What year and what ship was your first cruise?

[Joebucks]

2017 Carnival Victory. Better late than never!

[43yearscruising]

1975 - Princess Patricia (converted old car ferry into a lovely tiny cruiseship). Alaska cruises, 7 days, out of Vancouver and return. Took that trip twice. Have enjoyed cruising all over the world ever since.

[Hobbits_stole_my_Precious]

1984 NCL (back when it was Norwegian Caribbean Lines) Starward -- Inside cabin (thought for sure there had been a mistake) -- walls so thin everybody heard everything. Shore excursions averaged $25 - $35; drinks about $3 to $5; they didn't mind if you brought your own; wasn't crazy about the traditional dining, tho our table mates were actually pretty cool, but I do miss the parade of serving staff especially with the baked alaska flaming on their heads ......

 

Went back a few years later on the Starward after its refurbishment -- port-hole cabin; not great table mates this time (skipped alot of dinners -- ordered room service WITHOUT any delivery charge - just tipped really well); great ports-of-call tho.

 

Took many years off from cruising NCL, went back in 2008 on Star to Alaska -- wow, what a world of difference from the Starward !! Love the Freestyle environment, tho miss the days of bringing your own on board.

[donaldsc]

The Lewis R French - a Maine windjammer that held 22 people. This does not count the Staten Island ferries that I took probably when I was 3 or 4.

 

DON

[Z'Loth]

January 5th, 2003, Carnival Elation. Ports of call: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas.

[gooch47]

1981, Carnival Festivale

 

Still used tug boats to dock. Had skeet shooting. MDR was in the bowels of the ship, no windows and heavy vibration from the engines. I'll always remember the beautiful blue water at our first port of call in the Bahamas. It was so blue it looked fake, LOL. Chimes were played to announce dinner.

 

Our second cruise was a year later on the Carnival Tropicale. And we had the exact same waiter. Third cruise was back on the Festivale and our waiter had been promoted to Head Waiter.

[jocap]

Husband's first cruise was 1948- Union Castle UK to Cape Town

Mine- MV Columba, Oban round the Hebrides, 1966... although it was sold as a cruise, it was really living on a ferry and taking trips wherever she stopped. She's now the luxury Hebridean Princess, sometimes chartered by the Queen.

First real cruise ship for both of us, after years of ferry mini cruises, was 2006, Sea Princess.

[CarribeanCruiser28]

07 Royal Explorer of the seas

[broadwaybaby123]

Celebrity Cruises on the S.S Meridian back in 1992. I was five years old. I'm repeating the same itinerary pretty much....15 cruises later!

 

Sent from my SM-S327VL using Forums mobile app

[Got2Cruise]

1998, Royal Caribbean Enchantment of the Seas, Western Caribbean. It was a brand new ship then. There were 2 assigned meal seatings for breakfast lunch and dinner and 2 show times! Midnight buffet every night. Everyone got dressed up especially formal nights.

 

BTW I joined Cruise Critic then. It was just a crazy message board on AOL. Then they switched to internet boards and everyone lost their originally join date.

[TinCan782]

1969 - 1972 USS Rowan (DD-782)! OK, Carnival Ecstasy January 2004 - Long Beach, Avalon, Ensenada

[CanobieFan]

2014 on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas from Port Canaveral to Labadee, Falmouth, George Town, and Cozumel. I've done six others since...with my eighth in the works and first non-Royal.

[DRS/NC]

1967 NCL Sunward 3-night weekender, Miami to Nassau We were 22 & 28; thought we'd died & gone to heaven!

 

1974 Sitmar's Fairsea LA to Mexico

We were hooked for life! No buffets except at midnight; MDR for all meals. Our 2.5 yo DD was "Bella Bambini" for the entire 10 days; she cried & tried to refuse to leave the ship on the last day!

[shipgeeks]

Not exactly a cruise as we know them now, but in 1969 I sailed on a Columbus Line freighter, Cap Vilano, from NYC to Sydney, Australia. We spent four days at King's Bay, Georgia, loading our cargo of dynamite, then after Panama, did not have another port until Australia. 42 days total, never bored.

[Valiamo]

Easter break 1973 - SS Nevasa - 10 day Mediterranean cruise Venice to Southhampton, stopping in Athens, Naples - included side trip to Capri, Barcelona, Gibraltar and Southhampton. Me and 900 other school aged kids from Canada and Great Britain.

 

Then 1986 - Honeymoon Carnival Holiday Eastern Caribbean

[lisiamc]

The ship that gave me the cruise bug was Carnival’s Mardi Gras, sailing up the St Laurence River in Quebec in 1979. I wasn’t a passenger, I was on shore, listening to the Dixieland Jazz band playing on the deck, watching the people having a great time, and thinking “I want to do THAT!”

 

My first cruise was on Regal Princess in 1992, so it took me a while to make that wish come true.

[lifes-a-beach]

Carnivale 1992

[cayman09]

Fairwind, 1977. Sailed under the Sitmar Line which was acquired by Princess in the '80s. At 20,000 tons she was small by comparison to the behemoths of today, but at the time was very imposing as a true ocean liner, not a cruise ship. Italian crew and officers were fantastic.

[Laughing Angel]

2005

 

Carnival Pride out of Long Beach.

 

Ports of Call: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas.

[Von & John]

1990

Carnival Fantasy

Port of Miami

[jayjaycan]

Our first cruise was aboard Epirotiki Line's TSS Atlas, a transatlantic voyage in April 1987 from Santo Domingo D.R. to Malaga Spain.

The ship began life as HAL's Ryndam in 1951 and after several life changes was sold as scrap and sank off the coast Of Dominican Republic on the way to Alang in 2003.

 

Regent Holidays, a vacation/travel company in Toronto ON, chartered her from Epirotike Cruise Line for a couple of years for Caribbean and transatlantic cruises before she was sold as a gambling ship.

She was an old ship when we were on her and we had a small porthole cabin on the second deck. She held 875 passengers. Her captain and crew were all Greek. The cruise director, singers, dancers and band were Brits. The featured female singer and male magician were Canadians.

 

After 34 cruises we still savour the memory of that cruise and the experience we had onboard and in the ports of call.

Edited May 29, 2018 by jayjaycan
correct spelling

[DKane]

My in-laws invited us on our first cruise with my young daughter in 1987 on Commodore Cruise Lines where the Drifters were the performers. We were in a group of 28 and had so much fun and I'll never forget it. That was the beginning of my cruise addiction.

[Luckynana]

Our first cruise was 1983 aboard NCL's SS Norway, at the time one of the biggest cruise ships! Great memories made with great friends!

[VPKara]

July 5, 1975 RCCL Sun Viking

Family vacation to the beautiful Caribbean! Thanks Mom and Dad for giving us such great memories that your "kids" still talk about today!

[Heidi13]

January 1976 aboard SS Uganda, departing from Malta in the meddy. A classic old ship.