M/S Skyward

[dexddd]

The M/S Skyward was my very 1st cruise!

 

Summer 1991 - San Juan - Aruba - Curacao - Tortola & Virgin Gorda - St. Thomas - San Juan

 

I was 16 years old and my parents surprised us by taking us on this magical vacation. We had 2 outside cabins on the Atlantic deck and my twin brother and I shared one of them.

 

We made friends with many people on the ship and joined the Skyward Olympics with some other teenagers from San Diego. We named our team "Coast to Coast" because we were from New York. Our team took the gold medal!

The funny thing about this now is that we had a future celebrity among us and we didn't even know. The ships comedian was Gary Valentine. If you haven't heard of him, you might better recognize him as "Danny Heffernan" on the hit show "King of Queens". In real life, he's Kevin James' older brother. Gary Valentine performed on the ship as a comedian, and in the off time he made friends with the passengers and even us! He joined the Olympics with some other passengers and his team took the silver medal! That night in his show he joked about losing the gold medal to a bunch of teenagers - my team! It was hilarious. He took a picture with my brother and I and our friend, but unfortunately I can't find it or I'd post it here".

 

We also made friends with the ships crew - which were incredibly welcoming and friendly. We made friends with the ships Cruise Director, Purser, Teen Activity Director, and others. Knew them all by name. After a week we knew 3 of them so well that we invited them to come to New York City for a personal tour - none of them had been. You know what? They came! Several months later we met up with them in Manhattan and brought them around downtown NYC and had a great time!

 

We also kept in touch with our friends from San Diego and went to visit them in California twice!

 

This cruise was a very memorable experience and one of the best family vacations I ever had in my childhood. I'll always remember it in detail.

 

Since 1991, I have grown up, gotten married, and now have 3 children of my own - the oldest 11 (which was my sister's age when we cruised on the Skyward). This October we're taking our kids on their first cruise! I hope it will be as memorable for them - though they're a bit younger than I was.

 

This will be my 4th cruise - and I hope to go on many more. :)

 

Which ship are you going on in the Fall? Maybe some of us can give some info if you need it.

[cruisencrazy]

We took our 11 day Caribbean honeymoon cruise on the Skyward in 1988. It was our first cruise. We had a porthole around water level. Back in those days, they left all cabin doors open, until you "moved in" . We immediately explored to try to find a larger cabin, only to discover that they were all pretty much the same size. We had the best time on that cruise. We just took an NCL cruise for our 25th anniversary. We opted for the balcony instead of a porthole :)