Cruising in the past, how many ships have you cruised on!

[SailorJM]

Our first cruise was on Caribe I, the last of the rivet-hulled transAtlantic cruise ships, but by then, cruising the Caribbean. We got such a deal. It was '91. Desert Storm was going on, and then a wheelchair-bound passenger had been tossed off a hijacked (Greek?) ship. All the cruise companies pulled their ships from Med, etc, and overloaded the Caribbean. I had heard over and over to ignore catalog pricing. I called the company that then-owned Caribe I and asked what level cabin we could get for the price of an H (as in A was the best). I was told: "How about an A?!" We got it for $250 each for the week.....oh wow.

 

We were in the old first-class section in what must have been quite an opulent cabin when the ship was doing the Atlantic crossings in her heydey. Red velvet, polished brass, sitting room, bedroom with a draped bed. etc. There was a first-class bar that few other passengers discovered during our cruise, to we had no trouble getting served (or recognized!). Caribe I turned us onto cruising, but with small liners.....until we found the tall-ships and windjammers. My full list is in my signature.

[marco]

Too many to remember!!!! It started in the late 50's when we went to Italy to visit my grandparents. I got hooked on traveling by ship when I was 5 yrs old! and have been, ever since. I've sailed on all of the Italian line ships since the "Columbo" and between TA's and cruises, I've been on well over 100. Still loved the older ships the best!!!!!!

[bobbisailsolo]

My first cruise was on Premier ( the big red boat) Oceanic! First time is always the best! It was an older ship, but loved the feeling of being on a ship, not like the floating hotels today...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[OCruisers]

Gosh, it's hard for me to keep up with the number of cruises ... much less all of the different ships. I've been cruising for 53 years. :o

Love looking at the pictures of the old ships. Thanks to you who have posted them.

LuLu

[Conte Di Savoia]

Up to 43 different vessels as of this past January, however, several of them were ocean liners, not actually cruise ships. You always remember your first, which for me was the now long gone Leonardo Da Vinci of the Italian Line in 1961.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of her in an ad which they ran. She was every bit as magical as she appears in this picture of the "Enchanted City" at night.

 

[chadman]

Was our honeymoon on the Carnival Holiday at the time had never seen a ship that big except for Aircraft carriers:D:D sailed in 1988

[Nisky18]

I sailed on two Premier Big Red Boat cruises when my children were small. I recall cartoon characters on board.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

[AnchorsAweigh2011]

We are new to cruising and have cruised on 4 ships with an upcoming cruise on our fifth ship this March.

[CruisinSinceAge5]

My first cruise was 1964/65 onboard the Nili out of Miami for a 3-4 day cruise followed by Nordic Prince, Sun Viking, Song of America, Sovereign of the Seas, Windstar, Sea Escape, Century, Regatta, Nautica, Insignia, Marina, World Explorer, and many, many others. A total of 52 cruises. Looking forward to the cancelled ones we’ve rebooked during this pandemic. 

[shipgeeks]

I'm glad you posted, as it has brought this subject to the forefront again!

Our earliest cruises were on Premier (wonderful old ocean liners), Norway, Regal Empress, and Meridian.  Lots of other ships since then, but no match for the history and ship-ness of those.

[ryndam]

Flavia, summer 1969. Followed by Leonardo da Vinci, Raffaello, Nieuw Amsterdam (the 1938-version), many on Rotterdam V, many on Oceanic, Angelina Lauro, many on QE2, Fairwind, Fairsea, Fairsky, Royal Princess (the 1984-version), Mardi Gras, Festivale, Norway....Over 60 voyages on Crystal Harmony/Symphony/Serenity.

 

Hoping for a resumption of ocean voyages in the not-too-distant future. 🙂🙂🙂

[George C]

On 4/5/2014 at 5:44 PM, George C said:

Not sure how many ships, started in 1975, I think I have been on 56 cruises, 57th is in a couple of weeks, most likely about 25 to 30 differnt ships , did SS Norway the most 7 times, will take 12th RCCL in a couple weeks . Did several other multiple times. Many like SS Norway are no longer sailing

Wow 7 year old post , I have cruise 13 times since this post almost all in suites , really enjoyed my recent msc yacht club and celebrity suites. 

[shipgeeks]

Many of us seem to appreciate the looks of the now-gone ships we've mentioned.  What do you think of the ships of today, from the outside?

IMO, the two things that spoiled the ships' lines in more recent years are balconies, and the flat-side construction.

I don't see ships ever going back, but still......

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

Many of us seem to appreciate the looks of the now-gone ships we've mentioned.  What do you think of the ships of today, from the outside?

IMO, the two things that spoiled the ships' lines in more recent years are balconies, and the flat-side construction.

I don't see ships ever going back, but still......

 

With the new mass market mega ships, it really is a stretch to call them ships. More like blocks of flats with a stubby sharp end. Sorry, can't even consider the sharp ends as a proper ship's bow.

 

In addition to the design, a number of companies have cheapened their traditional ship's livery. With P&O/Princess, our hulls were gleaming white, with the P&O cruise ships having buff funnels and General Cargo having blue funnels. P&O recently changed their funnels to the cargo ship blue and added a terrible rendition of the Union flag on the bow. Princess added what looks like graffitti to the bow, almost like someone puked over the focsle. 

 

I can only assume that since they were purchased by Carnival and have reduced the standards to almost NCL levels, they found the need paint similar graffitti on their hulls.

[rkacruiser]

2 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

What do you think of the ships of today, from the outside?

 

Apartment/condo buildings that float:  that's what they look like to me.  Little to no individualistic design or style and some of the newest ones with the vertical bow, i.e Celebrity Edge, look weird to me.  

 

There was a time when I was able to almost always be correct in identifying a ship based upon appearance.  Now, more often wrong than not.  (Is that Oasis of the Seas or the Harmony of the Seas or....etc.?)  

 

This "issue" really is not a "new" as it has been going on for some time.  The four S class ships of HAL or the Volendam/Zaandam of HAL being examples.  

 

You understand, I am certain, as to at least one reason why cruise companies have gone this route of making multiple ships on one design platform.  (It spreads out the cost of the ship to have multiple ships built on one platform rather than just a single one.  Same kind of thinking that the auto industry uses in building multiple models/brands on one platform.)  

[rkacruiser]

7 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 and added a terrible rendition of the Union flag on the bow. Princess added what looks like graffitti to the bow, almost like someone puked over the focsle. 

 

I have seen some P & O ships in port with the new bow livery and I agree with your assessment.  However, I rather like the Sea Witch livery on Princess' ships.

 

7 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

NCL levels, they found the need paint similar graffitti on their hulls.

 

Regarding NCL's newbuilds,  maybe the thinking was that they had to do "something" to make Norwegian Escape look different than Norwegian whatever.  Norwegian Getaway and Breakway hull art did have a theme connected to their home port.  Once those ports changed....the hull art failed to make sense.    

[Heidi13]

Guess I am the classic traditionalist. Having painted way too many gleaming white hulls, I and many of those I worked with, prefer the good old and more traditional plain white or black hulls.

[ellie1145]

On 4/6/2014 at 6:33 PM, SailorJM said:

then a wheelchair-bound passenger had been tossed off a hijacked (Greek?) ship.

It was an Italian ship, the Achille Lauro. The passenger was murdered before being tossed over the back of the ship by the PLF off the coast of Egypt.

 

was pretty horrifying at the time.

Edited January 31, 2021 by ellie1145

[rkacruiser]

On 1/30/2021 at 7:06 PM, Heidi13 said:

Guess I am the classic traditionalist.

 

Nothing wrong with that.  What's new today will be old tomorrow and history will repeat itself.  

[CGTNORMANDIE]

On 1/30/2021 at 7:06 PM, Heidi13 said:

Guess I am the classic traditionalist. Having painted way too many gleaming white hulls, I and many of those I worked with, prefer the good old and more traditional plain white or black hulls.

Agreed!  I also hate the new Celebrity Edge Class.  Looks like the Battleship Maine!

[PromenadeDeckWriter]

On 1/30/2021 at 4:28 PM, rkacruiser said:

There was a time when I was able to almost always be correct in identifying a ship based upon appearance.  Now, more often wrong than not. 

 

Nowadays, it's easy to recognize the QM2 (nobody else looks like her), and then "general" line (ie I can recognize a HAL/Cunard/Disney ship from afar due to the colors of hull/superstructure and funnels). 

 

I remember standing on a beach (Cocoa Beach maybe?) in Florida and looking out into the distance. Saw and recognized either the Disney Magic or Wonder right away (hard to miss the Mickey Mouse funnels plus their unique color palette with red, white, black ship colors and yellow lifeboats), followed by two cruise resorts on barges, no idea which line they were with as (short) funnel colors weren't easily recognizable on-top the all-white hull/superstructure.) Compare this to when I was touring the Queen Mary (the original one with the museum in the engine area) and saw a ship model from across the room, and recognized it as the Normandie. Saw another one, and this time, it was the Lusitania. Didn't need to read the signs to know which ships they were.

 

Nowadays, as others say, it's possible to guess the "class" of ship (ie the Volendam/Zaandam, or a Vista class of HAL, for instance) but not the specific ship unless she had alterations made to her profiles. 

[Guardsy]

Rotterdam V, Noordam (2), Star Princess (2), Old Regal Princess, Tahitian Princess, Current Regal Princess, Dawn Princess (2), hmmmm, 2 other Princess ships.  Pulling a blank at the moment.

[rkacruiser]

15 hours ago, Guardsy said:

Rotterdam V, Noordam (2), Star Princess (2), Old Regal Princess, Tahitian Princess, Current Regal Princess, Dawn Princess (2), hmmmm, 2 other Princess ships.  Pulling a blank at the moment.

 

Which Noordam?  You appear to be a fan of Princess.  Good cruise line with very good entertainment, service, and, usually, cuisine.  I love their Fettuccine Alfredo--if it is properly made.  (It was hard to believe, but I ordered that on Royal Princess and it was very poorly prepared:  watery sauce lacking much cheese flavor and al dente pasta than was too "al dente".)

[kamelia]

Our first was in January of 1983 on what was then Royal Caribbean's Song of America.  By sheer coincidence, nearly 29 years later, the young man working the bar in Skywalkers Lounge commented, "oh, there's the old Song of America" at a dock we were passing when leaving the port of Athens in October of 2012.  Had he not been a real cruise ship buff, we never would have recognized it as our first ship.  By then, she had been sold and was sailing as the Louis Olympia, so there was no longer a Crown & Anchor on the funnel, and she'd also been modified by being cut in half lengthwise to add another deck.  Still, it was fun to tell him how meaningful it was to us that he'd pointed it out! 

 

We caught the cruise bug big time, and have sailed all the seven seas over the years since.

[Guardsy]

5 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Which Noordam?  You appear to be a fan of Princess.  Good cruise line with very good entertainment, service, and, usually, cuisine.  I love their Fettuccine Alfredo--if it is properly made.  (It was hard to believe, but I ordered that on Royal Princess and it was very poorly prepared:  watery sauce lacking much cheese flavor and al dente pasta than was too "al dente".)

This would have been the Noordam in 1989 & 1990.  We sailed on her in the Caribbean and then the following year up in Alaska.  Amazingly, we had many of the same staff.  The two bartender/servers in the Crow's nest not only recalled our names when we first walked in while on the Alaska trip, they event remembered what we preferred for cocktails.  AMAZING!