Your first cruise ship

[MrsMuir]

Bringing up the rear, having just now found this FABULOUS thread. Copper, you should compile your encyclopedic knowledge and photos into a reference book for us fanatics. The Brits have their Train Spotters, but we are the Ship Spotters. Is it something in the shape of a ship that fuses onto our retinas and makes us happy?

 

Anyway, I've already bored you all with my maunderings about ms Pacific Princess (orig. Sea Venture), the iconic Love Boat, and aptly named :D . I was first hooked the year before (1975) when my friend and I were on a 2-week Scandinavian land tour that included a one-night voyage from Stockholm to Helsinki. We were on a Siljia Line auto ferry and had a tiny little bunk-bedded inside cabin. There was a buffet with all the shrimp you could eat. I woke at dawn to watch us come in to port. It was wonderful, and I haven't looked back.

[Copper10-8]

My first Cruis ship was the ENCHANTED ISLE out of New Orleans in April of 1996. It did get me hooked on cruising and I have been doing it ever since. My first HAL cruise was out of New Orleans on the MS Nieuw Amsterdam out of New Orleans in November of 1996

 

 

Argentina (1958-2003) Delivered to Moore McCormack Line, initially used on the deluxe cruise run to the east coast of South America and later on more diverse cruising. In 1969, she was laid up in Baltimore, Md until Holland America Line bought her in 1972. She emerged in 1973 as m/s Veendam III but was laid up again in 1974, only to be chartered to Agence Maritime International (Brasil) and renamed Brasil. She was returned to HAL in 1975 and started running cruises from Florida in the winter and from Alaska in the summer. In 1976 she was chartered by Monarch Cruise Lines and became the Monarch Star. In 1978 she was back at HAL as Veendam.

In 1984 she was sold to Bahama Cruise Line and became the Bermuda Star. Commodore Cruises purchased Bahama Cruise Line in 1990 and renamed her Enchanted Isle. In 1993, she was sent to the Baltic, and before becoming the Hotel Commodore in St. Petersburg, she ran six cruises from Kiel to Norway. In 1995, after being an accomodation ship in Hamburg, she was once again named Enchanted Isle, brought back to the United States, cleaned up, and started cruising from New Orleans. In 2000, Commodore Cruises filed for bankrupcy protecetion and she was laid up in Violet, Louisiana. She was sold for scrap in 2003, renamed New Orleans, began her final journey to Alang, India where she was broken up in 2003/2004.

[Bill S]

Here is a picture of the current MS Noordam and the MS Albatros taken on Oct 7, 2006 at Horta, Azore Islands:

 

[Copper10-8]

First cruise was 1986 RCCL: "Song of America" left out of Miami -Nassau-St. Thomas-San Juan.

 

Didn't go on another cruise until 2003 and then really got hooked. 5 more cruises since then :)

 

 

Song of America (1982-present) Entered service in 1982 as Song of America for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL). She was sold in 1999 to My Travel/Sun Cruises and renamed Sunbird. When that company pulled out of the cruise vacation and ship ownership business at the end of 2004, she was chartered until 2011 by Thomson Cruises (UK) and renamed Thomson Destiny.

 

[cands]

Here is a picture of the current MS Noordam and the MS Albatros taken on Oct 7, 2006 at Horta, Azore Islands:

 

 

Cool!

[babyher]

 

Song of America (1982-present) Entered service in 1982 as Song of America for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL). She was sold in 1999 to My Travel/Sun Cruises and renamed Sunbird. When that company pulled out of the cruise vacation and ship ownership business at the end of 2004, she was chartered until 2011 by Thomson Cruises (UK) and renamed Thomson Destiny.

 

 

 

You are just amazing with all these pics ....Just amazing :)

 

Thank you so much

 

First wife and I were on our honeymoon on this ship. We were in our early 20s didn't know cruising from a hole in the wall. *LOL* We had really wanted to go to Hawaii but the prices were wayyyyyyy out of our league then. TA suggested it off the cuff and we thought "What the heck"

 

It was a beautiful ship and a great time.

[Copper10-8]

Our first cruise was on Fairsea, San Jaun to LA....through the Panama Canal....:)

 

We sailed later on her sister Fairwind, as the Fair Princess.......both were great trips.......:)

 

 

Carinthia (1956-2006) Built for Cunard Line's Liverpool-Eastern Canada service. She was sold to Sitmar Line in 1968 and eventually (her first name was Fairland) became Sitmar Cruises' Fairsea in 1970, after being converted to cruising. Based on the U.S. west coast, she sailed from San Francisco in the summer on two-week cruises to Alaska and from L.A. in the winter cruising to the Mexican Riviera. She was transferred to P & O Line ownsership in 1988 to become Princess Cruises Fair Princess. In 2000 she was sold to become a failed and much troubled casino cruise ship, the China Sea Discovery. She was eventually laid up and in August 2005 she was sold for 4.2 million to Indian breakers and broken up at Alang, India in 2006

[Vic The Parrot]

Loved being on the Bounty ...

 

 

But the captain was a bit of a douchebag. :rolleyes: :D

[babyher]

Loved being on the Bounty ...

 

 

But the captain was a bit of a douchebag. :rolleyes: :D

 

 

 

*LOL*

 

The guy on the Caine was no prince either :)

[Ontario Cruiser]

My first cruise was crossing th Atlantic from Montreal on the Empress of France returning on the Empress of England in 1956

Then from 1985 to present the Azur, Oceanus, Jupiter, Pegaesus, Triton, Bolero, with Regent Holidays (Toronto). Sundream, Veendam, Zenith,

Mercury, Summit. The Oceanus, Pegaesus & Jupiter all sunk.

Noordam Nov 7 2008

Ontario Cruiser

[Bramcruiser]

What was your first cruise ship? What cruise line, the year and the itinerary? (if you remember;) ) Did it get you hooked?

 

 

The MS Fantasy - Carnival and in 1994 when the ship was still fairly new. The itinerary was a 4 day Bahamas cruise out of Port Canaveral visiting Freeport and Nassau. We enjoyed it enough but did we get hooked? Sadly, NO! Its not as if we said we would never cruise again but it would take us another 11 years before we stepped foot onto another cruise ship. Simply put we weren't WOWED enough to want to stop other types of vacationing.

 

Happily we can report that we got hooked on the second trip in 2005 which I am glad to say on this board was a HAL cruise.

 

David

[Copper10-8]

mine was in 1979, on the carnivale by of course carnival. I was 20 and went with 3 other girls. we had an outside porthole. We paid $425 each. We sailed from boston to bermuda and we left at midnight. How is that for my memory? :p

 

 

Empress of Britain (1956-present) Sailed for Canadian Pacific Line until 1964 when sold to the Greek Line as Queen Anna Maria. Following the collapse of the Greek Line, she was sold to Carnival Cruise Line in 1976 as "Carnivale". She was transferred to subsidiary Fiesta Marine Cruises as Fiesta Marina in 1993 and sold again in 1994 to Epirotiki Line (Royal Olympic Cruise Line from 1996) as "Olympic" In 2003, the vessel was chartered, and then later sold to Topaz International as Topaz to sail with the Peace Boat organization.

 

In April 2008, she was retired from the Peace Boat organization; and she was laid up. On June 15, while she was anchored, she was struck by the tanker Champion Brali. The collision severed off part of her bow. Her future currently remains uncertain although it has been reported that she has been sold for scrap to an unidentified Indian shipbreaker.

[Copper10-8]

The Nieuw Amsterdam II. I was a young boy and my father had business with Royal Dutch Petroleum(Shell). The initial adventure was my first airplane flight from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to New York City. We sailed out of the Hoboken terminal to Rotterdam. I was awed by the size of the ship (over 1,000 passengers), the open Atlantic, the meals, and watching motion pictures in the theatre. My life-long love of travel began with that cruise in the late 1950s.

 

 

s/s Nieuw Amsterdam II (1938-1974) Delivered to Holland America Line in April 1937, Nieuw Amsterdam was the largest liner ever constructed in Holland. During the second world war, she was requisitioned by the British Ministry of Transport as a troop transport, After the war, in October 1947 she resumed her transatlantic schedule. She completed her last cruise in 1973 and in 1974 was sold for scrap to Nan Fong Steel Enterprises. She was broken up at Kaohsiung, China in 1974.

[Copper10-8]

First cruise was in 1984 aboard P&O's wonderful

ss Canberra. After a tour of Europe we cruised home

via the Panama Canal from Southampton to Auckland.

 

As we left Southamptom ,Royal Princess was docked behind us.

She had just been christened by Princess Diana and followed us

across the Atlantic ,encountering 3 hurricanes in 5 days.

 

Hooked? Well cruise no 35 comes up next month.

 

 

s/s Canberra (1961-1997) Delivered to P & O to operate the combined P&O-Orient Line service between the UK and Australia. After this route became unprofitable, a refit in 1974 saw the Canberra adapted to cruising. After the Argentine invasion of the Falkland islands in 1982 Canberra was requisitioned as a troopship. Nicknamed the Great White Whale, she transported the Parachute Regiment and the Royal Marines to the islands. Whilst the QE 2 was held to be too vulnerable to enter the war zone, Canberra was sent to the heart of the conflict.

After a lengthy refit, Canberra returned to civilian service as a cruise ship. Her role in the Falklands War made her very popular with the British public, and ticket sales after her return were elevated for many years as a result. Age and high running costs eventually caught up with her though, as she had much higher fuel consumption than most modern cruise ships. She was withdrawn from service in September 1997 and sold to ship breakers for scrapping, leaving for Gadani Beach, Pakistan the next month. She did not give up without a fight however; her deep draft meant that she could not be beached as far as most ships, and due to her solid construction the scrapping process took nearly a year instead of the estimated three months.

[Copper10-8]

We too are rather new at this cruising thing but once we get hooked on something Tom and I have been known to jump in head first:D

 

Our first cruise I won from a local Credit Union that does financing for our car dealership and I had sent them the most loans in a 3 month period. They actually announced that I won a Caribbean Cruise on September 11, 2001. Now this day already has many tragic memories but this was the day I was told I won. I had extremely mixed feelings because we had never cruised yet at that moment the possibility of travel seemed bleak but we did take this cruise. We did it for our 25th Wedding Anniversary in March 2002 and it was a 5 Day Western Caribbean cruise on RCL's Monarch of the Seas. Of course it was during Spring Break but we loved every minute of it.

 

 

 

 

Monarch of the Seas (1991-present) Delivered to Royal Caribbean Cruise Line in 1991

[Copper10-8]

My first cruise was SS Independence around the Hawaiian Islands with my first husband in 1986. I was also on the Viking Serenade in 1990 before they added the extra cabins. There was just a big empty area below decks where the future cabins would be. We had an inside. We also took it to Alaska the same year with another inside. That was my last inside cabin!

 

 

 

 

SS Independence (1951- present) Deleivered in 1951 as an ocean liner to American Export Lines. In 1959 she was rebuilt as a cruise ship but was laid up between 1969 and 1974. Between 1974 and 1976 she sailed as ss Oceanic Independence for Atlantic Far East Lines only to be laid up again between 1976 and 1980. In 1980, she was purchased by American Hawaii Cruises for inter-island cruising and reverted back to her original name. After the bankrupcy of American Global Line, the owners of American Hawaii Cruises, became the property of the U.S. Maritime Administration and sailed from Honolulu to San Francisco, arriving on November 8, 2001. Since 2006 the ship has been named ss Oceanic.

In February 2003, Independence was sold at auction for US $4 million to Norwegian Cruise Line, which also acquired ss United States. In July 2007, Norwegian Cruise Line announced that Oceanic had been sold with later reports claiming the ship had been purchased by an American company. On February 8, 2008 after being mothballed for 7 years, she left San Francisco initially for Singapore but that was changed to Dubai where she is currently laid up awaiting her fate.

[mommyto2girls]

1966 the Iltalian Lines TS Rafaello...I was a teen and my parents took us on a Mediterranean Crusie. It was amazing luxury back then...we had quite a suite and the food was amazing.

[Bill HaHa]

Nov. 1999....Lorraine and I (I had to talk her into it because she is prome to be sea sick) on the Statedam 10 day to Mexico. We were on the main deck in an outside cabin. It was wonderful. Have been on 9 more cruises since then. Graduationing from the outside cabin to a veranda to a suite.

[Debi_D]

Wow does this bring back memories. It was the Veendam in 1983 on a Western Caribbean Cruise, we had an inside cabin that we though was awesome. We had so much fun, it was more that I ever expected. They had streamers and confetti as we sailed away with a band and lots of dancing on the decks. I think I bought every picture they took and love the horse racing. Our second cruise was on the Noordam and they had upgraded us to an outside cabin with a port hole I thought it was the best. Now I have save and put myself in a Suite Guarntee, see what happens when the upgrade fairies get to you.

 

Love this thread, thank you for the memories!

[Lurker1]

Statendam to Alaska in 2004. We've taken a cruise every year since; 4 on Hal total and 1 on Cunard (QM2).

 

Great thread!

[Fishndawg]

Our first cruise was a 4 night/5 day voyage aboard the S.S. Emerald Seas of the Eastern Cruise Line @ 1986. We sailed from Florida to Nassau and a private island. Shortly after we cruised it caught on fire. They're no longer in business. We had a wonderful first cruise and have been cruising ever since.

[AtMaui]

Copper10-8: Thanks so much for the pix of the Song of America. That was my first cruise in September 1979 with my mother. We left Miami and sailed to St. Thomas and San Juan. We missed one stop (maybe Haiti) because it has just been hit by Hurricane David. Don't know if I got "hooked" on my first cruise because my next one was 11 years later, but I certainly am now!

[CDRMark]

Maasdam 2004 (Grey hulls don't count). Hooked is a bit strong, but it has caused us to add cruising to our vacation mix.

Cheers

Mark

[cruiselife8]

We're new to cruising. For our first we sailed the Grandeur of the Seas to Bermuda earlier this year and really enjoyed our vacation. We loved it so that we are on another cruise in a few weeks, and working on reservations for the next few years.

[TCF]

Statendam 1982 on an Eastern Caribbean itinerary.

Didn't cruise again until 2006...have done four since and leaving on the fifth in ten days.......this time on the Veendam.