When was your first Princess Cruise?

[JoyciePoo]

Sea Princess, Western Caribbean, Thanksgiving cruise 1999. One of the best vacations of my life! Great itinerary, great cabin and oh, yeah.....lobster tail(s) instead of turkey for Thanksgiving dinner!

 

 

Joyce L. From Pa

[JoyciePoo]

My first Princess Cruise was a 14 day Caribbean voyage aboard Grand Princess in November 2010. This was only a couple months before her shopping cart handle was removed.

 

 

"...Shopping cart handle was removed". What does that mean? Just curious

 

 

Joyce L. From Pa

[Princess Cat]

Eastern caribbean in 1996 on the old Crown Princess for our 25th wedding anniversary. First cruise and hooked ever since.

[FritzG]

If you count Sitmar which became Princess, my first cruise was July 19th, 1974, which is 40 years ago. It was a 7 day Caribbean cruise, and amazingly we still run into former Sitmar employees on Princess from time to time.

Edited March 30, 2014 by FritzG

[san diego sue]

Our very first cruise was on Sitmar Fair Sea(which later became Princess) in 1978.

Our first actual Princess ship was in San Diego to Mexican Riviera

on the first Pacific Princess (Love Boat). I believe it was either 1985 or 1986. It was also the first cruise ship to sail out of San Diego on a regular basis. This was the first cruise and on with us were dignitaries

who worked to get the cruise ship industry to come to San Diego.

Also on board were the Padres Baseball team with their wives. Very lively cruise. All the waiters and kitchen staff were Italian and food was yummy. The menus were really pretty(had actual dates on each one) and end of cruise got to take a bunch home with us. The room stewards and Officers all British.After that cruise we cruised at least once or twice a year, tried every cruise line we could afford but in the end we cruise mostly Princess now.

[azdmelani]

in her inaugural season 1999. My senior year of HS, and my second cruise. I'm still mad that my mom was resistant to the idea of cruising for so long :)

[evandbob]

I'm a recent customer of Princess - first cruise on the Crown a 12 nighter Rome to Venice in Sept, 2012.

 

Planning an Alaskan cruisetour in August this year, also on the Crown.

[Traveler30]

My first cruise with princess, was in October 1988, on the Fair Princess, from San Francisco to Sydney. Have done several Panama Canal cruises plus the Caribbean. Does anyone remember which year that Capatin Philip Pickford, was Capatin on the Coral? I have a picture with him at the Capatin Circle reception but no year. This would be helpful.

 

I have 25 cruises, with princess, last one being 2010, unsure when the next one will be.

[terrific_surprise]

Our very first Princess cruise was on the Sapphire Princess (Mexican Riviera) in April/May 2010, celebrating our 25th anniversary. We had only cruised once before, on Carnival Paradise to Catalina and Ensenada.

 

From the moment we stepped on board the Sapphire Princess something just seemed magical -- we felt like we really were on the "Love Boat"! ;) I don't think that either of us were interested in cruising with anyone other than Princess after that.

 

Since then we have had a couple of additional opportunities to visit the Sapphire Princess, but I think our most memorable experience with her was when we visited her for just a few hours in February of 2013 (as a surprise for my wife, leading up to a surprise cruise for her 50th birthday). :D

 

The Sapphire sails off to Asia this week, so we don't know when we will have the opportunity to see her again. :( We have so many special memories of her that we might just take some time out of our busy schedule to drive down to San Pedro Thursday just to say goodbye.

 

Tim

Edited March 31, 2014 by terrific_surprise

[John Reid]

Golden

Alaska Inside Passage

August 2009

[OCruisers]

Our very first cruise was on Sitmar Fair Sea(which later became Princess) in 1978..

 

We also came over to Princess from Sitmar. Loved and still miss that cruise line! :)

LuLu

~~~

[hb1491]

First cruise Nordic Prince Oct. 1972, original Royal Princess Christmas 1986

San Juan to Acapulco and cruising ever since.

[recyclelady]

Our first cruise was on the old Crown Princess in 2001 on a partial transit thru the Panama Canal. We had a minisuite somewhere on the Aloha Deck.

 

My parents-in-law took us. I was convinced that I would be bored and took alot of books. I don't think I opened one the entire cruise. I've been hooked ever since!

[obnurse]

My first cruise was February 2, 2002. It was my birthday but most importantly we were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. We sailed Golden Princess. I cried all the way to the airport because I was so nervous about leaving our kids......by day 7 I was crying because I didn't want to get off :-). I was officially hooked on cruising.

[DDMau]

Caribbean Princess, October 2010 r/t San Juan, Puerto Rico.

 

[Cruis'n Guys]

Our first princess cruise was in the late 70's (1978?) on the

Pacific Princess to Mexico.

At the time:

Everything was paid in cash.

The menus had original artwork on the front.

You could keep the menus (packed away).

Shotguns were handed out on the aft deck to shoot skeet.

Most of the waiters were Italian (classier).

The 12-17 year could be seen playing the slots.

The average age of the passengers was 45.

Very few walkers. No scooters.

The women wore "gowns" on formal night.

Not all things get better with age.

[PescadoAmarillo]

Our first were B2B Caribbean cruises on the Sun Princess booked just a few weeks in advance in December 2003. Thankfully, our Princess experiences have improved quite a bit since that cruise.

[Desert Nurse]

Mine was the Fair Princess to Mexico in 1989.

[cwtravel]

Our first Princess cruise was Nov. 2002 on the Golden, Eastern Carbbean. If Sitmar counts I did do one on the Fairwind, in 1976 when I was a teenager.

 

Chris

[LostTexaninCali]

My first Princess Cruise was on the Royal Princess from April 27 to May 12 (yesterday) from Fort Lauderdale to Copenhagen.

 

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Forums mobile app

[tgmg00a]

My first cruise was on the Princess Italia to Mexico in April of 1972. I was 15 1/2 and had just gotten my California Drivers Permit. I got to drive part of the way from the SF Bay Area to LA on what was then a not quite finished Interstate 5. I remember being the only car (or should I say Station Wagon) on the road for what seemed like miles with jogs over to Highway 99. The cruise was great but being one of 12 or so teenagers it was tough, as all the girls were falling for the Italian Stewards instead of any of us dorky Americans.

 

Talk about memories.

[dopanate]

Our first cruise was the original Regal Princess in Alaska for our honeymoon. We were originally booked on a different ship (can't remember which one) but it was damaged a month before the cruise. We were offered the change to Regal, with $500 OBC and airfare reimbursement since the sailing date was different. We weren't crazy about the cabin location which was an inside at the very front of the ship, but the OBC certainly made it bearable!

 

Looking forward to the Grand on May 25 in an aft Vista suite to celebrate retirement!

[elliair]

It was on the Diamond Princess a few years ago. It was wall-to-wall wheelchairs and walkers. Then there was a large group of alternative lifestyle people who hogged the hot tubs. It turned us off from cruising on Princess until we cruised again on the Island Princess through the Panama Canal. We like the nonsmoking policy on balconies and we plan now to stick with Princess.

[MGnut]

Our first Princess cruise was a 2004 Grand Princess western Caribbean cruise out of FLL. It was hosted (not paid for :() by four wineries from Washington state. Lots of good wines with some group meals. We loved everything about Princess but the coffee :( - really bad in those days. Now we have 16 cruises and 193 days. Yay - Elite!

 

Or first cruise was on RCCL in 2002, a southbound cruise from Alaska. It convinced us we loved cruising (and Alaska). Did one NCL on another Washington Wineries cruise, and never went (or plan to) back to NCL.

[JimAOk1945]

Our first Princess cruise was in August 2009. We took the Star Princess Alaska inside passage cruise round trip from Seattle to celebrate our anniversary. We were in Juneau on a whale watching excursion on our anniversary watching a pod of humpback whales doing their bubble feeding. That was the first highlight of our cruise.

 

The second highlight was when we were on a shore excursion walking through the rainforest in Ketchikan when a mother bear ran across our path followed by two cubs. :eek: The cubs scooted up a tree with the mother right behind her. Even though the rain was coming down in sheets my wife managed to get pictures of the mother bear hanging on the tree trunk growling at us.

 

It was a very memorable anniversary cruise! :D