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by Lisa Plotnick
Long-
1. Pre-
I recall our delight in 1999 when we were able to book our shore excursions in advance
of boarding the ship. Back then, this was a benefit afforded to those who booked
cruises of at least 10 days in length. Although this was accomplished by fax, it
was a novelty for us. We had grown accustomed to waiting until we got onboard, filling
out a form or two, and hoping that we’d get our selections. For cruises for which
itineraries were the main draw, it was a frustration. Researching ports in advance
was more time-
Today, bookings may be accomplished by Internet, and the receipt of confirmations
is almost instantaneous. There is some variation in the period of time one may make
such arrangements, yet reservations are often accepted within months of sailing.
Booking onboard remains an option, yet knowing that a must-
2. Greater choices of embarkation ports
Want to cruise to the Caribbean? Back then, one would have had the choice to embark and disembark in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Port Canaveral, Tampa or San Juan, for the most part. Today, Caribbean cruises continue to leave from these locations, as well as from New Orleans, Galveston, Charleston, New York, Baltimore, and (for the time being) Mobile, among others. This enables many cruisers to drive to the port rather than fly, opening cruising to a greater number of passengers and enabling them to apply funds that would otherwise go to airlines to expenses directly related to the cruise. It gives others the opportunity to visit a new city, as we experienced when we spent an enjoyable two days in Mobile, a city we otherwise would have overlooked.
3. More dining options
I’ll always remember the day we embarked SS SeaBreeze in 1993. Our same-
Those early cruises also had fixed times for breakfast and lunch, in addition to dinner. All three meals were taken at the same table, often with the same waiter. While there were certainly advantages, it was fairly rigid. (Back then, buffet offerings existed, but were sparse.) The daily program from a sea day on our 1992 cruise on NCL’s Seaward lists dining room hours for main (early) sitting passengers at 7:30 am for breakfast and noon for lunch. The corresponding times for late sitting passengers were 8:45 am and 1:30 pm, respectively.
Today, there are many dining options, including more extensive options available
around-
4. Cabin amenities
Our early cruise ship cabins exemplified ingenuity in the design of small spaces.
Standard cabins on some ships built in the 1980s and early 1990s were not spacious,
so furniture had to serve double duty. Twin beds would often become sofas during
the day—an upholstered panel would be lowered to the edge of the bed closer to the
wall to create a comfortable backrest. Roughly one-
Additionally, some of the comforts we take for granted today were not yet the norm on our early cruises. On the minor end of the scale, I remember having to bring a portable hair dryer. Another missing feature—although we didn’t think it a huge deal at the time—was that there were often no safes in the cabins. On our first few cruises, the safety deposit boxes were located in the purser’s area, and their hours were limited. (The purser’s desk, which was separate from the hotel desk, was not open 24/7.)
5. Cashless gratuities
The topic of gratuities is controversial, so I will steer clear of automatic gratuities and instead focus on the option to charge gratuities to one’s shipboard account. For roughly the first ten years of our cruising life, gratuities were paid to the appropriate crew members in cash only. This meant that we had to board with (what was to us) large sums of cash, or deal with the hassle of traveler’s checks. Keep in mind that—going back to the previous section—it was not a given that there would be a safe in the stateroom. So, this meant a few trips to the Purser’s Desk—first to store the cash at the beginning of the cruise, and then to retrieve it on the last full day. And, given the limited hours, lines could get rather long. If using traveler’s checks, there was yet another line in which to wait in order to cash them. While I am not a fan of automatic gratuities, I do like the convenience of paying gratuities through our shipboard account, especially that we now travel as a family. Of course, we can still opt to pay all or additional gratuities in cash—it’s nice to have a choice.
6. Private balconies
Although I don’t consider this a must-
7. Tendering schedules
Yes, you read that right. On our first cruise, tendering to the private island was dependent upon the timing of the passenger’s dining assignment. For this 1990 cruise on Premier’s SS Atlantic, tenders to Blue Lagoon Island left the Nassau pier at 8:30 am and returned at 2:00 pm for main seating passengers. Late seating passengers were assigned tendering times of 10:30 am and 4:00 pm. Today’s passengers who may gripe about tendering, particularly the need to get tickets, can find some comfort in knowing that the days of limited tender service are long gone.
8. Off-
It’s hard to fathom in this electronic age that passenger communications from a cruise
ship used to be rather involved. Old-
Of course, this improvement in ship-
9. Keeping track of the outside world
Admittedly, this might be viewed as a negative from those who want to leave the world
behind, and I am among them. Still, I do confess to reading a copy of the mini-
I also confess to watching CNN or other available news channels on the cabin television.
(If we were lucky enough to have a television in our early cruise cabins, programming
was often limited to in-
10. Improved space-
Certainly, today’s ships are larger than those of 20 years ago. Yet, gross tonnage
alone does not tell the entire story—a ship that is twice the size of another could,
theoretically, hold more than twice the number of passengers. Therefore, we also
need to look at the space-
Let’s examine some of the ships that were in service in 1990, our first year of cruising, and compare them to their more recent counterparts.
There are some exceptions, however. The 1990-
What are some of the ways cruising and/or cruise ships have improved in your experience? We invite you to share your opinions with us by using one of the contact buttons below. We may include your thoughts (anonymously, if you wish) in a future issue of NauticalNotebook.com.
Ten Ways Cruising Has Improved
Over the Years