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Why did you chose to start cruising?


MuttMutt

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Pretty self explanatory and I am sure a lot of people will be in the "cause it was somewhere to take a vacation" group but I have to wonder if there are others with different reasons.

For me it was something I always thought would be interesting but would never be able to afford.  Then when my wife passed away it became something to get me out of the house and keep me from pulling my own hair out literally.  About a month after my wife passed and was cremated I received part of what was left of her burial policy and didn't know what to do with myself.  My wife was from Jamaica and we had talked multiple times about getting on a cruise and then stopping in Jamaica and dropping off a power chair because she was having a hard time walking.  I took the same route we had looked at which left from Galveston, TX and went to Cozumel Mexico, Georgetown Cayman Islands, and then Falmouth Jamaica where I dropped off a couple bags because I was going to be back in Jamaica a couple months later.  When leaving Jamaica I stood on the deck as the ship was leaving and cried long and hard because my wife didn't get to see home again.  The whole time we were married we were supposed to go down and were supposed to have been give the trip by her aunt as a wedding gift but it was never the right time.  

 

My first cruise had only been planned for a couple months but having something to look forward to helped me keep going and in a way my next one is slightly similar.  The day I booked the next one I felt like I have a little something to look forward to doing and started planning and reading to be ready to go.  In a lot of ways to me it's more the trip than the destinations though being able to be in good water for diving will be a big advantage.

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Hi @MuttMutt. That's really touching about your wife, very sorry that your start to cruising was on such a difficult chapter in your life.

For me, cruising was also something that struck me as being in the line of luxury vacations, but I always wanted to do it and have an experience akin to what I saw on Titanic or Poseidon Adventure (well, the good parts before icebergs and rogue waves made things to pear-shaped! ?). Then I found out from a coworker maybe 15 years ago now that it had become a lot more affordable, and the fire was lit under me. Took many years to convince my wife, though. She thought cruising was just a nonstop buffet and lazing around with nothing to do, basically The Love Boat without the stops in Puerto Vallarta and the other nice places. Took having two kids and getting them to gang up on her with me with finally make our first cruise a reality.

At that time, we were going through a bit of a tough patch ourselves. But we also had a lot of really big milestones approaching, like our older daughter graduating high school while the younger one was finishing middle school. A cruise just seemed like a great way to celebrate all of those big events and what we figured was going to be... maybe not the end of the tougher parts, but at least the beginning of the end. Which it does seem to have been.

We did an 8-night sailing to the eastern Caribbean, visiting St. Kitts, St. Maarten, San Juan, and Labadee. It was a great time for all of us, and my wife agreed that she enjoyed it and would be good with doing something like that again. It's only been 2 years since that first cruise happened, and the big bucket-list one I had planned for this year got scrapped due to Covid-19; but now that we know how much you get with a cruise while being able to see a bunch of destinations we'd otherwise never get to without spending a ton more, it's looking like it's the preferred vacation type that we'll be taking as much as our budget and time off allows.

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Was never interested in the concept of cruising. Then my in-laws, who had taken the entire extended family on a couple trips to all-inclusives of their choosing let their four daughters select the next big family trip. They chose a cruise to Bermuda.

Based on that experience, I went from "not interested" to "this is a great way to travel" rather quickly.

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During my time in Royal Navy, I spent a lot of time in the Caribbean.  So when my wife started suggesting a Caribbean Cruise, I was rather resistant.

However, over the  years I rather mellowed to the idea and when we approached a big birthday for her, I had an opportunity to book a 5 day western caribbean on Brilliance out of Tampa, so I took it.  I also arranged for a suite at the Sheraton the night before boarding, all good.

So we held Sheryls birthday partty on Saturday, and I presented her with luggage tags for her bags.  This was it, happy days, I got it right...  Err no...  Remember this was Saturday, and boarding day was on Monday morning, apparently it takes more than 36 hours to pack for a cruise.  Fortunately, not only am I the master packer, I had been insisting on shopping trips for a few weeks ahead of time or I would have been in deep doo doo.

Suffice to say, we boarded Brilliance in Tampa and had a fantastic time. I was hooked. I had forgotten how amazing it is to be a sailor at sea. I could feel the ship coming alive, was able to second guess the manouvers, even to the point of knowing when speed could change.  Heaven for me.  Of course, despite being in an outboard cabin on Deck 3 amidships (I wanted the most stable part of the ship to avoid the potential for seasickness) the accomodations were rather impressive compared to the last time I had been at sea.

We booked our next trip onboard and have never looked back. I am a convert.

 

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@MuttMutt what a touching story. I'm so sorry about your wife.

I was never interested in a cruise at all. It just never appealed to me assumed it would be boring, etc.

My wife's sister who also never been on a cruise asked us to join her for a 3 Day Country Themed cruise to the Bahamas. Great, Country Music & a cruise, I wasn't a fan AT ALL of the idea. However, my wife (then girlfriend) wanted to go so we went. 

I still wasn't a country music fan (still not) but instantly fell in love with cruises. When we got back I booked a 5 Day Cruise to Bermuda on Explorer out of Bayonne. That cruise solidified both of our love for cruising and Royal Caribbean. However, we did stray to NCL once and plan to again in the near future. We would like to give NCL a second chance on their newer and larger ships. (Was supposed to be next year but with credits locked up with Royal, we will be on Oasis instead).

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One of my wife's good friends kept bugging us to go with her on their annual family cruise they take with all her brothers and sisters. We kept telling her we would be a "fifth wheel" on their trip but she kept at it. Finally the wife relented when another of her good friends said she would go and she cruises all the time. Sailed on Celebrity out of Miami to the Eastern Caribbean and both decided this was the vacation style we were looking for. Never have looked back and now go 3-4 times a year to make up for vacations we never took.

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When I was a kid my first ever cruise was short I can’t even remember what islands we saw or the name of the company if it is even in existence combined with a few days at Walt Disney World in FL.  Unfortunately did not get to go on another one until I was married and the 2 of us along with my mom took an Alaskan cruise on Radiance out of Vancouver. Our next was with Norwegian on Pride of America in Hawaii.  We have also been to the Western Caribbean on Allure and to the Bahamas on Majesty.  Our Western Med on Explorer this summer was an cancelled.  We booked for next summer on Vision which is slightly longer and goes to some of the same ports and some different.  Hope we will be able to go,

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13 hours ago, CynBeth said:

When I was a kid my first ever cruise was short I can’t even remember what islands we saw or the name of the company if it is even in existence combined with a few days at Walt Disney World in FL.  

Short cruise combined with a few days at WDW certainly sounds like the early days of Disney Cruise Lines. One week vacation where you have 3 (or 4) days at WDW followed by 4 (or 3) on the ship (or ship first followed by WDW). Stops would have included Nassau, Hamilton (if 4 night cruise), and Castaway Cay.

If you don't remember what line and it WAS Disney, you were VERY young because it's a memorable cruise experience for kids 5 and up.

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