Are you guys serious? A cruise is your idea of a Mustachian vacation? Excuse me while I laugh my ass off at this idea. A cruise?!? Let me get this straight.
You're herded onto a boat with about a million other people.
You eat every meal at a restaurant as there's no grocery on board.
You drink expensive drinks from the bar because you're not allowed to bring your own.
About 2-3 times during the trip, you can pay for excursions that are overpriced, or you can wander around shore for free for a predetermined amount of time before you're herded back onto the boat.
And if everything, absolutely everything goes right, you ONLY spend $1000. Does that include a hotel before your 7am departure? Parking for a week?
That's insane to me. Dan -- load your tent and your cooler into your car and go camping for a week. It's cheap, it's nature, and best of all, no herd mentality.
The thought of MMM on a cruise is laughable.
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/12/20/money-mustache-vs-tourist-trap/
Wow, judgmental much? One of the signatures of being mustachian is that there is no specific blueprint, and every person is different in what they will do on their journey to FI. A cruise may not be mustachian for you, but it is VERY mustachian to me!
1. Cruises, especially out of ports like Galveston, tend to be on older, smaller ships. Even the larger ones are designed so you don't feel like you are in the middle of a herd.
2. True, you do eat every meal at some sort of restaurant, but the food is included in the price of the cruise, so why would you want to spend extra money shopping for groceries and cooking? Granted, there are plenty of people who will fork down "cover" charges to essentially eat the same food, but in a different environment than the regular dining rooms. To each their own, and you certainly will never catch me at one of those specialty restaurants.
3. Again, not everyone drinks, so you certainly aren't required to spend ridiculous amounts of money at the bar. If you know the tricks, there are also plenty of opportunities to get free drinks. Not to mention that most cruise lines will allow you to bring a few bottles of your own wine. Oh, and if you must have the hard stuff, seasoned cruisers will tell you to order a bottle delivered to your room - much cheaper than the bar.
4. Many cruisers know better than to buy the cruise line spiel about shore excursions. If you chose not to get ripped off there, you are certainly not limited to walking around the shore for free. The same excursion companies are easily found once you get off the ship, and they will discount at least 50% from the cruise line prices. They also bargain, cash goes a long way. Waiting until right before they depart is another trick, I've seen the price drop another 30% to fill the empty spots.
5. The ships depart around 4 PM, not 7 AM. Houston is 60-90 minutes away from Galveston, so you can really drive in the day of. Austin is 3.5 hours away, and we've just driven in many times before. Worst case, if you must come in the night before, a good hotel can be had for $50, if you know how to find the deals. I've gotten 3.5 star hotels in Houston for $40, and I do it all the time when visiting family for the weekend.
6. Yes, that does include parking, and tipping the cruise staff, and a few incidentals too. For two people for one full week.
Camping is not something I would ever do, I prefer comfort and being pampered a little when I'm getting away from it all. But to each their own, right?
Sorry to get off topic, but I felt the need to address the common misconceptions listed about cruising.