Just Who Can Get Away for 80 Days?
Day 34, Grand Asia 2017
Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017 – At Sea
It’s no surprise that the vast majority of the people taking a long cruise are retired. Not many people can take that much time off work. I would hazard a guess that the average age on this cruise is in the 70s, with lots in their 60s and 80s and some in their 90s. Few are in their 50s or younger, I think.
I’ve mentioned that two pre-teens are taking the whole cruise with their grandmother who home-schools them and their great aunt. A young couple has a toddler on board. A few more children joined us in Hong Kong. I have heard they are children of crewmembers who are traveling as passengers. A woman in her early 20s is traveling with her grandmother before starting graduate school in January. Otherwise, it’s just us retired folk.
Some people observe that Holland America seems to cater to an older crowd. My recent experience with Holland America cruises has been on longer cruises, so I can’t offer a fair comparison on, say, a seven-day cruise on various lines. Certainly a Royal Caribbean cruise I took for 30 days (two 15-day segments) a few years ago had a broader mix of ages and many more late night activities than this cruise. It also had more than 3,000 passengers.
The bottom line for me seems to be that ages aren’t making a big difference. I’ve been spending some great happy hours in the Crow’s Nest with people my age and many years older. It simply doesn’t matter.
More than a decade ago I sailed on six cruises in one year with my parents. My father had cancer and as it turned out, died the following year. He and Mom had grown to love cruises, but they just weren’t up to planning and implementing the trips on their own. I had left my corporate job and was working as a freelance writer, work I could do in an hour or two a day from anywhere with Internet service. We sailed twice to the Caribbean, followed by back-to-back cruises in Alaska, a cruise to Hawaii and a cruise with the whole family over Thanksgiving. I am so glad I had the opportunity to spend that time with my parents.
I’ve met two sisters around my age on this cruise who are sailing with their parents, one for the entire 80 days and the other from Beijing to Singapore before returning to her job. It’s nice to see them helping their parents continue to enjoy cruising. We all had a great time at dinner tonight.
Otherwise, today was a typical sea day. It was warm and humid, with the occasional rain storm. To perhaps compensate a bit for missing the port of Nha Trang, Vietnam, today due to a typhoon, the captain provided all of us with sparkling wine at dinner. It was another nice day on the Amsterdam.
I have to admit we got bored on our Amsterdam world cruise this past year…too many sea days. I wish I had brought more with me for entertainment. I found the HAL enrichment speakers to be lacking for the most part, not as good as Cunard. If we do another world (or maybe your cruise) in the future I would download more books to read and also bring my full size laptop so that I could edit photos as I went along.
I wrote a blog, just for family and friends, and that does take some time as you know. So my lesson learned from our trip…plan for boring days and do something about it before you leave because the ports and people you meet are worth the down time.
I always have more projects than time. Sorting pictures is usually one. But I used to take 14-day repositionings on the Windstar with NO ports. I guess I am good at doing nothing.
Just discovered your blog today (it was posted on our Amsterdam roll call). I enjoy reading the cruise blogs and it made me want to write a blog even though I am not a writer. Wrote my first one in 2014 and am now working on my sixth (very addictive – just like cruising?). I have read through the entire blog and am really enjoying it. We will be going to a few of the same ports so I am looking forward to your posts.
Kathi (Scrapnana on Cruise Critic )