LXA350

The service has not changed, except the daily cleaning standards which have been already very high before COVID and better than in most of the high end hotels worldwide has become even more thorough.

Eventually we will see Wonder head to China as the venues and design was customized for this market. Let's see what will happen with Wonder for the winter seasons 2022/2023; I could see it being based out of Singapore as a interim solution before heading to China. 

1 hour ago, Kbonner said:

I calculate with the above information slightly differently:

based on US customers  with excessive tipping as posted above:

basic salary 2200 plus 4 suites x average of 600 tipping, times 4 weeks, makes it to 11800$ per month.

This is insane for a genie who comes from a country where a university professor has not even half the income.

Fully agree with you. either some people here have serious ego issues if they think they need to pay their Genie hundreds of $ or  are overwhelmed with the tipping culture in the US wich is just so rediciolous. The genie is part of the experience you are paying for when booking a Star Class Suite. Again, in most developed countries people in the service sector get salaries together with social benefits, this is not the case in the US and tipping is no more than actually paying part of the salaries which is a obligation and not a favor you do.

As seens as well in the airline industry, loyality programs are more about perks that are less focusing on money value. With cruiselines it's becoming the same, if you are looking for better amenities you need to pay for it by having a suite or you can purchase elements that are important to you seperately when cruising in categories below suite, such as upgraded internet, drinks etc.

Tipping is a cultural thing, for most countries it would be showing someone that went above and beyond additional appreciation. In the US, tipping is a must and part of the service culture as it is expected and at the end a fee that you need to pay for the service you are getting which is not included. The system is absolutely redicioulous, can't you just add those 15 or 20% in the first place insteas of playing these tipping games when you go to a Restaurant, a Bar or take a taxi???

What does happen a lot in Europe and in Australia for instance is that guests are removing the Gratuity which you pay pre cruise or would be added manually daily, this is not fair as given on how the setup of the cruiselines are this is part of the salary at the end of the day of the crew members. Here cruiselines should just increase the cruisefares by these amounts and then do the allocations accordingly.

In my case, I am happy to have the gratuties added, but I prefer to just have it paid / included in my total fare I pay before I cruise than having charges after. I just want to pay what I need to pay and then want to enjoy my cruise and get the service I paid for and not buying myself excellent service which people think they need to do.

The "Classic" internet package that is now "Always" included is a big marketing scam from X. The "Classic package is absolutely useless, it's impossible to use for a simple voice call or basic surfing; hence this promissed benefit of Internet is non existing.

Nevertheless the Elite etc minutes can still be used.

2 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

If, that’s a big if, you ever sail Star Class you best explain your philosophy to the Genie on embarkation day right after they explain what they do for you. Then share that again with your cabin attendant, as they are equally responsible for what happens in your room such as keeping your beverages stocked. 

If some are driving the Genie crazy literaly 24/7 then yes, they would deserve 100 - 200 tip but if they are ensuring that your requests you provided to them at the begining of the cruise are met, get you those seats reserved and are at the end of the day not spening more than 1 hour max a day dealing with your cabin / needs all in, I am sorry, this is their job.

Guys, this American attitude of tipping is just so redicioulous. Don't get me wrong, if I pay USD 10K-20K plus or even much more for a week of vacation which includes the services a Genie it's the damn responsiility of the company, RCL in this case, to esure that the employees are getting the desrved salary. On top of it, the Genie is part of the Service I am purchasing, hene I should not feel obliged to tip them aditional hundreds of dollars.

6 hours ago, jameslee said:

Is the fresh squeezed orange juice that Celebrity charges $4 really freshly squeezed or is it like the orange juice we buy from the market. I tried the juice from Apex and it seems pretty sweet. Doesn't taste like the fresh squeeze orange juice I drink from home

Unfortunately on APEX you can only get freshly squeezed juices at BLU and LUMINEE for which you need to have the eligible cabin category to access these venues. At RCL they also sell freshly squeezed juices both at the MDR and at the equivelant of Ocean View, hence quite annoying why this is not the case at X

20 hours ago, zitsky said:

Those Japan cruises seem pretty popular.  I looked into doing one for 2022 but they were booked solid.  Maybe I'll do 2023.  I wonder why X is walking away from that much business?

X would be more than happy doing those cruises but at this stage it is not clear when Japan will open it's borders + when they would allow cruise operations happening again. Hence, for logistic reasons it was probably more economical to already cancel the whole season now.

Enjoy your cruise. How does it look with the total passengers on board for this sailing and the projections for the next ones? Supposedly they had only 300 or so passengers on one of the last sailings.

2 hours ago, 5waldos said:

Hopefully this will change as time and Covid go by. We hare hoping to disembark in Portugal on a cruise that ends in Southampton. May wait for a while before we ask more about this so that the information we get will reflect the more up to date regulations.  

Here it sounds like wanting to leave the ship early at a different port of call. I doubt that COVID will change anything to disembark the cruiseship a day early if already if the ship has already a overnight at the port where the cruise terminates. It's also a matter of customs and ship clearnace which the ship has at the time passengers are free to explore the destination.

As mentioned by others here already, it would be quite a miracle if the Japan cruises in March and April 2022 will actually happen. For one, the vaccination rate will need to be drastically increased and as a result COVID cases to drop significantly. As X might not want to wait until last munute they might just take the decision in the next couple of months already to cancel these trips.

It's so unhealthy, why would you want to eat this every day of your cruise, if it will be implemented the cruiselines are doing a favor to health of the individuals that eat it everyday and probably are the ones that would need it least.

17 hours ago, canderson said:

When they bring back all of the jellies/jams in the little Hero glass jars, all will be right with the world!

This "Smuckers" stuff and fake Maple Sirup are just so disgusting. Real quality Jam and Maple Sirup would be nice 😉

Water from the french alps or CocaCola water that doesn't even come from a mountain spring. This is a upgrade, not a downgrade, but let's leave the ecological factor out of this;  at least Dassani is more "local" than Evian when shipped to the US from Europe 😄

On 8/20/2021 at 4:01 AM, ToroAzul said:

So they I am guessing they will drop the mask requirements, open venues to all, and not limit activities? 

In contrary, as even fully facinated people can catch COVID again and are less and less protected against the new variants social distancing, masks etc will stay for a while. Vaccinations have not solved the problem, they decrease the chance to have severe symptoms.

It was such a stupid decision to offer cruises to non vaccinated adults in the US in the first place together with droping the mask mandate indoors. Things always have to be learned the hard way.

Looks like those cruisers confused Washington State with Florida... I guess this can happen if absolute basic Geography is a bit overwhelming 😁

I would have expected 800 -1000, but only 300, wow like a big private yacht I guess. Looks like with rising COVID cases people are less traveling again, especially as a large number of the guests seem to be from the US as per previous topics about APEX.

On 8/13/2021 at 1:57 AM, kayguz said:

We were also told that you could quarantine in a 4/5 star hotel (had to have room service) if it met the Greeks authorization- not sure if that's on your dime though.

I really hope so as those quaratnine hotels are an absolutely terrible and dirty.

What happens if your Antigen Test at the Terminal is Positive, do you get a "2nd Chance" by getting to do a PCR Test and if this is Negative you can board the ship?

Sounds like a lovely trip, enjoy the 2nd week. Wow only 690 passengers on Apex must feel like a exclusive large yacht experience 🙂 Unless I missed it, were you able to explore Mykonos by your own eventually? How is the passenger load on your 2nd cruise?

On 6/18/2021 at 4:27 AM, Ethanol95 said:

IMHO, that indoor solarium does not look good on an Oasis class ship. It should have been kept just for Quantum class. 

Wonder needs a larger indoor pool space as it will be used both in warm and cold climate zones.

You can also look in booking a roundtrip and not using the return leg, often this is cheaper than a one way fare.

As long as COVID is not turning into a mild stage of nothing more than a little flue at most we will especially on cruises and other situations continue to see the need of testing, hence one year or even longer I would say at this stage.

2 minutes ago, kstom1 said:

She didn't know anything about the reduced capacity when I asked.

 

An other example how those agents are useless. I doubt that the ship is sailing at more than 60% capacity at your sailing if not lower.

The IT infrastructure at RCL is not really modern, thank god their ships run on more efficient software