Jetdriver787

You also get twice a day cabin service in a JS and the "standard" gratuities are at the lower rate rather than the "suite" rate. We did 21 nights in a JS on Anthem last year and it was the first time in a JS for many years. Very impressed with the 1+1/2 bathroom layout, which we found very convenient. on older ships it is just the single bathroom with a large walk-in (sort of) closet. The bed was hard and a noticeable downgrade from the full suite bedding, but the stewards placed a "topper" on the mattress which improved the comfort considerably. The only other criticism was the sofa. It was also very "firm" and likely to break your hip should you be lulled into thinking otherwise. We found the CK crew wonderful and had no trouble securing a table for dinner every evening.

Will they hide under my bed twice, if I’m in a junior suite or higher? 🤷‍♂️

$772,331 for the RS!!! Thats crazy! Don’t these folks know they could have had an over-the-water beach hut on Coco Cay for 2 months for that kind of money? 🤷‍♂️

🙏🏻

Perhaps I should come clean!! 🤦🏻‍♂️ My wife thinks I am far too generous when tipping. I think she is far too mean! After about 6 hours of arguing we usually come to a compromise whereby I simply agree with her and seal the envelopes when she isn’t looking! She would rather spend whatever “left over cash” we have (🤣🤣🤣) in somewhere called “Victoria’s Secrets! I haven’t the heart to tell her that Vickies biggest secret is that they don’t seem to do anything in her size!!! I say that having quickly perused their catalogue, although item 3 on page 174 (in taupe) does look quite comfortable!

Not quite, no! But if the suite attendant collects say $6 a day per person then we might like to say instead of paying for the two of us, it would be nice to pay a “third person bonus” so an extra $42 (rounded to $40 or $50 for a week.) I doubt the asst’ waiter receives the same standard rate and I’m sure the Head waiter doesn’t, so it would be very helpful to know what the standard expectation rate is when calculating an additional reward. For the avoidance of any doubt, I am referring to the “Tip, tip hooray!” Payments and not the standard or recommended gratuities.

Yes, no problem! Although obviously the standard gratuities are pre-paid, it would be useful to know what each individuals daily allocation amounted to. That way, it would be easy to apply say, an additional daily amount between the two of us (50% of total) or whatever amount seemed a fair and reasonable proportion.

I think you ask a good question! These days there seems to be an ever growing expectation that you don’t just “tip” but you “tip” on top of the “tip!” Whilst forums such as these light up whenever the “industrial rate” (I almost wrote “changes”) rises, it would often be helpful to know what the individual “expected” allocation actually is. undoubtably, (rather like “Royal Up”) it involves algorithms and incantations and magic potions all wrapped up in a cloak of enigmatic secrecy, but there is an industry surrounding the penultimate nights guilt “tip!” Not for nothing do those waiters and kitchen workers dance and bang pots and waive napkins. Not in sorrow do (whoever isn’t needed) wave flags and line up to bid you “adieu!” The corporate machine has helpfully printed envelopes and provided a stream of subtle reminders that your “tips” were last weeks news! Then, if you are anything like us, begins the arguments over “how much and to who?” One way, might be to employ a percentage of the individuals personal gratuity rate? Of course, to do that, it is helpful to know what that actually is? To that end, this question is actually quite helpful, even if the chances of finding an accurate answer are likely to be as elusive as finding the Holy grail!

Rumour has it….that from 01/01/24, only the first “Tip, tip, hooray!” Envelope will be provided free! Each additional envelope will carry a $5.99 (plus gratuity) fee.

As the old saying goes: “Beauty is in the eye of the shareholder!”

Saved you $3000! Not the cost of the damn thing, that’s “free!” More, in the excess baggage fees the airline will charge you to fly it home! It has the gravitational mass of a Neutron star! Professional shot-putters fear them, in case they break their wrists!

If it’s anything like the one on my Las Palmas flight, it’s probably not so much a case of “Bonded,” as needing a whole surgical theatre team, to unhook it from his face! 🤦🏻‍♂️

For $35,000 a month you could rent a serviced penthouse overlooking Central Park on a 12 month lease! But that’s not all my friends for another $ 35,000 a month, you can have a Marina view property in Monaco, also on a 12 month lease! (Friends can use it when you are in New York) Of course you will want to travel in style, so throw in a pair of First class tickets for you and a partner every 2 weeks, plus helicopter transfers from Nice to Monte Carlo. Plus……. We will throw in $100,000 spending money, to enjoy in the Casino de Paris! And that’s not all…….. You will also get this lovely reclining chair by la-Z-boy, and a state of the art Nespresso coffee maker! A prize worth a staggering $1,460,000!!!! or….. You can rent an over the water beach hut in an overpriced water park for 8 hours a day, also for 365 days a year for exactly the same price! The only question is……….🤷‍♂️

A taste of poverty! This ship has been in heavy seas for the last couple of days with much pitching and heaving. On the subject of the latter, my wife has been a bit under the weather. 🤢 I was going to make comment on the menus in the MDR. Not so much the quality of the food, but more the theme of it! Every night is a theme of somewhere, Italy, UK, France, Mexico, Caribbean, Mediterranean, “Best” of Royal, Royals Greatest hits, A history of Royal, etc. There does seem to be an enormous amount of overlap! Not only that, but each menu seems suspiciously similar to the previous one. I think the “French onion soup” has somehow made its way on to almost all of them! I am guessing somebody made a serious error ordering onions the last time the ship was in Marseille? It was much the same with the “Escargot!” Now , I can overlook a few theme nights but “Taste of the UK?” Really!! Many isn’t the time as a young lad growing up in the industrial grime of a Northern town, my mother would admonish me with the words, “what’s wrong with you, you’ve hardly touched your snails?”🐌 much as we did to our kids, except we substituted the word “snails” for “phone!” On “Taste of France” night, they added insult to injury by offering Roast Beef! Now, it’s not that the Frenchies don’t eat “Bouef” it’s just that “Rost Bif” is their passive aggressive insult for the British! Even forgiving that faux pas, they couldn’t make a “Yorkshire pudding” to save their life! At least they have that in common with RCI. Anyway, I could go on but I won’t. I expect Christopher’s ships had worse problems with food on a 90 day voyage? “A taste of poverty.” “A taste of the inquisition!” I suppose there are only so many things you can do with a Turnip? Ha! I just asked my wife, as she was darting into the bathroom, “What can I do with a Turnip?” I won’t repeat her answer as it is at best unhygienic, and probably anatomically impossible? Truth be told, she hasn’t been in the best of moods since yesterday. I was googling “cultural things to do in Tam-pa?” In preparation for next weeks arrival in the New World. She had her heart set on trading the fruits of a lifetimes work (mine!) with native traders. After much sulking on my part, she said I “could have one wish!” Now, I had found an evening of traditional dance at somewhere called the “Pink Pony” where native women perform traditional dance as native gentlemen place pictures of their great leaders into the hem of their bloomers. Not only that, but seemingly on Tuesdays couples get in for “free!” Now if that isn’t music to an Englishman’s ears then I don’t know what is? Anyway, her response of “OVER MY DEAD BODY!” Not only took me by some surprise, but perhaps unwisely with the benefit of hindsight, garnered the response…”But you only granted me one wish?” 🤦🏻‍♂️ It does rather look as if Tuesday will be spent shlepping around the great trading emporiums of Mr Penny and Miss Alice Walton! 🤷‍♂️

Similar thing happened to me Eddie, though many years ago. I was forced to position as a passenger on an otherwise full flight from Barcelona to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. Ensconced in my favourite middle seat, I was joined in the aisle by a Spanish lady and a plastic box containing her clearly agitated Persian cat! Throughout the taxi and takeoff, even though I attempted to make no eye contact whatsoever, it pressed its angry little face to the uncomfortably (I thought) large slot. It then proceeded to glare at me (and I speak as someone who has been married for nearly 40 years,) in a thoroughly menacing and fixated manner of unbridled hatred until roughly the point, whichever pilot so tasked, turned off the “fasten seat belt sign!” It was at this point that the very gates of Hades opened! Said “moggie” launched into a fit of such hissing rage and feline contortion that for a moment my head was lost in a cloud of flea infested tabby fur! The owner, other passengers and even the “tripulacion de cabina” seemed completely oblivious! For two and a bit hours this episode of “The twilight zone” continued unabated. Even today, I wake up In a cold sweat (which at my age is actually something of a relief!) When I think back to that flight. I needed therapy for years afterwards, (and that’s having raised 7 teenagers!) To this day I have a card that lets me travel with an “Emotional support wife,” although I have considered upgrading to the alligator which seems more “de riguer” these days! Anyway I digress…….

The Pringles may be expensive, but I find they are the only crisps (chips) that satisfy my OCD!

Yes, well they say “picking up the tab,” but I hear they are just putting some money into a “Kitty!”

“How did they get it on?” A little personal don’t you think? The concern is the cat! “How did they bring on so much cat litter?” You clearly have yet to experience Muesli in the Windjammer! ”How did they hide it from their cabin steward?” Placed it in the “litter” bin! (And it had pre-paid its gratuities) “How did they stop it from miaowing?” Bought it a drinks package. Catatonic by early evening!

On a hot tin roof?

CAT scan? Maybe “kneads to improve?”

(I won’t! 🤣) Hundreds of complaints about “Cats” on Oasis but the first I have heard from Ovation? obviously a serious violation as there is a “claws” in the contract! Clearly, security not up to “scratch!”

It’s a casino reference. You played some money and earned some points.

Even the lifeboatmen on the Titanic expected a small gratuity! ……and that was just the “tip” of the iceberg!

Dear Coolio, Congratulations on your new job! 🎉🍾🥂

Ah sorry! You mean those buzzy little things with the propellers? The title led me to assume you meant the upper echelons of the crown & Anchor society!