanscarlet]

Embarrassed is probably the wrong word, you all are right, it's more like "judged", sometimes I feel judged, I don't how to explain it, you all are totally hitting the nail on the head though... seems more comfortable to talk disney around like minded disney folks...

I also wonder if it's more "socially acceptable" (not sure if that's the right word) for people who live in cruise friendly locations to have it not be a big deal vs someone who lives up north... I don't find myself sharing much about our second cruise but I feel less guilty about it because it is a NYC cruise and I am not spending money on airfare so that's how I rationalize it in my head lol... I know I don't need to justify my choices in vacations to anyone but I don't know, sometimes I feel secretly judged that we're being too extravagant.... the truth of the matter is that we take two vacations a year - and we're just replacing our second vacation with a cruise so makes sense to me

 

[hanscarlet]

Wow so glad I read this today... I do feel judged by some people, I just share my plans with my family and close friends whom are aware of my Disney obsession. I shouldn't feel like that or have to keep quiet about where im going or doing on my next vacation.

And you are all right, I will start seeing it as a blessing, as i have the means and time to even go for a WDW or DCL vacation

You know I find I need to be quiet around family in my planning too, you know why? Because the family members want to go with us and invite themselves on our trips! I think that is so rude! They've gotten so bad that I've actually had to point blank to tell them "no, this is just for my immediate family" or "Plan your own cruise".... I feel bad but it's like come on

 

[RedSox68]

My co-workers have always been puzzled by how in the world we can plan and book a trip 18 months out, etc. when they can't figure out what they want to do in the next six months. We have heard that over and over -- and explaining to them about the pricing and getting in on early booking means nothing. My boss got so upset at how far ahead I plan my trips that he suddenly decided that you could only ask for time off within six months of the dates you want. Luckily our new supervisor went back to the yearly rule -- you can request your dates up to one year out from your vacation. They also don't like how many days we take (even though they are earned vacation) and how many times we travel in a year. Jealously -- that's all it is

My friends, however, understand completely and are always asking where's our next trip to and love to hear about how we plan for it.

While I have backed off from mentioning it at work as much, I do like having a place like here to share everything with. Thanks

 

[Ofinn]

This is pretty much us, as far as living below our means. I make a decent salary in healthcare management and also dabble in real estate investment, I take risks, work hard so I reward myself and my DD every chance I get.

Also, I get the snarky comments like " another cruise?" I don't only cruise DCL...but I cruise ALOT, living close to 3 ports and 5 ports if you count the whole state makes cruising very accessible. But I really don't care if people judge....I get to spend my discretionary income however I please. I cruise at least twice a year, I don't have to pay for airfare in Florida...however lately I've been eyeing cruises overseas so maybe two will be my limit.

Some of my coworkers travel a lot. As a healthcare worker there is always lots of overtime available so people tend to work a lot and then take a lot of time off. I'm probably the only one that cruises, but some of them go to some pretty cool places. I just choose carefully who I talk to my trips about.

 

[Figment1983]

I don't feel embarrassed by my travel at all! We are very fortunate to be able to travel as much and to the places we do. My company has a very generous time away policy, and my wife and I both have pretty decent income. This allows us to travel pretty regularly. I am also very good about using credit cards to pay for everything and racking up award miles. This allows us to fly all over for minimal costs.

So no I do not feel guilty about cruises, trips to disney, vacations, etc

 

[com_op_2000]

Do you ever feel shame or awkwardness in explaining your cruise addiction to people who don't get it? Next year will be our first year with 2 cruises in one year and I am finding myself not necessarily being open about this fact with my normal circle of friends and coworkers and I am wondering if I am subconsciously feeling weird or embarrassed by it. Am I alone in this or just part of the addiction that I will grow out of? Have you ever had people make you feel shame for cruising too much?

What I tell people is:
Whoever pays the piper calls the music.
If your family wants you to go on a vacation and they are willing to pay for it, go and have a great time on them. If you are paying for the trip you go where and when you choose to go.

 

[Poosdarling]

We are going on our first cruise in October and I am already planning on taking advantage of the booking discount on board.

 

[AquaDame]

Not really, if anything I feel guilt that we can afford to vacation as often as we do when others can't. I'm lucky that there are a lot of closeted 1%ers where I work (I am not one of them) so my spending isn't seen as out of hand. Plus, when people find out we don't have kids, live further out of the city than they would choose to (half the price on our house and an extra 5 min each way is more than worth it to us), and I drive a 1997 car thats a good enough 'explanation'. Not having kids is 99% of the forgiveness of course. Our house is way under what the bank approved us for but even now we feel like we rattle around in our 3 bedroom 1600 sq ft house.. our pets always hang out in whatever room we are in anyway - the third bedroom is literally a room with the cat box and some cat trees in it, lol. Living below your means has many benefits - my favorite is no one knows how much money we make.

I /have/ noticed that everyone focuses on our Disney trips and ignores all the other fabulous places we go though and that DOES bug me...

 

[alltwelve]

I sometimes feel like I have to explain why we choose Disney over other options. I just tell people it works for us and our preferred style of cruising and actually Disney has done the best on keeping their adults only areas just that.

I do want to try Royal Caribbean but their ships seem so much bigger and like there is a crazy amount of stuff going on and I much prefer a good mix of relaxing and activities.

Same here- I actually was going to book a Royal Caribbean cruise for next February, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. We've only done Disney and no other cruise lines- 9 cruises total. I want to branch out eventually, but why change a good thing?!?!

 

[bcwife76]

Our first cruise was last September. We have two cruises booked for 2017. The #1 reaction from anyone that finds this out? "Oh my god that's awesome, you're so lucky, I wish I could do that, so cool" etc and so forth. My vacation=no need to justify it to anyone. EVER.

 

[The Sasquatch]

I definitely got past the odd looks with family, friends and co-workers with our obsession with WDW. They now expect it and simply ask "When is your next Disney trip". Funny thing is, I always have a date...or two. We have been to WDW around 50 times and our 9 year old is on number 15 for October.

We started cruising in 2012 and will be on #6 in Oct and have Oct '17 booked with a possibility of April '17.