What a difference from 1983

[MrPete]

 

and this...

...was me at the age of five, in front of my father in the checked shirt -my Mum at left.

 

 

Whatever happened to cute? - Today I'm someone's Big Hairy Husband! :eek:

 

Please check out those awful Deck Chairs...bet there was no squabbling over them!

 

.

 

Nice culottes.

[msstarr22]

I sailed on the Mardis Gras in 1981. We must have gotten a great deal b/c The total for an inside cabin + airfare from Pittsburgh was $895. I was 21 years old & every payday I would stop at the travel agency & make a payment.

 

Every meal was in the diningroom (except sea days there was a BBQ on the Lido). I remember our cabin steward waking us up every mornning so we wouldn't miss breakfast. KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK on the door, then "Good morning!"...next cabin, same thing, and so on, and so on......

 

He was quite a sweetheart. He gave us an adapter for the outlet so we wouldn't have to go to the room where 20 women were trying to dry or curl their hair at the same time.

 

 

I was on the Mardi Gras, first cruise and it was as a group of travel agents, learning. We had to be dressed nice all the time! We did get a bit of pool time, was so sure that we were not supposed to be there it was nerve wracking! I did realize just watching everyone else have fun that I wanted to cruise more...had to wait until I could afford it on my own though! Same thing and I am so glad they don't wake us up anymore!

[caro1998]

My first cruise was aboard the SS Galileo- which was I believe one of Celebrity's first ships? It was in 1988 so I was only 12. We traveled to Bermuda from NY. I have found some neat photos but I always have a hard time uploading on here from my IPad.

 

Also, if you do a search on you tube, there are some pretty great videos of some early Carnival cruise trips. There is a full bridge tour posted which was quite interesting to watch, as well as a video of a "singles get together" in 1986. Lets just say that some of the activities are quite suggestive- but eveyone looked to be having a great time! LOL

 

Caro

[ShelleyQT]

This does not qualify as a cruise

simply because this was how one transited the Atlantic back in 1955!

 

There were no trans-Atlantic flights: the technology wasn't there, yet.

 

Can you believe my parents took me across the Atlantic in this TUB? :eek:

 

If they weren't already dead and gone, I think I'd SUE for endangering my life! :D

 

The above tub was the R.M.S. (Royal Mail Ship) HILARY of the Booth Line.

 

___________________

 

and this...

...was me at the age of five, in front of my father in the checked shirt -my Mum at left.

 

.

 

 

Wow, your mum was a hottie!

[ShelleyQT]

Sorry double post

[Mistyhon]

This is the most amazing thread ever. I absolutely love to read about and especially see the memorabilia from the age gone by. I've also been Titanic obsessed since Elementary school.

[RWolver672]

Very cool thread, love hearing about the good ol' days. I have always cruised after 9/11 so I don't know any different.

 

I do remember the days when you could go to the airport and your friends and family could see you off; I do miss that.

 

Speaking of airports, in 1969 or 70, I flew home in uniform on leave from the Marines. I had an overnight stop in Chicago and caught the red-eye from Chicago to Saginaw the following early, early morning. It was a United flight on a Boeing 727. I was the only one in coach and there were two others in first class. The stewardess sat with me on the whole flight. She gave me a set of wings, pens, paper a little model of an airplane and treated me like a king. Things sure have changed with airlines too.

[ShellLoves2cruise]

Thank you to all who have contributed to this thread, it's been great reading about cruising back in the day ~ all I've really had to go on are episodes of The Love Boat (didn't begin cruising until the mid 2000's)...this has been a great early morning thread to read with my coffee!

[douglinc@msn.com]

Our 1st. cruise was in 97 on the Carnival Celebration, and we thought it was HUGE. What a difference...Oh & the price, it was FREE. My wife won it, we have been on a few since then.

[Blk_Amish]

 

I'll take the old times in a flash. When you add your cruise fare, all the fees, and your sail and sign balance, cruising is not cheaper than then, unless you sail no frills style.

 

In 1993 I sailed RCCL for 4 nights at around $850 pp inside. The last time I sailed RCCL on Mariner of the Seas, 7 nights hump balcony, $500. I tried ice skating for the first time on board. On the Carnival Magic this Spring, inside was $399 pp but we opted for the Cove balcony at $600. Princess for next February, looks like $560 for 7 nights to Western Caribbean. What I love about cruising now it can be apart of my everyday life not just something I dream about for retirement. Also I can share the experience with my kids as we did on our Alaska cruise for under $500 pp on Princess. This year Alaska seem to be almost free or cheaper to go than to stay home for me. Back then I never thought Alaska was possible before retirement or winning the lottery:D I also have the option of a luxury line for the type of money I would have paid 20 years ago. Just being on deck gives me all the frills I need.

 

What I recall about the cruise was so many people saying they had waited so long before having their first cruise. I am not willing to turn back the hands of time because with 2 kids, tuition, and mortgage I would have to wait on something call retirement. Thanks to overall cheaper travel, I have done it so much I can't afford to retire:D Flights have gotten more expense but there is the option to travel on points or signup bonus. Ten of our most recent flights were free: 4 to Hawaii, 2 to Jamaica (Business Class) 2 to Buffalo then drive to Toronto, and 2 to Huston. I am currently working on a free flight to the UK, almost there. Car rental and some excursions were booked on points, therefore free. For retirement I simply want to sit and rest with my travel album, maybe not!

[hattack]

My first cruise was in 1974 on the Oceanic New York to Bermuda..14 in our family..4 males in an inside cabin, bathrooms and shower at the end of the hall.,dingy swimming pool inside deck 1...MDR on deck 2, no windows...guest manifest was posted at pursor desk had name, cabin number and what city and state you were from..sail-a-way party had real paper streamers...skeet shooting was a big sports thing...dressed every night for dinner...had two major entree choices at dinner..actually met the captain on formal night..no tv in the cabins..movies were shown in a small public area with projecter and pull down screen

 

Loved it and became a cruiser for life

[maryann2]

• 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.

 

Our very first cruise was in the 70's on RCL - Song of Norway. The kids were in camp and we decided to take a cruise and never looked back. We had an ocean view cabin. I remember the midnight buffets, and the steel drum band. We went to Jamaica, Labadee and St. Thomas. I recall that there was nothing on Labadee. Oh, and the baked Alaska was great and they did light them on fire! Didn't get back into cruising until the kids left the house.

 

I remember sailing on the "Delphi" in 1976. 300 or so passengers. A Greek ship. One seating at dinner.

We flew to Barbados and sailed 14 days. Martinique, Montego Bay, St Thomas, Curacao ,Cartagena, Caracas, Haiti, Granada, Antigua, San Juan. Amazing trip. No tour buses but tours in taxis.

So I remember the Carribean as it was. Now it seems they are owned by the cruise lines and all the same.

[bumorgan]

"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!"

 

 

They didn't care. At that time When you were in ports, you could go on any other ship at that port and enjoy the clubs! It was a blast back then.I'm talking about the late 70's.

 

Dan

[e150club]

When I was a kid back in the mid to late 60's. My Aunt,Uncle and adult cousins took Oceanic cruises out of NY. We went at least three times I remember. We boarded the ship explored a little and had snacks and drink in their stateroom. Then the horn would blow. Announcement: ALL ASHORE THATS GOING ASHORE. The stewards would knock and repeat the order. Then their would be well over a hundread people on the pier waving to people on the ship. People on the ship throwing streamers off the decks. And my favorite part was the Tugs pushing out the ship

Things from our 1985 cruise have been covered in past posts. Metal key and cash for purchases is all I can add.

[MerMade]

Don't remember the ship but I had 10 friends come on board for a Bon Voyage party in our cabin that ended up on the upper deck.

Back then I lived so close to the cruise terminals on Dodge Island that we would grab a bunch of friends pretend we were taking the cruise that day. Enjoy lunch and drinks. Got see any ship we picked and have a party before the Last call to shore announcement on weekends where we had nothing else to do.

Have been on over 40 cruises since then. I Am the original cruise addict. Never had a bad time on a cruise.:)

[tkportersat]

My first two cruises were on the Celebration :) Not a lot of frills, but had a wonderful time. Much easier to navigate that ship than ones I have been on since!!

 

Our 1st. cruise was in 97 on the Carnival Celebration, and we thought it was HUGE. What a difference...Oh & the price, it was FREE. My wife won it, we have been on a few since then.

[jackdis]

This is a fantastic thread!!!! I love reading all these stories and the pictures posted have been so interesting to see! Please keep the memories, stories and pictures coming!! My first cruise was on the RCCL Song of America in 1996 from NY to Bermuda.

[DebBrown]

Why even pay $20?

Carnival already has your big bucks. :cool:

 

Just present yourself at their gangway control

with your valid Carnival ship-card in hand,

and they give you a temporary visitor's pass, while keeping your valid ship-card as security.

You get it back when your inspection tour is done and you're leaving Their Ship

to go back to Your Ship.

 

 

This could apply to any Carnival Corp. cruise line...

i.e. Holland-America, Yachts of Seabourn, Costa, Cunard, Princess, etc.

 

.

What a great way to "upsell" the other cruise lines. I keep saying I would love to take a Princess cruise some day but might be talked into it a lot quicker if I could tour the ship.

[ddloml]

Comparison of old to new. Here are the relative sizes of the Titanic and the Allure of the Seas.

[WetToes]

comparison of old to new. Here are the relative sizes of the titanic and the allure of the seas.

 

 

Wow!!!

[mitsugirly]

My first cruise was with NCL on the Seaward in 1989. It was a 7 day cruise that went to Montego Bay, Jamaica (was suppose to go to Ocho Rios but there was a hurricane prior to us coming and a lot of Ocho Rios was destroyed), Cozumel, Mexico, Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas, Georgetown, Grand Cayman, and Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.

 

I remembering booking this cruise for our anniversary, only being 22 and the ship was being built. We did not even know what the ship looked like because all they had in their brochures were the "blue prints". I didn't know anything about cruising other than it seem to be only for the "rich" people out there. I knew it was going to be a once in a lifetime cruise and I was going to go for it. (Little did I know that here I would be years later taking 2 cruises a year when possible). :D I know the price was definitely NOT affordable back then and it was well over $1000 (and back then, that was a lot of money for a vacation).

 

*********************************************

This thread made me pull out all of my old pictures, brochures, receipts and everything I could find on cruising....memory lane. Ahhh, how nice.

**********************************************

 

My second cruise would come in 2000 on Royal Caribbeans Majesty of the Seas. It was a short 5 day cruise I believe and it went to Key West, Nassau and Cococay Bahamas. We were able to take this cruise because my daughter was a gymnast and she was competing in Florida and the gymnastics facility was able to get a "cruise deal" if everyone in the competition took a cruise together. (You talk about a crazy cruise ship with a bunch of young gymnasts running around...yea, oh and it was a Christmas cruise too). Now from what I can gather and remember, the cruise was crazy cheap...like around $250 a person? (Back then that was cheap).

*****************************************

 

So the things that I remember:

 

*The Atrium was a grand atrium. It was the center of attention. It had the glass elevators, stories tall, and tons of waterfalls. (Many cruises since then, I find myself missing this because not all cruise ships these days have that huge atrium-so glad that the Dream did!)

 

*The midnight buffet. It was amazing and they took great pride in displaying everything in some sort of fashion that made you go "wow". There were tons of ice sculptures and a huge variety of food. I remember not knowing what half of the food was I was trying. :eek: I really miss this. Although they have the chocolate buffet on some ships, it's not at all the same.

 

*Hotdogs, hotdogs, and more hotdogs. I remember that any time you were hungry and it wasn't lunch or dinner time, you could eat hotdogs. It became a joke with my children how we lived off of hotdogs every day on the cruise. I'm pretty sure I came home never wanting another hotdog again for many many months to come. I'm so glad this has changed.

 

*Dressing up-everything was formal when it was time for dinner. You were assigned a seat and that's where you would continue to sit the rest of the cruise. You were assigned who your table mates would be as well. This did not always work out great and we had some rude table mates that decided to move the second night. I have to say I HATE assigned seating and I HATE being seated with someone that I don't know. I like to enjoy my dining experience with my hubby or family and reflect on the day and what's to come without everyone at the table hearing your conversation. This is why I chose to sail freestyle...NCL. Then I discovered the "anytime dining" Ahhhh. much nicer. I also don't want to be told WHEN I have to eat. I want to eat when I'm hungry, not when I'm told. I also want to dress up on those nights I want to dress up and not dress up when I don't feel like it.

 

**The shows at dinner were amazing. The waiters danced, they sang, they did shows with the flamed Alaskan. They were amazing. Well except the night they were doing a dinner show and we felt a bump and all of the lights went out for awhile. That was kinda scary but an entirely different story. :eek:

 

**Slot machines-you actually put quarters into them. You carried around a bucket and when you won, your money would come spitting out at you. I won a jackpot once and it overflowed my bucket and drained the slot machine. The staff had to come over and give the rest to me in cash (100 dollar bills :D)...that'll teach my hubby to take a nap in the middle of the day and let me loose on the ship with nothing to do. Once again, I'm glad this has changed.

 

**cash, you could pay for things with cash and not a room card.

 

**We thought these ships were mega ships and the size was just uncompilable to anything...HA Also glad this changed.

 

**When in port, we would exchange our US currency for the currency in whatever port we were in. Glad we don't have to do this now.

 

**Bingo is what you did to kill the days that it would rain and it was at a slow pace that you could actually follow. LOL

 

**The shows at night were all like a rockettes show. To us, they were boring and we really didn't care for them. No variety. So glad there is such a huge variety of different shows to go to now.

 

**Envelopes were left in your room the last night of the cruise and you would put your tips in each envelope accordingly.

 

**The shore excursions (well at least the snorkeling ones) were done by the people who worked on the ship. You would get your snorkeling equipment prior to getting to the port and you would have a "practice" session in the pool to teach you how to snorkel first. They would take you to the shore and you would just start swimming...and you swam out FAR!

 

**Airfare...it was included with the price of the cruise. (At least ours was) and you booked with a local TA would made all of the arrangements for your entire cruise for you.

 

That's all I can think of at the moment.

************************************

 

Here's some pricing (that I still have receipts for) from back then:

 

Tipping suggestions: Dining Room Waiter: $3.50 a day. Assistant Waiter $2.00/day, Cabin Attendant $3.50/day, Head Waiter "At your discretion". This was per person.

 

Bingo was $20 for each person

 

5 cartons of Marlboro Cigarettes were $66.00

 

A 8x10 picture was $9.95

 

1 can of Coke was $1.50

 

2 beers would cost you $7.26 with a 15% gratuity.

[winddawn]

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..

I remember the skeet shooting off the back of the ship too. I also remember when they used to scrape the bread crumbs off the tablecloth between courses in the dining room. There were a LOT more choices on the menu too.

[coldinerie]

My first cruise was with a friend from work. We thought we were so cool going on a 'cruise'. The room was like a working ship room, steal bunk beds, no TV and small in size. I don't even recall having a daily planner given to you. I know that the ads on TV were done by Kathy Lee Gifford, singing a song and running around a ship, that's who we were!! LOL.

 

That was the very first of 50+ cruises I have been on since. No longer girlfriends, no hubby and kid. Cruising sure has changed, not sure if its for the better, but still an adventure.

[mitsugirly]

I remember the skeet shooting off the back of the ship too. I also remember when they used to scrape the bread crumbs off the tablecloth between courses in the dining room. There were a LOT more choices on the menu too.

 

Oh my gosh. I almost forgot about that. I always felt nervous about watching people step into the small gated area that was completely open to the sea down below and either golf or skeet shoot off the back of the ship. I always wondered what the fish thought when something came flying into the water. :eek:

[mitsugirly]

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 just wanted to thank you for this post. You inspried me to pull out my old cruise stuff and compare.

 

My first cruise was with NCL and I decided to start a little mini-review/thread over on the NCL board like this for people to share their stories and comparisons.

 

For those that have sailed with NCL, you are welcome to check out my mini-review over there. It has tons of pictures to go along with it from back in the 80's (also from the ports). :D

 

My post is here