Take pity on the COVID Kid: your first Royal cruise?

[la_croisiere_s'amuse]

Yes, after two and a half years, COVID has finally caught up with us, and this variant is no joke. 😞 I'll probably recover just fine, but man, I really need to escape to my happy place in the meantime. Please play along? 🙂 

 

I'll start: September 2004, Majesty of the Seas. We only did a 3-day "just in case we didn't like it." 🤣 A hurricane sent us to Key West instead of Nassau, but I didn't care in the least. I was totally hooked, and kept returning to the Sovereign class even as I gradually ventured onto larger ships. The only downside was that my first cruise was in a JS, and it took me quite some time to be willing to try anything less. For the record, I can now be perfectly content in a standard OV balcony!

 

Okay, who's next? 🙂 

[DaniDanielle]

Our first cruise was Celebrity Summit out of Bayonne.  No flying, it was great.  It was perfect in our eyes, we loved it and Bermuda.  My husband had his doubts about cruising so we did a seven night cruise.  He was hooked big time and couldn’t wait for the next one!  We have had a few junior suites but are happy with a balcony cabin.  Oasis class is our favorite so happy Oasis 

is in Bayonne for awhile.

[irishgal432]

Honeymoon Jan 1992.  Majesty out of San Juan.  First time out of the country. GTY inside room.  Deck 2 next to the anchors. 

 

Fast Forward Jan 2022 Aquatheater Suite for our 30 year Anniversary.  

 

We have come a long way!

[aring75]

Sovereign of the Seas 1999. Did a 4-day out of Port Canaveral. Still have the souvenir mug we bought on that cruise. 😊

 

[Rubyfisch]

Serenade of the Seas out of Copenhagen in May, 2017. I booked the cruise as a surprise for my mother's 65th birthday.

 

Here are some photos:

 

Tallin:

 

 

 

The ship:

 

 

St. Petersburg:

 

 

Copenhagen:

 

[celoplyr]

My first cruise was a Carnival 4 night cruise in 2009 when you still had assigned seating (and our table mates were a disaster, probably because they didn't like us) and I traveled with my ex husband in the worst room on the ship, no shore excursions, no paying for drinks, etc.

 

We still went again on a 7 night NCL cruise (dubbed the cruise from hell, don't go on a cruise in an inside room while deciding if you want a divorce).

 

And then we divorced.

 

And then I convinced my parents to go on a cruise with me over Xmas.  They had never been.  My father did not want to go.  This was 2015, and I got to pick, so I picked the Jewel out of San Juan doing the Southern Caribbean (I don't like lazy vacations).  My father hated probably every minute until we got on the ship and he went to the Windjammer, and he was hooked! He loves buffets. At the end of the cruise he was willing to go back but "could we do the Jewel again and the same room?" Same room wasn't an option, but one room over was.

 

Now almost the whole family is diamond, we've done 4 Caribbean cruises, 3 Alaska cruises, 1 Mexico cruise, some of us went to Cuba, and we have 3 cruises planned including a Holy Land 13 day cruise, a 7 night Panama Canal cruise and just another ABC island cruise.  It's become easy for us to all go together. We pack too much, eat too much, and really enjoy it.

[hoosier sailor]

OK here it goes, my first cruise was on Radiance of the Seas in 2004, and boy was it an adventure!! It was a birthday cruise for me, and the ship actually listed on my birthday in St Lucia. That was the first of 32 cruises and still going. 

Starting the next post covid phase now with back-to-back Radiance cruises. This time with a new cruise partner too!!!

[PSU_Redhead]

2008. Splendour of the Seas out of Venice. I fell in love with cruising instantaneously! 😍

[RoperDK]

Oasis of The Seas in Oct. 2015.  Seven day Western cruise out of Port Canaveral.  We weren't new to cruising, our first cruise was in Oct. 1998.  We had cruised on several different lines in all different types of ship.  It wasn't our first mega ship either, but when we first boarded and walked into the Royal Promenade, all we could say was Wow!!!  It truly was a floating resort.  

[hazeleyes46]

2006, Explorer of the Seas. We won a 9 day cruise 🙂

[la_croisiere_s'amuse]

16 minutes ago, celoplyr said:

My first cruise was a Carnival 4 night cruise in 2009 when you still had assigned seating (and our table mates were a disaster, probably because they didn't like us) and I traveled with my ex husband in the worst room on the ship, no shore excursions, no paying for drinks, etc.

 

We still went again on a 7 night NCL cruise (dubbed the cruise from hell, don't go on a cruise in an inside room while deciding if you want a divorce).

 

And then we divorced.

 

I feel bad laughing at this, but I must confess I did. 😁 I'm also divorced from my first cruising partner, and it sounds like both of us are in much better places now! 😊

[cruisegirl1]

Our first was the Carnival ( Original) Mardi Gras in January 1987.  Haven't stopped cruising yet after more than 35 years.

 

There was a button in the cabin that you could press day or night and the cabin attendant would arrive.   We had a small inside cabin, but surprisingly it had a large high bathtub. 

 

I hope you feel better

M

Edited July 29, 2022 by cruisegirl1

[la_croisiere_s'amuse]

3 minutes ago, hazeleyes46 said:

2006, Explorer of the Seas. We won a 9 day cruise 🙂

Wait, you won that cruise, or you won one on that cruise? If so, no wonder you were hooked. 😉 

[hazeleyes46]

1 minute ago, la_croisiere_s'amuse said:

Wait, you won that cruise, or you won one on that cruise? If so, no wonder you were hooked. 😉 

We won that cruise from a raffle ticket in our local town. It was $20 to sign up for discounts in the town for a year and you were entered in a raffle to win a 9 day cruise. We have been on 5 more RCCL cruises after that one and one soon 🙂

[Another_Critic]

Cruise #1: Song of America - Sept. 1987 - Miami, San Juan, St. Thomas, Labadee, Miami

 

Cruise #44: Voyager of the Seas - Sept, 2022 - Copenhagen, Kristiansand, Akureyri, Reykjavik, Qaqortoq, Nuuk, Boston

Edited July 29, 2022 by Another_Critic

[Another_Critic]

I probably have a "drink of the day" glass from Song of America.  I know I have several from Nordic Prince.  Later the glasses were just generic Royal Caribbean.

[Cruising89143]

First, hope that you feel better. We picked up this variant about three and a half weeks ago. Thank goodness for Paxlovid. 
 

First cruise ever was thirty-six years ago on the NCL Starward out of Miami to the western Caribbean. Loved it and it hooked us. No lido dining or room service back then and all three meals was served in the MDR at either main or late seating. Doors to the MDR closed fifteen minutes after the scheduled start. Don’t be late and you dressed properly or were turned away. Midnight buffet if you got hungry.

 

First cruise on RCI was in 2001on the Majesty OTS out of Miami. My favorite RCI ship is the Navigator. Have seven cruises on that ship including three just after she entered service almost twenty years ago with a few more booked. Perfect size. We still enjoy RCI but also like Celebrity.
 

So we have thirty-six years of cruising and stopped counting at sixty cruises. A lot has changed over the years. Some things for the better and unfortunately some things for the worse but overall it’s still one of the best vacations out there.🙂

[Another_Critic]

I have my hand-written bar "charge" card from Song of America.  🙂

 

I don't recall if that was the "SeaPass" card or in addition to it.

[njkruzer]

1st cruise 1971 Home Lines Oceanic NY to Nassau and back.  We were very young!  Dressed for dinner, assigned deck chairs and deck steward brought me my iced tea every afternoon.  Our children found the pictures of us boarding,  all dressed with dh in jacket and tie and wondered why.  Times were different. No need to return to that way.

[katsn1011]

Our first cruise was September 1999. Sailed on Carnival Triumph out of New York ,Hurricane Floyd was

coming up the coast. We were being held in port until we got the OK to sail. They informed us to go to the show and they will let us know if we were going to be able to go. Did assure us they would announce before they left so if you wanted to leave you could. Not 20 minutes I feel us moving, no one told us. They were told to leave immediately. It was quite scary Floyd came with us 1-2 days.

But I loved it after it was over. We have had many storms when we cruise but nothing compares to Floyd.

[rudeney]

Our first RCCL cruise was 2007 on Freedom of the Seas.  Before that was mostly DCL and a few others.  We had just returned from a DCL trip in 2006 and was showing my (then 76yo) MIL photos.  The next day, she called and said she wanted to try a cruise and had seen an ad for Freedom being the largest cruise ship in the world, so that was the one she wanted.  We had a great time, but MIL had some horrible leg cramps during the trip.  RCCL loaned us a wheelchair and we pushed her around in it most of the trip (even around Cozumel).  It turned out that the cramps were a side-effect of a new statin cholesterol med she started taking.  Had we thought to ask her if she was on any new meds and known that, we'd have told her to stop taking it!  

 

Even dealing with the leg cramps and wheelchair, she had a great time, and so did we.  She talked about that trip all the time and we always planned to take her on another cruise, but she was never up to it.  She had COPD and spent the last 5 years of her life tied to an oxygen hose.  She will be missed, but every time we step onto an RCCL ship, we think of her.  

[la_croisiere_s'amuse]

4 minutes ago, rudeney said:

Even dealing with the leg cramps and wheelchair, she had a great time, and so did we.  She talked about that trip all the time and we always planned to take her on another cruise, but she was never up to it.  She had COPD and spent the last 5 years of her life tied to an oxygen hose.  She will be missed, but every time we step onto an RCCL ship, we think of her.  

I can't quite bring myself to "like" this, but I'm so glad she had a great trip and you have great memories. 🙂

[bjlbbk]

Hope you are feeling better soon!

 

My first cruise was on Song of America in 1985.  The trip was a Make a Wish granted to my sister who was battling cancer. One of my sister's nurses would tell her stories of her cruising adventures which is why my sister chose a cruise as her wish. I was only 12 at the time so have some fun "kid" memories. I remember ice carving demonstrations (with chainsaws) and free Bingo on the pool deck, a chime that played across the ship every evening right before dinner (I can still recall the sound) and fresh doughnuts brought to the table at breakfast every morning. The kid program leaders doubled as dancers during the evening show and Shipshape dollars were awarded for attending activities which could later be used to buy a "I'm Shipshape" shirt. I was sad to outgrow my shirt but was excited to find another one at a thrift shop just a few years ago. Great memories! I have since gotten many friends and family hooked on cruising too... 

 

Thanks for a fun post...and for the great trip down memory lane! 😀

 

[broadwaybaby123]

Mine was when I was 5 on the SS Meridian (now a sunken Celebrity ship).  I remember having to step OVER the threshold to get in the cabin!

[flamingos]

Our first cruise was supposed to be on Sovereign, and we had been saving our pennies to pay for it. I had been writing my checks for $5 over at the grocery store, for months, and had secretly purchased $500 in traveler's checks.  A month before the cruise, our house (and town) was flattened in a hurricane.  We sadly decided that we needed to postpone - but we seriously thought about still going.  🙂     We lived off that $500 for the first few weeks since our local bank was also destroyed and we had no access to our account.

 

 

A year later, we rebooked on the same ship, same itinerary.  Our cruise credit paid all but a couple hundred dollars, and our TA upgraded us to a Deck 8 oceanview from a lower deck interior because 'you deserve it'.    It was amazing.