Your First Cruise

[Bridge Maven]

Prior to taking your first cruise, did you think it was going to be a once in a lifetime experience or the type of vacation you would take on a regular basis if you enjoyed it?

[wyodeacon]

We thought it would be a once in a lifetime thing. We went on Equinox to the Med and had a great time. Now we're going on Century from Hawaii to Australia next November. This is our last once in a lifetime cruise!:)

[phoenix_dream]

We thought it would be something we would do regularly. Our first cruise was our honeymoon, almost 30 years ago. We cruised on the Carnival cruiseline Carnival ship. OMG was it the worst vacation experience of my life! It rained almost every day and we had seas from 20 to 30' high for several days. I was green for 2/3 of the trip. (consider those seas on modern ships, and then think of riding them out on much smaller, less well designed vessels - ugh!).

 

I swore I would never cruise again! As it turns out, I am soon to be embarking on my 30th cruise (20 on X). It took hubby many years to convince me to try it again (he is lucky and never suffers mal de mer), and I am very thankful he succeeded. I am also thankful we have never again suffered with seas so high (although we have had a couple of days that hit 20')

[Kini12]

Prior to taking your first cruise, did you think it was going to be a once in a lifetime experience or the type of vacation you would take on a regular basis if you enjoyed it?

 

Prior to my first cruise, HAL - Veendam, I was sure I was going to HATE the cruise, possibly die and made sure I could fly home from the first Island. Within an hour I knew I had died and gone to heaven. It was the beginning of an adiction. Fun to think back and a nice way to start the day.

[Denny01]

Once in a lifetime:

 

Took my wife a few years to talk me into paying to go back to sea again. We were renovating our home and it was taking much longer and Much more mess, so....found a Carnival 7N Caribbean cruise and Love It! That was in '95. Two years later, we organized a family Thanksgiving cruise and ended up on the Mercury - a month after her inaugural cruise. More than fantastic. Because of kids and work, didn't go back to cruising until '02 and then went every year, with many 2 a year - heck, in '09 we took three cruises (Panama Canal in Jan then a E Med/TA B2B in Nov/Dec).

 

So, started with the 'give it a go', but not planning on repeating it much. Always saw vacations as something to do very different things. Now we do 'different things' but on a cruise ship.

 

This year, we took a Hawaii cruise in Jan, will take the Around the UK in Aug (boy, watch out for the airfare costs!), and since we miss Celebrity, may take a quick-fix 7N in Dec on the Equinox!

 

So much for Once in a Lifetime!

 

Den

[alicam]

When we booked our Princess cruise, we figured it would be a one and only thing...now as we prepare for our 5th cruise we have come to the conclusion that we were wrong...lol

[C-Dragons]

I believe I was 12 when I took my first cruise. I didn't really have to think about it. My mother fell in love with cruising and I guess I inherited my love of cruising from her. Many years later, DH and I sailed on our honeymoon, it was his very first cruise, but thankfully (after 37 years together) it wasn't his last. ;) :D

[CruisinManiac]

A AAA agent talked our family into a Disney land/cruise vacation. We spent 4 days at Disney and 3 days on the Disney Wonder. My DH had tried to get me to cruise before (he had previously taken a post college trip.) I had no interest and was frankly afraid of being out on the sea. Well, after that 3 day cruise we immediately booked a 7 day on the Disney Magic, set to sail just 6 months later. :D Ten years later, we are still cruising. You can see our cruise history below. We now average two cruises a year. 2002 was skipped because we were building a house and had a fire. :(

[dragline]

It still IS prior to my first cruise ever...leaving on the Constellation in 11 days. I had visions of a pampering delicious tropical paradise type of experience...but then last August I found Cruise Critic. So much for the Celebrity brochure fantasies...

 

I know I'll have a wonderful time but some of my expectations have certainly been lowered.

 

- Dragline

[C-Dragons]

It still IS prior to my first cruise ever...leaving on the Constellation in 11 days. I had visions of a pampering delicious tropical paradise type of experience...but then last August I found Cruise Critic. So much for the Celebrity brochure fantasies...

 

I know I'll have a wonderful time but some of my expectations have certainly been lowered.

 

- Dragline

 

Don't go with any preconceived notions, this is your first cruise. You will have a great time, trust me. :)

[phinn]

My first cruise was planned and paid for by DH boss. I went with absolutely no expectations. We had a great time, stayed up till 2am and got back up at 6am to be out on deck. Today, 25 years later, I don't make 2am anymore, but still having a great time. I knew then it would never be my last.

[sarahc78]

When taking my first cruise I just thought Oh cool we are going on a cruise. Up until that point I would hear people say we are going on a cruise to here or there and I thought well thats nice... Now when I hear people say that they are going on a cruise I think

 

OMG NO FAIR I WANT TO GO ON A CRUISE, I NEED TO BOOK A CRUISE NOW!!!! :eek:

 

Words can not describe how wonderful a vacation cruising is. It is by far the best vacation option there is.

[cb at sea]

We knew if we enjoyed it as much as we thought we would, that we'd do it again....we do that with ANY kind of vacation!!!

[TeaBag]

We took our first cruise for our 25th anniversary. It was the old Star Princess and we sailed in the Mediterranean. We were hooked.

[islandgirlejfan]

At the time, I believed it would be a once in a lifetime experience.

My husband and I took our three children (elementary school aged at the time) on our first cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. We have only booked three since that time (five in a family is an odd number when it comes to dining out and vacations:(), but we hope to cruise much more now that two of three children have left the nest and we have now have a little more money since the weddings have been paid for!:eek:

 

My children to this day have not stopped talking about the wonderful vacation they went on....my oldest son just took his wife on her first cruise and she's sold!

[Azulann]

My first cruise was on 2008,11day cruise out of Barcelona in the Western Med. on the Century. I thought it was a once in a lifetime event. I thought it would be very expensive. My sister-in-law and her husband talked me into it. Once on board, it was like another world I loved it.:) A floating hotel with excellent service, and a new landscape from the top deck every morning to explore.

I have taken land vacations since and will contiuie to do so. But I am going on the Equinox in Sept 2011 for 10days in the Eastern Med. I now have a list of other cruises to do: panama canal, South America, Spain/France and Northern Europe, and Turkey.

[pattyj 1204]

Before we took our first cruise to Alaska, I thought it was going to be a once in a lifetime trip. My husband loves fishing and we go twice or three times a year to Canada strickly for fishing. When we came home from the cruise he started talking about going to the Carribean, Med, Baltics which were taken and now we are going again to Alaska. All our cruises were on Celebrity ships. We love the service and friendliness of the staff.

[cruzeluver]

First was with my family on Royal Caribbean in the early 1980s. I was a mere lad of about 11. My grandparents took us on that trip plus two other cruises by the time I graduated high school in 1990. I loved the whole experience right from the get-go! Being out at sea is my idea of paradise. I like to say I inherited my love of cruising fro my grandparents. They sailed probably 50 times before my grandfather passed away two years ago. He got such a kick out of seeing how much I love it and how often we go.

[Chi Diva]

Even before we took our first cruise in 2004, I thought we would do it much more often than we have. I had always wanted to go on a cruise and knew I would choose that as my vacation time if ever given the opportunity. I had to talk my DH into that first one. We had a great time, and he loved it of course. Unfortunately, life got in the way and my dream of taking up cruising didn't materialize. We recently took another cruise and booked our next one while onboard, so perhaps they will become a more regular mode of travel for us.

[CruisingChick]

Prior to taking your first cruise, did you think it was going to be a once in a lifetime experience or the type of vacation you would take on a regular basis if you enjoyed it?

 

No, I thought I would be seasick the entire week and hate it, but my husband booked it and told me we would have fun.

 

Well, they had to pull me off the ship screaming and crying. It was absolutely the best week of my life and I loved it. It's been almost 11 years now since that first cruise and we still talk about it all the time. I immediately became addicted.

[reklawr]

Once in a lifetime.

Our first cruise was our first vacation without our kids. It was a vacation just to try something different than our usual WDW vacation with the kids.

After research we decided on Celebrity and have never even thought about or had any desire to try any other cruise line.

[ORV]

This is a great idea for a thread.

 

I just knew going on a cruise was one of the things I had always wanted to do. I grew up on a river and now live on a lake, so I enjoy being around water.

 

I didn't have any expectations beyond going on the first one, pretty much since then we are always planning for the next one, or the one after that. We keep selecting longer trips.

[Blue46]

I really wasn't sure, the possibility was there that we would become hooked. We went to celebrate our 25th anniversary. All I knew is that I wanted a balcony. My DH loves the ocean so I thought this is perfect. Now we are hooked. Love the complete relax time that we spend on our balcony and really love being spoiled and pampered.:D

[redjetz]

My first cruise was the Century last July. I got talked into it because we couldn't decide where to go in Europe for a land vacation. I spent a considerable amount of time reading the boards to decide what cruise line I thought I could tolerate and then what itinerary.

 

Reading the NCL and RCCL boards (Carnival was never an option), then Celebrity, I felt I could be most comfortable on X (the smoking policy was one of the key elements), but also the service and the ships, assuming I didn't experience sea sickness.

 

I really thought it was likely a one-time experience. But it was a wonderful 12 days, I loved the shipboard experience, and we booked our upcoming cruise while onboard. And now we're looking at Alaska for next year.

[YOW]

In 1994, I was the best man at a wedding that was to have taken place in Chicago. The couple eloped and the venue became a cruise ship in the Caribbean. I was not happy about it, thinking (a) I'm not a boat guy, more likely to get seasick than have fun, and (b) cruises are a shticky, shlocky, cliche kind of experience. Wrong on both counts. I had a great time. Even came back telling my friends how wrong I'd been and how much fun it was.

 

Still, I didn't cruise for nearly a decade -- being single, it wasn't that conducive. And for the first few years after getting married, we took trips to Europe and other land vacations. Finally we tossed about the idea of a cruise. "You might like it," i said to DW, "or you might hate it." February 2004, Constellation -- our first cruise together and the first cruise ever for DW. That's what got us hooked on cruising. Now we make it a point of alternating between land and cruise... and if we go over a year without a cruise, we really 'suffer' withdrawal. ;) Yes, we're blessed.