guy999

my tipping was based on some stuff i read on here. i figured giving him a 100 for the first day and then like 50 the next day would get me better service....

i just think my guy was overworked.. in retrospect, i probably wouldn't not tip that well again.

I think the tip on the first day is a good idea, but then lemme see what you do after that.

we were in a CS and i felt like my guy who was good was too busy, normally he would recieve 2 telephone calls during the minute or so that he was in my room and he took a long time getting back to me on things that he said he wanted to do.

i just started calling myself to places and then tipping appropriately for whoever i got and that worked quite well.

he would try to help, like we ordered room service and he would bring it but i figured he was too busy which is why all of the food was cold and the bread for the burger was hard as a rock.

he certainly tried hard and by the way I don't know if I tipped well or not, but i gave him about 300 cash for the week on top of the standard tips a hundred the first day and then tips for the rest of time, so maybe i am not a good tipper.

internet not that fast, usable mostly as you can see i can be on cc, but .3 down and .1 up, so about isdn speeds, if you can remember those.

640ms pings... , but you can use imessage and not use sms texting so that's handy.

we just got back from breakfast at blu, i like their breakfast even better than Luminae

you can also have your butler make you reservations in blu

Suggest you first ping logout.com for its IP address, then change your dns to google dns and use the logout ip to sign out. That's what I'll be trying on the eclipse on Tuesday.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Ok but I started with using googles dns and if you logout it won't do auto direct now maybe after login changing to google dns. Maybe that would work

to let anyone know, the celebrity people are very aware of the crowds and did inform customs ahead of time, but us customs was the one that didn't ick up the ball. I will say that everyone that we have encountered on the ship is as nice as you can imagine and apologetic over something they had no control over....

i'm having a great time on solstice right now.!!!

onboard solstice, we just got xcelerate 634 ms ping and .5 down and .3 up... that's right 0.5 and 0.3, but it's fast enough to be usable. I just run adblock and turn off all flash/java/ and image downloading and you can work.

Nope, not what happened for me on my last sailing. Free only with PH and RS as I posted above. All other suites have to pay for the "Best" upgrade.

I got a celebrity suite and it was free for me

With RS and PH you also get unlimited speciality dining and a premium drinks package, in room bar set up including two bottles of spirits, beers, sodas etc.

 

I would also add there are several more little touches, not always important but nice...These include flowers in the room, being escorted on board, preferred seating and times in the specialities...

so currently it appears all suites are being offered the premium drinks, but not the speciality dining(I have been doing lots of research as to whether the speciality restaurants are better than luminae.

Last time I went on equinox in a royal suite, I guess I missed out on a bunch of these things. Because for example, the flowers I didn't get any of them. I actually bought some in port for my wife because she does like fresh flowers. Never got escorted, didn't even know that was a possibility. We booked the speciality restaurants, but I don't think we got any special times... I actually asked the butler for help to book, but he just told me it was faster if I called them directly.

I was happy with my cruise and the last one was 4 years ago i believe so it's possible that things have changed since then.

Now that the Michael's club is included with sky suite, and you get the suite only restaurant for all four of these suites, Are there any additional benefits that come along with being in the higher end suites?

I have found that you get laundry done, but that seems to be it?

I am of course not including that you get a much nicer room, bigger, better balcony etc?

It really depends on which class of ship you are on.

 

The M-class CS are really nice [although I preferred them before the balcony was added]. We find the tables useful even if you never sit at them for a meal.

 

On the S-class ships, if your wife is disturbed by the light while she sleeps in, you may not find the CS works for you. The bedroom walls are frosted glass which do not keep out the light. In my opinion, they have also put too much large furniture in them so there is not much space to move around in.

yes, she wears a sleep mask so i'm good on that point, but it's a problem for me since the sun will wake me up, and it's an alaska cruise, so i'm pretty sure the sun will be up early.

also the reason for suites, is i usually get one vacation every 1-2 years so i make it a good one... if i could get more time off i really would be fine in a smaller room.. but if i'm only going to get one vacation for this year, it better be amazing

my last cruise was in a royal suite, this next one is in a celebrity suite. I didn't really see the point of the 6 person table. While the space was nice, I didn't really use it, but my wife sleeps in and I always get up really early so I like having a space that I can go read or watch tv in the other room while she sleeps in.

So you can go back, of course I haven't actually done the cruise in the CS suite yet, so I guess we will see :)

by the way i'm on fios and it's still 55ms

it appears that there are 20 restaurants total in the us certified, i doubt that a cruise line would put their weight behind something like that until it was much larger of a network.

we're on the Solstice now and it is still the Molecular Bar. Haven't had a drink there yet so I don't know who the bartender is

if you get a chance find out if they have all of the drinks, i have heard that the boats that still have the molecular bar are running out of stuff...

also how is the internet, i guess it can't be terrible if you are on here, but that's just an assumption i'm making.

i'm looking renting some expensive binoculars for my trip, but they aren't cheap, more designed for hunting apparently.

I've done a lot of reading here and in tour books and we have decided that May 2017 would've a good time for us to cruise to Alaska. The main reasons are: 1) Fewer children and families, 2) good prices and, perhaps most importantly, 3) there's a good amount of sunshine but less rain than in later months.

 

We have found a couple of itineraries and ships that interest us. One is the newly-refurbished Coral Princess that departs Vancouver on May 6, 2016.

 

Is this date TOO EARLY in May? Have you ever cruised to Alaska that early in the season? Will we be a couple of Popsicles during the entire cruise?

 

Thanks for any insights or advice.

well i'm going on celebrity in about 3 weeks on that date, so i guess we'll both find out.

Since we have xfinity 1, I can download shows recorded on my DVR to an iPad or iPhone, but hoping to use the hdmi to view them on the room tv. I was also interested in the fire stick, and since our next cruise is on the Reflection, the newer Internet would be available. I'm not familiar with NAS.

nas is network addressed storage, I instead just bought a external hard drive and hooked it up to my laptop. but I also would like to know if you can hook into their hdmi to watch shows or movies on my devices..?

There are hdmi ports on the TVs and we've never had a problem watching our own videos. You won't be able to stream anything over the internet so bring a DVD play, MP4 player or laptop.

did you bring a universal remote as well, otherwise how do you switch to the hdmi input...?

i'm going on the alaska cruise, i wonder if there are a lot of chair hogs in may in alaska.

Last cruise the download speed was under 56K. Remember dialup? There is quite simply put not enough bandwidth to do anything except send a few (very few) emails. The recent internet promotions have made the situation even worse as bandwidth got chopped into what seems like an ever smaller pipe for data.

my last three cruises, i used a mifi internet device, and it was fine, but certainly limited on the amount of data, but i guess I need to consider using that again...

what is extremely slow, like you can't watch netflix, or you can't read email? or you can't surf cruise critic?

If you sign up for gratuities to be added to your onboard account, the butler will get at least $3.50 per day that you are on your cruise.

 

When I present my list to my butler and we discuss it, I always give him some money in advance, and indicate that there is more where that came from, depending upon how well he completes my list. And at the end of the cruise he always gets that extra amount, as he almost always exceeds my expectations.

 

Sometimes, during the cruise, I may hand certain folks who are doing an exceptional job some lucky bucks to spend in ports along the way. Normally, by the end of the second day, I know who is cutting the mustard, and who isn't.

 

Everyone has his or her own system. If this is your first time having a butler, determine how much or little you want him to do for you, and then decide if he is earning the minimum amount or if more is in order. I sent you my list; I always expect to pay more.

this is the way that i usually do it and i have had good results by tipping early because then they know that if i am expecting a lot at least they are going to be compensated for it, i wouldn't do it for a stateroom attendant or anyone else, but since it does seem that many of the things that i may ask for from the butler are a bit in left field then I was him/her to know that the work is worth it.

sorry i didn't get a reply before, do people the butler the same as everyone else, ie at the end, or do they tip along the way for extra service.

i don't know how to send you a email but i tried to send the only request that i know how to send.

also should i just tip every day for the butler, like cash daily, but i do want to have breakfast and all of the other things that everyone is describing and I don't know if it would be appropriate to tip every day or better at the end of the trip.

I even would give more, but I almost would like my butler to see it before hand so that it might make a difference as the trip goes on.

I used to be a bartender and the ones who tipped better got better service when they came back, but since i'm lucky to go on a cruise every 2-3 years it's unlikely i will see the same person again.

Also does anyone know who is a good butler on equinox, i'm in a RS in May.