Sailaways in the old days.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I remember in the "olden days" at sailaway there used to be a lot of confetti and most of all serpentine. It was a rolled up strip of paper and you'd hold one end and the other end would unravel. If someone came to see you off they'd be on the dock and you would aim it at them and they would hold on to their end and you each hold your end as the ship sailed until it broke. I realize that it was not an ecologically sound move and would never be done today but it made the departure fun and exciting. Anyone else remember those "thrilling days of yesteryear"?

 

 

I certainly do remember those old days.

I save a couple of streamers in scrapbooks.

[sail7seas]

We sailed Rotterdam b-to-b for Christmas/Millenium New Years and HAL gave all of us rolls of the streamers to throw at midnight, year 2000. It was such a blast and people threw so many streamers the entire rail in the atrium stairwell was filled with the paper and the Lido pool area was littered all over. When the parties started to wind down in the wee hours, the poor crew had an astonishing mess to clean up.

 

When we finally emerged from our cabin next morning, the ship was spotless and not a hint of the party mess remained. :eek: I cannot imagine the crew got a minutes sleep.

 

[navybankerteacher]

Actually.......

 

HAL still has teak deck chairs, piles of plaid blankets and hot Dutch pea soup is served on deck in Alaska. :) And long may they continue to provide same. It's wonderful !

 

 

Why did you have to go tell everyone?

 

I don't mind sharing with a few who have the sense to check things out, but there are a lot of people who scan these boards.

[AKman2495]

Well, the old days of streamers are gone sad to say, but least year we experienced something very similar. We were in Vancouver on a Sunday before our ship was set to sail. A HAL ship was departing that day and the weather was beautiful. There must have been at least 1,000 people at Canada Place that day. Now Canada Place has a lower floor for cruise ship access and a second story walkway that runs all the way around the site.

 

So...the 1,000 or more people on the second story were able to line up as the HAL ship departed. People were waving and cheering. The ship has music playing and it was as close to an old fashioned sail away as is possible today.

 

Something I will no soon forget.

[boogs]

The streamers and confetti were messy, but what I miss most was being able to go aboard to see off friends - or to have them on board for a drink to see you off - until the dramatic accouncement: "All ashore that's going ashore!".

 

Now sailaways have been reduced almost to the point of seeing people off at an airport -- you have your "Bon voyages" long before boarding - usually in a crowded waiting area.

 

As with any other "product", cruising has been seriously impacted by mass production.

 

The impact is from "mass demand", not mass production. In the ocean liner days, only a handful of ships departed each week. Now, there are several dozen cruise ships departing our shores every week. Then only a few thousand people sailed on ocean liners, while now cruise ship passengers number in the millions per year. Without all these additional people wanting to cruise, the cruise lines wouldn't be building more ships.

 

Although sailaways may not be as exciting as before, today many more people are able to enjoy experiencing them, including me. Not a bad compromise at all.

Edited August 26, 2013 by boogs

[Kentchikan]

Band at sailaway: 2006, NCL.

I remember that lasted quite awhile. On Princess they'd always play the Love Boat theme at sailing and many other times as well.

 

Booklet with passengers' names: Never; started cruising too late for that and, frankly, would not have wanted our names in a booklet given to strangers under any circumstances. In fact, we would have made sure we were not listed. Privacy has always been a big deal to us and it is certainly a huge issue these days, so I can understand why cruise lines don't want the liability concerns.

I loved them but it was a different word back then. Identity theft etc. wasn't a problem. It was nice to look back on them and remember people you'd met and chatted with. I still have some of them. Of course ships were a lot smaller then with fewer passengers. Now you'd need a huge book.

 

Charge for lounges: Given the prevalence of chair hogs, that's not the worst thing in the world to reinstate.

I don't ever remember this.

 

Cheaper drinks: Don't recall; no doubt because we didn't cruise much until 2001. We did enjoy buying at the duty free shops onboard for take home, but now that airlines charge so much and given that we're not close to cruise ports so we have to fly, we don't even do that these days.

Oh boy. I remember the cheap drinks and I still wonder why drinks aren't at least a bit cheaper considering the liquor is duty free. Of course compared to what we pay here for a drink their prices are cheap.

 

Assigned meal times for all meals (and no real room service or buffets or alternatives): Early 1980's on Princess and mid 1970's on a tiny Scandinavian ferry line. Hated it then and would hate it now. We don't care to have enforced dining times or cruise line assigned tablemates because we don't necessarily know when we'll be hungry and we prefer making new friends of our choosing and in less structured environments.

I agree and I love the flexibility and the ability to choose fixed or anytime but in those days that was the norm.

 

Soot: Again, Princess in the early 1980's. I hear that aft balconies can really get messy on some ships.

Boy howdy.

 

Crew nationality: I don't recall.

When I first sailed on Princess the crew was Italian. On Royal Cruise lines they were Greek. On HAL they are still Filipino and Indonesian.

[lcmslady]

I have great memories of my first cruise in 1998 on RCL with my son and parents. I have pictures of my mom and I with adult beverages in hand, huge smiles on our faces, and a crowd at the rails with a band playing.

 

Fast forward to 2013 - Princess out of Ft Lauderdale. If I hadn't been outside, you would have never known we were pulling out. No party, music, nothing. Maybe partly because it was a Wednesday and partly because it was an older crowd (Panama Canal transit) but really?

 

What I experienced in 1998 isn't anything like some of you but the party 'up top' always adds to the excitement of sail away. It never gets old!

[navybankerteacher]

The impact is from "mass demand", not mass production. In the ocean liner days, only a handful of ships departed each week. Now, there are several dozen cruise ships departing our shores every week. Then only a few thousand people sailed on ocean liners, while now cruise ship passengers number in the millions per year. Without all these additional people wanting to cruise, the cruise lines wouldn't be building more ships.

 

Although sailaways may not be as exciting as before, today many more people are able to enjoy experiencing them, including me. Not a bad compromise at all.

On the contrary, demand alone did not cause the impact. Mass demand inspired mass production, and that mass production, fulfilling the demand, diluted the quality of the product. It really is a chicken-and-egg sort of thing: there have been times when production got ahed of demand - as happened shortly after 9/11 - New ships coming on line which had been ordered years earlier were sailing only partially filled, so the lines had to slash prices to spur demand. Later in the decade, the relationship flipped - the growing demand spurred the lines to build ever larger ships. Now the lines are trying to build demand to fill those ships - that is why the prices are close to what they were decades ago. Of course costs are higher, so the lines have no alternative but to reduce service to maintain their bottom line.

 

If you think that things today don't live up conditions in "the good old days", just wait until the globalization of economies takes full effect: when Asians, and Filipinos and Eastern Europeans have the same earnings opportunities at home as have North Americans, Western Europeans, Australians, etc. the services we presently enjoy at the prices we currently pay will seem like some distant golden age.

[Harry and Lucille]

There is an alternative. (as long as you don't get caught). If you have a balcony cabin on the dock side, hold onto the end of a roll of toilet paper and heave away. Try not to hit anyone below. Better bring your own along. They know how many rolls are in each state room. ;)

[agabbymama]

There is an alternative. (as long as you don't get caught). If you have a balcony cabin on the dock side, hold onto the end of a roll of toilet paper and heave away. Try not to hit anyone below. Better bring your own along. They know how many rolls are in each state room. ;)

 

I have a better alternative. Go up top as far as you can on whatever ship you are on (the Biergarten on NCL Star), have your Meet & Greet as close to sail away as possible. I had purchased the little balls of curling ribbon, maybe 20 of them, then unrolled & cut lengths into streamers. Had them on the tables. The bar was playing music, folks were drinking and visiting, when the horn blasted for sail away, we all picked up the streamers and threw them in the air. No confetti, as I wasn't sure if I would have to clean up, but the crew assured me no need, they had it covered. Reminiscent of the old sail aways! We had a blast:D

[marco]

And the "Bon Voyagers"' on the ship and 50 people packed into a cabin, and the flowers, fruit baskets, bottles, candy being delivered to every cabin, the bars were open the bands would be playing and everyone would be dancing, the h'ors d'oeuvres being passed, the champagne bottles popping, the whistle would blow and it was all ashore who's going ashore" then the band would move out onto the deck and there were just as many people on the dock as on the rail, and you almost couldn't' see someone because the confetti and streamers would be so thick as to block the view. Going to an on ship bon voyage party was as exciting as sailing!

[boogs]

If you think that things today don't live up conditions in "the good old days", j.....

 

I don't have issues with things being different. I am astute enough to understand that cruise prices are much lower than fifty years ago and am quite content with the product that the current prices buy. I am not one of those people who complain endlessly about deteriorating service while at the same time happily enjoying the advantage of the lower prices these days. I know full well that if I want a product more similar to the "good old days", there are cruise lines out there I can choose if I am willing to pay the premium prices they charge for that experience, which in actuality is still less than what the prices would be today with inflation factored in. For instance, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a sailing costing $500 in 1960 would be the equivalent of $3,945.88 today. http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

 

How many "things just aren't as good today" people would be willing to spend that much money now for the same experience as in the "good old days"?

 

There is currently an interesting discussion on the Celebrity forum about prices "then vs now". http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1903925

Edited August 26, 2013 by boogs

[MandD]

I was doing research on genealogy and came across some ship's manifests from the 60's. Ten to twelve pieces of luggage per passenger was very common (and that would have included large steamer trunks). Let's see, airline charges $25 for first bag and..... No wonder people don't dress up as much anymore.

[marco]

Regarding the above post....I remember sailing to Italy as a kid in the 60's. We'd go a couple of days before or after school ended and return a couple of days before or after school resumed, depending on the sailing schedules. We'd have 2 trunks in the hold "not wanted during voyage" and what seemed like a dozen suitcases in our cabin. There were a couple of hours every day that we could have gone to the hold to get something from the trunk if need be, but we never did. Car rentals in Europe were expensive and not all that common, so in the ship's hold, was our car as well. As long as we were passengers, it was relatively inexpensive to take our car with us. I also have found on ancestry dot com us listed on the manifests for arriving in NYC when we returned. It had our ship, date, port we boarded at and our home address.

[Love.II.Cruise]

I was doing research on genealogy and came across some ship's manifests from the 60's. Ten to twelve pieces of luggage per passenger was very common (and that would have included large steamer trunks). Let's see, airline charges $25 for first bag and..... No wonder people don't dress up as much anymore.

 

Very interesting!!!

 

My first cruise was in 1990 with my parents and I recall having 3 bathing suits, many pairs of shoes and dresses to wear every night (some with matching hats). I need to ask my parents how much luggage they packed for that trip!

 

Today, I pack 1 bathing suite, no hats, and many less shoes. I also mix and match clothing. Back then, I recall taking 2-3 showers a day and changing clothes that often! And I never repeated an outfit! That doesn't happen today... we mix and match and wear items more than once.

Edited August 27, 2013 by Love.II.Cruise

[pris993]

I have a photo of myself boarding the Sunward in June 1967 -- I'm wearing a nice dress & white GLOVES! My daughter howled w/laughter when she saw that!

 

Also, friends visited us on the Sitmar Fairsea in San Francisco in 1981 prior to our 1st Alaska cruise -- friends we'd met on the Fairwind 5 yrs. before. Fun sail-aways!:D

 

I remember the old days and my DH and I still dress to board and travel.

 

I could have commented on any one of the messages here -- choose to comment on yours because of your remark your daughter "howled" - this reminded me of something I saw on TV last night. For get what show, there was a interesting discussion that an Ivy League College on the east coast has a college class to teach students what dress and style use to be and how the average "housewife" in the l950s dressed to go shopping, church or anywhere for that manner. The name of the class is "Have We Become a Country of Slobs?"

 

When I saw this last night, I thought to myself at last, someone is recognizing there is a big need for improvement in this area today. I feel sorry especially for young people today, they have no role models. What will they look like when they get old? Just maybe the days of flip flops, shorts, tshirts as acceptable attire anywhere will change to something better. I hope so.

 

Even in these days of limited luggage allowance on air it is still possible to dress well, we do it easily. It is just a matter of priority and pride which is what motived folks so many years ago. I feel we lost that over the years.

 

Do remember the days when everyone dressed for breakfast, lunch and dinner. While that maybe extreme, I would be happy to see it done for dinner today. Thanks for taking me down memory lane.

[FoghornLeghorn]

I still remember the excitement of sailing out of New York on the Queen of Bermuda in 1963 on my first cruise. The band was playing and confetti and streamers were flying all over the place. I still get excited as we leave port but something is missing....those of you who have sailed in those good olde days know what I am talking about. I have photos of me at sail away dressed to the nines complete with a bee hive hat and white gloves.

 

Marion

 

I'm sorry Marion....but, I think we really need to see that photo :D

[Love.II.Cruise]

I'm sorry Marion....but, I think we really need to see that photo :D

 

You took the words out of my mouth! :p I love older photos like this.

[mitsugirly]

Yep, I remember those days and they also gave you a complimentary glass of champagne for sail away too. :)

 

I did read on here (for our last cruise) that a bunch of people on our roll call were bringing bubbles for the sail away since you can't use the confetti anymore. Although I never did see these people or the bubbles during sail away (I was busy dancing on the deck to the music), I wondered if they did it. :confused: I would "think" this wouldn't be allowed just for the simple fact that bubbles are slippery once they land and it could become a fall hazard. Anyone?

[navybankerteacher]

I remember the old days and my DH and I still dress to board and travel.

 

I could have commented on any one of the messages here -- choose to comment on yours because of your remark your daughter "howled" - this reminded me of something I saw on TV last night. For get what show, there was a interesting discussion that an Ivy League College on the east coast has a college class to teach students what dress and style use to be and how the average "housewife" in the l950s dressed to go shopping, church or anywhere for that manner. The name of the class is "Have We Become a Country of Slobs?"

 

When I saw this last night, I thought to myself at last, someone is recognizing there is a big need for improvement in this area today. I feel sorry especially for young people today, they have no role models. What will they look like when they get old? Just maybe the days of flip flops, shorts, tshirts as acceptable attire anywhere will change to something better. I hope so.

 

Even in these days of limited luggage allowance on air it is still possible to dress well, we do it easily. It is just a matter of priority and pride which is what motived folks so many years ago. I feel we lost that over the years.

 

Do remember the days when everyone dressed for breakfast, lunch and dinner. While that maybe extreme, I would be happy to see it done for dinner today. Thanks for taking me down memory lane.

 

I wonder if the other night's performances by Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus represent in any way the role models for the young people today.

[Kentchikan]

Yep, I remember those days and they also gave you a complimentary glass of champagne for sail away too. :)

 

I did read on here (for our last cruise) that a bunch of people on our roll call were bringing bubbles for the sail away since you can't use the confetti anymore. Although I never did see these people or the bubbles during sail away (I was busy dancing on the deck to the music), I wondered if they did it. :confused: I would "think" this wouldn't be allowed just for the simple fact that bubbles are slippery once they land and it could become a fall hazard. Anyone?

 

I was at many sailaways in the olden days but I don't ever remember bubbles. Interesting thought though. Most people were along the railing waving goodbye.

[pris993]

I wonder if the other night's performances by Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus represent in any way the role models for the young people today.

 

Good point, I should have said "good" role models. :eek:

[bob brown]

Some traditions continue....not sure, but I've heard that Cunard publishes a passenger list of those doing full world cruises.

And NCL, weather permitting, will have a band playing at all sailaway's down the Hudson. And they have a new tradition....as the ship passes The Stautue, they play Lee Greeenwood's "God Bless The USA". Very stirring.:)

[dorisis]

Change is what makes life interesting. Noah sure started something!

[Taxguy77]

Gosh I remember those days well. Back when informal was a blazer and slacks with a shirt and tie. We went to Disneyland the year it opened and my dad wore a suit and my mother wore a nice dress. Time have surely changed.

 

You really took me back in time!

 

We lived not far from Anaheim when Disneyland opened and took our young son to it one of the first years. He had gone to the moon,:) until some older boys told him the trip was a Disney show.:(

 

My Aunt and Uncle cruised to Australia in the 50's. We went aboard to see the ship and wish them Bon Voyage, then came the announcement you no longer hear "All visitors must leave the ship now!".