Inaugural Cruise

HAL is having a 7 day Eastern Caribbean Inaugural Cruise for the Zuiderdam on 12/14/02 from Ft.Lauderdale which I'm thinking of booking.

Has anyone ever booked an inaugural cruise before? I hear they're awesome events.

[Kuki]

There is generally very little special about an Inaugural cruise. The christening ceremonies generally take place before the cruise, with media and VIPS present.

The down side to inaug. cruises is that you'll often encounter glitches, as the staff and systems are set into place for the first time. As long as you don't expect everything to go as smoothly as it should, there is a certain excitement being the first group on a ship.

[dezertcruzer]

My experience with the inaugural cruise of the Carnival Pride this last New Year's Eve was that the ship was full of Carnival big wigs and invitees, and second seating dining was completely booked. There were over 300 paying guests who had requested 2nd seating and couldn't be accomodated. We also tried reserving for the specialty restuarant, David's, right after first seating dinner on embarkation day and couldn't get a reservation. It was all booked up by the big wigs and their guests. The interactive TV wasn't working yet, but I heard it was functional within a cruise or two after ours. The wait staff didn't have that timing and didn't quite click with each other that we've experienced on other cruises. None of these things spoiled our cruise, but I came home determined to book any other new ship after it had been in service for a month or so. By the way, we loved the Pride and we had a great cruise. These were just some of my observations about being on the inaugural voyage.
jennifer