DQ 1973 deck plans and rates

I was in a skid row room on the Cabin Deck, and it had an outside door, on the starboard side...just ahead of the staircase.

As I recall I used my parents' stateroom just above it on the Texas...that was a LONG time ago for me!!! I think the next season they tore those out...1982/1983???

Way back then the staterooms of choice for my family were the rear Texas rooms, then when Grandfather was alone..it was always 209. Later my parents were Cabin deck people, for probably their last 20-25 cruises...

Did Captain Way ever get to see the stateroom created in his honor? I'm sorry, I really should know A) when these staterooms were put in place and B) when Captain Way passed. I'm thinking it was the new 312...could have been 310, though, but I'm really thinking it is 312.

Deb and I had the pleasure of staying in his dedicated stateroom once, what a treat! Compared to the Sundeck "G's", Captain Way's stateroom was a palace, absolutely huge, echos in there...If you look in MAL's brochures it is the "D" stateroom pictured in the description, the "D" stateroom du jour.

And $280 a night? I haven't seen those type of figures since Delaware North days, and that was with only a special. Now with ACV, that was the norm...but then again that was 7 to 8 years ago. I miss the days when the ACV specials postcard would arrive every coupla weeks.

Judy, I love from your brochure how lowly carpeting in the stateroom is indicated as a luxury, up and above the "cheap seats"! It's amazing what we take for granted nowadays.

And I'm counting 23 crew quarters above the waterline in 1973, where today there is only 4, used to be 5 when Deb and I started, but they, MAL or was it DN?, returned G229 back to the cruising public, to raise max # of staterooms to 88 and max passenger capacity to 176. I put the 176 in bold 'cause the brilliance of Seattle never had the count right in any of their brochures, got some pleasure pointing out that continual mistake to the big boys...always shown in brochures as 174. The reduction in above waterline crew quarters by the addition of the staterooms 311 through 316 was the reason that the max passenger count didn't really suffer when the aft cabin deck was redone?

So when those previously above the waterline crew had to relocate below the waterline, I'm thinking mutiny...? I'm picturing fazzled tempers, and a fight on status and pecking order...

Bruno, the skid row rooms reverted to passenger rooms in 1973 or 74, I'm thinking, after the crew quarters in the hold were reconfigured. Sam may be able to clarify this. As far as fights on status, etc., the officers quarters in the aft hold were actually nicer than the skid row rooms by anyone's estimation. Also, they were air conditioned.

In 1974 and up until about 1980 or 81, the passenger count was 192.

When I left the boat in November 2006, there were 5 crew rooms above the "water line, the Captain and chief on the forward sun deck, 2 pilot rooms on the texas deck behind the stairwells on either side, (205 and 206) and an entertainer room on the aft port Texas deck behind the stairwell. As the skid row rooms where removed in the layup of 83-84 (I was there the whole time) the allowed passenger count was reduced.While the passnger count was reduced, the crew count increased, more entertainers, fewer deckhands, more servers. The total renovation of the forward crew hold increased its' capacity to 23 or 24, depending on how the current management assigned rooms.

Capt Mike, The entertainer's room you refer to is now a passenger room and has been shown as a passenger room since the very first, the 2007 swan brochure from Majestic. I wasn't sure if it had been changed before Majestic, as I can't seem to find my menagerie of previous companies brochures. So with it being a crew room while you were aboard, you answered my question of which company modified it back to "rent" status.

And you've got my curiosity...After the renovations were done 83-84, you said the passenger count went down but the amount of serving crew went up? Was it due to a new, more formal way of serving the meals, a guess on my part?

I wonder if that was when they split the dining times in the evening??

When more servers were added, that is...

Pete, they always had an early and late dinner service. When we rode the boat when I was a kid, we always ate at the early service. As I remember breakfast and lunch were one seating, with breakfast from like 7 to 8:30 and lunch from 12 to 1:30. Back in the 50's everyone dressed for dinner, the men jacket and ties and the women dresses.
There was some talk about what is now the gift shop but back then the hostess office. It really wasn't an "office" and was never open, it was a storage area for the hostess to keep her supplies...such as crepe paper and ribbons for the funny hat contest. The several times I was in there I can remember that it was a very well preserved barber shop from the boats California days with mirrors on the walls and selfing, but no barber chairs.

When Pete and I rode in the 70s and early 80s, there was just one seating for all meals.

Judy, when you rode, and I apologize you may have told me this eons ago, did all three meals envolve menus? Or was it strickly buffet? I have seen pictures of the Orleans, with people obviously dressed to the nines, serving themselves from a buffet table. The fancy dress makes me assume it was the dinner service.

I ask this, as it would be perfectly fine for both of us to utilize a buffet for all meals if it meant the boat, any boat could operate more profitably...and of course the cost per night went down a little. It would seem that I am in the minority opinion here, though...As a compromise, maybe only dinner should have menus? Or maybe only one of the dinners, early vs main?

Bruno, I know you asked Judy, but as I recall, lunch and dinner were menus, except on sailing day, which was a buffet. Understand though that this was not an extensive menu -- I think there were two entree choices, maybe some choice in desserts. It was always understood that you could get them to fix something else (sandwich, etc.) within reason. I am thinking that breakfast was just kind of sit down and order what you want, breakfast-wise, but I could be wrong on that. A breakfast buffet was served the last day if you were to arrive in the morning. They would put out some sweet rolls and coffee in the Forward Cabin Lounge around 9:00 each day, but as far as a big continental breakfast, there wasn't one. The all-day coffee samovar appeared in the 1980's.

The last time I rode as a passenger in 1997, I was bowled over at the menu options.

One thing that strikes me as I write this was the informality of everythingback in the '70's. I remember the brochure, or maybe it was the info. sheet they sent along with your tickets, had a couple of paragraphs like, "The Mark Twain Lounge is located off the dining room. It is open during dinner and afterwards until you are reaady to knock off." and this: "If you get hungry at any time during the day or night, contact the purser or a porter, and they can always rustle up a sandwich or some coffee" Just real folksy stuff. The brochure that Judy scanned for this thread, by the way, was a one-sheet affair, tri-folded, printed on both sides, not the slick magazine we have come to expect in recent years.

Bob Reynolds;14586 wrote: Bruno, I know you asked Judy, but as I recall, lunch and dinner were menus, except on sailing day, which was a buffet. Understand though that this was not an extensive menu -- I think there were two entree choices, maybe some choice in desserts. It was always understood that you could get them to fix something else (sandwich, etc.) within reason. I am thinking that breakfast was just kind of sit down and order what you want, breakfast-wise, but I could be wrong on that. A breakfast buffet was served the last day if you were to arrive in the morning. They would put out some sweet rolls and coffee in the Forward Cabin Lounge around 9:00 each day, but as far as a big continental breakfast, there wasn't one. The all-day coffee samovar appeared in the 1980's.

The last time I rode as a passenger in 1997, I was bowled over at the menu options.

One thing that strikes me as I write this was the informality of everythingback in the '70's. I remember the brochure, or maybe it was the info. sheet they sent along with your tickets, had a couple of paragraphs like, "The Mark Twain Lounge is located off the dining room. It is open during dinner and afterwards until you are reaady to knock off." and this: "If you get hungry at any time during the day or night, contact the purser or a porter, and they can always rustle up a sandwich or some coffee" Just real folksy stuff. The brochure that Judy scanned for this thread, by the way, was a one-sheet affair, tri-folded, printed on both sides, not the slick magazine we have come to expect in recent years.

Bob, what you stated in your 1st paragraph is exactly how I reemeber it when my family & I 1st started to ride the DQ in the late 1970's...

I also recall "being able " to visit the Mark Twain bar on the DQ...I think on my 1st several trips they had two or 3 stools in there????

I should have said that there were two seatings for dinner during the 50's & 60's. When there weren't enough passengers aboard to warrent two seatings, they only had one seating. Back then there were no menu's, the waiter usually told you at lunch what was planned for dinner, if you didn't like the item you could request a substitute. I remember one time when I was eating with Dorthea, Roscoe and Mickey Frye the waiter said they were serving lamb chops for dinner. Dorthea and Mickey said they didn't like lamb. That night the waiter brought them two of the most beautiful ribeyes I'd ever seen while I was stuck with an overdone lamb chop.
Photo: the Reising family at dinner on a Kentucky Lake trip, 1954. Back then the Orleans Room was the dinning room and the Mark Twain Lounge was the bar.

70s meals

Thanks for replying guys. I wasn't online since I was getting my money's worth from my NFL Sunday Ticket subscription yesterday.. I think next year I'll just go back to whatever games we get locally, every NFL game is too much...which is similar to my feelings about the DQ dining when I returned for the 2 trips in 2002 and 2003, after a 19 year hiatus. As we've said, we had only the menu setup, other than first night and last morning buffets. Those pictures and postcards you've seen of the buffet setup were from the late '50s or 60s and I'm sure they were also infrequent events then. I couldn't believe that in this decade they had both buffet and menu for the meals. This would obviously have been the first place I would have cut expenses - one or the other. As I recall, it was open seating for breakfast and lunch, and only dinner was the assigned table this decade. Since I only came down for breakfast, I never met the personnel who served 'our' table, but I told Carmen to assure them they'd get their tips anyway, as it wasn't their fault they got stuck with me, the nonexistent diner. Again, I preferred the old way: having the same table, tablemates, and waiter for all the meals, but I'm sure I'm in the minority there. Mealtimes were not one of my priorities while on board. I obviously didn't waste away to nothing, my liquid diet served me well! I don't know if we've mentioned the other food locations of the '90s and later either. We didn't have cookies, hot dogs, lavish buffets set up during the course of the day. The food was at the mealtimes, and the 'midnight' buffet was usually a dessert or snack items, not a whole setup that required 2 crewmen to maintain. I do think we had popcorn in the Texas Lounge, but wasn't it served just from the singalong at 5 and later? There was coffee available early morning, but I don't recall any food upstairs with it...

Yeah, that is how I remeber things when we first started riding the DQ...I can recall the sailing buffet seemed to have a steamship roast, but that had dissappeared in later years...as the best time to get a piece of ham or a slice of beef roast was at the the late night buffet!!!

I for one never missed a meal onboard...being from Wisconsin, I wanted to get my money's worth!!! If it was a trip with 4 of us, namely Grandfatehr and my parents, as well as me....that always meant an invitation to the captains table!!! It also happened in later trips without grandpa (after his passing on) and I even managed one all by myself one trip, namely as I had the most cruises that trip!!!

I don't recal popcorn being a frequent thing during those 1st trips...that too seemed to me anyways, came later! One thing that did remain almost the same to us was the Texas bar, one of the bartenders put my sister's name under one back in 1981...it was still there in 2005!

Judy Patsch;14598 wrote: Thanks for replying guys. I wasn't online since I was getting my money's worth from my NFL Sunday Ticket subscription yesterday.. I think next year I'll just go back to whatever games we get locally, every NFL game is too much...which is similar to my feelings about the DQ dining when I returned for the 2 trips in 2002 and 2003, after a 19 year hiatus. As we've said, we had only the menu setup, other than first night and last morning buffets. Those pictures and postcards you've seen of the buffet setup were from the late '50s or 60s and I'm sure they were also infrequent events then. I couldn't believe that in this decade they had both buffet and menu for the meals. This would obviously have been the first place I would have cut expenses - one or the other. As I recall, it was open seating for breakfast and lunch, and only dinner was the assigned table this decade. Since I only came down for breakfast, I never met the personnel who served 'our' table, but I told Carmen to assure them they'd get their tips anyway, as it wasn't their fault they got stuck with me, the nonexistent diner. Again, I preferred the old way: having the same table, tablemates, and waiter for all the meals, but I'm sure I'm in the minority there. Mealtimes were not one of my priorities while on board. I obviously didn't waste away to nothing, my liquid diet served me well! I don't know if we've mentioned the other food locations of the '90s and later either. We didn't have cookies, hot dogs, lavish buffets set up during the course of the day. The food was at the mealtimes, and the 'midnight' buffet was usually a dessert or snack items, not a whole setup that required 2 crewmen to maintain. I do think we had popcorn in the Texas Lounge, but wasn't it served just from the singalong at 5 and later? There was coffee available early morning, but I don't recall any food upstairs with it...

Prior to the popcorn machine the Texas Bar served a snack mix, Gardetos (sp?) I think, on alternate days with potato chips. I the can picture the large can of "Charles Chips" where the popcorn machine now stands.