I have had a love for cruising since my first cruise in 2004. My very first cruise was aboard Norwegian Dream, a now defunked cruise ship that at the time of our sailing was old, it was only to be around for a year or two more at that point.

But what did I know? It was my first and I was quickly in love. One thing I learned from that cruise was to NOT tell new cruisers that the ship they are on, or the line they are cruising, is not that great! If I found myself in this situation I think I would practice the golden rule of “If you have nothing nice to say- say nothing at all” When we first cruised we were with about 50 of our friends, including my parents, and almost all of them were repeat cruisers. They were so quick to tell us novices that the cruise we were experiencing was subpar to their own past experiences. I remember feeling very put out by this repeated information! I did not know whether this cruise was among the best, or worst, since I had nothing to compare it to. There was a lot of “Royal Caribbean is so much better” and “you don’t know this but this cruise STINKS!” being said! hahaha I did not appreciate it and felt they were blemishing my experience with their biased remarks. I wanted to form my own opinions and would have appreciated a clean slate to start with! But it did not ruin our experience, I always say a cruise is what we make of it!! We had a fantastic time! It was simply amazing! In the end I feel sorry for those that found fault with everything about this ship! Obviously we had the better time!

I do not have pictures from that first cruise, I didn’t get a FB account until 2009 so…….I have pics somewhere but where? Come on! We moved to Florida and I fear they are still in a box somewhere! I know that is bad since we will have been here 3 years this October! But I have been busy cruising!

I do have pictures from our next cruise which was a Disney cruise in 2009 aboard the Wonder.

After this cruise we were hooked. We began cruising yearly. Now 11 years, 25 cruises and 7 cruise lines later……I would say we are experienced. And I hope I never tell a novice that their first cruise is subpar! I want everyone to love cruising as much as I do! I must help the ship put their best foot forward!

I love talking about cruising so much so that I created a YouTube channel. If you have been around here for any amount of time you probably know this. My channel is simply called Cruising with Christine! That link will take you to my newest vlog! I have 18 Playlists with different cruise ships/lines that we have sailed on. I recently did my first solo sailing! Yes, that is in there too! Look for Mariner of the Seas solo cruise!

Thanks for allowing me to ramble on about cruising and how much I love it. I can’t wait for cruising to resume! This pandemic has taken a huge toll on all of us ! It has been very hard on the cruise industry! I for one am looking forward to my next cruise! Fingers crossed that it happens! When is your next cruise?