how Many People Started Cruising Before 1995

[CruiseMob]

Wow, some of these are so amazing! My first cruise was spring 1995 on "The Big Red Boat" Premier Oceanic. Didn't quite make the cutoff, but we did have the Beach Boys onboard and they gave a concert on the pier in the Bahamas.  😁

[ski ww]

It was New Years Eve 1979-80 on Carnival 

[ShipsAreTheBest]

First cruise was Rotterdam (V) to Nassau & Bermuda from NY as a 13  year old (1980).  
 

First one I paid for - RCCL Nordic Prince to Bermuda from NY 1990 (honeymoon).

[VegasRealtor]

June 1966 through November 1969, U.S.Navy DE. First pleasure cruise on Sitmar Fairsea, September 1978. Will be on number 68 this August on Rotterdam.

[regnig]

Guess I'm a new-bee as our 1st cruise was in 1991

[cruising sister]

1991 Admiral Cruise Line Azure Seas.  

[Genghis Khan]

1977 USS Constellation WESTPAC Cruise to Debauchery. 

[USN59-79]

If we can mention "Haze Grey and Underway", I spent some time on three ships before HAL.  In 1959 I boarded the USS Pine Island (AV-12), a seaplane tender in San Diego.  As a Seaman Recruit, I was assigned to the deck force.  One day they asked at quarters "Who can type?"  My hand went up and I left the ship in 1960 as a clerk.  Next ship was a Destroyer Tender, USS Frontier (AD-25) out of Long Beach, from 1966-1968.  By then I decided to stay in the Navy and got a lot of electronics training.  Left her as a first class electronics technician.  Got some more training and taught at a Navy electronics school and joined my last ship, USS Hector (AR-7) in Vietnam as a Warrant Officer serving as her Electronics Repair Officer.  She was also out of Long Beach.  Like most in the Seattle area, took my first cruise to Alaska in 1998 on the old Noordam.

Ray

[Copper10-8]

First cruise - 1979 USS Tripoli (LPH-10) as part of a Marine detachment on a Western Pacific hop. No balcony cabins on this tub. 😉 She's no longer with us, having been scrapped in Brownsville, TX in 1995  

 

[Essiesmom]

1972 Home Lines Homeric.  X2

1973 Home Lines Oceanic x2

Took a break and did t sail again until Royal Princess l 1999.  EM

[Cruzin Terri]

1986 Home Lines.  MV Atlantic — New York to Bermuda.

The sea was so rough I swore that was my first and last cruse.

Did not sail again until 2007.

Terri

[ski ww]

22 hours ago, ShipsAreTheBest said:

First cruise was Rotterdam (V) to Nassau & Bermuda from NY as a 13  year old (1980).  
 

First one I paid for - RCCL Nordic Prince to Bermuda from NY 1990 (honeymoon).

I'm sure I was also on that Rotterdam V cruise, which was my first cruise on a HAL ship. In Aug we'll be on her again for two over nights in Rotterdam

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Beautiful stories and I thank those who are sharing. My first was April 1971 in the Olympia of Greek Line.  Countless sailings and blessed memories followed and continue! 

[sambamama]

I can't remember what year it was, but I sailed on NCL Norway in the early 1980s for my first cruise. Wow! Fixed seating for every meal, huge midnight buffets, amazing entertainment, and a beautiful ship! So much has changed. One cruise I had a waiter who did magic tricks. I remember end of cruise dinners with sparklers in the baked alaskas, and on NCL, the waiters balancing them on their heads! 

[Vict0riann]

If a cruise is a sea voyage with multiple stops, I had my first cruise at the age of three, from Shanghai on a Japanese liner, the Teia Maru, via Hong Kong and Singapore to Mormagao (the port of Goa, which was neutral) where the prisoner exchange took place.  We then boarded a Swedish Red Cross ship, the Gripsholm, and stopped in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and Rio, before arriving in New York.  All this took 3 months, and after train rides cross country, my mother and I arrived in Victoria in time for Christmas, 1943.

[mudscraper]

1997.  The Windjammer ship Polynesia.  A one week carribean cruise.

 

[alwaysfrantic]

My first was 1989. I was 23 I think. On the Sky Princess right after it had been purchased from Sitmar.  The pens still had the previous company on them. 

Edited May 17 by alwaysfrantic

[Harboursiders]

On board the Canadian Pacific ship the Empress of Britain sailing from Montreal to Liverpool in 1961 as a teenager.   The Princess Royal was on board with us.  No outdoor swimming pool.  You had to venture into the bowels of the ship for a swim in the salt water pool.  It was never crowded.

Returned to cruising again in 2010 on a generally yearly basis.

[SoapyEmmy]

First cruise was 1989  with husband and two children on Royal Caribbean the Sun Viking. Beautiful  very small ship by todays standards. 

[lazey1]

First cfruise was Alaska, June 1989 with husband, my mother and my dad on the Noordam III

Jane. 

[Copper10-8]

On 5/16/2024 at 8:01 AM, Vict0riann said:

If a cruise is a sea voyage with multiple stops, I had my first cruise at the age of three, from Shanghai on a Japanese liner, the Teia Maru, via Hong Kong and Singapore to Mormagao (the port of Goa, which was neutral) where the prisoner exchange took place.  We then boarded a Swedish Red Cross ship, the Gripsholm, and stopped in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and Rio, before arriving in New York.  All this took 3 months, and after train rides cross country, my mother and I arrived in Victoria in time for Christmas, 1943.

 

 

Always a powerful story, Ann. This is Teia Maru and Gripsholm, chartered by the US Government from Sweden, at the neutral port of Mormugao, Goa State, in India in 1943. Was this perhaps taken during the same time you sailed on both ships? The markings on both vessels were so no submarines from the warring Allied and Axis countries would take a shot at them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mormugao, India in present day

Edited May 17 by Copper10-8

[USN59-79]

One thing I really love about this website is when people like John @Copper10-8 go the extra mile to do research like this.  The story of Ann and her family's adventure would make a great movie or TV series.

Ray

[wcook]

A real cruise back then? Sadly no. Growing up we didn’t have the money for a cruise. But I’d watch the Love Boat and get brochures from a travel agent and dream. I spent so much time looking at deck plans, picking my cabin, thinking of where we would sail and what we would see. Those pretend cruises were wonderful. 

[SeaCapt]

First cruise ship cruise was NCL Skyward in 1980. Our family of 8 people won the onboard Olympics, and I still have the medal to prove it!  It included athletic events like everyone standing really close together, with them measuring the circumference of the whole family pile- thinnest group wins. Also had to do a cocktail-on-a-waiters tray sprint without spilling. These were the days of midnight buffets with ice sculptures, flaming baked Alaska on parade, and wait staff and guests doing an endless conga line dancing to "hot, hot, hot" in the main dining room.

 

First HAL cruise was the Noordam in 1987, according to my HAL profile...

[PSDottie]

I think it was 1980 on the SS Norway.  So different than today -- I loved every minute!