cruisin'since'75

I was the lucky one when at a "Travel Show" held at the Civic Center in hartford, CT, my girlfriends father, who owned Happy Time Travel in Hamden, told the agent standing behind the table at the "Home Lines" bboth that his daughter and I were "brand new agents" and that he wanted to send us on a cruise from NYC to "the islands" so we'd have some idea what the heck we were talking about when trying to sell a trip to potential clients. The Home Lines agent responded that if we could leave on the Saturday coming up (it was a Tuesday evening, about 7 pm), we could sail on Home Lines world-famous Oceanic for $35 per day, 7 days, to Nassau and Bermuda. My girlfriend patti was immediately thrilled. Me? I was a little less so.

I sure did love to travel; I'd been flying all over the world in the five years I'd gotten out of school, and somehow or another, sitting idly on a "boat" for days didn't seem nearly as appealing as flying off into the sunset to exotic locales.

My girlfriend's Dad did a great job of selling me on the cruise, he was sailing as well that same Saturday on the Rotterdam and he promised we'd meet in Nassau and do all kinds of exotic stuff, and I reluctantly agreed to go along with Patti on the Oceanic.

I easily got the time off from my job at a VA Hospital, my boss encouraging me to see as much as I could and experience as much as possible. I kinda hoped he would say I couldn't have the time off, so then there would be a real reason for my not being able to sail on Saturday. The more I thought about it, the more distressed I'd become. I was going to be so bored I'd have to JUMP overboard just for the change of pace, I was sure!

I packed four novels into my tote bag and figured if nothing else, I'd catch up on my reading and just force myself to relax for 7 nights and days. I was sure it was going to be a disaster when sailing day greeted me with dark clouds threatening rain. Sure enough, the 2 pm boarding arrived in a windy storm, lots of rain and hail, and I was pretty much drenched as we boarded the ship.

I was an image of lovliness, frizzy curls and watery make-up, (I can only imagine), growling at the staff and crew all lined up wearing white jackets with little green "stand-up" collars, white gloves and amazing, big, bright smiles. Where in the world was this damned cabin I'd been assigned to? Oceanic Deck? Bottom of the ship? One deck above crew deck? It better have a window, for heaven's sake!

Wasn't I a bit surprised and tantalized when the most gorgeous blue eyes looked down into my blazing-with-anger brown eyes and said "I help you with your bag, miss, please, let me...

And boy did I. From that moment on, I couldn't have dreamt of anything so lovely, so amazing, so wonderful. By Tuesday night I was crying and moaning that I'd have to get off this wonderful Oceanic ship on Saturday morning and how was I going to live my old, staid, boring life on land?

The food, the service, the cabins, the music, the dancing, the sun, the sea, the boys of Italy, it was all too marvelous and fabulous to even imagine that I was part of it all for those 7 days.

Was I hooked? What in the world do you think? I booked another cruise for 6 months later, and then another for six months after that, and then another and another and another. All on Home Lines. They only had 2 ships, so it was like going "home" each and every time I sailed again and again. Wonderful new friends, passengers and crew, wonderful new ports, wonderful memories, wonderful experiences... the most wonderful time of my life. A marvelous addiction.

Hello Ladies. I also won't be able to go on the Cruise to Nowhere with Cruising Sisters since I've booked a cruise on the Emerald Princess out of FFL for the 60th birthday of my best friend in the world, Marcella, as she's know on this site. We set sail on January 10 for a 7-night cruise, Eastern Carib. Frankly, I haven't ever really cared what ports the ship went to, just as long as I was cruising it didn't matter! So far there's about 14 folks going along for the BD celebration - and I'd say about 90 percent of the folks are former "Home Liners", in some fashion or another.

Would have liked to have done both, but that wouldn't work for me this year. I'll be thinking of you guys, however, and hope whoever is on this great sailing reunion has the best time ever and meets up with so many former Home Lines guys and gals!

Hello OhOceanicShip! Flavio was a friend of mine and dated a girl friend of mine for a few years. As recently as last year he was working for Princess Cruises but I don't remember which ship. After Home Lines went out of business he worked for Costa for a couple of years.

Many of the Home Lines crew continued to work on other lines after Home Lines. Some of them became disenchanted with the cruising life after a bit and went to their hometowns to make a life. Others, like Flavio, continue to sail. I ran into him several years ago at the port in Fort Lauderdale. He looked exactly the same as he did in the 70s and 80s, was quite content to be working on a cruise ship, and was thrilled to see a couple of "Home Lines girls", as he called my friend and I, because "there was no other ship like the Oceanic", and he knew we would know what he meant by that.

I believe there are a couple of crew who have posted at this site, so keep on checking. You may actually here from Flavio or one of the other crew you made friends with a few years back.

Ahhh, can't get your info to pop up either. Really am not a big technology fan but understand it is vital. My email is jad52@hotmail.com. I know I've seen it dsplayed in the past, but who the hell knows what I hit by mistake to access that info! This is all public info as it is, so not a problem. Its worth whatever else I get in my email box if I get to hear from you and/or your sister.

Thanks. Janet D.

 

This is an idea, we have a "Cruise to Nowhere" booked for January on the NCL Gem out of Manhattan with a reunion of school friends, maybe all of you would like to get together with this overnight cruise and bring back old memories of our Home Lines days. If you need info I can give you the girl who is handing the group reservations for our school and you can all receive the same discount as our group with her.

 

Nancy

Oh my, an overnight in January w/a bunch of broads from the old Home Lines Days! Helluva way to start the new year and one of the most generous offers you two ladies could possibly make! I was going to say a generous offer made to strangers, but my guess is that as soon as we get in the same place at the same time, we'll absolutely all know each other. Some of us may have had our "moments", and some of us may have shared our boys, but ya know, none of that matters. Well, maybe it matters a little bit...

You can feel all the good that this particular board exudes; it practically pulsates w/the emotion, the memories, the honest and knowing respect we have for each other as "Home Lines Girls".

Certainly the reunion at the restaurant in Westchester sounds amazing, but frankly, we all know that ANYTHING on a cruise ship at sea is better than any other thing on land! I haven't been in the best frame of mind for the last several weeks which is odd for me in the spring and summer, but honestly Nancy, my interest has been awakened and I'd like to talk to you, or email, about this cruise idea. Contact me. All my info is listed.

And Ms. Florida, you join the little group and this wondrous "simpatico" begins to blossom almost immediately. Thanks Nancy and her sister. I can't wait until we are in touch. Marge106, whadyathink from your end?

J ;)

I made many, many friends through Home Lines -- many are my best friends still today. As I said, that cruise changed my life.

Hi marcelleg13 - of course I recognized your CruiseCritic name immediately, girl! Welcome Aboard from Cruisin'since'75! 'Bout time you landed here. This will become an addiction, my friend, but don't dismay, we're all slightly hooked on Home Lines and so we're our own support group, as it turns out.

You are about to embark on quite a little journey of names from the past you would never imagine you'd ever remember, stories you thought long forgotten, places, moments, love stories, even a few baby stories mixed in, not so happy endings, some really awful endings, even better beginnings. We're all a part of that space in time. We all have said at some point or another that unless you were actually there and had the "Home Lines Experience" you don't really "get it".

You'll get it already, Ms. marcelleg13. You ARE it, actually.

And then we all go back to doing what we do everyday knowing we have the Home Lines Family ready and waiting for us @CruiseCritic.

See ya, kiddo. We'll talk. J

Hey Marge, I was wondering where you were...I'll pass along the message to Ms. Debbie, and I know she'll have a laugh. Ya know you made the best brownies anywhere and its no wonder Michael wanted you to bring them w/you when you travelled to Italy, as well as on the cruises. He appreciated good food and a good woman. He got both w/you, now didn't he, missy?

I think how fun it would be to sit at the pier some Saturday, watch the coming and going, and have a chat. It wouldn't be exactly the same as our precious Saturdays at the pier, but it would certainly be a hoot. We could all meet, all of us who have been writing to this Board, and at least we'd know where we going!

I've been chatting w/girlfriends who used to go to the pier on Saturday mornings. We got to talking about how miraculous CELL PHONES would have been "back then". We wouldn't have had to go up & down those escalators/elevators to "check in" w/the girlfriend who was assigned to stay upstairs in the waiting area to see if your guy had come off the ship and then check w/the girlfriend who was waiting downstairs/outside, looking for your guy, her guy, whomever, get off the ship from that level! We wouldn't have needed that "runner", usually me, going up and down and up and down and up and down. What the hell was I doing?

I'd make a plan to meet my man, whoever it was always showed, we'd meet at the assigned spot (either up or down), they would always be late, we'd rush around the city in cabs, cause once my car was parked I wasn't going anywhere unless it was to bring my boy back to Connecticut for an "overnight". Remember those? Never enough of those! And then we'd get back to the ship, out of breath and ALWAYS running, to bounce onto the gangway - downstairs - so he could put on whatever the uniform was for his particular job, and I'd get to sit on deck, in the sun and river breeze, and act like I was Queen of the World!

Then we'd all be checking each other out, wondering who was seeing who, and sometimes we'd talk to each other, but most times we just looked. I wonder how often we looked at each other? We must know each other, or at least have heard of one another. Don't you think?

Speaking of cell phones and how miraculous they would have been for us, did you sit around all day on Saturday, when you weren't at the pier, by the phone, waiting until 1 o'clock for a phone call? But then if the call didn't come through, you waited until the ship sailed just in case your "friend" managed to get off the ship to make a frantic, rushed (always rushed) call? Ah, the cell phone would have made a huge difference in my Saturday socializing. All that mattered was my call, however, and finally around 6pm, in case the ship sailed late, my Saturday would come to life locally, especially if that call came through!

Okay, okay, I'll triple ditto!!! I'm @work, too, needing a little break, and getting on the Cruise Critic Board is the best way I can think to take one...away from all this reality. Hell, I work in a Psychology Dept at a VA Hospital. Talk about needing to get away from the characters I'm surrounded by constantly! I just log on and here I am talking to the perfectly sane characters - former Home Liners! Ah yes.

Just keep it up, and try not to be "miffed" ArubaGirl. We were all just learning how to find our way, back then, and in some sense this recalling and retelling the stories that made the times what they were kind of completes the entire process, at least in my perception.

I'm envisioning you trudging down that long, vast open space to get to the gangway (upstairs or downstairs??), loaded down with shopping bags and various boxes, trying to look absolutely adorable, as well. That spoiled, adorable brat wanted to make the biggest impression on family and friends when he got home and began doling out the "American" gifts he brought to Italy from all the world over! You are a good and patient woman, my dear. But the picture is hysterically funny and I'm sortof chuckling out loud at my desk, right this minute, so I gotto go...

In fact in Bermuda we all went out to the Club and he had a black jacket that I called a Don Johnson Miami Vice look and of course the sleeves were rolled up I guess that was his trade mark. :)

Trademark? Oh that's being so kind...his sleeves were rolled up because he was so short! The sleeves on the jacket were way too long for his arms, proportionate to his body, certainly, but that's what made them so short. He and his good friend, the other Giuseppe, whose last name I remembered while driving by the beach the other day (honestly!), was Lauria, (Gisueppe Lauria, also short, compact, and absolutely adorable, very dark, great smile, perfect teeth, lots of wavy black hair), were WAY lucky the Miami Vice look was definitely "stylin" in those days! Otherwise they woulda looked like little kids wering their father's clothing. And I hemmed those suit pants for Giuseppe L. on one of my cruises. Believe me, I had to cut inches and inches off before I could make the hem.

Those two adored being on the ship. I spent over 6 (1975 to'81) years seeing Lauria, then until the end of Home Lines all those years he and I were "friends". Lauria worked in a factory in Germany for a few years before he came to the ship, and he used to cry when he talked about how awful it was in Germany and how horrid working in this car factory was, but he needed to work since there was no work in Sicily and he had a wife and daughter,mother and brother to support. He always said that "the life" on the ship was hard work (oh, please) but nothing like the life of a German factory worker.

Yea, I knew he had a wife from the very first minute...he used to say that when he was in Italy he loved his wife because he was there; and that when he was on the ship he loved me very much 'cause he was with me, here (in the U.S.). Hell, when he came home from one of his two or three month vacations his wife sent me a wooden wall hanging of a Sicilian cart encased in glass (oh my God!) and a note THANKING me for taking care of her husband while he was in New York City and making sure he was always "robusto" (healthy). Did you ever? I don't quite know where the note went to, but I still have the cart in a box in the cellar. Can't throw the damned thing out.

That's it for now. My memory break for today is over and I must get back to the job. I'm looking forward to reading more adventure stories from all the former Home Lines girls. What a treasure trove of fabulous moments.

:)On one of my returns from Bermuda I went back to work very depressed and when I showed my Supervisor a picture of GG she was like oh my;my cousin and her daughter justed returned from a cruise last week and GG spent quality time with her cousins daughter she also took pictures in to work for me to see.He called me every Wed night from Bermuda and when I had mentioned it to him he told me that he did that as a favor to her Mother which of course I did not believe it for one second Hope everyone is doing well Talk to you all soon.

"as a favor to her mother"! Oh Mr. Guaraggi give it up...how funny he thought you'd actually fall for that answer. Yea, he was a charmer, alright.

I wonder how it would be if we "girls" got together some Spring Sunday for a visit @the Landmark Tavern, Y'all know the Landmark, right? We could have a few cocktails, or maybe tea, share a meal (we're all so good at sharing!), a few good stories and some laughs! We're having such a swell time on this board, it could only be better in person. Well, maybe better. We'd have to see about that!

The Landmark Tavern is on 11th Ave, @46th Street, a block up from the piers where Home Lines docked. Used to be a pretty casual place, reasonable prices, and you could "hang out" for a coupla hours with the "boys of Italy". I think it may have changed a little since I was there last - maybe 15/16 years ago, but its still there and it would provide a great scenario for a visit. Seriously ladies, give it some thought, 5 or 6 of us in the same place at the same time with nothing but time to share about some of our best times.

And Marge106, we would finally get together after talking about it way too many times and doing nothing concrete. This could be the launch of that book you keep asking me to write. How's that for luring you in,heh?;)

I was wondering when your name was gonna show up given these particular postings the past couple of weeks. Thanks, Marge, I love you and miss you and you really don't have a clue how many times in any given period I think about you, things that you said, moments that turned into shared experiences, our separate lives turning into a relationship that has lasted what I'd consider a lifetime, at this point. Joined together by and because of Home Lines, but lasting forever because of the woman we were always meant to be.

Did we ever really think there would be a "last time" on Home Lines? We knew it was the end, at the end, but how much thought did you give to what that last moment would be like, who you would be with, what you would be doing, what the last word spoken on your beloved shop would be, and to whom? It makes me cry now because I can't remember the specifics, just the more easily recalled general conversation, the groups of people, the area we were hanging out - usually outside on deck - but not exactly where, at the rail, on the deck chair, at a table...WHERE? WITH WHO? TALKING ABOUT WHAT?

I get emotional and carried away, forgive me. Would it make me feel better to remember each and every specific item? Perhaps. I don't know 'cause I can't remember. Its been a long, very long time. So much has happened since then and now. I believed I'd never forget a single thing about my days, and nights, on Home Lines.

These postings and being in touch with those special folks like Aruba Gal and CruisinSue, and you Ms. Marge106, make it real, helps me remember more, and remember it better.

I'd give my left tit, as a friend used to say, to have one more time, that last time, with my Home Lines family. Maybe we feel this way precisely because of what we're writing about. All that sharing.

Consider this your first gentle "bug". I'd give almost anything to see these pictures, deck plans, menus, etc. I only sailed the Galileo once, but it made quite and impression. I sailed on her again once she became a Celebrity liner. I was again impressed. I just love old ships, I guess. So please, get to this project quickly.

Many thanks, Mr. V.

Giuseppe always wore an anchor pendant and gold signet pinky ring I had given him. We very well might have crossed paths. CrusinSue also seems to know him!!!

Ah, Home Lines. You really needed to have the experiences we had to understand what this was all about - and still is to some degree. I 've said before, in other posts, I grew up on Home Lines. I became the woman I am today because of each and every one of my experiences and each and every one of the people I met.

I'm betting our paths crossed somewhere in the world of Home Lines. We went from young & impressionable girls to fabulous, amazing woman. I wouldn't have had it any other way. Would you?

Aruba Gal, I just remembered Giuseppe#1's last name. Lauria, Giuseppe Lauria. How could I ever have forgotten that beautiful man's name?

I don't know if it helps any, but it just occured to me as I was gazing out at the ocean from my 9th floor office window. Yea, I know, what a view!

My name is Janet, by the way. How does that work for you?

OK, out on a limb here and nervous. When were you involved with him? Could answer a lot of nagging questions. Was the other Giuseppe more dark skinned?

Yes. I began seeing the other Giuseppe, the darker one, lets call him G#1, around 1975/76 and continued my time w/him until he left the ship around 1981/82. After many angst-filled discussions with Guraggi, with me pledging my heart forever to G#1, and that I "wasn't that kind of girl" (how charming after all this time!), we began to see each other on a long cruise out of Port Everglades (Ft. Lauderdale) the winter of 1982 and continued to see each other thru the New York-Bermuda season. Giuseppe#1 returned to the ship for the next winter, I began seeing him again (more heart-felt discussions, of course), my friend Laura began seeing Guraggi which lasted only a short period of time and they each went on to others. Giuseppe#1 and I saw each other again for quite awhile, in ship time, that is.

Do we know each other? Were we rivals? :o

CrusinSue....yep! Giuseppe G was from Sicily and Giuseppe B(Nino) from Calabria. Know them quite well...my girlfriend married Nino, and, well, the other one, is a very very long story.

Oh my, please, please, please TELL the story... Giuseppe G. and I were very close for a coupla years, but many years before, it seems, that y'all knew him. He hung out w/yet another Giuseppe who last name escapes me...and I don't know how I could forget him. This other Giuseppe was adorable, hung out w/his cousin (?) Gaspari, all the time, and in fact the two visited several times to my home in Ct.

Giuseppe "Garage", as friends and I called him which he thought was hysterical, definitely made an impression, as they all did, when ya get right down to it. The other Giuseppe, Gaspari's cousin, even brought his very little brother onto the ship for one "contract" and then made him go home to never set foot on a ship again. oh, quite a little group.

How fun this was...I'm at work right now killing some time before I get the heck outta here. Can't imagine it was just a whim tonight to get on-line and look around. I found Cruise Critic a coupla years ago and frankly am never disappointed when I log on.

Thanks for tonight, gals. I know, I know, you can always count on those Home Lines girls. What other broads would wait around for hours on Saturday mornings, pacing, smoking cigarettes, smiling and talking to all the other girls, (trying to figure out if you were there to meet the same guys), just to spend from maybe 11 to 1 riding around in cabs while the guys "shopped", heh? No others. We were slammin' ladies, and still are!

"Things that will never change about Oceanic is the scent embossed in my mind, the echoes under the Magrodome, the memory of the winding stairwells with bronzed artwork, the slight wagger of her stern at speed, the sea breezes through the verandah promenade, and the view off the tip of her long and graceful prow".

Tampa Mike, no one has said it better than you...and I'm a writer by trade w/a few publications here and there, which doesn't mean much other than that I'm a tough critic of other people's writing. You write beautifully about my favorite ship and era. I grew up on Home Lines, and couldn't have imagined receiving a better education. I am everything I will ever be due to my adventures aboard Home Lines ships, beginning with the Oceanic in '75, i.e. "Cruisin since'75", and ending with the Homeric in the late 80s.

As well, I remember the scent of that wonderful lady Oceanic. When I would arrive home and open my suitcase the scent would be released one more time, until the next voyage, and I would stick my nose into the middle of my packed clothes take short, hearty breathes so as to pick up as much of the scent as possible. It was the "ship scent". And only Home Lines had it.

Don't ever get even a whiff of it on any ship today. Probably never will again. I wish I could have captured it in a bottle forever and ever to open when I needed that peaceful, warming aroma to brighten my world.

Thanks for bringing a bit of the grand lady Oceanic back to my mind for a wondrous moment. ;)

What I would give to be able to repeat that if even only for 1 day. Okay enough nostaglia, just thought I'd pop in to give my thoughts on the Europa.

 

Ahh, but it is so lovely to take that step back in time, I always get all warm and giggly. I can't help but smile like a fool, but a very happy fool.

We're looking forward to sailing on the 8th. Honestly, it would be lovely if the weather clears, but ya know what? I'd rather be on a ship at sea in ANY kind of weather than anywhere else in the world. Really. We've experienced some pretty hefty storms, haven't we honey? I'm not about to let Mother Nature ruin my good time! The one addition that would make it even "more better" is if you were aboard ship with us. Perfection.

Alaska, huh? I'd hafta fly across country. The Alaska cruise has never been very high on the priority list. But ya know Marge, if it means we're together @sea again, I don't give a damn. I'll do it!

Lets start looking at prices and dates...

JD;)

Hello all,

A reunion sounds like a fabulous idea! Would love to get together with passengers and crew from so long ago and share wonderful memories!!!

 

Okay, I'm in for this reunion in NYC. I'll give a call to "Jimmy" and offer to help him plan the event. I've worked in the "special events" field for over 10 years @Yale University, so I think maybe Jimmy won't mind so much my offer to help out.

I'll get to him as soon as I come back from my next cruise - in early October - so then I'll be able to concentrate on this momentous event!!

Ciao, my Board friends, let's liven up this party with some great old stories and happy memories.

Marge106, how the hell are you? Still time to join us ya know. Next year, '09, we've GOT to get together on a ship.

JD:cool:

Thanks Posh and Burt for your responses. I had no idea.

I sailed on an overnight cruise on one of the SeaEscape ships from Tampa to the Bahamas in the 80s. It was fine, as I recollect, but absolutely not memorable in anyway, good or bad. The one thing I actually remember about this cruise is that I purchased the BEST nightshirt from the one of the onboard shops (I think there was only one!) When I returned home I realized I hadn't packed my favorite shirt. I called customer service, explained the situation, was told they would contact the ship to locate my shirt and that I would be notified.

Notified I was. The following week I got home from work, went to the front door, found an overnight package on the steps, opened it up, there was my nightshirt, wrapped in blue tissue paper with a little note pinned onto it saying something like "Thanks for cruising with SeaEscape and we hope to see you again soon". I'm guessing they hadn't located my shirt, but sent me a new one instead. (One size fits all.)

Imagine that? All that from some line that most folks discounted as not being fit for the sea or its customers. No matter what ship or company you sail with these days, you'll never get this kind of good, pratical customer service.

However, it's unlikely that 157 people would die in an on-board fire, either.

Changing times...

The Scandinavian Star finally ended at Alang Beach in 2004.

SeaEscape owners still go unpunished for the 158 murders they commited on that ship!

What murders? When? Where? Dear God, 158 murders!

Okay Kruise53 now you have me wondering as I am sure is my dear friend Cruizin. Details please, the who, what and when. I've been trying to track down a Teresa R. from Brooklyn for years but no one seems to know what happened to her. Wouldn't you jus tlove to have a "reunion" of all of us, that special group.

 

"those were the days my friend".

 

Marge

Ahem! A reunion of "that special group" would definitely be a media event! Some of us still have a few things to straighten out w/each other, don' you agree Ms. Marge? We could sell tickets!

It would be a delight to see all the guys and gals we'd run into every Saturday early morning, standing around the pier, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, pacing, pacing, upstairs, downstairs, inside, outside; an active, full day, without a doubt. If only we'd had cell phones then...

Seriously kiddo, lets plan something now that we have an opportunity and a vehicle - these Boards - to make it actually a possibility. We could bring back "those days, my friend" and perhaps make another unforgetable Home Lines memory. ;)

sstravler - it really is hard to understand if you were not there during that time. Many of us grew into the women that we are due to some of the relationships/friendships that blossomed during that time. There never will be another Home Lines and it is sad, I would have loved to have the opportunity to share those ships with my husband and children.

Marge

Honestly, this is one of those cases if you ever sailed Home Lines, you know exactly what each person is talking about and remembering. If you never sailed Home Lines you have suffered a glaring loss and can't have a clue what all the fuss was, and is, about.

I absolutely agree w/Marge106 and tell anyone and everyone who listens that I grew up on Home Lines, as so many of us did. We are amazing and confident women, almost completely due to our experiences and relationships aboard the Doric, the Oceanic, the Atlantic and the Homeric.

I would be leading a totally different life if I hadn't sailed from that cold and rainy Passenger Ship Terminal in October '75. Of that I'm sure.

I'm also sure I wouldn't have had it any other way.

I worked with Rick on the Rotterdam V. We also had mutual friends at Premier where I was prior to HAL.

 

Yes, the Horizon & Zenith were designed for Pericles Panagopoulos of Royal Cruise Line. He deferred thses larger designs of Crown Odyssey and Michael Chandris took the options. I was at Celebrity when the fleet consisted of the Meridian, Horizon & Zenith. At that time, Celebrity was an exceptional product.

Hi Everyone strolling down memory lane...I haven't been to this site in months and months and decided to take a look see after browsing sites on Carnival vs. RCCL, etc.,etc. The comparisons never stop. None of these folks, however, knew Home Lines like we did, or even what Celebrity was like when first they set sail. I was on one of the first season's sailings of the Meridien, in the late spring, and then found a way to sail again in the early fall, we had such a memorable cruise to Bermuda, docking at King's Wharf.

Celebrity certainly was an exceptional product, and followed through quite nicely with the Horizon and the Zenith. I guess all those past Home Liners at that time kinda knew that those two ships were supposed to be part of Home Lines - before all their problems - and so just kind of automatically fell in love with the ships and the lines. Our loyalties were not misplaced and the early Celebrity Cruises certainly lived up to all our hopes and dreams. And then that too changed. It was too good to be true, a second Home Lines was not meant to be; and I guess could never be.