How To Cruise For Free

Catchy title huh?

Well, it’s more than that, this is a thing you really can do.  We do.  You can too.

How?  The answer is something that is quite timely, given the state of today’s economy and the belt-tightening that so many feel every day.

Many years ago when we started cruising it was Lisa, Sydney, Whitney and I, a typical (if there is such a thing) family of four.  Then it was easy.  We took the skills we had learned from raising our family through some tough times and applied them to our love of the sea.

Let’s go back to that time and see what history taught us.

Our first cruise was on the Carnival Fascination, just before 9/11, when the world was a bit different place to live in.  At the time, we had not vacationed much as a family, opting to pay for the kids activites, needs and cheerleading (good choice: keep ‘em busy = keep ‘em alive) , building our business (or anything that remotely qualified as that), keeping up with the neighbors (stupid waste of money) and all that stuff that goes into making a typical suburban life.

Our vacation before that was a wonderful week at Disney World that cost a fortune we didn’t have. The enduring memory I have of it was raining all the time and the kids fighting all the time at the Happiest Place on Earth.  I think it was right after that when our “business” suddenly included raising and showing Bernese Mountain Dogs.  I remember one of the kids once saying “You like those dogs better than you like us!” and replying “The dogs are a constant source of joy; what’s your problem?”

It was time for something different and a cruise seemed to fit the bill.

Still, I was concerned , thinking it would be all old people, shuffleboard and nobody like us aboard.  So we booked a lovely suite with a balcony, thinking if it turned out to be what I had imagined we would have some place to hide until it was over.

By the end of the first day we all agreed that it was the best vacation ever and the only regret we has was that it was not a longer cruise.  We were instantly addicted.  On the way home all I could think was “How in the world are we ever going to afford this new habit?”  Priorities changed right then and there.  Very quickly we rearranged what was important.  Taking lessons we learned as a young couple in the 80’s when 99 cents a pound pork steaks were “good eating” we fed our new habit.

Here are some of the things we did:

• Holiday, Birthday, Anniversary gifts?  Out the window: that money went towards deposits on cruises
• College fund?  Forget about it; we’d seen too many other kids drink their way through college and not appreciate the expense, let alone the silver platter it was handed to them on
• New cars? We’d had plenty to the point where I remember co-workers asking “Another new car? Oh, did the the last one run out of windshield washer fluid?”
• Movies and a night on the town?  We’ll stay home thank you and enjoy formal night at sea instead.
• Eating out in general?  Way less expensive to cook; a skill I had gained from an earlier life in the restaurant business.
• New clothes and keeping up with the latest fashions?  Ok there were limits to this plan when you have daughters in high school and live in a trendy suburb.  Oh I wish I could have half the fortune we donated to Abercrombie right now…but on the other hand, that stuff was well made, I still have some from that era that will last me forever.  One of my first lessons in what “value” means.
• We stocked up on stuff that was on sale.  Sam’s Club became our store of choice on all things possible.  I still have a hard time believing we justified a 300 pound bag of chicken wings as a business expense on our corporate account but it all worked out.
• I am pretty sure we invented Booze Smuggling on cruise ships, cutting our bar tab from a record of a kings ransom to pretty much zilch.
• Ok that’s enough, you get the idea

To me, the whole idea was to create memories that would last a lifetime and cruising was the perfect fit.  The complete package.  All these ideas and things we did made it possible for one of our cruises every year to be pretty much free.  Had we chosen inside cabins instead of balconies, taxis instead of limousines, the same clothes instead of new ones for each sailing and more, we probably could have made that two out of the three or four a year we did.

Was there a down side to all this?  No: nothing that really matters.  In the whole scheme of things we wound up with a whole lot of great memories as planned, the kids learned interactive skills that they use today and will carry with them the rest of their lives and we did one of the most important things possible: We lived!  You can too.

Dive in head first during this recession and develop the skills that will keep your heads above water.  Once the recession is over, hang on to those skills for dear life and apply them to whatever it is you love to do.  If cruising is that love, here is your blueprint to make that happen.  If it is something else, apply those skills to make that happen.  But don’t get caught up in the details so much that you miss out on life.  It’s just too short!