How, When, and Where Was Your Love Of Cruising Born?

Another coffee table discussion question for everyone. Back in the days of
my military service I was heading to some rather unfriendly territory aboard
a US Naval LST. Despite the tumultuous circumstances of the voyage, I found
that the rolling ocean brought me great peace. Me and some of my buddies
were taking a break and laying in the safety webbing that surrounded the
ship. The sound of the ocean as the ship cut her way through the waves. The
smell of the ocean breeze. The tranquility of being hundreds of miles away
from the hustle and bustle of the world brought a great calm to me. It was
at that very moment that my love of the sea and of cruising was born.

How about you? When and how did you discover your love of the sea and
cruising? For me personally, there is no more relaxing and enjoyable
vacation on the planet than being aboard a cruise ship.

Our first cruise got us hooked on cruising. A group of neighbors started
talking about vacationing together and somehow a cruise came up. We
agreed we would like to try it and that started the planning. We had
almost a year to plan and planing was half the fun. For the women,
wardrobe was the prime consideration. We spent many days shopping and
sewing to have the kind of clothes cruisers wore back then. Constantly
thinking of things that became must haves. And all accesories had to be
coordinated. Most of the clothes we took were brand new and the men
rented tuxedos for dinner, which was formal almost every evening.

There were 4 couples who could make the 10 day Caribbean cruise on a
Cunard ship called the Carmania. We became lifelong friends and still
try to get together for occasional cruises. We had a marvelous time
onboard and on excursions to every island we stopped at. Most nights we
put the ship to bed.

Cruising was very different back then. Much more formal and elegant.
Ships were just starting to convert from ocean liners to cruising and
the service was all first class.

That was back in 1968. We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary
onboard that year and in 2008 we will be celebrating our 55th with a
back to back on Princess Star going from Buenos Aires to Acapulco.

I have forgotten most of the small details on our subsequent 50 plus
cruises, but that first one is still clear in my mind.

~~DORIS~~
**________*/*/___/*/___/*/_________
*\::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::/
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Carnival Inspiation 1-10-2008
Princess Star 3-30-2008
Princess Star 4-11-2008
Carnival Legend 9-7-2008
RCCL Grandeur 12-8-2008

"Cruise Crazy" wrote in message
...

That was back in 1968. We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary
onboard that year and in 2008 we will be celebrating our 55th with a
back to back on Princess Star going from Buenos Aires to Acapulco.

I have forgotten most of the small details on our subsequent 50 plus
cruises, but that first one is still clear in my mind.

~~DORIS~~
________ / /___/ /___/ /_________
\::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::/


Wow! Conratulations on 55 years of Marriage! I hope your upcoming cruise is
as magical as your first!

Growing up at the beaches of Lavllette, NJ I have always been on the
water in one recreational vessel or another. Be it a sail driven
sunfish, or a 45 foot twin screw cabin cruiser I piloted for private
fishing charters, I've always valued travel by boat. These years were
my teens and twenties.

A few years back I had a chance to accompany my sister on the inaugural
cruise of HAL's ms Zuiderdam. It was a fam trip for my sister -- free
for me as her guest. Since then I have joined Karen on cruises as well
as land vacations. I see the value of both land and sea.

Some destinations are better done by land. These destinations comprise
more than sights to see and excursions to take. For example you really
can't appreciate the Florida Keys in less then 5 days. There's the
world's time and then there's the Conch time. You can't hook into Conch
time if you are sight seeing, shopping, and doing some water activity
all crammed into ship's port of call time. Conch time has to be lived
over a period of days.

On the other hand, there are few All Inclusive resort hotels that can
provide all of the luxury you get on a cruise. If you want to "taste" a
different destination every few days while being pampered cruising is
the thing.

--
________
To email me, Edit "blog" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951

"Daniel R. Bonham" wrote in message
...
Another coffee table discussion question for everyone. Back in the days of
my military service I was heading to some rather unfriendly territory
aboard a US Naval LST. Despite the tumultuous circumstances of the voyage,
I found that the rolling ocean brought me great peace. Me and some of my
buddies were taking a break and laying in the safety webbing that
surrounded the ship. The sound of the ocean as the ship cut her way
through the waves. The smell of the ocean breeze. The tranquility of being
hundreds of miles away from the hustle and bustle of the world brought a
great calm to me. It was at that very moment that my love of the sea and
of cruising was born.

How about you? When and how did you discover your love of the sea and
cruising? For me personally, there is no more relaxing and enjoyable
vacation on the planet than being aboard a cruise ship.
When I was 12 years old (1955), my (RCAF) father was transferred to France.
Back then, they sent all families to Europe by sea, so we sailed to Le Havre
from Quebec (or maybe Montreal) on the RMS Samaria, a Cunard transatlantic
ship that was commissioned in 1937 or so. It was a grand adventure for a
12-year old, as was the return trip 4 years later on the RMS Saxonia (Cunard
again, much newer), when, at the ripe old age of 16, I had my own outside
cabin!!!! I've been hooked on the idea ever since.
In 1973 my wife and I took our first vacation cruise, a 10-day Mexican
Riviera sailing on Princess's brand-new "Spirit of London," a lovely small
ship (550 oax. or so) and it instantly became our preferred method of
vacation travel.

Our love affair with cruising began when my husband talked me in to a
cruise on the "DORIC" for our 30th anniversary,and we are taking our
45th cruise to celebrate our 60th anniversary. Do not like land trips as
much,as they are just a lot of stopping at hotels,getting up early and
riding buses,not much time to see things.
On our cruises we control what we want to do.
surfer e2468


cruise lover

My first cruise was also a transatlantic when I was 12 - about 5 years
before Duncan did his transatlantic. There are a lot of places that
I'm glad I went there by air and stayed for a week or so before I did
a cruise there (Bermuda, Barbados, Virgin Islands).

I'm not sure that I do love cruising. I LIKE it, but I recognize that
it has some drawbacks in addition to the advantages.

The advantages a
a) Someone else does the driving, and also feeds us
b) We meet people and make friends
c) I don't have to go through security in the airport at each place,
and our bags won't be lost and you don't have to pack and unpack and
get on and off the bus
d) I get to see a lot of places and take pictures

The disadvantages a
a) You are only there for part of a day and can't really get to know
the country. There's not enough time to do much diving for instance,
and you have no say in the schedule.
b) A lot of people are in the same place at the same time.
c) Some places that I want to go are not very close to the water, like
visiting grandchildren that live in the Dallas area.

Cruising on a cruise ship has only advantage A over cruising on our
own boat, and on our boat we have neither of the first two
disadvantages. But having someone else do the driving and cooking
and cleaning is a SIGNIFICANT advantage especially now that we are
older.

Yep, Dubya not all bad!
"John" wrote in message
...


It was when Bush was elected President in 2000.

Bush Gave a HUGE tax cut to all the wealthy people in the country

so we didn't have to pay our fair share of taxes.

I then had LOTS of money to spend on cruises.

Doris, early congrats on your 55th anniversary! I loved the story of your
first cruise--thank you for sharing it.

Diana Ball
Austin, TX

On Nov 21, 3:10 pm, "Duncan Craig" wrote:
"Daniel R. Bonham" wrote in messagenews:8047f$4743fc23$4e02480$8865@DIALUPUSA. NET... Another coffee table discussion question for everyone. Back in the days of
my military service I was heading to some rather unfriendly territory
aboard a US Naval LST. Despite the tumultuous circumstances of the voyage,
I found that the rolling ocean brought me great peace. Me and some of my
buddies were taking a break and laying in the safety webbing that
surrounded the ship. The sound of the ocean as the ship cut her way
through the waves. The smell of the ocean breeze. The tranquility of being
hundreds of miles away from the hustle and bustle of the world brought a
great calm to me. It was at that very moment that my love of the sea and
of cruising was born.

How about you? When and how did you discover your love of the sea and
cruising? For me personally, there is no more relaxing and enjoyable
vacation on the planet than being aboard a cruise ship.

When I was 12 years old (1955), my (RCAF) father was transferred to France.
Back then, they sent all families to Europe by sea, so we sailed to Le Havre
from Quebec (or maybe Montreal) on the RMS Samaria, a Cunard transatlantic
ship that was commissioned in 1937 or so. It was a grand adventure for a
12-year old, as was the return trip 4 years later on the RMS Saxonia (Cunard
again, much newer), when, at the ripe old age of 16, I had my own outside
cabin!!!! I've been hooked on the idea ever since.
In 1973 my wife and I took our first vacation cruise, a 10-day Mexican
Riviera sailing on Princess's brand-new "Spirit of London," a lovely small
ship (550 oax. or so) and it instantly became our preferred method of
vacation travel.

When I was 10 years old, my best friend's father was transferred to
Belgium. They had 8 kids in their family and his company (he was an
exec with Union Carbide) sent them by ship to Europe. I can't
remember the name of the ship (S.S. France, maybe? something like
that). Anyway, we were onboard the ship for their bon voyage party
(this was in 1965) and I was so enamored with everything on the ship.
Even the tiny staterooms were captivating. So I guess that was the
start of my love affair with cruising. Then along came the "Love
Boat" and I was hooked!

Jo-Ann