Here’s my take on dressing up while on vacation. In our normal life we don’t even dress up for our jobs! Business casual now includes jeans and a shirt! Going to the theater or dinner people dress like they’re at an outdoor barbecue! I love to dress up! It makes me feel attractive, special and looking forward to the evening. Dressing up while on vacation to me is a treat. To see a whole bunch of people in flip flops, bathing suits, jeans, shorts etc is fine during the day, but at night, in a gorgeously appointed restaurant with fine dining menues and an evening planned with music and dancing, I want to dress up!
@@tipsfortravellers me also. I personally don't like cruises cater to immature younger crowd, I can deal with minimum age of 40, but that is it. I am young, but I value traditional, smart, and people with real values. I don't want party, loud people and no respect.
Dissenting opinion: very tired of formal nights myself but I also hate eating in the buffet as an alternative on formal nights. Formal attire and associated underpinnings are bulky in my bag so I’m dressing appropriately but not ‘fancy’ for formal nights from now on.
I must be a dinosaur too, as the reason I love cruising is the formal nights. There is no where else the average person can go to a Gala Ball other than on a cruise ship. Happy 💯, and thank you for your insights.
Gary I always appreciate your succinct and well-thought-out videos. I don't have tons of extra time to watch 20-30 min videos. I love that yours are right around 10-12 mins. To me, that means you appreciate the time we take to watch your uploads. There are so many I'd love to watch but I'd rather take in 2 videos in that time frame than only one. So, another great video - thank you!!
Thanks. yes, I try to keep my videos down to around 10 minutes maximum as much as possible. When I first script them they are often 18 - 20 minutes and then takes ages to reduce them and boil down, cut out examples and get them tighter. The scripts take often up to two days work. But I do think it is work it, so great to hear your thoughts. As you say, people's time is valuable and it's what I like people I watch to do.
Congrats on cruise number 100, Gary! What has gotten even better is the quality of your content. Your videos just keep getting better and better. Here's to the next 100!
Thanks for watching and you kind comments. It is great to hear. I am constantly trying to evolve, improve and try things and so it’s great to hear your thoughts! Onwards and upwards I hope !
I think it’s kind of interesting that at the same time cruise lines are complaining about cost of food, they’re not willing to give solo cruisers a break on their cabins?
I agree on the smoking. I try to avoid areas where there is smoke, which is actually making the lines lose money, as I would love to spend a night in a casino, but the smell of smoke just put me right off that area.
haha, Gary, you're certainly not a dinosaur! I can see your point about enjoying the formal nights, it's lovely to be at an event where people are dressed in their best.
Unfortunately many lines have scrapped the new digital muster and returned to the pre-shutdown. So far it’s Disney, all the 3 lines in the Norwegian group ….
My first cruise was in 1987. I was impressed with the service. Our cabin steward was a ninja. I enjoyed the formal dress. We had Lobsters and baked Alaska too. What was lacking was other dinning and snack options. It was the formal dinning room by seating. My second cruise in 2011 was less formal and had some snack options with burgers and pizza. By 2011, less formal was welcomed sailing to Alaska. With the airlines baggage fees, dressing for cold weather and the hot weather that we left, and limited formal wear, it was one less headache. My 3rd cruise was a New Years Eve in 2019 (pre-covid). You had to ask to have your cabin cleaned, there was no turn down service. There were all kinds of up charges on food and drink that talking with other passengers they felt like they were being nickel and dimes too. Our early seating time did not allow us to go to the shows and if you went to the shows you missed your late seating dining. Our next cruise is in April 2023 and there will be an up charge for a burger restaurant. We book the premium beverage package just to avoid only some of the up charges. Lobsters is now is an up charge. There is going to be more opening seating so maybe we will get to the shows. It appears that laundry options have also improved which will help in our packing for a 15 day cruise. (note: these are 4 different lines). As far as the ships getting too big, that is a mixed bag. There are advantages such as having different theme bars and areas to hangout in. But I have been on land when cruises ships have dumped 5000 people to a port. In some cases multiple ships. Now the local tourists are suddenly trying to deal with the cruise ship passengers and competing for the same things . And being on board a large ship taking up to an hour to get off is no fun either.
Virgin includes tips, wifi, fitness classes, soda, BREWED coffee and tea, and almost all food in the cruise fare. Essentially only alcohol is extra in this moderately priced line...and I love the "bar tab" concept rather than the "drink package" as we drink very little. You can share your bar tab with anyone you'd like and it is good on all beverages that have a charge--premium coffee, smoothies, fresh squeezed juice in addition to alcohol. If you have money left at the end of the cruise, buy a round for your new best friends or buy a bottle of wine at the bar to take home. No affiliation, just a happy cruiser. My credit card charge on my last cruise was $8 total, and I could have avoided that had I not chosen a premium drink on the last night. I totally agree about ship size--we like the 2500 size! They can also visit a lot more interesting, smaller ports.
I think more improvements for solo cruisers are necessary too. I may take up a cabin for two, but I don't consume two people's worth of food, I don't create two people's worth of mess to clean, and I don't require two people's worth of staff attention. The cruise line islands are a waste. Ships should be visiting legitimate ports, not an empty day pretending to visit the beach.
I completely agree. When I travel solo, I definitely don’t eat two peoples worth of food. In fact, I eat a little bit less than one persons, persons food because I eat small portions usually Mather reasonable portions of food at the large portion served mostly United States
Gary, you look great, no change between today and 100 cruises ago! Congratulations! Thank you for your vlogs, you are excellent teacher and adviser. I appreciate all you do.
My dad refuses to have a smartphone, and my mum has one but struggles to use it. This makes cruising difficult for them on many lines, they've almost given up unless I go with them to handle the technology. And I try to do it all on my iPad (I find phone screens too small), and it's surprising often things don't work well on iPad because the cruise line clearly hasn't tested on it.
While I am not a cruiser I stumbled upon your channel one day and you are so fun, educational, and soothing. I know if I want to take a break from the world watching you is 100% going to work. Maybe one day I will make the leap to a cruise and get to use all the wonderful things I have learned from you and now La Lido Loca.
Speaking of the class system: there is also "Club Orange" on Holland America. In my opinion, having a few exclusive areas is no problem. With HAL, there was plenty to do when I was on-board and never concerned myself with club orange. If it overtakes too many activities...then it is a big negative.
I still hate the idea of jeans and God for it t shirts or tank tops. Make it special keep it special as much as possible. Except perhaps the very casual breakfast buffet.
I love Cunard and formal dress, I hate the big ships but I really miss the flaming baked Alaska nights with the chefs all coming out with their huge medals and the midnight buffet! I also don’t like the class systems - they should definitely get rid of them!
The return of the class system was especially evident when I sailed the new NCL Prima. Amongst it's many problematic issues (and there are a lot!), one that was quite glaring was that around 1/4 to 1/3 of the ship is VIP only, from the massive Haven area to the Vibe Club.
The ships are walking a fine line with the new class systems. The ideal is to make the upper class feel more special without making the rest of us feel less special. It can be done, but a few lines and ships have gone too far.
@@ChristianLehrer There is very little 'first class' space on the QM2 for example - A dedicated restaurant seat [same table for breakfast, lunch dinner], one bar, a windowless 'concierge lounge' and a small deck with longer and hot tub [just below the kennels].
It reflects classism of regular life and I despise it. I can't drop $20k for a cruise, but a few rich twats who probably have a yacht they could be on instead, take away from the rest of us.
Totally disagree about the cruise lines catering more to families. I choose ships based on whether or not they will have a lot of kids screaming and running around. That’s to be expected on Disney or Carnival, but if I’m on a higher end ship, I don’t want to deal with people screaming Marco Polo all day in the pool.
Same here, having as little contact as possible with other people’s (often poorly parented) kids is one of my top priorities when choosing a cruise. I wouldn’t even consider Disney, Carnival, MSC or Costa for that reason alone.
How can you possibly disagree. Yes the cruise lines are catering more to families. Regardless of what you choose. Yes I choose ships and sailings that will have less kids. We can avoid by choosing the appropriate line, taking longer cruises and not sailing when the kids are off school.
@@chriswilliams6568 That’s exactly my point, if all cruise lines start catering to families, how do you suggest I “choose an appropriate cruise line”? That’s what I’m doing now.
Actually having some lines implementing a dress code where you dress up is great. I'm not considering myself as old and I like having people around me in ball gowns and tuxes. Although also having lines with more leisurely dress codes is great as well. You need to have both, so you can choose. I've just come off a ship with 5100 passengers. The largest ship I've ever been on. Even though its design as such, the details etc. we're great, I was in search of my destination every time I wanted to go to a specific place until the very last day - and I've never "suffered" from a bad orientation. It was a shock to my system and it took me a good 3 days to feel at home and start enjoying the vacation. Next time I will know what I'm getting myself into...
I love dressing up. But have zero occasions in my life to do so. So no I don't want to add buying a ballgown, or tux to the cost of the trip for one or two dinners. Cocktail dress is more friendly to normal life.
...and the size of ships! OK, not all ships are now gigantic, but there seem to be tendency in larger ships. Then, I would say that most cruise ships were 800 - 1800 passenger, but I guess todays 'normal' is 2500 and up...
As a whippersnapper, I agree that there should be some catering to the desire for a good old formal cruise. It must have been magical, and that’s a mood worth creating. I wouldn’t take advantage of it myself, I’d probably avoid it, but I can definitely recognise the value of it
I am not really a snob, but I do wish cruise lines would put all the people on a separate cruise whose idea of "dressing up" is their nicest t-shirt and jeans.
Me too… I’m 35, I don’t go out much now to dress up, so really enjoy it when I’m on ship… I seen a blog the other day two fellas and their two friends dressed to the 9’s on celebration night and in the evening they was sat with a woman and a man who looked so scruffy in their basket ball vests compared to the guys 🤦🏼♀️
The change to the need to do everything on a smart phone is of concern to me. I’m tech savvy but love taking a break from it all when travelling. I remember 10 years ago putting my phone in airplane mode and leaving it there. We’d pick a port every few days to spend an hour at a cafe with wifi and check on emails. We had our own businesses but we’d tell all our clients in advance “not picking up email - you can live without us”. I really loved wandering around the ships and going for meals and shows with nothing in my hands, just a room card in my pocket.
You can still do that on Regent Seven Seas and Oceania. They have things like the restaurant menus and your bill on the room TV, but still print daily programs. You do not have to make reservations for entertainment. The only thing you do with your smart phone is show proof that you have “checked in” when embarking. You can do that, book excursions and specialty restaurants on their web site at designated dates at home.
Just got off Discovery Princess. Terrible. 700 kids. No adult areas enforced. I've been cruising with Princess for decades and I'm done. Even the crew was mad. Everyone we talked to couldn't believe it. The difference between carnival and princess now is blurred more than ever. Every dance floor had kids messing up the vibe, we couldn't use the adult only pool, shocking! Again, even the crew were upset at the obvious change. Not a fan. When we asked the crew to enforce the adult only areas we were told there were just too many and it was overwhelming them.
You can imagine the changes I’ve seen after 36 years of cruising, not all for the better I’m afraid especially as far as the food goes. It’s nice to see younger people cruising these days but, bemoan the fact that cruise lines aren’t that strict on the dress code these days.
Oceania and Regent Seven Seas are still strict on their dress code after 6:00 in all lounges and restaurants (except the pool grill, if open). That means a collared shirt and long pants for men, and a nice slacks or skirt outfit or dress for ladies (though some men wear a sport coat or suit and tie), no jeans, flip flops, hats, bathing suit attire (including cover-ups), tennis shoes, or t-shirts. Many dress to impress.
As a Solo Cruiser I HATE anytime dining. Much prefer fixed dining where I share a table with regular dinner guests, whereas with anytime dining i am usually stuck at a table by myself
Happy 100th anniversary, Gary! Planning our 4th cruise so back to TfT for research! Love your work, always very helpful advice & ideas. I'm "only" 46, but I agree it's definitely a plus to have at least a couple of formal nights to tux up, adds a bit of traditional cruise magic! Quick audio correction - you accidentally referred to Regent when mentioning The Retreat at the end (probably a word association slip!) though the captioning is correct
In Australia gratuities are included in fare prices. Maybe this should be everywhere? People still often tip on top of this. Congratulations Gary on 100 cruises.
Gary, what have you done to me? You and Emma have me hooked on your videos, and I have even subscribed to your channel! I had zero interest in taking a cruise, so it really says something about your presonality and quality of videos.
The massive ships are really a danger no just from over crowding, but by being so top heavy if it ends up in a storm. There are certain regions that I only look at if it is gonna to be on a medium or small boat.
Hi Gary, love your channel. We’ve been cruising for 25 years, Carnival, Princess, RC, Hal and most recently Celebrity. I have say the food in the main dining rooms has decreased in quality. It has coincided with the advent of Specialty restaurants and private restaurants. The Specialty restaurants originally were a nominal charge but now at $60 pp plus gratuity and drinks can run upwards of $200 per couple. I think the elimination of formal nights has also contributed to the decrease in quality in my opinion. Used to be they’d up their game on formal nights. The class system is appalling. On celebrity is really evident.. 1st class (Retreat) Luminae restaurant, 2nd class (Aquaclass) Blu restaurant, Specialty restaurants, then Main dining (3rd class) and finally the buffet.
About the formal dressing thing Gary.. you're a bloke. That means you only have to take one suit of formal clothes. It's different for women. we're under the expectation to wear some thing different for each formal occasion. It's unfair, but true. I enjoy dressing up, but I don't enjoy having to lug massave travelling wardrobes around. For that reason I'm really glad that the formal dress codes have been relaxed.
Women THINK men care that you wear the same dress on a cruise ship or in general for that matter. Pay attention... it's WOMEN who notice and care. If you wear the same dress two days later I doubt anyone whose opinion you care about will even notice. Stop caring about what women you'll probably never see again ever in yor life think and projecting it onto men or family...
Just pack the classic "little black dress" and then just accessorize it different each night. Oh, and men do not care if you wear the same dress each night. That's a woman-vs-woman thing.
Casual nights should be on those nights but FORMAL means formal and gowns and ties should be enforced on those nights. Otherwise go somewhere else onboard. It should be seen as a THEME NIGHT if people don’t get it. Take your flip flops and go!
People love to complain online, but I believe without a doubt the changes are overwhelming positive and that cruising today is better than its ever been.
Really do not like the new huge cruise ship, much prefer the older smaller 1,200 to 1,600 cruise ships that Holland America had. The smaller ships can get into ports that the new monstrosities won't fit in.
Not really a "Class" system Gary which has some awful connotations, it's more a "get what you pay for" deal. I think those connotations were in the minds of Princess senior execs who recently dropped the name Club Class, replacing it with Reserve Collection. I'm all for exclusive areas on board ships, which these days are big enough to have multiple zones specifically catering for the needs of just about everyone. For example, I have no desire to go into a kids zone any more than I want children visiting sanctuaries.
@@tipsfortravellersI suspect dress codes are a holdover from the days when ships were more for transportation than leisure. The upper crust who had separate day wear and evening wear (and oodles of trunks in which to pack them) simply carried that from shore to ship. I don’t want to see a return to formal wear or the opposite extreme of T-shirts and flip-flops in the main dining room, but I don’t think a collared shirt and decent slacks is too much to ask.
I am okay wearing a collar shirt , smart trousers and shoes for evening meal, I been on cruising where we had one night per week dress to impress/captain night
I would agree with your class comment. We like NCL, but Haven takes up prime and restricted space. But I sure would not want to pack formal clothes. I probably would not go. Especially if i had to fly.
I love a cruise ship that has a maximum of 3000 people. These mega ships do not interest me at all. Also love a ship that has a decent promenade deck or an area you can hang out below the lifeboats. I tend to gravitate towards the older style ships with more outdoor deck space
Hi Gary, interesting observations. I have found formal nights have become more casual which is disappointing. More young people on Princess and first time cruisers, however that was Brisbane to Cairns and back in November . Food much better.
Happy 100 Gary! Great informative video! As the ships get bigger I go smaller 😊 Going on my first Viking ocean in a few weeks, hoping it’s as good as everyone says!
Personally, I think resort chic for dinner is more modern especially for Caribbean and tropical cruises. It's also still a luxurious 5 star way to dress. With that being said, I'm still open to one night of very formal dress or more on European destinations.
Gary, another great video. The problem that I have with dress codes is that you have to carry a bunch of clothing that you only wear on the cruise. We take 4-5 week trips where cruises are 8-10 days of the trip. I do not want to carry it all around.
I like having the options for dining! I was recently on Norwegian for the first time enjoyed all of the food. Some things I got in the buffet were hit or miss. for instance, the eggs and not being hot. One trend I see with passengers is too many complaints. Congratulations on your 100th cruise! I’d like to see more Cruise lines that cater to Solo Travelers. Thank you for keeping us informed!!
I do not mind the "premium" spaces. If you do not cheat the other passengers, there is not much harm. It is a way to increase revenue. The increased price is not worth it to me.
It may depend on the cruise line and even the ship. Was on Royal for seven nights out of Nola on Radiance. There were a fair amount of children, teenagers with their parents, several said they took them out of school, and a good number of young people. The children were all well behaved, everyone was helpful and respectful. We had one MDR breakfast at a big table with a family, three college aged guys, one older couple and it was really nice.
Love your videos! I'd appreciate everyones thoughts and recent experience. When reading random cruise reviews the consistant crisicism (on the reviews that are not positive) is understaffing with all that that leads to. Most of these reviews were authored in late 2022 and early 2023 based on criuses in the previous handfull of months. Here's the question...is there any reason to belive the staffing shortage will right itself by fall of 2023? Are any of you experiencing what I'm reading about as far as low staffing and poor service. BTW...the lines frequently criticised are Norwegian and Carnival
Gary, you are spot on about the things that have changed on cruises. I took my first cruise 16 years ago and have been on several since. I appreciate the relaxed dress codes for dining because I do not have to pack a suit in my luggage and that saves space and weight. Regarding the increased number of people on a cruise because of much larger ships, I do not mind the crowds per se, provided the atmosphere remains fun and festive and not marred by any unfortunate incidents from the few who might be so inclined.
I hate formal nights. Packing useless clothes for 2 nights aside, what is the point of wearing a piece of silk around your neck when you're on vacation?
Exactly. We generally do a cruise as part of our larger holiday. I don’t want to be lugging around a suit etc for a night or 2, when we are on holidays for 4 weeks, just pointless
Gary, been watching you for quite awhile. Just subscribed. I called cruise line today because upcoming cruise is advertised as much cheaper. As a result of a short phone call I was upgraded to a balcony cabin at no extra cost. Thank you so much for the wonderful information that you give to your followers😅
We’re off tomorrow for a 10 day cruise on Princess. Hopefully it will be populated by adults. I don’t mind children, but I do prefer a cruise with fewer children. 🇨🇦😎🇨🇦
Good luck. We just got off Discovery Princess and hundreds and hundreds of kids. No adult areas enforced. It was basically Carnival now and we are top tier on both lines.. We are sad to see the carnivalization of princess but being 30 billion in debt they are doing anything they can to stay afloat. We are however, done with them.
We were on a cruise in 2015 and there was a young couple with a 4 month old baby, and they paid for grandma to go as well. Unfortunately they didn't tell grandma until after we sailed that they had bought her along as the baby sitter so they could enjoy a good break. Grandma was NOT happy.
We are booked in a big suite on Regent Splendour this July. Can't wait. Why we only cruise with them is they offer cooked kosher meats. Not the airline food packages. They can only do this for 20 ppl at a time and only in Compass Rose. It's fantastic for us
The bigger the ship, the crappier the embarkation and de-embarkation is. Until they can work all that out and those god-awful long, long waits, it does not appeal to me. 2500 passengers is as big as I want to go.
I really agree about the return of class-based cruising being one of the biggest drawbacks. It's odd that since cruise lines are relaxing their dress codes, including more fun amenities, and trying to appeal to a younger group of cruisers that they're also ramping up class-based cruising--even the biggest lines (Carnival and Royal Caribbean) have started emulating the Haven-type areas with some suites on Royal costing 50K for a one-week sailing. ...Personally, I felt ripped off sailing on the Haven as it was three times the price for a regular balcony room with no real upgrade except room size, a couple of complimentary champagne bottles, free cabin movies (about 20 total), a small private dining room, and a private indoor pool the size of a large bathtub (four people could not fit comfortably in it). BUT NCL are trying so hard to get people into these overpriced rooms that the service on the rest of the ship has collapsed, especially in the main dining room. It's declining the overall experience for most passengers so they can price gouge the few that don't mind paying 300% for the same destinations and entertainment. I also agree that it's too bad smartphones are now becoming almost required to cruise. I'm one of the rare millennials that would prefer using a laptop to the tedium of smartphone scrolling. It's also nice to just put your phone away and enjoy the cruise experience. I would also call out Disney for excessive-app usage as their main dining room didn't even provide menus (which almost never change and aren't that big an environmental expense), just a code we had to scan to experience the magic of...scrolling on a damn phone to look at a menu. It felt cheap.
A couple things come to mind for me... One - I wish the phone app faster cheaper wifi resulted in less expensive fares. But all the actually do is increase profit margins for the companies. Two - I think a lot of people moaning about the loss of strict, high class dress codes don't understand that those dress codes made cruising unavailable to a huge number of people. It's hard enough for many to save up the money for and expensive vacation, if you add the cost of a formal wardrobe for everyone it becomes impossible. The way it is now the people who can afford to dress up still get to do so and other's without as much disposable income still get to make special memories with their loved ones. To me, that's a big improvement.
I started cruising on my honeymoon in 1980. No one I knew was ever on a cruise before. We sailed on a cruise line called Dolphin. We loved it and have been cruising ever since. I remember dressing up every nite. We love the smaller ships...the big ones have a lot of activities but we go for the ports. I do like the not getting dressed up every night.
Great video! A thing I’ve noticed increasingly in newer, larger classes of ships in many cruise lines, is a shift in focus to make the ship itself the primary destination, maybe the sole destination. Why encourage passengers to leave the ship at all, when they have so much to do there and well, they profit from it of course. It does hurt the local economy of the ports if this happens, of course as you say. I don’t like this trend but it’s almost inevitable. See also, private islands, separation of passengers by class and so forth.
I love wearing my Dinner Suit, Being a freemason I get to do this on a regular basis. I plan to take my Formal Highland wear on our transatlantic trip and probably dinner suit as well. My partner will probably have trews and a dinner suit, We are planning taking my MIL on a cruise later in the year, hope fully there will be formal options on what cruise we choose.
As usual fabulous informative vlog..I agree with all your commentary…ultimately I believe cruising has become something available to all..not just the higher class..but pick your cruise line accordingly …something for everyone though😊
Congrats on 100! I just got off a cruise on Celebrity Edge. I’m 58 and my wife and I were among the youngest on board. The shows and activities were catered to their age group. At times I felt like I was in a senior home. So I disagree with you there that they are getting family friendly. Young families are getting priced out, other than for short trips. The Wi-Fi is horrible. I would lose my connection when I put my phone in my pocket. I was constantly having to re log on. The excursion’s were great and the ship is beautiful, so I had a good time.
Yeah, I'm 60 and my husband is 70. He likes to cruise for nerdy reasons like checking out the ships, their history, their build etc and obviously we both love the destinations. But the pickle ball, whist, mahjong, song lists of: I did it my way, Hallelujah, Mac the knife, phantom of the opera, and of course the Beatles medley 🙄 all performed in front of a rigid, non-responsive audience who can't clap on beat when encouraged to, I can do without. And yeah the WiFi SUCKS. We asked for and got a 50% refund on the last cruise for rubbish WiFi.
We only add drink packages and specialty dining if its part of a free at sea like NCL has otherwise, we buy drinks ala cart and do not go to spec dining
Reading the comments I don’t understand the reason for so much hate towards formal nights from some people. First of all, it’s not like you are forced to take part as you are given plenty of other (included) dining options and things to do for those nights. Second, if you DID want to participate but don’t want to bring a tuxedo, most lines offer rental services. Third, if you hate formal nights, simply don’t choose lines which make that part of their experience or choose those that do so in a very “relaxed” way. Personally I think it's a shame tdress codes aren't more strongly enforced on nights when they are meant to be on (but then again you might guess that from my username…) I believe you should be allowed to dress however you want, but I don't really see the point in going to an event you detest. I don't think it's about being elitist; I wouldn't go to a football match in white tie, just as much as I wouldn't turn up to an opera opening night in shorts and a tank top. Those who feel entitled to dress for comfort at all times should at least consider the fact that others, at least in the case of gala nights on cruises, do look forward to those events and for many form a strong motivator for choosing to cruise. In a world that is increasingly more oriented towards casual dress, gala nights offer a small glimpse into an age gone by in which cruising was an event for which people would don their finests. I can't help but find it a bit dishearthening to press my suit, polish my shoes and spend a while getting ready, only to then turn up to an event and see that a significant portion of people in cargo shorts, tank tops and flip flops (which, just to be clear, you are more than welcome to wear of course in any other context!)
When my parents went to Europe in the early 70's they took the QE2 over and my mom took the France back. My mother was deathly afraid of flying, which is why she sailed. My dad had to get back to Canada for work. Anyway the QE2 was considered "democratic" because other than cabin type and dining room, class did not matter because everyone had free run of the ship. The France; however, stuck to strict class delineation. If you were first class you were restricted to first class areas of the ship and second class was restricted to second class areas of the ship. That was the traditional approach. The QE2 was always a single class ship when she was on a cruise. By the way my dad had to buy a tuxedo because other than the first night put it was black tie in the dining room every dinner.
I cruised in 1982 ny/bermuda/ny! Then 1990 carnival+royal only 1, then 2016-2019 1@yr. 20&21 of course got canceled. Did 1amtrack ny to new orleans! 22 did 3! So far,2023 oceania jan & HAl May& do many again. I agree i like Country club dress most nites, or casual only 1 or 2nites. Destinations are important. Thanks Gary
I think the food was better and the ships more intimate in the day. We started 21 years ago on the Celebrity Galaxy. The service was white glove, the food excellent, deserts were displayed on a cart as "showtime", flambé was real and prepared on board and the baked Alaska parade was fun and tasty. In addition, there was a midnight buffet every night and a grand buffet complete with ice sculptures. The wait staff even had time to talk extensively. We still travel mostly Celebrity, and Aqua class is quite good, but the old days were the best!
I find the “ship within a ship” direction off putting. To have sections of the ship out of bounds depending upon cabin grade I don’t like. However I don’t think it will change anytime soon. I’d prefer to go on a premium brand than higher grade onsuch a ship. Just my opinion of course .
We now only travel Cunard. The others can cater for the greyhound mobs, that’s fine. Have been travelling for over 50years, in the airline industry, then gave cruising ago, loved it, mainly Princess and HAL, now we look forward to pleasant company in civilised surroundings. Spent Xmas and New Year on the beautiful Queen Elizabeth, and in a few weeks will pick her up in Singapore and travel to Japan. Happy sailing, everyone. Thank you Gary, for your videos.
I started cruising about the same time as you, Christmas cruise from San Diego to Acapulco in 2004. 100 is a pretty impressive number...I only have my 8th booked for about a year from now. Of course I will probably be retiring about that time and will up the pace a bit, but still don't see myself cruising more than twice a year.
You seem to have forgotten something about the private Caribbean islands! From my reading they were set up to avoid rampant crime in other "authentic" locations!
Call me a fuddy duddy, but I preferred the old ways. I didn't need speciality dining because the MDR food was good, hadn't been dumbed down to force me into specialities. I liked seeing the people in their finery on formal nights. The ships were small enough that it didn't require a midship nap when moving from bow to stern. The elevators were occasionally not packed. The smokers were housed in the casino, which I did not need to visit. Cruise ports were not shoulder to shoulder tourists. It was possible to sit on deck with a glass of wine and take my turn at shuffleboard.
I’m with you on this! I have not taken a cruise in about 15 years, but this September I am meeting some of my frends in Athens to go on Greek Isles cruise. I am curious how I will feel about it afterwards, in comparing it to my few other previous cruises.
I hope you're right that cruiselines will start catering to us singles. The re-emergence of the class system is very anti-single. It is a gamble. Did you book in the class where most singles are located? Others have told me that if you cruise single and want to socialize, book in the lowest class as that is where most singles will be found.
I think it varies. On Norwegian they have the solo area and lounge but that is the only line that has a solo area to socialise on other lines the grade would not make any difference as all social activities are around the ship
Footwear was the big issue mainly in the main dining room and buffet at evening meal, as the cruise staff did not want open shoes/saddles , some of the flooring were marble, so mainly it was a health and safety thing like if a glass got accidently broken and small traces of glass were still on the floor. round the pool bars and indoor pool bar, we had plastic glasses , over the last few years in the main dining room standards have slightly dropped with dress code. I sooner people where what they want as long as it is smart and clean.
It is interesting an I am starting to rethink cruising as my yearly vacation. I'm not such a big people person any longer and can't afford the higher class. Got a great 25 yrs of cruising with my girlfriends though ❤
