maiden voyage: what's your experience?

[Lori in AZ]

on any ship that came out for the first time on maiden voyage, how was it? Good or bad to start a cruise like this?

 

We just booked Emerald Princess and just found out it will be us being the first couple ever to "break in" our cabin...everything is brand new!

 

But I worry about Captain not familar with ship to steer it right, ship having engine trouble or something like that, etc...

 

Am I worrying for nothing?

 

I have done 6 cruises so far and enjoyed them all.

[Chigirlcruzin]

I was on the Imagination's Inaugural Voyage in 1995. It was an awesome experience with everything brand new, the staff super excited to be on a new ship. The captain knew the route just fine, and my cruise wasn't the Imagination's itinerary. A bonus is that there was a lot more free alcohol on this cruise than others (Carnival provided us with a bottle of wine every night - some due to the IA, others due to the circumstance below- as well as an IA party).

 

I was scheduled to go on the Celebration Eastern Caribbean at the end of June in 1995. The week before (or a couple weeks before, I don't exactly remember), the Celebration had a fire. Carnival offered 2 options, one was a full refund and 50% off another cruise to be taken in the next year. Then they said they had a ship that was supposed to launch July 8 for her inaugural voyage (Western Caribbean) that they were sending out a week earlier with the July 1 Celebration passengers. Since the Imagination is a bigger ship, they were able to accomodate some of the June 24 Celebration passengers. My friends and I were starting college in fall 95, so rescheduling in the next year was going to be difficult, so we went on the Imagination. The CD kept joking that the July 8 passengers were going to be mighty ticked they weren't the first voyage! I wouldn't hesitate to go on another inaugural voyage.

[dforeigner]

on any ship that came out for the first time on maiden voyage, how was it? Good or bad to start a cruise like this?

 

We just booked Emerald Princess and just found out it will be us being the first couple ever to "break in" our cabin...everything is brand new!

 

But I worry about Captain not familar with ship to steer it right, ship having engine trouble or something like that, etc...

 

Am I worrying for nothing?

 

I have done 6 cruises so far and enjoyed them all.

 

Yes, specially about the Captain not familiar with how to steer the ship. All new ships go through sea trials before their official maiden voyage. Things can go wrong but probably not to the magnitude you are thinking.

[kitty9]

There's one really big negative about booking the first voyage on any ship, and that is if there are any delays in building, they cancel the first voyages. This has happened more and more lately with new builds, so you need to keep in touch to see if the delivery of the ship will be delayed at all.

[Lori in AZ]

I appreciate you posting in reply to my questions. Thanks!

[silentbob007]

I was on the maiden (paying-passenger) voyage of the Carnival Glory ... it was a great experience in that the ship was new and was staffed by an all-star entertainment team. The downsides were that the A/C had some troubles throughout the week and some issues at the ports with crew and locals having to handle debarkation for the first time (tendering mess).