Our first cruise was back in 1975 on the Leonardo Da Vinci, an old Italian Line ship that sailed round trip from New York to the Caribbean. It was our senior class trip from nursing school. There were about 18 girls and 2 guys from our class. Cindy and I haven't even began to date yet (but I think that was where we began to notice each other). The other guy and I were treated very well by the Italian crew. I think that they saw us as able to "introduce" them to any of the young girls that they would want. Of course, that wouldn't happen, but we did take advantage of it. We got a free bottle of wine at our table for every lunch and every dinner on the cruise, we went ashore with the crew and never had to buy lunch, etc. It certainly left me with a good taste for cruising. In 1999, our 1st went off to college and we finally decided to try it again, and have cruised just about every year since.