Your first cruise ship

[Copper10-8]

On 9/26/2022 at 10:39 AM, krittykat said:

We started cruising late. Our first cruise was on Holland America's Oosterdam.  Our daughter was 12.  That would put it 2004.  We cruised to Alaska.  It was amazing. We felt pampered, ever though we were in just a balcony cabin. No special perks packages like there is now. We did eat at their specialty restaurant (a steak house) which was great.  Remember an elderly gentleman coming up to us asking if we tried the Barramundi then kept telling us "Ya gotta try the Barramundi"  It is still a long running joke for us.
The daughter and I won at bingo (she played and I collected the money). We had fantastic shore excursions.  The main dining room's food was fantastic. It was assigned seating and they got to  know us.  My daughter's love of cherries amused the waiter and he always put her favorite soda along with 6 cherries out waiting for her (and he taught her to tie a cherry stem without her hands - lol).  One night, it was lobster tails and steak - she ate 6 lobster tails..... 
Still trying to chase the awe of that 1st cruise.  Never likely to find that sparkle again but will keep searching.  Mega ships definitely do not have it for us - too many people.
Sailing on the NCL Dawn (about the same size as the Oosterdam) in just a couple weeks.  Hoping to come close.

 

[Elizajane7307]

Our first cruise was on P&O Australia's Pacific Jewel, on older ship, in September 2016. We sailed from Sydney to Port Douglas in Far North Queensland on a 10 night test cruise to see if we'd like cruising. The answer was YES! Next we booked a 17 night Northern Explorer cruise with Princess the next year and then a 12 night South Pacific cruise with Carnival the next. Then covid-19 came along and we are finally getting back to cruising this month, a month long Round Australia itinerary. The mid-size ships are our preference as there is plenty to do but it's not too crowded. We also have a NZ and Alaska cruise booked for 2024 and quite a long list of future destinations we'd like to cruise.

[telebax51]

First cruise ship was 2010 on the Crown Princess we sailed to Southern Caribbean that cruise got us addicted to cruising.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

On 5/28/2022 at 5:07 PM, Cloud9 Bob said:

The ship was totally old style cruising, formal dining, gowns and suits, midnight buffet and even skeet shooting from the deck! Our stateroom had a small bath tub and three large windows. I put an arrow to show it. Even got a call from the bridge to keep our shades closed at night, as it was spoiling the Captains night vision!

 

I miss the Midnight Buffets; they were so decadent and indulgent. Also decadent and indulgent was driving golf balls off the stern of the ship.

[jsn55]

9 hours ago, Elizajane7307 said:

Our first cruise was on P&O Australia's Pacific Jewel, on older ship, in September 2016. We sailed from Sydney to Port Douglas in Far North Queensland on a 10 night test cruise to see if we'd like cruising. The answer was YES! Next we booked a 17 night Northern Explorer cruise with Princess the next year and then a 12 night South Pacific cruise with Carnival the next. Then covid-19 came along and we are finally getting back to cruising this month, a month long Round Australia itinerary. The mid-size ships are our preference as there is plenty to do but it's not too crowded. We also have a NZ and Alaska cruise booked for 2024 and quite a long list of future destinations we'd like to cruise.

How I would love to cruise around Oz.  Just gotta gear up for that plane ride.  

[pantux]

Throwing out some old paperwork and discovered paperwork from my first cruise. It was the SS Americanis on  Chandris Cruises in the late 80s out of San Juan.  

[OldCaver]

My first cruise was on the Splendour of the Seas, a transAtlantic cruise. We sailed on the Splendour several times after that when we could arrange it. I don't think it's part of the fleet anymore. I thought it was the perfect size ship. They don't have ships that size anymore, so we've gone with the next size up. I still have no interest in sailing on one of those monster ships. The smaller the better.

[George C]

My first 7 day cruise was Rotterdam from New York City in 1977 have cruised at least once year since.

[Heidi13]

On 10/10/2023 at 9:09 AM, OldCaver said:

My first cruise was on the Splendour of the Seas, a transAtlantic cruise. We sailed on the Splendour several times after that when we could arrange it. I don't think it's part of the fleet anymore. I thought it was the perfect size ship. They don't have ships that size anymore, so we've gone with the next size up. I still have no interest in sailing on one of those monster ships. The smaller the better.

 

Affirmative, sold by RCI about 2016/7, now sails as Marella Discovery.

[FionaMG]

On 10/10/2023 at 5:09 PM, OldCaver said:

My first cruise was on the Splendour of the Seas, a transAtlantic cruise. We sailed on the Splendour several times after that when we could arrange it. I don't think it's part of the fleet anymore. I thought it was the perfect size ship. They don't have ships that size anymore, so we've gone with the next size up. I still have no interest in sailing on one of those monster ships. The smaller the better.

 

That was our first cruise ship too, a repositioning from Barcelona to Lisbon in November 2001, during which we were badly bitten by the cruise bug 😂. A few years later we sailed a transAtlantic on her, from Lisbon to São Paulo.

[BarbaraEH]

On 9/14/2008 at 11:56 AM, cp556 said:

First cruise was Norwegian Caribbean Line's M/S SKYWARD, sailing from Miami to Cozumel, Cancun and Great Stirrup Cay. Sail date Oct 13, 1985. I'd booked a female quad share, and my TA at home had sent the payment to NCL, but not confirmed that my res was in order. So....when I got to Miami, traveling solo, I learned I had no cabin. I chatted with the purser and some other officials and ended up with an outside double cabin to myself.

 

When I got home, I confronted the TA, whose reply was "well, dear, these things happen". "Dear" realized that there might be a better way, and I ended up opening a successful cruise-only agency which I owned until I retired a few years ago.

 

Despite the goofs on my first cruise, I was indeed hooked. And remain that way!

 

I know that M/S Skyward sailed from Singapore for a number of years as Leisure World (and other names...I recall Shangri-La World). Wonder where she is now?

What a fun thread! Our first cruise was also on NCL's Skyward in the spring of 1987 for our honeymoon. It wasn't the cruise that got us hooked by any means. We had an inside cabin and the bed was a mattress on a wooden box base and there was a big hole in the wood that you felt like you were falling into. There were no other cabins available to move us to so the cabin steward tried to stuff it full of blankets and towels. Didn't work too well. Storms also caused cancellations of a couple of ports of call including Cancun where we were supposed to go on the excursion to Chichen Itza which was the whole point of the Mexican themed cruise. The storms were so bad that the staff wrapped the breakable items in the shops in the t-shirts and placed them on the floor. Ten years later my husband's brother convinced us that we should try Celebrity Cruises so we booked an eastern Caribbean cruise on Century and had a wonderful time. We enjoyed it so much that a few months later when we saw a photo in the newspaper of their new ship, Mercury, transiting the canal from the shipyard to the sea -- we said we've got to book a cruise on that brand new ship! So in 1998 we did the Western Caribbean on Mercury and we've been cruising ever since.

[Smitheroo]

Not a cruise but a transatlantic voyage, 8 days from NYC to Southampton August 1966 on the Cunard ship  RMS  Sylvania. It was one of their smaller ships, taken out of service a few years later  and then scrapped.  I was 16 and had a wonderful time.  As a result of this experience I became a ship "groupie" for the next 10 years or so, visiting all the ships that came into the NYC docks.   Then never cruised/sailed again until I took  another TA on  the QM2  in 2013.