The first time you boarded a ship.

[Jennizor]

We were married on my 50th birthday in 2000. We had just spent 3 years renovating our first house and with that and the cost of the wedding and honeymoon in Italy, we thought we would have to wait a while before another holiday. Ian got a backdated bonus of £7k from work in the early autumn so we decided to spend it on an exciting holiday. We finished up booking an Hawaiian island cruise in January 2001 on the Crown Princess (the older one). We had a brilliant two days in Honolulu before boarding the ship. As soon as we boarded we were hooked. We met a couple from Yorkshire and did lots of trips out with them. One of them finished up in a church where you could renew your wedding vows. We were persuaded to join in and everyone thought it was hilarious as we had only been married 7 months. We loved that holiday and from then on we cruised as often as we could. Since retiring we have been doing a couple a year. Only done one this year in Feb/Mar and got back just before lockdown. Our June cruise to the Baltic was cancelled  as was  our cruise on Iona for Feb 21. Hoping we might get to the Eastern med in June,

[lancashire_cruisers]

Our first cruise was in 2002 for our honeymoon as my husband won't fly. We (including our 2 year old) booked a Canaries cruise on Oriana and the first sight of the ship as were drove towards the docks just blew us away. The whole experience just hooked us in and our daughter practically grew up on P&O cruise ships as a result!

 

We've done a fair few cruises as a family including a 35 night Caribbean one on Oriana where we were unfortunately berthed next to Oasis of the Seas in Jamaica. We looked like one of the tenders next to her !

 

Whilst most of our cruises have been with P&O we've also cruised with Carnival (had to drive to Barcelona to pick the ship up - that was an adventure!) and our last cruise was on Independence of the Seas in a Grand Suite no less - what an experience that was.

 

Unfortunately we had to take a break from cruising as my husband was unwell. We were just considering dipping our toe back into the cruising world when COVID hit - typical!

 

If we never cruise again we've had some amazing experiences and made family memories which are worth every penny we've spent.

[kalos]

1 hour ago, lancashire_cruisers said:

If we never cruise again we've had some amazing experiences and made  memories which are worth every penny we've spent.

 

That's exactly how we feel  The one thing you never have to give up is your memories 

[Tacu]

I remember looking at cruises with the former Mr Tacu, 20+ years ago.  We worked out we could possibly afford an inside cabin in the bowels of the ship.. didn't appeal so we never booked.  Then we roll round to 2017 and my 50th birthday, which I wanted to mark in a memorable way, so booked a solo balcony cabin on Britannia and headed off to the Norway fjords for a week.. I can't describe how much I loved that cruise!

 

My parents wanted to see me off so they came down to So'ton and we went out for dinner the night before, then they drove me to the docks to pick up the ship, and I think we were all flabbergasted about how huge it was 🙂  I checked in early and spent about an hour just running around an empty ship taking photos and trying to get my bearings, before returning to my cabin and spending the next few hours sitting on the balcony just gazing at Southampton docks and feeling "special"

 

The cruise was everything I wanted: amazing scenery and interesting places to visit. I have some challenges with cruise ships because I prefer my own company and can't cope with crowds so dining was a massive challenge but I managed to cope and always managed to end up on a table alone (note to self: use room service in future).  For my actual 50th I dined in Epicurean although I felt massively out my depth there, have never been to such a posh restaurant before, but it was quite an experience

 

Since then I've managed another cruise on Oceana and then my plans this year for a Baltic cruise with NCL have obviously had to be cancelled.  I struggle with the idea of cruises because they offend my eco-sensibilities so I don't know if I'll ever take another one, but I've loved the two I've been on and nothing can beat that feeling of sitting by the water