Could we start a list of perks that were discontinued?

[Ontario Cruiser]

They all sunk and were owned by Epirotiki . Started sailing on them in 1985 They all did the Caribbean in the winter months and Greek Island and Mediterranean cruises in the summer. They were chartered by Regent Holidays out of Toronto Canada.

They gave out hand woven bags.

They had midnight buffets,

Greek night with free Ouzo

Wine with dinner included all you could drink

And the best thing was that the lugguage was checked in at Toronto airport and we didn't see it again until it arrived in our cabins

Sherrill

[ptbernard]

Some may have been discontinued on some lines and not others. Some of these things I don't miss at all. Also I am very pleased that mini-refrigerators are becoming common. If you know of others please post. But these are the things that I think were discontinued:

 

After cruising on Princess and Royal Carribean, I have just returned from a cruise on the Carnival Victory. I am now wondering where I got the list of discontinued features. Since our recent cruise featured just about all of the items that I mentioned as discontinued. On this recent cruise we made good use of the soft serve ice cream on board. There was no mini-fridge that would have helped with my mother's insulin storage. There seems to be something less in cruising as compared to the 90's but it is very intangible--nothing that you can itemize.

[Bonnie J.]

On our 1st cruise, the little Dolphin IV, which is no more, we had a complimentary bottles of red and white wine every night on every table! The captain of the Dolphin ate in the dining room everynight with passengers - we ate with him 4 times, then sat with him at the shows! On Dolphin and other old cruises:The waiter only had 4 tables so you could talk to him. You rated the waiter and busboy and if they got excellent ratings, they got time off - breakfast or lunch. The busboy served a choice of vegtables every night. They took roll at the lifeboat drill. The stewards checked cabins to make sure you weren't 'hiding'. If you were, you had another lifeboat drill the next moring. There was a midnight buffet every night. No TV in your room. Some ships had no or only one hot tub hidden away. When my husband won a contest as King of Rock 'n Roll, he got as prizes: Ship's big beach towel with ship's pin to hold it on as his robe, sun visor as crown, ship's umbrella for his reign, a ruler with outline of ship for his rule and bottle of champaign. I may have forgotten something - it was years ago. Now you might get a mug or key chain when you win. Those were the days. Miss them and the small ships where you got to know everyone and staff got to know you and what you wanted.

[tvaud]

I still have past guests gifts of etched rock glasses..one side pic of the ship, the other w/ Circolo del Commendante (Capts circle)..after so many cruises, you got a nice smoked crystal ashtray with logo..I have 13 all still in the silver box wrapped in gray flannel bag, w/logo and draw string..presented on a silver tray, by the Capt himself and a few personal words..also a freebie pix taken of party, w/ Capt, signed and presented in the cabin in a frame..and yes tableside food/flaming, by allll Italian waitstaff, every night was a theme,,French, Ital, Caribbean, American, mid eastern med. The costume party, and name brand guest entertainers. Sailed w/ Red Buttons, and Henny Youngman..both very approachable during the cruises. Atf pizza at tea time , and goodies. all nite pizza, free soda, and fruit from rm srv, midnight buffet everynight..and some latenight poolside, w/BBQ, and palmtrees limbs lashed to poles, fashion shows on sea days, horse racing alot..bid for horse, dress em up, and horse-nap one from a competitor..w/ransome notes, great deck chairs, early morn boullion, coffee/tea on deck..served...special req's..NO problem...lots of caviar..and on and on..darn, take me back to the good old days of 1970's..the end of the era of fine cruising.

 

Take me with you....please!!!!! I miss Sitmar too.

[tvaud]

Meals served in dining room on HAL were served in empty plates by waiters with white gloves. The food was served from silver trays were the waiter asked you what you wanted from his tray (a tray of meats, another of vegetables, etc.). Today, all the plates have been pre-prepared and delivered from the kitchen. No more white glove service.

 

It was the same on Sitmar.

[princess_cruz]

What you saw on Hal was late night snacks and doesn't even resemble what the midnight buffet was like.

 

At one time, the midnight buffet was a lavish layout of food.

 

QE2 still has them!!! i'm lucky enough 2 be goin on it this summer! bring on the buffet!:D

[cruissett]

Every buffet was special, not the cafateria style food in a bin like it is today.

[IslandDreamers]

We too are fairly new to cruising. We started in 2000 and have seen many changes since then.

Our first RCCL cruise, they had ice water and lemon-aide at each port as you would reboard from a day out and about. Nice idea...

Service has also seemed to go down a little. We have started bringing on a "little something" from our home state for our room steward in hopes of starting off on a good foot! haa haa!

A couple of years ago we took a 13 night Panama Canal cruise that offered the soft serve ice cream (average age on that cruise was 110) the soft serve machine was on the outside part of the windjammer. The line would wrap around the pool!! We had a fun time watching all the old timers wait in line for their daily treat!

RCCL offers "gifts" to their Crown & Anchor members. We've gotten pleather picture frames, fanny packs, a shoulder harness-pack, water wallets....you know-useful things.....:eek:

Anyway, we are just thankful and happy to be able to afford to cruise!!

It would have been nice to have all the fine perks of days gone by though!!!

(one more thing)

On one of our cruises, we saw a VERY intoxicated man (in his soaking wet swim shorts) walk into the dining room on formal night and sit on some random older lady's lap.

He was "escorted" out and led to the brig.

[HokiePoq]

Just got back from our first cruise on Holland America...they had soft serve ice cream, midnight buffets, and a fruit basket in the room.

[Zeta3]

Now Missing...

 

Actual "glass" souvenir glasses on Carnival. I loved the "jelly jug" glasses.

[cruisebaronII]

who is missing the masquerade nights, the aquavite, the pleasently efficient scandinavian stewardesses, internationally acclaimed dining staff, all food dishes silver plated on Royal Viking Line

[luckycruzer]

late nights in the quiet club..pre disco era...

[Solo1959]

....Cruises are now sold at wholesale prices using the strategy that most passengers will drink, gamble, massage, buy shore excursions, etc. to make up the "retail" price of the cruise. The quality we had, and much more, that are not now avaliable on the mass market lines are still available on Seabourn, Radisson, Crystal - if you have the money.

 

While this may be true, it doesn't excuse the lack of service. If the pay-per-perk system makes up for the lost revenue of higher ticket prices, then the money would be there for the better service. Seems that the extra money doesn't go to service, but to profits. That is the shame of it.

[OhioGirl]

On our 1st cruise, the little Dolphin IV, which is no more, we had a complimentary bottles of red and white wine every night on every table! The captain of the Dolphin ate in the dining room everynight with passengers - we ate with him 4 times, then sat with him at the shows! On Dolphin and other old cruises:The waiter only had 4 tables so you could talk to him. You rated the waiter and busboy and if they got excellent ratings, they got time off - breakfast or lunch. The busboy served a choice of vegtables every night. They took roll at the lifeboat drill. The stewards checked cabins to make sure you weren't 'hiding'. If you were, you had another lifeboat drill the next moring. There was a midnight buffet every night. No TV in your room. Some ships had no or only one hot tub hidden away. When my husband won a contest as King of Rock 'n Roll, he got as prizes: Ship's big beach towel with ship's pin to hold it on as his robe, sun visor as crown, ship's umbrella for his reign, a ruler with outline of ship for his rule and bottle of champaign. I may have forgotten something - it was years ago. Now you might get a mug or key chain when you win. Those were the days. Miss them and the small ships where you got to know everyone and staff got to know you and what you wanted.

 

Bonnie, I remember the bottles of wine on the tables on the Dolphin IV..

I too got to eat with the captain and was entertained by him and his staff the rest of the night...(to the shows..in that little lounge witht the big silver colums) The disco was a hoot...spent way too much time in there...

I have pictures of throwing streamers on the Dolphin and SeaBreeze during the sailaway party....

[Grumpy7]

How about reserved lounge chairs with cushions brought out by the pool person and 4 PM tea and cookies as well as spraying you with cool water on a hot day.(Homeric-Home Lines to Bermuda 1987 and 1988)

[Johnny55]

I remember as a child, before dinner on the American President Lines passenger ships that my family used to take across the Pacific every three years throughout the 60's there would be a crew member in a tux and a pillbox hat carrying chimes who would walk through the open decks and public rooms announcing "first call dinner now being served" before the first seating and then again before the second seating. He'd stop play a three note attention melody on the chimes, make his announcement followed by the chimes again and then be on his way. He's do the same thing in different areas. It was like clockwork. My brothers and I would follow him around like he was the pied piper. I can still hear that melody.:)

[sullaRaffaello]

I don't know if anyone mentioned this, and it quite possibly would not be considered a perk, but on my April transatlantic crossing on the QM2, there was no passenger list distributed. I asked at the purser's desk, and they said that it was out of consideration for the passengers' privacy. When I travelled on liners in the 70s, there was always a passenger list. The list contained the name. hometown, and cabin number of each passenger. I certainly would never consider such a list as an invasion of privacy. Has this been done away with on all lines, or maybe it's just Cunard? Thanks.

[PeaSea8ch]

sullaRaffaello,

 

I agree, in the 70's and 80's, passenger lists were standard issue on most cruise lines. In the 90's and beyond I think maybe the more upscale lines still provided passenger lists. On Cunard's "smaller" ships like the Sagafjord and Vistafjord in the 90's they had pasenger lists. In the mid 90's, Cunard discontinued listing cabin numbers on the passenger lists for security reasons.

 

In 2000 I did a QE2 crossing and in 2006 I did the Hawaiian Liner voyage on QM2 and both these cruises passenger lists were not provided. With approx. 1,800 and 2,600 passengers on QE2 and QM2 respectively, it is quite a task to generate, reproduce, bind and distribute such a large passenger list on every cruise. IMHO, not providing passenger lists has noting to do with passenger privacy but merely a cost cutting measure in support of the "bottom line."

[romy]

I'm trying to figure out why on earth anyone would need or want a pax list or why they would even distribute them. In this day and age it sounds silly and even risky. Perhaps this was a social or status thing:rolleyes: , perhaps some change is good.

 

Happy Sails!

Romy

[SeaPeaInn]

who is missing the masquerade nights, the aquavite, the pleasently efficient scandinavian stewardesses, internationally acclaimed dining staff, all food dishes silver plated on Royal Viking Line

 

Nothing today comes close. Those stewardesses really could dress up a ship. We sailed on all their ships including the the first voyage of the Royal Viking Sun, now the Prinsendam.

[jrw]

Princess doesn't have pool towels either.

 

What lines still have pool towels?

 

Unless I am somehow misunderstanding "pool towel"...Crown Princess (just off it a few days ago) had pool towels. Saw MANY of them, and this was on a Canada/New England itinerary. Walked past the linen storage room one day, and could see (door was open) shelves of pool towels galore! They are blue & white striped, can't miss 'em. They were also in our cabin closet, though we had no need for them ourselves.

[NJcruisemom]

How about never seeing stewards in your cabin, yet every time you came back it was clean. And with 3 women in our cabin, just how did they know which pajamas were mine?

 

Today you're stepping over vacuums in the hallway.

[HomeLover]

This is a great thread. It reminds me of many things I have forgotton since my first cruise on Home Lines in 1984.

But the one thing nobody has mentioned is that our lifestyle has changeed as well. I think the cruise lines are just following the 'trend' that they think passengers want, and eliminating the things they 'think' passengers don't care about. It is sad.

As to the passenger list, I did receive one on Radisson's (now Regent) Panama Canal cruise, and as to why they do it...strange things can happen. I received a note on my cabin (via reception) from a man who saw my hometown and wondered if I knew his sister. Believe it or not, I have known her for 30 years, so it is fun to see where everyone is from and maybe find a new friend.

Yes, i do miss many of the old things, but through Regent and other 'luxury' liners, alot of that still exists, and we do have mini refrigerators in the cabins, tubs in many, and BALCONIES! So even though many things are gone, many things have improved.

[awinner]

I only started cruising in 1998 and I do wish I had started earlier, some of the perks sound like they were wonderful. Of course, cruising was probably a lot more costly back then too, right?

 

I remember my 1st cruise in june 1991, 4 of us paid $755.50 each for an inside cabin on Carnival Jubilee for a 7 day trip....but we had a great time.

[arcanium]

- High prices;

- Single travelers forced into a cabin with a roomate, if they wanted something approaching a reasonable price;

- Having to deal with high-pressure sales agents on the phone to get pricing information;

- People who make snide comments about other pax weight. Oh, wait, we still got those ;)!

 

Well, I guess that's not exactly a list of perks. But three out of four things on my list have made cruising a better experience, in spite of cutbacks. See the good where we can...