Welcome back to #TravelThursday. 32 years ago tomorrow – the 18TH of August of 1991 – I stepped foot on a cruise ship for the first time ever. It was my Dad’s idea at the time to go on a family vacation at sea. He worked with a local travel agency in our hometown of McLean Virginia. He selected the Norwegian Seaward out of #PortMiami. It was a fairly new cruise ship at the time – about 3 years old.
I did not know what to expect prior to stepping foot in a brand-new world at sea. Remember there was no Internet 32 years ago – as least no Internet that normal people like You and I could use. But once I entered that cruise ship – it was love at first sight.
I don’t remember much from that first cruise. It was 7 days and 7 nights – a Sunday afternoon to Sunday morning. There were several ports-of-call including Ocho Rios Jamaica and George Town Grand Cayman. I think we also visited The Bahamas and Cozumel Mexico. It was my first time in those 4 nations. In fact – I haven’t been to Jamaica since then.
We had our family portrait taken on formal night, and I actually wore my military service dress blues for that photo session.
I think I had determined during that first cruise that there would indeed be a 2ND cruise, and a 3RD cruise, and so forth and so on. That 2ND cruise arrived almost exactly 3 years later – on the exact same cruise ship. Just 8 months after that I was on my 3RD cruise – on another NCL ship out of Miami. This past January I sailed on my 24TH cruise – and my 16TH on Carnival. (I sailed 6 times on NCL, once on Royal Carribean, and once on Disney.)
As I approach retirement (and much less income) in the months to come – I don’t know what the future holds as far as cruising is concerned. I’m looking at my 24TH cruise (which was a great one – on a great ship) as perhaps “The Grand Finale” – my last cruise – at least for a while. But I’ll never say never for a 25TH cruise.
Next #TravelThursday is the 32ND anniversary of Hurricane Andrew in Homestead Florida. I won’t discuss that hurricane on this platform or offline, but I will share my travel experiences that occurred in the 6½ months after Andrew. Let’s keep traveling together.
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