Heidi BucoloCruising today is in many ways better than it’s ever been. Ships are bigger, itineraries are more diverse, entertainment options are impressive, and the dining choices on modern megaships can rival a city block. But if you’ve been cruising for a while, you know something has quietly changed.
We asked our community: “If you could bring back one discontinued cruise ship feature or amenity, what would it be?” We received many comments from long-time cruisers who clearly still feel the loss of some beloved traditions. Some of the answers were about money. Some were about service. And some were about the little touches that made cruising feel extra special.
Here’s what made the list.
1. Midnight Buffets
If you cruised in the 1980s or 90s, you know exactly what we’re talking about, and your eyes probably just lit up. The midnight buffet wasn’t just a late-night snack. It was an event.
Picture this: elaborate chocolate sculptures, fruit displays, ice carvings, and more food than anyone could ever eat set up in the main dining room after hours for all passengers to enjoy. Before the buffet even opened, passengers would line up just to walk through and take photos. It was a spectacle!
The midnight buffet faded out in the early 2000s as cruise lines shifted toward flexible dining options and began addressing food waste concerns. Today, you can still find late-night snacks on most ships, but nothing comes close to replicating the grandeur of the midnight buffets.
For many cruisers, it wasn’t just the food they miss. It was the occasion — something fun and a little indulgent.
2. Tableside Food Preparation
Few things in dining are as theatrical as watching your dessert get set on fire at the table or paraded around the dining room by the waitstaff.
Flaming Bananas Foster or Baked Alaska. Caesar salads mixed tableside. These weren’t just dishes, they turned an ordinary dinner into a memory. Waiters would wheel a cart to your table and assemble the ingredients right in front of you with precision. Everyone felt like they were special.
Safety concerns, staffing costs, and the shift toward more casual dining experiences gradually pushed these traditions out. Most mainstream lines have moved away from the tableside preparations that once defined elegant cruise dining.
That said, some cruise lines do still offer tableside experiences, but they mostly occur in specialty dining venues. Italian restaurants might still prepare your Caesar salad in front of you, or Mexican restaurants might cutomize your guacamole tableside. If this is your thing, it pays to seek out these experiences.
3. Complimentary Room Service
There was a time when picking up the phone in your cabin at 2 AM and ordering a burger and fries — at no extra charge — was just part of cruising. It felt like one of those little luxuries that made the whole experience feel indulgent and carefree when compared to any other type of vacation.
That era is largely over. Most mainstream cruise lines have shifted to either charging a delivery fee for room service or charging per-item fees for room service orders. Many cruise lines do still offer limited complimentary continental items for breakfast, but you’ll have to pay extra for a hot breakfast or late-night munchies.
A few lines still include room service as part of the fare, usually luxury lines, with Disney Cruise Line being the exception. But for the average cruiser on a mainstream line, room service has become another line item in the onboard spending budget.
4. Unlimited Entrees and Lobster in the MDR
There’s a moment that every long-time cruiser remembers: ordering a second (and third and fourth) lobster tail in the main dining room simply because you could. No upcharge. No judgment. Just a nod from your waiter and another plate on the way.
For decades, the main dining room featured multiple courses, generous portions, and the freedom to order as much as you wanted — including high-end items like lobster, shrimp cocktail, and surf and turf. And this was all included in your fare. It was one of the things that made cruising feel like an exceptional value.
Over time, those premium items have migrated to specialty restaurants or become upcharges in the main dining room. Lobster in the MDR still exists on many lines, but you’re usually limited to just one. The days of casually ordering seconds are largely behind us, unless you’re willing to pay a supplement for additional entrees.
5. Twice Daily Cabin Service
Not long ago, your cabin steward would visit twice a day — once in the morning to freshen things up and again in the evening for turndown service. In the morning, they’d make up your bed, replenish towels, and do some light cleaning. In the evenings, you’d come back from dinner to find your bed turned down, the lights dimmed, and a small chocolate waiting on your pillow. Perhaps, even a towel animal alongside tomorrow’s daily schedule (another thing that’s recently disappeared!).
Post-pandemic, most mainstream cruise lines moved to once-daily cabin service as a standard, largely due to reductions in staffing. Some lines give passengers the option to request twice-daily service, but it’s no longer the default.
For many cruisers, the shift feels like a reduction in the pampering that made cruising feel different from a hotel stay. Coming back to a freshly tidied cabin at the end of the evening was one of those small pleasures that added up.
6. Pillow Chocolates
Yes, they deserve their own section.
Sure, it’s just a piece of chocolate placed on your pillow during turndown service. It costs almost nothing, and it takes about two seconds to eat.
But the number of cruisers who mentioned it when we asked this question tells you that it wasn’t about the chocolate. It was about coming back to your cabin at the end of a long day and finding a tiny, thoughtful gesture waiting for you.
Some lines still do it — Disney Cruise Line, Holland America, and Celebrity Cruises have maintained the tradition, either every evening or at least on “dressy” nights. But on most mainstream ships, the pillow chocolate is a relic of the past.
7. Free Non-Alcoholic Beverages
Soft drinks, particularly when served in the dining room with meals, were once included in your fare. Many cruise lines began transitioning away from this practice in the 90s, moving to a la carte pricing for all non-alcoholic beverages.
Today, most mainstream cruise lines charge separately for sodas and specialty beverages, which is how the beverage package became one of the most popular add-ons in cruising. The math on whether a drink package pays off has become a common pre-cruise calculation, and it often involves how much you value these non-alcoholic beverages.
A few lines still include non-alcoholic drinks in the base fare — Virgin Voyages and Disney Cruise Line include soda — but they’re the exception rather than the rule on mainstream lines. Brands like Norwegian Cruise Line, Carnival, and Royal Caribbean all charge extra.
8. Skeet Shooting
This one might surprise newer cruisers, but it’s a tradition from an earlier era of cruising — and the people who loved it really loved it. We have to admit: while this cruise ship amenity was before our cruising times, we’re not quite sure why it had such an appeal.
For decades, many cruise ships offered skeet shooting off the stern of the ship as a complimentary activity. Passengers would line up, take their turn at the clay targets launched over the water, and compete for bragging rights on the high seas. Similarly, passengers could also practice their golf game by driving golf balls off the ship. Before the dawn of race tracks, waterslides, and ropes courses, this was the cruise ship thrill!
However, liability and environmental concerns eventually phased it out on all cruise lines in the 90s.
9. Crew Talent Shows
One of the hidden gems of cruising in years past was the crew talent show. These were evenings where the people who served your dinner, cleaned your cabin, and kept the ship running would take the stage and show off skills you never would have expected.
The bartender who could sing. The cabin steward who could dance. The chef who had moves that put the production cast to shame. It was unscripted, a little unpredictable, and genuinely entertaining. With crew members hailing from dozens of countries, these shows also gave passengers a window into different cultures and traditions that you simply don’t get from a standard entertainment lineup.
As onboard entertainment has become more production-focused, the crew talent show has largely disappeared. A few lines still do versions of it, but it’s no longer the staple it once was. If your ship happens to have one on the schedule, don’t skip it.
10. Sailing at Reduced Capacity
This one comes with an asterisk, because the only reason any of us experienced it was a global pandemic — and no one is asking for that back.
But if you sailed during the restart period of 2021 and into 2022, you remember what it felt like. Pools you could actually swim in. Elevators with no wait. A seat wherever you wanted in the theater. Attentive service because the crew-to-passenger ratio was unlike anything a normal sailing would offer. Cruising on a ship with reduced capacity was wonderful.
Cruise lines have since returned to full — and in many cases record — capacity, which makes complete sense from a business standpoint. But that brief window gave a lot of cruisers a taste of something they hadn’t experienced before, and plenty of people are still thinking about it.
The Bigger Picture
Looking at this list, a pattern emerges. Many of these changes were about cost-cutting. Some were to become more environmentally responsible. And others were about adapting to a different kind of traveler, a different size of ship, or a different era of expectations.
But what cruisers miss most isn’t really the lobster or chocolates or free sodas — it’s the feeling those things created, a vacation that felt more special than everyday life.
Comments
Do you have any discontinued cruise ship amenities to add to this list? What do you miss most about the old days of cruising? Drop us an anchor below to share your cruise memories.
