Thread: Hello from "oldsters"

Hi there,

DH & I are an elderly (isn't that a horrible word?) couple who are still young at heart & enjoy life. Cruising is a wonderful part of it. Of course we've had to cut down (lost much of our savings in the downturn as so many others) but still manage to take a few cruises.

We are both retired, he from university teachingn and I from "ombudsmanning". My favourite hobbies are reading, watching stupid reality shows and knitting. Plus, the best of all, taking care of the grandies now and then.

We have 3 children and 7 grandchildren, the oldest of which is almost 11. We have travelled quite exhaustively, first on land, now by sea. both of us are involved in politics (Quebec & Canada) but realise that what we think is right for us (sorry, about that, we're moderately left of centre,i.e. NDP or Liberal) , it's not the correct answer for everyone. We are both news junkies from around the world.

We dine late every night (I love cooking, but not baking) and having a drink of wine or so with every meal. DH is French-speaking and I'm an Anglo; we speak French together because I'm at ease in French.

We are both native Quebecers. Despite that, I totally abbhor and hate cold weather which means that none of our friends could understand why we cruised Alaska three times and Antartica. My answer: DH takes helicopter tours, goes mushing, walks on the glaciers while I watch the icebergs go by from our cabin or some nice public place on the ship & follow lectures abiut the Iditerod ,etc. We are both happy.

I must admit I did go out to see the penguins on the Falkland Islands but, remember, there's not too much snow there.

We both enjoy long cruises although we have been known to take cruises to the Caribbean ( very few( and crossed the Atlantic twice on 7-10 day crossings. Our favourite cruise lines are HAL & Princess. that doesn't imply they are the best, simply, that they are the lines on which we have got the most bang for our bucks so far.

We have crossed from China to Vancouver, done the complete South America tour, have gone from Rio to Athens, have gone around Hawaii and th the South Pacific on cruises; have crisscrossed Europe many times by car, plus have visited Canada's 10 provinces and territories, 43 of the 50 states in the USA and Mexico many times over. We have wintered in Tunisia and visited lots of North Africa. All that to say we have lots of memories and no money.

We organise our land visits; we try to find sperosns of similar interests and sahre a guide and transportation with them. As stated in a previous post, DH isn't at ease speaking English in a group situation with lots of people talking but thoroughly enjoys conversing in small parties.

He has a loss of mobility so we look for visits where there is not too much walking involved (although visiting the lava fields in Hawaii was one og his highlights this year). We are easy-going, don't enjoy shopping too much, but love visiting markets, museums & cultural & historical sights.

I enjoy trivia & photgraphy; he enjoys people watching & the hot tub. Neither of us is a great swimmer, nor are we snorkellers although we do go on snorkelling expeditions simply because most snorkellers are such fun people.

Our next booked cruised is Lauderdale to Vancouver butdoing the Panama crossing from fort Lauderdale to Vancouver in 2012 but we are open to suggestions on Princess for 2011 (we have future cruise credits there).

We are looking for bargains (isn't almost everyone).


Hope to meet up with many of you. BTW, we haven't sailed Norwegian nor Celebrity because I LOVE putting on a long gown. DH is still wearing the black suit he bought for our son's wedding 12 years ago (not a tux) & that's OK with him. But he doeas agree that a long dress does cover up a multitude of my sins (especially in the hip area) and brings a smile to my face so it's a win -win.

Another thing about me: I do not reread myself and, consequently, make tons of typos , so please be tolerant & forgive me . No need to flame. I KNOW the typing is horrible (I spell correctly in my head). Plus, I'm old. now I've said it.......Darn those senior moments

Hi and welcome to www.cruiselinefans.com

I was lucky enough to visit Quebec in 2006 on board QE2, it's a beautiful city, but that was in September, not sure I would want to be there in winter.

Hope you look around and help answer questions for the new cruisers! And join in the discussions!

You are going to like it here at CLF!!

Jocelysue

What a lovely introduction. Thank you so much. And don't worry about getting flamed for anything aboard the good ship, CruiseLineFans. It doesn't happen here.

I'm sure you will find some similar cruisers on this site and look forward to hearing more about your recent and future adventures.

You're such a great writer, feel free to write up a review of your last cruise here:
http://www.cruiselinefans.com/hc/review/add

Hey Jocelysue! Welcome from one oldster to another!

I am so happy that you decided to start posting!
Look what cruiselinefans has been missing! You have a flair for writing so please feel free to share your cruise and travel knowledge with us.

By the way, Celebrity stil has formal nights and we always dress for them, Bob in a tux and me in a cocktail outfit (pants or dress). You might enjoy trying Celebrity sometime.

Thanks for joining CLF!

Welcome aboard Jocelysue. What a wonderful introduction. You'll find a lot of us "young at heart" people here; people who love to travel and talk about travel.

Char beat me to it, but Celebrity DOES have formal nights. Also, all the other nights are smart casual, so you'll see nicely dressed cruisers during the evening every night. Another plus for Celebrity is their smoking policy. It's practically a non-smoking ship, with only two areas on the entire ship that allow smoking. There's no smoking in cabins or verandas.

We look forward to chatting with you.

Garry

Hi a warm welcome to www.cruiselinefans.com
You will love this place