Vacationcheese

3 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

 

I have heard of restaurant managers (land based) taking part of credit card tips left for serving staff.  This is not legal in the US but happens frequently.  Now I pay for the meal with a CC and tip in cash.  If the server has an arrangement to share with bussers or other back of house support staff that's great, but at least I know management isn't illegally taking any.  Food for thought 

We have a restaurant near us that deducts the extra AmEx fee from the waitstaff's tip. They don't deduct the fee if the tip is a cash tip. Crazy, eh? 

10 hours ago, shipshape sam said:

I do not think Murano's (specialty restaurant) is part of the daily gratuity, thus leaving a cash tip to the waiter when in Murano's you interact with at least 1-2 people and in our experience 2-3 people,  someone gets left out under the 'cash' tip explanation.

I think they (the person / persons) receiving the cash tip does share with their team. We were told if we wrote down the tip it was also shared with the main dining room, etc.

Let me add, they were asking every table that evening to leave a cash tip versus a signed tip on the receipt. 

3 minutes ago, shipshape sam said:

Interesting.  I am surprised that even an unspoken/unwritten rule where an employee would keep the whole amount where others also counting on tips may have supported the effort are excluded.

Only the extra added tip.  It does Not include he daily suggested tips.  

21 hours ago, Fouremco said:

Not if you leave your gratuities in place. But if you remove them, any crew member receiving a direct cash tip is obliged to turn it in to the pool.

We were told the same (tips must not be removed) and hope that is the case as our cabin steward was excellent. The specialty restaurant (Murano)  did tell us if we left cash they received the entire tip. If we left it on the bill (signed on the tip line) they had to split it with other crew members.  

They have stacks of envelopes at the guest relations desk - no need to wait in line. 

We cashed one in on a different ship. Unless things have recently changed, yes you can cash it it in on another cruise.

On 12/29/2019 at 1:34 PM, alcman said:

If you actually read what I wrote, I didn't allege anything.  I merely responded to the assertion that the increase is going entirely to the crew, an event I would be happy to see happen.  I only pointed out that there was no proof of that and that Celebrity could just as easily have conformed its contract in many ways.  Nobody o this board has any proof of where the charged gratuities are going and what effect they have on Celebrity's bottom line.

BTW, not that I owe you any explanation, I always tip substantially beyond the required gratuities and appreciate how hard the crew works.

YES - crew gets the extra tips  (we were told by an employee - to offset increases in the crews insurance, medical, etc.)

YES - the passengers are basically paying to help keep Celebrity's bottom line.

Sounds like everyone is right. 🙂

It may or may not be true.???????  Who knows??? However, the casino bar and wait staff story we were told seems to be true. I'll let someone else comment on that....

Edited to add...we also tip above and beyond but find that we are a bit more picky in who we feel truly deserves the extra $$$. Our cabin steward really should have gotten all of the extra $$$ but we did share a bit to others. 

Wondering if Club Royal has a raffle (tickets for play) near the end of the cruise? Blue Chip Club has taken away that benefit for slot players and is now only for card players. Some not so happy big spender slot players on Celebrity. Has this also happened on Royal? Thanks!

I just got off the Equinox on March 31 and never went to the Pool Bar but I did get quite a few drinks at the Mast Bar. That place was so incredibly busy, one of the busiest bars on the ship, and some of the bartenders weren't super smiley but they were REALLY efficient, and some people were extremely rude to them. I never saw angrier people, or people more drunk than at that Mast Bar. So I wonder if the Pool Bar is the same - they are just wary of angry drunk people so not as smiley as the other, more relaxed bartenders. I really loved every drink they made me and they were stuck making time consuming "fancy" drinks often - so I did try to tip extra as they have one of the worst jobs on the ship in my opinion.

YIKES!!! We were on the same cruise.....glad we missed the Mast Bar except for sail away. I will agree the pool bar did seem a bit cranky....and we tip for every drink. I think the extra tips were maybe not flowing this cruise?

Does anyone happen to know the answer to this question....

Do the casino hosts have an end of the week budget / extra perks they distribute (at their discretion) to the casino guests with the highest points? I overheard a conversation that I probably shouldn't have....

Do you have any status with CET (Caesars/Harrahs casinos)? They give cruise discounts to players with Platinum/Diamond or SevenStar status. That would get you onboard as a CAS invited guest and I believe they would even start you with the free drinks in casino card.

 

From CET's website, Call Norwegian Cruise Line’s Casino Reservation Center at 877-742-9519 to book and be sure to provide your Total Rewards number to receive your discount.

 

NCL also shares the Casino at Seas Reward program with Oceania and Regent Seven Seas if you have ever cruised with them. Here is a link to the CAS program page:

 

 

https://www.ncl.com/why-cruise-norwegian/casino-cruise/players-club

Thanks! Sadly, not a member of either. :(

We just returned from NCL's Pearl. One person on our cruise had a $28,000 payout. Happy to say we saw many other hand-pays, and I even had one:D

WOW!!!! I really have to look into NCL. Will they recognized a player from another cruise line? Thnx!

Celebrity, for now. We did NCL from 2008 to 2011 and got some really great deals through Casinos at Sea for discounts on cruise fare; not so much with onboard perks. But after our 2011 cruise on Epic they were giving us really measly offers so we moved on and tried Celebrity. They've been pretty good with the cruise fare offers and their new tiered program has added on a lot of great onboard perks.

 

As far as winning though. I never won anything on NCL but with Celebrity I usually get about 3-4 handpays per cruise. I've never come home from any cruise ahead of the game (the odds are against you when sailing for 10-14 nights and playing everyday) but with Celebrity (and Princess) I've at least come home several times with a chunk of my money still left. NCL always wiped me out.

 

We are trying NCL again in January via a special rate we got through a local casino so we'll see how they rate 7 years later. Already have 3 Celebrity cruises reserved over the next 14 months though so will still be loyal to them for awhile.

 

 

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Thanks! Interested in what / if any changes have improved on NCL.

Wishing you many payouts in the next 14 months!!!!

Recently on the Equinox they had Evian but only in the very large bottles. We had the premium package and every time we asked for water they gave us the smaller bottles that weren’t Evian. The only time we ever got Evian is when we asked for the large bottle and many bars didn’t have them so they would “compensate” by giving us two.

 

If you look at Evian backwards it is naive. Is it possible that the bottlers are having some fun and laughing at all the gullable people that think their water is better than other brands or what comes from the tap?

 

Happy cruising 🌊🛳🇺🇸🚢

You're right...Evian in the suites were two large bottles and four small off brand bottles of water

I had three handpays on my most recent Celebrity cruise in May.

 

 

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Just coming back to say - I felt the end of the cruise goodies were much improved.

Sadly, this is the second cruise this year where I did not see one payout...or even hear whoops and hollers from another area.

May I ask...casino only...do you prefer Celebrity or NCL? Thanks!

How are the slot machines on NCL?

Celebrity has replaced quite a few slot machines and I didn't see one 1099 hand out. Not to mention, those that I played with on and off during the cruise were also not too happy with the machines. Especially with the small payouts getting smaller and less frequent after day two. Very noticeable if you play every day and for good amount of time :( Does anyone know if something changed with the craps table? It's usually a big event around the table...very, very quiet this cruise. :confused:

We had an Aft Suite and the Lumanai restraunt is top notch.

 

 

 

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Agree (except for the last night menu)

My DW and I have been on 9 cruise (4 Carnival, 4 RCI & 1 NCL). I have always heard good things about Celebrity and I am looking into taking a Celebrity cruise this January for our anniversary. Can anyone who has traveled this cruise line give us advise on the difference when it comes to dinning, entertainment & adult only area?

Dining - Celebrity is IMO better

Entertainment - Celebrity is IMO at the bottom of the list

Adult only area - Inside pool. Children unfortunately were able to sit at the martini bar and now are allowed in the outside adult pool and hot tubs. They mention that children under three are not allowed in the pools but ignore this rule as the pool butler just steps away (facing the baby and Mom) could clearly see the baby in diapers in the pool. My pet peeve.

Just returned from the Sihouette....Evian was available. DH had sparkling water (it was a green bottle) sorry, didn't pay attention to the name.

They have replaced Diet Coke with a European Coke Lite. Not a fan of coke lite. Too sweet. They did mention that it would be for a full year.

I wonder if they are giving new items a try to see how the customers react. Kinda like the pillow chocolates.

I think we will be hearing about empty boats at sea quite a bit...just returned from a port stop in St Thomas and still so many boats slammed up on the rocks and the sand. Sad.

Interesting! I just checked on Amazon and it's not available with Prime. We leave next week for our Reflection cruise, and I'm afraid we might not get it in time. So this would be CVS brand sanitizer??

I was told wet wipes in the YELLOW BOX will work. Easy to pack and carry with you. I bought along the individually wrapped wipes.

Safe travels

Obviously not and not surprised.:D

:D:D:D

I also gave a very very low score for the itinerary (not the fault of Celebrity and due to the hurricane but had to be honest) and I noticed they no longer ask a follow up question. However, they do ask you to share your thoughts on your entire cruise holiday so that they may (or may not) share your experience with future cruisers. Hmmmmm....

I left it blank.

Just returned from a Celebrity cruise out of Fort Lauderdale and the Celebrity email survey is asking all about the port of Miami. I'm beginning to wonder if they even read the dang thing :confused:

Tips are a personal decision and it depends on the service and how much you use them. I don't think there is a customary amount. Also people from different parts of the world view tipping differently. We always tip the MC Concierge and the serving staff or bartender at the end of the cruise.

Many thanks!

Curious - do you tip the bartender and MCC at the end of the cruise....and how much is the custom? Thanks!