I was 19 in 1977 and went for my first "Cruise" aboard the Mardi Gras with my Parents, and my sister and her husband. I was totally spoiled, my parents had an outside cabin, my sister and her husband had an inside cabin, and I had a cabin all to myself!!!
We were on a seven day cruise out of Miami, with stops in the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Granada, Martinique(?) and St. Thomas, with the last day at sea. It was a great trip, with what seemed at the time as excellent entertainment, good food, and plenty of it, and a truly friendly crew.
I remember the cruise had a plethora of single girls and very fews guys. I hooked up with a group of Canadian girls who were traveling together, and being one of the few single guys on board I had it made. I remember dancing in the disco into the wee hours of the morning, drinking with no age checks, the flavor of the cruise was Tequila Sunrises, long, cold and potent.
I lost my "virginity" five times on that cruise, and to this day still feal like a total cad because I can never remember the names of any of the girls I met.
The activities at the different ports of call were rather similar for most of the ports. Simple tours of the islands with the obligatory dumping off at the local market place/shopping zone. In those days I recall that Puerto Rico was a big spot for Jewelry, Granada for little Spice Baskets and of course St Thomas for Duty Free Shopping to excess. The best part of that trip was the Scuba Diving excursion we signed up for. "The Virgin Islands Diving Academy" which gave us 15 minutes instruction on the use of the tanks and regulators and then took us off to Coki (sic) Point to go diving. That was an experience I will never forget. I had never seen such clear water and schools of such colorful fish.
The Mardi Gras was not an elegant ship, she was not a big ship, she was not a modern ship, she was a ship that was warm friendly and the source of thousands of lifetime memories.
Mardi Gras...oh what a first cruise story!
in What Ever Happened To........???
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I was 19 in 1977 and went for my first "Cruise" aboard the Mardi Gras with my Parents, and my sister and her husband. I was totally spoiled, my parents had an outside cabin, my sister and her husband had an inside cabin, and I had a cabin all to myself!!!
We were on a seven day cruise out of Miami, with stops in the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Granada, Martinique(?) and St. Thomas, with the last day at sea. It was a great trip, with what seemed at the time as excellent entertainment, good food, and plenty of it, and a truly friendly crew.
I remember the cruise had a plethora of single girls and very fews guys. I hooked up with a group of Canadian girls who were traveling together, and being one of the few single guys on board I had it made. I remember dancing in the disco into the wee hours of the morning, drinking with no age checks, the flavor of the cruise was Tequila Sunrises, long, cold and potent.
I lost my "virginity" five times on that cruise, and to this day still feal like a total cad because I can never remember the names of any of the girls I met.
The activities at the different ports of call were rather similar for most of the ports. Simple tours of the islands with the obligatory dumping off at the local market place/shopping zone. In those days I recall that Puerto Rico was a big spot for Jewelry, Granada for little Spice Baskets and of course St Thomas for Duty Free Shopping to excess. The best part of that trip was the Scuba Diving excursion we signed up for. "The Virgin Islands Diving Academy" which gave us 15 minutes instruction on the use of the tanks and regulators and then took us off to Coki (sic) Point to go diving. That was an experience I will never forget. I had never seen such clear water and schools of such colorful fish.
The Mardi Gras was not an elegant ship, she was not a big ship, she was not a modern ship, she was a ship that was warm friendly and the source of thousands of lifetime memories.