Minnesota Rookie

RocketMan: Since you weren't there, of course, you had no way either of judging the credibility of the steward, nor of my ability to do so. I made it plain in my contribution that it was a matter of judging the steward's credibility whom we had come to know over longer than several weeks. The reasons I made that plain was that I knew that there was a chance that he could be playing me to increase his gratuity. I think Norwegian low-balls on initial price and then pads their profits significantly in two ways: by taking what they call gratuities for the bottom line, and by excessively charging for excursions, etc. I am a pretty good judge of character and of situation given my life and experiences as well as my expertise. What you think is irrelevant to me.

This topic got so long that I confess I didn't read all of the contributions, so I hope that I am not duplicating any of the former posts. But we had an interesting experience on an April 2023 cruise (for obvious reasons told below I don't want to identify it any more than that) with Norwegian this year. After having made something of a relationship with our room steward over the time I asked him on the last day whether he got a part of the huge tip package that we paid to Norwegian. He was very reluctant to answer and said that the staff had been told quite plainly by Norwegian that they would be fired if they revealed this information to customers. But because the steward trusted me a bit perhaps, he finally told me that no, they don't get any part of it. I found him credible and his reluctant answer believable. We tipped him personally and took a significant amount off our Norwegian gratuities. I believe it is possible, or even likely (without much more evidence than that single occasion), that Norwegian is actually using the so-called "gratuities" to pad their profit margin, not compensate their staff.

Thanks Bobkli19 and boilermaker330! (Boilermaker--we are on the same cruise as you!) These are certainly solid options. Now we have to figure out how we are going to choose! We are also looking at a group shuttle. Our hotel looks like it is only about 2 blocks from the Termini, if I am reading the map correctly so we can easily walk from there.

Wow! You guys are great! I can't thank you enough for all the incredible information. My wife and I will pour over all of the answers and try to decide what seems best for us. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you!

My wife and I are taking a Transatlantic Cruise from NY to Rome in April, our first Transatlantic. We then have a day on our own and then a land tour starting on the following day from Rome. So we need to get from Civitavecchia to a hotel downtown to stay over for an extra day to start the land tour the next day. Being elderly, and never having been in Rome, not speaking the language, and knowing nothing about anything, we are a bit terrified about how to get from the ship to whatever hotel in Rome that the land tour will be starting in (we hope to find out the right hotel for the start of the land tour as soon as possible). We thought that either the cruise line (Norwegian) or the land tour (Trafalgar) would give us some help, but nada from either, since we don't fit into their usual routine of going to or coming from the airport immediately before or immediately after the experiences. Anyone know the way from the port to the city and can give us some help to get there? Thanks!

So I now not only pay for the ship and the cruise, but I have to hire and pay the staff as well? I think Norwegian has really made a bad promotional move in this case. I intend to significantly reduce my gratuities once I get onboard--something I have never done before--as a protest, and we simply won't ever take another Norwegian cruise. We've had enough of these cruise lines, and Norwegian is the straw that breaks the camel's back for us, nickel and diming (hundreds and thousands) their customers to death in pursuit of ever larger profits.

Thanks Zach. That is what I was led to believe this morning! OK, if we connect in Munich we will try to leave enough time to jump through the hoops.

Sorry to ask a question that has probably been asked a dozen times. I thought I knew the answer until this morning. We will be taking the Norwegian Breakaway on a Transatlantic from NY to Rome in May. We have to fly back from Rome, and one of our possible connections would be in Munich. Having missed our flight in Munich once in the past due to United flying in three hours late, I want to be extra cautious with making our plans coming home. Nothing spoils a trip like missing a connecting flight. I thought because we were leaving a Schengen country in Italy and coming into Germany which is also a Schengen country, we wouldn't have to go through immigration and passport. But this morning I found something which seemed to say that if you are either coming in from a non-Schengen country (we aren't) or leaving Germany for a non-Schengen country (we are in this case, headed back to the U.S.) you have to go through immigration and passport in Germany. Do I need to leave extra time in the connection to do all that? Can anyone help in giving some expert advice on the topic. Thank you, thank you, thank you!