Our first cruise....13 years ago!!!

[socialsea]

The year was 2000. To celebrate our "25th" wedding anniversary, my husband & I decided to go on our 1st cruise. It is something we had talked about doing for years. So with our good friends in tow, off we went to our local travel agency.

 

We booked ourselves onboard the beautiful Monarch of the Seas. We were so excited. Trying to be a little frugal so we would have more $$$ to spend on foo-foo drinks on board, we decided to share a cabin with our friends. Nothing wrong with that, we were only there to shower & sleep anyways, right?? Let's just say that the 4 of us are not tiny people by any stretch of the imagination. To be polite, you could say our men are 6' tall & "big boned". As for us girls, well, we shop at the "Boutique for the Bountiful". You get the picture:p

 

We are booked in an interior cabin, forward, deck 2, down deep in the bowels of what is now known as the smallest ship in the fleet. Boy did we think we were the cat's ass. Until we opened our door to our new home for the next 7 nights. OMG!!! What the @@#*!! Where is the rest of the room?? If we didn't laugh so hard, I think we would have cried. We were so naive. Didn't have a clue as to just how small that room was going to be. Afterall, it couldn't be any smaller than a hotel room, right?? WRONG!!

 

So here we are, my husband & I sitting on the edge of our bed & our friends sitting on theirs . Our knees literally touching each others, we started to wonder how 2 "thick" people were going to fit in that tiny little bed. (2 twin beds). Well, when we got back to our cabin that night, after dinner & the show, there were 2 "things" hanging from the ceiling above each of the twin beds. AHHHH...so that's where the better halves were going to sleep:D

So sit back & close your eyes, and try to envision this scenario. 2 rather large men trying to climb a very small ladder to where they would be resting their heads for duration of our cruise. I thought

I was going to pee my pants, I was laughing so hard. Then we realized it wasn't really that funny. After all, we were directly below them in our beds!! Anyways, they said the upper berths were quite comfy and they slept like babies. Every night they called their little ladder their stairway to heaven.

Wow, as I am writing this, I am chuckling to myself, thinking just how crazy we were to do this. ANYTHING TO SAVE A BUCK!!!Well our friends must have had as much fun as we did because after 13 years, we are still cruising together. Only now we have graduated to a balcony for 2.

 

On a side note, we are boarding Freedom of the seas in less than 2 weeks. We have a balcony hump cabin on deck 7. We paid $999.00 pp with a $200.00 OBC & a voucher for specialty restaurant. We used our diamond discount, which brought the price down even more. 13 years ago, we paid $900.00pp for an inside cabin, deck 2, forward and shared with 3 other people:eek: No discounts, no OBC and we thought we got the deal of the century!!!

 

So that is just how the price of cruising has changed over the past decade and boy am I glad it has. I wouldn't go back & change anything about our first cruise 13 years ago, but I now do enjoy my balcony for 2:)

[Heidils]

The year was 2000. To celebrate our "25th" wedding anniversary, my husband & I decided to go on our 1st cruise. It is something we had talked about doing for years. So with our good friends in tow, off we went to our local travel agency.

 

We booked ourselves onboard the beautiful Monarch of the Seas. We were so excited. Trying to be a little frugal so we would have more $$$ to spend on foo-foo drinks on board, we decided to share a cabin with our friends. Nothing wrong with that, we were only there to shower & sleep anyways, right?? Let's just say that the 4 of us are not tiny people by any stretch of the imagination. To be polite, you could say our men are 6' tall & "big boned". As for us girls, well, we shop at the "Boutique for the Bountiful". You get the picture:p

 

We are booked in an interior cabin, forward, deck 2, down deep in the bowels of what is now known as the smallest ship in the fleet. Boy did we think we were the cat's ass. Until we opened our door to our new home for the next 7 nights. OMG!!! What the @@#*!! Where is the rest of the room?? If we didn't laugh so hard, I think we would have cried. We were so naive. Didn't have a clue as to just how small that room was going to be. Afterall, it couldn't be any smaller than a hotel room, right?? WRONG!!

 

So here we are, my husband & I sitting on the edge of our bed & our friends sitting on theirs . Our knees literally touching each others, we started to wonder how 2 "thick" people were going to fit in that tiny little bed. (2 twin beds). Well, when we got back to our cabin that night, after dinner & the show, there were 2 "things" hanging from the ceiling above each of the twin beds. AHHHH...so that's where the better halves were going to sleep:D

So sit back & close your eyes, and try to envision this scenario. 2 rather large men trying to climb a very small ladder to where they would be resting their heads for duration of our cruise. I thought

I was going to pee my pants, I was laughing so hard. Then we realized it wasn't really that funny. After all, we were directly below them in our beds!! Anyways, they said the upper berths were quite comfy and they slept like babies. Every night they called their little ladder their stairway to heaven.

Wow, as I am writing this, I am chuckling to myself, thinking just how crazy we were to do this. ANYTHING TO SAVE A BUCK!!!Well our friends must have had as much fun as we did because after 13 years, we are still cruising together. Only now we have graduated to a balcony for 2.

 

On a side note, we are boarding Freedom of the seas in less than 2 weeks. We have a balcony hump cabin on deck 7. We paid $999.00 pp with a $200.00 OBC & a voucher for specialty restaurant. We used our diamond discount, which brought the price down even more. 13 years ago, we paid $900.00pp for an inside cabin, deck 2, forward and shared with 3 other people:eek: No discounts, no OBC and we thought we got the deal of the century!!!

 

So that is just how the price of cruising has changed over the past decade and boy am I glad it has. I wouldn't go back & change anything about our first cruise 13 years ago, but I now do enjoy my balcony for 2:)

 

LOL I'd read your book!

 

Great story. Have fun!

[ckmommy]

Love that story!! I can only imagine your shock:eek: at the size of the cabin!!

[Beth C]

That is hilarious! :D

 

I can only imagine the look on all your faces when you basically filled the room just by stepping into the door... THAT would have been the ultimate Kodak moment :)

 

It's hard to believe that an inside on 2 was $900pp considering you can frequently get Oasis or Allure balconies for that price now. I'm mighty glad I started cruising in the past couple years - never would have been able to keep it up at the prices a decade ago!

[janetz]

What a great story. Too funny! :p

[mollanjake]

Great story thanks for sharing!

 

PS I remember thinking our inside cabin on the Majesty was small and there was only 2 of us!

[tispwisp]

Great story! Would have loved to have seen your faces when you first walked into the cabin all those years ago! :D Hope you all have many many more years of cruising together! :)

[funfamilyof6]

I almost peed in my pants reading your story. Thanks for the chuckle!!!!

[bencruzN]

OMG!!! That was tooo funny. You painted a great story for my mind to imagine...a FUNNY one. Thanks for sharing.

[tnjnmt]

Great story!!! Nothing is better than a good laugh:)

[maureencruiser]

Fabulous! Well, you made it work and you're still friends and you all still love cruising, so I guess it all worked out. Hope you fired the travel agent for not explaining size to you.

[KeywestK]

OMGosh, I'm still ROFL!!! Thanks for sharing!!:)

[BillOh]

Great story thanks for sharing!

 

PS I remember thinking our inside cabin on the Majesty was small and there was only 2 of us!

 

Same here. At least we started in a balcony and its just the two of us.

[stewpapa]

Great Story! I too would read your "book"

We started cruising in 2000 as well on our honeymoon and we are celebrating our 15th cruise for our 13th Anniversary on the Mariner in February. Our cruises are some of the greatest adventures and memories of our marriage. Thanks for sharing your beginning with us.

[lisa414ny]

That was great! Thanks for sharing :)

[Just The 3 Of Us]

H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S!!!!! :D:p:)

[sayok]

Awesome :)