I have never been on a cruise longer than a week. I am contemplating retiring in a few years, and the wife and I are considering a 107 day world cruise. I would like to hear from any who have "been there;done that" that can give me some advice. I am concerned about 'cabin fever'; being away from older relatives so long(how to deal with emergency calls from home); etc. I will be 60 years old, in good health. Are there any regrets in taking the trip? Thanks for any replies.

troostdental,
Sorry I can't tell you from experience about being on a world cruise. But I do know world cruises are very popular and often sell out a year in advance. So they must be pretty good! I'd love to do one and visit all the different countries. World cruises are usually pretty port intensive. Some even stop at ports for days at a time. If you are concerned about the length you could look at doing a segment or two segments of the world cruise. You will have email, and could check in to getting or renting a T-Mobile phone for international calling. In case of a real emergency family would be able to get in touch with you.

Hi troostdental, welcome to Cruise-Chat. Please take me with you and your wife, I'll be happy to do the laundry. Seriously though, we've never been on any longer cruise than 21 days. I have been praying that I can save enough to one day do a world cruise. I can tell you that 21 days seemed like 5, I was nowhere near ready to leave the ship. We were only in the Caribbean, so I can only imagine being in different parts of the world. It would be so exciting. If you've ever seen the Travel Channel special on Residensea, I guess it would be similar to that experience. That's the ship where you purchase your suite and live on board. There is on board internet available, although it is not like broadband, similar to dial-up speed, so keeping in touch with those back home might not be so bad. As Cruise Fanatic stated, in an emergency, you could be contacted. Congratulations on your retirement and what a way to celebrate!

What do people who take around the world cruises or are away from home for that amount of time do about things like renewal of drivers silences, property tax bills, insurance bills? Most of my bills are scheduled for auto payment but I'm guessing that they must have someone intercept their mail for all else.

Since you should know when those bills come due, just call up and arrange automatic payment or other arrangements. The average World cruise being just over three months it shouldn't be too much of a problem.