NCL-A blast from the 80's with pics-just a fun little thread & review

[kitty-sail]

On 8/24/2019 at 11:06 PM, GA Dave said:

Here are some additional pictures from the Norwegian Sea in 2002.

 

Have never been on this ship but thanks for sharing special memories. The early ships had class and style bringing a real meaning to the word "cruising".

[kitty-sail]

On 8/24/2019 at 11:06 PM, GA Dave said:

Here are some additional pictures from the Norwegian Sea in 2002.

 

Back then cruising had elegance and style and the ships were really classy.

[davy jones]

We took that same cruise in May 1989.  Thanks for the trip on the time machine.

 

Cruising certainly has changed since then, but there are a number of threads about those changes.

 

Trying not to repeat what you posted, but here is what we remember from that sailing.

 

Mrs. Jones was expecting our first child and was 7 months along.  (I don't think they would leave her sail now.)  We had a table for two in the MDR.  We were adjacent to a number of large tables occupied by folks on some kind of business trip.  I believe they were in sales, but I never heard the company name.  Due to her condition, DW was avoiding alcohol during the cruise.  It's no fun to drink alone, so I was also passing on the alcohol.  

 

Every night at dinner, there were many bottles of wine set up at the adjacent tables in advance of their arrival.  Obvious pregnancy can create conversation, so they befriended us.  Since they had more wine than they could responsibly drink, they made sure that I had people to drink with at dinner and insured that my wine glass was never empty.

 

I recall that NCL was the first line with Broadway shows onboard and the show on the Seaward was "A Chorus Line".

 

We were still fairly new to cruising, so we took ship's tours in all of the ports, except GSC.  (Now we book independent tours or explore on our own.)

 

Likely because of her condition, we finished second in a twist contest on 60's night.  She might have won if I was not dancing.  Second prize was a bottle of bubbly, which is much better than a key chain.  

 

Footnotes:  7 weeks later, our oldest DD was born.  We drank the bubbly after DW was home and recovered.  

 

While typing this, it occurred that DD was with us on a family NCL Western Caribbean cruise last month around her 30th birthday.

 

[AmyJA]

That was too much fun and brought back many memories of my first......

 

1997 for me.  I swore it would be the last.  It was on Carnival. The staff was bad.  So bad I asked one sever what the deal was?  Other cruisers were loud, drunk and rude. The plumbing broke more then once, ship wide. We made Denny's jokes about the food.

 

Took me 14 years and Disney to get me back on the ocean. 

 

5 years after that, I started to explore other lines.

 

Maybe someday I'll even sail Carnival again.

[sunkey1]

First cruise was on the Sunward II in 1979, next year on the S.S. Norway. Loved it so much that I ended up getting a job onboard as a Hostess on the cruise staff. Haven't stopped cruising since, got my husband hooked and then our kids. It really can be contagious!

[Travelicious]

My first cruise was on an NCL ship in 1981, right after high school graduation.  I don't remember the name of the ship.  I do remember you did not have to be 21 to drink back then.  That is about all I remember.  

 

Our first cruise together was to be on the Norway in 2003.  We were so excited!  We arrived at the airport and found the lady holding the NCL sign.  She asked our names, looked at her roster, and said, "Oh, you are on the Norway.  The Norway no sail today."  She explained there had been an explosion in the boiler room that morning.  I asked, "Will it sail tomorrow?"  She replied, "No.  It no sail today, it no sail tomorrow, it no sail at all."  We checked with other cruise line representatives at the airport, but all were booked up.  There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth by those who were also scheduled to sail the Norway that day, and many empty threats of lawsuits.

 

We had arranged flights through NCL, so it put us up in a hotel for the night and rebooked our flights home for the following day.  We were given a full refund plus a free future cruise, which we took about a year later.   And we've been hooked ever since.