Do you remember????

[Hflors]

Do you remember your first Cruise ship on HAL, the year you did the cruise and do you have any special memories of that cruise ?

 

For me the ship it was Veendam and the year was Nov. 1997

 

It was the only cruise I took with my mother. She needed a wheelchair to go any distance and the Matre'D always treated her like a Queen. When we would get to the dining room he would personally wheel her to our table every night. My mom is gone now, but those fond memories of that ship and cruise will be with me always.

[KirkNC]

Our was on the Carnival Festivale, it was our honeymoon and the year was 1987.

[pris993]

First cruise was on RCCL, The Song of America, to the Carribean, in 1982. Remember leaving St Thomas, last port, on the top deck thinking how wonderful it all was, sorry the cruise was almost over, never dreaming we would cruise again and again. We now have around 50 cruises on 9 different cruise lines.

 

Our first HAL cruise was on the Statendam, in 1995, a 10 Carribean, booked it 1 year after my Mother died, was a way to thank my DH for all his support during my Mother's illness. Remember going to mass on board on my Mother's birthday.

 

We have had obviously many memorial cruises. God has blessed us.

[Aquahound]

Are you asking about first cruise or first cruise on HAL? :confused:

[leaveitallbehind]

Never cruised on HAL so that first cruise is yet to come. However, our first cruise was on RCI Sovereign of the Seas in 1992 for our 10th Anniversary.

Edited June 6, 2014 by leaveitallbehind

[dwjoe]

If you only want answers pertaining to HAL you should post this on the HAL forum.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Our first cruise was on the Cunard Countess -- back-to-back -- 14 days - back in the 80's.

Our first HAL cruise was in 1996 -- Maasdam -- Baltic cruise.

[Treven]

My first cruise was through the Hawaiian Islands and down to Fanning Island in the South Pacific. It was on NCL's Star. Unfortunately I won't sail with NCL afterwards.

Edited June 6, 2014 by Treven

[CruiseMore1]

Have yet to sail on HAL. First cruise was on Carnival's old Carnivale in April 1982. (That was also our last cruise on Carnival.) Have wanted to cruise since seeing ads in the Sacramento Bee for 3 & 4 day cruises to Mexico - this was in the mid '60's! When "The Love Boat" started, I became relentless!!!

[Shmoo here]

Do you remember your first Cruise ship on HAL, the year you did the cruise and do you have any special memories of that cruise ?

 

For me the ship it was Veendam and the year was Nov. 1997

 

It was the only cruise I took with my mother. She needed a wheelchair to go any distance and the Matre'D always treated her like a Queen. When we would get to the dining room he would personally wheel her to our table every night. My mom is gone now, but those fond memories of that ship and cruise will be with me always.

 

First HAL cruise was on the Zuiderdam in 2009. 7 night round-trip Alaska out of Vancouver. The first awe moment was sailing into Tracy Arm. And then the whole rest of the cruise.

 

I had every intention of that being my only Alaska cruise, as I don't do cold. Turns out it only caused us to then book a 21 night cruise tour into the Yukon and Denali along with a cruise.

 

And we'll be back.

[xxoocruiser]

First cruise was back in 1979 on Sitmar's Fairsea 12 cruise

 

First HAL cruise was in 2000 and it was the sixth sailing of the Zaandam

[Cruzman]

First HAL cruise was on the Ryndam in October, 1999; great cruise to the western Caribbean.

[sail7seas]

My first cruise was the old Royal Princess in something like 1990.

 

Our first HAL cruise was Noordam III in 1991 or 1992.

[cruiserking]

My first Holland America Line cruise was in 1974 aboard the Rotterdam with my parents. We cruised from New York to the Caribbean for the Christmas holidays.

 

I remember we hit some very rough seas going out. I ran into my 5th grade school teacher aboard the ship, it's the only reason I remember what year the cruise was, by counting back to 5th grade.

 

Jonathan

Edited June 7, 2014 by cruiserking

[JimAOk1945]

We haven't cruised on HAL yet, but are planning to give it a try. The Alaska itinerary is very appealing.

 

Happy cruising!

[Aquahound]

My first HAL cruise was one of my most memorable cruises to date. It was May 2012 on Nieuw Amsterdam, 12 nights, from Venice to Barcelona. To this day, it's still my only cruise on HAL, but I do see more in the future because I like their itineraries.

[vacation luvver]

My first HAL cruise was also my very first cruise. It took place in 1976. It was either the Statendam or Rotterdam, and it sailed out of New York to Nassau and Bermuda.

 

The only activities people were the cruise director, his wife, and a young man and a young woman, who eventually got engaged (and I presume married). So there weren't many activities, and the "midnight buffet" was actually at 11:00 PM.

 

My second HAL cruise was in 1981. It sailed out of some Florida port and went to the Caribbean. I clearly remember the cocktail party for HAL veterans. All of them were either married couples who had each gone on the same number of HAL cruises (meaning that there wasn't a single instance of a man or woman having cruised on HAL either solo or with a friend and then getting married and telling the spouse, "How about we go on a HAL cruise?") or women by themselves, either never-married, widowed, or divorced. It's possible that they were cruising with friends, but the friends had never been on HAL before and therefore weren't able to go to the cocktail party. The party was so dreary.

 

After that, I went on cruises on many other cruiselines and was amazed that they had far more than four people, including the cruise director, in charge of activities, and things were so much livelier, that I never sailed on HAL again.

[rkacruiser]

My first cruise was on HAL, Rotterdam V, an 11 day Caribbean cruise from New York in July, 1970.

 

Lots of memories: a funny one: At the top of the ship was the Sky Room which had a bar and the mid-ship elevators opened into the room. One evening, one of the guests had been drinking heavily and was very unsteady on his feet, falling a couple of times in the middle of the room when we tried to walk. Having seen enough of this, two of the Stewards took the man back to his cabin, using those elevators. Before they returned to the lounge, the fellow was back again! (And, the Stewards were aghast when they returned.) After another session of him falling as he walked across the room, the Stewards again picked him up and put him into the elevators. This time, he did not return! Rather comical to watch all of this.

 

Not so good memory: wearing a brand new suit, I leaned against a freshly painted railing, not realizing that the paint was still wet. I was greatly dismayed seeing a streak of white paint across a leg of my blue suit. I told my cabin steward about what happened, he took the pants to the laundry department and somehow they were able to get that marine white paint off the pants without damaging the fabric.

Edited June 8, 2014 by rkacruiser

[travlnblueberries]

It so happens my first cruise was with Hal. Years later, when I took mom on her first cruise (in a wheel chair also) it was on Hal too. Same thing to is that the Matre'D would wheel her to the table, and like you said, they did treat her like a queen. :)

[port msp]

First cruise was '07 Celebrity Millennium e. carib. It had taken my wife 10 years to talk me into a cruise. I'd listened to friends and didn't want to vacation with the newly wed, over-fed, or nearly dead. I had been misinformed (mostly). We've been on 10 cruises in all and will continue because it's a nice way to get warm in the winter. First HAL cruise was '09 to Alaska on the Westerdam. '10 brought us to the carrib. on Eurodam and the infamous "anchor" incident where they couldn't get the anchor up at Half Moon Cay and got into port late. We'll probably sail HAL again, but I've gotten to like Celebrity.

[marco]

First HAL cruise was on the "Veendam" in the 70's to Bermuda. The ship was the former either "Argentina" or "Brazil"