I have often said there will always be some people who will never try a cruise. These people believe the typical misconceptions we cruise enthusiasts have heard so many times. Then are are the people who finally decide to try one. The iconic former president of Carnival Cruises, Bob Dickinson, used to call these folks; “cruise virgins.” His point was that they have no idea what to expect, but once they try it they want to do it again and again.

Even though “The Love Boat” was a hit TV show in the 1970s, featuring the iconic Pacific Princess on its “Mexican Riviera” itinerary out of Los Angeles, the shipboard experience was not really a big part of the show. The focus was always on the characters.

So, even in 1982, when I took my first sea voyage, less than 1 million living Americans had ever been on a pleasure cruise, so the real cruise experience was still largely unknown and misunderstood by the majority of average people.

Once I boarded my first cruise ship I found it hard to convey how much the real shipboard experience varied from what I expected. I was lucky enough to be working aboard one of the finest luxury ships in the world at the time (the Royal Viking Sea), but not all cruise ships are the same. So rather than focus on my personal experience in this article, I want to explore the surprises the vast majority of people encounter on their first cruise.

First Cruise Surprises

The Cruise Line International Association has polls that show the majority of Americans would like to try a cruise, but the number of people who actually take a first cruise is substantially smaller. These studies show that most people who decide to take their first cruise had an “instigator” who tried one and came home to tell them how great it was.

The most commonly uttered phrases of first-time cruisers are, “Wow, if I had known it was like this, I would have started doing this years ago.” Another one is, “I had heard of good service in hotels, but I never knew what the word actually meant until I got on a cruise ship, and the amazing thing is, its all included in the cruise fare.” A third one is, “I never knew ships were so beautiful, I expected people in cutoffs with windblown hair and tattoos, and that would be the staff. I never expected a ship was actually a floating luxury hotel, with the staff in starched white uniforms.”

I mostly expected a cruise ship to be a nautical affair. I thought I would be surrounded by winches and ropes, and that there would be ladders and lockers everywhere. I expected the “dining room” would have a linoleum floor, to make cleaning up spills easier, that the dishes would be unbreakable plastic, and that the formica tabletops would have raised edges to keep the dishes from sliding off in rolling seas.

Imagine my surprise when I saw public rooms with plush carpets, fountains and statues. There were grand staircases and elevators and dining rooms with chandeliers, white linen napkins, full sets of china, crystal and more utensils per setting than I had ever imagined. There were waiters carrying shing chrome covered plates to tables where ladies wore gowns and the gentlemen wore tuxedoes; toasting each other with champagne.

And the staterooms were an even bigger surprise. Instead of cots hung like hammocks I saw king-sized beds, walk-in closets, private bathrooms with Jacuzzi tubs, television sets and mini-refrigerators with ice buckets and drinking glasses.

For our meals, instead of “preservable food” like instant potatoes and rice we had steak, prime rib, salmon, crab legs, cold fruit-based soups and the more exquisite desserts than I had ever seen. I was suddenly eating things I had only heard about before; truffles, escargot, venison, Maine lobster, and chocolate soufflé with handmade ice cream from real vanilla beans.

I am proud to say that cruising is one of the most satisfying lifetime experiences I have ever known. For me, going through life without the cruise experience would be like never knowing how it feels to make love. To be so far removed from daily concerns, purely relaxed and at ease, with no better place to be and so many pleasurable things to do is one of the most satisfying feelings I can imagine.

If you are still looking for advice for first time cruisers, check out this great tip list by iCruise.com: https://www.icruise.com/about/first-time-cruisers.html.

About Paul Motter, Cruise & Travel Writer

<p>Paul Motter took his first cruise in 1983, when he was lucky enough to get hired by Royal Viking Line, a small but very influential cruise line still credited with inventing all-inclusive luxury cruises. At the time less than one million Americans had ever sailed on a cruise. For the year 2017 the projected number of cruise passengers is over 25-million people.</p><p>Paul's first cruise included sailing ten straight days at sea from San Francisco to Bora Bora, and he had no idea that was unusual. In the next year he sailed to destinations all the way from Tahiti to the North Cape of Norway. In later years Paul also worked aboard Norwegian Cruise Line's S.S. Norway and aboard three Holland America Line ships.</p><p>In 1999 Paul started the web site CruiseMates.com, the first professional cruise review site on the Internet, with well-known AOL cruise reviewer Anne Campbell as his partner. Paul served as the CEO of CruiseMates until 2007 when he became the editor-in-chief, the role he maintained until 2016. Paul has cruised on every popular cruise line in the U.S. His favorite ships include the Royal Caribbean Oasis-class, Carnival's Vista-class, Norwegian Cruise Line's Breakaway class, Celebrity's Solstice class, Oceania, Crystal, or any cruise on Princess or Holland America. His favorite river cruise experiences include the Nile in Egypt and a 10-day Russian River on Viking River Cruises.</p><p>His favorite memories as a cruise reporter include seeing Queen Elizabeth, Princess Kate and Camilla (all separately) commission the three Cunard ships now in service.</p><p>Paul has written about cruising for Women's Day, The San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Herald, Sherman's Travel, FoxNews.com and CruiseMates.</p>