What influenced you to decide to do your first cruise

[The Fox]

Hi,

 

As i read through the boards and posts it has become more evident that a lot of us have done several cruises.What made you decide to do your very first cruise?

 

I can remember way back in the late 60,s myself and one of my mates had been fishing 10 miles out to sea.we had left watsons bay around midnight and fished till about 4am.We came back into the harbour just before light and decided to fish for greasy mackrel for bait ,which we fillet ,salt and pack for future bait.We had a good catch and we were gutting and filleting them just near the Sow and Pigs reef when I looked up and saw this magnificent white P&O liner glide gracefully past us.It was them we both decided to that we wanted to try a cruise.We saved and saved until we had enough money.The Orcades had just changed from a 2 class ship to one class so we told our friends and 8 of us paid the $255.00 each for 2 inside 4 berth cabins....our love for cruising was born.

 

How did you fall in love with cruising?

 

Cheers

 

Col:)

[Bella cruiser]

Well Col, I had no choice in the matter, I was indoctrinated thoroughly from a very young age by my cruise ship addicted parents.

 

It's taken me many years to talk my DH into trying it, but now he has been and he and our son have really enjoyed themseves, I look set to pass on the Cruise ship addiction on to the next generation. :)

 

Jenny

[Jodez]

I would have to say definately that it was the value for money factor.

We wanted to take our 2 teenage children "overseas" on a resort style holiday, but could not justify the amount of money it would cost us for a 10 day trip, during school holidays. Then the idea of a cruise came to us and after comparing that to the cost of flights & accommodation else where, it was "wow"............ what we got for our money was amazing, we had the best family holiday ever on a floating palace, and have not looked back. So now, nothing else compares :D

[Drelix]

Basically my nan went on one and then convinced my aunt and me to go on one and that was it i was hooked ever since.

[am1984]

Whilst out a party, my wife was asked "What where we doing for our 25th Wedding Anniversary", where she replied that "We we possibly going to Adelaide". My wife was then asked, "Now what do you want do do, not what he wants to do". My wife's answer was, "I would not mind going on a Cruise"

 

Now a cruise never interested me as I got very bored on the Spirit of Tasmania Trip from Devonport to Sydney several years ago

 

The week following that party, I started to do some online research into cruise prices, cruise ships, cruise lines & possible locations. I also then found Cruise Critics. Within 2 months we were booked on our 1st cruise.

 

Loved our 1st one so much, we booked our 2nd on return and are now waiting on our 3rd cruise, next August. The cruise bug did bite us.

[LOVE cruising!]

My best friend & myself both had holidays owing at the same time but neither of our partners could take holidays to come with us, so we went into our local travel agent with $1500 & said "where can you send us for this?". She promptly told us that a special had come in for the SS Virgo with flights. We were booked within the hour & had that much fun that were were both hooked instantly. It then took me 7 years to convince my 'fishing trip loving' husband to come on one & within half an hour of being on a ship declared that he was 'So doing this again'. We havent looked back since & have now hooked more friends into the wonderful holiday of cruising.:)

[Sandielle]

I discovered how much fun it was when travelling as a child with my parents. Then, when I started working I thought I would try a cruise and was hooked. As soon as I got home, really depressed, I booked again for the following year. And so it goes. Had a long break while bringing up a family and then saw an ad for a NZ cruise one day and that sparked it off again! (I'm glad to say.) :)

[Skyrules]

When I met my partner, he'd already done 3 cruises (2 on Fair Princess and 1 on Pacific Sky), and was keen to go again. I wasn't too sure - thought I might have been bored, thought I wouldn't like being confined to a relatively small space in the middle of the ocean, all the usual reservations people seem to have. When Pacific Sky came to Brisbane and was offering the 7night Week Fantique cruises, I agreed that 7 nights would be a good length to get my sea legs and see if I enjoyed criusing.

 

Well, by the time we got to Noumea, the first port of call, I was hooked.... 6 years (and 10 cruises) later I still am!

 

In fact six years ago today, to the day, we were on the final afternoon of cruising of that first (for me) cruise.

[qld cruiser]

In the sixties, my boyfriend..(.now husband), was stationed in Malacca. Malaya. I went on a passenger /Cargo ship to visit him.

spent almost 7 weeks travelling from Melbourne, stopping for a few days at most ports. some 4 months later, spent the same time coming back to Oz.

I was hooked on being at sea, and my love of the sea has lasted ever since. including a return to Malacca by cargo ship a year later , when husband by then, had another 2 year posting .

Husband enjoys the travel also, but gets cruised out quickly, but he allows me to travel solo whenever I see a bargain...:D

 

I will continue to cruise as long as my health holds up.

 

kind regards, Lorraine:):)

[Kinkacruiser]

Very good topic, Col. For me it was my husband, who talked a lot about his 6 week voyage to Aus in the late 50's. I never thought I would take to cruising ( being bored etc.) so kept putting the event off.

I think that with the new Brisbane terminal being built at the time, our cruise on the 'Pacific Star' looked very easy.

We started with a 9-day cruise and now we are looking at a 29-day one....proof of the pudding is in the eating.:)

 

Anna

[sherri3802]

What happened to me was my daughter wanted to go on a holiday. As usual, she had left it pretty much to the last minute. She wanted to take off overseas in January. She was going with a friend who had limited dates available.

Everything my daughter suggested didn't suit her friend-too dear, wrong dates, booked out.

In the end, I decided to get online and see what I could find in their price range.(max $2000)

I found a cruise that fitted exactly into the dates and was $1500 each. The online agent rang and chatted about prices then my daughter contacted her friend to see if they should book.

By the time they made up their minds, the price had gone down to $995, plus they got an upgrade when they arrived at the ship.

We picked them up from the airport after the cruise and they were rapt-they spoke of the 4 course dinners, the shows.

I had no idea that cruises were like that, i didn't really know what they were like, but after hearing them rave, I thought..... hmm, we could do that one day, then, sounds good.

 

So we did.;)

[karmac]

Back in the early 70's (when I was 11 or 12), my aunt, uncle & cousins moved to NZ. They went over by ship (I think it was the Oriana). We took them down to OPT and in those days of course, visitors were allowed on. I fell in love with the whole "ship feel" thing. A few years later my parents decided they wanted to go back to UK. As we hadn't had a holiday in the 5 years we'd been in Oz, they decided to go back by ship so we could have a holiday at the same time. When they first booked, I was supposed to have had my 15th birthday on that trip but it ended up being brought forward a couple of weeks so we got back to UK 11 days before my birthday. I was sooooooo excited about that trip and when the ship (SS Australis) was in Sydney a few months before, mum & dad took us down to see it.

We were on that ship for 35 nights and it was an amazing experience (even went through the Panama Canal:)). As soon as that trip was over, I told myself I was going to go on a cruise when I was older.

In the 80's, I had so many single friends going on the Fairstar and I was always jealous. I was married so it wasn't really an option for me. In 1985, my marriage broke down. I moved back home (good old mum & dad;)) and within a couple of months I booked a cruise on the Fairstar. I had an absolute ball and I'd only been home a ocuple of weeks when I met Jim (now my husband). He had been on Fairstar a couple of years earlier & the night we met, it was all we talked about.

After having our 3 kids, we looked at booking a family cruise back in 2002 (before I oldest turned 12) but having 3 kids made it way out of our price range wityh the 2 cabins business. THEN....Pacific Sun came to the rescue. We were allowed to have 5 in a cabin and we didn't hesitate in booking. We booked 17 months in advance (I was a stay at home mum at the time so only one income). It was a long time coming but we all had an absolute ball. That was in April 2006 and we've done 5 cruises since.

 

PS After that novel, you're probably sorry you asked:eek:

[oysterfiend]

As a kid I have always been facscinated by travelling trains and ships and the romance of holidays.

We have timeshare weeks which we exchange and they are very economical but there comes a time to do/try something different.

 

Our first cruise was on Pacific Dawn 2009 and I had to talk my husband into it. He thought it was a huge daily amount to pay and so did I but I wanted to go on the NEW Pacific Dawn.

We had to fly to Sydney and For 9 nights it was $5700 (?) two of us in a balcony- (not cheap) but fortunately we were upgraded to a minisuite.

 

Since 2009 (Pacific Dawn) we have done four more cruises-and have another booked for 2011 - Fremantle-Indonesia on Pacific Sun.

We also bought a $100 credit to use on another Carnival cruise within 4 years when we were on the Carnival Spirit this last September.

We are hooked!!!

[cme2c]

It was the wife's idea. I was a bit recalcitrant at first, but the attraction of being impossible to be called back to work appealed. Cruise No3 coming up :)

[Kiwi_cruiser]

It was my mum and dad who got me in to cruising.

 

Up till 2006 every year or so we had been doing land trips over to Australia.

 

We started our land trips down in Melbourne and then we started to drive up the cost over the years from about 2002 and so far we have got to Rockhampton :),

 

Then in 2006 my parents where looking at doing something different to celebrate dad Birthday, and that's when my parents started looking at doing a cruise,

 

We also had some friends who's husband was also going to be celebrating his birthday the week I think it was before my dad's Birthday so we where all going to do this cruise together, but it turned out our friends had to cancel at the last min as the wife got the flu! :( (But in turned out that the ship was over sold, but we could not change our dates but our friends could so they went a few weeks after us) , but we still went and had a ball! On the Pacific Star.

 

We / I thought that cruise would been a once in a life time trip, but then a year latter my parents look at doing another cruise in June 2007, but that cruise never happened as the Pacific Star got damaged in a storm on her way to pick us up and our cruise got cancelled :( , that's why I joined Cruise Critic, to find out what was happing.

 

Then in late 2007 I think it was we got an e-mail from our travel agent saying about a cheep cruise, ( I think) in February 2008 from Auckland to Brisbane, Townsville, Port Douglas, Cairns, Whitsundays and ended in Sydney, It turned out to be the Pacific Star’s farewell cruise!

 

So because we got a credit from P&O because our June 2007 cruise was cancelled we decided to use it to do another cruise this time on the Pacific Sun in June 2008.

 

Since then we have done 4 more cruises on both P&O AU / Holland America and Princess

 

and in July next year (2011) we will be celebrating 4 years of cruising and 9 cruises under our belt! (Would have been 10 cruises) :).

 

So I think we got the cruising bug :D

[AuzzieCruiser]

My mother!! She really wanted to do a cruise to Alaska. She saw something in the paper about a cruise expo, and I went. I got some crap and took it home, not thinking anything of it. Got a phonecall at work on Monday saying she had booked!!:eek:

I said this will be my one and only cruise.:rolleyes: Well suffice to say I enjoyed it, that I said next cruise it would be my choice. I think she was a bit surprised. Went to another cruise expo in 2005 and ended up booking a cruise to the Caribbean that day.

As they say the rest is history. I now have seven under my belt, and another 2 booked, one for next August and one for March 2012. One a year does me fine.:)

[Brushtail]

We came out to Australia as 10 Pound Poms when I was 8 years old. We spent 3 weeks on P&O Oriana cruising to Australia via the Suez Canal and landing in Sydney. We had Christmas and New Year on board.

 

I just loved being at sea and the whole experience and always wanted to go back. It was only when our kids left home that we had any money to be able to do so.

 

I talked Phil into it and booked the Pacific Sun 12 night cruise in June 2006. Luckily he loved it too. I picked a great cruise for our first one. Pentecost, Luganville, Wala, Vila, Mystery Island, Isle of Pines.

 

We've done 8 cruises now and have 2 more booked. :D

[sailawaysally]

We had never considered cruising until our eldest daughter did one by herself and shared with a total stranger! She was brave. Anyway after talking with her and seeing her pics my two daughters and I cruised on the Pacific Sun Apr 2006. :DTotally hooked! Daughters talking Ray into trying it at least once so we went on the Pac Dawn Maiden cruise and after the first day he was hooked too!;) Since then we have cruised 8 more times on various ships. Our last was a 'back to back' that Ray has wanted to do since he was talking to someone on his first cruise. 20 days was still not long enough. Would love to do a world cruise but that would take a lotto win! Ournext cruise is on Radiance of the Seas from Hon to Syd. 18 days. We are flying over for a week in Honolulu first. :(We weren't 'allowed' to go to Hawaii for our honeymoon so at last we will get there next September. Back in 'those days' we did what our parents said! :eek:

[Brushtail]

I've been using Facebook too much. When I've read the posts, I keep wanting to click on 'like'. :p

 

Why do we love cruising?

 

There's just something about being at sea. Love it.

[sandysu]

 

How did you fall in love with cruising?

 

 

I completely blame the internet. :)

Back in 2002, hubby and I cashed in an old insurance policy. And instead of doing the sensible thing and paying the money off the mortgage, we decided that we could finally go on our first ever overseas holiday. I was given the job of investigating self-drive holidays in New Zealand for the three of us (our son was about 15 at the time).

While doing this on the internet, a banner ad came up advertising cruises in Alaska. I would never have dreamed of considering such a holiday, but the $990 price caught my attention. Of course I realised almost immediately that this was in $US and a teaser price that probably no-one ever paid, and furthermore that just getting there would us cost an arm and a leg, but the damage was done, I thought it sounded really interesting and the more I looked the more I wanted to go. Surprised myself really, because I'd always thought of cruises as extravagantly expensive holidays for really old and really rich people - yes, I know, but that's how they had always seemed to me.

Anyway, I pointed it out to hubby and we decided to see if we could afford it. So, the self drive holiday to NZ turned into an Alaska cruisetour followed by a week or so in Los Angeles. And although we all loved LA, the cruise was even better than we had expected. Took us until 2008 until we could find time to do another one, but we've been on two cruises this year and it looks like it might be two next year as well!

[Debsta]

My first cruise was in Feb 1979...my first OS holiday using my first annual leave from my first job in the Bank :p I have no idea why I booked a cruise LOL

 

My second cruise was in 1980....My 2nd job was in the travel industry....which I worked in for many years to come....why did I book that one? It was a long weekend to no where on a Chinese bucket and it cost me $30.00 for the long weekend, cos they couldn't fill it and offered it to the travel industry at rock bottom prices LOL

 

My third cruise was on the Nile River...I didn't book it, it was part of a group tour I escorted to the Middle East

 

My fourth cruise happened as a mid life crisis 12 months ago.....travelling solo, it seemed like the perfect way to go...........I'm hooked :D Been on three cruises in the last year with another to come in January. I keep changing jobs so I can get a cruise in LOL

[lizzy77]

I also came out as a 10 Pound Pom in 1959 at the age of 8 and I had the most amazing memories of that voyage that I always wanted to go back and do a cruise. However no matter how much I suggested it to my husband he had no enthusiasm about going on a cruise ship. He would be bored!!!

So my 50Th birthday was coming up in 2000 and it was my request that we do a cruise. We did the Star Cruises Gemini cruise in Asia and that was the start of our addiction.:D:D

Does he get bored on our cruises---- Of course not, and he loves to cruise now as much as I do:p:p.

[robinph]

Great topic Col, and some great responses all with varying beginnings but similar endings all have found a love of cruising. Ours started in 2000 when our daughters surprised us with 2 tickets on the Pacific Sky to the Islands. for our 25th wedding anniversary. My DH had always said he thought a cruise would be the ultimate holiday. We both had a wonderful time, but thought it might have been nice to have some company next time .We did not do another cruise until 2006, when some friends invited us to go with them and it was'nt until cruise #8 that we went by ourselves again ,we are about to do cruise #9 in January with #10 booked for July for 28 nights to Tahiti. We have decided it does'nt matter wether you are by yourselves or have company you always can find something to do or someone to talk to if you want to, eveyone has a story to tell, some more interesting than others, but all interesting none the less. DH was definetly right it is the ultimate holiday, especially for us ladies, being waited on hand and foot, the hardest decision being what will I wear?......what will I eat?..... what will I do?...... it's a hard life but someone has to do it!....Right?:rolleyes: Robin

[Itachi]

We were invited buy some family friends.at first I was hesitant as I thought it cannot be that fun tapped on a boat for nine nights.turned out we all loved it and are booked on number three lol

[Neiner]

My BFF won a cruise! Her husband refused to go so I was the lucky one and I've been hooked ever since. I never considered that a cruise could be a very affordable vacation. It was a tight stretch for us on that first cruise though. She was a stay at home mom and I was newly divorced with three kids and no child support. So even though the cruise was free we still had to pay our airfare, transfers, pre-cruise hotel, taxes & port fees and gratuities.

 

A few years later when my DH proposed to me I agreed on one condition... That we go on a cruise for our honeymoon, lol. The minister actually mentioned it during the wedding ceremony, I get a cruise honeymoon, DH gets a Harley. (I won on both counts, lol!)

 

Skip forward another couple years and I convinced the whole family to do a cruise for my parents 50th Anniversary. We had 30+ ppl on that trip and what a trip it was! Most of the travelers were first time cruisers and I think every one of them is now hooked!

 

Two years later, (last year) we were finally able to afford to take our four kids on a cruise. Three were graduating that year! My parents, a cousin, some friends and my BFF (a different one) also went with her four kids. Two of hers were graduating also. My boy shared a room with her boys and her daughter shared a room with mine. It was a lot of fun! Now my kids are hooked and get mad everytime I book one without them.

 

Now I have two more booked. One if Feb with above mentioned BFF and then our RT Hawaii with my DH, parents and sibs. Cant wait!

 

Hello, my name is Janine and I'm a cruise addict.