Princess Cruises New Blog Inspired by Real Life Stories
Princess Cruises have launched a new blog called 'Inspired to Cruise' which will feature real-life stories of 52 passengers’ about what encouraged them to take a cruise holiday. The blog has been inspired by the hugely successful ’50 Essential Experience’, which shared the personal stories of Princess Cruises.
The blog will eventually reveal the stories of 52 passengers and the reasons that inspired them to take a cruise. The first post, which is revealed today, is from Nancy Chamberlian-Fox of California, USA who tells the story of cruising to celebrate the second time she and her husband were married after a span of not being together for 27 years.
Paul Ludlow, Princess Cruises UK director, said, “Princess passengers are always happy to share their personal stories about why our customers decided to cruise and also their personal experiences on board. This new blog gives our passengers the starring role as we share some of the most remarkable and inspiring stories.”
The blog will also feature a 30-second video called an ‘Escape Inspirations’. The video will be introduced by a Princess crew member who will explain why the scene has a meaning for them. The first video, introduced by the British master of Grand Princess Captain Anthony Herriott, features the mesmerising wake view of the ship’s aft.
Why not share your story and tell us what inspired you to take your first cruise?
There were four of us. Then in 2001, at the age of 59, my husband died after a massive heart attack. One year earlier, our friends were separated by the wife passing away. We had all been friends for over 20 years so at the time of grief, we were there for Eric and then he was here for me.
Eric and myself remained close friends and in 2003 I decided I should get out there and going on a cruise was a safe option for a single lady traveller. The Travel Agent recommended a Mediterranean Cruise on Grand Princess – flying from Bournemouth to Venice and back from Barcelona. I told Eric about my plans, whereby he laughed out loud, after all, direction was not my finest point and getting lost was. He was enthusiastic about the itinerary so, tongue in cheek I suggested he may like to come with me. He said yes immediately and when he came to visit me the following weekend, we discussed the cruise and decided that as we were good friends, we would share a cabin to save 2 x Single Supplement. We would respect each others privacy and decided to have a balcony as, after all, and this was to be the holiday of a life time.
We booked the cruise for early August 2003 but within a few weeks, we were told this particular cruise had been cancelled but our booking had been transferred to Golden Princess on 21st August. We flew to and from Heathrow with a car to transport us each way.
We arrived on Thursday 21st at the Marco Polo airport Venice after a chartered flight on a Qantas Boeing 747 at 12.30pm. We embarked at 1.30pm, straight into our Cabin and then able to explore this wonderful ship. The rest of the day was our own. We elected 2nd sitting and our first dinner was where we met 4 fantastic folk from Canada and Florida, who are today, some of our closest friends. On Friday we had a fantastic shore trip in Venice, we did all the tourist things and were both on cloud 9.
Two days at sea was followed by Istanbul. Oh my goodness, we did not know what to expect but certainly not what lay ahead. The Blue Mosque, The Cistern, Topkapi Palace, our first Turkish meal, a tour of the City with other land marks and finishing with 2 hours at the Grand Bazaar. What a day and that evening Eric kissed me!! At that point we both realised we both had feelings for each other – much more than just friendship. Istanbul was then a very special day for us. Kusadasi, Athens, Italy, France and Spain followed and then home.
The difficulty was I lived in Bournemouth and Eric lived near Exeter. One of us had to move if our relationship was to work so Eric sold up and in June 2004, he moved here. We had found a lovely bungalow for him 5 miles away from my home. By then, we had found a holiday company who specialised in two centre holidays in Turkey and exactly 55 weeks after first going to Istanbul, we were back there. On day one, we re-visited the Blue Mosque and whilst we were in that magical building, Eric proposed to me. I said yes - the rest of the four days in Istanbul and ten in Kusadasi were wonderful.
We married in August 2005 but were unable to take a honeymoon as my Father was ill. However, we did take a river cruise in Paris in the December which was a delight.
The once in a life time cruise will always be special but not the end of cruising. Since then we have taken over 20 more with the most romantic being on Aurora in August 2010. We sailed from Southampton to – yes of course, Istanbul and on the 25th, the anniversary of the “kiss”, Eric had arranged for us to retake our wedding vows. Captain Peter Philpot conduced the ceremony and one of our witnesses was a little Wine Stewardess who we had become friendly with twice on Arcadia the previous year when she was just a wine waitress.
Fate? Possibly. - Romantic? Absolutely. – Istanbul? The most wonderful place on earth for us. - Love? – Yes, although Eric is 74 and I’m 62, we are both so very happy and if it hadn’t been for that initial cruise, we would probably just still be friends 90 miles apart. Thank you Princess Cruises.
My wife and I decided that we'd had enough of airport lounges and hours sitting in a tin tube (also known as an aircraft) and decided to give cruising a go. Our first venture was with Hurtigruten, 'doing' the Norwegian fjords. It was a success, and we were 'hooked', so much so that we immediately booked a cruise with Princess line - Vancouver, the Inside passage to Alaska. That was a very wise decision - everything was "Princess Perfection", so who would blame us for still cruising?
If you are in any doubt, we'd say "Go for it-you won't be disappointed".
We first cruised in 2006 when I started to feel very panicky about flying and cancelled our honeymoon a week before leaving. We chose to do a Princess cruise on the Sea Princess and we both fell in love with the ship, the entertainment, and this great way of travelling. Since 2006 we have tried different companies to see which we like best and for the destinations as we only sail out of England. To me the Sea Princess will always be my favourite and brings back wonderful memories. Cruising is our way of holidaying totally.
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