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Questions for old old time cruisers.


joeyancho
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Our first few cruises were on the Home Lines and we had a key to enter our cabin.

There were no safes in the cabins so every evening before dinner (everyone dressed up for ever evening meal) there would be a line of women outside of the Purser's office reclaiming their personal safe deposit box in order to select what jewelry to wear that evening....and later on a repeat line to return said items.

 

We also paid for and selected lawn chair location for the entire cruise. This was on a first come first serve basis so usually as soon as a couple boarded the wife went directly to the pursers office to sign for a much needed safe deposit box while the husband raced topside to get the best lawn chair spot. One good result was the chairs were then reserved for you the entire cruise...no chair hogging issues!

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Also, slightly off the main topic, we used to receive a directory with the name and home address of the passengers on the cruise. I think it also had the cabin numbers.

 

Yes, I remember those directories with the full names, home addresses, and cabin numbers of fellow passengers.

 

Back with I first started cruising in 1961 (not on Princess) we had real keys for our cabins and it was a total Cash system.

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

 

It was on Chandris. The ship was the Britanis.

 

Yes, I am still playing Trivia.

 

Big happenings in life - my daughter was married on July 9 (honeymoon is a Mediterranean cruise 0n MSC).

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Our first cruise was in the early 90's on board RC Sovereign of the Seas.

We had to go to pursers office for safe deposit box and yes everyone dressed every night for dinner in MDR. One nice thing I remember is the crew passed out streamers to everyone to throw overboard as we sailed away from the Miami port. Keys were the same as today, but drinks were bigger and cheaper and tasted a lot better. Tips were paid with cash.

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It was on Chandris. The ship was the Britanis.

 

Yes, I am still playing Trivia.

 

Big happenings in life - my daughter was married on July 9 (honeymoon is a Mediterranean cruise 0n MSC).

Wonderful to hear about your daughter.

 

Britanis was a a great ship. I traveled on her many times as well as her sister ships.

Maybe you might know, the bathroom on Britanis, was there a the bathroom and then a sink also in the cabin? I remember in one of our cabins that there was a extra sink.

 

On Homes lines I remember the horse racing and skeet shooting off the back of the ship.

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Yes, I remember those directories with the full names, home addresses, and cabin numbers of fellow passengers.

 

Back with I first started cruising in 1961 (not on Princess) we had real keys for our cabins and it was a total Cash system.

 

And I'd be willing to bet that when you changed from "real keys" to cruise cards, or whatever was the "new" way to get into your cabins, that there was a big discussion among cruisers as to what the new change was and how it wouldn't work just like the new brouhaha over the upcoming change to the Medallion is going! :D Of course that was almost surely pre-Internet, so it probably was just a subject of conversation when cruisers met!

 

 

Tom

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I recall many of the points raised by other long-time cruisers. When I cruised with my parents in the 1960s, keys were used for the cabins. There were few extras to pay for, aside from drinks (including soft drinks). Drinks and items from the store were paid in cash or traveler's checks. That was even a bit early for credit cards to be in general use. All meals were included. No steakhouse or casino patronize.

 

On the Matson Mariposa in 1961 and P&O Oriana in 1965, a steward showed passengers to their cabins. I don't recall any checks on reboarding at port calls. Visitors were welcome on the ships when in port, and the lines used this as advertising. I recall we visited other ships in port, such as the Lurline in Honolulu and Oronsay in Long Beach.

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As a youngster I used to get visitors passes at the P&O office in Melbourne, Australia and spend the day on ships such as Iberia/Orsova/Oronsay/Orsova.

Also walked on and visited Shaw Savill's Northern Star and Southern Cross there too. I had a blast!

Sailed on the Great White Whale (Canberra) and the original Oriana too.

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Britanis was a a great ship. I traveled on her many times as well as her sister ships.

Maybe you might know, the bathroom on Britanis, was there a the bathroom and then a sink also in the cabin? I remember in one of our cabins that there was a extra sink.

 

When I booked at the corporate headquarters, the ship was sold out. The gentleman helping me offered me a crew cabin in a forward section of the ship that did not have any other crew in the section.

 

We did not have a bathroom in the cabin. Instead there was a men's and women's facilities that each contained nine toilets, nine sinks, nine showers and three bathtubs.

 

We did have the sink in the cabin.

 

To reach our cabin, we had to go all the way forward to a crew only staircase that led to only the section our cabin was in.

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A large key fob w/ken on Sitmar. Crew knew you after the fist night. You could visit other ships in port , just show your key. As a matter of fact, you could visit a ship just to 'see it', did this in Miami, and Tampa. Went on board a few HA ships, had a buffet lunch, got off. But this was in the good old days (70's)

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Yes, I remember visiting other ships when in port.

 

Our best ship visiting port was Barbados in 1978. There were ships from Royal Caribbean, Princess, Chandris, Cunard and Carnival. We were on NCL.

 

With the exception of Carnival who didn't allow any visitors from other ships (they were outclassed and knew passengers from the other lines would not book down to their ship), we were welcomed aboard and told where lunch was being served.

 

We visited all the other ships.

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And I'd be willing to bet that when you changed from "real keys" to cruise cards, or whatever was the "new" way to get into your cabins, that there was a big discussion among cruisers as to what the new change was and how it wouldn't work just like the new brouhaha over the upcoming change to the Medallion is going! :D Of course that was almost surely pre-Internet, so it probably was just a subject of conversation when cruisers met!

Tom

 

Tom, yes, you're right. No internet ... but, once on the ship, there was an ongoing conversation about how much folks hated not having "real keys". LOL :D

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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.

Yep, this is how it worked on our Honeymoon Cruise on the original Island Princess in 1979. I still have have the original key and paper cruise card. Maybe if I get a chance I can take pictures and post them.. :D

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Yep, this is how it worked on our Honeymoon Cruise on the original Island Princess in 1979. I still have have the original key and paper cruise card. Maybe if I get a chance I can take pictures and post them.. :D

That would be great.

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Yep, this is how it worked on our Honeymoon Cruise on the original Island Princess in 1979. I still have have the original key and paper cruise card. Maybe if I get a chance I can take pictures and post them.. :D

 

And, I'm assuming you still have your original cruise partner with you too! :hearteyes: Right? Otherwise, you better hope that your present cruise partner doesn't see what you still have on hand :eek:

 

 

Tom

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Our first few cruises were on the Home Lines and we had a key to enter our cabin.

There were no safes in the cabins so every evening before dinner (everyone dressed up for ever evening meal) there would be a line of women outside of the Purser's office reclaiming their personal safe deposit box in order to select what jewelry to wear that evening....and later on a repeat line to return said items.

 

We also paid for and selected lawn chair location for the entire cruise. This was on a first come first serve basis so usually as soon as a couple boarded the wife went directly to the pursers office to sign for a much needed safe deposit box while the husband raced topside to get the best lawn chair spot. One good result was the chairs were then reserved for you the entire cruise...no chair hogging issues!

 

I sailed to Canada on Homeric 'Home Lines' in 1955. Free wine on the table at lunch and dinner, while Rum and Scotch Were 10 cents a shot.

I could only start my new life in Canada with 50 Pounds, but I could afford to drink. The bar closed at 10.00 pm, BUT, it was at that time that the captain chose to put the clocks BACK, one hour each night!!

As a footnote, when I checked out of my tiny cabin, I pulled the drawers out of the chest, to make shaw that nothing was left behind. THERE WAS, the cabin boy had two lines of perfume bottles hidden away!! I told him what I had found but did not report him.

Just one more thing, I Liked Homeric better than the Norway, [ile de France].

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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.

 

We started sailing in 1992 and what you remembered is what we are thinking as well. I do remember having been given a series of gratuity envelopes which we filled and handed out at the end of the voyage.

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Our first cruise was in SS Canberra and it was keys for cabin entry and cash for onboard purchases although there were certainly not the same number of onboard outlets and certainly no Speciality Resturants as today's cruise ships. The bars were all cash no computers just cash registers. On one ocassion in the Sports Bar head batman made a mistake and rang up $800 instead of $8 dollars and promptly told his staff not to ring up any amounts on the register until further notice, problem solved. Drinks were very reasonably priced cans of beer $1 draught beer 50c and spirits $1.50 . Service was exceptional food excellent but the fares compared to today were very expensive , oceanview (porthole) 2 adults 2 children) $ 4900 in '86 dollars.

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Is that a Pullman bunk behind the arm chair? Thanks for sharing.
Yes. No queen beds. Just two twins. I was solo so the other bed wasn't down.

 

The original Regal had twelve solo cabins on Fiesta deck (4). There was a bunk bed above the twin that pulled down for a 2nd passenger. The cabin was quite large... almost the size of a full cabin.

8f470be70f16b9a6878764248c7476f1.jpg

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