Catknitty

5 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

Personally, I will never understand how a crew members salary/tips etc would ever come into conversation with a passenger.  How they are paid, when they are paid, how much they are paid is none of my business, under any circumstances, ever.  What is my business is how I treat them, interact with them and tip them.  My opinion on this is that the crew when they sense a passenger inquiring about this, they know exactly what to say and how to say it, as it means potential $$ for them.  I say good on the crew that do this, especially when the passenger is opening the door (one which we should not).  They signed a contract, knowing the terms of etc etc etc, after that it is between them and their employer and none of my business.  

I care how people are treated by the company I am giving money to as I make many decisions about how I spend my money on fair treatment to a companies employees. Personally, I will never understand not wanting to make sure I am spending my money with fair companies. I did not inquire and the info came out inadvertently. I asked in the dining room because I was sure I had to have heard incorrectly but no, I heard it right. People who are desperate may sign a contract that is unfair and I don't have to spend my money with a company that is not treating their staff fairly. People who have worked for a company for a long time may believe that fair pay will come back, true or not. People who may not understand exactly what they are signing are also taken advantage of. If you don't want to know how people  who are working hard making your vacation happy are being treated them don't ask. I do want to know. 

7 minutes ago, C-Dragons said:

The revenue that is used to pay the staff comes from the cruise fare paid by passengers. If there are fewer passengers on board, that has a direct impact on the amount that gets paid to the crew for each sailing.

According to the crew that I talked to this is rather new that they are paid less for less passengers and that Celebrity is promising that "one day" it will go back to the way it was where they were paid the same no matter how many people are onboard. 

9 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Is your staff compensation comment related to the gratuity distribution?  Or when some cruisers remove the gratuities?  I am not surprised that some crew members pay is variable.  

No, this doesn't have anything to do with tips. This is their pay but of course if a room steward doesn't have as many people staying in their rooms then tips are down too. Our room steward was saying , and it came out inadvertently, he wasn't oversharing, that if you have less customers Celebrity pays you less. We were in a suite and all the suites were full and they were down two butlers so there were only two for all the suites instead of 4 but the butlers didn't get more pay, they just ran their butts off. But some of the inside and veranda cabins had less people and those crew were paid less. It's not their fault and they still work them like crazy finding other stuff for them to do but still less pay. When we mentioned this to one of our dinner crew they said yes and it also applies in the dining room. 

34 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Based on my observations I would say a very small number of non staff people have dinner in the OV, but I can understand why those that do use it are not pleased.

We eat dinner there alot!  I do see crew eat there but they do have to eat so it is being used. Many other people eat in OV for dinner especially on dress up nights as lots of us just want to be casual and enjoy the view in OV where the blinds are open and we can see the ocean. 🙂  No I wouldn't leave a cruise line because of 9.95 for room service or for less buffet food but I am thinking of leaving Celebrity for the continuous degrading of service and the feeling of paying alot to cruise and being treated like a cash cow once onboard.  

What really upset me on our trip in Dec was finding out that our room steward and the dining room staff are paid less when they have less customers. They aren't paid more when its full but Celebrity pays them  less if their areas aren't full. That's appalling. 

We were just on Millennium and ate at Oceanview often. I always prefer sitting outside and eating. We were in a suite and Luminae was small and jammed. We don't need that exposure so, again, outside was great. We had late lunches and quite a few dinners there. There is a diversity of food which we appreciate. The Luminae menu is rather strange and in Oceanview,  the grilled fish from the grilled station and the roasted veggies were my dinner choice. I have read that that is one of the stations that are now closed for dinner along with the pasta bar, which was about the best pasta available on the ship.

Many times on a Caribbean itinerary I don't want to do anything but wear shorts and t shirt and hang out on the back of the ship and eat dinner. If there is a much reduced evening Oceanview combined with the new 9.95 room service charge,  then everyone will be crammed in the dining rooms. Everyone has always been, oh go to Oceanview if you don't want to dress up. welp, now what? Add to that the feeling that we are paying alot of money, having services reduced and already being hit up daily with people trying to get us to pay extra to have better food in specialty dining rooms. 

2 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

There is no longer smoking allowed at the Sunset bar on "M" class ships since they added the A1 rooms above on deck 11.

Oh I should have looked more carefully. I am actually planning to go on the Millennium and I am not sure what class ship that is. Maybe I can find a thread for that ship. I did call Celebrity and they said there was smoking on the starboard side of the Mast bar. I just got off the Reflection and someone was smoking on a balcony near me and it was drifting right into our balcony. I couldn't see them but on the last day I heard someone yell at them that it wasn't allowed, 9 days into the cruise. 😞 

This is an old thread but a current decision to make. We are going southbound and have booked 1138. 1141 is also available and I am thinking of switching to that so we can see more of the side view as we cruise south. Do I have that right? Is there still smoking under those cabins on that side? 

Did you get out and walk around? How long were you in the air? Thanks.

I second the recommendation to fly with Island wings.Michelle was the pilot and also the owner of the company. Very friendly and has been in Alaska since her teens. We were on the Grand Princess and it docked just a 5 minute walk from the office so we walked there and did not need to picked up at the entrance to town. Then after the flight we got driven to town. The flight was so smooth and the scenery cannot be beat.

Is there more information? I can't find anything on their website that tells about the tours or pricing. How did you find out more?

We took a private tour with these guys:

 

Renegade

 

It was three hours long and we got to see everything on land that all of the other tours covered. We just followed their set tour, but they can hook you up if you want to see something specific. And I should add their prices were very reasonable compared to other ports 'private tours'. We had five people in our group, but their van could fit more.

I was thinking of possibly kayaking if the weather is nice so I do not want to book in advance.

I did a kayak trip when I was there last year with Southeast Sea Kayaks. It was just amazing! I booked it on my own and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Hate that they changed internet options. The one hour anytime package used to work out perfectly for us to send an e-mail on sea days or whenever we had trouble finding access in port. Now it's one hour of continuous use, 24 hour, or unlimited options only. All overpriced and more than we need. Typical.

How much was one hour continuous? I have a hard time finding pricing info on the website.