Your first cruise ship

[emum]

1976 - 6 week cruise to SE Asia (Japan, Hong Kong, PNG, various other ports) on Sitmar's Fairstar. I was only 6yo at the time, but hooked from the get-go. Thankfully, my parents had a love for cruising, so we were fortunate to cruise often. I have since introduced my DH and children to cruising, and everyone loves them. That said, we've had a couple of less-than-stellar experiences, but now that we've found our niche, we're happy cruisers :)

 

[Pilot70D]

I was very, very fortunate in that I was a supernumerary many times and for several days each time aboard what back then was the two most luxurious cruise ships afloat, the Sagafjord and the Vistafjord.

 

I sailed on each vessel several times from Ft. Lauderdale or from San Francisco depending on what and when I needed to do aboard each vessel. This took place from 1977 to 1981.

 

Back then EVERY night was a formal night. Gentlemen were requested to wear tuxedos or a coat and tie every evening. The meals were sumptuous and the service was superb. The midnight buffet every evening was better than the main dining room is now on the mass market cruise lines.

 

In a strange twist of fate P&O ended up owning one these two ships and the records of who was aboard as well as for how long. P&O is part of Princess and we are both members of Princess' Captains Circle. We both have cruised exactly the same number of nights, same ship of course on Princess since we started modern cruising back in 1999. A couple of years ago I called the Captains Circle to check our status because we haven't sailed with Princess for several years. I was very surprised to learn that my level was the highest level they offered while the War Department's (a.k.a. Mrs. B.) level was much lower than mine. What happened was that Princess gave me credit for all of those days I was aboard those ships as a supernumerary.

 

OK, long enough trip down memory lane. Everyone out there have a great week

:):):)

[Monponsett]

My first "cruise" was aboard the USNS General Edwin D. Patrick, in July 1962. We boarded in Inchon, Korea, stopped in Yokohama, Japan; Keelung, Taiwan; and Honolulu, Hawaii before docking in Oakland, California. The three thousand or so passengers were mostly military personnel completing their overseas duty assignments.

 

The most interesting aspect of my association with the Patrick, was that I retraced the same itinerary and sailed back to Inchon six weeks later for a new assignment. This time, based on my boring first experience, I volunteered for galley duty and was placed in charge of the store room detail delivering supplies to the galley three times a day, with freedom to go to some areas off-limits to the troops in general.

 

Subsequent cruises to Alaska and the Eastern Mediterranean have been much more comfortable and luxurious albeit more expensive!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[beshears]

I was just going to mention that 25 years ago, my friend and I took our "1st" cruise and it was on Holland America, and enjoyed it so much.:) To say the least, I got HOOKED on cruising. Now 25 years later, my friend who cruised with me on my first cruise, is going to be cruising with me this April.

[Dajbman22]

My first cruise was a 4 night Bahamas cruise from Miami on board the RCI Majesty of the Seas in 2003. We hit Nassau, Coco Cay, and Key West. The cruise activities were a lot of fun as were the ports of call (although it seems Coco Cay has really been revamped since then). It was very short and definitely got my entire family hooked enough to go on a canada/new england cruise later that same summer. The one thing that was a bit of a disappointment was the ship itself. It was really showing its age back in 2003. Most common rooms were a bit dirty and there were a lot of broken pieces of furniture and dull paint everywhere. The decor was straight out of Miami Vice. The really kicker was the stateroom. My parents, my brother and I crammed into a tiny 3rd-deck oceanview. We were promised by our TA a room where the two lower berths could be made into a full size and a full picture window. We got a glorified closet with L-shaped sleeping arrangements (impossible to put the two lower beds, which were made into couches by day) and a tiny, salt-covered port hole. Then there was the bathroom... when you took a shower, the entire stateroom basically became one sauna, and the entire bathroom was the shower basically as the curtain did nothing to control the splashing water. That being said, I still have fond, positive memories of that cruise, and was the last time I really felt like I was on a boat in a stateroom (which looking back, isn't a bad thing if you are expecting it).

[beshears]

I just had something recently happen, that I wanted to share.

 

It has been 25 years ago, since my friend and I took our FIRST cruise. It was on Holland American, Neu Amsterdam. What a trip. We didn't know what to expect, but to say the least...........I got HOOKED.

 

This is what I want to share. I have cruised about 16 times since then, always with a friend. This April, my friend who I took my first cruise with 25 years ago, is going with me in April. YEH.:)

[Kentchikan]

I just had something recently happen, that I wanted to share.

 

It has been 25 years ago, since my friend and I took our FIRST cruise. It was on Holland American, Nieuw Amsterdam. What a trip. We didn't know what to expect, but to say the least...........I got HOOKED.

 

This is what I want to share. I have cruised about 16 times since then, always with a friend. This April, my friend who I took my first cruise with 25 years ago, is going with me in April. YEAH.:)

 

How wonderful. Have a superb time.

[cruzingnut]

Just found this thread! Our first cruise was on the Carnivale in Feb of 1984. We sailed out of S. Fl (don't remember if it was Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. We went to Samana, DR...Puerto Rico and St. Thomas. We had a tiny cabin down in the bowels that we found out a few days into the cruise, must have been right on the other side of the wall from where they store the big pots/pans they used in the galley. Late one night, passing over the Puerto Rico Trench, we had bad weather and the stuff falling and clanging on the other side of the wall woke us up. We had twin beds that must have been bolted to the floors as they couldn't be made up into a queen. We laid there laughing after we had to pile our suitcases up against the little 3 drawer nightstand between the beds to keep the drawers from banging in and out for the rest of the night. The ship would rock and we would hit our head on the one wall at the head of the bed and then our feet would touch the other wall at the foot, it was so rough!

 

It's a wonder I ever went back but we did, sailing on the S.S. Norway next; quite a change from the Carnivale!

 

Many cruises later and some 700+ days on HAL, we never looked back. We joke around with each other and say..."It's time to cruise again...I am feeling landsick". LOL!

 

Linda R.

[beshears]

Cruizingnut, I know exactly what you are talking about when you mentioned about the drawers, etc. going in and out.

 

One of our first (maybe it was the first - 25 years ago) was something else. First at dinner, the ship was rocking back and forth so much, every time we would try to put the fork in our mouth, the ship would rock the opposite direction. Then we went to bed, and the drawers from the chest kept rolling back and forth, as well as the bathroom door swinging back and forth. Oh what a experience. :) I have been on several cruises since, but nothing like that with the waves.

[3girlsmom]

I was just compiling my "cruising history" & can't come up with the name of the ship my family & I took from Helsinki to what was then Leningrad, USSR in 1975. Anyone know how/where I can find what ships sailed in that area in those days? My parents don't recall the name of the ship, but said it was certainly NOT luxurious!

 

Back, to topic...My 1st cruise was on the SS Lurline when I was 3 years old. My parents had met on the ship when they were 16 & 21, returned on her for their honeymoon, and then took my brother & I in 1965. I have vague memories of it, & I like to think it started my love of both Hawaii & cruising.

[susieatsea]

Our first cruise was in 1982 on NCL's Sunward II. 4 nights from Port of Miami to Nassau, Freeport and an out island (cannot remember which one). Did we get hooked...you bet we did. :)

Edited February 22, 2014 by susieatsea

[Kentchikan]

I was just compiling my "cruising history" & can't come up with the name of the ship my family & I took from Helsinki to what was then Leningrad, USSR in 1975. Anyone know how/where I can find what ships sailed in that area in those days? My parents don't recall the name of the ship, but said it was certainly NOT luxurious!

 

Back, to topic...My 1st cruise was on the SS Lurline when I was 3 years old. My parents had met on the ship when they were 16 & 21, returned on her for their honeymoon, and then took my brother & I in 1965. I have vague memories of it, & I like to think it started my love of both Hawaii & cruising.

 

I too was on the Lurline to Hawaii in 1969. It was an amazing cruise and ever so different from cruising today. We even had hotels in ports where we could change clothes (they rented suites) and could charge hotel things to our shipboard account. The hotel in Honolulu was the Halekulani.

[lilbeej]

What was your first cruise ship? What cruise line, the year and the itinerary? (if you remember;) ) Did it get you hooked?

Ours was Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's m/s Viking Serenade, a converted car ferry, back in NOV 1991, a 3-day L.A. - Catalina Island - Esenada, Mexico - L.A. cruise. Never forget our first impressions - we were hooked from that day on!

 

Viking Serenade (still sailing today as Island Escape)

oceanic hooked but only 2 cruises,life took over

[papcx]

oceanic hooked but only 2 cruises,life took over

 

 

:D You must fight back and take control. Life will kill you if you let it! :D

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[1travel]

1967 Chandris Line ship was Ellenis. NYC to Bermuda

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[lilbeej]

What was your first cruise ship? What cruise line, the year and the itinerary? (if you remember;) ) Did it get you hooked?

Ours was Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's m/s Viking Serenade, a converted car ferry, back in NOV 1991, a 3-day L.A. - Catalina Island - Esenada, Mexico - L.A. cruise. Never forget our first impressions - we were hooked from that day on!

 

Viking Serenade (still sailing today as Island Escape)

 

oceanic to nassau,hooked but life took over and cruising days ended

[lilbeej]

Testing us for senility, John? ;)

My first cruise was on the ss Statendam in June, 1978. It was NYC-Bermuda, and return.

And oh, yes, I got me very hooked.

Did I pass the test? :confused:

 

only the oceanic,life got in the way after that

[Pathfinder2]

SS Norway in 1987...St. Martin, St. Thomas and NCL's private island -- Great Stirrup Cay. We were hooked! Loved the ship...

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[Rina155]

SS Norway in 1987...St. Martin, St. Thomas and NCL's private island -- Great Stirrup Cay. We were hooked! Loved the ship...

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

That was my first cruise as well, however a few years earlier. Isn't it amazing how one thought what a large ship we were on and now look at the huge vessels out there!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free

[lilbeej]

What was your first cruise ship? What cruise line, the year and the itinerary? (if you remember;) ) Did it get you hooked?

Ours was Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's m/s Viking Serenade, a converted car ferry, back in NOV 1991, a 3-day L.A. - Catalina Island - Esenada, Mexico - L.A. cruise. Never forget our first impressions - we were hooked from that day on!

 

Viking Serenade (still sailing today as Island Escape)

oveanic,life got in the way after that,one more on her and that was it

[Pathfinder2]

That was my first cruise as well, however a few years earlier. Isn't it amazing how one thought what a large ship we were on and now look at the huge vessels out there!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free

 

 

Do you remember the lip between the stateroom and the bathroom??

Yes, at the time it seemed like the largest ship ever! She did have character.

[Kentchikan]

Do you remember the lip between the stateroom and the bathroom??

Yes, at the time it seemed like the largest ship ever! She did have character.

 

At the time it was the largest ship. Seems amazing by today's standards.

[Surfguyxxx]

Celebrity Horizion back in 2003. I got hooked and 25+ cruises later :)

[lilbeej]

What was your first cruise ship? What cruise line, the year and the itinerary? (if you remember;) ) Did it get you hooked?

Ours was Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's m/s Viking Serenade, a converted car ferry, back in NOV 1991, a 3-day L.A. - Catalina Island - Esenada, Mexico - L.A. cruise. Never forget our first impressions - we were hooked from that day on!

 

Viking Serenade (still sailing today as Island Escape)

 

2 on the oceanic,78 and 79 i believe,life got in the wa,no more cruiss

[SevenSeas70]

OMG, this discussion has aged me several decades. My first cruise was in 1966 on the Semiramis (Epirotiki Line). The ship was already 30 years old, but what did I know? My wife and I were on a driving vacation in Southern Europe and came to Athens without plans (or hotel reservations, if you can imagine how easy travel was back then). We stopped at the American Express office, where travelers picked up mail from home as well as exchanged travelers checks to local currency in the pre-Internet and -ATM era. I asked about a Greek Island cruise and, luckily for us, the Semiramis was leaving in a couple of days.

 

Cabins were very simple. We had a porthole and, I believe, bunk beds. Some meals were served on the open deck at long tables, picnic style. I don't remember specific meals, but we were never hungry. The ship had clearly seen better days, and rust was everywhere. Land tours were included in the fare ($80 pp, equivalent to $577 today for 5 nights).

Looking over my notes I'm astounded by the number of ports: Crete; Rhodes; Bodrum (Turkey), Kos, and Patmos in one day; Delos and Mykonos; Athens (Pireaus).

It was a marvelous cruise.