Why did you start cruising?

[BandN, Markyate]

Hi all,

just chatting over dinner this evening regarding coming home from a break in Lisbon in 2006. A disastrous journey home, as we landed at Gatwick early evening and we were catching the train to Harpenden. Unfortunately 'ongoing engineering works' meant we had to get across London by Tube and when we got to Thameslink, there was a problem as a poor soul had jumped onto the line further down the track. On the platform we got talking to another couple who were on their way home from a cruise and I commented that I had thought about cruising, but wasn't sure it was 'our thing'! They said they loved the way you take your hotel room with you, and you join in as much or as little as you want. Well, that got us thinking and the next year we booked on Splendour OTS out of Venice for 7 days (in case we didn't like it ) and the rest is history. I know many of you have been cruising for a long time, but what started you?

Barb

[Haworth, Wokingham]

Hi all,

just chatting over dinner this evening regarding coming home from a break in Lisbon in 2006. A disastrous journey home, as we landed at Gatwick early evening and we were catching the train to Harpenden. Unfortunately 'ongoing engineering works' meant we had to get across London by Tube and when we got to Thameslink, there was a problem as a poor soul had jumped onto the line further down the track. On the platform we got talking to another couple who were on their way home from a cruise and I commented that I had thought about cruising, but wasn't sure it was 'our thing'! They said they loved the way you take your hotel room with you, and you join in as much or as little as you want. Well, that got us thinking and the next year we booked on Splendour OTS out of Venice for 7 days (in case we didn't like it ) and the rest is history. I know many of you have been cruising for a long time, but what started you?

Barb

Good question, easy answer, wanted to go to Alaska, Coral Princess and never looked back

john

[Cooke, Ashby]

We saw an advert in the NT magazine for a cruise to Iceland and Norway. The ship was Ocean Majesty, chartered by Page and Moy. Even though I was sick crossing the Norwegian Sea, we loved it.

[Mason, Altrincham]

We started cruising for our 25th wedding anniversary. We had been toying with the idea and when my husband said we would be visiting Rome I was hooked. I’ve said before that although we saw the Island Star was a tired ship we had such an Amazing time on board we have cruised most years since then.

Take care and stay well. Helen 🥰

[Lawnmowerman, Tain]

In 2002, we were going into the TA to pay our final balance of our holiday to Madeira when SWMBO spotted a cruise in the window. Now this amazed me as she hated sailing - channel ferries were her bête noire. I ignored it and we entered and paid our balance. On leaving I had a look and it seemed interesting to a non-cruiser (but a lover of yachting) so we had a chat about it.

Despite all the foregoing we re-entered the TA's shop and promptly booked.

And it was.................Island Escape - her first season (thankfully all the plumbing had been sorted when we boarded). It had been sailing for about five months then and some minor works were still ongoing. What can I say - we loved it and booked a second cruise on her.

A lot of happy memories cruising since those early days (for us).

LMM

[Topdeck, London]

1996
Windjamer barefoot Cruises.

First big ship was a two week Baltic AI charter by Arena Travel on Albatros(one of them there have been a few).

[Smith7]

We saw an ad in the paper for a Baltic cruise. It included a 2 day visit to St Petersburg, which was one of those places we both wanted to see.

A cruise had never crossed our minds before but we loved every minute of our first venture. That was 11 years ago and I've lost count how many cruises we have done since.

I do know however that we have seen a great deal more of our world by sea than we would have done otherwise.

[Mrs M]

Good question, easy answer, wanted to go to Alaska, Coral Princess and never looked back

john

Snap, except our trip, nearly thirty years ago, was with HAL . With a youngster in tow, a land trip didn't seem a good idea so this was offered as a great alternative. Funnily enough, I re read his Alaska diary [his school homework was to keep a diary over the summer] last week and it's heart-warming to see what was so important to a six year old.

[cornish girl, falmouth]

I was used to seeing the occasional cruise ships arriving in Falmouth , alongside the cargo, oil tankers etc, we had ships from the NZ shipping company , Australian lines , Norweigan and many more countries in the days before the EU .then I met My OH [ he sailed in on a BP tanker]. He had spent a lot of his time sailing with P&O late 50's and 60's.

He would tell me all about the wonderful places he had been to [ such as taking th one £ poms ect to OZ i and then cruising around Oz, NZ all the exotic Islands India , Pakistan far east , middle east . everywhere I wanted to go. He had also done America , Canada and much more.I

Many years later [we were married by then and he had left the sea] I saw an advert for Thomsons 'Emerald' 7 days sailing in the Med quite reasonable booked it and never looked back!! I absolutly got he bug, I sailed on Airtours ,, and a few more ships which are long gone now,, then we tried PO the lovely Aurora, I was hooked!! we did two world cruises on her and much more, then I started taking my GD on the bigger PO ships and God willing we will be able to sail next May. I have tried many lines and seen a lot of brands disappear , I also like Cunard for transatlantics.. which gives you time to wind down and just enjoy the ship before th hustle and bustle of NY. bring it on!!!

[sandraggg, Newcastle]

After a particularly grim seaside holiday (bad weather, poor accommodation) we wanted to do something different.

We liked the idea of taking our children to see lots of places, without flying or struggling with luggage... and a work colleague persuaded me that cruising was suitable for people of all ages.

We booked a port-heavy Baltic cruise (just in case we might regret too many days at sea). Our children were very young and many would say that a Baltic cruise wasn't an obvious choice, but it was a perfect and memorable holiday.

Our children enjoyed the ship and its routines (including 'dressing up fancy' for dinner!) and they loved the ports and the sightseeing.

Since then, we have all been on as many cruises as we can manage. Nothing else quite compares.

[Moonraker, Royal Wootton Bassett]

We had reached a point where our sons were off to uni and we would be taking holidays on our own. We had been in the fortunate position to have taken our holidays in Florida and California for 10 years but we felt we had run the course with these and wanted something different. Friends of ours had cruised for about 5 years and persuaded us to give it a try so in 1999 we did. We weren't sure if it was for us so we dipped our toes in the water with a cheap Airtours med cruise, and it was cr@p. We didn't cruise again until 2002 when we did a Thomson Adriatic/Corfu cruise and stay. It was better but still the cruise bug hadn't bitten. We tried again the following year, a Med cruise also with Thomson and that was much better and the penny began to drop. The following year, 2004, we 'went big' and took a Panama Canal cruise from LA to Miami on the Norwegian Sun. That was a wonderful cruise, one of the best we've done, and that's when it really took off for us and we have cruised most years ever since.

[PeterM, Southwell]

Sort of by accident. We always did package holidays, usually with Thomson, and saw one for a week's cruise on Superstar Gemini from Phuket to Singapore and back, followed by a week in a good hotel in Phuket. We loved the cruise, and even though the hotel was great and in a lovely location it didn't match the cruise. The following year we did the Florida/Disney thing which I didn't really enjoy, and from then on it has been virtually nothing but cruises. We have had the odd hotel in the sun holidays which have been OK, but very second rate compared to cruises.

[Yogini, Waterlooville]

I was visiting travel agents with a boyfriend, looking for an Easter Break. We expected to end up somewhere like the Canaries. We spotted 2 cruise deals in the window of Lunn Poly (I think). We went in and enquired. One was sold out, but the other was such a good deal that we thought if we didn't enjoy cruising, we hadn't lost anything. We flew to Thailand, sailed out of Phuket to Singapore, Malaysia and Phi Phi Island. We enjoyed it so much that the following year we took a cruise around the Canaries.

After we split up, I didn't take a holiday at all for a few years. A colleague kept telling me that cruising would be great for me on my own. I spotted a good deal on this site, when they had a separate section for solo deals. I sailed W-E on QM2, and had such a good time that I continued to cruise. That was 2011, and this is the first year that I haven't cruised at all. I was due to be on Jewel of the Seas in January, but wasn't well enough to travel. The rest is history!

[BandN, Markyate]

It's great to read all the replies. The common theme is 'the rest is history'!! Our 1st cruise was a very different type of holiday for us, as we were used to arranging our own holidays, usually driving to somewhere in Europe and renting a cottage or just stopping wherever the fancy took us and booking a hotel. Obviously, that's easy when there's only 2 of you. We did 3 river and canal holidays in France with friends, that was great fun.

Barb

[smtcan, Scarborough]

Good question, easy answer, wanted to go to Alaska, Coral Princess and never looked back

john

We wanted to do something special for our Silver Wedding and fancied Alaska. A friend had been there on a cruise out of Vancouver so we took their advice.

I could say the rest was history, but it didn’t work that way. We booked a Caribbean cruise the following year, not realizing that the choice of ship, location and date could make a big difference. Being a teacher, I had to travel in holiday time, so we found ourselves on a Royal Caribbean ship with a party crowd. We couldn’t wait to get off, and didn’t cruise again for many years.

When our 40th anniversary came around, I wanted to go to the Galápagos Islands. A cruise seemed the best way to do that and we really enjoyed the experience. We retired soon after and became serial cruisers.

Sheila