I always thought that when I retired it would be fun to work for Princess Cruise Lines here in Seattle, maybe as a greeter at the the ship dock. We only have Princess ships here in Seattle two days a week, four months out of the year, so it wouldn't make huge demands on my travel time. We rarely travel in the summer anyway.

We would then also be eligible for great cruise deals during the rest of the year.

Hunki thinks I am crazy, but I think it would be a great way to meet new people, serendipitously run into old friends whom we haven't see for a while, and get some great travel benefits.

What ideas do you have for great retirement jobs?

I teach MIS in a business school. I'm thinking of hiring myself out as a visiting lecturer, up to a semester at a time, in interesting places.

Downsides: a significant other who's still some years away from that, and a new house we really like.

Hunki's brother is a retired chemistry professor who still teaches like one quarter a year. It works out really well for him. He also does expert witness work.

I am so glad he retired. Next weekend he and his wife are going to join Hunki and I for a cruise.

I am dreaming of the days when we are all really retired and can take 115 day RTW cruises. :D

Punki, I think your idea about being a greeter is a very good one.

After retirement I plan on doing some volunteer things that I haven't been able to do.

Thanks, oldpenny16, and welcome to the Grown Ups Table. ;)

I will have to have you talk to Hunki about working for Princess. :D See, my original idea was that we would do it together. I thought that would be a lot of fun, but he just looked at me weird when I suggested it.

I suspect that once I start doing it and having lots of fun with new friends, he will be jealous and want to join in the good times.

That is exactly what happened with FlyerTalk. At first he thought I was crazy, and then after he realized that FlyerTalk had the potential to offer new and exciting skiing opportunities at Wengen, as well as opportunities to travel the world in first class, he softened up and decided it probably wasn't really such a bad idea. :D

serendipitously run into old friends

:(

there is no sea-port in Switzerland ...

and I don't think Hunki can ski on any Princess ship, nor do they link to ski-resorts ...

I am posting from the Coral Princess as we make our very rolling way toward Victoria, and then into more protected water, on our way to Vancouver. This has been a very rolling cruise with lots of folks experienceing accidents. :o We really did have a wonderful time trying to learn a line dance step on a very rolling ship. :eek: We were almost dancing when we were standing still. :D

You know, Rudi, we could bring old friends along on a FlyerTalk Seniors cruise from Vancouver to Whittier, Alaska, which has to be one of the most amazing journeys on earth. You would love it. ^

They do ski in Alaska, donchaknow! :D

...You know, Rudi, we could bring old friends along on a FlyerTalk Seniors cruise from Vancouver to Whittier, Alaska, which has to be one of the most amazing journeys on earth...Sign us up, as long as it's during summer break at school - and we don't already have tickets to somewhere else!

I don't even think they ski in Alaska in the summer, do they?

I had a colleague who retired from full-time work in about 1999 at age 57. He'd saved well and was ready for a comfortable retirement that would feature lots of travel.

So he took job cleaning aircraft cabins between flights for UA at IAD. The job paid next to nothing but came with travel benefits. He worked 3 days a week and traveled 3-4 days a week NRSA.

UA may have outsourced cabin cleaning since then, but it always struck me as a brilliant way to spend retirement!

I don't even think they ski in Alaska in the summer, do they?

We could do the reverse cruise from Whittier to Vancouver, then do some spring skiing at Whistler when we get there. Bringing skis on a boat might get some strange looks though. :p

Punki, yours is a brilliant idea. I know you favor Princess, but why not check out HAL and Celebrity to see what they offer? Have you considered signing on as dance instructors? Perhaps your hubby could cruise as a gentleman host on HAL. I was really impressed with the port staff in Seattle last year.

I only favor Princess as a passenger because of the amazing loyalty benefits they offer. As an aside, our daughter called me on the ship on Sunday to wish me happy Mother's day. During our conversation I mentioned that part of our reason for the cruise was to get status and better loyalty benefits and she thought I said "royalty" benefits. :D :D :D We both thought that was pretty funny.

Most certainly, hedoman, before I made any commitment, I would check out HAL and Celebrity to see if they offered a more enticing benefits package.

I once told Hunki that, if anything should every happen to me, he should marry my girlfriend who loves to dance, travel and ski. He gave me this really strange look and said, "If anything ever happens to you, I am not going to get married. I am going to become a dance guy on a cruise ship." As long as I am around, however, the vast majority of his cruise ship dancing is going to be with me. ;)

I suspect that if Hunki ever decides to get a retirement job, it will be working as a sales dude in a yacht brokerage here in Seattle during the late spring and summer. He is too old to be a ski bum.

If you get a job, how can you be retired?

If you get a job, how can you be retired?

Perhaps someone over age 55 could answer this question.

If you get a job, how can you be retired?Any number of people retire from one job and take another.

Retirement is just a term for a way to terminate an employment relationship. It doesn't say anything about how you use your time afterward.

The idea that "being retired" equates to "sitting around doing nothing all day" is so dated!

(I'm well over 55, so I'm qualified to answer this question.)

In my mind, retirement means getting away from constant day-to-day responsibilities. The Princess job would just be a fun job that I could walk away from every night, or forever if I took a mind to do so, with no worries.

The idea of only working two days a week, for only four months a year, has a lot of appeal to me, especially if it has the added benefit of earning me very inexpensive cruises all winter long, and also offers a great opportunity to meet new friends and see old friends.

I noticed when we checked in for our cruise in San Francisco last Saturday, that the entire crew appeared to be post-retirment, so it seems like this is a pretty popular idea. :)

I suspect that if Hunki ever decides to get a retirement job, it will be working as a sales dude in a yacht brokerage here in Seattle during the late spring and summer. He is too old to be a ski bum.

I respectfully object to the "too old to be a ski bum" part of this statement. I think that a certain Swiss flyertalker and myself could be pretty good ski bums for a year or two if our respective spouses could let us go. ;) Besides, if he didn't want to do it, there are always low paying jobs at ski areas with free ski passes.

Cruise ship lecturer or bridge director has to be very cushy. Just haven't figured out what subject to be expert on - frequent flyer miles, for sure....One of my friends pours wine 3 days a week in Napa Valley. We could also do that where we live in CA. But we don't like to be tied down to a job. We both do some volunteer work that is not too demanding. We don't want anything to stand in the way of any possible DEQM deals!!

Substitute teaching is half volunteer (low low pay) and half paid. And you can do it whenever you like or not, as the case may be. But you do have to have tough teeth because the kids will be after you! I did it for a while, mostly in junior highs. Most subs hate that age group but I liked it. The kids almost have a half a brain. The worst for me was kindergarten (which most subs LOVE). Junior high teachers get a dead hour everyday where they can relax, do lesson plans, etc. Not kindergarten teachers. With their VERY short attention spans, the kids keep you hopping with a new topic every 15 min. No break. I was exhausted. Though, I must say, it warmed the les of my heart when a bratty little boy cried after I admonished him. You sure don't see that in junior high! :D

Punki, yours is a brilliant idea. I know you favor Princess, but why not check out HAL and Celebrity to see what they offer? Have you considered signing on as dance instructors? Perhaps your hubby could cruise as a gentleman host on HAL. I was really impressed with the port staff in Seattle last year.See post #18 in this thread. (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=9855496)

I also live in Seattle and 'retired' at 50. I became a tour guide and now travel everywhere. Last yr I did 18 tours, mostly Candadian Rockies in Summer and Mexico in Winter. Its not easy to get into but someone always is hiring. Working for HA or Princess even in reservations would get your foot in the door. You can also work for Alaska since they are based here as well.

davidgmg, how many hours a week/month do you work? I would really enjoy being a tour guide.

Like Karen2, I don't want to be tied down too much. That is why I was thinking that working for a cruise line in Seattle would be fun. Just a few days a week, four months out of the year. That would leave our winters free to just travel and play as much as our hearts desired.

My brother recently retired from a company that manufacturers emergency vehicles. Now he will from time to time deliver a vehicle somewhere around the US and/or Canada. He gets paid a flat rate per mile and has to cover his gas, food, hotels and return trip, but still manages to make some money and have a lot of fun seeing new and different parts of the country. He says it is really lots of fun to get out on the open road in Wyoming and turn on the red lights and siren and go really fast. He also likes to get on the loud speaker and MOO at the cows. :D :D

There are plenty of retired folks that become flight attendants at any age. There are some physical requirements to the job, but that hasn't stopped many from going for it!

I retired at 59. I always thought I would do some type of part-time job, like working as a substitute teacher, and I thought I would do volunteer work. I also thought I would be politically active. I have done virtually none of those things.

I hesitate to commit myself to anything involving a schedule because I enjoy the freedom to pick up and go at any time the notion hits us. We also like to stay in our destinations for several weeks, and if I had work obligations those obligations would dictate my calendar.

I went to a couple of meetings of the Democratic Party when we retired, but the entire county could be contained in a meeting room that held 25 people and it did not seem that one more person would make any difference in a county so heavily dominated by Republicans. My volunteer efforts are now limited to financial donations.

Substitute teaching would permit me to go only when I wanted to teach, but I did that for 35 years and I know that high school students eat substitutes alive. I am sure I could manage a classroom, but the pay is about $40/day, and I do not know why I would do such an awful job for such a little amount of money.

I was a teacher for 35 years. I also coached an activity that kept me busy every week-end from Halloween through the end of May. In addition I taught night classes at our local university four nights a week. I really had no time to do anything in a leisure category except for the summers, and we always traveled in the summer. I am firmly resolved not to let ringing bells or dates on a calendar control my life.

I have Lupus and Parkinson's Disease and am extremely limited in mobility due to spinal disease. I also have artificial knees and hips. Walking or standing for any period of time is not physically possible for me.

Our children know that we have no daily obligations, and occasionally ask us to do things for them, and we are happy to help. We enjoy spending time with our grandchildren. Since those grandchildren are located all over the US, we fly to visit them every few months.

I occasionally feel a bit guilty because at the end of the day I have no feeling of accomplishment, but I cannot think of anything I could do that would not intrude on my need to have no fixed schedule.

My husband has several hobbies that keep him entertained. He gardens, is interested in photography and is learning a foreign language. While he does that I watch TV or read.

I would love some suggestions about anything I could do to provide some sense of accomplishment, and certainly travel opportunities would be a huge plus.

Do you belong to a church or a synagogue, Fran? There is always volunteer work to be done there. We have one group of ladies that helps with meal service for funerals, and we sure seem to have a lot of funerals. We have another group that volunteers to help out with the women's and children's shelter.

My daughter, who is a musician and has free time when she is not on the road, volunteers to play chess with children in schools in underprivileged areas, and gets a great deal of satisfaction out of that.

I think it would be fun to volunteer for the opera, or maybe the ballet or our local Gilberet and Sullivan Society, or one of our other local theater groups or theaters. That would not only be a way to feel like one was contributing to the community, but also a way to meet new and interesting friends. My brother and sister-in-law volunteer for the symphony, end enjoy it tremendously. Personally, I like action for my eyes as well as my ears.

We also have a film festival here in Seattle. I think that volunteers who sell tickets, which could be kind of fun, get free passes for the event.

We have a very good children's hospital here in Seattle and that would be another great place to volunteer. Here are some of the ways one could help out. (http://waystohelp.seattlechildrens.org/about/faqs.asp)

I suspect that with any type of volunteer organization, you would need to check out when they have the greatest need and see if that would fit into your schedule.

Please let us know what you end up doing.

We enjoy cruising as well. We just came back from a Princess cruise and a couple we met on board work for Princess cruise as bus drivers in Alaska in the summer. They go to Alaska for the summer to work for Princess and then cruise the rest of the year at a great discount. That is the ideal. While I can't see myself driving a large coach, I certainly would like to work as a reservation clerk or port support person. I live in the Bay Area but I didn't see any job openings in my location.

Have fun, thats what I am doing. And, I work also.

Retired at 62, fixed up my house for a year. Then set myself up as an independent marketing and sales guru as
I have 40 years or more in that capacity.
Now I am in the gourmet food business and love it. I travel all of the USA with some international, primarily to Italy. I charge a monthly consultants fee which is abou 1/3of what I used to make. But SS helps plus I am on Medicare.
I now have more than one client and could take on 2 or 3 more if I had the time. I work out of my home, have a million plus miles on AA and take my lady with me on certain trips.
So hey, retiring is not bad, not bad at all!

KX

This is my first look at this forum.
I would check with the port authority for the greeter, etc jobs. I think these people work the same type of job for the cruise line that has a ship in port. One day, it could be Princess, the next Hal and others.
In the days before all the discounting of cruises, the perks from this part-time job were good. today, you can probably buy a cruise pretty close in price to your discounted perks.
It will be interesting to follow this thread and get more info.
I do have a neighbor that has been a lecturer and traveled free on 50+ cruises. He is a retired professor.
Bob

Perhaps someone over age 55 could answer this question.

How can you be retired if you still work?? Well, perhaps they mean semi-retired or doing work which they love so much they consider it play. I was reading this thread and think perhaps I have been sailing the wrong ships as most of the personnel on ships I've been sailing appear to be well under 35-40:D