Tell Us About Your Very First Cruise

Jan115 · August 26, 2013

OK, veteran cruisers - when was your very first cruise and on what ship did you sail? Would love to hear your old stories and how cruise vacations have changed since you first stepped aboard a ship.

To start things off, my first cruise was relatively recently - the Grand Princess in 2002 - to the western Caribbean islands of Cozumel and Grand Cayman - so not much really has changed - except maybe the size of the vessels. The Grand was one of the biggest ships at the time, and as we all know, she's no longer the "grandest" in size, and in fact seems pretty small when standing side by side to the Oasis or even the Royal. But in that 11 year span of time, many more choices have been added to onboard dining and activities, most for an added fee.

What about you, what's your first cruise story?

Mach · August 26, 2013

My first cruise was back in the early 90's... 93 or 94... not sure but I am sure it was on the SS Norway and I believe I sailed out of Miami. The ports of call were of no importance as shortly after we sailed we met horribly foul weather and the primary source of entertainment was watching people run into walls and make mad dashes for restrooms.

I spent little time on the open decks because of the conditions but I did become friends with several bartenders as I was almost the only customer they had for the 7 days!!!

It really was a lovely ship and remarkably big for the time frame... over 1000 feet long and very well appointed. It would be several years before I would return to the sea but the Norway stands as my first...

Jan115 · August 26, 2013

Wow! Not an ideal first cruise by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly one you won't forget. Thanks for sharing!

ch27088 · August 26, 2013

My first cruise was with a Marriage Ministry group with our church. It was on Royal Caribbean (can't remember which ship), in 2006, out of Los Angeles. To be honest, I don't remember doing much of anything because we were with a large group. We left on Monday and came back on Friday, which I felt was too short. The ports were San Diego, Catalina Island, and Mexico. I don't think I would do a large church group again because I didn't get a chance to really experience a cruise like I wanted. I did notice that it was a more "laid back" ship compared to the Carnival Cruise we went on a few years later. We are currently scheduled for another Carnival cruise next year and can't wait!

jacketwatch · August 26, 2013

Very cool topic Jan.

We had taken land vacations exclusively and Sue got the idea for a cruise for something different which I was against at first and finally agreed reluctantly. Our first was a 7 day cruise to the western Med out of Barcelona in the summer of 2002 with stops in Villefranche, Livorno, Rome, Naples and Malta and was on the Splendour of the Seas which is small by todays standards.

We opted for a window cabin and arose on the first morning thinking we were in port only to look out the window and see that we were still at sea! The ride was so smooth we did not even feel the motion.

I loved the entertainment as they had a band which dressed like and performed nothing but Beatles songs so that was very neat.

Out TA at the time advised us that even though this was our first cruise that going tours on our own was easy and of course much cheaper so we took her advice. All we did was get off, get a cab, cut a deal and go and htis worked very well in every port though at the time the USD was 1:1 to the Euro.

We had so much fun we've done nothing but cruises ever since save for our trip to India and one land vacation to Hawaii.

DebbieandJerry · August 26, 2013

Our first taste at cruising was 1992 on the Norwegian Star. It was over Valentine's weekend and was a 4-day out of LA. We stopped in Catalina Island and Ensenada. We didn't even get off the ship in Ensenada because we live so close to a border town, we figured it would be same/same. We loved Catalina and I think we did 3 or 4 excursions there. I remember being on the glass bottom boat excursion. I remember seeing animals almost like in a ski area and I remember walking around the town.

I think we had an inside cabin, but really didn't know the difference or any better at that time. I remember that we always got confused as to what side of the ship our room was on and a room steward always directed us back.

The ship was tiny (especially compared to what we sail on now) and we loved all of the rocking and rolling. One night the sea was so rough there were barf bags on all of the handrails. Because we don't drink alcohol, the motion of the ocean really didn't bother us or upset us. As a matter of fact, we were sitting in the casino (and it was a teeny, tiny one) and I would say to the dealer, "oh, I feel the engine vibrating under me" and she would reply, "you lucky girl". This was the cruise that Jerry and I played blackjack at separate tables and each of us walked away with enough money to reimburse us for our total trip: air, cruise, excursions, etc.

Jerry even entered and won a hula-hoop contest on this cruise! We have our ship on a stick, a framed picture of the ship and loads of pictures to remind us of our very first cruise experience.

Everything about that cruise confirmed to us that this was the type of vacation that we had to continue taking.

Great question Jan. Thanks for bringing back such wonderful memories.

dmoten · August 27, 2013

My first cruise was in 1997 on Carnival Fantasy out of Port Canaveral. Neither my boyfriend at the time, nor I had ever cruised before. We checked in and was escorted to our cabin. Turned out we had been upgraded to the top of the line suite (the one and only time the upgrade fairy has sprinkled her dust on me).

I was a little nervous because I get severe motion sickness but I did not experience any sickness the whole trip. I was looking forward to just being at sea and not being able to see anything except the ocean. Our steward was stealthy because we did not see him until our last day. We were always in and out of the cabin and there was evidence of him being there but we never saw him.

We did an excursion in Freeport and wished we had just stayed on the ship because there was nothing interesting there. Nassau was a lot more interesting. We took one of the party cruises that went to the beach, we had a Bahamian band on board that played a lot of Caribbean music. My boyfriend was from Jamaica so I was familiar with the music and some of the dances. We danced to the beach and we danced back to the ship.

We chose the short trip to the Bahams mainly since neither of us had cruised before we didn't want to start out with a long cruise to find out we hated it. When we arrived back in port, we wished we had booked a longer trip.

Edited August 27, 2013 by dmoten

Jan115 · August 27, 2013

My first cruise was with a Marriage Ministry group with our church. It was on Royal Caribbean (can't remember which ship), in 2006, out of Los Angeles. To be honest, I don't remember doing much of anything because we were with a large group. We left on Monday and came back on Friday, which I felt was too short. The ports were San Diego, Catalina Island, and Mexico. I don't think I would do a large church group again because I didn't get a chance to really experience a cruise like I wanted.

I'm happy to hear that the short length of the cruise and the large group didn't turn you off from cruising!

Jan115 · August 27, 2013

My first cruise was in 1997 on Carnival Fantasy out of Port Canaveral. Neither my boyfriend at the time, nor I had ever cruised before. We checked in and was escorted to our cabin. Turned out we had been upgraded to the top of the line suite (the one and only time the upgrade fairy has sprinkled her dust on me).
I was a little nervous because I get severe motion sickness but I did not experience any sickness the whole trip. I was looking forward to just being at sea and not being able to see anything except the ocean. Our steward was stealthy because we did not see him until our last day. We were always in and out of the cabin and there was evidence of him being there but we never saw him.

We did an excursion in Freeport and wished we had just stayed on the ship because there was nothing interesting there. Nassau was a lot more interesting. We took one of the party cruises that went to the beach, we had a Bahamian band on board that played a lot of Caribbean music. My boyfriend was from Jamaica so I was familiar with the music and some of the dances. We danced to the beach and we danced back to the ship.

We chose the short trip to the Bahams mainly since neither of us had cruised before we didn't want to start out with a long cruise to find out we hated it. When we arrived back in port, we wished we had booked a longer trip.

Sounds like a lot of fun, Dee! Even though you wished for a longer cruise, you were wise to choose a short one for your first. We did that also when we brought our kids on their first cruise - a 5-day Carnival cruise - because we weren't sure they'd like it. Turns out they did, and they've been with us in longer cruises since.