Wendy,

I agree with a lot of your points. I think cruising usually gives you just enough time in a port to know if you'd like to go back for a longer visit. On the other hand, I love the experience of travelling on a ship.

Todd and I have such differing ideas of "vacation". To him, a vacation means racing around seeing everything possible every second of the day. If he doesn't come back from vacation exhausted, he doesn't think it was successful. :)

To me, a vacation is a way to recharge my batteries and get ready for another six months of hell at the office. Of course, I love to tour and see things, but I want some relaxing time and pampering as well.

We meet in the middle. Some trips, like our Tauck trips, are more his type of vacation. (And Richard, having done two of them, I can tell you that getting rousted out of bed at 6:30AM might be considered a "sleep in" day. On our trips, I think the bus pulled out around 7:30AM. If you wanted breakfast, you needed to be up early.) While I very much enjoy the trips, I'm definitely ready to get home by the end. All the packing, bus time, unpacking, etc. really wears me down by the end of a two-week trip.

Other trips, like our cruises, are a good mix. Todd can race around all day on a port day and I can sightsee for a while, then come back and relax a bit. A perfect mix.

Unlike the land trips, on the cruises, I always wish they could last longer. Guess I'll always be a cruise gal at heart, really.

Kathy