Tell us your story....Why did you start cruising?

[George C]

My 1st job was a computer operator for US Lines which at that time owned the SS United States and America cruise ships. So many of the employees told be of stories sailing on those ships. Also they were located at 1 Broadway and we had perfect view of the Statue of Liberty and I could see all the great ships of the time sailing by it. Then did my 1st 7 day cruise in 1977 on Rotterdam and I was totally addicted , have cruised every year since. Got engaged on RCCL and honeymooned on SS Norway

[tommui987]

"well, Sonny, I remember back when ..."

 

My Dad was assigned to a new post in Havana and we left the Islands when I was in the 8th grade. This was back in 1946!

 

We were on the Matson Lurline. I was sicker than a dog! I dreaded our next sailing a week later which was from New Orleans to Havana on a United Fruit ship - not too bad. Two years later, new assignment and from Havana to Miami - calms seas, praise the Lord!

 

Returned to Hawaii, college, service, post-grad. Married, Trips to Europe - by plane!

 

Then one day, for whatever reason, I saw an auction on-line for a 7-day trip on the Triumph - Western Carribean. I won! Armed with seasick pills, we flew to Miami to see what cruising was all about - but remembering my experiences on the old Lurline.

 

Long story - short. Orient Line, NCLs, Princess, Holland America, Viking, Azamara soon followed. Now I am 80, three back-surgeries, walker or wheelchair later, just got off the Holland America from Vancouver to Lauderdale!

 

Looking at an Adriatic cruise next!

[Essiesmom]

I was youngandsingleandgorgeous. And bored. The winter was heavy with snow that year, and I was sick of it, and the cold.

So, when the radio announcer I woke up to every morning organized a cruise to Bermuda it sounded perfect. I had never traveled, other than to visit relatives, so was excited to go off to see the world.

 

RuthC, I'm with you here. I was single, living in NYC on a shoestring budget. I wanted to take a vacation that didn't involve going home and staying with the parents. My first vacation was an airline package trip to Curacao, for nine days. I loved it. the next year, I was reading the NYT ads, and thought 'I can take a cruise!' It seemed so romantic/exotic/adventurous! I went to a travel agency, and booked a 10 day cruise on the original Home Lines Homeric, to San Juan, St. Thomas, Martinique and St. Maarten. My cabin had a tiny bed that was a couch during the day, a sink, and the bathroom down the hall. And it wasn't even on the lowest deck. This was 1972, and I had no idea that single girls went on cruises to find boyfriends in the crew. But I found out, and took three more cruises on Home Lines in the next year. After that, I didn't cruise again until 1999, when I persuaded my sister to go to the amazon with me on the original Royal Princess. Thirty some cruises later, we are still going. EM

[superoma]

We first cruised in 1988 on the RCCL Song of America. We surprised DH's brother and sister-in-law who were over from Europe to visit and do the cruise with DSIL who lives in Virginia. We had a great time. And they were surprised. We hid in the terminal in Miami and didn't board until they had boarded. It was great.

 

Next cruise was not until 2001 when we did a last minute Alaska cruise, RCCL again, while our daughter was living in Vancouver.

 

We did some Princess too and discovered HAL on the Maasdam Canada New England and now prefer HAL both for the size of ships (small) and the atmosphere onboard (a little quieter).

[happygran]

My parents were long time cruisers (they loved it) and wanted us to experience it too. They paid for us to go on a cruise with them........in February, in an inside cabin........to the Canary Islands........the Atlantic in February was a bit rough!!!........hated the inside cabin..........and hated the whole cruise.......never again. That was about 15 years ago.

 

Fast forward to 5 years ago.........mum was a widow and I was feeling very selfish depriving her of cruising..........she was 83 and this was maybe her last chance.....booked a 7 day Med cruise in 2 x outside cabins.......upgraded to 2 x balcony cabins the week before........what a difference........loved it.

 

We've had 3 cruises a year since........have taken Mum on a couple with another in April (she's still going strong at 88).........but always in a balcony..........

 

Thanks Mum............

[kazu]

What great stories!

 

Thanks so much for sharing everyone :D

[Copper10-8]

Back in November 1991 there was a converted Scandinavian car ferry (formerly known as Scandinavia for DFDS Seaways, and Stardancer for first, Sundance Cruises, and then for Admiral Cruises) working for what was then called Royal Caribbean Cruise Line/RCCL. She was sailing out of L.A. (San Pedro) during the winter season on 3-day cruises , leaving Friday evening for Avalon, Catalina Island (Saturday) and Ensenada, Mexico (Sunday), returning Monday AM. From Monday through Friday she added San Diego for a 4-day cruise. She moved up to Alaska for the summer season

 

She was called Viking Serenade for RCCL and we were part of a group of twelve, mostly couples, friends and City Hall co-workers of my wife, the child bride. We're talking absolutely no balconies and the old-style open lifeboats, but she did have Royal Caribbean's famous Viking Crown Lounge night club built aft of the ship's funnel, only accessible from an exterior stairwell.

 

Viking Serenade had two dining rooms on separate decks known as the Aida and Magic Flute. She had the Windjammer café buffet on Sun Deck aft where there was also a Beauty Salon/Fitness Center, Card Room and Children's Playroom mid-ships. Her main show lounge was called Hello Dolly and a smaller lounge called the Bali Hai. Besides the Viking Crown lounge, there was the Schooner Bar. She had a Casino Royale and what was known as Serenade Boutiques shopping area.

 

Departure from L.A. on Friday evening was at 8:00 pm and the compulsory muster drill took place 15 minutes after. The entertainment that first evening was a show called "Cruising through the 90ties". They also had a midnight show called "Mardi Gras" in the smaller Bali Hai Lounge. RCCL, at the time, had a "shipshape" program where you could win "Shipshape dollars" and a skeet shooting program (shooting clay pigeons with birdshot out of 12 gauge shotguns - 5 shots for $4.00) under the supervision of an officer was a normal thing.

 

Off Catalina Island on Saturday and in Ensenada on Sunday, we were joined by competitor Norwegian Cruise Lines' old Southward. In Ensenada, a visit to the infamous Hussong's Cantina was a must , as well as a look at La Bufadora (the blowhole). In Ensenada, two female pax missed the ship's departure and came running down the pier. The solution was to put them on the pilot boat, a normal deal at the time.

 

The captain was a Swede named Tomas Wildung., the hotel manager was Roderick Smith, the cruise director was Paul Grayson and our room steward was a guy by the name of Jaime from Nicaragua. We had an inside cabin, #9517, on Star Deck fwd with two single beds but we didn't care; were in seventh heaven and hooked on cruising from that day on

[Folk Singer]

I was never young, single or gorgeous so I went Cruising.

 

Edited December 21, 2014 by Folk Singer

[Folk Singer]

What great stories!

 

Thanks so much for sharing everyone :D

 

We went on our first Cruise many years ago and since have been hooked.

[Host Walt]

Way back in the summer of, I believe, 1980, we just moved to CA from NJ and decided to take a long fly/rail/drive trip to Western Canada.

 

We flew into Vancouver, drove a rental to Victoria, took the (now defunct) E & N railroad from Esquimalt to Courtney, took a bus to Port Hardy (inaccessible by road until the highway was opened a few months earlier), a BC Ferry to Prince Rupert, the Canadian National train to Jasper, drove down to Calgary, took the Canadian Pacific to Vancouver, then flew home.

 

While the train rides were really interesting, it was the BC Ferry portion that was the killer. Gorgeous sunset as we made the one port call at Bella Bella, and a great night's sleep in an inside cabin on the boat.

 

It was then that we decided that cruising was the way to go and booked a HAL 7-day cruise of the Inside Passage.

 

Haven't looked back.

[Vict0riann]

Copper you have a great memory - I could tell you the number of our last stateroom, but that's about all - and that was 10 days ago!

 

Season's Greetings to all.:)

[Copper10-8]

Copper you have a great memory - I could tell you the number of our last stateroom, but that's about all - and that was 10 days ago!

 

Season's Greetings to all.:)

 

Nah, my memory is shot ;) I still have the daily program in a photo album :cool:

Edited December 21, 2014 by Copper10-8

[jaspersmycat]

In 1983, I was in a very stressful job and wanted to go on a vacation where it would be very hard for them to get in touch with me. I found a cruise on the (old) Nieuw Amsterdam sailing from Acapulco to San Francisco. We thought it would be fun to watch us go under the Golden Gate Bridge and come into the city. We did not know that would occur between 5 and 6 am in a heavy fog. Despite the cruise being shortened by 2 days and all ports being skipped due to an oil leak, we had a great time.

 

We took our HAL compensation in the form of credit that paid for the next cruise. On that cruise, I won the final BINGO game and that paid for the next cruise. We then stopped cruising for 15 years until 2002 and from then to now have done 2 or 3 cruises a year - all on HAL. I've sailed solo since 2012 but still enjoy it.

[MrsMuir]

My Daddy and I had always shared a love of the sea and ships. I'm a poor swimmer and I always say that I prefer to be ON the water, not IN it.

 

This is counter-intuitive, but I really became eager to be aboard a ship in 1972 when I saw "The Poseidon Adventure" for the first time. I wanted to be a part of that world, though not upside-down!

 

My first voyage was on a Silja Line ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki in 1975. My friend Joan and I shared a claustrophobic interior cabin with bunk beds and a little bathroom. It was quite posh, we discovered, because many passengers just slept on deck or in the public rooms. I loved being on the Baltic Sea, the feel and sound of the engines; everything! I woke up very early to see the sun rise over the water. That's when I vowed to go to sea again.

 

The very next summer Joan and I boarded the late, great Pacific Princess for a Mexican Riviera Cruise. Next was a two-week Alaska Cruise, a one-week working cruise on the Island Princess, and then the Panama Canal on the PP. Marriage and working life intervened until 2000, when DH and I boarded ms Rotterdam for a 12-day Baltic cruise. That's when we got hooked on HAL.

 

If we could afford to, I would book at least one cruise each year. DH suffers on long economy flights, so the next cruise will probably be from the West Coast. I still long for a Crossing on a Cunarder, specifically the QM2. We were married aboard the Queen Mary in 1978.

 

OK, I'll stop now. It's been three months since our last voyage, and each day that ache only gets stronger.

 

Mrs M

[summer slope]

Mine was a gift to me at retirement. We went on a Cruise tour of Alaska for 8 days and then on the wonderful Zuiderdam for 3 days. Loved all of it. Have cruised every year since.

[Host Walt]

...My first voyage was on a Silja Line ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki in 1975. My friend Joan and I shared a claustrophobic interior cabin with bunk beds and a little bathroom. It was quite posh, we discovered, because many passengers just slept on deck or in the public rooms. I loved being on the Baltic Sea, the feel and sound of the engines; everything! I woke up very early to see the sun rise over the water. That's when I vowed to go to sea again....

We took the Sikja Line from Stockholm to Helsinki in June, 1988 and had an equally tiny but outside cabin. Spartan accommodations but still fun. However I woke up in the middle of the night with a strong sun coming in. I quickly glance at my watch that (I thought) said 6:15. I woke my DW and we rushed through packing up and getting ready to disembark (arrival in Helsinki was scheduled to be at 7:00am.) After rushing I went outside to get us some coffee to see the entire hallway and common spaces devoid of any people. Turns out that, instead of 6:15am, my watch actually said 3:30am. I looked too quickly before my brain was engaged.

 

So instead of rushing like fools, we proceeded to the restaurant and waited for it to open for breakfast. Good breakfast. Fun watching as we entered the port.

 

Lesson learned.

[ellieanne]

I read an article in the Saturday Evening Post about visiting Green Gables. The article mentioned that several cruise lines made stops in Charlottetown and from there, they did tours out to Green Gables.

 

My family and I decided that it would probably be the easiest way to visit Green Gables so we did research, and three years later decided to book a cruise. Unfortunately, that cruise did not actually go to Charlottetown (at the time the port was limiting cruise ship visits), but I fell in love with cruising anyway.

 

Two years later, when we did a similar itinerary, we finally made it to Charlottetown and to Green Gables.

[winddawn]

In the spirit of the season, I thought it might be fun to have a thread with everyone's stories.

 

I never planned to cruise many years ago. My corporation decided to award a cruise to the top 42 employees out of their 38,000 at the time. I happened to be one of the lucky ones that got to go.

 

From then on, I was addicted and fortunate to go on a number of cruises on my employer's tab.

 

Eventually, I bit the bullet and paid for our own after I met DH and lured him on his first cruise :D And the rest, as they say, is history;)

 

What about you? Why did you start cruising?

I started cruising around 1990 when the North American cruise market was just being born. Growing up without much money, I didn't take a real vacation until I was in my late 20's and earning my own money. Cruising seemed very exotic to me and I was eager to experience new things and places. One of my earliest cruises was on Admiral Cruise Lines Emerald Seas. I am so glad I got to experience this old ship which was originally built in 1944 as a troop transport vessel. No two cabins seemed to be the same on this old ship turned cruise liner. But after that Bahamas cruise, I was hooked on cruising and it has become a way of life where I now cruise every couple of months.

 

I found someone's web page about that old ship. It is interesting to read the ship's history.

 

http://nickscruisecorner.blogspot.com/2012/02/emerald-seas-another-on-of-my-favorite.html

[sppunk]

My parents took me on a cruise from NOLA on the Carnival Celebration in iirc 1992 when I was 10.

 

19 cruises later, 7 with my wife, and yeah.

[richwmn]

Kazu - since you asked so nicely, here is my story.

 

My mother, most likely from all the "Love Boat" shows, had always wanted to

go on a cruise. My father, career Navy, had always answered that he had

spent enough time haze gray and underway and he never wanted to be on a ship

again. In 2000 after my father died, my mother moved in with me and

announced she was taking my sister and me on a cruise.

 

My sister found a travel agent who suggested that the best fit for the three

of us was Holland America. This ended up to be the Zaandam on a Western

Caribbean in September of 2000. We all had a good time mostly because of a

couple of the crew members.

 

That might have been the end of it, except a couple of months later I saw an

add for a seminar I wanted to take and it was aboard the Maasdam, again in

September but an Eastern Caribbean. The second cruise was as good as the

first and I have now done pretty much a cruise a year since then.

 

Like many others, I started out on 7 day cruises. Later I found that I

liked the longer cruises and have done several of them. My last cruise

cruise was with tommui987 from Vancouver to Fort Lauderdale along with his

wife and son, my trivia partners.

 

I am close enough to Fort Lauderdale to be able to do Caribbean cruises

fairly easily. I met some wonderful people on a cruise who live in Ottawa

who were kind enough to host me after one cruise and before another. Also

a couple in Seattle (cruising-along + DH) who spent some time with me

before the last cruise.

Edited December 22, 2014 by richwmn

[cruisinjudy]

I have only seen one other comment about The Love Boat. That is what got me interested in cruising but it wasn't until after two land trips to Hawaii flying between the islands, taking a whole day almost to accomplish each flight that I convinced my husband that we could take a cruise shiop between the islands so the next year we went on American Hawaii Cruise's SS Independence in an inside cabin on a lower deck. The rest is history.

[Randyk47]

My first time on a ship was a trans-Atlantic trip back from England to the U.S. As young as I was I somehow came away with a positive impression. Some 40 years later I finally got back on a ship but this time on a cruise. That was a "try it you'll like it" 4-day cruise on Carnival with my ex. Loved the experience but the TA questioned us about what we liked and didn't like about the cruise. Based on our feedback we switched to Holland America. Ex and I cruised a couple of times on HAL but unfortunately the cruises notwithstanding we parted ways. A few years later I took my bride on her first cruise on the Ryndam and she was hooked. While Holland America might not be our first choice now or only line we'll cruise we still have fond memories and lasting friends from our cruises with the line.

[sapper1]

I had two transatlantic voyages on an ocean liner as a child and enjoyed them immensely. When the passenger industry died and the cruise business replaced it, I could not see the point of just sailing around for the heck of it.

 

Then, shortly after my husband and I got married, he showed me all the bank card points he had been collecting forever and didn't know what to do with. He told me to see if I could book a cruise for us with the points. I have no idea why I chose Holland America---maybe I just liked the name.

We were going to be in Florida for a month anyway so I booked us on the Maasdam for seven days for a total of $190. That was the price I paid as we didn't have quite enough points and I had to top up.

 

We had a very pleasant time but for some reason it would be five years before we sailed again---on Holland America. After that, there was no looking back and cruising has become our vacation style of choice now.

[Sow There]

Thanks, Kazu, for starting this thread. I skipped past it at first just because it seemed like a time killer. But then I just started reading the posts and was hooked with all the stories.

 

It was fun reading the various reasons, but I haven't seen mine yet.

 

In my case it was rather cut and dried. My wife has always wanted to go on a cruise but I always said no. Who wanted to sit around in deck chairs and over eat because there was nothing else to do anyway.

 

But she found a great deal on a 7 day HAL cruise and booked it. Told me later. I was OK with it but still skeptical. So we boarded, and I brought along a briefcase full of work stuff just because I figured I would be able to get through all that deferred stuff while we sailed.

 

I absolutely loved the whole experience and started looking for the next cruise. Needless to say my briefcase was never opened.

 

We've been on other cruise lines but always feel like we're coming home everytime we board a 'dam ship. My one regret is that we never sailed on the old Rotterdam which we've heard so much about. The only general complaint was that it had a windowless dining room.

[notjaded]

My parents and much-older sister occasionally cruised. I remember going aboard when I was little and having a bon voyage celebration before departure, when I had to leave the ship with older relatives. I recall hearing stories of nice cruises.

 

Fast forward to adulthood, and 20-something years of Mrs. Notjaded and I driving around America and Europe on our annual three-week jaunt. Mrs Notjaded eventually started to tire of the near-daily packing and unpacking, and the occasional barn that we needed to sleep in because we tended to not plan in advance our every night's stay.

 

Eventually, we decided that the perfect option was a cruise ship: No daily unpacking, but yet daily variety of places. We were worried about whether we would enjoy being in a confined place with little control, so we started with a six-day Norway cruise and had great weather and scenery, and a wonderful time. We then went on a 9-day, a 12-day, and then finally 14-day cruises.

 

We have not returned to driving about, and with advancing age, that might be a good idea....