When was your first cruise you took?

[cruisegal40]

1990 on the Song of Norway in September for our honeymoon cruise. Funny... you had to go outside to access the Viking Crown. No elevator from inside. Been hooked every since.

[PhillyTravelBug]

1999- celebrity Horizon

[attilamom1217]

2005 - Celebrity Constellation. Repositioning from Bayonne to San Juan.

[Haoie]

Dec 2010, Carnival Paradise

 

I wasn't alive for the old days of cruising, that's for sure.

[Maeshel]

2003 on Majesty of the Sea. The kids, hers, mine and ours, presented us with a cruise for our 25th anniversary. We flew down to the port and unbeknown to us the kids took a different flight. We all met up aboard. WHat a wonderful gift. Eight cruises later we still love cruising.

[pris993]

Song of America, RCCL, l983, I think, ship was new... 7 day Eastern Carribbean.

 

At the time, I never dreamed we would do well over 60 cruises on 9 different lines... it has been a good run and we keep going... booked on the Grand Princess for New Years and the Royal Princess on a TA in October 2017... have not figured out what we will book in 2018 yet.

[slidergirl]

Does a trip on The Great White Steamer, the SS Catalina, from Los Angeles to Catalina Island back in the late 60s count???

If not, then a Pacific Coastal from Vancouver to Los Angeles on the Island Princess back in 2008. My now-ex and I were never attracted to cruising. We did a lot of active vacations - skiing, golf, snorkeling and body surfing, day hiking, backpacking, camping, going to work as officials for our sport around Canada and Europe. Post-divorce and still recovering from a nasty injury on a hiking trip in Italy, I thought I'd give a cruise a try. I figured I could visit some friends in Vancouver and then just walk around as best I could in Victoria, Astoria and San Francisco and then visit friends on the other end in Los Angeles.

[goldenrod]

We were on the SS Bahama star in 71 it was an old tub built 1938, but we had a great time we were 24 and 21.

 

 

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[Athankfulheart]

2006 on the Pride of Aloha (now NCL Sky, I believe) around the Hawaiian islands. It was a family reunion thing on my husbands side. My only regret is not discovering it sooner ;) Heading out on our 9th sailing in January.

[vedettes1]

SS Lurline from San Francisco to Honolulu in 1952. I sang in the passenger talent show, much to my parents' surprise.

[Rustybuttons123]

June 1992 on Carnival Festivale - our honeymoon cruise. We sailed out of San Juan and went to St. Thomas; St. Maarten/St. Martin; Dominica; Barbados; Martinique; Sea Day; San Juan. Unfortunately not much in the way of pictures :( because those were the days of "film". But I think I've made up for it on two recent cruises out of San Juan...just need to get back to Dominica and Martinique.

 

Norwegian Air has cheap flights for as little as $99 each way out of BWI to Martinique and Guadeloupe. There's a ferry that runs from both to Dominica, you could do all 3, fly into Martinique, ferry to Dominica, then ferry to Guadeloupe and fly back from Guadeloupe or do it all in reverse. I've been to all 3 and all are great. The dollar is pretty strong against the euro so that makes Guadeloupe and Martinique even more attractive.

[TX Cruise Girl]

Mine was May 2010 on Carnival Ecstasy. I had been laid off from my job and decided to take a year off before I went back to work. The cruise was my last hoorah before getting back into the workforce. I've been addicted ever since.

[lady_cruiser]

Our first cruise was September 2005 out of Galveston. We were suppose to leave from New Orleans but Hurricane Katrina destroyed their port the month before so we left from Galveston. On what should of been our last sea day our Captain made a ship-wide announcement telling us that the Port of Galveston was closed for two days because of Hurricane Rita. We head to Costa Maya for the day which was not on our original itinerary and this turned out to be the best port we had visited that week. The weather was beautiful and the waters as calm as a plate of glass. The next day the Captain received word that the port would be open the following day so we headed home. This is when we fell in love with cruising and this year in February we took our 20th cruise.

[pghsteelerfan]

Norwegian Air has cheap flights for as little as $99 each way out of BWI to Martinique and Guadeloupe. There's a ferry that runs from both to Dominica, you could do all 3, fly into Martinique, ferry to Dominica, then ferry to Guadeloupe and fly back from Guadeloupe or do it all in reverse. I've been to all 3 and all are great. The dollar is pretty strong against the euro so that makes Guadeloupe and Martinique even more attractive.

 

Never considered Guadeloupe even though we really noticed it on our most recent cruise when passing it at night. You just put another idea in my head for a future vacation, and you can't beat that airfare. We're close to Dulles, but only an hour and a half from BWI. I know a few cruises stop at Martinique and Dominica, but usually not both for the same cruise. I'd also prefer more than a day as well to see as much as possible. And the dollar being strong against the euro combined with those airfare prices may make it a little easier to talk DH into that vs. a few other places we've been considering. Since it's been so long since we've been to Dominica and Martinique, in addition to Guadeloupe, it would be like hitting three new islands for us. Thank you, I really appreciate this! :)

[shred5]

I am not sure. When I was younger we used to spend a lot of time in Palm Beach Singer Island area. We used to do a lot of dinner cruises and one day cruises to the Bahamas. Most were out of Palm beach on Palm beach cruise lines but we did one out of Fort Lauderdale. This was probably 25 years ago or more. I do not remember which was first. I know Palm Beach cruise lines is now gone and they sunk the ship.

Edited October 6, 2016 by shred5

[Kevin]

January 21st, 1995 on Dolphin Cruise Lines, SS Ocean Breeze (SS Southern Cross).

 

It was a partial panama canal transit sailing round trip from Aruba. The cruise fare was around $1200 for the two of us and that included air fare from Atlanta to Miami, a pre cruise night in a Miami, a chartered flight to Aruba, the cruise, a return charter to Miami, and a plane back to Atlanta.

 

No TV in our cabin!!!!

 

They gave bridge tours while the ship was underway.

 

Dwarfed by the cargo ship in the lock next to us.

[Rustybuttons123]

Never considered Guadeloupe even though we really noticed it on our most recent cruise when passing it at night. You just put another idea in my head for a future vacation, and you can't beat that airfare. We're close to Dulles, but only an hour and a half from BWI. I know a few cruises stop at Martinique and Dominica, but usually not both for the same cruise. I'd also prefer more than a day as well to see as much as possible. And the dollar being strong against the euro combined with those airfare prices may make it a little easier to talk DH into that vs. a few other places we've been considering. Since it's been so long since we've been to Dominica and Martinique, in addition to Guadeloupe, it would be like hitting three new islands for us. Thank you, I really appreciate this! :)

 

You're most welcome. I saw you were in Virginia too, I'm about 10 minutes from Dulles so that's my preferred airport as well but for a nonstop flight I would definitely drive to BWI. I haven't taken the Norwegian Air flights yet but plan to, when we went it was before they started operating these flights. We did a patch work of flights, going down on United nonstop out of Dulles to St. Maarten, then took a ferry to St. Barts, and St. Barts is nice but its expensive although better now with exchange rate...stayed there about 3 nights then flew to Guadeloupe on Air Caraibes. Guadeloupe is a unique island, its actually two islands mooshed together...for lack of better words. Basse Terre is volcanic and mountainous and Grand Terre is low lying coral type with pretty beaches. So its kind of the best of both worlds. You can also take a ferry to Marie Galante and Iles des Saintes. From Guadeloupe we took the ferry to Dominica, that's operated by L'express des Iles, its a high speed catamaran. The ferry goes then from Dominica to Martinique and finally St. Lucia, and of course does all this in reverse. Air Caraibes also flies between Guadeloupe and Martinique, I think LIAT runs some flights in and out of Dominica but we flew back on American via San Juan.

 

You're right the islands can't be seen in one day from a cruise ship, they're too large. The best part of Martinique is the northern half and that's pretty far from the port. There's St. Pierre which is like a modern day Pompeii, was buried when Pelee erupted in early 20th century, you can walk around and see the ruins. There's also some pretty spectacular plantation ruins on the Caravelle Peninsula.

 

For getting around, Guadeloupe and Martinique since they're supported by mother France have good infrastructure and good roads, no need for 4wd, just an econ car works fine. But Dominica as you probably already know has some bad roads, passable, no problem driving and its on the left but you just need to rent a vehicle with high clearance. Grocery shopping on Guadeloupe and Martinique was delightful too, full service stores chock full of french goodies, fresh baguettes, cheeses, pates, and french wine for 3 euro/bottle...now that's a bargain. We had rental villas on Guadeloupe, Martinique and St. Barts but stayed in hotels on Dominica, two are very good are Secret Bay and Calibishie Lodges. Found excellent restaurants on all the islands. One notable on Martinique, its on the beach in a rather non-descript town but excellent food, the Beach Grill in Le Carbet.

[mollymom53]

Mine was the summer of 1967 on P & O's Canberra from Honolulu to Vancover. The second was the summer of 1979 on the Lofoten for the Norwegian coastal cruise.

[antmaril]

1982 on the NCL Starward. Didn't cruise again until 1991 on "The Big Red Boat".

[lenquixote66]

1973 Cunnard Ambassador ,7 day cruise to Bermuda from NY.

 

$695 for my wife and I for a cabin with a porthole.

[pghsteelerfan]

You're most welcome. I saw you were in Virginia too, I'm about 10 minutes from Dulles so that's my preferred airport as well but for a nonstop flight I would definitely drive to BWI. I haven't taken the Norwegian Air flights yet but plan to, when we went it was before they started operating these flights. We did a patch work of flights, going down on United nonstop out of Dulles to St. Maarten, then took a ferry to St. Barts, and St. Barts is nice but its expensive although better now with exchange rate...stayed there about 3 nights then flew to Guadeloupe on Air Caraibes. Guadeloupe is a unique island, its actually two islands mooshed together...for lack of better words. Basse Terre is volcanic and mountainous and Grand Terre is low lying coral type with pretty beaches. So its kind of the best of both worlds. You can also take a ferry to Marie Galante and Iles des Saintes. From Guadeloupe we took the ferry to Dominica, that's operated by L'express des Iles, its a high speed catamaran. The ferry goes then from Dominica to Martinique and finally St. Lucia, and of course does all this in reverse. Air Caraibes also flies between Guadeloupe and Martinique, I think LIAT runs some flights in and out of Dominica but we flew back on American via San Juan.

 

You're right the islands can't be seen in one day from a cruise ship, they're too large. The best part of Martinique is the northern half and that's pretty far from the port. There's St. Pierre which is like a modern day Pompeii, was buried when Pelee erupted in early 20th century, you can walk around and see the ruins. There's also some pretty spectacular plantation ruins on the Caravelle Peninsula.

 

For getting around, Guadeloupe and Martinique since they're supported by mother France have good infrastructure and good roads, no need for 4wd, just an econ car works fine. But Dominica as you probably already know has some bad roads, passable, no problem driving and its on the left but you just need to rent a vehicle with high clearance. Grocery shopping on Guadeloupe and Martinique was delightful too, full service stores chock full of french goodies, fresh baguettes, cheeses, pates, and french wine for 3 euro/bottle...now that's a bargain. We had rental villas on Guadeloupe, Martinique and St. Barts but stayed in hotels on Dominica, two are very good are Secret Bay and Calibishie Lodges. Found excellent restaurants on all the islands. One notable on Martinique, its on the beach in a rather non-descript town but excellent food, the Beach Grill in Le Carbet.

 

 

Small world...we're only 15 minutes (non-rush hour) from Dulles, to the south (were near Manassas). We're actually close to 28 and right under the flight patterns into and out of Dulles.

 

I love what you are saying about getting the ferry to St. Lucia as well, definitely a bonus. We love St. Lucia, have been there twice on cruises, but so much more to see. I really appreciate all of this valuable information. I've actually copied and pasted to a Word document to refer to for future reference. We have a milestone anniversary next year and we're kicking some ideas around and a trip like this is sounding very appealing to me. From the way you described Guadeloupe, I'd LOVE it. I remember Martinique and Dominica as being gorgeous, but we only got a short "preview". For some reason, I'm fascinated with volcanoes, and would love to see St. Pierre and Mt. Pele. We were actually able to see Montserrat on our cruise last year on the morning we sailed into St. Kitts. There was still some steam venting from their volcano and I took a lot of pictures. Not the best in quality but I'm happy to have those. I'm also now officially starved after your description of the foods. Dulles is our "go to" but for a trip like this, we would not mind flying out of Baltimore. The $$$ we'd save could be spent on the islands.

 

Thank you again, very much. :)

 

***Sorry to anyone for the "hijack"...this originated from our very first cruise in which we got a preview to some very beautiful islands that just aren't popular cruise stops. :D***

Edited October 8, 2016 by pghsteelerfan

[Corby114]

Royal Caribbean's Song Of America as a solo in May 1983 on seven day Eastern Caribbean sailing to Nassau, San Juan, and St Thomas. There were one hundred singles that week and only fifteen male passengers. I was never so popular. That week hooked me on cruising. Closing in on cruise thirty five in November 2016. Also have cruises to Caribbean and Baltic scheduled for January 2017 and June 2017. I truly believe that a cruise vacation is the best way to travel.

[Czecholady]

My first cruise was on Eastern Cruise Lines ship

"Emerald Seas" in 1974 a 4 day trip.

Were to go to Nassau and Freeport, Thank goodness Nassau was fun;

but we couldn't dock due to rough seas in Freeport. So we floated around and docked next morning in Miami per schedule,

Now I'm up to my 23rd cruise set for this November.

[cruzeluver]

1981 on Royal Caribbean's Song of Norway. I was only ten so don't remember a lot about it. It was 7 days out of Miami and I know St Thomas was one of the ports. Did two other cruises over the next few years (one on Royal and one on the old Sitmar line). Came back to cruising in 2004 on NCL's Norwegian Sea and and have not looked back.

[GrJ Berkshire]

1995 on the Caledonian star, touring the Baltic from Copenhagen back to Stockholm ,130 passengers. Very basic by the standards we now expect. Called an expedition cruise, but few mod cons and the cabin was small with a couch made into one of the beds. 2 small single beds, tiny wet room, food no choice , one sitting. No TV's in room, remember a loud tannoy, enjoyed the trip at the time, doubt I would now!!