Do you remember the TROPICALE?

[VegasCrossfire]

Wow!! You made me go get my photo album (remember when we used to take pictures and put them in an album instead of on the computer??):D

 

She was the first Carnival cruise we ever took and it was in 1987. Our friends got a balcony room --- I think there were only about 10 balcony rooms on the ship (maybe less) and we thought they were really lucky to have such a room.

 

I found a flimsy pink "Sail & Sign" card that has our card number and voyage number pre-printed on it. Then we had to write our name on one line and sign it on another line.

 

I also found a green "Boarding Pass" that was a carbon copy of all our handwritten information.

 

One more document...a "Dining Room Reservation" card that had our Table No. handwritten on it with our dining room times on it. It also has a full rendering of the Riviera Restaurant (MDR) with every table on it with numbers to show you where your table is!

 

I also remember that you had to pay cash for everything on board. It was such a pain to have to take $ with you to the pool and the store. You also had to carry around a real key .... no such thing as the electronic doors they have today.

 

Oh boy.............now I feel really old....better get back to my bingo game! :eek:

Edited April 1, 2012 by VegasCrossfire

[KRW71]

My 1st cruise in 1992. I loved it.:)

[maldenmusic]

Wow-great pictures!

[DebJ14]

Very cool! I sailed on the similar ship, the Carnivale!

 

Sorry, but the Carnivale was nothing like the Tropicale. The Tropicale was purpose built for cruises and the Carnivale was an old refurbished ocean liner. We sailed on the Carnivale and had to climb in the sink in the room to look out the window. Tropicale outside cabins were very similar to Fantasy Class ships. We loved being on the Tropicale on Empress deck and just rolling down the hall to the main showroom. We sailed on the Tropicale from San Juan in 1994 and from New Orleans Christmas of 1995. I actually prefer the Tropicale to the Magic. Loved the more intimate, less crowded Tropicale. Since we are older now we don't use waterslides, waterworks etc and found the public lounges and casino way too crowded on the Magic.

[sparkscruiser]

Please can someone post photos of the times on this ship from back in the day, thanks. Love seeing the old photos.

 

I will dig out my box and see if my scanner will cooperate with me so I can post them here. This was my first cruise with a friend of mine and it cost about the same as what cruises cost today!

[PlanoTim]

Tropicale was our first cruise (southern Caribbean itinerary out of San Juan in 1989). My wife and I had a great time and fell in love with cruising then. :) Check out my avatar - that's Tropicale.

[AZbeachboy]

She was my first Carnival cruise in 1994 sailing from San Juan.

 

I hate to say this, but it was a terrible cruise. It almost made me never want to cruise on Carnival again! Thankfully, I DID cruise again! :D

 

We were on the last or next to the last cruise for Carnival. It was the worse cruise ever. We began to call it the tropicrap. They would not fix anything in our cabin. We only had one light working and no outlets at all. Service was horrible. At the past passenger reception they introduced the new master. We had no idea that this would be the last trip. It would have been our last trip on this ship anyhow because of the shape of the ship. We found out after we returned from the ship that it was being transfered to Costa.

 

They did give us a future cruise credit of $250.00 each (there were four of us). That almost paid for our next cruise.

[nonna5]

There use to not be any outlets in the older ships. There was a room to go to blow dry your hair or use your curling iron or whatever. The only plug was in the restroom and it was only for electric shavers. If you plugged in your blow dryer it would blow a circuit and no one around you would have lights.

 

Also on the Mardi Gras the bathroom shower was over the commode so when you showered your commode got all wet.

 

You never had to show your boardings slip to sign for drinks or whatever. Also I remember that you could either set up an onboard account or pay cash throughout the ship.

 

The funny thing is I pay about the same to cruise today as I did in the early 80's for a cruise. Cannont say that about many things.

[glrounds]

The funny thing is I pay about the same to cruise today as I did in the early 80's for a cruise. Cannont say that about many things.

 

You got that right. :)I get a kick out of the newbies complaining about the pricing creeping up.

 

Paid $599pp or $699pp for an inside on the TROPICALE decades ago . . .paying $439pp for an inside on the SPLENDOR in 4 weeks ! ! :eek:

 

[Carlyzmom]

Sorry, but the Carnivale was nothing like the Tropicale. The Tropicale was purpose built for cruises and the Carnivale was an old refurbished ocean liner. We sailed on the Carnivale and had to climb in the sink in the room to look out the window. Tropicale outside cabins were very similar to Fantasy Class ships. We loved being on the Tropicale on Empress deck and just rolling down the hall to the main showroom. We sailed on the Tropicale from San Juan in 1994 and from New Orleans Christmas of 1995. I actually prefer the Tropicale to the Magic. Loved the more intimate, less crowded Tropicale. Since we are older now we don't use waterslides, waterworks etc and found the public lounges and casino way too crowded on the Magic.

 

 

Well, I beg your pardon. ;) I just know there were sailing about the same time. I do remember it as quite the clunker!

[ltcal94]

My first cruise was on the Tropicale back in August of 1989 for my honeymoon. At the time the Tropicale was sailing from Los Angeles. I still remember the funky key with the holes you used for your room. All the cabins were open when you boarded and you would find your key in a little box on the wall near the door. I also remember formal night, everyone wore a tux back then. The big news back then was the upcoming launch of the Fantasy. It was big deal back then , Carnival was very proud of the new ship they were about to introduce. From our standpoint the ship was amazing, but it was a much different experience than what you have today.

Edited April 1, 2012 by ltcal94

[funinthesun1964]

I will dig out my box and see if my scanner will cooperate with me so I can post them here. This was my first cruise with a friend of mine and it cost about the same as what cruises cost today!

 

Oh, I hope your scanner will cooperate! Would love to see !

[Aplmac]

I don't have a picture, but it didn't look like that.

The Sail & Sign card used to be a flimsy, very thin plastic card.

It was basic white with the Carnival name & logo. ===> I have one similar: bkground colour cream: 1998

You'll see it at my Photobucket site, URL below

 

Instead of swiping it, they would manually enter the folio number printed on the card in the computer. :)

Would you happen to still have it?

 

I'd love to see a photo of it (better yet acquire it for my amazing collection)...

 

I have cruise cards going right back to when they weren't plastic at all

-in the days when they were printed on card, had no magnetic-stripe

had no bar-codes (barcodes weren't invented yet?)

 

 

If you click on this link..

http://s177.photobucket.com/albums/w219/aplmac/Misc/Ship%20CARDS/

you'll see a few of my cruise cards...with the seriously old ones almost right up front.

- have a look.

.

[RRLLAL]

Do I remember it? My wife would kill me if I didn't. That was our first cruise together and our honeymoon cruise. Sailed out of Tampa in '95. Ports we stopped at were New Orleans, Grand Caymen and Cozumel. We've enjoyed many more since and even more so with our kids.

[Aplmac]

I don't remember any type of sail & sign card at all.

Matter of fact, security was virtually non-existent as I remember when it came to leaving and re-boarding the ship in port.

 

We had buttons we were given to 'identify' us as passengers. We only had to show our button to get back on board.

We wondered if we could just use the buttons anywhere to climb aboard after the cruise was done.

In the process of collecting cruise-cards young and old

I've also made a sort of amateurish study of their evolution

as I come across very old card cards,etc.

 

Most folks simply can't remember what was entailed to get on/off the ships back then..

I've been told by some that they remember being given a room cabin KEY -an actual metal key!

and that was your proof that you belonged on board, etc.

 

I'm enjoying your stories and info about older cruise-cards.

Please...anyone who still has their old cruise cards, I am in receiving mode..

I have different 200+ cruise cards in my collection, which often drops jaws, particularly at Guest Services

(yes, I sometimes cruise with the collection in a folder! it gets me amazing results..)

 

English people send me quite a few cards from time to time, but Americans seem rather hesitant, due to Security fears I'm guessing

(there's very little real info on that mag-stripe, and it can be easily voided via any fridge-magnet in your house).

 

If you are in a mood to donate, my email is pcdoctor (at) caribsurf dot com

(I live on the Carib. island of Barbados, and no I'm not a "native"!) :D

.

[Sillyjilly]

For folks who cruised on her..

can anyone remember if their Sail & Sign cards looked like this??

.

 

Nope, they were paper passes with no pics. My how times have changed.

 

I used cash the entire cruise. I think it was 1987.

Edited April 1, 2012 by Sillyjilly

[DaveRRT]

Nope, they were paper passes with no pics. My how times have changed.

 

I used cash the entire cruise. I think it was 1987.

Yep mine is, and I still have it from 11/19/95. Tampa camens Coz and NO first cruise and had a blast. No Coz stop, it was too rough and the plank to the tender was jumping about 5ft

[Soxfan61]

Does anyone remember the Festivale...My first cruise was back in 1984 on her....I remember it was $599 per person WITH airfare from Chicago and it was 7 days...had a blast and got hooked on cruising Carnival ....I even remember the cruise director at the time...Dave Armour.

[monakayk]

When the DH and I did our first cruise on Carnival's FESTIVAL in 1989...we were talking to our cabin steward the last night of the cruise...asking him what ship he would suggest for our next cruise. He resounded very happily for us to go on the TROPICAL because it was the newest and most beautiful ship. We went to our TA a year later to ask about a cruise on the TROPICAL and really had planned to do it, but as it turned out...other things in our life occurred and we never got to go on her.

 

I am glad the TROPICAL is still around! Thanks for the photos.

Edited April 1, 2012 by monakayk

[LuckyZ]

Brings back memories. We did our 1st of 8 carnival cruises on our honeymoon in June 1986 on the Tropicale.

[oregonjuli]

Sailed her in Aug-95, out of New Orleans to Tampa, Cozumel and Grand Cayman. It was my first Carnival cruise. Had a good time.

[jagsfan]

For folks who cruised on her..

can anyone remember if their Sail & Sign cards looked like this??

.

 

I have all of mine going back to before the plastic cards.......I have a Princess one that's

paper inside a plastic holder. Anybody remember keys? That was back in the mid

80's. At least we can keep the plastic ones......

[LuckyZ]

From what I remember the room key was a hard plastic rectangle shape with alot of holes on it that acted like a bar code nowadays. Seemed like every room key had a different hole pattern for their door.

[Aplmac]

I have all of mine going back to before the plastic cards.......

I have a Princess one that's paper inside a plastic holder. ===> Would love to see a photo..

 

Anybody remember keys? That was back in the mid

80's. At least we can keep the plastic ones......

Please keep them safe and sound.

 

You can get sleeve inserts for 3-ring binders

that fit anything-credit-card-sized in individual pockets.

That's how I have mine stored. Hobby stores should have them.

 

 

I have spares

and am willing to exchange with anyone who has extras of anything..?

.

[Aplmac]

Wow!! You made me go get my photo album

 

I found a flimsy pink "Sail & Sign" card that has our card number and voyage number pre-printed on it.

Then we had to write our name on one line and sign it on another line.

 

I also found a green "Boarding Pass" that was a carbon copy of all our handwritten information.

 

One more document...a "Dining Room Reservation" card that had our Table No. handwritten on it with our dining room times on it.

It also has a full rendering of the Riviera Restaurant (MDR) with every table on it with numbers to show you where your table is!

 

I also remember that you had to pay cash for everything on board.

It was such a pain to have to take $ with you to the pool and the store.

You also had to carry around a real key .... no such thing as the electronic doors they have today.

Thank you for sharing these recollections of yore with us.

 

....................................................

 

 

Here's a beige flimsy plastic Carnival card from 1998

 

It has no magnetic stripe and no bar code.

 

 

..................................................

 

 

 

I have a similarly flimsy Seawind boarding card dated 04/01/93

 

Seawind Crown Cabin 114-2

.