Cruising Australia

[LukeJ]

But on the flip side, you can celebrate Christmas on the beach as the weather will be fantastic. Going for a dip in the sea without freezing your ... Fingers shall we say.

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@LukeJ A Caribbean Christmas certainly has its perks. I have had both warm and cold Christmases, and they both have their advantages. To be honest, I enjoy both experiences for different reasons. The snow is just majestic, truly a Christmas wonder, but if I had to choose it would likely be a Florida Christmas. I love going outside and walking to the park with my kids' new toys to play. Feeling trapped inside due to the weather can get annoying pretty fast. I make the most of it but not freezing your "fingers" off is really the best.

[LukeJ]

In the UK, even though Christmas is a magical time, everyone is excited and look forward to spending time off. The weather is appalling. It constantly rains, the wind and the frost is beyond a joke. So to spend Christmas in a warm environment where everything doesn't hurt would be very welcome.

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@LukeJ The wet and cold weather is the worst. It gets deep in your bones! I'm in a dry cold right now, and I have to use a large humidifier in my home to get by this time of year.  My skin, eyes, and throat become so parched; it's brutal. Frost is the worst to get out of your car. I do not like ice chipping, but I do like the idea of a Caribbean Christmas; being in tropical paradise sounds lovely when you are trapped inside a snow globe. I will be back in tropical paradise next month. I'm counting down the days! 

[LukeJ]

@Kendall James-Vargas maybe thats something we should start doing ourselves. Every year we complain about the hideous weather, perhaps it's best if we stopped complaining and doing something about it. 

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@LukeJ I want to do something about it! I particularly want to move back to a tropical paradise, away from the cold atmosphere. You are right about taking action though. If it's something I want, I have to make plans to make it happen on my own. Sometimes I feel at a loss when I feel bound to my husband's work location! We have to be where the money is, but hopefully, we can change that in the coming years. For now, tropical cruising is my escape! It doesn't get better than a week's cruise in a tropical paradise. I soak it all in!

[LukeJ]

I guess what keeps us where we are is that safety net of not wanting to jump into the unknown. In the UK, we have loooooong winters, my God it's never ending, so we would be in paradise for a good 5 months. 

[3Sisters]

@LukeJ So many people want to experience a white Christmas! It can be lovely, but the reality is, like in the UK, it's brisk and cold. Going for a week is a magical experience, but being stuck in it for four plus months is miserable! All people who live in the cold want to escape it in the winter. We all want an experience like the one in this photo. If you live in the cold, does a Christmas cruise to Antartica sound exciting? It doesn't to me! Now if I lived in a warm place, maybe I would feel differently. 

[LukeJ]

A white Christmas is a fairytale, and one that most people would love to have happen on Christmas morning, opening the door to see a blanket of white with snow falling just like in the movies. Large parts of Europe have that fairytales, but the UK is a different world. It hardly snows, just horrible wet muddy sludge. The wind is biting, hits your right in your head letting off excruciating pain. It's rainy ALL the time. Just soul destroying. So even if we went to the nearest country in France and they have snow, it's just peaceful, and doesn't have that horrendous wind that hits you.

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@LukeJ The photo above is the perfect depiction of how I would like my next Christmas to be. I have contemplated spending this upcoming Christmas in Florida but I think it's going to be out of my budget. Unless you can drive to the embarkation port, flights during Christmas can be so outrageous! I really wish that wasn't the case but it's almost double the cost of an off-season ticket. Cruise prices are the same. Off-season prices are so much better than those peak times of the year. Muddy sludge sounds awful. It makes me feel like I shouldn't complain about the nice white snow I get during the winter months. Raining and ice in the bitter cold sound way worse than what I experience in the midwest of the US. I think living in the bitter, icy cold sounds horrid. I think it's better to be a seasonal resident in the UK. It sounds necessary to escape it! 

[LukeJ]

Yeah it does grate on you after a while, and sucks your mood down. I mean we have had constant rain in this country now since October. We expect rain and grey clouds around the winter season, I mean that's given. Bit we are in April and it just will not relent. 

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@LukeJ Where you live, how many months out of the year do you experience those weather patterns? Does the rain ever end? It must be a very humid place. When I used to reside in Florida, it was very humid, occasionally rainy, but never snows! I wish you were able to experience more sun during that crumby time of year. It makes a big difference! April is when the flowers should start blooming, right? Do you typically cruise to escape that relentless season of grey? 

[LukeJ]

@Kendall James-Vargas I live in Wales, UK, a country next to England. It rains and rains there. It has to be one of the wettest countries around. It's a beautiful country, very green which is not surprising with the amount of water that nature gets. We do go cruising to try and get away from the weather, it can destroy you at times when you look out the window and see even more rain. It's difficult to plan anything, as if it's not raining in the morning, and as family go out or even go somewhere, there is still a high chance we could possibly get caught in the showers later. 

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@LukeJ It seems like such a seasonal place. I don't know if I would be able to enjoy constant rain, particularly in the cold! The idea of lush and green sounds lovely, but I'm picturing lots of mosquitos. That's an issue of constant humidity and tropical climates, which only seems to happen a during the summer months. It has to be horrid to drive in too. Does Wales salt the roads in order to avoid the cars sliding while driving? Where I live they don't salt the roads because of what it does to the cars, but the city does plow the roads. When it rains, do you get  thunder and lightning too? That's the worst because it makes being outdoors so dangerous!

[LukeJ]

No, they tend to only salt the roads when the extreme weather hits and ice is forecasted. And even then, it's only the main roads that are done. We do have thunder and lightning, and it looks spectacular at night to watch, and no I don't plan to do any driving when we have weather like that.

[3Sisters]

@LukeJ It sounds like we both like to cruise during those cold winter months. I think our seasons are about the same. In countries below the equator the seasons are reversed. The salt on the roads in rough on vehicles, but it does a great job at preventing the cars from sliding. I would imagine it's pretty hard to plow the roads when they are icy. It's much easier to plow the roads when its fresh snow versus sleet. That must make leaving your home very difficult and dangerous. There is likely not much motivation to leave your home in that weather. Do you have obligations that make you leave your home each day?

[LukeJ]

The weather is hideous, and can have four seasons in a single day. The ice isn't what I have experienced in other parts of the world, our ice is sludge and black ice combined and is difficult to grit on the roads. And in the UK, we are a nation that's not very good dealing with climates like snow. The second it snows, that's it, everything and I mean everything closes. Work places, schools, buses and trains just close down. 

[3Sisters]

@LukeJ The idea of having four seasons in a day sounds fun, but that has to be difficult to plan for. Everywhere you go you have to bring an umbrella and winter coat just in case! Black ice is horrid! I have never experienced it, and I can't imagine having to drive in it. I wonder why the UK doesn't manage the roads better. It's not necessary to shut everything down! Where I live everything remains open unless it a very heavy snow dump, typically about 1-2 times a year. I can't imagine an area that expects snow to shut everything down because of it. If the roads were better, maybe people would feel more comfortable with traveling and going to work when it occurs. 

[LukeJ]

The four seasons are definitely hard to judge and plan for. It could be raining to begin with, and you will head out in a long coat and then the rest of the day could be glorious sunshine, and you end up looking like an idiot wearing a hat and a coat in temperatures akin to a summer's day. And that works both ways too, out in shorts as the day started off well, only for it to rain hard and windy.

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@LukeJ Well, you can truly say you experience every season where you live. I can see how frustrating it must feel to experience that all in one day. I already complain about having to bring my snow jacket around and hold it when I enter a store. I'm imagining the look of a winter hat on a summer day. It seems cargo shorts/pants were made for your homeland. It have to be hard to dress up during these days too. If you want to wear a nice dress/heels and go out, you have to plan for the worst and bring extra shoes along. That's tedious. 

[LukeJ]

@Kendall James-Vargas ha ha, that's what my wife does, leaves extra shoes in the car just in case. It's ridiculous when you think about it, the weather is something that brings me down about living in the UK. It's disheartening when you get up and just see rain and grey skies all the time. Once the sun is out, you can see everything change. People's attitudes and temperament suddenly become positive, and things seem a lot better.

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@LukeJ I'm thinking that's the only way to do it! You really need rain boots, but you don't want to wear rain boots every where you go. That can be son uncomfortable! Have you lived in the UK your whole life? Have you considered living elsewhere? I can only imagine seasonal depression is very trying there. I was worried about that when moving to a snowy state but thankfully it's sunny most of the week even when it does snow here which makes the winter season tolerable. How long does the winter season/climates last for you guys?

[LukeJ]

I have lived here my whole life. It's a beautiful country when the sun is out, unfortunately it's very rare. We go in vacation a lot to France, especially the northern part, it's a stunning place and I would love to move there, unfortunately my wife would never do that. She could never leave her family behind. The winter season is horrendous here, and it really gets me down. The rain is bad enough, but the wind is horrendous. Really sharp and hurts you. We've had constant rain since November, with only about two days in between that has been dry, yet the cold wind still persists. 

[3Sisters]

@LukeJ If you have lived in the UK your whole life, I'm assuming you will likely stay there for the rest of it! I would imagine when you are in the middle of the rough, colder months you contemplate why you stay. It seems life family is what is keeping you there. I have heard lovely things about France. Are the climates any different than the UK? What would bother me the most is not being able to go outside for a walk! I can't believe you have had 5 months of that! That cold, wet wind makes you stay inside, and I can see how it keeps you down. Do the kids get many days off from school during these brisk months?

[LukeJ]

I have resigned the fact that I will stay in the UK until my days are gone. I would have liked to have lived abroad for some period just to have that option. Yes the weather is disgusting, and it feels like cabin fever at times at home because you simply can't leave. But we certainly make the most of it when the sun comes out. The schools do have time off every 6-7 weeks, there is something. I believe, correct me I'm wrong, but there are 14 weeks in a year in total that the schools are closed.