Did anyone hate their first cruise, only to miss it and be "hooked" later?

[NauticalNeophyte]

Yes, this was me last year. I enjoyed my first cruise overall, but I was a little bored on sea days. There’s only so much lounging on lido one can do, and I don’t want to be sold goofy gadgets at those “talks”.  In hindsight, I didn’t take advantage of as much night life as I should have other than comedy.  I told my mom and sister I didn’t feel the need to cruise again. Give me my roller coasters.  

 

I am very excited for the upcoming cruise though. The whole family will be together, I can navigate the ship better, and think i know how to use my time more wisely.   I also enjoy port days more than sea days.  I know I will have a great time and want to give cruising another shot before I write it off completely.  

[ishap]

We loved cruising from the first one we took.  We had the benefit of great weather, even in October...no tropical storms!  After we had cruised a few times, we decided to take my parents on a cruise with us.  For that cruise we went on the Fantasy out of Charleston.  It was a smaller ship and we ended up having rough seas and couldn't make one of the stops because of weather.  It also had less to do because of it being a small ship.  My parents ended up being bored a lot so for them they didn't like the cruising experience.

 

So, lessons learned:  First, I prefer the bigger ships.  They take the seas better and usually have more things to do.  Second, you can't make others have a good time.  If they aren't open to having fun, you can't make them have fun.  I highly doubt I would get my parents on another cruise again, but we try and go at least once a year.

[Butterbean1000]

One of my sister's came into some money and wanted to take me and and another sister on a cruise. I didn't want to go.  How ungrateful was l? I tried to talk them into an all inclusive.  I lost that argument. We went in the cruise. I had a good time with my sisters, but I thought...meh.  Fast forward 2 years.  The hubs and l planning our 30th. I got an email from CARNIVAL with a special offer.  He didn't want to go, I wasn't very enthusiastic either but it was the only thing we could half way agree on.  So we plan everything with him kicking and screaming all the way.  Long story short, we weren't on the ship 4 hours and he was already planning our next cruise. We've  been cruising ever since.  We are booked for our 40th anniversary on the Breeze.

Edited February 6, 2019 by Butterbean1000

[h_blond2]

I got a stomach bug and experienced some pretty bad motion sickness on my first cruise and I got off the ship thinking that I would never go on another cruise. Well, that lasted all of a few days and we booked another one a few months later. Getting ready to go on #11 in May!

[hockeyguru32]

The only things I have hated about cruising is getting off the ship and booking a NCL cruise. All I think is dammit I could have been 7 days closer to Platinum if I booked Carnival instead of NCL. Hated planning/booking my dining and shows i wanted to see

Edited February 6, 2019 by hockeyguru32

[ilovethesparkles]

My husband (who was only my BF at the time) and I took our first cruise on the Triumph in 2014 and we really did not like it that much at all. I think we honestly expected too much and I had done no research on what cruises were like at all. I also was having a personal hard time dealing with my rapidly changing life and body and I wasn't that happy with much at the time. Then, after a lot of research, we decided to try it again on a newer ship with more things to do. That was in 2018 on the Vista and we absolutely loved it and can't wait for our next one! We are both totally different people than we were in our early 20s. We are more established and more comfortable and confident in who we are now. Our mindsets had everything to do with not enjoying our first cruise. 

[ABQrobin]

Great Thread!

 

We ONLY booked our first cruise, Magic in Oct 2014, because we wanted to go to Alaska and thought a Caribbean cruise would be cheapest and best way to see if we could tolerate being on a ship with 3000+ people for a week.  Our expectations were low...

 

Well, we really enjoyed the Magic, even though weather was rainy off and on whole cruise.  We got off the ship thinking we would book an Alaska cruise after all, no other cruises ever, just that Alaska cruise.... but within a month we had booked for a Feb Caribbean cruise again.  Both of us couldn't quit talking about the cruise and how it had shocked us.  We've been doing 2 a year since then, and we did finally squeeze in that Alaska cruise.  

[BrezQ]

YES!! We went on a short cruise to nowhere out of Tam'pa back in 1992, the ships were MUCH smaller and the cabins very tight!! I was seasick and didn't even try again until 2010 (Carnival Miracle) ! Now we are hooked, already have out next 2 booked, and planning our 30th Wedding Anniversary cruise through Panama for 2021 (we MIGHT try a different cruise line.... MIGHT) Hubs doesn't  like change  😉  We love the fun and casualness of Carnival! 

[cmukid87]

While not precisely what is described in the title.  After our 3rd cruise (I think), we had just debarked and discussed on the way to the airport that we should pause our cruising and try an all inclusive, land based vacation next.  Not a few weeks later we both said we missed it and were looking to book another as soon as finances and schedules would allow.  

 

Here we are 6 cruises in and one on the books without taking that land based all inclusive.  Sure we've done spring break in Florida with the kids but I don't consider that the BIG vacation that we save for.

[Davey Wavey]

Our first cruise on the Triumph in 2006 we pretty good except I was soooooooo seasick. I happened to be at the free cruise drawing at the end of the cruise and said if someone offered me a free cruise I would slap them with it. I eventually tried again cruising again 4 years later because the kids and wife liked it so much, and it was a free cruise offer from the casino. I brought a patch AND pills and it went so much better. By the 3rd cruise, I only took pills on a few nights after dinner. Now I carry pills just in case, but haven't used them for years.

[CoasterGuy]

On 2/3/2019 at 1:05 PM, PhillyFan33579 said:

Hard for me to understand why someone would do something again if they really hated it the first time

 

Well...... I can think of a certain activity that almost all humans enjoy..... that many women find painful (and people in general find disappointing) the very first time they do it.

 

Doesn't stop them from doing it the rest of their lives...... 

[newcruiser1956]

I did,  I really disliked carnival the first time,  Then I went on NCL... Decided Carnival was not that bad.  I prefer Viking but I sadly have a Carnival budget 😞

[KmomChicago]

10 hours ago, newcruiser1956 said:

I did,  I really disliked carnival the first time,  Then I went on NCL... Decided Carnival was not that bad.  I prefer Viking but I sadly have a Carnival budget 😞

 

Most of us do.  Perhaps a lot of people have simply learned to love Carnival based on necessity.  When the options are: 1. Cheap cruise on Carnival or 2. No cruise at all.  The choice becomes clear!  Even a cheap cruise adds up quickly.

[Geargoesdown]

Our first cruise wasn’t a smooth one.  Well, actually started out horrible. 

 

It was September 2011 on the Ecstasy out of New Orleans.  If I remember correctly this was the first sailing of her there and was just out of dry dock.  Well we show up at the port only to stand in line for about 2 hours just to get inside.  From there the computers went down and they were manually checking in people. From arriving at port to boarding the ship was about 6 hours. We actually almost left and said screw this!! Lol

 

We finally make it onboard only to find that the atrium bar is flooded!!  But, the crew were still serving drinks.  It didn’t seem very sanitary for me, but whatever. 

 

We make it to our room on the Riviera deck. It seemed nice and clean, however, it smelled absolutely awful!  So bad where it was making me sick. It was a rancid sewer smell coming from the drain in the bathroom floor.  We called and complained about it and they get maintenance down to look at it.  Well, there solution was to put one of those urinal gel pads over the drain!!!!  That just made the smell worse!  I felt like I was at a truck stop bathroom where people just piss on the floor and it hasn’t been cleaned in months!  The smell was so bad our room was practically unlivable!  After more and more complaining they finally moved us to another room on the 3rd freaking day!  After multiple requests to be moved. Our new room was fine and truck stop smell free!  

 

Even with all of that we still enjoyed the cruise!  However, the Riviera (or R deck) will and always be referred to as the rancid deck!!

[sweetp12]

I was the one that was desperate to cruise - when we finally did I felt horrid for the whole cruise.  We did a 3 night taster and I spent most of it in the room.  However cruising was the best choice for our situation so we were determined to make it work.  Fast forward 6 years and we have 7 cruises under our belt - but I still spend the first 3 days in the cabin. 

 

Turns out that I go hard out all year, then finally get a chance to disconnect on the ship and I end up napping for 18 hours for the first few days.  So we plan cruises that have lots of sea days - preferably up front.  I also give myself permission to nap - knowing that it is not a waste of vacation days, but the R&R I need to make it through the rest of the year.  

 

I do agree though - finding what you like in the terms of ship size, culture and activity level is important.  Also not feeling pressured to do things / go to activities if you don't want to.  That is the joy of cruising, you can do as little or as much as you want. 

[Chrystine5]

We “won” our first cruise, and it was an inside cabin. We had no clue what we were doing and had an “ok” time. But there was enough to get us to try again. This time I found CC and several other sites and did my research. To me it makes all the difference! We are hooked now and just booked our second Journeys cruise!

[vlynn]

We loved our first cruise. Second cruise was a "family" cruise to Canada....it was not fun! Too many conflicting personalities, the weather wasn't good (even though it was July) and too many first time cruisers! All me and my husband seemed to do was play guide and referee, there was too much "waiting" around for other people. 

 

If that had been our first cruise it very well may have been our last! We learned so many good things from that experience. We did another family cruise a few years later (after a few by ourselves) and the expectations were different, everyone had cruised before and we didn't wait for others, we met where we were going and didn't feel like we all had to do everything together! It was so much better. 🙂

[Jenny in TX]

We went on our first cruise in 2001 on the Carnival Celebration.  We knew nothing about cruising but some family members wanted to go so we all booked.  We booked a room on deck 1 and we had a porthole.  It was in December and it rained the entire cruise.  Our kids were 13 & 5 at the time so there were 4 of us in a room.  We didn't really know what to do and really did not enjoy the cruise at all.  We said we would never cruise again.

 

Fast Forward to 2010 and we had met a couple that lived around the corner from us and became very good friends.  They cruised all the time and were always trying to talk us in to going with them. We told them about our bad experience and my husband was adamant that he would never cruise again.  They finally talked us in to cruising with them and said they would show us the ropes and assured us we would have a great time.  We finally gave in and the rest is history.  We love to cruise and usually book a cruise within a week of getting off of one.  Our kids are grown so we usually cruise just the 2 of us now and we always book a balcony on the Lido deck which we love!  So glad we gave cruising another shot!!