Tiniest Detail - Your Cruise?

[DeepWaterMariner]

Cruising is a significant part of our family story over 3 generations and it all started at our diner table at home. My father loved to talk about going on a cruise over diner but wouldn't spend a night away from home. I was in my early 20's and back from a hitch in the Air Force, just starting life with a civilian job. My mother use to take bus trips to NYC for lunch and a matinee of a Broadway show. I talked my father into going with me for a day in NYC. We took the bus to Port Authority and took in the sites. That included the Circle Line tour around Manhattan and when we were finishing the tour we sailed by Cunard's Franconia, docked at a midtown pier. We were able to board the Franconia for a fifty cent donation. It was the highlight of the trip for both of us. A few weekends later we did it again with my Mother and this time we toured the Oceanic. A year later, in 1968, I booked a cruise on the Greek Line's Olympia to the Bahamas r/t from NYC. You could fill volumes with how little I knew about cruising. I didn't realize the food was included until the first meal. It was coat and tie every night which wasn't a problem in those days. I had a good time but I wasn't blown away. The next year I had vacation to use up and a couple of paychecks uncashed due to being on the road with an expense account, so I booked at the last minute for a cruise on North German Lloyd's Bremen to San Juan and St Thomas. This cruise was magic from start to finish. I met a girl from the big city before we had even cleared the harbor and my life was changed forever. My table in the dining room (same table, breakfast, lunch and diner) was for 8, all of us single, with 3 of the women from the shipping lines office in NYC. There co-workers had sent them so much Bon Voyage champagne that we had the bubbly every day for lunch and diner. What a great time. My big city girl and I were married 11 months later and there has been a whole bunch of cruising since then.

 

BTW, I finally got my father to take my mother on a cruise (the Bremen). He scared the daylights out of me by calling ship to shore just to say that the cruise was the best thing he ever did. They did 3 more before he passed away.

 

We took our kids on their first cruise in 1983 on Sitmar's Fairwind and our first two grandkids on their first cruise in 2006 on the Rhapsody of the Seas. We're taking our most recent grandkids on their first cruise this Christmas.

[RetiredMustang]

Sail,

 

I have related this story a few times over the years I have been a CC member, but will repeat it, possibly to speak to fellow retirees of the U.S. or other Navies who may be wondering.

 

I am a retired officer of the U.S. Navy, as some of you may have gathered. When I was still on active duty, with about 23 years of active service at the time, we received an offer of a Florida vacation from our credit card company for a very cheap price, as reward for using the card a lot over the last year. The package included air, hotels in the Miami area, and a 3-day cruise on our choice of lines. We chose Norwegian, because we had at least heard of that line. Princess was, in our minds, equal to Kathy Lee Gifford ads, which caused us to gag, and we had not heard of other lines offered, such as Holland America Line ("What? 'Holland' and 'America' together just does not compute.")

 

It was a time-share sales scam, as we had figured out, but for two hours of ignoring/resisting the sales pitch, we got the deal. It was a good way to test whether we liked crusing. I was skeptical, but DW pointed out that I would not have to drive the ship, stand the watch, take on stores, or other Navy-type PITAs, ... and the roommate would be much prettier and friendlier. And, she had a whim to try cruising. So, of course, we went.

 

We had a fabulous time, in a tiny cabin, interior, in a cross aisle (HAL does not have that low a category :D). So, a few months later, we went to a travel agent on base and asked about a 7-day cruise that would take us to Mayan ruins. The jewel of a TA spent the first 15 minutes or so asking us about what we liked or disliked about the Norwegian cruise. She then recommended Noordam III out of Tampa. That cruise so exceeded our expectations that we were forever hooked on HAL. We have sailed Costa and Cunard, but always prefer HAL if it is going where we want to go.

 

Dave

[sail7seas]

Thanks for telling the story, Dave. One can never tire of it.....

 

Noordam III was our first HAL cruise also. :)

And hooked us the same as you.

 

[kakalina]

Thanks Sail, and everyone else, these stories are so interesting.

 

My DH had longed to see Hawaii as long as he can remember. The problem was that he doesn't fly ( he's a plane crash survivor ). Upon retirement we decided that the only way to see Hawaii was to take a cruise.

 

Certain he would "hate" it he decided to grit his teeth and shoulder the distasteful chore of having to be on a cruise ship to get there.

 

We crossed the threshold of the m/s Statendam and gawked around us like hillbillies in NYC. We had never heard of CC. Had no idea what to expect. We booked it two weeks before sailing.

 

We more or less jumped into the shipboard life as if we had done it forever. We tried everything. All the lectures, all the shows etc. On the second day we entered the CN late in the afternoon when the waiter came up to us with our names, a smile and our usual drink order on his lips my DH leaned back and said " Oh yeah, I can used to this very easily."

 

We booked our next cruise while on board and haven't stopped cruising since. We've seen places we've only dreamed about and some we never even though of. And we've made amazing friends we would never have met otherwise.

[Taxguy77]

Our first cruise my DW won on a TV call-in. Our DD living 450 miles away, saw it on TV as she was watching the same show!

It was a 4-day cruise on NCL and was great. We didn't cruise again until the kids were in college, but have been on about 10.

Best and worst were on NCL, we quit them after the worst, even though they did a great job taking care of pax as we were at sea on 9/11, and had to change the destination away from NYC.

Cuts in food $$/meal and utter chaos in the MDR were our reason for trying other lines, as well as different itineraries.

I only found CC a little before our HAL cruise, and the threads about 'formal nights' and 'dress codes' made it seem like we would find a lot of snobs, but the people we saw were the same as we found on other lines.

[Copper10-8]

Our first cruise was a three-dayer out of Los Angeles (San Pedro) on Royal Caribbean's old ms Viking Serenade on 01 NOV 91. This was known as a "booze cruise" with a Friday evening departure @ 7:45 pm, Saturday spent at Avalon on the Los Angeles County island of Santa Catalina (22 miles off the coast of L.A.) between 0900 and 5:00 pm, Sunday at that Mexican metropolis of Ensenada in Baja California from 0900 until 4:00 pm, and an 0800 Monday morning return back in San Pedro. We were a group of thirteen (4 couples and 5 single ladies), nine of us were city employees.

Viking Serenade was born in 1982 as the car/cruise ferry ms Scandinavia for Scandinavian World Cruises/DFDS Sea Ways, plying her way with cruisers and their cars from New York City to Freeport, the Bahamas, and back and, when this venture turned out to be less than lucrative, on an overnight run from Oslo to Copenhagen. She was then sold and became the Stardancer for Sundance Cruises and later Admiral Cruises doing Alaska in the summer and the Mexican Riviera in the winter time. We're talking 1985 here. When Royal Caribbean took over Admiral Cruises her name was changed again into Viking Serenade making her maiden voyage for RCCL on January 27, 1990.

Viking Serenade was not a beauty by anyone's standards with her flat stern where her car deck ramp had once been (she had been rebuilt as a "cruise ship" in June 1991), rebuilt funnel with Viking Crown Lounge and overall stumpy appearance. However, when we boarded her later that same year in November, we could not believe we were still on a ship. She had a casino called the Casino Royale, a fitness/Shipshape center/Gym, a Beauty Salon, a buffet restaurant called the Windjammer, two formal dining rooms by the names of Magic Flute and Aida, two show lounges called Hello Dolly and Bali Hai, and bars by the name of Schooner, RCCL's famous Viking Crown Lounge and the aforementioned Hello Dolly and Bali Hai. The captain was a Swede by the name of Thomas Wildung. There was an Italian dinner on Friday, a French (formal) dinner on Saturday and something called America the Beautiful dinner on Sunday.

We had stateroom #9517, pretty much all the way forward on Star Deck, an inside cabin, but what did we know; Viking Serenade did not have any balconies as far as I know. That 3-day cruise cost us $150, regular rate!

On Catalina Island, a tender port, on Sunday, we took a glass bottom boat tour and rented a golf cart to go exploring for two hours (there were, and still are, no cars allowed on Catalina). In Ensenada on Sunday, we visited "world famous" Hussong's Cantina and went beach horseback riding. Those Mexican horses knew exactly where to make a u-turn and the pace back was at a much higher trot. I remember my stern/beuhtocks still hurting several days later:eek:

That ship and that first cruise got us hooked on cruising, so much so that less than 3 months later, we booked the exact same cruise on the excact same ugly duckling for Valentine's. Our first HAL cruise was in November 1993 out of Tampa, Fl. on the old Nieuw Amsterdam, one of the two N-class sisters, the other being Noordam. It was a seven-dayer to the Western Carib. Having been born in Holland and having spent the first eighteen years of my life there, it made a special impact on me. HAL, back then, still had the "Dutch girl", a photo staff member dressed in traditional Volendam Dutch costume with flowers in hand, as the Welcome Aboard pic., Dutch being spoken onboard, it all clicked:)

They also still had the Dutch traditional dinner then on Dutch Night with such items as Garnalen Cocktail (shrimp & cognac), Ham met Asperges, Hollandse Haring, Barneveld's Pasteitje (shell with chicken & mushrooms), Vermicelli Soep met Balletjes (consommé with vermicelli & meatballs), Erwten Soep (green pea & hamhocks), Gekoelde Drie Bessen Soep (chilled 3 berry & watermelon), Westlandse Sla (mixed greens with Dutch vinaigrette), Witlof Sla (greens, star endive, lemon-sour cream dressing, dill, chives), Gebakken Zeetong (pan-fried Dover Sole & fingerling potatoes, sugar peas, baby carrots), Hutspot met Klapstuk (beef brisket, mashed potatoes & carrots), Corn & Broccoli Strudel with onions and tomato concassé, Bami Goreng (Indonesian noodle with chicken sate & peanut sauce), Eendeborst (duck breast with cous cous, broccoli & sugared carrots), Lende Biefstuk met Champignons (broiled top sirloin steak, sautéed mushrooms, vegetable medley), Dutch Apple Tart (ala mode), Java Crème Brulée, Amsterdam Chocolate Tulip (filled with mousse), The Nederland Sundae and NS Vanilla Bosché. Everything was Red, White & Blue (the colors of the Dutch flag) and the DR steward and his assistant were dressed in Dutch costume. Eventhough, we have sailed on RCCL/RCI, Princess, Carnival and Cunard, we found our niche with HAL

Good job on this thread, S7S, it's a fun one!:)

 

[Radbooks]

They also still had the Dutch traditional dinner then on Dutch Night with such items as Garnalen Cocktail (shrimp & cognac), Ham met Asperges, Hollandse Haring, Barneveld's Pasteitje (shell with chicken & mushrooms), Vermicelli Soep met Balletjes (consommé with vermicelli & meatballs), Erwten Soep (green pea & hamhocks), Gekoelde Drie Bessen Soep (chilled 3 berry & watermelon), Westlandse Sla (mixed greens with Dutch vinaigrette), Witlof Sla (greens, star endive, lemon-sour cream dressing, dill, chives), Gebakken Zeetong (pan-fried Dover Sole & fingerling potatoes, sugar peas, baby carrots), Hutspot met Klapstuk (beef brisket, mashed potatoes & carrots), Corn & Broccoli Strudel with onions and tomato concassé, Bami Goreng (Indonesian noodle with chicken sate & peanut sauce), Eendeborst (duck breast with cous cous, broccoli & sugared carrots), Lende Biefstuk met Champignons (broiled top sirloin steak, sautéed mushrooms, vegetable medley), Dutch Apple Tart (ala mode), Java Crème Brulée, Amsterdam Chocolate Tulip (filled with mousse), The Nederland Sundae and NS Vanilla Bosché. Everything was Red, White & Blue (the colors of the Dutch flag) and the DR steward and his assistant were dressed in Dutch costume. Eventhough, we have sailed on RCCL/RCI, Princess, Carnival and Cunard, we found our niche with HAL

 

Good job on this thread, S7S, it's a fun one!:)

 

I miss those traditional Dutch dinners! It must have been too expensive or people didn't like the food or something like that. But I always enjoyed it!

[Copper10-8]

I miss those traditional Dutch dinners! It must have been too expensive or people didn't like the food or something like that. But I always enjoyed it!

 

Agree 100%. It's too bad they no longer do it that way!

[sail7seas]

We miss Dutch night...... a lot. We always looked forward to it.

 

DH loved the cubes of Edam and Gouda cheese passed in Ocean Bar by the lady in Dutch Costume during cocktail hour. :)

 

I loved the dover sole. :)

 

[serendipity1499]

Our first cruise was on the original Pacific Princess (The Love Boat) in 1986. My friend (Rosie) and myself had booked this cruise 9 months in advance. It was the very first that a cruise ship left from Seattle roundtrip for Alaska. It was during the Canadian World's Fair and two days we were docked at the Canadian Pavilion (now called Canada Place I believe). Our only Alaska stop was Ketchikan and we also cruised Misty Fjord. The cruise was a week long.

 

My husband (Hal) and his friend (Pat) booked the cruise 3 days before sailing. They got a killer deal on an ocean view cabin and jumped on the opportunity.

 

We lived locally ... they lived in CA.

 

We all met each other for the very first time, the first morning at breakfast. We kept running into them no matter where we were on the ship. The cruise was one week long ... Hal and I spent every spare minute together and spent a lot of time with new cruise buddies too. What a fantastic cruise.

 

We both were in our 30s and never married before. After the cruise we started talking daily on the phone (years before unlimited long distance) and writing letters. Hal proposed over the phone 3 weeks after the cruise. He knew on the cruise, he wanted to marry me ... I told him he was nuts ... LOL. We got married 3 months after that and I moved to CA. That was 25+ years ago, and I love him more than the day I married him. We are truly soul mates. YES, love can be found on the Love Boat ... we are proof.

 

We never try of sharing our story. It always makes me smile to tell it. Thanks for listening. I'm enjoying reading everyone's posts too.

 

No real research done before our first cruise. My grandmother years before had taken a freighter around the world with 3 of her friends. They had a tiny stateroom with 2 sets of bunkbeds and a shared bathroom down the hall. The ladies were all in their 70s and the younger ones got the top bunks. This was their very first cruise and they were gone for 90 days. We always joked that Grandma got cruising in our blood because of this cruise.

 

Now I research up a storm before we cruise. It helps pass the time while we wait. Research or not, we always have a great time.

 

What a lovely story!

 

Our first cruise was a three-dayer out of Los Angeles (San Pedro) on Royal Caribbean's old ms Viking Serenade on 01 NOV 91. This was known as a "booze cruise" with a Friday evening departure @ 7:45 pm, Saturday spent at Avalon on the Los Angeles County island of Santa Catalina (22 miles off the coast of L.A.) between 0900 and 5:00 pm, Sunday at that Mexican metropolis of Ensenada in Baja California from 0900 until 4:00 pm, and an 0800 Monday morning return back in San Pedro.

<SNIP>

 

They also still had the Dutch traditional dinner then on Dutch Night with such items as Garnalen Cocktail (shrimp & cognac), Ham met Asperges, Hollandse Haring, Barneveld's Pasteitje (shell with chicken & mushrooms), Vermicelli Soep met Balletjes (consommé with vermicelli & meatballs), Erwten Soep (green pea & hamhocks), Gekoelde Drie Bessen Soep (chilled 3 berry & watermelon), Westlandse Sla (mixed greens with Dutch vinaigrette), Witlof Sla (greens, star endive, lemon-sour cream dressing, dill, chives), Gebakken Zeetong (pan-fried Dover Sole & fingerling potatoes, sugar peas, baby carrots), Hutspot met Klapstuk (beef brisket, mashed potatoes & carrots), Corn & Broccoli Strudel with onions and tomato concassé, Bami Goreng (Indonesian noodle with chicken sate & peanut sauce), Eendeborst (duck breast with cous cous, broccoli & sugared carrots), Lende Biefstuk met Champignons (broiled top sirloin steak, sautéed mushrooms, vegetable medley), Dutch Apple Tart (ala mode), Java Crème Brulée, Amsterdam Chocolate Tulip (filled with mousse), The Nederland Sundae and NS Vanilla Bosché. Everything was Red, White & Blue (the colors of the Dutch flag) and the DR steward and his assistant were dressed in Dutch costume. Eventhough, we have sailed on RCCL/RCI, Princess, Carnival and Cunard, we found our niche with HAL

 

Good job on this thread, S7S, it's a fun one!:)

 

Our Son Tom, still tells his daughters about the wonderful Pannekoeken he had in the Netherlands..

DH's Father was from the Hague, so just after we were married in '76, we decided to take DH's 14 yr. old Son (He's mine now too as I formally adopted him) to Belgium & Holland..Teenagers don't adapt very well to different foods, but when Tommy had Pannekoeken he was hooked..After we got home DH who enjoys making very thin Pancakes, experimented & was able to make them almost as well as we had in the Netherlands, but a bit smaller..

Our last name is very unusual in the U.S...DH's was the only family in the New York area to have that name..When we got into the Hague, we hoped to find some of his relatives & opened the phone book to see if there might be some with our name there..LOL ..We discovered pages & pages of our last name in the phone book..;) It's almost like Smith or Jones here..

We've only recently been in contact with some cousins who are living in the little town of Maassluis.. I have a picture of that lovely little Maassluis Harbour on my desk..

One day we hope to meet them, but only if DH agrees to fly to Boston so we can take the Voyage of the Vikings when the ship has a scheduled port in Rotterdam or Amsterdam..

Hmmm...Perhaps, I'll get DH to think about it sometime after our cruise next year..;)

Cheers...:)Betty

[Copper10-8]

Betty. July 14, 2012 Boston to Amsterdam on Maasdam; come on down!;)

Btw, we haven't been on Prinsendam in almost six years but standard SOP on her used to be for one of the Asst. Dining Room Managers to make little Dutch pancakes called "poffertjes" in the Lido' pretty good stuff:)

[monina01]

We've only recently been in contact with some cousins who are living in the little town of Maassluis.. I have a picture of that lovely little Maassluis Harbour on my desk..

 

Cheers...:)Betty

 

my husband was born and raised there. It's not really a little town ;)

[monina01]

My condolences on the loss of your Dad. I hope your cruise helped you get over that difficult time. Your Dad was with you in spirit I'm sure.

 

thank you, so sweet. The cruise helped me very much actually, even though it was tough at times. I am sure he would have enjoyed Maasdam just as much as I did.

[monina01]

They also still had the Dutch traditional dinner then on Dutch Night with such items as Ham met Asperges,

 

 

had that yesterday....it's asperge time here and the traditional meal of asperges with ham, egg, krieltjes and butter sauce is the best ever!!:D

[sandij]

We first set sail back in 1984 when my sister and her DH talked us into joining them on the cruise. I enjoyed it, knew absolutely nothing about it and got seasick as a dog. I remember telling my DH, who never gets sick, to just put a luggage tag on my toe and put me in the hallway. Well that went away as soon as we hit land and I ventured out again years later and have never had that sickness again, and we have done plenty of cruising. I loved the nice colorful brochures they used to give you to look at and dream over and decide where you wanted to go, the computer is more convenient but nowhere near as comforting. I discovered CC years ago and have been a faithful follower of everyone's adventures, good and not so good. You just can't beat a cruise to anywhere. We too have sailed the original Royal Princess, a great ride.

[Copper10-8]

had that yesterday....it's asperge time here and the traditional meal of asperges with ham, egg, krieltjes and butter sauce is the best ever!!:D

 

Sorry; asperges en spruitjes...........brrrrrrrrrrrr:eek:

[monina01]

Sorry; asperges en spruitjes...........brrrrrrrrrrrr:eek:

 

ieuwwww...not spruitjes. :eek: Krieltjes. Tiny tiny little potatoes.

[Copper10-8]

ieuwwww...not spruitjes. :eek: Krieltjes. Tiny tiny little potatoes.

 

I know; I have no probs with krieltjes (my Mum used to make them) but I hate spruitjes en asperges; regardless, I hope you had a nice meal; a belated eet smakelijk;)