Cruising through life

My first ever cruise was in 1976.  My sister and I boarded the Fairstar for a Pacific Island cruise.  Back in those days family and friends would farewell you with streamers being thrown both ways.  The idea was to hold onto that streamer until your ship sailed away from the dock.  The cheering was so loud and it was a very memorable moment.

Leaving Sydney

No security on the dock and look at the length of that gangway.  People would literally die if they had to negotiate all those steps these days!

Fairstar (showing what a terrible photographer I was)

These days of course that tradition is now just a fond memory.  Security would NEVER allow anyone portside anymore.  What a shame.  The Fairstar and its sister ship the Fairsky were very much a young persons cruise with lots of partying well into the night.  I can't remember their being a Casino onboard but maybe there was, but I certainly remember the discos!There was only one restaurant and dinner was a formal affair. There were two dinner sittings and you were designated a table that didn't change throughout the whole cruise. How different it is these days.

Life and kids got in the way before our next cruise in 2003 when we boarded the Norwegian Dawn for 15 days.  We sailed from Miami around the Carribean Islands and then up the west coast of America to Rhode Island, Marthas Vineyard and on to our final destination, New York.  How we loved that cruise! We met some terrific people and the cruise ship had a "Love Boat" feel to it. We were certainly uneducated when it came to shore excursions and found ourself on one occasion in an unregistered taxi. A big no no. Fortunately for us the local constabulary saw us and hauled us out of the taxi.  We may not be here to today if it wasn't for them.

Our next trip was in 2009 on the Norwegian Sun.  We boarded this ship after we had a two week adventure through Peru and Bolivia, and that's another entire blog post!  The cruise commenced in Buerno Aires, Argentina and 15 days later we disembarked in Santiago, Chile after circumnavigating South America via Cape Horn.  This cruise had some of the finest sailing we have ever experienced.  Cruising through the Beagle Channel with glaciers reaching right down to the waters edge just left us speechless and photos could never do it justice.

We tend to book the next cruise from onboard the ship we are on.  There are huge discounts doing it this way so in 2011 we were off to the Mediterranean on board Norwegian Jade.  It was another 15 day sailing from Barcelona to Venice via Turkey.  The cruise was originally meant to go to Alexandria in Egypt but because of trouble in the area we were diverted to Turkey and I'm so pleased it worked out that way.  Istanbul was a most remarkable place that I would dearly love to visit again.

Our next cruise was a change of pace as we decided on a river cruise in 2013.  We chose to travel with Scenic on Scenic Diamond, for yet another 15 day cruise!  This time it was from Budapest to Amsterdam.  I highly recommend a river cruise if you are new to sailing.  Everyday you dock and have the choice to get off the ship and enjoy an excursion or stay on the ship and enjoy the amenities. We chose to leave the ship each day even though we had the coldest Spring on record and had snow, ice or sleet every single day!

In 2016 we were back on the larger ship, this time for 20 days.  Norwegian Pearl took us from Los Angeles through the Panama Canal to Miami.  Oh wow!  Traversing the Panama Canal is a definite bucket list item.  It is truly amazing.  After this cruise we flew to New Orleans for 10 fun filled days staying right on Bourbon Street.  The Music! The Atmosphere! The drinking! The eating! This place has it all and that's only at night.  Through the day we went to all the touristy places that are really worthwhile.

So last year we embarked on our longest cruise, 42 days.  As the readers of my blog would know, this was aboard little Regent Navigator cruising from Singapore to Rome via the Panama Canal.  I loved this cruise so much and really, really did not want to leave the ship.  I just know I'm ready for a world cruise!

And that brings us to our last 18 day cruise from Singapore to Sydney for Christmas and New Year.
Our next cruise is in 2021 from Vancouver to Tokyo for 30 days  (I'm already excited) and our friend circle have also decided that in 2022 we will again do a river cruise through France.

Life is good....