Debanking

[asmethurst99]

We are in the process of buying a lovely but slightly crumbly house and the child has just f@cked up his A levels so that’s moved retirement slightly further away and anyway we still need to,pay airfares to Japan once a year (the polluters must pay MLSP)
I might reduce hours a bit .
My colleague’s parent are retired and in their seventies and keep going on cruises- the latest being one of those 3 month ones- not for me but they seem to love it.
Her dad has properties he rents out so he’s not completely retired but he’s 77 and always doing stuff.

[Potter]

I was in Samoa once and I came across some people that were on a day trip from a cruise ship, IIRC they had paid £36k each for a year long round-the-world trip, I don't know if it would be for me, but they all seemed super happy, one older lady had recently lost her husband and the trip was a kind of catharsis and she said she could be quite happy being permanently on the waves.

I keep saying each to their own, and there really is a massive world out there if you've got the imagination.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I know I couldn't do a year on a cruise ship, I like being at home, eating out for every meal would wear thin after a week, but if other people enjoy it, good for them.

[Mussels]

I did a couple of six month cruises in the RN and several shorter ones, if I ever went on another cruise I'd feel compelled to spend every waking hour drunk to numb the pain. I can never work out why people pay to spend time in a floating prison.

[JackyJoll]

I did a couple of six month cruises in the RN and several shorter ones, if I ever went on another cruise I'd feel compelled to spend every waking hour drunk to numb the pain. I can never work out why people pay to spend time in a floating prison.

It’s jail, with a chance of drowning.

[DefTrap]

If I ever fecking pay for the right to spend weeks on end trapped in a floating caravan full of geriatrics gorging themselves on mediocre food, then just kill me.

Each to their own, natch'.

[Dodgy69]

I fancy a European river cruise.

[Cousin Jack]

I fancy a European river cruise.

I've done one, they are hard work! So many bloody castles and cathedrals to visit. After a few days we just noted the time we were due back and mooched off to do our own thing.

[Wossname]

I fancy a European river cruise.

We did Amsterdam to Budapest a few years ago - excellent and interesting. And the next bit, Budapest to Bucharest, a few weeks ago - don’t bother. Not much to see, and what was, marginally, was a 2/3 hour coach trip away.

[Cousin Jack]

The cruises I really enjoyed were small (120 pax) ship adventure cruises, with trips out in a RIB usually twice a day. I have done 2, one in Alaska and one in the Hebrides. Expensive, but IMO worth it.

[Potter]

I did a couple of six month cruises in the RN and several shorter ones, if I ever went on another cruise I'd feel compelled to spend every waking hour drunk to numb the pain. I can never work out why people pay to spend time in a floating prison.

And I heard that once they started letting wrens onboard that the sex went right downhill as well.

[Count Steer]

If I ever fecking pay for the right to spend weeks on end trapped in a floating caravan full of geriatrics gorging themselves on mediocre food, then just kill me.

Each to their own, natch'.

I've watched a couple of cruise programs on TV. They're the sort of thing that you don't intend to watch all the way through but end up transfixed in a sort of 'the horror, the horror' way.

I guess once upon a time it was quite a sophisticated and expensive affair but it looks like they've crammed Butlins and Pontins onto floating prison ships. Then, as part of prisoner rehabilitation they dump you ashore at intervals for a 4 hour 'cultural visit' while the ship dumps a few thousand gallons of sewage and distributes diesel combustion products.

The least said about the customers, the better. *shudder*. On the plus side, while they're on board, they aren't anywhere else.

[DefTrap]

My M-I-L was mad about them there cruises - lovely lady but god-rest-her-soul the worst kind of Sun-reading low-level snob you could meet. Her ambition was to spend the entire cruise schmoozing up to some poor bastard 'cruise captain' at the captain's table to try to bore him to death with her light hearted racist chin music.

[Cousin Jack]

My M-I-L was mad about them there cruises - lovely lady but god-rest-her-soul the worst kind of Sun-reading low-level snob you could meet. Her ambition was to spend the entire cruise schmoozing up to some poor bastard 'cruise captain' at the captain's table to try to bore him to death with her light hearted racist chin music.

That's the bit I don't understand. On a bus tour you don't aspire to sit with the driver at dinner, on a plane the Captain is just a Driver, Airframe. What is different about a boat?

On the subject of visits ashore, I was in Bar Harbour one day when 3 ships were in port, the QE2 and 2 other behemoths. It was absolute chaos, in a town of maybe 5k people and about 2 or 3 times that number of tourists. It was lovely when they fcuked off back on board for dinner, and funny watching the inevitable stragglers trying to avoid being left behind.

[Potter]

I've sometimes enjoyed those good old fashioned working class package holidays where there is a cabaret and evening entertainment, a few pints and a game of bingo. I wouldn't want to live that that every weekend, but for the odd holiday we've had a good laugh, put your snobbery to the side for a week and enjoy a bit of a knees up.

I like doing my own thing too much to be stuck on a cruise ship for longer than a week, but I could manage a week of bingo and a wanky magician whilst I have a few pints of an evening.

[gremlin]

a wanky magician

I'd often wondered how they got the silk hankie to stand up straight....

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I like doing my own thing too much to be stuck on a cruise ship for longer than a week, but I could manage a week of bingo and a wanky magician whilst I have a few pints of an evening.

I honestly don't think I could, we did a weekend at a caravan park in Kessingland when the children were 3 and 5, we came home early, it was a pretty dismal experience, but I wouldn't want to stop people who enjoy it from enjoying it, and I don't look down on people who enjoy it, they're just different to me, no better, no worse.

[Yorick]

I like doing my own thing too much to be stuck on a cruise ship for longer than a week, but I could manage a week of bingo and a wanky magician whilst I have a few pints of an evening.

I honestly don't think I could, we did a weekend at a caravan park in Kessingland when the children were 3 and 5, we came home early, it was a pretty dismal experience, but I wouldn't want to stop people who enjoy it from enjoying it, and I don't look down on people who enjoy it, they're just different to me, no better, no worse.

The locals here stay away from the British bars here.
Not everyone, as there are some chavs working here

I only go for a Full English

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

The locals here stay away from the British bars here.

I stay away from the British bars here, they're generally full of drunk twats.

[Potter]

I honestly don't think I could, we did a weekend at a caravan park in Kessingland when the children were 3 and 5, we came home early, it was a pretty dismal experience, but I wouldn't want to stop people who enjoy it from enjoying it, and I don't look down on people who enjoy it, they're just different to me, no better, no worse.

We did that in Cornwall in 2010, booked ten days on a holiday park and ended up coming home early, but mainly because it was cold and wet, the evening entertainment was the only decent thing about the whole holiday.

We went recently just for two nights at a place up in the Lakes with family, there was a bunch of us so it was a laugh, but a couple of nights was enough.