How Well Do You Remember Your First Cruise?

[janetz]

So much is gone from the earlier years.

Like the chocolate buffet! :)

[WyKnott]

My first cruise was mid-80s on the Azure Seas. 4 days out of Long Beach, stopping in San Diego and Ensenada. We thought that ship was so huge, but would probably fit in just corner of an Oasis class ship nowadays!

 

A friend and I went, when we got to San Diego, since it was our hometown, we walked to Seaport Village, found a payphone and called friends to brag about our trip. For formal night, there was a reception line to meet the captain and other officers, with introductions by the cruise director staff. Low and behold we were invited to eat at the captains table that night. What I remember most about that night was how much the wine flowed. (ow, my head)

 

Needless to say, that sold me on cruising!

 

Not as much activities as now, but there were midnight buffets, bingo and wooden horse races.

Edited October 10, 2017 by WyKnott

[Lindy4508]

That My first cruise was on the Celebrity Century. The ship was new then and my late husband was in a wheelchair. We went with friends and there were 19 of us traveling together. We had a handicap cabin and it was so impressive. Our travel agent arranged for a limo to pick us up at home and a nurse met us at the.car and.escorted us onboard. She checked us in quickly and within minutes, our cabin steward.introduced himself.and showed us the advantages.of a handicap cabin. The bathroom as large enough to take the wheelchair inside. There was thick, plush carpet everywhere and it made it difficult to push the wheelchair. A crew member always stepped forward and pushed the chair for me. In the buffet, I would get my husband settled at a table and thenI would get plates for us. A waiter would see that I was handling two plates and always helped me. In the dining room,the waiter saw that I cut up my husband’s meat, and he started cutting it up. Several times, the Maitre D’ cut. It. The waiter pushed the wheelchair to the elevator after dinner each night.

 

I was so impressed with Celebrity, I wrote them a letter and one to our travel agent. For obvious reasons, Celebrity has always been my favorite cruise line.

 

 

 

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[Tatka]

I forgot to mention that cruising was not all that new to me as my grandfather all my childhood and before was going on cruises. We lived in USSR back than and with longer vacations he was able to do month long Mediterranean cruises out of Odessa starting from 1969 when I wasn't even born.

 

I was so envious and promised to myself do cruise when I will be able to.

[bob brown]

I was a rather late starter to cruising...as a child, our family vacations were limited to mostly motor trips to the beach or mountains. My first rides on boats, were the ferries to Staten Island and first excursions were on the Circle Line and Hudson River Day Line. Some time in the early fifties, we all went down to the pier, to see off relatives going back to visit "the old country"....can't recall which steamship line it was...but we did get to see their cabin before the call for "all ashore, that's going ashore", to my regret...

In the mid fifties, my third grade teacher took us to tour the Grace Lines' Santa Maria. Every time we drove down the old elevated West Side Highway, my nose was pressed to the window watching the 'show' at "Luxury Liner Row".

 

Fast forward to 1991....After enjoying seeing countless episodes of "The Love Boat" on television for many years, I was enticed to take my first cruise. Naturally, I chose Princess, and the original 'Love Boat', the Pacific Princess. I did a combination cruise tour that started on land, and concluded with a seven night Whittier to Vancouver cruise. We had a cabin with two lower beds, arranged in an 'L', and one upper berth. It had a porthole, and a four channel sound system.

F422 on Fiesta Deck... funny how I can remember that detail...

 

At the time, Princess used the Love Boat theme to open every night's show, as well as their media advertising....their great tag line: "It's way more than a cruise, it's the Love Boat"!

That cruise tour cost us a big chunk of our budget at the time, so my next cruise wasn't until ten years later...2001 on HAL's Ryndam from Fort Lauderdale to San Diego. And then I started cruising every year, then twice or thrice a year.

Now, I've done 31. And counting.!

 

My advice for new cruiser's, is that if you're reading this, you have already taken a step towards enjoying cruising more....Cruise Critic's has been a wonderful place for me to go since I joined many years ago.

The pool of knowledge contained within the various boards by friendly people, who love to share 'secrets', is simply. priceless...

 

Also, join your roll calls, and attend the on board CC Meet and Greet (or Mingle) parties. It is a pleasure to see the faces of the names you correspond with, and plan cruise activities with...

 

Thanks for starting this thread!:)

[CeeCee59]

First cruise was in 2009 on the Coral Princess. A three day cruise Vancouver to LA just to see if we liked it. We did!

 

We were very impressed with the staff from Steward to Dining Room. They were so attentive and really wanted to make sure we had a good time. I also was impressed with the variety of things you could do and often tell people who have never cruised that you can be as busy or as slovenly as you want to be but do try one or two ship activities.

 

I was also impressed with the organization from embarkation to debarkation. I never felt that I didn't know how to manage and if I did have questions, the Steward was always helpful.

 

We eventually went on a 5 day, then a 7 day, then a 10 day cruise and are now booked on a 15 day cruise to Hawaii (LA rt) in 2019. I wouldn't say no to another one before then though. I did try NCL on a sisters cruise but it wasn't to my liking so am now a loyal Princess customer - they seem to suit my needs very well.

[lenquixote66]

Hi, was thinking about first cruises -- mine was Celebrity Zenith NYC to Bermuda the 2nd week of September and of course we ran into a hurricane (or rather away). What do you remember about yours?

 

Would love to know what was your first cruise (ship, line, where did you go).

 

What was the biggest learning moment on the cruise?

 

Best discovery about cruise travel?

 

What one piece of advice would you want to give folks who haven't cruised yet, but want to (you can give more than one :) ).

 

We're thinking of this post as a helpful aid to new-to-cruise travelers so definitely focusing on that very first one (may be hard for a lot of us with so many in between first and next!). Thanks for your input.

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Chief Content Strategist

Cruise Critic

 

My first cruise was on the Cunard Ambassador ,7 nights from Manhattan to Bermuda.

There were no Inside ,Outside r Balcony cabins ,only Porthole.No shore excursions.

The only activities on the ship were shuffleboard,skeet shooting and use of a pool .

Mandatory dress for lunch and dinner on sea days .On port days only for dinner .

Movies were shown every evening and live shops every night with top name entertainment.

The cost for the cruise including all taxes for my wife and I $699.00.

 

Lenny

[OCruisers]

First cruise was way back in 1961 when I was "Sweet 16" -- Senior class cruise on SS Bahama Star!

Yes, I still and always will remember it. :D

[nybumpkin]

Our first cruise was a 5-day cruise from NYC to Saint John and Haifax on Carnival Victory in 2004, with our sons then 13, 8 and 4. We were looking for something different in the way of vacation. One day I was in the medical imaging center, waiting for an x-ray on the youngest son, and TV Land was on in the waiting room. The Love Boat came on and I thought to myself, "what about a cruise?" The next day I saw an ad in the NY Times for four and five-day cruises and thought, "It's less than a week. We can drive to the port. If we don't like it, we haven't spent a lot of money or time on it." So I broached the idea with DH. Now, he loves the water and ships. In fact, he actually had an earlier cruise - 1967 on the South American from Cleveland to Detroit, one of her last voyages. To my surprise, he seemed very uncertain about the Canada cruise - I think he had visions of nothing but a casino and an endless bufffet, as well as the old saying "newly wed and nearly dead." However, he was willing to indulge me, as long as I did the work. I booked all five of us in a guarantee balcony cabin.

 

DH was still unsure about the whole cruise idea even as we were driving to the pier. As we crossed the George Washington I looked south - and there was our ship. Well, the boys and I were excited, at least. Then we boarded the ship. DH took one look at the lobby and just said, "wow." Long story short, he fell in love with it. So did the boys. My favorite memory was running into oldest son at a teen pool party at the aft pool one night - ice cream in one hand, pzza in the other, saying "This is great!" Today that son is a 26 year-old Navy lieutenant. He stopped cruising with us in 2009 but has far passed us in days at sea and literally has sailed around the world. I like to think we had something to do with his wanderlust.

 

After we returned from the cruise DH was anxious to book another. He also wanted to take his dad with us. He booked the next cruise (Carnival Conquest 7-day out of NOLA) with no input from me. FIL was excited about the cruise - as he explained, his only time in Grand Cayman was spent in the airport. Sadly, it was not to be - a month after we booked the cruise, FIL was diagnosed with inoperable stomach cancer and passed away shortly after. Which leads me to the first of my recommendations - don't wait. The worst that's going to happen is you won't like cruising and want to do a different vacation. I wish we had started cruising earlier.

 

Second recommendation: Research the ships. Look at the different cruise lines and what they have to offer. We started with Carnival because of the itinerary, and we've stayed with them because it suits us. I have friends who are partial to Princess, and still others who book theme cruises on lots of different lines. (And yes, there's another who's always astounded that we cruise with Carnival - even though he's never set foot on a Carnival ship.)

 

Third recommendation: Research the ports. If I did our first cruise again I would have learned a bit more about our ports. We just got off and walked around. Nothing wrong with it and it worked out just fine, but I really had no idea how shore excursions worked. (For the record, I didn't join Cruise Critic until a month after we returned from our first cruise.)

 

Fourth recommendation: Know that you don't have to do everything on the ship. Take a look at the daily schedule and find a few things that interest you. And if you want to sit back and read a book, that's just fine. DH and I have a sea day routine of playing gin rummy on the Promenade deck after breakfast.

 

What I think we enjoy most about cruising is the ability to go from place to place and take your hotel room with you. The down side to this is that you don't spend a lot of time in any one place. Last year we did a Mediterranean cruise and know that we only scratched the surface of the places we visited. Which just means you need another cruise that visits those places....:)

[bhageerah]

My first cruise was much sooner than some that have already posted, my first was in April 2013 on Oasis of the Seas with RCCL, the ports were Labadee Haiti, Falmouth Jamaica, and Cozumel Mexico. The trip was wonderful and had quickly turned me into a cruise junkie. For YEARS I had heard friends talk about cruising but always thought that there was no way I would be interested, and wondered why everyone loved them so much. Now I wish I would have taken the time to learn about it before I did!!!

 

Biggest learning point was learning about the boards and learning just how "green" I really was to the experience! I now consider myself somewhat savvy to the whole cruise experience and find myself on some sort of forum, or website at least once daily and it tends to go up the closer that I get to a cruise, I know its an illness and I can't help myself!

 

The best discovery that I have would just simply be how relaxing and wonderful it is! Both the wife and I work high stress jobs and are raising twins, so life for us is rather hectic. I have been on quite a few vacations around the world but for us absolutely NOTHING compares the the attention and pampering that we receive on a cruise (provided you do you're homework). It takes us about 2-3 days before we de-stress and start to get into the rhythm and actually enjoy ourselves.

 

The best advice that I could give anyone is to arrive at least one day prior to the cruise, plan ahead and do your homework on all of the various forums and ask any and all questions that you may have there. The last piece of advice is do yourself a favor and carry a small first aid kit as well as some OTC medications with you on the ship. Not going to say what to carry but having it in your luggage is much cheaper and convenient than a trip to the hospital on the ship. Some friends found out the hard way how expensive it was, and furthermore that it was not covered by their insurance. It was NOT pretty at all!!! A $15 first aid kit would have taken care of their problem but instead they paid hundreds more than that!!

[jackier23]

My first cruise was on the Carnival Madri Gras, 5 nites to Freeport and Bahamas. Very interesting, first nite never saw the MDR. Was seasick for Bout 3 hrs, but was better later and went to midnight buffet. Loved everything they had. My second cruise was on an NCL out of San Pedro for 5 nights also. Went to Catalina Island, San Diego and Ensenada. Got down to MDR and opened the menu...closed it and went back to my cabin seasick again.

 

 

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[jackier23]

Been on 9 princess Ships including the Love Boat. Going on number 10 in 10 days TA. Seasickness is a thing of the past. Friends always asked why cruise if you get sick. It's because I love being on a ship and exploring new place. There is a lot to do on the ships and your never bored. All,in all have done about 24 cruises since 1985. Some cruise lines will never see me again as others will. Always take that second cruise. You might have a change of opinion for the better.

 

 

 

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[sparks1093]

Our first was a cruise to nowhere (wish they could still do those) on the Norwegian Dream. I had a co-worker who had taken a cruise and really sold me on the idea of how affordable it was, so I mentioned it to DW as something I wouldn't mind trying. I had always thought she wasn't interested in cruising because of her fear of water and she thought I wouldn't be interested because of my career in the Navy. Turns out we were both interested. So to try things out we booked a two-nighter that was within driving distance. For some reason there was a huge wait to get onboard the ship to start things off. Sailing in the Gulf of Maine in the spring time isn't for the faint of heart and it was fairly rough most of the time. There had been a large turnover of personnel or something and service left a lot to be desired (especially bar service). Many seasoned NCL cruisers kept telling us that NCL is not normally this bad. Our thought was if this is NCL at its worst we can't wait for the best because none of the issues bothered us at all. We loved being on the ship even with all of the problems. Now we plan to cruise yearly alternating cruises with visiting family in Germany.

[Pyrate13]

Our first was on the Premier Cruise Lines Starship Majestic in 1992 or 93, can't recall which.. We went to the outer Abacos Islands of the Bahamas. It was only a four day trip but we had a blast and we were hooked.

[shipgeeks]

In 1969 I sailed from New York to Sydney on a cargo ship. No ports after Panama, 42 days sailing, exceedingly rough seas for a number of days.

DH served in the Navy for seven years; sailed 96,000 miles during the last two. Very rough seas many times.

We both loved those seas, but pictured cruises as nothing but booze and bingo.

In 1991 we decided to give it a try. We sailed on Starship Majestic. Approaching the ship at the pier, I was bowled over by how huge it was. 600 passengers! Seas were rough, it rained a lot, it was chilly, and one port was cancelled. We loved it. We are now about to sail on cruise number 38.

[SRF]

Well, I will never forget my first cruise. But unfortunately not due to happy memories. So if you don't want to read about unhappy things, don't read the rest of this post.

 

Fall of 2014, NE/Canada cruise on RCI Grandeur. The cruise was great, the staff wonderful.

 

We were in Halifax, the last port of call, having a drink in the lounge (had managed to get a Royal Family Suite for less money than we had paid for a JR Suite and a balcony for my wife and I, and my parents).

 

My Mother was talking, and all of a sudden, her head flopped back, and she slid out of her chair. The staff was great in taking care of her, getting her down to medical. As we were in port, they arranged an ambulance to get her to a nearby hospital. My Dad went with her, and I went to the cabin to pack some stuff for both of us, then followed to the hospital.

 

She had a right hemisphere aneurysm pop, and never regained consciousness. We did get her med evaced (thank God for trip insurance) back to the US before she passed.

 

Yeap, I will not forget my first cruise.

[John Bull]

1960 (do I win a prize for the earliest cruiser here?)

.

 

Dammit, you beat me by a year. :loudcry:

 

1961, MS Dunera, a British troopship converted to a schools' cruise ship, a Baltic cruise out of Southampton.

Dormitories rather than cabins for us kids.

The cells, on the bottom deck, had been converted to a self-service laundry (yikes, kids in a self-service laundry :eek: ).

The padded cell had been retained - for amusement rather than for disruptive kids.

 

Most vivid memories.....

 

In the Gulf of Finland en-route to Leningrad (now St Petersburg) we passed within a few miles of the Russian naval base of Kronstadt on Kotlin Island.

This was before the levee was built across the Gulf, cruise ships now pass through the levee right next to Kronstadt. The naval base is now virtually a ship scrapyard but very interesting. And it has an interesting history, particularly during the Russian Revolution - well worth reading-up if you have an up-coming cruise to St Petersburg.

But I digress .............

We were told in no uncertain terms that we were NOT to take photos of Kronstadt.

Tell 600 kids NOT to take photos?

Consequently every porthole was jammed with kids & their cameras :D

I still have my photo of Kronstadt - it's little more than a smudge on the horizon.

 

In Leningrad, virtually no cars, and every truck was in military drab. They weren't military, they were doing the jobs that trucks & vans do around the world, but they were state-owned. It was difficult to differentiate shops from houses & offices - no big display windows or advertising, not even bright & bold shop names over the doors. And a seriously limited range of goods for sale. The "souvenir" shop offered no more than a dozen lines. I bought a postcard of Yuri Gagarin - he was all the rage, having just become the first man in space.

As others will testify, St Petersburg is a very very different place these days. Yes, clearly vestiges of the communist era, and older inhabitants still quite dour as we've seen in a number of former eastern bloc countries. But now very much more westernised, the main shopping street, Nevsky Prospekt, is very little different to city main streets in the western world, complete with busy sidewalks and traffic snarl-ups.

 

On the way back to Southampton we exited the Baltic via the Kiel Canal.

We were escorted to the canal entrance by two destroyers, a smart new West German one and an antiquated (ex-WW2?) East German one.

 

The last night was the crew show.

By then everyone knew that the self-service laundry was a mess (see, I told you it would be ;)).

After the first act, the compere told us that the lower deck was now out-of-bounds due to the dirty sheets and clothes littering the laundry.

In between acts, the compere made increasingly alarming announcements about the dirty washing starting to take over the ship. :eek:

The deck above the laundry was then declared out of bounds.

Then the next deck.

Security staff to man the stairways to repel the dirty washing.

An emergency radio call seeking help from the Navy.

Then a loudspeaker announcement from the captain on the bridge - the dirty washing had taken over the whole ship with the exception of the bridge & the theatre, but the Navy was on its way if we can hold out.

In the middle of that announcement, a series of bangs & crashes & shouts - clearly the dirty washing had gained access to the bridge.

The captain's announcement finished mid-sentence with an agonised cry.

The theatre light went out, the doors burst open, and in rushed crew members covered in ghostly sheets.

Some crew shows are very good. But I've never seen another to match that one. Brilliant.

 

JB :)

[SLSD]

Our first cruise was 12 years ago on Silver Sea's Silver Shadow. We left from Athens Greece with our final port being Istanbul. The whole thing was an eye opener for me and we had a wonderful time. I still remember feeling very guilty about being on a luxury cruise during Hurricane Katrina when so many were suffering.

[CanobieFan]

Haha, well, for me, it wasn't even four years ago. My first cruise was on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas. Back in January of 2014. Port Canaveral to Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Mexico and back. I had been very much against cruising prior to it. Thinking I would feel trapped on the ship or bored and just spending my days waiting for something to happen. But I saw it as a convenient way to visit a lot of new places with minimal effort so I gave it a chance after a friend of mine went solo on a cruise and returned having like that. We booked the Freedom cruise together and since then have done four cruises together with another booked for next February. All of them on different ships with different itineraries.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Our first cruises were back in the 80's.

We did back-to-back cruises on the Cunard Countess -- 14 days. Round trip out of San Juan. She was an 18,000 to ship with no stabilizers.

[tip]

We have been fortunate to have sailed on twenty-seven cruises on six different lines. Although I have kept a log with dates, ships, and ports, unfortunately after a while things tend to blur somewhat.

 

I do vividly remember our first cruise in the spring of 1997.

 

1) It was on the old Norwegian Majesty before it had been cut in half and lengthened.

 

2) Our daughters were still in high school and we recognized that our vacations together as a family would be soon ending.

 

3) The ship had no balconies whatsoever and we had an inside stateroom. We changed clothes in shifts because it was so small that you had to step out into the hall to change your mind.

 

4) It was a seven day cruise from Boston to Bermuda. We had four days at sea and three days overnight in St. George.

 

5) The seas on the way down were very rough with twelve to fourteen feet waves. Bottles and china were crashing everywhere in the MDR. They would only put out cutlery as you needed it. Our oldest was a high school senior and she was excited to wear the formal gown from her junior prom a second time. Unfortunately she rushed back to the cabin after the soup course as she was as sick as a dog. The return trip home was smooth sailing.

 

6) There was only one MDR and it was of course traditional dining. The buffet was only open for breakfast and lunch. Our daughters loved Rodrigo, our assistant waiter who was a gentle giant.

 

7) In those days there were chocolates and towel animals every night. One night we ordered room service ice cream before bed and the girls loved it!

 

8) We were early to bed, but the girls were old enough to stay out at night as long as they were together. They came back all giddy one night having won $20 or so on the slots.

 

9) Before dinner each night we played board games together as a family in the game room.

 

10) Tipping was accomplished with the envelope system on the last night. Envelopes were provided to you with the titles of those to receive tips stamped on them. We made sure that our cabin steward, waiter, and assistant waiter were taken care of and I even walked around the dining room looking for the maître d even though we had not seen him on any of the other nights to give him his envelope. I never made that mistake again!

 

11) I have a vivid recollection of sailing into Boston upon return at dawn and waiting for hours to get called to disembark. As I remember I felt obligated to tip the limo driver an extra $20 or more above what I had planned because we had him waiting so long.

 

Okay, I didn't really intend to re-write War and Peace!

[GSOTall1]

My first cruise was back in 2004 when I was only 14 years old. RCI Sovreign of the Seas 4 day to Nassau and back with 2 sea days. I barely remember anything about it other than the boat seemed HUGE at the time and I got my first ever formal outfit. Also...sorry everyone, I was that kid that ran up and down the stairs as fast as I could with my friends. Please forgive. I have learned the error of my ways.

 

My most memorable cruise from that time period was in 2006 on Vision of the seas. That was a 10 day cruise to locations I do not remember but I do remember the friends that I made, the Fuel teen disco (did not have the living room lounge at the time), the late night crepe station, and getting kicked out of the solarium for being underaged (I turned 17 a few weeks prior to cruise. The other teens I met ranged from 16-19yo so we thought the 18+ would divert the attention from the younger ones. This was my first time doing Karaoke and my mic didnt work. Worst part of Vision OTS was that even if you had a balcony room, you had to walk almost the length of the ship to get to the elevator it seemed. What ever happened to the billiard tables with self leveling table tops? This was the last cruise I had been on that had this

[rmf11699]

I'd like to change my answer as I didn't read the OP very well.

 

First cruise: 6/2012 - Carnival Triumph: Galveston to Cozumel and Progreso.

 

What was the biggest learning moment on the cruise?

We did the behind the scenes tour. My wife loves heavy machinery and loved seeing how the ship works.

 

Best discovery about cruise travel?

Choices.

1. Don't want to eat in the MDR? No problem as the buffet is available.

2. Don't want to visit a port? No problem, stay on the ship and enjoy having it to yourself.

3. Can be an inexpensive vacation. We're just a few hours away from Galveston so we can drive and save the airfare.

 

What one piece of advice would you want to give folks who haven't cruised yet, but want to.

1. If flying to a port, arrive a day early. I used to work for an airline and people would book a flight the day of embarkation. Too many things can go wrong and ruin the flight.

2. Get insurance! I had to use it on my first cruise. We were booked for early 2011 when my father passed away and we had to cancel that trip and rebook for 2012.

3. Book a short cruise in case you don't like it and definately don't post your dislike on CC because you'll never hear the end of it!

4. Keep an eye on that bar tab. It will grow in a hurry by the time the week is over!

[julie3fan]

My first cruise was on the Carnival Ecstasy out of L.A. in Dec. 2003. It was a 4 night Catalina/Ensenada cruise. A good "starter" cruise.

 

My biggest learning moment was probably that you could book people into particular cabins, but when it was time to actually sleep, that it didn't much matter how it was booked. My sister and her DH booked themselves and their 2 young kids into 2 different cabins, and me and my dad into a 3rd cabin. When we unpacked, my dad had his own cabin, my sister and her DH had their own cabin, and I got to share with the 2 kids. I also learned early the joys of overeating on a cruise! The kids and I woke up to room service hot chocolate and danish each morning, then got ready to meet everybody else for breakfast. They thought having a pre-breakfast was fun, as did I!

 

My best discovery was pretty simple. I LOVED cruising, and never felt my vacation needed to be anything other than what I wanted it to be. This cruise was all about family. I've had other cruises since then that were all about relaxation, others that were all about the ports and excursions, and others that were all about spending time with family and friends. The one thing they have in common is that they were all cruises. And they were all great.

 

My advice for those that haven't yet cruised is to research if that's in your nature, or to just wing it if that's your style. There is no one way that a cruise needs to be approached. I personally am a planner (OK, over-planner :o) and I couldn't imagine embarking on an adventure like a cruise without knowing every last thing there was to know about the ship, port stops, things to do, etc. But as (thank goodness!) not everyone is like me, I also see nothing wrong with doing no advance planning other than how to arrive at the debarkation port on time.

 

This is a fun thread, Carolyn. Thanks for starting it!

[Ms.C]

Hi,

 

My first cruise was with Carnival on the Celebration. I was 18 years old. WOW!!! That was a trip that I will never forget. I had so much fun and i'm still friends to this day with some of the people I met; and that trip was over 20 years ago. The disco was the hot spot, and the crew became friends. We partied at Carlos and Charles in Cozumel, danced on tables and chairs. We were also so caught up, we lost track of time. The DJ called out over the microphone the name of 5 ships and said, "you've got 30 minutes before they pull out". The entire place cleared out. We were jumping in cabs with people we didn't even know, getting back to the port. It was hilarious!!

 

I don't think I got to bed before 3 am during the entire cruise. I was beat when I got back, but made some great memories. I've been cruising almost every year since; but I don't stay up as late anymore. I'm a bit older and far from 18 years old now. LOL!!