What year and what ship was your first cruise?

[Expat Cruise]

1968 SS United States

[cruzky]

1994 SS Norway out of Miami on a 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise. Needless to say we were hooked.

[hancock]

Saw the SS. United States off on its maiden voyage.  First cruise Oceanic 1969 to Bahamas.  First cruise as a couple...Horizon 1999.

[jula55]

Our first cruise was in October 2001....this being right after 9/11 we were unsure if we should go or not.   Well we did and absolutely fell in love with the cruise experience.  We said on the Celebrity Century.  It was the beginning of many new wonderful adventures for us.   Our next cruise is September 2020.  So looking forward to it.   

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

Got hooked. I was in the NAVY and a cruise wans the furthest thing from my mind. My boss told me to take a day off and do a 3 day weekend cruise. One day he said GO! Id did not want to but we did. That was 1995 Royal Caribbean Nordic Empress Now called the Empress of the Seas. Like the cruise so much. Did two more on the same ship in 6 weeks. Since then cruised another 67 cruises with different lines and ships. 

[TNcruising02]

On 4/4/2019 at 10:55 AM, griffy116 said:

First cruise was approximately 31 years ago, give or take a year. It was on Carnival and this was prior to the internet. We knew absolutely nothing. It was a small ship with a very different atmosphere. Very pretty dining room but no windows at all. Very few activities on board, tiny, tiny cabins and the bathroom was hilarious looking at the bathrooms on the ships today. No minimum drinking ages or on gambling. We found our 13 year old sitting with an Apricot Sour playing a slot machine when we let our daughters go up early to wait on us to get ready for dinner (drinks were free then). She spent her winnings from her spare quarters on a stuffed teddy bear in a captain's jacket in the gift shop. Smoking during dinner in the dining room was not only allowed but the waiter always lit your cigarette and switched out the ashtray every time you snuffed your cigarette out. I wish I could remember the name of the ship. I still have the photos of us dressed for dinner. VERY different from the cruises today but my daughters and I still go cruising together. We cruised on Allure together this year.

That's hilarious! 

[dmrrn73]

SS Carnivale, Carnival Cruise Lines, 1989

2nd was on the Fantasy in 1990 when it was New and the biggest ship afloat, funny now the biggest one is more than double that

Edited April 21, 2019 by dmrrn73
fix date

[A2Mich]

1983 - Carnival’s Carnivale.  I was 12 years old and thought this was the best vacation ever! The inside cabin we had was microscopic, and the bathroom was tiny.  Don’t remember if there was a TV in the cabin, but I don’t think so.  I remember my mother having to go down the hall to a room for women to use hair dryers, curlers, etc., as the cabins didn’t have 120V North American style outlets, as only these rooms had them.  We went to Samana (Dominican Republic), St Thomas, and San Juan, and were docked right behind the brand spanking new Song Of America.  I remember a number of passengers were envious if those on the new Royal ship, while we were on the “tugboat.”  We still had a great time, though.  Food was very good, and I remember a few times where the Seas were so rough, they had to put the net across the tiny swimming pool, as all of the water sloshed out all over the deck.  They would also hang barf bags in the hallways for those who needed them.

[A2Mich]

19 hours ago, dmrrn73 said:

SS Carnivale, Carnival Cruise Lines, 1989

2nd was on the Fantasy in 1990 when it was New and the biggest ship afloat, funny now the biggest one is more than double that

 

Largest ships now are TRIPLE, based on gross registered tonnage.  Would be interesting seeing a ship the size of the old Carnivale next to an Oasis class. 

[dmrrn73]

4 hours ago, A2Mich said:

 

Largest ships now are TRIPLE, based on gross registered tonnage.  Would be interesting seeing a ship the size of the old Carnivale next to an Oasis class. 

It would probably look like one of the lifeboats, LOL 

[A2Mich]

7 minutes ago, dmrrn73 said:It would probably look like one of the lifeboats, LOL 

 

Youre probably about right.  I remember watching on TV when the Sovereign of the Seas sailed into NYC for the first time.  It was shown on, IIRC, Good Morning America, and she had the tug boat welcome with the water cannons, as she was then, the largest cruise ship. 

[Hlitner]

Triple?   Surely you jest.  My first cruise ship (Sunward II) was about 14,000 gross tons.  The Oasis is about 225,000 gross tons!  That is about a factor of 16!

 

Hank

[A2Mich]

4 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Triple?   Surely you jest.  My first cruise ship (Sunward II) was about 14,000 gross tons.  The Oasis is about 225,000 gross tons!  That is about a factor of 16!

 

Hank

 

I know.  The Carnivale was in the mid 20k ton range.  My “triple” comment was based on the poster who said they were on the Fantasy when new in ‘90.  At roughly 70,000 GRT, triple that would be around 210,000, so relatively close to Oasis class ships.  

[Hlitner]

1 minute ago, A2Mich said:

 

I know.  The Carnivale was in the mid 20k ton range.  My “triple” comment was based on the poster who said they were on the Fantasy when new in ‘90.  At roughly 70,000 GRT, triple that would be around 210,000, so relatively close to Oasis class ships.  

We have actually heard fellow cruisers talk about 90,000 ton ships as "small."   DW and I laugh when we hear that kind of comment.   Consider that all the passengers on some of those old ships would fit into a single Oasis life boat!  Come to think of it, all the passengers on some of the ultra-luxury ships cruising today....would easily fit into one of those life boats.

 

Hank

[A2Mich]

4 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

We have actually heard fellow cruisers talk about 90,000 ton ships as "small."   DW and I laugh when we hear that kind of comment.   Consider that all the passengers on some of those old ships would fit into a single Oasis life boat!  Come to think of it, all the passengers on some of the ultra-luxury ships cruising today....would easily fit into one of those life boats.

 

Hank

Yep.  Hear that quite often.  I think that the 70-80k ships are a fairly good size and are still easily manageable.  When we first saw the Song of America, she looked huge compared to the Carnivale.  The one and only time I ever saw the Norway (before the addition of the extra top deck), she was absolutely massive.  That said, the converted ocean liners just had the graceful curved lines to their design.  You could see that they were designed by hand on paper, and hand built.  They didn’t look like an entire exercise in geometry, where every piece of metal is cut into and then welded in a perfectly straight line.  While I think the design and decor of newer ships is still beautiful, I do miss the graceful curves and lines of the older ships....the ones where you could see the upward curve in the passageways, the curves in the hull, etc.  Just a different breed, and I’m sure are infinitely easier to construct larger vessels with the dry dock/mega block construction methods used today.

[sydbarrett]

Celebrity Century 2011. It was amazing!

[comet6270]

On 5/23/2018 at 10:35 AM, melted2002 said:

1984 NCL MS Southward

1975 NCL MS Southward

[port msp]

First cruise was 2007 Celebrity Millenium, Eastern Caribbean.  

[xMandy]

September 2010 on the Carnival Ecstasy

[Tomnsgirl]

1989- S.S. Galileo out of Philadelphia 

[jlb91454]

Royal Caribbean's "Sun Viking" - it was in the late 70's early 80's.  There were 750 pax

 

I can remember walking laps on deck and you got a Royal Dollar for every lap, and you could 'buy' Royal Caribbean merchandise (fanny pack, t-shirt, pens) with the Royal Dollars you collected.   By the end of the cruise it seemed like EVERYONE was wearing one of those yellow t-shirts

[donaldsc]

1871.  Lewis R French.  35 gross registered tons.  She held 22 passengers.  She had no engine.

 

https://schoonerfrench.com/nfhistory.htm.  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_R._French_(schooner)

 

If this is a contest (LOL!!), I think that I win on all counts - age, size, number of passengers,

 

DON

Edited May 15, 2019 by donaldsc

[Von & John]

Donald  --  Did you really travel on the Lewis R. French in 1871?...
If so you have aged well...

[donaldsc]

44 minutes ago, Von & John said:

Donald  --  Did you really travel on the Lewis R. French in 1871?...
If so you have aged well...

 

44 minutes ago, Von & John said:

Donald  --  Did you really travel on the Lewis R. French in 1871?...
If so you have aged well...

 

No but that was when she was built.

 

DON

[ontheweb]

52 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

 

 

No but that was when she was built.

 

DON

Obviously, the ship aged well.