1983 Royal Caribbean Cruise Line brochure (photos)

[shipgeeks]

4 minutes ago, shiplifecardgame said:

I used to have boxes of old cruise brochures.

I still do!  Sent some of them to the UK for a CC friend who was writing a book; the rest are still in various boxes and steamer trunks around the house.  A couple of vintage ship posters on the walls, too, plus teapot, ashtrays, etc.

[Surfguyxxx]

What a treasure 😊

[Baowen]

On 5/18/2023 at 11:07 AM, shiplifecardgame said:

I used to have boxes of old cruise brochures.

I think you could make a fair bit of money on ebay now with those old brochures.  I have seen them going for $20 each!

[topnole]

On 5/15/2023 at 9:25 AM, HappyTexan44 said:

Thank you for doing the currency conversion for me. : )  And that is the per person price, right?  

 

I'd been extremely upset with the miserable experience of my daughter's first flight.  She was the same age and it was a similar flight on a similar airline.   Totally different experience.  Flights had slowly gotten more miserable and I hadn't noticed.  Then someone pointed out to me that flights had also gotten a lot cheaper.   My first flight was a big deal and my parents remembered the price.  We could have gotten first class on American for the price of the cheapest seat on Braniff in '78.   

Those cruise prices explain the proliferation of "My parents went on a cruise and all they got me was this t-shirt."  

 

I don’t think most people paid brochure rates.  Maybe 20-40% off of that rate (depending on the situation) was the norm as I recall.  Of course peak season was probably closer to full price or other prime dates like a NYE trip.   
 

What is telling is the 3rd and 4th in a cabin price.   That is a lot of $ to be jammed in a small cabin.  This also explains why food was considered better and more consistently with an upscale restaurant.   
 

Back then they made money off of nearly everyone sailing.  Now they lose off a lot of customers unless they spend a lot onboard.  

[HappyTexan44]

12 hours ago, topnole said:

 

Back then they made money off of nearly everyone sailing.  Now they lose off a lot of customers unless they spend a lot onboard.  

 

Not challenging you, but wondering why they promote kids joining the cruise.  Although, maybe they don't consume much either when they are in the parent's room.  

 

 

[topnole]

2 hours ago, HappyTexan44 said:

 

Not challenging you, but wondering why they promote kids joining the cruise.  Although, maybe they don't consume much either when they are in the parent's room.  

 

 

You mean now?  Not sure what you mean by promote.  But their target demographic that spends a lot typically have kids, so they want families to come spend a lot onboard.  

[flcraigs5]

On 5/15/2023 at 12:07 AM, shiplifecardgame said:

I was going through some old boxes and found this 40 year old Royal Caribbean brochure.

I came across our honeymoon reservation packet that. Song of America March 3, 1985. It had the mini menus for each night of our 7 night cruise and also a directory that had all guests names where they were from. We had an inside cabin and flight and it was over 3,000 for the 2 of us

[topnole]

40 minutes ago, flcraigs5 said:

I came across our honeymoon reservation packet that. Song of America March 3, 1985. It had the mini menus for each night of our 7 night cruise and also a directory that had all guests names where they were from. We had an inside cabin and flight and it was over 3,000 for the 2 of us

That is really cool.  
 

Not sure where you flew from, but I’d guess anything at over a couple hour flight was effectively at least $300 per person out of that total.  Maybe more.  Still, even 2200-2400, that price is more than todays cruises on some of the newer ships.  And that right there is why the food isn’t as good as it used to. 

[flcraigs5]

1 hour ago, topnole said:

That is really cool.  
 

Not sure where you flew from, but I’d guess anything at over a couple hour flight was effectively at least $300 per person out of that total.  Maybe more.  Still, even 2200-2400, that price is more than todays cruises on some of the newer ships.  And that right there is why the food isn’t as good as it used to. 

We flew out of Philly on Eastern Airlines. The tickets were in there also. Yes I told my husband you went all out for this trip a inside cabin was more then than it is now LOL

[topnole]

16 minutes ago, flcraigs5 said:

We flew out of Philly on Eastern Airlines. The tickets were in there also. Yes I told my husband you went all out for this trip a inside cabin was more then than it is now LOL

Very cool.  I’m sure eastern airlines was a solid 300-400 for flight back then.  It’s amazing how much cheaper flying is nowadays.  Of course we suffer for such low prices.  

[Cruising89143]

Our first cruise was on Norwegian Caribbean Lines (before they changed to Norwegian Cruise Line) on the MS “Starward” in May of 86 out of Miami to the western Caribbean for seven nights. The price for two in a standard outside stateroom was around $3000.00. No balconies on the ship at that time. I don’t recall the brochure price but the room was tiny. I remember almost being able to touch both walls with my arms spread when standing in the center of the room. The standard bathrooms today look like palaces compared to the ones back then. 
 

There is very little that I miss from cruising during that time. 

[topnole]

24 minutes ago, cruisingator2 said:

Our first cruise was on Norwegian Caribbean Lines (before they changed to Norwegian Cruise Line) on the MS “Starward” in May of 86 out of Miami to the western Caribbean for seven nights. The price for two in a standard outside stateroom was around $3000.00. No balconies on the ship at that time. I don’t recall the brochure price but the room was tiny. I remember almost being able to touch both walls with my arms spread when standing in the center of the room. The standard bathrooms today look like palaces compared to the ones back then. 
 

There is very little that I miss from cruising during that time. 

I think mine was Sunward II in 82.  Tiny ship compared to today.   

[shiplifecardgame]

On 5/23/2023 at 2:32 PM, cruisingator2 said:

Our first cruise was on Norwegian Caribbean Lines (before they changed to Norwegian Cruise Line) on the MS “Starward” in May of 86 out of Miami to the western Caribbean for seven nights. The price for two in a standard outside stateroom was around $3000.00. No balconies on the ship at that time. I don’t recall the brochure price but the room was tiny. I remember almost being able to touch both walls with my arms spread when standing in the center of the room. The standard bathrooms today look like palaces compared to the ones back then. 
 

There is very little that I miss from cruising during that time. 

 

In 1984, I was a little kid living in Ocho Rios, Jamaica and I used to sneak on cruise ships when they'd dock during the day. I snuck on the Starward a bunch of times!

[GC456]

Neat! 

[SeaHunt]

4 hours ago, shiplifecardgame said:

 

In 1984, I was a little kid living in Ocho Rios, Jamaica and I used to sneak on cruise ships when they'd dock during the day. I snuck on the Starward a bunch of times!

 

If you were caught you might have had to walk the plank by Victor Borge "The Honorary Commodore of the Fleet" ! 😁

Edited June 1, 2023 by SeaHunt

[shiplifecardgame]

On 5/31/2023 at 5:27 PM, SeaHunt said:

 

If you were caught you might have had to walk the plank by Victor Borge "The Honorary Commodore of the Fleet" ! 😁

Actually, I was caught one week by the port security guards. They were like "hey...you're here every week!" They made me a deal. If they let me onboard, then I would have to steal food from the buffets for them and their families. So, every week, I'd show up with an empty backpack, they'd let me on whatever ship was in and then, a few hours later I'd come back with a backpack full of food for them. I did that for about a year! Nobody on the ship ever stopped me for anything.  I actually had a crew member on the Sun Viking let me into crew areas and show me around!

[Blizzard54]

Our first cruise was our honeymoon on the old Island Princess in 1978.

10-night cruise in an inside cabin.

$1000 pp

$25 air add on from SEA to LAX

port taxes about $30.

In 1978 $ it was expensive.