Dadofsix

The linked article is a couple days old. The current mandate will expire at 12:01 a.m. Sunday June 12th. and will eliminate the mandatory testing for boarding international flights headed back into the U.S.

Great review! We got off Ecstasy a week ago and also had a blast. Its funny mentioned I Putu on Serenity because I just got done writing lengthy survey about how awesome he was on our trip. This last cruise showed us how these small ships have their own kind of charm and we booked another one for the end of this month.

There appears to be a lot across Water St. from the terminal. I do not know much about it, just have seen vehicles parked there on our last two cruises. It appears limited security with little to no fences surrounding the property. With only one ship currently using the port there appears there isn't much in the way of competitors willing to jump into that market for cruise parking unlike other ports.

For the Chef's Table you will most likely have to do this once onboard. With the Chef's Table being a small event, "several couples" could quickly fill it up (you haven't specified how many people) or if others have already booked your large group would not be able to be accommodated so easily. In my past experiences with this event they limit the group to about 14 people.

On the receipt for every drink that you get it will show the cost of the drink and the 18% gratuity per drink and NOT a diluted gratuity based on the number of drinks a passenger has consumed that day. If tips were calculated in the fashion you were describing waitstaff would have little to no incentive to cater to cruisers beyond 5 drinks and instead shift their focus towards those that were not on Cheers or under 5 drinks. The automatic gratuities to my knowledge are placed in tipshare while additional gratuities and cash divided differently.