What Was Working On Cruise Ships Like 20 Years Ago? CRAZY STORIES! Letters Home & Communal bathrooms

[@FraserAtSea]

What a great idea for a video - your thinking is just so fresh when you think of subjects to tell us about - keep it coming!

[@MountainFisher]

My piano teacher's husband worked on a cruise ship out of Los Angeles in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He took me and her once to the Bon Voyage or Embarkation day and we then left before they pulled out. I remember he wore an officer's uniform so probably most crew members wouldn't be allowed to bring their family members. He had a nice cabin of his own.

[@designdoctor247]

what a fun memory

[@bobbys4327]

I never worked on a cruise ship, but I was in the US Army back in the latter 1960's. Being with other people ALL the time in the beginning was rather taxing but you kind of morph into it as normal. One thing I noticed, was being away from home for a long time, is that after awhile, it felt more like you didn't really have a home. The feeling of having a home slowly drifted away.

[@walkingcyclingcruisingaus]

Great interview. I also started working on Cruise ships in 1999, with Princess Cruises. I can totally relate to how you can feel disconnected from friends and family after working on ships for so long. No longer working on ships, but kinda wish I was. I do miss it at times.

[@celestevalliere462]

Another great interview. Your channel keeps getting better and better!

[@designdoctor247]

agree!!!

[@sandym4875]

Excellent interview! So interesting to hear from someone that has worked on a cruise ship for so many years. Thanks and have a fantastic day!

[@vincereynolds6092]

That was a great topic for an interview, especially for those of us that worked on ships 20 years ago. There were challenges back then, but there were less restrictions. I believe that the stories from back then are a bit more colorful than from present times.

[@regirompiesrtt681]

Great to see Marc on your video! Saw him during set up of Scarlet and before we worked on the same ships on Princess more then a decade ago 👍🏽

[@designdoctor247]

how cool is that ...what a small world

[@regirompiesrtt681]

@@designdoctor247 indeed small world and making friends for life.. half of my friends are from my last 2 decades on ships

[@designdoctor247]

Thank you Mark ...this was very professional, interesting, informative and fun. please film a tea time w Lucy and tell us about your fav back packing experiances.

[@jungyew]

Excellent interview. This was very insightful. Mark is so interesting and was generous in sharing his experiences.

[@user-yj3ob9kd3l]

You all do a fantastic job and make the cruise experience so much better for the passengers. Thank you so much!! 😘

[@designdoctor247]

7:12 Lucy just hearing Virgin gives u all your own cabins ....that makes me ...ok i will BOOK a cruise. I feel good knowing they CARE for their crew! the adult humor is NOT my thing but i can just over look it and not attend the comedy clubs because knowing they truely CARE about their crew is critical to me.

[@johnmacdonald1878]

He is just a youngster I started over 40 years ago. Some of the ships were older than I was. I think women worked on liners even back on the titanic, but not many on ships 40 years ago and when started the crew area were coming and shower ect were unisex because there was one set of showers. We just arranged separate times it worked mostly. I used to do things like put foam chemicals in the pipes an bowls so the would have foam everywhere when it was flushed. That got me a week working on the sewage system. When went on pax ships round 30 years ago. They were kind of the same but tried to keep the washroom and showers separated. Used to send mail almost every port or at least once a week whichever was sooner. Hi I was there now I’m here I’m going to. And always looked forward to mail. One of the big entertainments were Movies we used to get 3 or 4 Movies in box’s we swap with other ship on reels for projectors. Some ships even had a little theatre, or we just set it up in the mess room. From a company called Wallport. Sometimes we would visit another ship to exchange movies. There was also boxes of library books we could exchange. There was a TV which occasional got reception. I always carried a good short wave radio and I could pick something up as long as sparky wasn’t using the key. 40 years ago I went south on a tanker. Only way I knew what was going on was on the radio. Or rare occasions if we had not received mail for over a month. The company would pay for 3 minute a ship to shore radio call. I called my mom once and spent the whole call trying to explain I could only hear if I was not talking. Then the call ended. Sparkies were ussualy pretty strange, I never met one I would describe as entirely sane. Fortunately when I got really wasted and missed the ship we had the crazy sparky with us and the ship couldn’t sail. If you are going to go off on a bender make sure you take the radio operator with you and pay for his drinks. The Capt will be really pissed off but he can’t leave without you. I got logged once, for taking off in a lifeboat during a drill where we lowered it to the water. the mate was a bit nuts, he asked if anyone had any money I had a hundred bucks so did the 3rd engineer. We were at anchor. We buggered of in the boat and went ashore and hit every bar on the strip. I got pretty wasted. When we got back the Capt was really pissed off. We had not cleared the port and landed illegally. I nearly got fired for that one but the ship would have been delayed waiting for a couple of mates and a couple of engineers to be found a flown out. So I survived to screw up again and have more fun. I never did end up in jail, but I got escorted back to the ship by the local police and kicked out of a few countries. One drinking game involved lining up and jumping up and down to the engines firing order. When I started working 30 ish years ago on pax ships. I was a bit older and I was the XO so I didn’t attend the toga parties and pretended I didn’t know about then so long as I didn’t have to. If I had to hear about them I was seriously P O’d When I was younger, The crew bar could be quite wild. There was always some very interesting characters. Soap used to disappear, I was quite surprised when I couldn’t find any just before we got to a particular part of the world. It was all gone. Most of the crew had swiped all the soap to trade ashore. For certain favours and other things. The old days were sometimes pretty good.

[@bugsymalone199]

So much on youtube about entertainers. Will you do some intervirews with waiters, cooks & room attendants.

[@johngabriele7956]

that's awesome Lucy, really enjoy your video's! Keep up the good work!

[@amyrivers4093]

I'm a kiwi too and Venice is the one place I'd go back or even live there for a while.

[@joe-uu5tn]

Now that was informative! Thanks guys.

[@lawrencebest9943]

Excellent Video

[@GBZ2007]

Excellent interview !!! So interesting. Thanks and if you can do an interview with some one of the entertainment or sound or video technicians !!! ... thanks

[@kerrycheck8272]

Probably met Mark when my wife and I did our first cruise out of Sydney on Fair Princess in 1999. Did a trip around the Pacific Islands. We still cruise with Princess and are now Elite passengers.

[@nancyp2992]

I’ve been cruising since 1964. It was wonderful when they introduced have a females working on the ships because Thenfemale passengers were not harassed as much.

[@bdogjr7779]

Awesome Lucy🌷《☆》Times have definitely changed♡👍💛🍺🍕♡Nice interview dear🖖😎☮

[@BEN-xq4ny]

my 1st and second cruises in my 20s i always found my way to the crew bar, i think the drinks were free. To bad ya cant do that anymore i had some great times hanging wit the crew.!!!

[@keeperzero]

I remember 20 years ago on my first cruise when they have a naked buffet pretty sweet

[@jonhalverson6434]

this interview reminds me of my military years.

[@chetfriday7636]

Informative.

[@kendrawaterbury2328]

What happens if you get sick? Do you have sick time to use?

[@pryttyfatchick]

I have to laugh about the rooster alarm, someone I dated, the 1st time he spent the night, his alarm went off in the morning and it was a rooster. I told him if he didnt change it next time I was throwing his phone out the window lol.

[@vsbaretummysugastonguetech1540]

I found this, so interesting.

[@carldefoe4673]

Not saying you have a black cat, I've got a blacker one but..... Dont talk to me about rooster alarms, they're evil. We had one that had fallen down behind the lower bunk and went off about 4am every morning, without respite. We didnt know where the hell it was coming from, so, one night, after a few drinks, dressed in full formal evening wear (tuxes), me and the drummer went below our deck to the engine room - strictly out of bounds for non-engineering personnel. Looking for a chicken. Which roughly translated in Greek as looking for cock 😁. Chief engineer had to report the infringement obviously, lucky the master saw the funny side, otherwise we could have been disembarked for that, he and the staff captain came into our cabin the next day with the carpenter and tore the bunks out, yes they found the culprit, little plastic thing on a key chain, you wouldnt believe how loud it could crow.

[@martinjones5725]

my 2nd cruise was on the fair princess in 1993

[@RajahHindustani]

Do you know of any stories were the passengers and crew, who were strangers, got together and hooked up.

[@TheThebluey]

the are some pertinent points that the guy made but even 22 years ago was a long way from early days ie 1985 different times and having been onboard then from when I left in 1993 times have changed I believe we had less but did more to be honest.Also I have watched the Virgin cruises on TV and think the concept is to concocted with the Superstar label.The ships I think look really like a holiday camp at sea.Cruising has moved forward massively I think though that Virgin are taking it back in time.

[@ansahmalik7564]

Can you do an interview with a photographer

[@someguy9778]

My last contact with Princess was 2006. I worked with Mark on one of my contacts but I didn't work shops. I think even back then shops were making good money. Sad to hear it's changed, I'm guessing commission is no longer?

[@arfriedman4577]

In another video, Lucy mentioned there's commission for spa, and I believe retail.

[@designdoctor247]

will u give a tour of a helicopter evac ...let us know what it is all about

[@Spert0]

hey you on scarlet lady rn? let's party up homie 💯😎

[@kathryncashner3294]

Good stories. We started "really" cruising in 1997, although we'd been on a couple cruises before that. Much of what you describe was "the world" that long ago. In college, we shared a room smaller than my bedroom at home with a "shower room" down the hall. That sounds very much like the ships that Mark described. Since we were on land, there were phones...but they were so expensive that poor college students couldn't afford long distance calls. Again, letters. The crew quarters on a new ship in 1997 were much as they are now with the communal shower rooms gone! Maybe it has to do with how old the ship was or how the line took care of their crew...and that's not a lot different than now. You have done videos about how VV is so much better for crew than other lines! In 1997, it was a different line but the same idea--take care of the crew. Not that they were always happy, but efforts were being made.

[@pedrohernandez4887]

Hey Lucy I got a question. Instead of sharing a cabin with a crew member Can you just pay to get your own cabin ? What are some reason a crew member will get there own cabin besides rank ?

[@designdoctor247]

that is a good ? but....that is one of the FEW perks they get...free room and food...they do not get paid as well as people on land for the same job.

[@pedrohernandez4887]

@@designdoctor247 oops had to edit the comment to make it make more sense

[@someguy9778]

No, you can't. Even if you could, it wouldn't be worth it.

[@1mezion]

I understand being able to post letters from a ship back then whichever port you're in you just find the nearest post office, but how would you receive mail when on a cruise ship. I know on military ships it's brought in by helicopters and plains.

[@emmib1388]

when they get to the port the would get the mail.

[@dmitripogosian5084]

@@emmib1388 Which mean people on the other side had to know which port to send the mail to ? I grew up in a port city in the 70-s, and many of classmates dads were working at sea, including my future wife relatives. Usually 6 month stint, either fishing in North Atlantic or near Angola, or on freighters. Typically they did not have much communication, just reports where the ship is from time to time. 6 months fishing shift would have one or two port visits in 6 month. But sometime radio messages were relayed. But they were all excused from classes when the ships were back.

[@emmib1388]

@@dmitripogosian5084 thanks for your reply. unlike your classmates dads, the cruise line is on a set schedule and is in port either every week or every two weeks and the crew member would have land address (like an Amazon pickup location) where they would pick up their mail.

[@peterh9180]

Lucy, are you going to be able to see queen’s funeral?

[@paolomarucchi-chierro4930]

Hey the communal shower sounds like my boarding school just it was full open plan so from 14 to 18 you showered in the same place and no it wasn’t sectioned off 🤣. Oh I finished school in 2021 so no this isn’t a story from back before the dinosaurs 🤣.

[@knowone9763]

Is Mark from New Zealand or Australia?

[@deblittle5164]

His accent sounds NZ (im an aussie)

[@smokeandquills]

He mentioned in the video that he has had people he met on ships come to stay with him "in New Zealand." But yeah, as an Aussie myself, his accent is definitely Kiwi/NZ, not Australian!

[@arokh72]

@@deblittle5164 especially when he said "Pruncess ship" :P

[@didiermcginnis]

Come on,not shagging whilst I'm dr,omg that had to been crazy 😅😅😅😄

[@stevec.7017]

Oh, no! I was like # 666 Sorry !! Somebody like this video right away. 😅😅😅😅😅😅

[@MrZola1234]

You just used email in the late 90s on, not mail. Come on

[@MsFitz134]

Ships didn't have internet back then. There was no such thing as wifi or wireless internet, it was all hard wired. You would have to find an internet cafe in port (remember those?) to send an email - assuming you had the time and money to do that. And of course that's only if the people you wanted to contact also used email. As someone whose parents and grandparents didn't email until 2010, paper letters would have been the only option for me for a long while.

[@MrZola1234]

@@MsFitz134 I don’t know about crew, but my parents and sister have been sailing since the 90s and have used ship based internet since then to send and receive emails.

[@MsFitz134]

@@MrZola1234 that's pretty incredible considering internet wasn't available on most ships until 2000/2001 (the first ship to offer internet for guests was Norwegian Joy in 1999). At the time it cost $10 for 15 minutes - those were some expensive emails! My first cruise was in 2012 on a similar ship- Norwegian Sky. Still no Wifi, just some computers in the library charging exorbitant prices. The service was so slow I opted to find a hotel in port and use theirs.

[@MrZola1234]

@@MsFitz134 it was not an internet package. They had a few computers they could check email on.

[@dmitripogosian5084]

@@MsFitz134 It is not matter of wifi, wifi is a short range, only within the ship, you could wire at least few communal computers easily. What matters is ship - land communication, which was not availble for internet without satellites, really

[@acetelenta]

I worked 2006-2007 and by watching your videos its the still fucked up thing to do. Don't work on cruises ships my advice

[@gailvesely6388]

I notice that no one is "fat". I work at a casino where 75% employees are overweight. Does the cruise ship hire with weight in mind?

[@peterstudios961]

They do work long hours and 7 days a week so there is no time for eat too much! Lol.

[@peterstudios961]

Forgot to mention, no junk food.

[@someguy9778]

You do have to pass a medical exam every year. But plenty of overweight crew.