Lordnlkon

Does Carnival use Evian for their water package?

I am not sure. It has been a couple years since we have cruised with them. I was talking about Royal.

Only $20K pp for an interior and about $30K pp for a balcony.

How much are the gratuities? ;p

Been married 8 years. Still book cruises for my wife with her maiden name. Never got her passport changed. Since it expires this year, after we do our normal cruise, we will renew in her current name.

Do this. It's the easiest. That or just pay to change your passport, you have plenty of time to get it done.

Agree, I'd be happy to pay for reasonably priced bottled water.

Yes but they'd have to switch to something different than Evian as well. That stuff just tastes horrible.

It really depends on how you want to compare vessels. Standard maritime comparison would say that the Conquest class ships are considerably larger as their GRT is 110K GT v. 90K GT for Jewel. That would make the the Conquest 19% larger. She's also taller than the Jewel having one deck more. Another advantage of Carnival ships in general is that their average stateroom size is an industry leader.

Why bring logic into a debate when he clearly is trying to be obtuse?

Overall I have found the food to be better on Carnival. Most of the ships are better on Royal. That being said, the Jewel is not one of them. All the things that set Royal apart for their ships are not on Jewel. No flowrider or Royal Promenade. The spa section on Carnival Ships is way better than Royal. Don't listen to the people who say the clientele is different on Royal. The exact same type of people cruise both lines.

We usually bring $500 in cash for the two of us. It's not all for tipping but that usually gets us through our cash needs. Anything left over is still cash that can be used at home.

Oasis class.

We usually tip $20-$50 depending on the service.

You can actually rent private time at the flowrider. There are a couple ways to do it. You can get a full private hour for $345 ( I usually split it with 3 other people ) or you can sign up for lessons for $69 for an hour. With the lessons there’s a max of of 8 people. During the slower times of year, a lot of times is only 4-6 people.

Interesting approach.

 

They could really save their time with end of cruise surveys and just ask that question instead. I wonder why they don't if that is "the only thing that matters."

Do you honestly think they do anything with the surveys other than job performance metrics for their employees? The only thing companies truly listen to is money.

Other then certain times like a show getting out, the oasis class ships never feel crowded in my opinion. The ships so large and there's so much to do, that everyone is pretty spread out.

It comes down to this: it’s Royal Caribbean’s company. They can choose to set their pricing however they want. The only part of our opinion that matters is: whether we’re willing to pay that pricing or do we take our business else well.

 

 

 

Congrats you “stuck it to the man.” Glad to see you’re proud of it.

 

Not everyone takes alcohol on board because they are cheap or trying to get one over on RCI. I take rum on board because their selections of rum is garbage. Their idea of high end rum is barcardi 8 year and they have it at like 2 bars on the whole ship.

Just providing information. I agree with them getting a raise.

Ok understandable.

The workers who are paid by tips are getting a raise then. See this example:

 

Hi,

 

Had to chime in here. On our last cruises in October/November on Jewel, our cabin steward was looking after 19 cabins. Not sure if this is the new standard.

 

NJ

 

 

Thanks for chiming in, that’s very interesting. $6.90/cabin/day x 19 cabins/day x 7 days/week = $917.70/week on gratuities alone? [emoji848]

 

 

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=54727023

So you are upset they are making $47,720 a year working 70+ Hours a week(which works out to $13 an hour)? And that's only if they don't take a vacation. Anyone know how much they actually make from the cruise line per hour?

I agree with you to a point, but disagree that what is being described is smuggling. RCL pretty much doesn't care about enforcing their own rules when it comes to reasonable amounts of sealed water, soda and similar. You can OPENLY bring it on the ship most times of the year. The only difference between putting it in a bag and putting a luggage tag straight on the package is how its carried.

 

The solution to this issue is RCL merely enforcing the policy or eliminating it. So long as they chose to not enforce it, I believe it isn't smuggling.

 

Now, taking hard liquor on board in a manner that it is hidden to avoid its detection I would consider smuggling. No amount of hard liquor is permitted. This rule is enforced by RCL. So, this situation differs greatly from the apparently open policy on water, soda, etc.

Correct and a lot of times rules are in place just so they can enforce them if they need to enforce them, not that they necessarily want to enforce them all the time.

I just randomly selected a 10 night Miami-Miami Caribbean cruise in April 2018 on Oceania.

If I take the air credit, the cost per person for a double occupancy inside cabin is $1600 per person x 4= $6400 for TWO cabins. With the right TA, you could get at least a 5% "first time Oceania customer discount" at $320. Net is now $6080. This fare has "O Life" perks with one choice being $600 per cabin OBC. So, subtract another $1200 and net to you is now $4880. Subtract $25/day for each cabin for unlimited internet = $500. Net now $4380. Most top O TAs (or consortia to which they belong) will, at least, cover gratuities $16/person/day = $640. Net to you now $3740.

Assuming you need to pay extra on RCI for all but the most basic non-alcoholic beverages, I'm conservatively guessing another $10/person/day for that = $400, which is included on O. Net cost to you now $3340.

Back to the TA. A top seller of O cruises should be able to do a commission share of at least 5% of the commissionable fare. Conservatively, figure at least $250 in refundable OBC or a rebate.

 

You are now at $3090 total for a total of four people in two cabins and we haven't even considered the value of eating as often as you may choose (if time flexible) in specialty restaurants that would cost extra on RCI. Nor have we looked at the far better O quality of food, bedding, service, blah, blah, blah.

As for no slides for teens: that time could be spent prepping for those SATs by attending the onboard lecturers usually being done by retired college profs. (Don't think I've ever heard of college scholarships for "water sliding." [emoji41]

 

BTW, want that balcony? Add about $1700 per cabin or just get one balcony and one inside and save some money.

 

I did the math in my head so I apologize for any errors.

 

 

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But then I would be stuck on a boring Oceania ship with not a whole hell of a lot to do except eat better food.

Just curious what "never had a problem" means. Do you mean "we put the suitcase on the conveyor belt to be scanned, they saw cans (or didn't), and said nothing" or "they saw the cans, opened the suitcase, saw that it was soda, and said that was fine."

We usually take a 24 pack of Dasani in our luggage that we give to the porters. We got called down to security one time the first evening for us to open up our luggage. They looked at it, saw it was just water and didn't care. So while I am sure every now and then they confiscate it. 95% of the time you'll be fine. If they take it, you're out like $5. We can't stand the Evian water on the ship, which is why we bring our own.

While you may think that way about your kids, making that call for other people's kids is not the same.

Not just me who thinks this. Now that article is just about vacations in general.

http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/811800/how-vacations-make-kids-smarter

We can't do the 7 day because the girls may miss school. It doesn't have to be Western Caribbean.

I have never understood this line of thinking. Traveling and experiencing the world is just as important as sitting in a classroom. Honestly probably more important as it teaches things they'd never learn in a classroom.

I just hope they aren’t designed by the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation or they might end up sulking on deck 1.

(RIP, Douglas Adams)

 

 

 

The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation

 

Notice

 

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair."

 

 

This may also be the motto of Royals IT department..

 

 

Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. ...

We typically go on specific time frames as well but it is the opposite of school breaks. We just take the kids out of school.

We didn't take our kids with us on a cruise until they were 6 and even at that age, it's not really a vacation. That being said, it's your family, your money and your vacation. Don't listen to anyone else and do what you think is best. As a lot of people said, there are facilities on board to help out.

Oasis class ships by far. Dual flowriders and the ships just have so much to do. They feel less crowded than the smaller ships as well. We're young in our 30's and very active so the smaller ships are rather boring for us.