10 Things You Don’t See on Cruise Ships Anymore (or Very Much)

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The cruise industry is constantly trying to reinvent itself in what it offers. Sure, you’ve seen that with newer brands like Virgin Voyages and Margaritaville, but some cruise lines also offer whole new options nowadays, such as FlowRiders, water roller coasters, and visits to exclusive islands.

But besides cruise lines adding option after option, many are also slowly phasing out things that had been popular. While activities such as midnight chocolate buffets used to be a given on every cruise line, many have stopped them due to cost, environmental, food waste and health/hygiene concerns, guest preference, or a mixture of some or all.

Of course, there are SOME cruise lines that still offer these things, but most have phased them out (or have plans to) and they’re things you just don’t see on cruise ships anymore (or if you do, you won’t for much longer):

10 things you don’t see on cruise ships much anymore

1. Single-use plastics

Plastic water bottles used to be the norm on lots of cruise ships. Some cruise lines would pass them out before you disembarked, to help people stay hydrated. They had few qualms about you bringing a plastic bottle of soda back onto the ship at the end of the day, too.

Not anymore.

Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line and Virgin Voyages have all completely eliminated plastic water bottles from their respective fleets. Virgin won’t even let you bring a single-use plastic water bottle on board.

Oh, and plastic straws are harder to come by nowadays, too.

2. Topless sunbathing

There was a time when a certain part of a ship would be reserved for topless sunbathing. Granted, it was more popular in Europe than in the U.S., where our more Puritanical sense still rules our sense of “decency.”

But with more cruise lines becoming more family-friendly – and with more Americans cruising in Europe – topless sunbathing isn’t gone, but it’s certainly decreased.

3. Self-serve buffets

Cruise lines that have buffets aren’t getting rid of their buffets just yet (Virgin Voyages took things to a whole new level and has NO buffets across its fleet of ships).

But thanks to COVID, the days of self-serve buffets are limited. More often, you’ll find food service staff standing behind the glass with tongs (and wearing gloves, too!). You tell them what you want, and they’ll put it on your plate.

I LOVE this idea.

4. Hard copies of daily activities

Printed copies of many things are slowly going the way of the dodo, and daily activity schedules are no exception. And it makes sense – why print thousands of these papers and automatically leave them in each cabin, when so many people would just as soon look at the day’s activities on their phone, on the cruise line’s app?

Nowadays, lots of cruise lines have SOME printed copies of their schedule in a specific spot/location. But reading it on your phone is becoming the norm.

5. Leaving your cabin lights on all day

Energy conservation is virtually everywhere – including cruise ships. If you leave your lights on in your cabin while you’re outside, you’re just wasting precious energy.

So, some cruise lines use the key-card system. Others have lights that automatically shut off if they don’t sense any motion in the room.

6. Unlimited free lobster tails

Way back when, you could order a second or even third lobster tail with dinner and it was still all part of the cost of being on a cruise. Nowadays? Not so much.

Because “we can’t have nice things,” some folks have no shame and would order way more lobster tails than they could eat at one sitting. Out of concern for cost and food waste, virtually all cruise lines have stopped the process of unlimited free lobster tails.

Oh, you can still order extra lobster tails. But you’re going to pay for each and every one of them beyond the first one.

7. Smoking

It shouldn’t be surprising that, just like hotels and planes, there was a time that cruisers could smoke virtually anywhere (or if not EVERYWHERE, they were still free to smoke in a LOT of places).

Nowadays, cruisers can smoke in the casino and a small handful of select places, but that’s all.

8. Free room service

Years ago, if you didn’t feel like going to one of the ship’s restaurants or you wanted a late-night snack, you could order whatever you wanted from room service; they’d bring it to your cabin, and just like eating a meal in the restaurant, it was part of whatever you paid for your cruise.

Not anymore. Chances are, the cruise will charge you a nominal fee for room service.

Some cruise lines, such as Virgin Voyages, will waive the fee if you order something that you typically would have to pay for (think something like a drink, that extra lobster tail 😉), etc. But for others, room service means you’ll have an additional charge on your bill.

9. Housekeeping twice a day

There was a time when your cabin would get made up twice a day. The first time would be sometime after you had left your cabin in the morning. The second time would be sometime before bed, and you’d get turndown service.

Housekeeping twice a day has become something of a rarity now; it doubles the work of the housekeeping crew and has been phased out on many cruise lines as a cost-cutting measure (housekeeping could be doing something else, or they could just have less housekeeping staff).

10. Ship libraries

Way back when, a passenger could go to the ship’s library and snuggle up with a good book from the library’s collection. There would be comfy chairs to sit in, and you could wile away the hours in a quiet, comfortable room.

Of course, if people want to read nowadays, they’re more likely to do it on their tablet. And, let’s face it, with the availability of movies on the same device, people might not be reading a whole lot, period.

So over the course of time, many ships’ libraries have been repurposed for other activities – game rooms, meeting rooms, stuff like that. Which means there’s one less quiet space for readers to read.

Caveat

Again, not all cruise lines have done away with all these amenities. Lines that tend to attract older passengers, and especially those that charge significantly more for their cruises, are still tending to keep what their passengers are used to and still expect to have. Still others have indeed done away with some of these amenities and activities, simply to keep up with the times.

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