Are All The Passengers Rich?

A couple of the delicious pastries available every day.

Yes, we are.  Born with golden spoons in our mouths.  Light cigarettes with $100 bills.  Just kidding.  Clearly to be on a cruise that starts at about $20,000 per person you have to have some money.  I talked to one woman who volunteered that she paid $100,000 for a promenade balcony cabin and her shore excursions.  Because of the single supplement the price for two people in the cabin would have been very similar.

When I did my first world cruise 19 years ago, I was still at the peak of my earnings.  Plus,, a client generously gave me a big discount.  And, another travel agency I worked with paid me to blog about my trip for their website. 

This time, no discounts.  But as my financial adviser pointed out, I'm not getting any younger.  I just talked to a couple who are on their first world cruise.  They view this as their once in a lifetime dream trip.  Yeah, that's what I thought after my first one. 

Some people do this every year and have for years.  They don't care what the itinerary is, this is just part of their routine.  I met a guy today who is doing his 20th world cruise.  Now, he doesn't bother to get off the ship much.  He just enjoys being on the ship and hanging out with friends who also do the cruise every year.

Most of the people I've talked to are similar to me in the sense that they worked hard all their lives, were diligent about saving and investing and were always reluctant to spend money.  Now they have a choice of spending it or leaving it to their kids.  One woman said she was a bit afraid to tell her soon she booked this trip.  Sh said when she called him she said "Honey remember when I told you that I didn't plan for you to inherit anything because I was going to spend it all?  Well, I just spent a big chunk."  She was glad he seemed genuinely happy for her.

There are a number of inside cabins on board and it seems that they are mostly booked by single passengers, since it's the cheapest way to go.  And some of the most frequent cruisers book the cheapest cabin.  For them, it's better to cruise more often, in a lower category stateroom.

It clear in talking to some folks that they have more money than most of us.  Not flaunting it, mind you.  But one consistent thing I've noticed is that we're mostly frugal.  Happy hour when you can buy 1 drink and get the second for $2 is very popular.  People will go to the bars and not order until happy hour prices kick in.  But the same couple who saved $6 on that happy hour drink are happy to spend $7,000 for an over-land shore excursion, each.  Like my dad used to say - watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.

On my first world cruise there were four retired teachers sharing an inside cabin.  I've stayed in inside cabins on shorter cruises and they were fine, with ample room.  Having two people would be tight.  Four?  If I was involved, someone would die  - probably me, killed for being annoying.

It didn't work out so well for the teachers.  There were rumors of a big fight, ears and physical stuff.  I don't know if that's true bur two women left early, even though they'd paid for the whole trip.  Two remained on board.

Bottom line, for the vast majority of people, there is no discussion of money and no sort of caste system of the haves and have nots.  We're all just excited to be able to do this amazing trip.