Monday, August 13, 2012

My Very First Cruise Vacation

     Let me take you back to February 1994.  It was my high school mid-winter break.  That week, I went on my first cruise vacation.  I was sixteen years old..  For a four-day trip, it was a lot of fun.  My family and I are serious Disney travelers.  We tried Disney’s cruise.  We sailed on board Premier Cruise Line’s Starship Atlantic.  It was known as the Big Red Boat.  My mom asked my dad, my brother, and I to wear our blazers on the plane to Orlando.  I remember her saying, “You’re going to be wearing your blazers on the plane, so we don’t have to drag oh so much luggage with us. We’re gonna travel light.”. She also said, “Cruise passengers normally like to dress fancy.”  Oh really!! 

    We touched down in Orlando around eleven o’clock in the morning.  We headed downstairs to go to our rent-a-car bus.  Waiting for the bus felt like forever.  It was eighty-five degrees out.  The humidity was extremely unforgiving.  There were dozens of people standing near us who were also going to Port Canaveral.  They were all wearing shorts, tank tops, and sandals.  My dad, my brother, and I were wearing blazers.  Yikes! We were sweltering beyond belief.  I was so hot, I felt like I was a Domino’s Pizza heat wave bag for Halloween.     

    I was a fussy eater for a long time.  When we boarded the Starship Atlantic, I knew I had a challenge in front of me.  My dad was telling me that it was the perfect opportunity to start trying new things, especially cruise ship food.  Cruise ship food is nonstop.  At that time, the midnight buffet was still a hot event onboard.  They no longer exist nowadays.  Aside from the food, it was also an opportunity for me to not be so attached to my brother.  The second day of the cruise, I lost sight of him.  We finally met up around, oh, by two in the morning.  He was furious with me, accusing me of not telling him where I was.  We were both in unfamiliar territory, so I had no clue what he was griping about.  I was truly having a blast.

    There were plenty of activities going onboard the Starship Atlantic.  My brother and I joined the Teen Cruiser Club.  At least we had the chance to hang out with people close to our age.  We happened to be the two oldest in the club.  We did just about everything together.  We  had lunch together, went to the midnight buffet together, and hung out with Mickey and Minnie and the rest of the Disney character gang.  During our day at sea, the Teen Cruiser Club was given a tour of the ship’s bridge.  Seeing the ship’s bridge was quite nifty.  I had never seen a cruise ship’s bridge before.  Late in the evening, we went to a star gazing talk up on the top deck.  Each of us was given a star gazer’s guide with a little flash light attached.  The cruise staffer pointed out to us which constellations were which in the night sky.  If I can recall, the ocean was very calm that night.  There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky.  It was never so peaceful out there at sea, out in the middle of nowhere.  The lights of Nassau could be barely seen out in the distance.  When the presentation was over, we were allowed to ask the cruise staffer questions.  We were also allowed to keep the constellation guides.  Originally, I didn’t want to go on this cruise at all.  I was wrong.  At that point, the cruise was going great.  I stood corrected.    

    On the third day, we docked in sunny Nassau, Bahamas.  I was excited to see what Nassau was all about.  Late in the morning, my family and I stepped off the ship to walk around town.  There wasn’t a whole lot to visit. There were plenty of duty-free shops to browse through.  We stopped for ice cream, looked through the shops, and then took a boat ride over to Paradise Island.  Speaking of Paradise Island, the Atlantis Resort and Casino was just under construction.  I remember seeing the monster cranes in the background.  We did return to Nassau on back-to- back Christmas cruises on Norwegian in 2007 and 2008.  We got to see the hotel, aquarium, and water park for real. If you have never been to the Atlantis Resort and Casino, you have to see it.  It is truly out of this world. 

    We walked around Paradise Island, but never went to the beach.  My brother and I were on a bit of a time crunch.  There was one part of that trip I didn’t care for.  It wasn’t the ship or the cruise experience.  It was what we had to get done during the trip which kind of took the joy out of it in a heartbeat.  My brother and I both had the same history teacher that year.  He and I  had to read this history novel to be completed by the end of the mid-winter break.  There was a test on the book too, which left us in a rush to get it done.  In addition, I had an English literature term paper to draft out.  Yuck!! Who wants to do any homework on a cruise?  Don’t ask! 

    At five o’clock, we departed Nassau, en route for Port Lucaya.  That evening, we attended the Captain’s Cocktail Party, followed by the Captain’s Dinner.  The cocktail party was held in the ship’s main lounge.  There was a live band playing.  Can I let you out on a huge secret?  Back then, I was the shyest kid on the face of the planet.  My parents were dancing together, while my brother and I were busy living it up.  We were just drinking away, downing one iced tea and fruit punch after another. We weren’t of drinking age, so we were doing well.  My mom then pointed at me.  She asked me to join her on the dance floor. I was signaling, “No”.  She started giving me the prayer gesture...”Pleeeeease???”.  My brother and I kept on drinking, not paying any attention to her.  My mom then did the unthinkable.  She sent my dad off the dance floor to get me to dance with her.  While I’m chugging down my fruit punch, my dad approached me.  He said, “Will you please go dance with your mother?  If you don’t, I’m gonna toss you off this ship!”.  I said “No, I’m dog-tired from today.”  My dad said, “Ok, just stay there then. We’ll talk later.”  My brother stuck up for me asking, “Hey, you wanna get him back?”  I said, “Let the games begin!”  Right on our cocktail table, right in front of us, was dad’s stateroom card.  Since my dad and my brother have the same first name, my brother charged another dozen drinks to his cabin account.  HA-HA!  At the end of the cruise, my parents were absolutely clueless of why their cabin bill was over one thousand dollars. Sweet revenge indeed!  Sing with me!  “Over the sea, let’s go men.  We’re chargin’ it up, we’re chargin’ it up again!”  

    The following morning, we arrived at Port Lucaya.  Port Lucaya is located on Grand Bahama, about half an hour away from Freeport.  There was no pier, so we had to board a tender to shore.  The tender ride was about ten minutes.  We didn’t do all that much in Port Lucaya.  We browsed around, took pictures here and there, and we returned back to the ship.  Again, we didn’t go swimming in the ship’s pool.  That history novel was a huge albatross hanging over our shoulders.  We spend hours and hours in our cabin reading four chapters at a time.  Despite the mountain of homework I had to get done, my first cruise vacation was quite the experience.  I was surely looking forward to my next cruise, regardless of which line it was going to be.

    The next day, we arrived back in Port Canaveral.  It was an ugly morning.  We packed up our carry-on bags, including our homework.  I tried to track down the kids I met in the Teen Cruiser Club, but it was just too hectic of a morning.  We left the ship, cleared through customs, and headed for the car.  Next stop, Disney’s Yacht Club Resort, the second part of the trip.  We did plenty that day.  Unfortunately, we had to cut our time short in the Magic Kingdom.  We had that dreadful history novel to make tracks on.  If there was any part of that trip we didn’t like, it was reading that book, “The Rise And Fall of The Third Reich”.  We stayed three nights in Disney World, and unfortunately the really hard part came up.  The hardest part of any Disney World vacation is LEAVING.  That Sunday evening we were flying home, we were delayed.  There were high winds at Newark Airport.  We had to stay on the ground for over an hour.  We arrived home two hours late.  We were returning to school the next morning.  It was a trip we couldn’t get into to any kind of a groove.  With a history novel to read and term papers on our plates, it was a trip with mixed feelings.  The next morning, we lucked out.  It was a snow day. It gave us an extra day to make progress on “the book”.  We were fortunate to pass the test.  Four years later, Disney took the cruising concept and plused it. Boy, did they!  Four ships and counting!  

    In the Fall of 1999, I became a World Disney World cast member as part of their college program.  Working with Disney was an experience like no other.  I even attempted to go full-time.  The spring of that year, the Disney Wonder was just launched.  This summer, I have been working with the Disney Magic in New York City.  The work experience is like stepping into the past.  It’s truly amazing what events during your very first cruise vacation can transpire into.  It’s even more amazing what having been a cast member can lead to.  The work experience most definitely feels like a blast from the past.  What's the best part of it? Pixie dust is the key ingredient to it all.
 
       

1 comment:

  1. We'll be going on the Disney Dream in October, and I just can't wait! Disney sets the standard for the cruise industry, and I think the new ships will increase the margin between them and any other cruise lines.

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