How do people cruise 25+ times on DCL?

Like many on this thread, my first DCL cruise was before 2010. My 2nd, and my wife's 1st, was our honeymoon. Some years we do 1-2 cruises a year if they are longer ones. Some years we do 3-4 is they are shorter ones. Once we had kids, we really started to pick up the DCL cruises more than other lines, but cruising has always been our go-to vacation...and YES living in FL helps a lot. No we don't do last minute cheap cruises, we only sail when school is out so I feel we pick the most expensive times to cruise.

I'm a handful away from Pearl now...my daughter hit Platinum when she was 11, I think my son hit it when he was 8. I always used to joke with my wife that we were either the world's best parents, or the world's worst for enriching/spoiling them so, but they have good heads on their shoulders and appreciate what it takes to save up for vacations.

We drive Hyundai's, shop at Costco, Target & Walmart, cook more often than dining out, etc. Travel is what we save for. It is our passion.

Lately we do more Royal cruises than Disney so it make take longer to hit that Pearl status (of course depends on what the perks are, not rushing to hit a level that I know nothing about just yet) but I can easily see how people have done 30, 40, 50 cruises without breaking the bank, especially those that have been sailing for 25 years.
 
And not to worry, there are plenty of us who will never reach Pearl status. We started cruising in 2016 and have completed 3 cruises (4th scheduled for next summer.). We were on an every other year cycle until Covid hit... All 7nt cruises so far.
 
Schools here often are not that generous in terms of frequent removal due to vacation which is why some end up homeschooling, and 4 weeks per year is hardly what many get here. It would have taken me about 10 years with the insurance company to get that lol.
Yes, that's called truancy here and it can carry with it criminal penalties for parents.
My last employer gave 2 weeks vacation, bumped it to 3 weeks after 5 years, and 4 weeks after 10 years. The top tier is 5 weeks but that doesn't hit until you have worked for the company for 30 YEARS.
 
they save their money??

IDK but I go on vacation once or twice a year, far from retirement. I just like to enjoy my life, I save hard and vacation when I want. I pull my kids from school because life experience and travel to new places is better education than being in front of a blackboard all day. I'm also in Australia where we get 4 weeks paid vacation a year.
I've have read that Australians are much more likely to pull kids out of school for vacation. Due to where your country is located it seems necessary if you want to travel for any extended period of time to another continent. I get jet lag just thinking about that flight. Different cultures have a different way of doing things.

I agree traveling can be more educational than sitting in front of a blackboard. I find most Americans spend more time complaining about their child's education than taking control of it.
 


My first DCL cruise was a 7 night cruise in 2000 that was $799/person (before taxes, etc). Even accounting for inflation (online calculator), that's $1,293.63/person in 2022 dollars. That was for an Oceanview GTY room (no restrictions, usual deposit, etc). Having just a quick look (I didn't spend hours searching) at what appears to be the cheapest Oceanview GTY room without restrictions on a 7 day cruise available today, the cost is $1988/person (before taxes, etc). That's almost an extra $700/person for the "same" cruise - $1400 for a couple. Which would have been almost enough for another 7 day cruise for a couple in 2000.

So I guess the long-winded answer is, for us, we started early when it was cheaper. Even so, I'm still not even Platinum yet, so there have been big gaps between some of those cruises too. And for others, some people just have more disposable income and time and choose to spend it on DCL.
 
Overtime overtime and more overtime that’s how. Sadly my overtime has taking a big hit. Haven’t sailed on DCL since sep 2019 transatlantic. Been on 22 so almost to Pearl status. Got a short one coming up next year just a 4 night on the wish. Started cruising in 06.
 
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We took our first in April, and even on that one there were several people who were doing back to back cruises. Also if they live near the port they can find good deals on last minute bookings for 3 day cruises (which many do to get to the top status).
 
Don't forget the Castaway Tiers also apply to Cast Members and they get many great last minute deals on unsold cabins. On the flip side we did a HAL cruise (never again) pre-pandemic and there was a couple in their mid 50's who were on cruise #41 across various cruise lines.
 
Yes, that's called truancy here and it can carry with it criminal penalties for parents.
My last employer gave 2 weeks vacation, bumped it to 3 weeks after 5 years, and 4 weeks after 10 years. The top tier is 5 weeks but that doesn't hit until you have worked for the company for 30 YEARS.
It's truancy here too unless you get permission.
All we have to do is put in a request with the school and they either give approval or they don't.
Generally they always approve it because they know like we do that education isn't just about what you learn in School.
And as DCLMP said we are a long way from anywhere here in Australia, if we want to go on a trip it needs to be worth our while so we generally go for 3-4 weeks at a time.

I don't have the income to travel in school holidays, it's often twice or three times the cost of going during the school term. My kids are young at the moment but as they get older they will take school work with them - plenty of time to do it on a 14+ hour flight :)
 
My kids are young at the moment but as they get older they will take school work with them - plenty of time to do it on a 14+ hour flight :)
A lot of schools use computers and tablets such that paper stuff isn't easy (as they found out during the main school closures). My aunt taught elementary school for more than 40 years and towards the end even the first graders had iPads all of them. Though the 3rd grade and up got to take them home with them. So long as you have wifi and there's no blocks in the software program that is doable here in the States
 
It's truancy here too unless you get permission.
All we have to do is put in a request with the school and they either give approval or they don't.
Generally they always approve it because they know like we do that education isn't just about what you learn in School.
And as DCLMP said we are a long way from anywhere here in Australia, if we want to go on a trip it needs to be worth our while so we generally go for 3-4 weeks at a time.

I don't have the income to travel in school holidays, it's often twice or three times the cost of going during the school term. My kids are young at the moment but as they get older they will take school work with them - plenty of time to do it on a 14+ hour flight :)
As was mentioned up thread, a lot of parents choose to home school to avoid issues being truant. Very difficult to get an excused absence for a vacation here. And in the district I live in, we have open enrollment. Parents wait in line to get their kids in the schools they want them in. And if you take your child out for a vacation, your child loses their slot in that school.
 
A lot of schools use computers and tablets such that paper stuff isn't easy (as they found out during the main school closures). My aunt taught elementary school for more than 40 years and towards the end even the first graders had iPads all of them. Though the 3rd grade and up got to take them home with them. So long as you have wifi and there's no blocks in the software program that is doable here in the States
our school that my kids go to don't use ipads or laptops etc at all in primary school (grades 1-6) except for in certain lessons at school. It's all pen and paper, which I prefer.
High school (7-12) is a little different but even then it's not 100% necessary.
My Nephew did all of high school with no internet or computer at home.
 
our school that my kids go to don't use ipads or laptops etc at all in primary school (grades 1-6) except for in certain lessons at school. It's all pen and paper, which I prefer.
High school (7-12) is a little different but even then it's not 100% necessary.
My Nephew did all of high school with no internet or computer at home.
Yeah we figured out during the pandemic all of that was of epic disasters. My schooling days we did not have that. I remember being impressed by a neighboring school district for high school when I was in high school having palm pilots lol which were the uber fancy things those days but generally speaking it's all tech stuff these days. Really young kids probably still have more paper and pen stuff but like I said even the first graders at my aunt's school all used iPads. At the newest high school in the district my house is in was built without lockers as there's not as much need for that with the tech they use.

When you see a lot of kids on cruises during school periods chances are they are homeschooled if it's a longer cruise. In my state homeschooling is considered private schooling (along with private institutions) but that aspect varies by state. Online school is much more common now due to the pandemic but the nature of a cruise and internet not really being reliable that will also be less seen during school year itself. Online school still takes the structure of in-person schooling as well.
 
Yeah we figured out during the pandemic all of that was of epic disasters. My schooling days we did not have that. I remember being impressed by a neighboring school district for high school when I was in high school having palm pilots lol which were the uber fancy things those days but generally speaking it's all tech stuff these days. Really young kids probably still have more paper and pen stuff but like I said even the first graders at my aunt's school all used iPads. At the newest high school in the district my house is in was built without lockers as there's not as much need for that with the tech they use.

When you see a lot of kids on cruises during school periods chances are they are homeschooled if it's a longer cruise. In my state homeschooling is considered private schooling (along with private institutions) but that aspect varies by state. Online school is much more common now due to the pandemic but the nature of a cruise and internet not really being reliable that will also be less seen during school year itself. Online school still takes the structure of in-person schooling as well.
We homeschooled and almost always cruised during the offseason. Believe it or not but most of the kids in the Edge and Vibe were not homeschooled. Even are TA's they were not homeschooled. On Royal they were. On Disney people will pull there kids out of school to save thousands of dollars and I can't say I blame them.
 
We homeschooled and almost always cruised during the offseason. Believe it or not but most of the kids in the Edge and Vibe were not homeschooled. Even are TA's they were not homeschooled. On Royal they were. On Disney people will pull there kids out of school to save thousands of dollars and I can't say I blame them.
But is that on non-school holiday times (meaning no holidays whatsoever to abut the trips) and longer cruises (for Disney talking about 7 or more days)? That's what I was discussing. Not ones where you can take off school for only a day or two but pull the rest of the days through the weekend either.

I def. don't doubt people pull kids out (they obviously do) but when you're on a longer cruise when there would be 5 school days (a M-F) at least out for school that would be a thing to see to have a bunch of kids that were in traditional American school systems because of the structure of the school system itself nevermind the topic of the thread being able to go on a lot of cruises and with the PP they take 3-4 weeks out of school which would be virtually impossible in traditional American schools which is how truancy was brought up. So yes of course parents take their kids out but it's a lot harder in our system to do that with a great number for long periods of consecutive days. I suppose I should also include schools that may be doing year round although their breaks tend to still have ones that follow holidays of some sort (at least several of their breaks do).
 
Three things: started early, make more than the average*, and are serious DCL enthusiasts.

*Depending on how much $ we're talking the first point could be moot.
 
By the time we get off our B2B Wish cruise (coming up soon, first B2B), we will have completed our 11th and 12th DCL cruise. We started cruising DCL in 1999 so that means 12 cruises over a 24 year span. So at this rate I will be over 86 years old to get to Pearl level. This will be our 14 cruise overall, sailed Celebrity for Alaska and we were on the Big Red Boat before DCL existed.

Because we love single destination vacations as well. Some of them through Road Scholar like Costa Rica and Grand Canyon. Some we planned like Alaska land, California wine country, National Parks and more. Our big vacation 2023 will be a Canadian Railway journey.

We prefer longer cruises so unless we find out we love to cruise B2B to get there faster, I can't see us ever getting to Pearl. And I'm okay with that.
 
Took us 13 years to get 11 cruises with Disney, but with our son being older teenager now, we are going less on Disney in the future and more on Royal and other lines. Once he is off to college, we'll have more time to cruise, but with Disney's prices, it won't be as much, so I imagine it'll take us many years, if ever, to get to Pearl. We'll probably hit Diamond on Royal long before Pearl! Unless we go all in on taking a bunch of 3 nighters, I don't see it happening. Plus, given the meager rewards you get from ranking up on Disney, I don't think Pearl will be worth it.
 

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