Jim Zim's 2025 Year In Review - 5 Cruises, 3 New Cameras, Spinal Surgery, And Is It Dead Yet?

This is the 2025 version of my yearly tradition of creating a video that summarizes what I've been up to over the past year. It was a pretty big year for me, so this became a long video. Find a comfortable chair, settle in, and enjoy a look at my life over the last year. I start with the best part: the cruises. I did five of them this year! The first was in the quiet and uncrowded private retreat at the back end of Carnival Panorama... an area that most Panorama passengers don't have access to. It's one of my favorite ways to cruise. The second cruise was in the quiet and uncrowded retreat at the back of Sun Princess... an area that most Princess passengers don't have access to. Are you starting to see a pattern in the way I like to cruise? The third was on a quiet and uncrowded cruise ship from American Cruise Lines, with only 130 passengers aboard... in one of the most spectacular places on earth: Alaska. There's a LOT more to the story of this cruise than I have time for in today's video. So, here's a link to the first in a series of videos that does a much more complete job of showing you why an Alaska cruise with ACL is so great: https://youtu.be/fdChaDcV7Cg The fourth cruise was on a brand-new (quiet and uncrowded) cruise ship from American Cruise Lines... but at the very opposite end of the country from the previous one. This one was along the Gulf Coast of Florida, where it was 80 degrees just about every day of the cruise. Breaking with the trend, my fifth and final cruise of the year was not on a quiet and uncrowded ship... but it was on a ship that has a lot going for it: one of Royal Caribbean's Quantum-class ships. I explain a few things about why this particular class of Royal Caribbean ships appeals to me. Besides the cruising, my year-in-review video also shows you some of the fun I had in my yard and garden this year. I don't spend much time outside during our Washington state winters, but in Spring, Summer, and Fall I am all about gardening and turning our 1/2 acre property in to something very special. I also fill you in on the recent spinal surgery I had, and why I'm going to need a second surgery. Our cute little American Cocker Spaniel, Carli, makes a couple of short appearances in this video. I show you the big home improvement project that my wife and I spent $50,000 on, and which ballooned from a 4-day schedule to a whopping 52-day test of patience. But in the end, it was TOTALLY worth doing, and we love the results! I also tell you about three new cameras I'm now using to make these videos with: the camera in my Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, the camera in my new DJI Mini 5 Pro drone, and a stabilized video camera known as the XTRA Muse. It's basically a clone of the DJI Osmo Pocket. Here are affiliate links in case you are interested in purchasing any of these products, which will generate a small commission for me: DJI Mini 5 Fly More Plus Combo: https://amzn.to/4sjnCBc XTRA Muse stabilized video camera: https://amzn.to/4qjq9tb Google Pixel 10 Pro XL: https://amzn.to/44yuvUS Also, if you think your dog would enjoy that mini tennis ball launcher that you saw my dog playing with, here's an Amazon link: https://amzn.to/44QfldP There's a long and frank discussion of what I jokingly call "the slow death of my YouTube channel. From 2015 through 2021, the YouTube algorithm totally loved my channel, and recommended my videos to huge numbers of people. Then along came TikTok, and YouTube decided to totally change the algorithm to compete with their new rival. Suddenly, the style of video that I like to make was no longer getting recommended to people as much. I went from getting 59 million views of my video in 2018 to getting less than five million views in 2025. Five million views is still a lot, and there's still enough advertising revenue coming in to keep me doing this, but the glory days of my YouTube channel are definitely behind me. I'm actually OK with that. At the age of 68, I'm leading a very good life, and I thank YouTube for helping make that happen. If my son had not insisted that I needed a YouTube channel 17 years ago, my life would not be nearly as good as it is today. Finally, I give you a preview of what's ahead for me in 2026, explain a few reasons that you might want to use my travel agent, Caitlin Gallagher of Ambren Travel, and deliver a little bit of news that fans of my model train videos will be disappointed by. If you're interested in booking a cruise with American Cruise Lines, or with any other cruise line, feel free to use the services of my travel agent: Caitlin Gallagher with Ambren Travel. www.AmbrenTravel.com Video Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:35 Carnival Panorama 2:18 Sun Princess 5:20 Spring Gardening 9:30 Alaska Cruise 10:25 $50,000 Project 13:13 Spinal Surgery 14:45 Fall Colors 15:26 Florida Cruise 16:30 Quantum Of The Seas 18:05 New Cameras 20:14 Slow Death Of My Channel 25:38 Looking Forward