I considered resurrecting MsWhatsit’s thread, but decided to just start a new one. My optometrist recommended progressives last time I saw him in February. I told him I was doing OK just reading under my single vision distance glasses, and he said he did that, too while he was in denial just like me. His pep talk stuck with me, though, and I finally got tired of holding my phone up to my nose to read it on the train. I was worried the lenses would make my eyes look weird because my mom’s do (magnified and kinda googly), and I know she wears progressives. Hers must be a very different correction, though, because I got mine last week and they don’t do that. Yay!
There was much discussion in the previous thread about needing proper measurements and fitting and the need to purchase them from a brick-and-mortar, but I’m a cheap-ass and love Zenni online to the tune of 5 pair purchased previously from them. They have a 30-day return policy, so figured nothing to lose except a hole in my pocketbook.
They’re working great. I did have a little eyestrain the first two days, but it went away. I took a little longer getting used to the sidewalk looking closer and blurry when I looked down without moving my head. I seem to have adjusted to that, too, after another maybe 5 days.
My only regret is being too cheap and getting the less expensive and thicker lenses. They’re thicker than the single-vision lenses, which I didn’t expect. I have a second pair coming with what should be much thinner and $30 more expensive lenses. If I love those, I’ll send these back and have the thinner ones put in and then I’ll have two pair of progressives that should last me a while.
I’m glad I bit the bullet. I wouldn’t be so happy about it if they made my eyes look magnified and googly behind them, though. I wonder what kind of prescription Mom (and another lady I see weekly) has in hers that make them look like that.
Good for you.
I tried progressives, hated them. I mostly wear my contacts, with cheapo reading glasses, so when it was time for my current pair of specs I just went for distance vision, and I take them off to read a book or my laptop. Our mileage obviously varies. It’s all good. 
Sigh. I’m on the verge of needing bifocals of some sort. I’m at the point where I have to take my glasses off to read some things, or to clip an oscilloscope probe on a wire.
I figured ultimately that I looked even more dorky looking at stuff under my glasses and close to my face than I would just looking through the reader portion of the right glasses and holding things at a normal distance. Plus, now whenever I write using pencil at my desk, the lighting in here isn’t so bad any more! And the ingredients lists on packages at the grocery store aren’t so darned tiny.
I used to wear contacts all the time. Alas while my dry eye still needs no medication, I can’t do contacts for more than a couple hours. I wish I still could, I would totally do the reading-only glasses with contacts. But, sandpaper on corneas. Boo.
I don’t wear glasses but, if I did, I think I would like conservative ones the best…rose colored if they have them.
I love me some no-line bifocals. My first pair took some getting used to, but once I did, there was no going back.
When I moved to progressives it was time for them. They work well. The downside is that it’s been a few years and I need a new prescription and, given the complications of my vision, Zenni isn’t that great an option for me. Back to the brick-and-mortar store.
I went for the classic bifocals.
A few years ago I tried a traditional bifocal - my insurance doesn’t pay for progressives. The placement of the line made it difficult for me to use a couple of pieces of equipment at work so I returned them in favor of a distance only pair (because I was noticing more difficulty reading street signs than my book at night).
The following year I had some cash to supplement the insurance and got a pair that incorporates reading and middle (computer, reading dials on the aforementioned equipment) distance. Having the two pairs solved some problems but was not a perfect set up.
About six weeks ago I got two pairs of progressives (on sale, plus an additional discount for having AAA) There was a brief adjustment to looking through the right portion, but it’s been going well. I’m the only person in my family who didn’t start wearing glasses all the time as a kid. They’re far from habitual for me. I keep leaving them places. (Home or work, not restaurants or the bank.)
I wear contacts most of the time (monovision - one eye for distance, one for reading), but I do have a pair of progressive eyeglasses for early mornings and late at night. They are soooooo much better than the lined bifocals that I owned for about one week. Everyone told me, when I was getting them, that you have to turn your head to face whatever you are looking at; in other words, no peripheral vision through them. But I did not find that to be the case. I can turn my eyes in my head as much as I used to through my old single-vision specs.
By the bye - is there a difference between “no-line bifocals” and “progressives”? Or are they just two different names for the same thing?
Same thing, different names.
I’ve had progressives for 10 years or so, since I first started needing them. Love them.
I’ve been wearing progressive trifocals for more years than I can remember, and I absolutely love them! Well, except that the last time I had them replaced, I got a fairly heavy pair, and I’m counting the days till my insurance will pay for a new pair so I can lighten up.
The time they bother me most is if I’m watching TV in bed - our set is mounted at the top of the wall, and I can’t see it clearly unless I slide my specs down my nose a bit. So the bother isn’t that big a deal. 
Love love love my trifocal progressives. I needed no time to adjust to them, they felt like natural vision immediately. Though, since I’ve been wearing corrective lenses of one sort or another for roughly 50 years, I’m not sure what I mean by natural vision.
Got bifocal progressive sport goggles for various athletic activities, and i love them, too. Worth every penny, especially since they don’t look nearly as dorky as they used to.