Hey I’m in the low class redneck group. My wife takes 2-4 a year and I get roped into one every year it seems like. Yeah, on occasion we’ve come home and come down with something, but nothing major so far unless you count the China virus as major, I didn’t even miss work with it last time.
There are certain cruise lines to stay away from, like Carnival! Royal and MSC have been pretty good over the last couple of years. As far as bills go, someone went crazy on their cruises and didn’t read or plan accordingly. You can purchase whatever you want/need when booking including WiFi and drink packages. Don’t think we’ve ever had a bill over $100 max. Even shore excursions can be purchased ahead of time.
I will say don’t ever take a December or January cruise, those are some ROUGH seas!! When waves are hitting your 3rd deck window, it’s bad, lol.
I don’t care for them because of the crowds. The wife likes them because of the crowds. She has one in May, June, and October this year. So far the only one I know where I “have” to go is the June cruise. It’s with another family and all our kids/grandkids, so I “need” to be on that one, lol.

Update on my earlier post regarding the post I made on Cruises. The young couple I mentioned are back at port and on shore at New Orleans. The husband is about 45 or so was transported by ambulance to a regional hospital in New Orleans.

He was on oxygen on the ship but is now on a respirator and in Critical condition. Said to have pneumonia?. Doctors said he could not fly home or he would die in flight.

Wife had to fly back home to Pa. since they have 3 daughters to care for. Prayers for all involved.

Our employee, is the mother of the young woman and the young man is her son in law. What a mess. 3 or 4 days in sick bay on the ship.

They told the daughter that her stateside insurance will not cover any expenses while receiving care on the ship.

I hope to get some updates today as to how much that will cost them and how it all was handled before off loading on the dock.

Just got off of a Carnival cruise to Cozumel and Yucatan, back to New Orleans.

I bet that was Fun

Like I said, different strokes for different folks. Never been on a cruise myself, but hope to soon.

Good thing I don't give what "truly wealthy people" do in their free time.

The truly wealthy cruise on their own yacht.

When I got mustered out of the army, I took the train home from Fort Lewis, WA. It was a beautiful, scenic ride. I especially liked the area of Glacier National Park.
I agree with you on the rest, though.

https://www.tiktok.com/@shortfilms769/video/7310214088108297518?lang=en

Nightmare scenario. I won't be caught on a cruise ever.

Hope he recovers!

So did he get sick from the cruise or while on the cruise?

Bankrunner, what a co incidence that is the same cruise liner that our employees daughter and son in law were on. She is on a flight home as we speak and he is stranded at the hospital for who knows how long.

He got sick the first day not feeling well. Then it got worse quickly in 24 hours.

A friend who recently retired is doing a four-month cruise around the world. He and his wife have been doing weeks long and months long cruises as long as I’ve known them(twenty-plus years).

Cruises are not my cup of tea but they can’t be that bad if my buddy and his wife continue to do them.

Are you a fan of Samuel Langhorne Clemens AKA Mark Twain?

Keith

We went from CT to FL, seems as soon as the train got up to speed it was stopping at the next, of many, stations.
Loud, every 10 minutes the conductor was walking through from car to car, opening the doors was like being inside the engine.
The toilet was small, gross and with the rocking of the train, it was obvious no one but a pro was going to get their urine stream to go into the hole that was about the size of a softball. And if you looked into the hole, you saw the tracks going by. No septic tank, TP strewn all up and down the tracks.
Seating was OK, but uncomfortable after a while (we should have got a sleeper but didn't know better). This was 33 years ago, my daughter was four and my wife was pregnant with my son. When we returned, I swore I would never get on another Amtrack again.

Just got back from my fifth cruse on Royal Caribbean. Never had any really bad experiences, except, from abusing my beverage package at the casino. I did end up with a bunch of money in my pocket the next day. The wife won $1702.96 on this last cruise. The shows in the theater are great. They have activities all over the ship. You can plan your day around all the activities. The only bill we get at the end of the cruise is for gratuities. That is 18.50 a day per person and that is cheap. If I paid a dollar to every waiter or my stateroom attendant each time they provided service I would be paying twice that much easily. Don’t buy anything on board! It’s all cheap stuff. You have to resist that. Do not plan your next trip on board! Get a travel agent and book out at least three months, the longer the better. You can then watch the beverage package price each day. The cruise line offers different discounts each day. We paid 64.99 a day each for our package. Believe me, that cost them. It’s is a real blast cruising and if you’re not having a good cruise that’s on you. If you spent too much, that is your fault.

Not for me. Same thing: I know people that love cruises; others got stomach flu etc…. 3500 people on the cruise ship, just a bit toooo many for me.

Last news report I heard was norovirus had passengers dropping by the dozens...

Im not "truly" wealthy but retired at 55 with a + 2.5M net worth....and we do at least one cruise a year.FWIW

I would have to say that the pinnacle club members we sat with were not middle class persons. One couple has been on 109 just with Royal Caribbean. They were a wealth of information on cruise lines they thought were best to cruise on. We will try MSC on our next cruise. Maybe someone would say they just want to toot their own horn but we asked the questions.