What made you decide to start cruising ?

I've only just seen this lovely thread as when it was started....guess what? I was on a cruise! [emoji2]

My first cruise was in 1992, aged 21 with my Grandmother and younger sister, who would have been 19 at the time. We sailed from Venice on the Cunard Princess. As you can imagine we really were the youngest passengers on board and my sister and I often recall a Russian officer, Momo Metan (probably not spelled that correctly!) who, whenever we saw him, would say, "ah, there you are, my beautiful ladies, it makes my day when I see you. I have been looking for you all over the ship" *this must be read in a heavy Russian accent please. 🤣

We shared a table with 5 Americans, all of whom were fascinated by the fact that we ate with both a knife and a fork. One of the ladies must have badgered her husband to follow suit because one evening she announce, "look everyone, Jack is using his fork AND his knife!". Well done Jack! I also remember the same lady asking of the waiter in a very imperious way, "Samuel? What is Pear St. Helene?" Samuel said (this time a Thai accent please) "it is a pear, madam" - this was hilarious at the time, not sure it translates....[emoji848]

I didn't cruise again until 2004. When planning our honeymoon I was stuck with quite a dilemma. My husband to be was not a fan of flying and I was considering a gastronomic tour of the UK when a marketing flyer from P&O dropped through the door. Eureka! Why had I not thought of that. So our first cruise together was our honeymoon in 2004 on the old P&O Adonia and we loved it and have sailed ever since. [emoji7][emoji1380]🥂[emoji898][emoji568]

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Ehg

And you were delightful company, and we were happy to meet.

Thank you

Watching Alan Whicker on a world cruise when I was about 9 or 10, would have been late 70s or early 80s.

DamianG

Great to hear we were on the same cruise, Hope you had as great a time as I did !!

I made it to Copenhagen eventually in 2015 on Britannia on a Baltics cruise - had the most incredible time, the ship, the cities, and the weather !!!!!!!!!!

Ehg

 

 

 

And you were delightful company, and we were happy to meet.

 

 

 

Thank you

Thank you Mercury7289. Ditto.

I probably told you those Cunard Princess stories or maybe I was too busy doing Michael McIntyre?!

Send our love to Mrs Mercury7289. Xxxx

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My first interest in cruising was indeed The Love Boat. Then probably early 1990s I sent for a VHS from P&O showing life on board thought too stuffy for me so never went. Dressing up is not my thing. Roll forward to 2001 and found Disney had relaxed dress code so did 4 nights on Disney Wonder which I loved. In 2006 decided I wanted to visit Hawaii and that a cruise was the only way to see more than 1 Island NCL Pride of America was wonderful the next year it was NCL Norwegian Spirit New York to Halifax & New England. In 2014 I found Royal Clipper and have done Windward Islands, Grenadines and 2 Transatlantic Lisbon to Barbados plus Star Flyer around Cuba. Then 2 short breaks on Fred Olsen.

Now for the best bit after saying I would never cruise on P&O I could not resist the Black Friday deal to the Canaries on Oriana. The plan to try Black Tie once then use the buffet. Well that did not work I loved it so much I was planning what to pack for my next cruise. I booked one for November on Aurora whilst onboard and one on Arcadia in December 4 days after getting home.

Guess you could say I am hooked!!!!!

Love this thread

I just love the sea, but I think we 'got the bug' when we did a 3 day mini cruise to Egypt / Israel from Cyprus for hubby's 40th birthday. She was only a small Louis Cruise ship, the Princess Marissa, but we had an amazing time and the views from the cabin window were incredible. I remember sitting at the back of the ship under the stars with a pot of tea (yip, we have changed somewhat since then!) and decided there and then that we would look in to cruising for a holiday. I remember being docked in Limassol by what we thought was a HUGE cruise ship and never thought in a million years that we would have been able to go on so many cruises since. We've since noticed in our photos that the 'huge' ship was the Celebrity Millenium, so am guessing that the Marissa was smaller than we thought! :D

I could of wrote this!

Our first time was also Egypt from Cyprus...we went again the following year and then went onto bigger ships...that's how we fell in love with cruising.

The Inlaws paid for it

S.S. Uganda back in 1982 on an educational school cruise to the baltic, taking in Copenhagen, Helsinki, Stockholm and St.Petersburg (Leningrad at the time).

How they ever let a bunch of school kids loose on the world like that i'll never know :'):') but it was a great experience. I was due to go back on Uganda but unfortunately the ship was called up for use in the falklands war.

the inlaws paid for it ��

lol!