Who remembers strolling musicians in dining room?

[njkruzer]

5 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

Actually back then you they didn't throw the food in front of you all at once. There was actually time between each course and that's when the musicians came around to the table. It was very civilized unlike the bums rush service we receive now.  

The service was actually very elegant.  I think they call it French service where they placed food on your plate in front of you, where your plate didn't come from the kitchen with everything.  

[Blizzard54]

35 minutes ago, njkruzer said:

The service was actually very elegant.  I think they call it French service where they placed food on your plate in front of you, where your plate didn't come from the kitchen with everything.  

I remember they would have 3 vegetables on a tray and you would chose what you wanted. 

Some dishes were prepared tableside and they would bring around a cart with the desert selections.

 

The parade of baked Alaska had to go away when they starting requiring ships to have sprinkler systems.  I believe that was about 2000. 

 

As for the strolling musicians,  I do remember them.  They were not near as intrusive as the photographers in those days.      

[ReneeFLL]

1 hour ago, jsf said:

As the OP I forgot to mention those pesky camera people interupting dinner every night for pics

The camera people were horrible. We aren't really picture people so we would always tell them no. Sometimes it would take several times before they would leave us alone. 

[George C]

2 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

The camera people were horrible. We aren't really picture people so we would always tell them no. Sometimes it would take several times before they would leave us alone. 

Agree on the photographers they always want me to get up and stand next to my wife , I always refuse, we do get a couple of pictures taken on rccl since there free for diamond.

[ReneeFLL]

19 minutes ago, George C said:

Agree on the photographers they always want me to get up and stand next to my wife , I always refuse, we do get a couple of pictures taken on rccl since there free for diamond.

Out of our 7 diamond cruises we only took 1 photo to keep. We made diamond + on our last cruise so don’t we get 2 pictures now? We would probably only take them if we were to have family with us anyway.

[mac_tlc]

1 minute ago, ReneeFLL said:

Out of our 7 diamond cruises we only took 1 photo to keep. We made diamond + on our last cruise so don’t we get 2 pictures now? We would probably only take them if we were to have family with us anyway.

One free picture per person. If you and your wife are both D/D+, then you can each get one.

 

One time, I was told I couldn’t get a free one that I was not in. Wanted one of the grandkids but they said no.

 

mac_tlc

[davekathy]

30 minutes ago, George C said:

Agree on the photographers they always want me to get up and stand next to my wife , I always refuse, we do get a couple of pictures taken on rccl since there free for diamond.

Agree. Never in the MDR. We sometimes will get our pictures taken elsewhere to take advantage of the free photos. I consider those roaming so called photographers, at best amateurs with expensive cameras. 👎

[ReneeFLL]

13 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

One free picture per person. If you and your wife are both D/D+, then you can each get one.

 

One time, I was told I couldn’t get a free one that I was not in. Wanted one of the grandkids but they said no.

 

mac_tlc

I don’t have a wife, but a husband. 💃🏼 🍻 I understand about the confusion with my name. Thanks for the info. 

Edited December 25, 2020 by ReneeFLL

[CntPAcruiser]

We started cruising about the time Royal began to drop a number of niceties, like turndown service with chocolates (might've had that on our first two cruises), live music in the MDR, medals awarded for the athletic events, and so on. Remember when they would bring around trays of specialty after-dinner drinks in souvenir glasses? Haven't seen that in many years. Sometimes I wish we'd started cruising earlier, but then I suppose we'd miss even more of what's missing.

 

They really could eliminate the roving photographers, though, who bother you at the table and take pictures with water glasses and half-eaten plates of food in front of your faces. We always say no thank you when they approach our table. 

 

At least they still have live music elsewhere, and many other things we enjoy about cruising. And someday we'll get to experience them again. Wishing you all the best in the new year!

Edited December 26, 2020 by CntPAcruiser

[ShmuelCharlie]

On 12/23/2020 at 7:35 PM, jsf said:

We started cruising in the 1991  and recall when musicians roamed the dining room and played requests. It was a treat to be so entertained while dining, can't seem to recall when they stopped doing this.

I don't know about RCCL having these groups, but I do recall being aboard a competing vessel where there was a singing headwaiter in the MDR taking song requests. That said, I think I recall Celebrity having violinists taking requests as they strolled the MDR. 

[ShmuelCharlie]

5 minutes ago, CntPAcruiser said:

We started cruising about the time Royal began to drop a number of niceties, like turndown service with chocolates (might've had that on our first two cruises), live music in the MDR, medals awarded for the athletic events, and so on. Remember when they would bring around trays of specialty after-dinner drinks in souvenir glasses? Haven't seen that in many years. Sometimes I wish we'd started cruising earlier, but then I suppose we'd miss even more of what's missing.

 

They really could eliminate the roving photographers, though, who bother you at the table and take pictures with water glasses and half-eaten plates of food in front of your faces. We always say no thank you when they approach our table. 

 

At least they still have live music elsewhere, and many other things we enjoy about cruising. And someday we'll get to experience them again. Wishing you all the best in the new year!

Regarding nightly turndown services w/chocolates on the pillows, I think that Celebrity stopped putting those candies on pillows for everybody below Suite folks, but then only the Suite occupants got the candies. However, Princess still offers candies on pillows for their guests, regardless of what kind of cabin they occupy. I agree w/you about those damned roving photographers in the MDR. 

[ShmuelCharlie]

7 hours ago, Blizzard54 said:

I remember they would have 3 vegetables on a tray and you would chose what you wanted. 

Some dishes were prepared tableside and they would bring around a cart with the desert selections.

 

The parade of baked Alaska had to go away when they starting requiring ships to have sprinkler systems.  I believe that was about 2000. 

 

As for the strolling musicians,  I do remember them.  They were not near as intrusive as the photographers in those days.      

I thought that the Baked Alaska parade had stopped because one woman's blue hair caught on fire from the sparklers atop the cake, and the cruise line whose ship had seen that situation happen wanted to avoid liability suits. I don't miss the parade that much, even though some of it was amusing when the servers wore gorilla costumes to dance w/the pax. Nowadays, I prefer doing the Macarena during the parade of chefs and servers on the second formal night of the sailing. That's fun! 

[davekathy]

2011 we did a B2B Caribbean cruise on the Liberty out of Miami. Our waiter on the last night of the first leg during dessert played his guitar and sang, "I did it my way" for the tables in his section. We all gave him a standing ovation. A request was made for an encore but he respectfully declined. 

[jsf]

I heard that the waving of dirty napkins ended the Parades

[Iamcruzin]

14 hours ago, ShmuelCharlie said:

I thought that the Baked Alaska parade had stopped because one woman's blue hair caught on fire from the sparklers atop the cake, and the cruise line whose ship had seen that situation happen wanted to avoid liability suits. I don't miss the parade that much, even though some of it was amusing when the servers wore gorilla costumes to dance w/the pax. Nowadays, I prefer doing the Macarena during the parade of chefs and servers on the second formal night of the sailing. That's fun! 

Once again I will date myself and say that the Baked Alaska would be individual servings like a tart or small pie. Now the Baked Alaska isn't worth the calories let alone a parade. 

[WeMissSeaView]

On 12/25/2020 at 4:41 PM, CntPAcruiser said:

We started cruising about the time Royal began to drop a number of niceties, like turndown service with chocolates (might've had that on our first two cruises), live music in the MDR, medals awarded for the athletic events, and so on. Remember when they would bring around trays of specialty after-dinner drinks in souvenir glasses? Haven't seen that in many years. Sometimes I wish we'd started cruising earlier, but then I suppose we'd miss even more of what's missing.

 

They really could eliminate the roving photographers, though, who bother you at the table and take pictures with water glasses and half-eaten plates of food in front of your faces. We always say no thank you when they approach our table. 

 

At least they still have live music elsewhere, and many other things we enjoy about cruising. And someday we'll get to experience them again. Wishing you all the best in the new year!

I agree.  I do not want a picture with dirty dishes on the table.  There was a time they would only take pictures in the dining room on formal night.  Now they take pictures almost every night.  I was on a 7 night cruise last year that took dining room pictures on the first 6 nights.  About 20 years ago, I had one photographer try to tells us that they had to take our dining room picture.  

[DaniDanielle]

We usually pass on the dining room pictures, unless they are quick and no one has to get up.

[cruiseguy1016]

On 12/26/2020 at 10:33 AM, jsf said:

I heard that the waving of dirty napkins ended the Parades

 

If I had know it  was that easy, I would have been waving every dirty napkin at my table.

[2chiefs]

On 12/25/2020 at 8:00 PM, ShmuelCharlie said:

I thought that the Baked Alaska parade had stopped because one woman's blue hair caught on fire from the sparklers atop the cake, and the cruise line whose ship had seen that situation happen wanted to avoid liability suits. I don't miss the parade that much, even though some of it was amusing when the servers wore gorilla costumes to dance w/the pax. Nowadays, I prefer doing the Macarena during the parade of chefs and servers on the second formal night of the sailing. That's fun! 

LOL about the blue hair fire....  More likely due to sprinkler requirement....

No more open flames (IE: Bananas Foster, Cherries Jubilee, flaming babalu etc... (What were they thinking?)

 

[neverbeenhere]

Couldn’t stand the over load of Macarena during Caribbean cruises, but just about jumped off the ship when they played ad nauseum on Alaska and European cruises.

[loman]

I have never had trouble with photographers in the dining room. 

I just tell them no thanks and they go away .

I have never found them to be aggressive .

[cruiseguy1016]

5 hours ago, neverbeenhere said:

Couldn’t stand the over load of Macarena during Caribbean cruises, but just about jumped off the ship when they played ad nauseum on Alaska and European cruises.

 

The entertainment staff in the theater don't try to feed us. Why is that the dining room staff feel the need to try to  entertain us? When I want entertainment, I go to the theater. When I'm in the dining room, I want to eat, not be bothered by people that think they have a talent.

[gatour]

On 12/27/2020 at 7:46 PM, loman said:

I have never had trouble with photographers in the dining room. 

I just tell them no thanks and they go away .

I have never found them to be aggressive .

Same for us in the dining room.

 

On embarkation day at the home port and the various ports of call a bit different, but they have got less aggressive over the years..

 

I have long passed my need to get pictures of me and my wife at various ports of call that we have already visited numerous times.

 

I understand why people like the photographs.

[Pam]

I remember roaming musicians; we sailed the Panama Canal on Legend when she was very new and impressive.  We had a large table, and we all wanted to exchange the day's activities with each other; the musicians were annoying.  I remember one lady slapping them away like flies, because they interrupted her.  But I can't remember when that was.

[WeMissSeaView]

5 minutes ago, Pam said:

I remember roaming musicians; we sailed the Panama Canal on Legend when she was very new and impressive.  We had a large table, and we all wanted to exchange the day's activities with each other; the musicians were annoying.  I remember one lady slapping them away like flies, because they interrupted her.  But I can't remember when that was.

Legend started sailing in 1995.