When was your first cruise?

[FloridaKeith]

While we did two transatlantic voyages on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth ll in 1984 and 1990 our first modern style cruise was was a 3 night Bahamas "taster" in October 2001 on Carnival Fantasy. As you can see we enjoyed it so much that we are now hooked! We have been enjoying trying out various cruise lines to establish our preferences. So far Celebrity is our clear favourite, followed by Princess/P&O and RCCL, but we would never turn down a bargain cruise on any ship!

[lindie11]

mine was 2001 on the topaz...

been on one every year since...

addicted...

oh well i love it! :cheesy:

[gogetter]

Hello,

My first cruise was on an aircraft carrier. The U.S.S. Ranger out of San Diego.

I was with a squadron from Whidbey Island, Wa. VAQ-137. The planes we had were EA 6-B. Basically these planes were a 4 seater that went and jammed radar.

I was lucky and caught the cruise on the way home. Just before Thanksgiving, i flew from Whidbey to Seattle, SAn Francisco, Hawaii, Guam, and then a little island out in the Indian Ocean called Diego Garcia. It was a stop over for supplies and stuff. From there i took a Destroyer out to the Ranger. We got close, about 200 yards, side by side and a helicopter came from the Ranger. This Destroyer had a heli pad and i waited for it to land. It didn't, but i saw a hoist being loaded. There goes my duffle bag....and here it comes again. They buckle me up and hoist me to the helicopter. It was hovering about 100 feet above. And you all thought Fear Factor was something?

On out return trip we stopped in the following places..........

Mombasa Kenya, Africa...New Years Eve

Sri Lanka

Pattaya Beach Thailand

Olangapo,Phillipines

Hong Kong

Phillipines again

Pearl Harbor

SAn Diego

Between the Phiilipines and Hwaii i saw the biggest waves ever. They came just short of the deck.

Anyways thats my story...... :grin:

[ANNE]

MY HUSBAND AND I TOOK OUR FIRST CRUISE ON THE NORWAY IN THE LATE 80'S. OUR DAUGHTER WAS A DANCER WITH JEAN ANN RYAN PRODUCTIONS. WE WERE ABLE TO CRUISE AS HER GUEST AS LONG AS WE SHARED HER ACCOMODATIONS, WHICH WERE IN WHAT THE CREW CALLED "SLIME ALLEY", WHICH WAS A CABIN BELOW THE PASSENGER CABINS. WE LOVED IT!!! THE PERFORMERS AND CREW WERE GREAT AND WE GOT TO GO TO THE CREW BAR, AND SHE COULD EAT IN THE PASSENGER DINING ROOM WITH US. IT WAS SUCH A WONDERFUL TIME!! NO OTHER CRUISE HAS EVER BEEN AS EXCITING. WE TOURED THE ISLANDS AND HAD SPECIAL TREATMENT EVERYWHERE WE WENT! WE HAVE SAILED ON SEVERAL CRUISES SINCE THEN, BUT THAT WAS ONE WE WILL NEVER FORGET!

[Guest]

You folks won't believe this, but my first cruise was accidental!

It was back in the days of virtually no security. And when I was young and naive. My friend and I had met a person in port who was from a cruise ship. She told us that we could probably go on board and walk around to check it out.

We walked down the dock, saw a gangplank down and walked right onboard. Turned out (but we didn't know it) that the gangplank was for the crew members - the passenger one was already pulled in as the ship was about to leave port.

We ended up in the crews' quarters, found our way to the bar, asked the bartender what time the ship was to leave and he told us "quatro" (four in Italian). So we relaxed as it was already 4:15, we believe that he must mean the NEXT "quatro".

Found our way to the deck and gazed upon a sea -- I noticed what appeared to be a moving buoy and pointed out to my friend that a buoy had become loose. Looking further in and below, noted that the dock was now moving.....

And so it was..... we were unintentional stowaways!

Kris

[GottaCruz]

Zeke,

I love your story. How did it end? Did you get to finish the cruise or what? Thanks for sharing your experience with us and Welcome aboard, zeke.

[BoatrideLover]

Our very first cruise was in September, 1992. We went on the Atlantic (Big Red Boat). Our son was 4 years old and it was really great because back then, the Disney characters were on board! We were immediately hooked!!

Dawn.

[Joanandjoe]

We're not counting our 1972 one nighter as our "first cruise, although it is included in the total shown in our profile. Our first more than one night cruise was to Alaska in 1998 to celebrate our 30th anniversary.

[popsec]

Feb, '06......5 nights, just to see if we liked it.......we did!

[saltydog]

Besides the USS Independence when Uncle was paying for my cruises the first civilian cruise was in

1984 aboard the "Big Red Boat" Premier Cruise Lines Oceanic from Port Canaveral to Nassau for a 4 nighter.

A classic old ship. I miss it.

Cheers

Tim