What Did We All Do Before CC

[APDMOM]

LOL - talk about not knowing what to expect or how to do it:

 

In the end of 1975, beginning of 1976, a travel agency in the NY-NJ area were advertising cruises on the Chandris Britanis. The fare included round trip airfare from NY to Aruba (where the ship was located) and a seven night cruise for an excellent price.

 

I commented on it to my then boyfriend (now husband) which led to a discussion on cruising and him finding out I had never cruised. He had done several trans-Atlantics as a child.

 

We decided to book the cruise. There were two problems: first, I had problem getting approval for vacation as I was involved in a court case and needed to go to Washington, D.C. to prep the case and no one could tell me when that was to be scheduled. When I was finally given approval for vacation, the second problem reared its head: Liberty Travel said all the cruise dates were sold out.

 

Bummer! However, when discussing it at work, an older and more travel savy co-worker told me that this probably only meant the cabins that Liberty Travel had reserved were sold out and that there was probably still space on the ship.

 

Now, the my naivete in travel arranging came into play. From my glossy brochure, I noticed that Chandris had its USA headquarters on Fifth Ave in Manhattan. It so happened I had to visit a well known cosmetic company headquartered on Fifth Ave the next day and their address was within two blocks of the Chandris address.

 

The next day after finishing my business, I went to the Chandris headquarters and told the receptionist I wanted to speak to someone about booking a cruise. She had me take a seat and called back to someone in the back. A very distinguished gentleman came out, introduced himself as the head of the office ad asked what he could help me with.

 

I told him my sad tale of Liberty Travel and work schedules, and asked if there was still room on a certain sailing on the Britanis.

 

He explained to me that their office did not book cruises for customers but he would make an exception in my case. He took me into a backroom that had shelves of ledger books about two feet long and 18 inched tall. Each was labeled with a ship name and date. He pulled the ledger with Britanis and the sailing date I was interested in on the label, took it to a central table and opened it.

 

When opened, the pages had a deck plan of each deck and names handwritten into the cabins that were booked. I wanted an inside cabin and after looking at all the passenger decks, he told me all the passenger decks were booked. However, he was willing to book book us into a crew area.

 

He flipped to the deck plan and show me that there was a crew area on a lower deck all the way forward that was not being used for crew. The cabins were considered inside as they were at the waterline and the cabins shared central men's and women's bathrooms (bathrooms that had six shower stall, toilet stalls, and sinks). Each cabin had a sink in the room. He was willing to give us a cabin on that deck. I accepted.

 

He wrote our names in the cabin and typed up paperwork. He handed me the paperwork and told me to go a few blocks downtown to Rockefeller Center to the KLM office and arrange our flights and bring the information back to him.

 

I did so, he entered the information in his documents, told me the total for the cruise package (it was less than the Liberty Travel deal) and I wrote him a check.

 

He shook my hand and told me we would received our final documents and airline tickets in the mail.

 

We had a wonderful time on the cruise and have been cruising ever since.

 

Yes, I now know one does not go to the corporate headquarters and have the top officer personally book one's cruise.

 

This is one for the history books. :) You should tell this story on every future Meet & Mingle as an ice breaker.

 

In fact, to the OP: This would be a great ice breaker question for any meet & mingle.

[Charles4515]

What the heck did we all do before CC came along???? My first cruise was not until 2003. I went in blind folded, not knowing anything. Never even thought to try and find out. Now everyone (including me) has to know everything from A to Z before boarding.....ie.....which direction does the bed face.....is my cabin quiet.....I have an obstructed view, how obstructed is it......can I remove my tips. On and on. Thousands of things we need to know before boarding.

 

If I had to be honest.....the THRILL of ignorance, boarding my first cruise with my three children in tote, was VERY exciting with butterflies. NOW......of course....cruising is my passion, but butterflies are gone. How do you feel? Do you need to know EVERYTHING before boarding? What did you do before CC came along?

 

The internet existed before the World Wide Web and before AOL. So before Cruise Critic we had mailing lists (listservs) and newsgroups (Usenet). There was a cruise newsgroup called Rec.travel.cruises that I particpated in.

 

Before that there were Travel Agents........

Edited June 5, 2016 by Charles4515

[sjb317]

I started reading CC in 2009, we had already reached D+ so somehow, we managed to do a few cruises before our personal CC use!:D CC can be helpful, but, mostly, I find it entertaining!:D

 

Sherri:)

[mojomorris]

1. Packed too many clothes

2. Paid too much for the cruises

3. Picked the wrong cabins

4. Flew down the day OF the cruise

5. Had no idea how old the ships were or how decks configured

6. Never knew about Freestyle or My Time Dining

7. Thought every passenger on a cruise ship was American and all crew members spoke English

8. Took the wrong shore excursions

9. Thought that excursions could only be done thru the ship

10. Never thought about using clothes pins to hold the shower curtain down

11. Had no idea I could learn so much from all you folks out there on these forums

THANK YOU, ALL!!!!

Edited June 5, 2016 by mojomorris

[cjdixon4]

Before CruiseCritic came along I left my balcony door open with the AC on, parked towels on a chair by the pool and used my hands to pick out food in the WindJammer. ;)

 

NOOOOO!!!! OMG!!!! :eek:

 

(Actually, I'm certain you're not alone.)

[iluvcruzin]

1. Packed too many clothes

2. Paid too much for the cruises

3. Picked the wrong cabins

4. Flew down the day OF the cruise

5. Had no idea how old the ships were or how decks configured

6. Never knew about Freestyle or My Time Dining

7. Thought every passenger on a cruise ship was American and all crew members spoke English

8. Took the wrong shore excursions

9. Thought that excursions could only be done thru the ship

10. Never thought about using clothes pins to hold the shower curtain down

11. Had no idea I could learn so much from all you folks out there on these forums

THANK YOU, ALL!!!!

 

I like this one too . :)

[mollyeilis]

What the heck did we all do before CC came along???? My first cruise was not until 2003. I went in blind folded, not knowing anything.

 

Our wedding was in 2003, and I had planned that wedding for 2 years, mainly online. So of course I planned the honeymoon, an Alaskan cruise on Radiance of the Seas, right here.

 

In 1995 I went to Ireland, and I got travel books and read all I could. Alas, my travel books were out of date, but it didn't matter in a huge way.

 

When I was a kid I would write away for brochures and catalogs for cruises and huge adventure tours. I really wanted to be an archaeologist, and the cruises that went to South America and had land portions to Macchu Picchu, really called to me.

 

I've always researched my travel. Cannot imagine another way.

Edited June 6, 2016 by mollyeilis

[Biker19]

Yes, I now know one does not go to the corporate headquarters and have the top officer personally book one's cruise.

 

Yet, even after having all the information on CC (and lacking common sense), some folks think it's normal to e-mail the CEO about an issue and expect them to answer in a timely manner.:rolleyes:

[JoAnneV]

We took our first cruise in 1996. I used a Compuserve Bulletin Board for Cruising to do research and found a travel agent there. We have been using him for 20 years!

[Krazy Kruizers]

When we started cruising there wasn't even Internet -- back in the 80's.

Read the brochures. Went to the library to learn about our ports.

[Charles4515]

When we started cruising there wasn't even Internet -- back in the 80's.

Read the brochures. Went to the library to learn about our ports.

 

 

 

Yes, the library! The bookstore. Brochures for sure. But as I mentioned in an earlier post. My travel agents. I found agents who could and would answer my questions. I would call them on the phone and ask questions.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Edited June 8, 2016 by Charles4515

[snaebyllej]

When we started cruising there wasn't even Internet -- back in the 80's.

 

Oh, look: A chance to be a nit picker.

 

The Internet has been around since the late 70's. It's the WWW that wasn't added to it until around 1990.

[cruzincurt]

We were being overcharged by AAA for cruises.