What a difference from 1983

[ddbaab53]

So I have been going through our pictures over the past 40 years finding ones that can be put into a slide show for the guest at the wedding as they take their seats at the church. I doing so I found the album from our very first cruise on the Carnivale in 1983. We had an inside cabin and paid $1,238.00 for the empress deck and did not get our cabin until right before the trip. That was a 7day trip out of Miami to San Juan, St. Thomas and Labadee Haiti. Found menu's including a drink menu. Premium Cocktails $1.95, Cocktails $1.75, Fun Ship Special $3.75, daily specials $1.25 and soft drinks .40 cents...wow what a difference!!!!! The other big difference I found was the dinner menus, we had a different theme every night with 2 starters each night, 2 soups, 2 salads, 6 entrees, and 6 desserts. It was really neat seeing the difference in not only the ship itself but the other things as well.

 

Does anyone else have memories from other cruises they have been on?

[funinthesun1964]

Wow, interesting. Why would the Fun Ship Special be more than premium cocktails? Maybe it was something different back then. I love to read about the earlier days of cruising, and I love seeing people's pictures too!

[careycouponer]

I can't even remember the name of the ship I went on back in 1992. I was almost 20 years old and my main memory is that it ran aground.

 

But I still fondly remember the midnight buffet. With a ship made out of either butter or cheese. And lemons turned into fish with black olive eyes. Ice sculptures.

 

Truly amazing.

[Aplmac]

So I have been going through our pictures over the past 40 years...

In doing so I found the album from our very first cruise on the Carnivale in 1983.

We had an inside cabin and paid $1,238.00 for the empress deck

and did not get our cabin until right before the trip.

That was a 7day trip out of Miami to San Juan, St. Thomas and Labadee Haiti.

Did they have cruise-cards in those days?

Or did they give you a KEY to your cabin?

 

Earliest cruise-card I have in my collection is this one from 1992

 

 

 

Would love to hear from you

about how they kept track of passengers on/off the ship, in those days

because there wasn't any on board computer system back then!

 

.

[SeagoingMom]

So I have been going through our pictures over the past 40 years finding ones that can be put into a slide show for the guest at the wedding as they take their seats at the church. I doing so I found the album from our very first cruise on the Carnivale in 1983. We had an inside cabin and paid $1,238.00 for the empress deck and did not get our cabin until right before the trip. That was a 7day trip out of Miami to San Juan, St. Thomas and Labadee Haiti. Found menu's including a drink menu. Premium Cocktails $1.95, Cocktails $1.75, Fun Ship Special $3.75, daily specials $1.25 and soft drinks .40 cents...wow what a difference!!!!! The other big difference I found was the dinner menus, we had a different theme every night with 2 starters each night, 2 soups, 2 salads, 6 entrees, and 6 desserts. It was really neat seeing the difference in not only the ship itself but the other things as well.

 

Does anyone else have memories from other cruises they have been on?

What I think is most interesting about your souvenirs is that the price of the cruise itself seems quite high -- especially for an inside cabin!! Though, of course the cocktails seem cheap. With inflation, the price of cocktails has not changed significantly but cabins have gotten much, much cheaper! Yay!!!

 

DollarTimes.com has an inflation calculator which equates the $1238 cruise fare to a 2013 value of $2912, the $1.95 cocktail to $4.50, the Fun Ship special at $3.75 to $8.82, and the $.40 soda to $.94. So cruising in 2013 has really become way more affordable, and soda drinking way more expensive! Alcohol seems to be the constant here.... :)

[SadieN]

I can't even remember the name of the ship I went on back in 1992. I was almost 20 years old and my main memory is that it ran aground.

 

But I still fondly remember the midnight buffet. With a ship made out of either butter or cheese. And lemons turned into fish with black olive eyes. Ice sculptures.

 

Truly amazing.

 

Might be the Tropicale in 1996.

Otherwise the only other Carnival ships to run aground were in 1972 and 2002.

http://www.cruisejunkie.com/Aground.html

[Cruizinman]

So I have been going through our pictures over the past 40 years finding ones that can be put into a slide show for the guest at the wedding as they take their seats at the church. I doing so I found the album from our very first cruise on the Carnivale in 1983. We had an inside cabin and paid $1,238.00 for the empress deck and did not get our cabin until right before the trip. That was a 7day trip out of Miami to San Juan, St. Thomas and Labadee Haiti. Found menu's including a drink menu. Premium Cocktails $1.95, Cocktails $1.75, Fun Ship Special $3.75, daily specials $1.25 and soft drinks .40 cents...wow what a difference!!!!! The other big difference I found was the dinner menus, we had a different theme every night with 2 starters each night, 2 soups, 2 salads, 6 entrees, and 6 desserts. It was really neat seeing the difference in not only the ship itself but the other things as well.

 

Does anyone else have memories from other cruises they have been on?

I would love to see those menu's :D

[kangaand2roos]

Very cool! I'd love to hear more stories! My first cruise had the midnight buffet! Not sure about the next ones.

[DaisyGirl55]

I remember the theme nights in the dining room too! Almost everyone participated as we dressed for Caribbean Night, 50's and 60's Night, Country Western Night. It was so much fun seeing the different outfits.

 

Definitely a different time of cruising!

[CENTEX CRUISER]

My first cruise was on the Tropicale in 1986, Pacific coast 7 day, shot skeet off the back, Cabo San Lucas was just a village, didn't cruise again 2004..

[beachbaby2]

Wow that's expensive for an inside cabin!!!

[rainbowflag]

Captain's Dinner February, 1991 Carnival Jubilee to Mexico

 

The Petit Filet was every bit as good as the filet served in the steakhouse aboard the Carnival ships of today.

 

The second menu is from a family dinner in August of 1963 aboard the SS United States. My dad (military 0-6) commanded we six kids to have a "no thank you portion" of the Russian caviar. I remember we laughed at eating fish eggs.

 

 

 

[Fla Senior]

I remember a few unique things:

 

• Dolphin IV in 1998 cruising to Nassau and Freeport. The outside decks were the old wooden V shape. When walking port to starboard (or vice versa) you would literally go up and down the hill!
  

 

• Brittanis in 1990 to same ports. Had a forward inside cabin and the anchor chain would shake the cabin has it went up or down.
  

 

• Also went on a couple of cruises in the '70's but do not remember the names. Went to St Thomas, San Juan & Haiti. I remember that there was a slot machine sitting at the entrance to the dining room (only had one) and I would lose a 20 every time I went to eat.
  

Also in Haiti there were no shops or excursions like today. You just got off the ship and walked around. I remember meat hanging from hooks with flies all over them. The locals would purchase.

 

Also lots of kids begging. I went back to the ship and got a carton of cigarettes and gave them to the kids to sell. Little did I know that it was against the law. Lucky I didn't get arrested.

[lrowe70]

$1237 for an inside Carnival cabin!?

Wow cruising was expensive 30 years ago, no wonder it wasn't so popular.

[gusandgidgetsmom]

Cruising was a lot more expensive when I started in the '80's. Not very popular and a different experience than now. Some of the things I remember that are different:

no outlets in cabins to plug in hair dryers, straighteners you all met in one big room and plugged things in

themed dining each night. We dressed up each night as well

no balconies

nightgown contest and knobby knees contest for men

they used to flame the desserts in the dining room

midnight and 2 a.m. buffet

no ice cream stands, no deli, no hamburger place options breakfast lunch dinner in MDR but had buffets late at night that we took pixs of

room keys and we used cash

no televisions in the room our news was announced

the ships were a little more tug like but we thought they were so glamorous

We met the captain and partied with him--everyone on the ship.

There was a movie theatre on the lowest floor.

Just a few of the differences I remember.

[okgirl]

My 1st and 2nd cruises were in 83 and 84 on the Festivale, sailing from Miami to San Juan, St. Thomas and Nassau.

 

We were part of a group cruise the first time and our cabin was around $900pp for essentially a port hole cabin but it was high up. I remember the two twins were bolted to the floor, couldn't be put together and had a wooden skirt around them. Almost like a barrier to keep you from rolling out of the bed.

 

Room Key that you turned into the pursers desk before leaving the ship, I guess that's how they kept track of who was on or off the ship.

 

Safes were at the pursers desk.

 

All real meals were in the MDR, but they did have pastries in the morning and hamburger and hotdogs up on the Lido each day.

 

Midnight and 2am buffet in the MDR with lots of bread sculptures.

 

Ships couldn't go sideways or backwards, so in every port tugs had to maneuver the ship into the pier. Ships had to be docked backwards in each port so if there was an emergency on the ship it could quickly steam away from the pier so the fire wouldn't get onto land.

 

In St. Thomas we docked at what is now Havensite, but it was only about 6 shops and 1 open air bar.

 

Theme nights in the MDR were based on a Taste of Nations type concept, so French one night, Italian another. And while the waiters didn't dance, they did sing at least one song native to what ever nationality was being featured that night.

 

No bingo and the casino was about the size of the Library on any current ship. 10-12 slots, 1 roulette, 1 blackjack don't even remember if there were poker tables and the casino cage was right at the front with one worker.

 

Shore excursions were guided by a Carnival employee. The Maitre'D led the disco excursion in San Juan. I had a sore throat after being in the smoke filled disco on the excursion and the MD brought me tea, honey and lemon to my cabin.

[golfadj]

We started cruising about 20 years ago and much more elegant than it is today.

[kangaand2roos]

I had a sore throat after being in the smoke filled disco on the excursion and the MD brought me tea, honey and lemon to my cabin.

 

In 2001 we cruised on Celebrity. My DH was under the weather one night, and while I was having dinner, our waiter INSISTED on sending a meal to DH in the room! It was very, very sweet. I caught the cold the next day, but it has to be pretty bad to keep me from the MDR!

[Aplmac]

My 1st and 2nd cruises were in 83 and 84 on the Festivale...

 

Room Key that you turned into the pursers desk before leaving the ship,

I guess that's how they kept track of who was on or off the ship.

 

Safes were at the pursers desk. ===> Safe Deposit Boxes, in effect?

So no real gangway control, it would seem.

 

How trusting and honor-based everything was, in those days.

Today's security paranoia seems extreme by comparison!

 

.

[RWolver672]

I have to laugh when I read that people can't remember the names of the ships that they've been on. I can see where people can't remember the names when they've been on twenty or thirty cruises. We have had friends just get off a cruise and when I ask what ship it was, they say they can't remember. My first thought is always "How did you even know what ship to get on?"

[ddbaab53]

So no real gangway control, it would seem.

 

How trusting and honor-based everything was, in those days.

Today's security paranoia seems extreme by comparison!

 

.

 

There was a gangway to go on and off the ship but of course not near to anything today. In St. Thomas a Royla Carribbean Ship was docked with us and we even were given permission to go on the ship to see it and we were not even on that cruise. We had some type of sticker or card to get on and off as ID.

[ddbaab53]

:) I am loving reading all the comments on here and wish I could respond to all of them. I will see if I can get some pics scanned in and posted. Adn also try and answer some quiestions as best I can remember.

[okgirl]

So no real gangway control, it would seem.

 

How trusting and honor-based everything was, in those days.

Today's security paranoia seems extreme by comparison!

 

.

 

Very casual about security. But unlike today, I don't remember there being any other ships in port with us.

 

Being brand new to cruising and not really doing any of the planning I'm not even sure what other cruiselines existed in 83. It was nice wandering around old San Juan or St. Thomas without 10K other people around you.

 

The Festivale was only about 37K tons, but it still seemed just as huge as a modern day ship does.

[okgirl]

There was a gangway to go on and off the ship but of course not near to anything today. In St. Thomas a Royla Carribbean Ship was docked with us and we even were given permission to go on the ship to see it and we were not even on that cruise. We had some type of sticker or card to get on and off as ID.

 

I have always thought that Carnival is missing a huge revenue opportunity. I would gladly pay $20+ dollars to purchase a "day pass" that would allow me to visit another Carnival ship that is in port.

 

I've mostly sailed on Conquest class and above ships, so I would like to tour some of the others.

[Aplmac]

I have to laugh when I read that people can't remember the names of the ships that they've been on.

I can see where people can't remember the names when they've been on twenty or thirty cruises.

We have had friends just get off a cruise and when I ask what ship it was,

they say they can't remember.

My first thought is always "How did you even know what ship to get on?"

The word you're looking for is Clueless!

 

 

I've heard stories of people at ports with multiple ships docked..

where they turn up at the gangway of Any Old Ship will do..

only to discover This Is Not Your Ship, Folks - It's That One Over There. :eek:

 

 

Unreal!

It's like my boss says...the eyes are open but they're not conscious.

 

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