Looking back

[IandY]

Our family cruise on the summit is coming up in a few weeks and as the many years pass, I’ve recently turned 50, I find myself looking back. Our first (and I think) best cruise was 23 years ago on the Horizon when Celebrity was not owned by RCI. We arrived at the pier in San Juan and filled out all the necessary documents sitting on the floor, just like everyone else it seemed. No on-line x-press check in then, just paper, pen and line ups. Everything on that cruise was a surprise and new, lots of good things and very few instances of bad. The first time we saw the ship was when we arrived at the pier and we were amazed. We did have the option to scour every room, nook, cranny and corner of the ship on CC, Flikr or Webshots as those didn’t exist. We did not know every detail about the room, the pillows, the storage, was there noise from above, shower curtain vs. glass door? We anticipated each and every meal and enjoyed them all. Now, we can go on-line and you can find the daily menus, find critiques... “make sure to get the onion tart”, “avoid the lamb” . Now, I know there’s a brunch on the first sea day, it will be very crowded and the food may or may not be very good. We didn’t look into cheating the dress code on the Horizon. The Celebrity brochure said 2 formal nights, 3 semi-formal nights and 2 casual. That’s what it said so that’s what we did and I’m glad we did, it was part of the experience. It never occurred to me then to know about the ship’s crew, who the master was and what about the announcements. Did I need to know about the cruise director, was he/she any good? No, I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it anyway. I could go on but the points made (I think) :).

I’ve made the choice to “micro-manage” our recent cruises, to research and over-plan every detail. No one forces me and sometimes information is a good thing. I guess I’m just reflecting that I now realize that a big part of why I enjoyed our first cruise experience was the new, unexpected surprises/ experiences that each day offered. That’s life though, things change. Thanks for letting me ramble.

[JanineM]

I had not found Cruise Critic before I went on my first cruise - just 7 years ago. I didn't search the internet for information or photos, and relied on my husband and mother to fill me in on cruise vacations. (My one and only experience with a cruise ship was paying $20 to visit the buffet on a HAL ship when it was docked in Jacksonville, Florida and functioning as a hotel during Super Bowl.)

 

That first cruise was absolutely fantastic and I loved all of the surprises about everything from the food to the entertainment to the cabin. I try to dissuade people from learning too much ... for me, more than half the joy was the discovery and surprises every day.