Who out there remembers the good old days of...

[MamaTene]

True customer service, outstanding food with no specialty restaurants, muster drills that took place AT THE MUSTER STATION your cabin assigned too with attendance taken, room service that allowed you to WRITE IN your own choices if you preferred something not on the menu.

 

Our most memorable cruise without a single doubt was aboard the Norway. This was sailing at its finest in the true spirit of cruising.

 

I fear those days are indeed gone for good.

[paul929207]

Yes, sad but true. Those days are gone

[MCC retired]

Yes, I remember ships that looked and moved like ships.

Bon Voyage Parties .

I also remember that , adjusted for inflation ,they were more $$ than today.

[John Bull]

No aircon, no balconies, no stabilisers, sooty funnels, hard wooden steamer chairs....................

Yep, I remember cruising in the good old days :D

 

Don't get me wrong, great memories of the old days. But in the memory is where they belong. ;)

 

JB :)

[tulsacubfan]

True customer service, outstanding food with no specialty restaurants, muster drills that took place AT THE MUSTER STATION your cabin assigned too with attendance taken, room service that allowed you to WRITE IN your own choices if you preferred something not on the menu.

 

Our most memorable cruise without a single doubt was aboard the Norway. This was sailing at its finest in the true spirit of cruising.

 

I fear those days are indeed gone for good.

 

First, I think the days of true customer service like this is not just gone on cruise ships....I think it is going away everywhere.

 

Second....I could not agree more....the best cruise ever was aboard the Norway....

[BruceMuzz]

When I worked for Royal Viking Line in the 1970's and 1980's, we offered all those great things that are missing today.

 

A 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise on the Royal Viking Sea in an Ocean View Cabin (we didn't have balconies in those days) cost the same as a new Cadillac.

 

Today, if you are willing to spend the price of a new Cadillac for a 7-day cruise, I can guarantee that it will be even better than the true 5-star experience on Royal Viking from 30 years ago. Check out Seabourn or Silver Sea Cruise Lines.

 

However if you are trying to vacation on the cheap today, you will be disappointed - just as you would have been 30 years ago.

[Doug R.]

I find wallowing in the past for any situation including cruising to be a useless and embittering exercise in futility.

[cb at sea]

I remember....and miss it!

[gerryl12]

Try sailing one of the luxury cruise lines, they are more like the good old days when the average person could not afford to cruise.

[bbwex]

Those days still exist, just not on the mass market lines. As costs go up and they try to keep the line on fares, the level of service keeps going down -- slowly but inexorably.

[Ashland]

Agree... RCCL Song of Norway the mid 1970's :D

[CruiserBruce]

Good points. The good old days of customer service - love to have that back. Food, better, more plentiful for sure.

 

But, higher price, relatively, thus fewer cruised. No or very few balconies. So, do we go back?

 

Funny how the memory is so selective about the good old days. I hear the same selective memory about the good old days of the 1950s.... life was simplier, cheaper, but travel was much more limited and relatively expensive, there was still segregation, women hardly worked outside of the home. Do we go back?

[QuietCheetah49]

Ahhhh yes. Our favorite was on the Majesty Cruiselines Royal Majesty in mid-90's. Was later purchased by NCL and ship was stretched.

[househunter]

IMO, things are much, much better now! For the same cost (especially adjusted for inflation) you can stay in a suite and eat in a specialty restaurant every night for less money than what a regular stateroom cost 15 or 20 years ago.

 

That and the addition of so many more entertainment and activity options make cruising much more intereting for those that get bored quickly. Our first cruise was in 1994. I didn't think the food was any better in the MDR than it is now. I have always found the service to be wonderful and love that the pricing is low enough to be able to cruise more often.

[lawyerrose]

The best thing about the "good old days" of cruising was that the average person didn't think it wasn't a vacation unless they brought the kids along!!! :rolleyes: Maybe it WAS because a cruise cost more, respectively, than it does today. Or maybe it was just that people viewed cruising as a place where adults could enjoy peace and relaxation away from the demands of everyday life. *sigh*

[swsfrail]

Oh yes, I remember those days! We had to save up for years to sail on a passenger ship because even the simplest trip was quite expensive. I couldn't book a balcony cabin because they were only available for the super rich - if they were even available. Only one restaurant, and though the food was good, you were stuck there for every meal - not even a buffet was available. And smoking was allowed everywhere, even in the restaurants, lounges and the tiny showroom.

 

Today, I can cruise three or four times for the same amount of money on a much nicer ship with better amenities. If the food and service is not quite as good as then, it is a reasonable trade off for the affordability that cruising is these days. A person can always book a suite and eat in the specialty restaurants if they want better service and food. Or, for a comparable service and food quality cruise, you could cruise with the luxury lines - and pay the prices they ask for the pleasure of doing so.

 

I have been cruising since the 30s when cruising wasn't even a word yet - ocean liners were the norm, not cruise ships. I like it better today. Today's prices have made it possible for my children and grand children to afford to join me on my cruises, something that would have been impossible a generation ago. That to me is a priceless benefit of today's cruising environment.

[hunt182644]

Every night as I get ready for bed, I think well that was another one of the good old days. I am still here breathing and kicking.:D

[avalong]

My recollection as to cruising costs in the mid-70's differs. I took a 7-day Caribbean cruise aboard the Song of Norway in the mid-70's ('74 or '75) when I was just a whippersnapper, & I recall it being very reasonable.

 

As to "the good old days:" Go see "Midnight in Paris" for a great perspective on this subject.

[bob brown]

When all of the above is considered, with the choices available to us now, from low budget glorified ferryboats, all the way up to the ultraluxury mega-yachts; with the itineraries available from short cruises to nowhere, up to round the world epics; from party hardy, to family resorts, to mild adventure expedition type cruises, etc., etc........I say, like the song says, "these are the good old days". Today may be the real 'golden age' of cruising.:)

[Krazy Kruizers]

And we threw streamers overboard while people stood on the dock waving goodbye to us.

As for the life boat drills -- on HAL we have always reported to our life boat station. And until recently we always wore our life jackets and Roll Call was taken and people remained silent during the captain's talk.

[MamaTene]

And guests were permitted on board to visit with passengers before sailing away! I have pictures of group of our friends in FL toasting us.

[Happy ks]

Maybe I didn't cruise far back enough, we only started cruising in 1998. I remember great service (still get great service) I remember standing outside with a lifejacket on, ready to faint from the heat/humidity and that it took so much longer then because they had to take attendance.

 

What I don't remember is better food. To me it has always been the equivalent of banquet food. I do remember my husband telling me not to expect great food, he had cruised a couple times in the late 70's, that the food was similar to chain restaurant or banquet food. I was glad he did, or I would have been disappointed.

 

We don't cruise for the food, nor do we ever go hungry on a cruise. It's food, some fairly decent, some not so great.

 

I remember extremely long lines to check in at the port terminal before they started doing pre-checkin online. I remember being able to disembark more quickly because we had passports and there were 2 lines, the no passport line was always 5 times longer.

 

I remember having to search through a sea of luggage to find your bags at the end of a cruise. Now with the self disembarkation process being so popular, we get off the ship and it takes only a minute to find our bags.

 

The biggest change (to me) on cruise ships is how much formal nights have changed, the interpretation of what is formal. Not in a bad way, I myself prefer packing a shorter cocktail length dress. But it seems some people try hard to see how far down the ladder they can go and "get away with it". This is not so much a criticism as it is an observation, what others wear doesn't concern me, I worry about myself instead. Or, even boarding a ship, my thoughts are that a cruise is a luxury vacation and I see so many who dress as if they are on the way out to the garage to clean it out, now that is a criticism, clean up, wouldya :confused: I'm not talking about the people who have traveled for hours on end and arrive at the port by 9 am after a redeye flight, I'm talking to the people with stains and holes in their clothing and shoes that need to be trashed. And, being the former hairstylist from years ago, at least try to comb your hair.

 

There have always been: drunks, rude people, kids, smokers, seniors (why that is an issue I don't know) pre-teens on the stairs/elevators, people late for dinner, chair hogs at the pool, chair savers at the theatre etc... It's just a sampling of the human race all crammed together on a ship.

[5326jan]

I remember the days! Unfortunately, we were too young to take a week off of work, leave the children for a week or have the money to do any of the above. :( Today are the good ole' days for us. We've worked hard and are near retirement, our kids are grown with their own children and we've saved enough to be able to take a couple weeks in a row for an adventure!:D We appreciate any time we can have meals served to us, not have to clean the kitchen or make the beds!:)

[marco]

Yep...for some of us who have been cruising since the "olden days"...remember Home Lines? Especially the "Oceanic". At the table preparation, off the menu ordering encouraged, clean dishes in front of you and dinner being served off of huge silver platters, all meals in the dining room, that "little guy" going around through the lounges with the gong announcing dinner time, no casinos, jacket and tie was "informal" every night and strictly enforced, renting deck chairs (which I'm surprised the lines haven't reintroduced), Bon Voyage parties with more visitors onboard than passengers, bon voyage gift baskets, flowers, bottles of champagne and other alcohol being delivered, specific ethnic backgrounds reflected on "the ships of state" in food, decor, staff. But....as I've mentioned in other posts, a Feb 1981 cruise on the "Oceanic" cost within $30 what it cost us last winter for a similar Caribbean cruise, same # of days, same cabin category. If the price has stayed the same over 30 years, what you get for that amount of money HAS to have changed! But at least what I cruise for hasn't changed....sitting on deck in a quiet place, looking out on the horizon, watching the sun in the sky, and smelling the sea air and just enjoying the peace and quiet of a day on the ocean.

[bob brown]

Who remembers skeet shooting off the fantail? Or hitting golf balls out to sea?

How about "horse races" around the lido deck?

Or (yuck), the crew throwing garbage overboard?