TiiiSailor

I guess the bands in the Centrum need to play loud so all us aging passengers can hear the music. Or is it to makeup for limited musical skills? LOL

My "survival" has been viral Cardiomyopathy. At the time of diagnosis, I was given 6 months. It's been 6 years. We (daughters, grandson and me) decided our motto would be "why not?" so we booked our first ever Med cruise. We had never been to Europe. I considered it a trip of a lifetime. Then we booked a second one with a different itinerary. Who is lucky enough to get to do that? Now we have been on several more cruises and have one planned for Christmas and one for next summer. How lucky am I? So when I see the petty complaints about the coffee, the dress code "violations" and even the chair hogs, I feel a little sorry for these folks who don't know how to appreciate LIFE. Our last cruise wasn't ruined because of it, but what happened did affect our dinner every night in the MDR. We were seated next to a table of four young adults (2 couples traveling together) who looked like professionals. One was a Vegan, one was a Vegetarian and the other two had multiple food allergies. On night one, they spent 10 minutes racking the poor waiter over the coals because there was no Vegan menu (like on the Independence). They insisted on seeing the Head Waiter who received the same loud, long lecture while he apologizing and offering everything but his first born to no avail. Every night, it took the waiter, asst. waiter and the Head waiter to get them served and they still complained, up to and including asking that the chef list all the ingredients in the specially prepared dishes to make sure he didn't "screw with their system." They sent dishes back and they came to the dining room one night asking for specific dishes to be prepared and brought to them in "to go" containers. You could just see the poor waiter knot up into a ball when he saw them prance into the dining room (late) every night. They snickered and made nasty remarks while he was scurrying around for their numerous special requests.He was so consumed with them that he got a few of our dishes wrong, failed to bring a couple of dishes and we sat with empty glasses a few times and we never mentioned it. PLEASE be nice to the crew and staff. These people work incredibly hard to please us all. Seeing the disrespect they showed these people was the closest I've seen to anything ruining our cruise. I loathe hearing people bully and belittle others. It's unacceptable. No one in the service industry deserves to be treated disrespectfully, on a ship or on land. These people just flat out bullied the crew and staff. If for no other reason, just remember, they are the last ones handling the food you put in your mouth, folks. :D

I wonder how much, if any, tip they let stay on their final bill. I hope the cruise lines "mark" these type of client and place them in out of the way tables on future cruises. Their cardiologist will be buying a lot of cruises off them in the future due to the stress levels they keep themselves.

PRECAUTIONS

Care is necessary with patients who take alcohol, anticholinergic agents, tricyclic antidepressants, sedatives or hypnotics, as such agents are enhanced by Avomine.

Because their boss is the one responsible for the problem. Let him deal with their complaints.

I don't think I've seen in any of the previous postings a single concern with true service animals. What I've seen are comments about how RCL is not enforcing their own rules to appease a very small group of people to the detriment of thousands.

If I saw a "service" animal conducting itself, or the owner doing the things mentioned in previous postings, I'd first make a formal complaint to the person in charge of that facility. If that didn't resolve the issue, I'd move my compliant up to the next level. If the issue wasn't resolved, I'd remove all my tips for food service.

If more customers would make their complaints known in the end of cruise reviews, we'd surely outnumber the few that allow their dogs to relieve themselves as they please, eat from the tables, sit on the furniture, roam about without a leash, etc.

Here's an idea. The cruise companies could make a percentage of their ships open smoking. Allow smoking in all areas, indoor and out. Than make the rest of their fleet fully non-smoking. This way there'd be no complaints from smokers or non-smokers.

In my short time looking at CC I've seen a lot of discussion on drink packages and the number of drinks you can have in a day and how quickly you can reorder. I've never seen any discussion on anyone that purchases individual drinks being limited during a day or set time period. Guess if you pay "cash" you can spend as much as you want but if you purchase the package RCL wants to limit the value you can receive from the package.

What would happen if someone, whose sense of smell was not as good as it had been in their youth, smelled smoke while on their balcony and reported a fire?

My mom walked up to see a kid jamming the doorbell button and his mother only lightly reprimanding him "stop it dear, that's not nice". thankfully we had it turned off!

Wonder if this is the same type of parenting that results in "good" children doing things we hear about on the news. The child obviously knows his mother will do nothing as it was done right in front of her. Oh well, I won't have to deal with this child when they become teenagers and are driving.

Looks OK, I don't see any mention of surge protection.

Look at the 4th bullet down. Talks about current and voltage protection.

Have you looked at the round the world cruises? Fly across country to the east coast to start and back at the end. One of those cruises will surely stop at many new and different ports.

Tim

How long will he be there?

I always give a 10 regardless of how the actual service is. I always write couldn't be better! Who cares. Give the employee the benefit of the doubt!

Why bother to tell them it's great service if it isn't. That would just allow poor performers to be rewarded along with the great ones and continue the thread after thread on Cruise Critic about how bad the service has gotten.

The begging for "10's" is the managers way to show how good they are at getting their people to provide excellent service, instead of doing their job of training, supervising, and correcting issues before they become problems.

Sounds like it's a pass-fail grading system. Either receive a passing grade of "10" or a failing grade of any other number. If the first time I hear from one of the servers, room attendants, or other staff asking is to tell me I need to give them an evaluation of 10 it will automatically lower the number I give them.

They could improve their evaluation if they came to me at the beginning and middle of the cruise, asking if there was any thing we needed or they could do for us. At the end of the cruise they could ask if there was any thing they could improve in their service.

I'm not against tipping extra for great service, but from what I'm reading on this thread it seems like if you don't tip extra you may not even get adequate service.

TrixieBel - It may have been dementia. Too bad her husband let her get away with abusing the server.

A year ago we were on a repositioning cruise with MDR type meals/seating for lunch and dinner, and had a nice table for meals with two very nice couples. After the second day I noticed one of the women wouldn't remember what she ordered, didn't like the way it looked, and demanded the server bring her what she thought she ordered. It was beginning to turn into a bad situation, especially when she told the server to bring what he'd originally delivered as she didn't order what he was trying to give her. After this occurring a few times I couldn't sit there and let her, and her husband, belittle the server anymore. I finally said, ""Mary" that's exactly what you ordered", which she and her husband both denied. This resulted in two things. After she ordered her meal she'd ask me if I wrote down what she'd ordered. I responded, "Would you like me to so you could have it to remember what you ordered?" When my DW and I would show up for a meal she'd say something under her breath to her husband along the line of, "Here THEY are again." By the way, after it happened the second time I went to the head server and informed him of the problem. She didn't notice the head server hovering behind her until he caught her in the same act and the at the next meal, after she placed her order, he said "Oh "Mary", you'll love the baked flounder. Our chef does an excellent job in preparing the baked flounder." By the fourth day she and her husband got themselves moved to another table, but the head waiter kept an eye on her and protected his servers from being verbally abused by her and her husband. Meals were so much nicer upon their moving to a table for two on the other side of the MDR.

I haven't worked in a position where I interact continually with customers since I was a teenager, when oldie's songs were new, but I don't treat those serving me with disrespect. One time, while boarding a plane, I did treat a flight attendant with an attitude she didn't deserve and within a minute I turned around and apologized to her and the head flight attendant. When we arrived at our destination, I again apologized to them for my being so short with her for trying to do her job.

Once you're back to the daily routine of work and family obligations it gets harder to complete something like this. Those that do are very dedicated to getting them accomplished. I can totally sympathize with Sparky74.

Which deck is the band located on that's playing the music? Does the music bother the cabins close by on that deck? Seems the only noise issues are coming from the upper decks.

Thanks,

Tim

I've read in other threads both answers, they are required to turn in any personal tips and they get to keep them. A mystery everyone would like to know the real answer to, but probably never will.

Has anyone had experience with ships operating totally outside of the US and service dogs? I know that not all countries have the same lax rules regarding service dogs as the US. I can't imagine countries would allow dogs to enter without health documentation, etc.

The "not-so-sale sales" make cruise planning and purchases similar to purchases at most box retail stores - no one buys the appliances at the normal price, they just wait for the always returning sale price.

As in a Pistol Permit issued by some states. It's an official state permit with your picture, address, date of birth, height, weight, race, and issue and expiration date.

Although not always in my stateroom during the daylight hours, during overnight hours, when we'd have been asleep, we'd have our lifejackets already adjusted for easy donning in case of an emergency. An improperly donned lifejacket is more hazardous than not having one, as you may slip out of it or head not held up out of the water. But given the number of times cruise ship passengers have needed life jackets in the water it's a mute point.