We had over 35 cruises before we stopped because of mobility issues. Must admit we did see the changes over the 25 years involved. No easy or polite way to say this, and I am from the back to backs in Birmingham so hope not a snob, but we knew it was enough for us once the ‘great unwashed’ started to come aboard in droves. Easily identified as the ‘uniform’ was a football shirt (two sizes too small) tattoos, flip flops and unshaven. That was just the women.
You never saw them in the restaurant at dinner partly because we suspected they didn’t have any clothes that could even be classed as smart casual let alone formal dining wear for the formal nights. We were also convinced they prefer the buffet style dining where they could pile their plates as high as they wanted and get back to the bars without missing any drinking time.
We mainly cruised with Princess Cruises which have an option to pay a supplement to go to an area they called the sanctuary the price was not cheap and the added advantage was it kept the great unwashed well away so you rarely saw them. Our favourite days were port days where after we’d been to the Med so many times we tended to stay on board and have the ship and the peace and quiet to ourselves.
After a few years you progress through the loyalty programme where extras were unlocked like enormous discounts for booking a suite which opened up separate dining areas and separate menus that they don’t publicise and that transform things for us, very nice to leave your stateroom go onto your balcony and have a Jacuzzi there solely for your own use and be treated to very fine dining. I like Indian food a lot and most ships have a themed restaurant, Atul Kochhar was onboard himself on one cruise and came and joined us at our table for a glass of wine he did this to every table and was the consummate host and a very nice chap.
On sea days I attended lectures from the likes of Richard Noble and Mike Gatting and these were fascinating and all in all we had a wonderful time but all these things come to an end we never went on the big excursions where they invaded towns for example waited until we had an overnight in Venice and walked in ourselves and found a restaurant and walked the streets afterwards.
Not for everyone of course but I don’t regret a single day and as someone else mentioned you would struggle to get there the same level of accommodation for the cost per night per person in the UK let alone the food and entertainment.
BR
Colin
