Did anyone hate their first cruise, only to miss it and be "hooked" later?

[KmomChicago]

Someone asked this question elsewhere, and I thought it was interesting.  Did you sail Carnival for your first cruise, not really feel you were enjoying it at the time, then return home and find yourself longing to return to the sea?

[crooooze]

Nope - the only thing we hated about our first cruise was that it was only 3 nights... and that feeling hit after night #1.

[shof515]

what made me hooked with cruising was the ship being a moving hotel and i can go to to different ports every day or so.

 

it was nice waking up in nassau one day and then half moon cay the next day, and so on

[MeganGC1983]

My husband wasn’t a fan at first. He didn’t like the feeling of being scheduled every moment of every day on vacation. I adjusted things for our second cruise a few years later... YTD, more “beach days” instead of scheduled excursions in ports, etc... and now he wants to go twice a year. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[shellster1]

Yep. I sure did. My first cruise was 2002. It rained almost the whole week and I told myself I'd never go on another cruise again.... But my mom had so much fun, so I took her again the following year. We were hooked and went on many more after that. I've continued the tradition with my eleven-year-old son and he loves them, too. 

[KmomChicago]

6 minutes ago, MeganGC1983 said:

My husband wasn’t a fan at first. He didn’t like the feeling of being scheduled every moment of every day on vacation. I adjusted things for our second cruise a few years later... YTD, more “beach days” instead of scheduled excursions in ports, etc... and now he wants to go twice a year. 🤷🏼‍♀️

 

Megan you make a really great point.  Just as it's pretty easy to make a cruise into exactly the vacation a person wants, it is likewise quite possible to do the opposite. 

[KmomChicago]

2 minutes ago, shellster1 said:

Yep. I sure did. My first cruise was 2002. It rained almost the whole week and I told myself I'd never go on another cruise again.... But my mom had so much fun, so I took her again the following year. We were hooked and went on many more after that. I've continued the tradition with my eleven-year-old son and he loves them, too. 

 

I wonder Shellster how many of the "never again" posts we see here on Cruise Critic eventually change their mind. Glad you and your son have found what you love about cruising!

[3smithboys]

OMG, yes! That was us! I somehow was put in charge of organizing a cruise for 9 of us for my aunt’s 70th birthday many years ago. I’d never been on a cruise before, so I went to a travel agent for help. We told her the ages of the people going, etc... and she suggested the Norwegian Dawn. What did I know? It was a disaster! 

 

My kids (two of them were 4 at the time) hated the tiny kids club. The freestyle dining, where you have to make reservation for all of the special restaurants don’t work when your relatives all say “how do we know where we want to eat a day in advance?” I’m like *****, I book Disney dining 180 days out- you eat whee I booked! 

 

I could go on and on.... it took so much convincing just to get my husband to take a cruise in the first place, I thought he might never do one again! Luckily, after getting back and finding CC, we now plan on our own and have sailed Disney, RC, but mostly Carnival! Cruising is our favorite vacation! (We haven’t been back to Norwegian yet.... 😬)

 

 

[KmomChicago]

Smith, that's a fun story. I think the problem was the 9 people to deal with, more than anything Norwegian did wrong!  We have not tried that particular line, but would not necessarily rule it out.

[bakersdozen12]

Not at all. I LOVED my first cruise. As well as the seven others I have taken since. I look forward to all future cruises because I know they will be just as amazing as the first. 

[lennythenose]

I loved my first and all subsequent cruises. When I took my husband in his first he was underwhelmed at best. Had fun with the friends we were with and nothing particularly wrong with it. Turns out he likes sea days. At least some. His first cruise was a quick weekend one to the Bahamas. He said he never felt we were at sea because it was always dark when sailing. Just felt like we stayed in one place and they changed the scenery outside each night😂. Next time we took a longer one and haven’t looked back. Will be Platinum on our next cruise!

[MeganGC1983]

1 hour ago, KmomChicago said:

 

Megan you make a really great point.  Just as it's pretty easy to make a cruise into exactly the vacation a person wants, it is likewise quite possible to do the opposite. 

Yes! One’s FOMO (fear of missing out) can become a nightmare to someone else. I’ve still never been to a liquor tasting, but he enjoys it much more and that’s more important. 

[MeganGC1983]

1 hour ago, 3smithboys said:

OMG, yes! That was us! I somehow was put in charge of organizing a cruise for 9 of us for my aunt’s 70th birthday many years ago. I’d never been on a cruise before, so I went to a travel agent for help. We told her the ages of the people going, etc... and she suggested the Norwegian Dawn. What did I know? It was a disaster! 

 

My kids (two of them were 4 at the time) hated the tiny kids club. The freestyle dining, where you have to make reservation for all of the special restaurants don’t work when your relatives all say “how do we know where we want to eat a day in advance?” I’m like *****, I book Disney dining 180 days out- you eat whee I booked! 

 

I could go on and on.... it took so much convincing just to get my husband to take a cruise in the first place, I thought he might never do one again! Luckily, after getting back and finding CC, we now plan on our own and have sailed Disney, RC, but mostly Carnival! Cruising is our favorite vacation! (We haven’t been back to Norwegian yet.... 😬)

 

 

I have to book our Disney dining the day after we return from the Carnival dream in April. I’m trying to figure out how I lined up the vacations like that. 😂🤷🏼‍♀️

[PhillyFan33579]

Interesting posts so far. If I do something that I really hate, there is no chance I would do that something again.  Hard for me to understand why someone would do something again if they really hated it the first time.  There are so many things to do in this world that it would be silly to me to do something again if I really hated it the first time. 

[KmomChicago]

8 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Interesting posts so far. If I do something that I really hate, there is no chance I would do that something again.  Hard for me to understand why someone would do something again if they really hated it the first time.  There are so many things to do in this world that it would be silly to me to do something again if I really hated it the first time. 

 

Hi, Philly. Right, when I saw the question up at another website, I thought it was weird at first. It turned out to be sort of a confessional - this couple apparently only "thought" they disliked it.  They said they whined the whole time, but back home, realized they had actually loved it.  

[beachbum53]

Nope. We've been hooked right from the start. I was kind of disappointed that we didn't have a cruise director like Julie, or a bartender like Isaac. Guess I should've known that the "Love Boat" was mostly made up and was Hollywood's version of what cruising was like.

[shoptom]

Norwegian tried hard to make me hate cruising with their poor customer service, but I stuck with it on Royal Caribbean and Carnival the same first year.  I'm still trying to break through the sheep herder mentality of the industry to reach the potential vacation possibilities I see out there.

[Cruz Crazi]

Our first cruise in 1994 was a 3 day Bahamas cruise, when Hurricane Gordon turned course. Nassau was our stop and you couldn't even walk around town it was raining so hard. The 2nd day wen couldn't go to the ships private island, so we just kept going around in a circle. Back to Miami on the 3rd day.

We were disappointed because we didn't have the real cruise experience that our friends had always talked about.

So we booked another one for the next year, that was the beginning of love for cruising!!

 

[3smithboys]

3 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

Smith, that's a fun story. I think the problem was the 9 people to deal with, more than anything Norwegian did wrong!  We have not tried that particular line, but would not necessarily rule it out.

I’m sure you are right.... kind of... but the ship was old and the kids club was horrible. My kids cried every time I left them because there was nothing for them to do. They were so bored, and the staff was not engaging in the least! The pool was tiny... it just wasn’t the right ship for us. I would not count out one of their newer ships; however, they do look nice. It’s just once bitten twice shy! 

[RogBus101]

Sailing March 15th2019 our 20th cruise sailed First 2001 loved it we were hooked! All on Carnival! It's an addiction!

[KuffMUp]

So our first two cruises were Carnival. I hated both. As you can see by my signature I haven’t been again. Before beating me up, yes i would consider it again. It’s just since 2012 most of our cruises were theme charters and we go wherever they do. 

 

That said, what did I hate?  Our first cruise left Long Beach for Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo.  It took us 3 days to get to Puerto Vallarta. I didn’t know how to relax. Now it could take 10 days to get there and I could care less. I found I couldn’t relax and for some reason didn’t pay much attention to the daily schedule.  They will entertain you if you have an open minded and fun attitude. We also didn’t plan much at the ports so it was boring. 

 

The next cruise had tons of rude passengers which at the time was enough to ruin my time. I had only been on one ship and the first was easy to negotiate, I found this layout difficult. The children on this trip were little hellions. I found the ship decor horrible thinking that cruises were supposed to be elegant.  Well, sure.  I didn’t pay over $100 a day per person room and board in a balcony but I wanted more for my money. Looking back, except for the kids throwing water on me by the pool I could easily do it again. 

 

What has changed?  We have matured. We let a few years go by and thought we would try it again. And we found cruise critic. If you are reading this you are much better prepared than I was till our 4th cruise.  This website has made cruising for us soooo much better!

 

Now that DH has retired, we are no longer constrained by lack of vacation time. So for our non-charters we have been looking at Carnival’s Hawaii cruises.   You can have a good or bad team time no matter the line you choose. That said, I think my stepmother won’t enjoy her next cruise.  Going from Crystal to Symphony of the Seas is a bit drastic! 😱

[MississippiMom]

4 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Interesting posts so far. If I do something that I really hate, there is no chance I would do that something again.  Hard for me to understand why someone would do something again if they really hated it the first time.  There are so many things to do in this world that it would be silly to me to do something again if I really hated it the first time. 

 

Sometimes the reason you hated that “something” is due to the person/persons you experienced it with.

 

I have a spouse who HATED his first cruise experience.  It was on one of those no-longer-exists cheap lines from the late 80s/early 90s that his first wife INSISTED they vacation on.  They did very few things together, and she wouldn’t even get off at the ports, so he did the excursions alone.  He felt like it was a waste of money and a waste of time.  It took me YEARS to convince him to try a cruise, again.  His cruise #1 and cruise #2 were about ten years apart.  He loved his second cruise, and all of the other cruises we have taken since then.  

[Buckimion]

Hate is far too strong of a word, but after our first cruise to Nassau, we were pretty sure we'd had enough.

 

But that said, we liked the ship (Elation) and Half Moon Cay. My wife can completely enjoy herself doing nothing more than stretching out and watching television in the cabin. So after a couple of months, we'd decided we were going to try again, this time out of my wife's adopted hometown of New Orleans and oddly had an almost reverse experience. We absolutely loved Cozumel, it was issues with Triumph that went sour for me, but I still booked our third cruise less than two weeks after it was over. Hopefully, third time will be the charm.

[KmomChicago]

11 minutes ago, Buckimion said:

Hate is far too strong of a word, but after our first cruise to Nassau, we were pretty sure we'd had enough.

 

But that said, we liked the ship (Elation) and Half Moon Cay. My wife can completely enjoy herself doing nothing more than stretching out and watching television in the cabin. So after a couple of months, we'd decided we were going to try again, this time out of my wife's adopted hometown of New Orleans and oddly had an almost reverse experience. We absolutely loved Cozumel, it was issues with Triumph that went sour for me, but I still booked our third cruise less than two weeks after it was over. Hopefully, third time will be the charm.

 

I'm sorry you had trouble with the poor old Carnival Triumph. We had a good time on her a couple of years ago, but we're neither blind nor stupid and she certainly is showing her age.  However we enjoyed the entertainment, food and the crew, particularly our CD, Jess from the US.  I hope Valor works out better for you!

[Buckimion]

A fair number of issues were my own lack of knowledge. I use a wheelchair or scooter, and was told by my PVC that the partially accessible cabins could accommodate the scooter I planned on bringing. A last minute change in plans resulted in my bringing my MUCH smaller manual wheelchair instead and as luck would have it, was the only one of the two that would (barely) fit inside. There were also accessibility issues in other public places, some of which I'm likely to encounter on Valor as well. I'm just better prepared this time, having a fully accessible cabin booked and deck plans noted to avoid the bottlenecks.