ParisHilton

Water (from a dispenser) will be free. As will basic tea and coffee. Latte's etc will cost extra.

Thanks Megabear, you've no idea how helpful your input has been. Cruise prices are truly fascinating things, especially the way they move. They are probably a really good model for someone learning about how to maximise profits. I can see why an agent (third party or cruise) is better than just booking on the internet. Knowing what's next to a room even with a deck plan is really helpful (crew access in my instance is an unnamed white blob!). Also sneaky offering the kids go cheap \ free but needing outside cabins with higher adult prices is particularly smart. Right off now to convince the family I need to be on a repositioning cruise for two weeks....

Just want to say thanks for all the advice. We've taken the plunge and booked rci for next year😀 Nice to see there might be some discount when I hit 55 though at this rate I'll be a platinum member of whatever by then. Would have been a cracking price but we got scared at the thought of getting sick in the bay of biscay and triggering migraines , so paid a bit extra to get midships .

Good point about the dark. That can help if the migranes strike. We're more concerned that the motion sickness could trigger it. We've only cruised once before (Iona to Norweigian Fjords) and pretty much felt nothing, but were also very much midships. Inside cabin would be fine . Virtual Balcony sounds amazing, but not sure if all inside cabins have them.

Is that a cruise line classification with little bearing on movement of the ship? I know I sound like I'm worrying too much!

That's a great suggestion. Thank you. paul

Hi, we are looking to do a cruise next year which takes us "through" the Bay of Biscay next year. My wife gets really bad migranes (are there any other sort) and we want to avoid triggering those. We've been offered some midships cabins, but looking on the map, they look pretty near the front of the boat. Where do most people consider midships and the relative stability this brings to be. We need to pay quite a bit extra for these cabins, which we probably will do, but it'd be good to know if we might be better off saving our money and taking the lottery.

I must admit I thought Dishoom was one of the most overhypped meals I've ever had. Haven't been to Sindhu though 🙂

Also, and not casting any aspertions. I assume cash in an envelope doesn't always go via the taxman, whereas paid via the company does. And goes toward minimum wage requirements. Hard to know if it's fairer as there must be 'unseen' staff that benefit from these tips. I had a conversation with the laundry manager at one point on our cruise, really helpful chap, but couldn't tip him (though I confess I could have tried harder). There are jokes in my family about how well I know the guest services team too.....

Ratings seem to drive a lot of things these days. It's the dangerous game of setting targets. It works for management as they can lazily see who is hitting the targets. But when it becomes more 'profitable' for staff to hit targets than do a good job then you have problems. Obviously good management have targets that can only be hit by doing a good job, not sure how often those are there. Anecdotal story from one of my first jobs. My boss said he used to run a call centre and the metric was on how many rings before they picked up. They realised that NOT picking up was better than picking up late. Thus driving bad customer experience!

That's a whole other story!

My wife is on the phone to an agent at a cruise agency and they are very forcefully saying you don't have to pay for gratuities. I'm not liking her.

Thanks, for the replies. It's real penny pinching to not pay them. I'm sure shine won't and will feel guilty free but I guess that's just life.

Hi Winifred. They seem to charge a daily rate, but I'm told it's optional.

Ok, so after lots of dilly dallying I think we will be defecting to royal Caribbean. I guess American lines assume 90%+ of passengers pay tips. Whereas Brit centric ones find a much lower tip rate . Optional tips seems madness. I think it's cultural, it might be generational. That said I've been to America a couple of times with people that work with Americans so tipping isn't completely alien to me. I also appreciate that the crew work really hard for very little and I happily give them something. Seems unlikely they see it though if it's collected by the cruise line .

How would they know? I guess the face doesn't match the card that opens the door?

Thanks folks $400 is much less than I was fearing . It feels a bit like resort fees in that they're bolted on at an almost fixed rate. I'm not sure if it's just to keep headline prices down or a tax dodge or both. I'm sure there's scope there for some dollars to be handed over to friendly cabin staff too. Just something that occured to me the other day too when trying to evaluate how good value cruises seem to be . Shows are in English. So I couldn't do a city break in say a big German city in a hotel with a pool and add on restaurant fees and a few shows .I suppose I could factor in a duo lingo subscription....

I'm still trying to talk myself into affording Disney. Can anyone advise how much I should allocate for tips? I assume there's a standard rate for the folks that service your room? Are we expected to tip wait staff ( they seem to follow you across diners so I assume so). Bar staff for a drink? Or a coffee? Staff in the buffet ? I'm a typical Brit and no idea how this works. Don't want to be a mingebag but also don't want to book this then find it's another 25% for tips. Or at least know that's likely!

Some cruises have robot made cocktails . It's a bit of a gimmick and a 'feature' , rather than a cost saving thing. In fact I think you have to pay extra to have the robot make your cocktails. I've seen cocktails 'on draft' in pubs , so I'm sure it's only a matter of time until the robots make all the cocktails. (it's too early to put the robot mower to work in the garden. The mower doesn't care, but it's no fun if I can't see it!)

Care to share when you started cruising?

What about teaming up with another couple in the same boat? (loving my own pun) ie you buy the package for you and your wife, they pay half and stick to you like glue for the cruise for the drinks?

Someone has just sent me a link for 7 nights on Euribia for £800 . Sailing Feb2nd. That's unbelievably cheap. I need to get a private tutor for the girls. £60 pp/pd. I know there will be add ons, but still. I wonder if I need a work trip on a cruise ship......

Thanks folks, that's kind of what I expected, I think I must have seen a discount offered somewhere which is what made me think it. Totally agree though it would be utterly pointless for them to discount their main revenue source. I suspect their business model is term time cover the companies' costs. School hols are profit.

Are there good discounts to be had when you hit 60? Though I'm hoping when I get there I can avoid school holidays and benefit from those 'discounts'!

P&O should do tux hire. Like you say , few will get a tux for one outing. But if they can sort out how to get you measured reliably, they could pop it in your cabin ready for sail away and take it back at the end of the cruise. Can I get a job in the P&O revenue team.....