Just like everyone else, "The Love Boat" was the show that pushed me to plan my first cruise, although my love affair with cruising really started much before the 1970's show. The first time I watched "An Affair to Remember" I was hooked. I remember being a young girl (a very long time ago). I was home from school because I had the flu. I was watching Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr fall in love on the SS Constitution and remember thinking, that could be me. Of course it didn't happen quite that way even though the SS Constitution was still sailing when my husband and I took our first cruise, in 1980 on Carnival Cruise Line's Carnivale.
After completing travel school in 1989 I walked into Completely Cruises and convinced JoAnn that she couldn't possibly live another day without me. I've since cruised almost 100 times on various cruise lines, such as Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Holland America, Princess, Celebrity, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Viking River and Uniworld. I've also sailed on some cruise lines which are no longer with us such as Home Lines, Dolphin, Premier and Crown.
I have visited almost every island in the Caribbean as well as the islands of the Bahamas and beautiful Bermuda. I've visited Alaska, Europe, Canada, Scandinavia as well as Russia, Egypt and the Black Sea. My husband and I took a river boat cruise on the Danube with Viking River from Budapest to Nuremberg.
People often ask me, "what is your favorite ship" or "where was your favorite destination?" All I can say is, "whatever ship I happen to be sailing on at the time is my favorite." And, choosing a favorite destination is very difficult. What can be more thrilling than seeing the Pyramids for the first time or sitting on our balcony while we cruise down the Grand Canal in Venice as we watch the gondolas glide along side our ship or that first glimpse of Glacier Bay and the snow capped mountains of Alaska. Pick a favorite? Impossible!
Gail
