What year and what ship was your first cruise?

[JimAOk1945]

Carnival Conquest 2007. It was a birthday present to my wife. The cruise wasn't even over before she was talking about taking another one. We've been cruising since then, sometimes twice a year whenever possible. We love it. It's a great way to travel and see the world!!!

 

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[gardenbug22]

2004, the NCL Majesty. I was a fill-in for friends, who had someone cancel. I really was not excited about the thought of cruising.h but loved spending time with my friends and the ship was headed to my favorite destination... Bermuda. I loved the smaller ships. Thankfully it was nothing like the Love Boat and I became hooked on cruising. What I noticed that has changed is there is less enrichment classes and more things like mini golf, ropes course, water slides and the like.

[pghsteelerfan]

Our first cruise was in 1992 on Carnival Festivale (out of San Juan) for our honeymoon. We had to dock across the harbor in San Juan since they had the replica Christopher Columbus ships (500th anniversary celebration) at the Old San Juan docks where the cruise ships normally sail in and out of. Where we were docked, Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas was docked right in front of us. I seem to recall that, at that time, Monarch was the largest cruise ship at that time.

[John&LaLa]

2004, the NCL Majesty. I was a fill-in for friends, who had someone cancel. I really was not excited about the thought of cruising.h but loved spending time with my friends and the ship was headed to my favorite destination... Bermuda. I loved the smaller ships. Thankfully it was nothing like the Love Boat and I became hooked on cruising. What I noticed that has changed is there is less enrichment classes and more things like mini golf, ropes course, water slides and the like.

You sailed on her after the stretch in 97

 

She used to be 100' shorter.

 

 

 

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[Crazylabradors]

How has cruising changed since your first sailing. In the early 80's people dressed up a lot more before going to dinner every night.

The ships were much smaller, some holding under 1000 passengers.

Our first cruise was on Carnival Fantasy two. weeks after 911.

I have been on around 30 cruises since.

Hi, our first cruise was 1996 on Sovereign of the seas mini cruise Cape port Canaveral to the Bahamas. I remember our children one 9 years old. The look on his face of amazement when he saw the atrium such a lovely memory. Being from the UK never seeing such blue seas and a perfect beach on RCCL private beach. It took me some time to take it in!. The ship anchored floating in this amazing colour and the sugar coloured sand. Wonderful. :):)

[Heidi13]

How has cruising changed since your first sailing. In the early 80's people dressed up a lot more before going to dinner every night.

The ships were much smaller, some holding under 1000 passengers.

My first cruise was on Carnival Fantasy two. weeks after 911.

I have been on around 30 cruises since.

 

In the 70's it was mostly steam turbine liners that had converted to cruising - Oriana, Canberra, Arcadia, Uganda, QE2. Pax capacity was about 1,750 all in 1-class. Evenings were very formal and meals were all fixed seating with many tables having an officer at them for dinner.

 

By the mid-70's custom cruise ships were arriving - Island/Pacific Princess, Sun Princess, Cunard Countess/Princess, etc. Pax were down to about 750, but the ships were just as formal in the evening and still had officers at the dinner table. This was a hold over from the days of liner service.

 

Since the 80's ships have continued to increase in size and the number of pax per crew member has increased from 2:1 to 3:1, or worse. Standards on the main-stream mega ship lines continue to erode and the dining is now casual, with significant reduction in quality of meals and menus. Still remember when Princess changed their menus to have the Beef Wellington and Lobster on the same night.

 

Captain's cocktails used to have a separate party for each seating, which included a formal receiving line. They also used to serve real drinks, which were freely available from the bar, or a waiter. On our last Princess cruise they only had 1 party for the entire ship and watered down pre-mixed drinks could only be got from one of the few waiters.

 

Cruising speed - back in the 70's we used to routinely cruise over 20 kts and at times over 30 kts, as the old steam ships had sufficient power and hull scantlings to handle an ocean passage at speed. Now most ships struggle to make 20 kts and routinely slow steam at 15 kts or less. In the late 70's QE2 World Cruise was 80 days, now a World Cruise is 100+ nights.

 

Just a few changes in our 40+ years of cruising.

[simplelife]

Carnival Paradise in 1999 out of Miami. Interestingly enough the ship a was completely smoke free ship. Of course we know that this did not last for long.

We sailed on Paradise when she was a non-smoking ship. Loved it.

[Aussie17]

1962 on the Oronsay from Perth to Adelaide, Australia. I don't remember much of the trip as I was young, but my parents thought it was wonderful. My next cruise was in 1989 on the Fairstar from Sydney to Vanuatu, another great cruise, then 2013 Sun Princess to New Zealand, 2017 Regal Princess on Baltic cruise.

[jasamy2]

How has cruising changed since your first sailing. In the early 80's people dressed up a lot more before going to dinner every night.

The ships were much smaller, some holding under 1000 passengers.

My first cruise was on Carnival Fantasy two. weeks after 911.

I have been on around 30 cruises since.

 

Based on your cruising experience, which cruise and cruise line is your favorite?

[gooch47]

Based on your cruising experience, which cruise and cruise line is your favorite?

 

Not sure who you are asking but we prefer Princess mainly because of the perks we get and it seems more elegant.

 

We won't sail ever again on Carnival but that has as much to do with our age as with the cruise line itself. We just aren't party people.

 

NCL seems a little too laid back for us.

 

Royal Caribbean is more like a theme park to us.

 

I love Alaska cruises. We've done them five times.

 

I also love Australian cruises. But the 14 hour flight from LA is a bit much for us now that we are in our 70's.

 

My least favorite cruise was the Baltic.

[go.without.you]

1st was on Dolphin in 1988, was a freebie since I was a travel agent. (Those perks all but died in the late 90's once everyone and their brother decided they too could be a travel agent from their house.) They had a private island in the Bahamas, was very small and was creatively called "Dolphin's private island". I think Carnival later bought it. Booked another 6 months later on Carnival...Fantasy maybe??? Hitting my 23rd cruise soon.

 

Different from now: You had to pay cash for everything, that was a real pain. Digging thru your bag for bills and coins. Drink prices were the same or less than bars on land. You gave the crew tips in cash on the last night. Sometimes it took some planning to have exact change. You would get actual COINS from the slot machines. I remember winning about $200 in quarters the first night. I kept in a bucket and would grab a handful before dinner each night until it was empty at the end of the cruise.

 

You were assigned ONE table in the MDR and that's where you had breakfast, lunch and dinner. The tables were all 6, 8 or 10 pax. Sometimes there would only be 2-3 people at each table but you had the same waitstaff for every meal. You couldn't get a 2 or 4 top until the 90's. One night had a midnight buffet that was very extravagant with carved fruits, shaped breads, etc. I remember one had 2 cooked lobsters playing volleyball on a field of colored sugar to look like sand - volleyball net was carved out of some food. If you missed breakfast or lunch in the MDR you had the buffet since you had to be properly dressed for each meal. I ate a lot of pizza and burgers since we would stay up late (7am breakfast on 5 hours sleep, no thank you). They wouldn't serve potato chips at the lunch buffet because they would go stale from the humidity outside.

 

Your cabin choices were inside or outside and the window was about 3x5'. You had to take a ton of clothes and it seemed like you changed 3-4 times a day. For sail off the band would play and there would be a big party. The pool would be filled with helium balloons held down by a net. They would release them as the tug boats pushed us out. They would fill the pool early the next morning using sea water and would change it every day.

 

I don't miss the smaller ships that were much more rocky than today. One cruise the waitstaff had moistened the tablecloths so the dishes wouldn't slide with the rocking of the ship. Glasses would only be filled halfway or else your drink would slosh out. Good times.

[marco]

Not exactly a "cruise", but sailed ot Italy T/A to visit my grandparents in 1960 on the "Leonardo Di Vinci". That started my love affair traveling by ship, be it a T/A or cruise. Since then, well over 100 sailings of one sort or another.

[FLOURTOWN]

1976 Holland America - Rotterdam $700. a week for two with a porthole!

[Sixtytwo]

1997, Carnival Fascination.

[rcc4au]

December 30, 2001 - 3 or 4 night holiday cruise sailing from Miami, FL to the Bahamas and Key West.

 

I think the ship was Majesty of the Seas.

 

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[Dremac373]

2007 on royals majesty of the seas on the lil quick Nassau and Coco cay weekend cruise

[PSU62]

SS Norway, 1985

[cheeseclan]

Royal Caribbean Nordic Empress 1990

Edited March 31, 2019 by cheeseclan

[TheDMan62]

2003 Carnival Ecstasy 

[Bases5]

1980    NCL Skyward   

[ontheweb]

2002 Splendour of the Seas in the Western Mediterranean for our 25th anniversary. 

[harleycvo]

1988 Home Lines Horizon to Bermuda

[Chewy94]

2017 MSC Divina. Our honeymoon vacation.

[Taterspop]

1991 Carnival  Carnaval

20+ Cruises since then, not a bad one in the bunch.

 

[JohnJuliCruzn]

2005 Royal Caribbean Enchantment of Seas just after it's refit.  Out of Ft. Lauderdale FL.  5 nights.  We were hooked.  We tried 1 on Carnival,  and went right back to Royal.  All great experiences with RCCL.