Questions for old old time cruisers.

Before the advent of the key card/sea pass system, how did you get into your room? Were keys issued at check in? Also how did the on board charging work? Did you use cash or some other system?

Wow! I'm having a hard time remembering. The last ship I was on that didn't have the cruise card was the original Royal Princess in the early 90's and I think she was modified for the key card.

Didn't use cash. However, tips were given in cash which meant carrying or bringing large amounts onboard. You got a receipt for every purchase onboard. I'd have to go through my old cruise folders (I've kept everything organized in folders) to see how the folio was done.

In the 1970's when I sailed on Sitmar and Royal Caribbean we had a large heavy key on a key chain with the company's logo and info on how to return the key if it was found.

Yup, keys with an oval plastic key tag, and a paper sign and sail card. Later, rooms had Ving cards, with the holes in them, but still a paper charge card.

Seems to me that at one point there was a plastic type key of some kind for Princess unlike the current programmable ones.

Before that were regular metal Keys.

I have them from the SS Norway/original Sun Princess/Original Island Princess/The Big "U" United States/America/France. :)

Been on all of the above but collect old ship memorabilia so some I purchased.

As I recall the first cruise that we took, on the Windward a key was used, and then, or one other time a smaller key was issued for a small draw. THE SAFE!!!.

Wow! I'm having a hard time remembering. The last ship I was on that didn't have the cruise card was the original Royal Princess in the early 90's and I think she was modified for the key card.

 

Didn't use cash. However, tips were given in cash which meant carrying or bringing large amounts onboard. You got a receipt for every purchase onboard. I'd have to go through my old cruise folders (I've kept everything organized in folders) to see how the folio was done.[/quote

 

That's crazy! I am imagining a team of bookkeepers tabulating all the accounts every night.

That's crazy! I am imagining a team of bookkeepers tabulating all the accounts every night.

On the Dolphin IV in 1989--the first cruise I took without my parents and paid for out of my own meager 20-something wages--you could either pay cash for onboard purchases or register a credit card and use the paper card you were thus issued for charging. But it was cash only after dinner the final night so the purser could as you imagine tally up all the chits. No doubt the bartenders preferred cash as everyone would round up to the next dollar (I seriously doubt there were coins in the tills) which made for higher tips than those calculated on the charge slips. Pretty sure there was also regular old keys for your cabin as well.

Fast forward to my second Princess cruise on the by then decrepit Sky Princess in 2000. There were key cards for your cabin but still a key-operated safe in the room--welded to the bottom rear corner of the wardrobe closet! What an RPITA to have to plan ahead which of us would need something from the safe next and hold the key, or to hide the key in the cabin somewhere we would both remember but the steward would not find.

Yup, keys with an oval plastic key tag, and a paper sign and sail card. Later, rooms had Ving cards, with the holes in them, but still a paper charge card.

My first Princess cruise was in 1990. I seem to recall using those white plastic cards with the holes in them to open the cabin door. I had forgotten about the paper charge card though.

I do remember bringing about $1,000.00 in cash with me. ATM's weren't that available and you had to have cash for the tips and your off-shore activities.

Cruise cards were paper, and room keys were a thick plastic with holes in them, if I remember right. Attached is a cruise card from the Original Royal Princess from 2000. Bbum

Yes, in 1988 and 1989, there were metal keys, found on the counter in you cabin on arrival!

This was on the original Sun Princess and the original Island Princess. What a memory!

There were also safe deposit boxes at the pursers office, rather than in-room safes!

We did use credit cards😊

Yes, cash for tips, for sure.

Yet, still, the memories of the old ships are wonderful. I remember, too, being on the old ships with my now deceased parents. What sweet memories:)

I remember in the old days on NCL the keys were metal and had the cabin number stamped into them.

At some ports, different shops would post "lucky" cabin numbers outside of their shop. You showed your key, and if your number matched, you won some kind of "gift" !!

Our first cruises were in the early 90's We had paper cruise cards. You had to register your credit card once on board. Believe in the 90's the ships already had key cards to open the cabins. I remember the Norway did not have cabin safes. We had to use safe deposit boxes at the purser's desk. The Princess ships did have safes. By the late 90's things were fairly close to what they are now.

First cruise wayyy back in early 70's. Metal keys, I don't think we even had paper cards...How did they know we belonged on the ship when we returned from shore? No clue. Everything onboard was cash, pay as you go. No onboard accounts. Drinks were very cheap. In 1999 on royal Princess we had paper cruise cards but they were bar coded. Don't remember the keys. Sailed on QE2 in 2008 and she still had metal keys. tradition, you know...EM

Besides the large room keys and paper sail cards, I should mention the way cruises were booked by the cruise lines.

I only know this because my first cruise I went directly to the cruise line's corporate office in Manhattan (long story that I have posted before). This was in 1976.

I was taken in a back office where long ledger books were kept for each sailing. The pages were diagrams of the ship's cabins. When a cruise was booked, the passenger names for the cabin was written into the cabin on the diagram.

First cruise was in 95 on the Crown Princess. ID card was paper with a separate plastic door key card. Shortly afterward sailed on the old Island Princess and believe I had an actual door key. Sure was nice when they went to the all in one ID/key card. I do miss when the background on the front of the card had a photo of the ship

First cruise wayyy back in early 70's. Metal keys, I don't think we even had paper cards...How did they know we belonged on the ship when we returned from shore? No clue. Everything onboard was cash, pay as you go. No onboard accounts. Drinks were very cheap. In 1999 on royal Princess we had paper cruise cards but they were bar coded. Don't remember the keys. Sailed on QE2 in 2008 and she still had metal keys. tradition, you know...EM

No one checked to see if you belonged on board in the '70's. The crew members at the doorway on sea days were there to welcome you back, not to make sure you belonged. They let guests come on with no pre-check of any kind, and then there were "all ashore" announcements for an hour before sailing. I wonder how many stowaways there were. It was a fairly common theme on "Love Boat" episodes.

1970's homes Line, ship Oceanic. We had room keys, and I believe we paid cash for drinks. To get on and off in a port you had a little booklet with a number on it. There were small tickets in the booklet. When you left the ship they would take a ticket from the booklet, when you cam back on they would take another ticket. To show that all PAX were back on board, each PAX had to have a even amount of tickets handed in. Of course if you did not go ashore there would be on tickets for you.

Our first cruises were on Sitmar, and we were allowed to have BON voyage parties. We could bring the drinks and as many friends as we wanted.

That introduced many to the cruising life.

On our second cruise, we were invited to the Circolo DE Commandante party which was held in the captains quarters and there were twelve of us.

That count included the officers.

We were referred to as nerps (non revenue passengers) and we're included in all the activities.

We had metal door keys and did everything in cash. DrinKS were cheap, and we could bring as much as we wanted onboard with us.

First cruise-1954 on the Lurline-Bon Voyage party included all of my high school friends. :-) For many of our early cruises, we were met at the door of the ship and escorted to our cabin-Possibly a small tip was involved? Stateroom keys were attached by ring to a plastic thingy that had the room number on it. Yes drinks were much cheaper, still have menus with prices in sterling and pence from old Arcadia and Canberra. Great memories

Besides the large room keys and paper sail cards, I should mention the way cruises were booked by the cruise lines.

 

I only know this because my first cruise I went directly to the cruise line's corporate office in Manhattan (long story that I have posted before). This was in 1976.

 

I was taken in a back office where long ledger books were kept for each sailing. The pages were diagrams of the ship's cabins. When a cruise was booked, the passenger names for the cabin was written into the cabin on the diagram.

Hi , how are you doing? Are you still playing trivia? What cruise line was that.

On the first Windjammer cruise we took, we didn't even have room keys. You could bolt the door from inside but couldn't lock it if you left.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I remember the safe on the original Royal Princess. What a pain to use! It had a 3-number combination with a dial. For instance, a 3-7-9 combination, you'd turn the dial right to 3, left to 7 and right to 9. Horrible. You couldn't see the darned numbers much less remember the combination.