How Old Were You When You Started Cruising?

[hannibal54]

I was 45, next month I have a B2B booked, once done I will have 45 cruises completed.

[ZoeyVictoria]

I didn’t cruise until I was 51, but I have been trying to make up for lost time!

[hapster85]

It was 1991, we were both 24, for was our honeymoon. Carnival, rather than Royal Caribbean. We absolutely loved it. No idea why we waited 21 years to try it again, but we've done 6 cruises since 2012, 5 with Royal. We're definitely happy we rediscovered cruising. Cruise number 8 is in the works.

[zazzja]

I will be 50 when I go on my first one next year [emoji6]

 

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[Mellowjourney]

First cruise 49. Significant other kept bugging me to go on one with him and I FINALLY relented even though I KNEW I was going to hate being stuck on a big floating city.(Yeah, I was wrong)

 

Second cruise 50, and we took 14 of our family members along for their first cruise (ages 5 to 66).

 

Now have cruises booked for Feb 2019 and Feb 2020. Kids can't wait to cruise again either.

[Tatka]

I had my first Black sea cruises at 14 in 1986 and 2 Volga river cruises at 18 and 19 (honeymoon) in 1990 and 1991 while still living in USSR.

 

After moving to US in 1996 we started cruising in 2003 (Celebrity Century) at 31. Our son was 11.

 

Our first RCCL cruise was in 2004 on Splendor of the Seas in West Mediterranean.

 

By the end of this year we will have 43 cruises and 310 days at sea and 32 days of river cruising.

 

Wanted to cruise since I don't remember which age as my grandparents cruised since 1969 in Mediterranean.

Edited July 29, 2018 by Tatka

[beachys]

First cruise 30. Loved it, waited 12 years to do it again. Four since then with two more booked! We waited that long because our first cruise there were little to no kids or activities. Now the are a lot for the kids to do!

[Beachammo]

I was almost 52 when I took my first cruise....One year after retirement.

 

I'm close to 58 now and have 21 cruises behind us. 7 nights the shortest and 23 nights the longest.

 

A good mix of land vacations keeps the cruising experience fresh.

 

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[lovelife]

In our 30s - 71 cruises ago. 😀 And I love seeing young couples getting in on the fun!

[mattpro]

First cruise was in 1976 on the Doric, a Home Line ship, out of the East River in NYC between Xmas and NY's sailing to Nassau . The cost of this 7 day trip was $3,000, which at the time you could buy a new car for the same money.

 

The size of the ship was about 1/3 the size of the RCL's Empress, with no stabilizers. Which means when you went past Cape Hatteras you were like a cork in a bath tub while someone is roiling the water.

 

Needless to say I said I would never pay for another cruise.

 

However, 20 years later NCL offered gamblers free 7 day Caribbean cruises. So, I did quite a few of these but had no idea what they cost.

 

After I retired in 2011 I was persuaded to go on a cruise again. Did the Oasis in May 2012 and tried the Celebrity in Dec. 2012.

 

In 2013 I went on the Oasis again and did 3 cruises on the Independence.

 

Now I was hooked.

 

On the Indy is where I met Super Mario, though at the time I had no idea who he was. Just another smoker on the pool deck at 7 a.m. and someone to talk to. He had a wealth of info on cruising which he was kind enough to share with me while we're puffing away.

 

Bottom line - from 2014 thru April 2018 I went on additional 71 cruises for a total of 75 cruises.

 

From Oct. 2018 thru April 2020 I have another 42 cruises booked - and paid for.

 

Cruising is addictive !!!

[island lady]

21, thus paid for all of my cruises myself. No early parental help. ;)

[Cinders411]

51. So much lost time that I could have spent cruising! :p

[ace1zoe2]

It was 1995. We were 31 & 36 with 3 young children onboard Premier cruise line’s Big Red Boat for a 3 night cruise & 4 nights at Walt Disney World at a cost of $5k for the 7 night trip in a porthole Cabin way back then.

 

It was 10 years before we could afford to cruise again which was aboard Rhapsody. Fast forward 13 years and we’re up to 18 cruises (19th in October) and will be taking number 20 next summer with our 3 grown kids & spouses & our 6 grands (all of their first cruises) and we can’t wait.

 

 

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[cruisinfromtampa]

29 on my first cruise in 2014. We decided during sailaway that we were going to get married, and 90 days later we did. We never really thought about cruising after that. Then one day we were at the Florida Aquarium and heard the horn of a ship. I mentioned that I'd love to go on another one, so we went home and booked it. I was 31 on cruise number 2 in 2015, and we've been cruising ever since. 11 cruises and counting.

[Blue Skies]

First started in 1953! Cruise cost for my parents sister and myself was £120 total for 14 days with P&O on SS Chusan then a yearly holiday on SS Iberia , SS Canberra etc out of Southampton/Tilbury. My father was meticulous in keeping records of holidays and I have continued his tradition.

I have cruised yearly with my own family of 4 and now back to just DH and myself sometimes twice per year. We have lots of happy memories with hopefully more to come.

[Tracy Po]

I was 32 on my first cruise. My husband and I had gotten married three months earlier but hadn't had a honeymoon, because his job was transferred from Halifax to Ottawa just before the wedding, so we were busy selling our house, finding a new house, and finding an apartment to stay in for the couple of months before the new house would be available. And we packed what we would need for those couple of months and what we could fit into the car, and our dog, and drove four provinces away, leaving both of our families back on the east coast. Oh, and I was pregnant.

 

After two months of living in a sublet apartment, in a new (much larger) city, with just a fraction of our belongings, my husband learning his new, higher-profile job, and my having searched for, gotten, performed and lost a new job, the stress finally took over and I broke out in shingles. On the way home from the emergency dr's visit (YAY CODEINE!!!) my husband declared that I was officially on maternity leave (at five months) and that he was going to plan us the honeymoon we hadn't taken immediately after getting married.

 

Neither of us had ever taken a cruise, and we knew NOTHING about them.

 

He booked a week on the Carnival Glory. In the middle of summer.

 

I was five months pregnant on a party cruise, during summer, in the caribbean. And thus, we learned the importance of researching cruise lines, ships and itineraries!

 

We are now getting ready for our fifth cruise -- our second on RCI -- and we have had more fun on each progressive trip. We have been continually learning from previous mistakes, and doing our homework (through Cruise Critic (and other blogs)) so we don't spend six out of seven days blinking in confusion among a throng of wasted college students, and trying to explain to the liquor sample guy WHY I didn't want a shot over my obviously pregnant belly.

[cruiser123!]

I was 45 when I did my first RCCL cruise. Two years prior was my first NCL and about 15 years before that I was on a Carnival (husband won it as sales contest). Now that we are in a better point financially, we try to do one cruise a year....more if airfare cooperates ;-). The kids started when they were 12, 11 on that first NCL one

 

My opinion of young people is they appear to be the same as what I see at home. You have a mix of the obnoxious sports parents that yell at the coaches, the overly spoiled/ underly monitor kids/teens that feel files don’t apply to them and they can do as they please.... and then the other 98% of the population that enjoy themselves and are courteous to those around them

Edited July 29, 2018 by cruiser123!

[dsvd79]

I went on my first cruise in 1994 on the Big Red Boat when I was a teenager. I started cruising on my own with the husband in 2006, which would put me at 27. After our next cruise in September, we will be Diamond Plus!

[budmeister]

34 and 39

[CanobieFan]

I was 27 on my first Cruise.

[nhraformula00]

23 in 1981. 20 some crises later and the ships bigger better and now quality is lesser and lesser. But we still enjoy.

[Kathie859]

My first cruise was over 40 years ago when I was in my 20’s—it was a Carnival Cruise. I’ve just returned from a family Alaskan cruise on NCL and will cruise in early November on a 16 day Oceania. Yes, I love cruising😀

[MaritimeR&R]

First experience on a cruise ship was 1951. I hadn't reached my first birthday yet.

[jdg623]

I was 21 on my first cruise. Did only 7 more over the next 30 years, but cruising regularly since 2006. Now at 30+ with 7 more booked. Making up for lost time!

 

 

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[kcamp317]

Our first was in 2006 for our honeymoon. I was 29, wife 25 at the time. I still remember seeing Adventure of the Seas for the first time in San Juan from a distance and realizing how unimaginably huge it looked in real life.....but yea, that started the addiction. About one a year since then as time and money allows, we enjoy it a lot! Now we have our daughter as well....she is 6 and has been on 3 cruises with us over the past several years and another booked for March 2019. She enjoys them as well.