arealcheapskate

Customer service literally makes stuff up on the fly, I wouldn't trust them to tell me what colour the sky is.

Same thing happened to us. Had to reset the password to get back in.

I’ve had this issue many times, switching to incognito usually helps. Not sure if it is a residual cookie or cache data or perhaps a plugin like Adblock. But it is an inconsistent problem.

1) I brought up the percentage thing because another commenter mentioned that they allocate a fixed percentage of the overall cruise to tip above and beyond. We tip neither a percentage nor the automatic gratuities. You could say we don’t tip anything but again as I said, we pay for the cruise fare. Whether this includes enough to pay the staff is not my problem, it’s the CL. And perhaps the staffs’. 2) don’t really have a choice there because it becomes a fee and not a gratuity, as you can’t remove that.. What I will not, however, do is keep any removable amount on my account. If I could remove the “gratuity” on those purchases too I would do it on the spot. We usually book AUD fares instead of USD and find they are not only cheaper, but include the service charges (read:gratuities (described this way by Celebrity not me) in the fare.

A few points to make here - I don't need an excuse. I'll let someone else pay my way. I will flat out just tell you that each cruise (if it's a USD booking) we go and have them removed from the account. I don't even do it at the end of the cruise to try to get the "benefit" - just straight at the beginning or perhaps Day 2 to get it out of the way. No shame and no guilt. If the cruise line can't pay a fair wage - it's not my job either. If the employees aren't being paid fairly, they will speak with their feet and if they don't that's okay too - I'm not going to lose sleep. Same reason I don't lose sleep when I buy cheap clothes, or an overpriced Apple product made in China with less than questionable labor sourcing. Just because I spend x amount on the cruise doesn't mean I want to tip a certain percentage. I always find these threads so amusing because they always devolve into some sort of lecture on ethics and morals. I'll be the first to say if not tipping makes me unethical or some sort of pariah, I'm happy to wear that label. After all, my username checks out.

We wait 30 minutes, then move towels or books whatever onto the next chair over. If someone has a problem we tell them to take it up with guest relations. Have never had an issue. People are too meek. Seriously, if you aren't using it - you lose it.

I'm not talking about the country it's in. I'm talking about a USD booking - issued through the Miami office with no gratuities included on the confirmation. When you check-in and provide your country of residence those terms take precedence. For example, with our Casino booking only the Miami office was able to book it. Ordinarily you need to provide your address / country at the time of booking. This matters because promotions can be different, and pricing as well.

Thought this might be good to know for some of you - if you have made complimentary or discounted bookings in other countries etc. We just discovered today that whatever country of residence you set on check-in overrides the default booking currency terms. For example we had a USD casino fare that would ordinarily auto-charge gratuities daily, but it turns out that if you choose Australia - this automatically tells the system not to add them. Regardless of whether you purchased the cruise fare with gratuities inclusive. Nice way of not having to go to the customer service people and remove them. We are resident in Australia and the law basically says the fare has to be inclusive of that. Additionally the liability for luggage delay, loss and damage is not excluded on the Australian terms as it is in the US terms. Basically the US gets shafted. “Primary Country of Residence” means the country where you primarily reside at the time of booking the cruise. This should be indicated by you, your agent, or other representative at the time of booking the cruise or at online check-in. Australian Terms here: Cruise prices include the following where applicable: full onboard accommodation, onboard main meals, entertainment onboard ship, gym, some fitness classes, service charges to stateroom attendants; port charges and taxes. US Terms here: For Guest’s convenience, a discretionary service gratuity (“Gratuities”) will be automatically added daily to the onboard account of each Guest, except as otherwise provided below. Gratuities are subject to adjustment, at Guest’s discretion, onboard the Vessel until the morning of disembarkation. Gratuities will not be automatically added to the Guest’s onboard account if they are included in the Cruise Fare, as reflected in the Guest’s booking confirmation, if the Guest pre-pays them, or if the laws of the Guest’s primary country of residence do not permit them to be added automatically.

I had premium, wife had basic. Used the router with her basic login but over VPN, same speeds. Around 6mbps down and 1mbps up this was in Australia. In iceland a bit faster - not sure about the caribbean.

That one is like the top of the line one - there are cheaper versions of the same router without wifi 6 etc. I just wanted something future proof. Chances are with your current VPN service you'll be able to just plug those details into the router and it will channel all traffic over that router so your devices can all connect. What I do is connect all on the same router so I can stream to the Chromecast I bring. I am not sure when or if they removed Streaming video services on the television maybe someone else can correct - but Apex had them and edge did not.

Quality of service. 40mbps is possible but not consistently and reliably. It's better to deliver 6mbps to everyone, all the time (all things being equal).

With wireguard can just use udp2raw to get around this - but it does slow the connection somewhat. I too am glad Celebrity doesn't do this or we would probably cruise elsewhere.

Fair enough, sorry I misinterpreted. Although the RA did tell us when they have a party cruise with lots of young people in those suites, they have had to replace the entire bar in litre quantities twice a day. I reckon with the prices we paid for the Massive Suite we more than made up for a difference. Probably the reason the rockstar suites only get a single fill compared to the MRS. 43 sounds like a lot but most are half bottles so like 375ml and towards the back half of the cruise they brought us litre bottles.

Why should anyone change their behaviour based on what a company may or may not do in the future? It's not a charity, it's a cruiseline. Their ongoing viability as a company does not concern me - that is for their accountants to sort out.

Perhaps - but for every one of us there are probably 5 rooms that don't drink anything. TBH I think the regular rooms are probably worse for revenue compared to a regular cruise line - I saw plenty of people not drinking anything except soda. It seems about 10-20% of the ship did about 75% of the drinking.

The Basic wifi limitation is artificial and is purposely restricted by Celebrity. We use a GL-AXT1800 router with a wireguard protocol VPN. It bypasses all the port blocks/social media blocks/speed limitations and the internet works as the premium would. (Video calls etc). Because it's not a traditional VPN it's impossible for them to block as it uses the same port as a secure HTTPS connection. In addition we can tether as many devices as we like - they don't seem to throttle the speed.

Just as an update to this we ended up getting a total of 43 bottles between us for a 5 night cruise. Our RA was totally onboard and ended up restocking us twice a day and moved up to the litre spirit bottles. We have been handing them out like party favours when we go to dinners etc. Those little bottled old fashioned things are great too because they were $15 each and they just hand them over to you at the bar. No customs / or duties since it was domestic. At the restaraunts we would use our 2 bottles per night and share with the table next to us and leave the bottle with whoever it was and they always appreciated. No real limits on the number of drinks.

Attended their TA live stream yesterday and basically no answers. "they will be back" MNVVs extended a year but refunds are "case by case" What a crock of garbage. Won't be selling or advocating for their product anymore.

They were relatively packed - but due to heavy discounting 50 percent off fares (for example around $600USD for 5 nights total not PP for a Sea Terrace XL). Depending on the sailing but some sailings had lots of suite availability even the day of departure for upgrades. We upgraded to a massive suite on the spot for $1000usd for 5 nights. In the states the suites book out a year in advance sometimes as you know. The itineraries were garbage though. Tassie and back with 2 nights in a port. The only nice ones were the NZ ones.

The best part of this email is the link: www.virginvoyages.com?utm_source=cordial&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fm_projecthope LOL "Project Hope" is the name of the marketing / email campaign.

Ahoy First Mate, I just wanted to reach out and thank you for making our inaugural season in Australia such a huge success. In no uncertain terms, the warm welcome we received from Aussies was because of how deeply you championed us. This made for an incredibly brilliant season — with rave reviews and record bookings. And the love is very much mutual. With the safety of our Sailors and Crew remaining our #1 priority, and on the heels of our recent changes to Resilient Lady’s Spring ‘24 repositioning voyages, we’ve conducted a full safety and security review of future repositioning voyages through the Red Sea with a range of experts. Given the circumstances, unfortunately, she will instead be sailing in her temporary home of the Caribbean starting next October. We love Australia and have every intention of traveling back in the future when we can safely do so. While we’re sad to have had to make this choice for now, we are very much looking forward to getting back there as soon as possible. But in the best interest of your Sailors, we’re making these adjustments now in order to avoid disruptions in the future — giving them more time to think through alternatives. Thank you again for making our first season so unbelievably outstanding — we’re deeply grateful for that and your continued love and partnership. In the meantime, we want to make sure we can still get your Sailors who loved us in Australia escaping the winter and sailing the gorgeous waters of the Mediterranean aboard that very same award-winning ship that made such a splash. It’s safe to say the experiences at sea are even better when Aussies are on board. Gratefully, Nirmal Saverimuttu CEO, Virgin Voyages

How would any other sailors know what we are doing? I am a bit scabby - if I'm paying 10k for a holiday I'm going to milk every last dollar in value out of it. It's not like I am asking the staff to do anything extra - just restock a bar. No skin off their back. If I was really cheap I would bring all my dirty laundry too and have them wash 3 suitcases of laundry and dry clean my suit. Apparently there is an unlimited laundry benefit too. Or take 1/2 servings of premium liquors at the casino and bottle them in my cabin LOL. Anyways it will be a fun experiment and will see what happens. I shall report back next month.

Fair enough. Sounds like tacocat had about the same experience I'm planning - not too overboard but I mean they did end up with 12-15 bottles of wine + mini bar bits and pieces If you really wanted to take it overboard and get 5x moet 375ml each day for a 7 day voyage you'd be getting around $1200USD in champagne. I highly highly doubt that anyone would say anything. Quiet judgement yes. Actually doing anything, no.

We will give it a try on this upcoming cruise - disappear the whole minibar every day and see what they do. As if they would tell you off - when admittedly they encourage you to entertain and share. They may silently judge but we are going to bring a whole suitcase and bubble wrap just to find out. Spirits are horribly expensive in Australia - mainly due to taxes. Will make nice stocking stuffers and gifts for family.

VV says there is no immigration or customs processes on domestic routes in Australia. They also encourage you to take your minibar spirits with you. We are looking at cruising as MRS in Australia with the 2 bottles of wine @ $90/day plus unlimited in room minibar refills daily on a domestic voyage (AKA Sydney to Melbourne or Melbourne to Hobar). Could we bring back 10 bottles of wine and essentially large quantities of spirits back with us? Do they open the wine bottles before they give them to you?