What Gave You The Desire to Cruise?

[TVLady3]

My first cruise was back in 1979!:) I just completed my 42nd cruise!:eek: And I'm still counting!:cool:

[kalliekae]

In 1995, our friend's Mother was a TA and she suggested we take a family vacation at Thanksgiving to the Caribbean. So she booked us on the old Noordam (HAL) and off we went. We were in an ocean view cabin with bunk beds. The kids were little and it was a blast. We were hooked and continued cruising to the Baltic, Mediterranean, Panama Canal, Alaska, and more Caribbean. The kids are grown now and still enjoy cruising, too.

[tlatrice]

My parents took me when I was 13 years old on the Carnival Imagination in 1998. Took a few through my college years, but really took off around 25 years old, I've taken 17 cruises in the last 5 years. I love the freedom of the cruises and look forward to many more years at sea!

 

Awesome! I took my son on our first cruise when he was 13. He too has become a cruise addict. 17 cruises in 5 years??? I hope he'll be able to cruise even half that much when he graduates college!:D

[Melissa at Mohair Meadows]

After several years of taking a scuba diving vacation on my own, I decided to take the kids and DH on a cruise so they could experience the Caribbean too.

 

I knew nothing of cruising and paid top dollar for an inside cabin, but we had a blast. It was so sad when we left. I knew we needed to do this again.

 

Since then we've cruised RC, Norwegian and Celebrity. Each line has its + and -. We've never had a bad cruise.

 

Melissa

[BillOh]

I love how you can do nothing or everything.

 

I think I said the exact same thing on one of my reviews. I think the last cruise I did, I never looked at the compass, though I usually do, just went where my legs took me. A great 7 days.

[BillOh]

We took our first cruise in 1999 to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.

Sherri:)

 

Indiana lets 10 year olds get married? (Just guessing from that tiny profile pic.

[MichaelCMTX]

In the late 1970s my Dad won a sales promotion where he and Mom got to take the HAL Volendam to Aruba and Curacao. Us kids did not go. They liked the experience so much they very rarely failed to make a December anniversary cruise over the next 30 ish years. Always a good report back. Always felt they got their money's worth. Always us kids did not go.

 

Finally in 2009, they ask DW and me : do you want Christmas, or do you want to go on a cruise? It took less time to say "yes" than to type in here that we did.

 

Thus my perennial answer to "What age you should bring your kids on a cruise?": 41. Any trouble they get themselves into that can get themselves out of, plus they can pay their own airfare to the port!

 

The signature line says the rest of the story. These days Mom's 'slower' since having a knee replaced and since retirement Dad doesn't have near the number of AAdvantage miles to catch a ride to the port in the "front of the plane" - and they're almost assured a long plane ride since they live in Vegas. Their last trip was a 15-nighter to Hawaii and back in 2013 (they'd never been, and it's like they wanted to before we did) and it's like THAT one was finally "too many sea days" Since then they've just concluded they've been where they wanted to go, weren't visiting the ports much, and aren't crazy about the bigger newer generation of ships, and have 'passed the baton' on to us.

[mcatmcat]

Going to the beach during the weekend and me looking to the port before getting to the ships that were docked at the port . They were impressive and beautiful.

[WeatherFx]

We went for a cruise on our honeymoon in 1986, won a cruise in 1998, but got hooked after our 25th anniversary cruise in 2011. Most bang for the buck and the ability to unplug from everything -- no phone, no internet no tv. Take care of whatever happens when we get home.

 

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[Biker19]

Cruising is the only way I know to cross the Atlantic and not get jet lag.:cool:

[evelyn51]

In the 90's my brother, and his wife had gone on their first cruise. They shared stories, and pictures of the experience with mom. She wanted to go on a cruise but never was first financially, later physically able too. After she passed in 2006 we 3 surviving adult children had money she left us. So.. my one brother suggested we go on a cruise with our spouses in her memory. That was my first cruise fast forward 4 cruises later we are now addicted to sailing hook, line, and sinker.

 

One thing worth mentioning, Mom in all desire to sail I believe would not have liked it. She wasn't fond of motion, the smell of ocean air, or the sight of a lot of food (portions) at one time placed in front of her.

Edited October 20, 2015 by evelyn51

[jstraw20]

My earliest childhood memories are from a TA that my family took in 1965. I remember the car ride to the west side of Manhattan, my Aunt and Uncle having to disembark when the call of "All ashore who's going ashore" was given, tossing streamers over the side and waving to the crowd on the pier, the parade of waiters with flaming baked alaskas, the crew banging on our cabin door in the middle of the night so they could rush in and slam the port hole covers shut as we headed into a storm, the ropes set up in the hallways so you could navigate during the storm, the huge waves, the crashing dishware in the MDR... It was fantastic.

 

Yeah, I was sold on it at an early age :)

[davekathy]

Our first Cruise was in 1991 with American Hawaii Cruise Lines on the SS Constitution. My wife wanted to Cruise and I didn't. After the first evening and by the end of the Cruise we were booth hooked on Cruising. We just completed our 20th Cruise.

Edited October 20, 2015 by davekathy

[tlatrice]

tossing streamers over the side and waving to the crowd on the pier

 

OMG!!!! My mom was expecting that on her first cruise last May. She was so disappointed that it wasn't like that!!!! LOL!!!!:D:D:D

[ken_nyc]

Two couples that we are friends with moved out of state and the 3rd couple talked about all of us going on a cruise. I was running a vacation bowling league at the time and my team did good so I had enough on the voucher through the travel agent to go on the cruise. The first ship was the new Carnival Pride August 2002, it was I believe only a month old when we went on her.

 

I always wanted to go on a cruise, When visiting my parents in NJ taking the ferry over from midtown I would see the cruise ships at the pier in Manhattan. Also, when I would be out fishing I'd see cruise ships going by sometimes and would want to be on deck going under the Verrazano Bridge.

Edited October 20, 2015 by ken_nyc

[John&LaLa]

Cruising is the only way I know to cross the Atlantic and not get jet lag.:cool:

 

I hear there are plans to bring the Concord back. ;)

[John&LaLa]

OMG!!!! My mom was expecting that on her first cruise last May. She was so disappointed that it wasn't like that!!!! LOL!!!!:D:D:D

 

We had streamers up into the mid 90's I believe.

[emeraldcity]

Nah! It wasn't the Love Boat Show ... it was that commercial they ran every week during the show that went something like "Every week an incredible event happens in Miami..." And the bow of the Norway enters the screen ... "The Norway Sets sail!" And I would get vacation-envy. The Love Boat Show was just a sitcom ... but that commercial was about a real ship and I could picture myself doing that. DH couldn't be interested at all. He did 2 years in the Naval Reserves and he told me repeatedly that I wouldn't be able to handle the motion of the ship.

 

Eventually, I managed to convince my sister that it would be fun and we left our hubbies at home and took a cruise on the brand new Sovereign of the Seas (her fourth cruise overall). We had a blast. I remember that the Norway was on the same weekly schedule so I got to see the Norway on sailing day from the upper decks of the Sovereign. and yes ... we were tossing streamers over the side. I have a great picture of the two of us with handfuls of colorful streamers grinning like a couple of kids at Christmastime.

 

I always said that someday I'd sail the Norway just to bring the thing full circle, but fate intervened ... I guess I waited too long.

Edited October 20, 2015 by emeraldcity

[Linda/Ohio]

Blizzard like conditions one winter. Looked online. Enchantment was a pretty new ship. Booked a few weeks out. Have been on Enchantment several times-new, pre-stretch, post-stretch and next month.

[awhfy]

Our first cruise was 1995 for our 20th anniversary with DHs two older brothers & their wives on the SS Norway. We took an excursion in St John & watched the ship sail away to her berth at St Thomas (scary to see your "home" leave you). That first cruise was in a porthole (can't say ocean view) cabin, but totally hooked us, but now we're minimum of a balcony. We moved to Celebrity & a couple of Royals.

[littledaisychain]

I love all these stories!

 

I never had an interest in cruises until I was looking for a holiday option after we had our first baby. RC popped up somehow and with their nursery and babysitting facilities (and no flying with a baby! Huge plus!), we were won over. That was in 2012 and I did another short cruise the following year with my mum and siblings. Now we are taking another family holiday - this time with our two kids :)

[perditax]

Here's a sideways approach for you: I hadn't been to Walt Disney World in a decade so I was catching up on the current info over on Disboards. I tackle any forums in Timeline mode, which means I read everything in all forums and sub forums (I'm an information sponge). So I kept noticing these threads about the Disney CRUISES (even though I was on that forum to plan a quick weekend trip to WDW). Then I had to look up all the jargon. Then I kept reading more and more. I had a cruise booked before we ever left for our WDW weekend trip.

 

The cruise was booked MONTHS out, and in the interim I got impatient and hopped on a NCL solo trip. :) I've since done the Disney cruise I booked way back in February, and now I have another solo on Celebrity in 53 days or so. The service on DCL was fabulous but I'm not a kid person, and I missed the amenities from NCL such as the large thermal suite and more space to move around and lounge. I'm hoping Celebrity will tick all the boxes I'm looking for. Either way I'm hooked.

Edited October 21, 2015 by perditax

[CCRUZER]

My dad worked for the cruise/shipping industry from 1939 until his death in 1969, so I have been around ships since I was born. Over the last 65 years, I have seen the industry move from the "white-glove-type experience onboard" to today's revolving-door cruises where, if you are lucky, no crew member is fixing something right next to you , but I still love being onboard.

 

Yup, I've been cruising,literally, since I was in diapers. My father worked for the Federal government in Panama when there was still the American Canal Zone. I was born there and lived there until he retired when I was 16. We use to cruise to New York at the beginning of every summer, spend the summer in Mass., then sail back to Panama at the end of the summer.I too remember and miss the days of yore where family and friends could come on board before sail away and "see us off". And, I wore a white dinner jacket to dinner...every night and a steward would walk the decks playing a gong, calling us to dinner!Yet, we take a cruise every year and it's still my ideal vacation!