We all started somewhere... where did you start?

[Honolulu Blue]

Hi everyone.  I'm curious about on what cruise line you made your cruising start.

 

I'll go first.  My first cruise was on Carnival.  I have tried other lines since then, but my next scheduled cruise is on Carnival.

 

As always, please be considerate of others.  Not everyone can or want to start at the very top.

 

Thanks in advance for your responses!

[Hlitner]

Started with NCL's Sunward II in 1977.  We did a 4 day Bahamas cruise (the ship alternated between 3 and 4 day itineraries.

[ontheweb]

We started with Royal Caribbean Splendour of the Seas in 2002. The cruise was for our 25th anniversary. I suggested Bermuda as we would not have to fly (and who in late 2001 when we considered this wanted to fly). DW suggested Alaska. (We have since cruised to both.)

 

I sent away for brochures from an agency I saw advertised in our local paper. It turned out (though I did not realize at the time that they only had advertised RCL). I saw a Western Mediterranean that I knew my art teacher DW would love, and we booked it.

 

BTW, Royal Caribbean is now building ships too big for us to really consider. Our first 2 cruises were with that line, but none since.

[jsn55]

Small ships are our favorites, since we started out on Grand Circle Amsterdam to Vienna.  Didn't even know what a river cruise was ... but I ran the numbers and the cruise was a better value than the independent road trips we had always done.  Grand Circle spoiled us, they really are good at this stuff, we loved having 'program directors' ... we learned so much.  The first few ocean cruises were in the '80s, connected to business, and I don't even remember which cruiselines.  We just made plane reservations, packed, and had a great time.  

[matamanoa]

Our first cruise was to Alaska on Royal Caribbean and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Have been cruising for the past 25 years.

[cruisemom42]

My first cruise was on the SS Emerald Seas (Eastern Steamship Lines) when I was nine. This was back in the day when ships were around for much longer and also the infancy of "cruising for leisure" as opposed to sailing to a destination. The Emerald Seas was originally built in 1944 as a troop ship and had a long and varied life afterwards sailing to destinations in the Mediterranean, doing transatlantics between the US and Europe and later sailing from the west coast to Hawaii.

 

In 1972 she was in her first year of doing short Caribbean cruises from Miami when we sailed on her. The two things I remember most were having a porthole in our cabin and the fact that -- since we were on the ship on Christmas day -- "Santa" made an appearance in one of the lounges and gave each kid a gift. Emerald Seas continued doing these short cruises for another 20 years!

 

Having thus determined that our family enjoyed cruising, my next cruise (1973) was on Sitmar line's Fairwind, with my grandmother. Fairwind was a ship we really loved and continued to sail on about once a year for the next decade in the Caribbean, her home turf. Fairwind had great food (including a real Italian pizzeria at sea), and a mainly Italian crew who spoiled my sister and I.  In August of 1977 we did something different -- we flew to the west coast to cruise Fairwind's doppelganger, the Fairsea, to Alaska for two weeks. The cruise was round trip from San Francisco (I was delighted to sail under the Golden Gate bridge). Alaska was a very different prospect in those days, with only 3-4 small ships making the rounds, no "chain" stores and excursions were very much a matter of just walking around the town or maybe catching a show of locals doing some dancing (I recall Russian dancing in Sitka).

 

At any rate it was a sad day when Princess acquired Sitmar, but we have carried on cruising on various lines since then. In addition to the two lines named above, I've also sailed with Princess, Royal Viking, RCCL, NCL, Holland America, Azamara, and two European lines: Voyages to Antiquity and Swan Hellenic. This August I'll be trying another line new to me: Oceania.

 

 

 

[SteadyBetty]

I began cruising in 1994 on Carnival Fantasy.

 

I have been cruising ever since on Royal Caribbean.

[BklynBoy8]

Chandris Line out of NYC on board the Ellis.

 

On sailings were known as No Where Cruises from 5 on Friday to 8AM on Monday Morning.

 

On as far as International Waters and circles. Sunning and Casinos.

[BklynBoy8]

 

My only me self sailing without family was on the Queen Anna Marie...... 

[9tee2Sea]

My very first cruise was a High School graduation trip ( 1976) with my parents.  I remember the Greek Islands, but don't remember the route. I GOT SOOOOO SEASICK.  I waited until 1995 to take my next cruise ( TA on QE2).  Still get queasy, but have been cruising 2X a year since then.

[navybankerteacher]

Not counting sailings with my parents as a child, the first I booked was on Orient Lines’ Marco Polo -  in 1996 - great itinerary: a couple of days in Istanbul, then stops at Kannakalle for the ruins of Troy, Ephesus, Santorini, Delos, Mykonos, Heraklion on Crete, and Rhodes, followed by a couple of days in Athens.   We were the only ship (under 1,000 passengers) in each port.

[LHT28]

First cruise  14 day r/t  Montreal (east coast Canada/ Bermuda)

Bunk beds   port hole cabin-showers/W./C  down the hall

 

Ship-Alexandr Pushkin   /Baltic sea  Steamship shipping  Co

 

Hit  a storm on the return   never though I would ever cruise again 😄

[Mary229]

Lived in New Orleans in my 20s and hopped a weekend special to the Caribbean.   After that I really liked the ease of cruising and invited my parents on an Alaska cruise.  
 

We love to travel by car so we focused on driving around North America when we were young with only a cruise every 24-36 months.  As we traveled more and more for business we came back to cruising as a relaxing way to travel during our down time. (Self employed people don’t get vacations we just get less busy times)

 

As our business boomed we had more free time and started back to cruising yearly only on long voyages.   Now retired we are checking off our long voyage bucket list.  

[K32682]

Princess Cruises to the Caribbean in the mid-90's. My first experience was not a positive one but ten years later came back to cruising and until COVID cruised selectively when it was the best means to meet certain travel objectives. 

[Aquahound]

3 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Started with NCL's Sunward II in 1977.  We did a 4 day Bahamas cruise (the ship alternated between 3 and 4 day itineraries.

 

Same here.  NCL Sunward II, 4 day cruise to the Bahamas.  I was forever hooked after that cruise.  

[StollyBolly]

My first cruise (and second) was on Sitmar in the mid 70s.   I see cruisemom42 also sailed them. I loved it.  I was hooked, but had a gap of a number of years before I cruised again.  And it was on a Princess ship that had been originally Sitmar!  I still have menus from those first 2 cruises.  In those days they were dated each day! 
 

 

[Hlitner]

4 minutes ago, Aquahound said:

 

Same here.  NCL Sunward II, 4 day cruise to the Bahamas.  I was forever hooked after that cruise.  

For me, the interesting fact about that 4 day cruise is that we never took another cruise that was less than 7 days.  In fact, these days we consider 14 days to be our minimum and prefer cruises of 30-60 days.  But that 4 day NCL cruise did create a true cruise lover :).

[Aquahound]

3 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

For me, the interesting fact about that 4 day cruise is that we never took another cruise that was less than 7 days.  In fact, these days we consider 14 days to be our minimum and prefer cruises of 30-60 days.  But that 4 day NCL cruise did create a true cruise lover :).

 

I actually committed to enlisting in the Coast Guard because of that cruise.  🙂

[donaldsc]

Lewis R French - a 22 passenger windjammer sailing out of Camden Maine.  Bet that this sets a record for the oldest 1st cruise ship on this thread.

 

She is the oldest ship sailing out of the US as she was build in 1871.  She is also pure sail as she has no engine.  

 

Just recently we did 2 weeks on the Clipper Clipper Line's Star Flyer.  Doing a cruise on a sailboat is a wonderful experience.   A bit bigger at ~150 passengers than the 22 of us on the Lewis R French.  

 

DON

Edited May 27, 2023 by donaldsc

[lenquixote66]

7 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Hi everyone.  I'm curious about on what cruise line you made your cruising start.

 

I'll go first.  My first cruise was on Carnival.  I have tried other lines since then, but my next scheduled cruise is on Carnival.

 

As always, please be considerate of others.  Not everyone can or want to start at the very top.

 

Thanks in advance for your responses!

My first cruise was in 1973 on the Cunard Ambassador .It was a birthday cruise for me.We initially booked with a Greek cruise line but the ship developed engine trouble on its return to NY.Our TA offered us a choice of a complete refund or substituting the Cunard ship.We opted for the latter.

The cruise was from NY to Bermuda -$699.00 for my wife and I for the 7 night trip.

[Honolulu Blue]

39 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

Lewis R French - a 22 passenger windjammer sailing out of Camden Maine.  Bet that this sets a record for the oldest 1st cruise ship on this thread.

 

She is the oldest ship sailing out of the US as she was build in 1871.  She is also pure sail as she has no engine.  

 

Just recently we did 2 weeks on the Clipper Clipper Line's Star Flyer.  Doing a cruise on a sailboat is a wonderful experience.   A bit bigger at ~150 passengers than the 22 of us on the Lewis R French.  

 

DON

I'm pretty sure you're going to win that bet. 🤑

[Ashland]

Early 1990's a few cruises on Azure of the Seas and that's what got us hooked. Then along came Viking Serenade (1995) and we were totally addicted to RCI.

[eyecantwait]

1983 on the Mississippi Queen for 4 nights from New Orleans to Baton Rouge and back. It had been a dream of my mothers to take the family on this trip. We had a blast. Mom liked that she could see land the whole time.

1997 was Sovereign of the Seas to celebrate my in laws 50th anniversary. That's the one that got us hooked.

Looking forward to Alaska this summer on Celebrity Solstice to celebrate my retirement (3 years ago, thanks pandemic). 

[davekathy]

1991. American Hawaii Cruise Line, SS Constitution

[navybankerteacher]

3 hours ago, LHT28 said:

First cruise  14 day r/t  Montreal (east coast Canada/ Bermuda)

Bunk beds   port hole cabin-showers/W./C  down the hall

 

Ship-Alexandr Pushkin   /Baltic sea  Steamship shipping  Co

 

Hit  a storm on the return   never though I would ever cruise again 😄

I believe Alexandr Pushkin was renamed Marco Polo - which was my first.