Why did you take your very first cruise ?

[57redbird]

Our 1st cruise was with my husband's best friend from kindergarten & his wife - they all grew up in Wisconsin & wanted to see Alaska...so we did a  RT Seattle/Alaska in May.  It rained almost the entire cruise - I lived in polar fleece & rain gear & my back went out --- I swore never again.  Fast forward a few years & we did a Mexican Riviera cruise that was fabulous!!!  We've not done as many cruises as a lot of you have but we've enjoyed the ones we've taken since that 1st one.  Had a couple booked but Covid took those away...hoping to get back on the water sometime in the near future.

Edited November 8, 2020 by 57redbird
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[Gwendy]

When my Mum was 75 she decided she “needed” to go on a cruise.  She couldn’t go on her own so I grudgingly went with her, then my daughter decided she would come too, as a buffer between Mum and me. Lol.

Mum enjoyed her cruise, but said she wouldn’t be bothered doing another one,  My daughter and myself loved it.  Both of us have over 30 cruises and Elite on Princess, high up on other lines as we share the love around.  We have been to so many places we would never get to without cruising and I have done 2 half world cruises on my own.

Thanks Mum for suggesting cruising.

[Mike981]

A guy I new mentioned a group cruise he was putting together, it sounded great but I knew we could never go. A few days later I jokingly asked my wife if she wanted to go. She said yes. I was scared having never traveled before, but in the end we both loved it.

[Mary229]

We decided that Alaska was best seen by water.  My parents, who were world travelers, had never cruised so it was a twofer.  We were immediately converted. They never became big fans but did cruise when traveling by sea just made more sense.  

[samiam0403]

I had just come off of a 6 month deployment over the fall/winter/spring after Sept 11th, and decided I needed a vacation. The base had an office that sold discount travel tickets, and I saw an ad for a 7-night Mexican Riviera cruise for a good rate in Sept 2002.. Decided to book it and the rest was history. 40+ cruises later and I still love it.

[rkacruiser]

9 hours ago, BourbonNBluesLuvr said:

It was 1974, I was a senior in HS in Manila PI, and my Dad’s company had just become the Far East agents for Holland America. In return he was comped a 2 week family cruise on MS Prinsendam from Singapore and visiting Indonesia and Malaysia ! 

 

WOW!  You got to sail on Prinsendam I!

[clarky213]

After doing an overnight Ferry from Uk to Bruges and back in 2010, got a taste and decided to look into cruises as we enjoyed the experience. Was then shown a US TA by a work colleague that he used when on trips to Florida to take short Cruises. 

Managed to get a really cheap 7 Day cruise out of Palma, Spain and we were Hooked.

2nd Cruise was Out of Venice, so another place off our Bucket List.

Decided I wanted to be on a beach for my 50th Birthday, so next Cruise was a Carribean out of San Juan, that we enjoyed so much, we repeated for my 51st Birthday.

Since then we have done another Caribbean out of Galveston, Austalia & New Zealand, and Alaska.

 

Seen parts of the world that we would never have seen without cruising.

 

Next cruise moved from April 2021 to May 2022 out of LA, so hopefully things will be soething like normal by then.

 

 

[bbangel74]

First cruise was about 12 years ago and was an opportunity to meet a group of internet friends that decided to do a 3 night group cruise. I didn't think I would enjoy the cruise as much as the company but I was wrong. Had a great time and now love the longer cruises. Fingers crossed I get to do the month long South America/Antarctica cruise I have planned!

[XBGuy]

Honeymoon in 1976.

[gottagoacruzn]

Had seen Love boat on tv, an thought why? The stuff you do on a ship, you can do on dry land. Then I talked to my dad, an he said, he would talk to a coworker's wife, since she was a t a. Well back in 82, went on a cruise, it was on the Commadore cruise line, the Boheme, a rinky dink banana boat, not much to do, 90% senior citizen. Got seasick the first night, took something that the waiter gave me, an was much better after that, since then, have been on 30 + cruises, can't wait til I go again. Favorite cruise line is Rcl, then Princess. Like them small to medium size ships, not the mega ones!!😮

[Sea Hag]

In July of 1991, there was a total eclipse of the sun. I wanted to see that, and my first thought was to go to Hawaii. My hubby said he'd like to do a cruise, so I looked into that and found that the Carnival Jubilee would be in Mazatlan on eclipse day, right spang in the middle of the eclipse path. We went. Mazatlan was clouded over, but the ship went back out to sea so we could all see the eclipse. 

[pris993]

My husband had cruised before in Europe before immigrating to USA, he introduced me to cruising in the l980s, I was hooked every since.  First cruise on RCCL Song of America.  

[JDincalif]

Impulse buy. Had been intrigued by the Renaissance Cruise Line reputation for appealing casual ambience (and strict non-smoking policy, uncommon at the time). Late in 2000 saw a newpaper ad for a 15 day Renaissance cruise between Istanbul and Barcelona with stops in Greece, Malta, Italy and France, starting at $499/pp, departing about two months hence, and booked it immediately.  The weather was good, sites like the Vatican, the Parthenon and the Uffizi uncrowded, and the ship was the best hotel/mode of travel I'd ever experienced. 

[Velvetwater]

Because I have always been obsessed with anything ocean and wanted to see different places.

 

I was denied a honeymoon cruise due to timings so whilst watching UK TV a Carnival advert popped on with amazing prices so I went on the website and found an amazing offer on a Baltic cruise and that was it.

 

Fell in love the moment I boarded. The romance has been ongoing ever since.

[neverbeenhere]

A friend said; Fly to Miami, take a five night cruise for $149 a piece. We said; yes. 
 

 

[iancal]

We lived in Vancouver.  The TA who handled my business travel called on a Tuesday to tell us that she had booked us on a last minute Alaska cruise departing on Saturday.  We had 24 hours to decide if we wanted the deal.   It was a fabulous offer on a very nice ship.

 

We had a week long vacation planned on the Gulf Islands. We checked the upcoming Alaska weather, changed our Gulf Island plans, and said yes to the cruise.

 

We have done 20 plus cruises since then.  The majority have been booked inside the final payment window, some within a few days or a few weeks of sailing.

[davekathy]

1991. My wife insisted. I went reluctantly. We were booth hooked after the first evening aboard. 

[ldubs]

For us, it sounded like fun so we decided to give it a try.  Our initiation was a fairly inexpensive short cruise out of San Pedro.  

[rkacruiser]

On 11/14/2020 at 11:06 AM, iancal said:

The majority have been booked inside the final payment window, some within a few days or a few weeks of sailing.

 

Oh, if I only lived closer to a port!  I'd have done the same.  

[Sekhmet]

Our first two cruises were in 1996, the year of our Silver Wedding celebrations.  The first was a short trip out of Mombasa to Zanzibar, Comoros and Madagascar as part of an East Africa trip organised by the African Safari Club.  The ship was the 5000t, 200 passenger "Royal Star".

Later that year we took our first trip to the Caribbean and our first cruise on a big ship - Norwegian's "Seaward".  Well, it was big then at 42,000t and with 1,500 passengers!  A back-to-back visiting both the Western and Southern parts. 

For our Golden Wedding in January 2021, we booked another Caribbean cruise, this time on Celebrity's "Reflection", aiming to visit many of the same islands we had been to 25 years earlier.  For obvious reasons, this isn't going to happen, so we plan to start looking for a belated Golden cruise when circumstances permit.

[LoungingMcCoy]

My wife had been pestering me to go on a cruise for almost as long as I've known her.  I had no desire whatsoever to go on a cruise.  I had a lot of misconceptions.  It was really expensive.  It sounded boring.  My understanding was that meals and activities were scheduled for you.  Why would I want to be stuck in a floating hotel, unable to leave, and be forced to play shuffleboard from 10:00-11:00?

 

Then in 2017 my wife's supervisors failed to let her department know when it was time to pick vacations.  By the time she found out all that was available was January 2018.  I felt sorry for her and wanted to do something special.  One of my coworkers had mentioned he was going on a 3 day cruise.  I didn't know there were cruises that were that short.  I figured I could tolerate a 3 day cruise and knew I could get time off in January.  I booked a 5 day cruise on the Carnival Triumph because that was the cruise that best fit her vacation schedule. 

 

I told my parents about our plans.  Dad wanted to go with us, but mom didn't.  He convinced her that it would be a good way to spend time with the family.  My wife was concerned about cruising with her in-laws (understandably), but we all had a great time and have cruised together every year since.  

 

 

 

 

[cruznjan]

Because of watching The Love Boat.

[SmoothFlying]

15 hours ago, cruznjan said:

Because of watching The Love Boat.

🙄OMG !! That was the reason I  could NOT get my wife to try a cruise for twelve years after we were married ! She believe ALL aboard were 'tuxedo-ball gown wearn snobs' who looked down their noses at normal folks. Had book our 1st cruise a five day Nassau-Freeport out of Mobile at Christmas, in 2006 for our anniversary in March of 2007, without telling her till a week before the cruise for fear she'd back out. She went, fell completely in love with cruising, and we spent the next ten years doing two cruises a year.

 

Mac

[davekathy]

3 hours ago, SmoothFlying said:

🙄OMG !! That was the reason I  could NOT get my wife to try a cruise for twelve years after we were married ! She believe ALL aboard were 'tuxedo-ball gown wearn snobs' who looked down their noses at normal folks. Had book our 1st cruise a five day Nassau-Freeport out of Mobile at Christmas, in 2006 for our anniversary in March of 2007, without telling her till a week before the cruise for fear she'd back out. She went, fell completely in love with cruising, and we spent the next ten years doing two cruises a year.

 

Mac

Crap! Now I've got that stupid Love Boat theme song stuck in my peabrain. 

[ontheweb]

7 hours ago, SmoothFlying said:

🙄OMG !! That was the reason I  could NOT get my wife to try a cruise for twelve years after we were married ! She believe ALL aboard were 'tuxedo-ball gown wearn snobs' who looked down their noses at normal folks. Had book our 1st cruise a five day Nassau-Freeport out of Mobile at Christmas, in 2006 for our anniversary in March of 2007, without telling her till a week before the cruise for fear she'd back out. She went, fell completely in love with cruising, and we spent the next ten years doing two cruises a year.

 

Mac

I'm glad I never watched that show or maybe I would have never suggested a cruise to my DW. 

 

Actually, formal night did excite her. She ended up buying material and making a dress.