Paul65

Do many men wear suit jackets on formal night? Don't want to pack one if not necessary. Would a shirt and tie do?

 

Thanks

Yes, lots of men do. No, it is not necessary.

You have to wear socks and they provide you with the climbing shoes, which always make me think of elf shoes. Not sure what keens are but hopefully someone will be able to help you with that :-)

Keen is just a brand name, not so much a style. They make shoes and boots primary designed for hiking.

Here we go again. Get the popcorn and hold on.

I wouldn't pop too much popcorn. It's a newly revived 5-year-old thread about some well-behaved children showing up at Chef's Table. Not much to see here.

Good point.

 

I was a little confused about what the OP actually wanted, but I understand now.

Yeah, and he really did have a refund of the pre-paid grats on his credit card, but between changes in the standard gratuities and exchange rate since the original pre-payment, it ended up being a net higher cost.

That is not standard on all ships. There wasn't anywhere near that much fanfare on our recent Liberty cruise. Though our wait staff was very friendly and did very well for us, they never pressed for "only a 10" on the survey. I think there was a comment encouraging us to fill out the survey, and to give them a good score, if we enjoyed the service. But it was nothing that felt like insisting on a "10."

It is a shame that guest services was not able, or willing, to fix the problem.

They can't do anything with the pre-paid charges, but they could have removed the on board daily gratuities. I don't think the OP wanted to take those off (and basically give the service staff the shaft), if the pre-paid grats had already been refunded to his credit card.

I doubt they intentionally did this to try to get a few more dollars out of you, but I wouldn't be satisfied, either, without getting my money refunded. I would ask them for some sort of proof that you requested the refund of pre-paid gratuities. They should have a hard time coming up with any such proof, since you didn't do that.

Can you scan them back in and then scan out clean ones for the next day so you don't have to stand in line the day you want to go into port?

Sure. But if you're trading in a used towel for a clean one, they don't bother scanning at all, just swap with you. On port days, they generally have towel stations near the exit of the ship, at least during the "rush" of people going off in the first hour or so. That way you can grab a towel out as you go off the ship.

I'm frankly surprised at a few snarky comments.

Meh. It's hard to judge attitude from the written word sometimes. What you were surprised by as "snarky" were probably comments from people surprised by your characterization of a letter informing you of your towel obligations as "nasty."

Really, if they are keeping track, then it's good that they informed you at the end, rather than just tacking the charges on.

So, as some people's comments come across as snarky to you, your comments about this "nasty" letter come across as petulant to me. Maybe we're both wrong, though.

Paying for what?? The bar was closed at that time, crew member was just

setting up for the evening later when everyone came back on board. We were

the only ones in there while everyone was at the beach.

Okay. Didn't realize the bar was actually closed. I don't think they closed any of the bars on the ship last time I stopped at Labadee. I'm sure you weren't the only ones on the ship, though. There usually seems to be about 10 - 20% of people who stay on the ship.

Oops...sorry. I will try to be more PC from now on. :rolleyes:

PC, Apple, Chromebook . . . it's all good; just stay on topic. :D

Could have been due to the size of the group.

Probably so. I don't think there's any policy against bringing wine into the VC area, but if you have a big group pulling furniture around and having a party in there, it can be bad for business.

I know the poster said they were the only ones there, and that was probably true. If I were looking for a place to sit and enjoy a drink and saw a group of 15 or so people congregated like that, I'd probably skip that lounge and find somewhere else. Don't know if their presence was turning away potential paying customers or not, but it's possible.

I've done a mix of ship-sponsored and independent excursions, and generally prefer the independent ones for the reasons you (OP) mention. They tend to be more personal / less crowded, and you often get to see more, as well.

The one exception would be our most recent cruise with cavetubing.bz in Belize City. They still seem to be getting great reviews overall, but it was not what I expected from an independent tour. Instead of being a small, more intimate group, they crowded us on a bus to the point that there were too many, and they asked us to get off the bus and follow in a van. Didn't think that was a big deal, until we realized we were in a van with a group from a different ship doing a different excursion. It was a mess. Wouldn't recommend them.

Roatan Ocean Adventures on the same cruise couldn't have been more different, though. We booked a snorkel-hopping/beach break tour with them, and it was just the three of us, we had a great snorkel experience, then got to enjoy some beach time and had our choice of when they would pick up back up to deliver us back to the ship.

So, an independent tour is not always better, but most of the time, I much prefer going that route.

Just woke up to this announcement. What does it mean? They gave a cabin number. is this a medical emergency?

Yes, medical emergency. It's not uncommon to hear this call a couple time during a cruise. I've hear the "Bravo" and "Oscar" calls before, too, but only when in port, during an announced crew drill.

Thank you, if this if this is really the company "rules", then why isn't it enforced. We seen many men and women (mostly men) wearing ball caps at breakfast, lunch and DINNER in the main dining room. i'm not sure about the rule for shorts in the main dining room at dinner, but there were many men in shorts, especially on the LAST night.

 

Thank you

M

I don't get why this is so complicated for people. They don't want to be enforcers. I'm sure they'd like for people to follow the guidelines, but there will always be those who refuse to do so.

Why no enforcement

Because it's a cruise ship, not a prison or military barracks, so they don't hire people to be enforcers. Like most things on a cruise ship, it's generally up to the passengers to either respect it or not.

Zagat ratings have a lot more to do with identifying "fine dining" than white tablecloths. If Chuck-E-Cheese put white clothes over their tables every evening at 6:00 should we wear a jacket to eat there?

 

If you search for the top steakhouses in DFW you don't have to go far down the list to find our preferred place in the ratings of any organization/group/service.

 

You can believe whatever you want to believe...I really could not care less. My point was that what most people used to think of as "appropriate attire" for fine dining establishments has changed a great deal over the years. Besides...after having dined at more than one of the top restaurants in several major cities, including several with Michelin Stars, there is not a single venue on the three RCI ships we have sailed I feel are even remotely comparable.

 

It matters little if there is a tablecloth when the food takes a long time to get there, is luke warm at best and you have to constantly ask for your water glass to be refilled.

First of all, Zagat ratings don't really have anything to do with "fine dining" as you suggested. You can find highly (or poorly) rated fine dining restaurants or highly (or poorly) rated casual diners. Highly rated and fine dining are quite different concepts.

Secondly, my comment had nothing to do with believing you; it was only a comment that flip-flops with nice shorts seemed weird to me. I don't spend a lot of time checking out people's footwear, but I see flip-flops mostly at places like the beach or pool.

I don't feel comfortable going into a fine dining restaurant with shorts and flip flops. That is my personal preference. To each their own, you stated how you would dress.

That response from TC1957 seemed kind of odd, anyway. I don't know if the steak house he went to was really a "white tablecloth" type of place or not, as a Zagat rating has very little to do with the formality of the decor. But wearing so-called "nice shorts" with designer labels along with flip-flops was the part that seemed a little weird to me. But, as you say, to each their own.

We will be sailing on Freedom of the Seas in July. Young adults 23, 18, 17 will be traveling as well. I have read the dress code for the evening in the main dining room but was wondering if the kids had to wear dress pants or are jeans acceptable? I am afraid dress up will equal few family dinners.

Casual pants like Dockers are more common (and generally more comfortable in the Caribbean), but jeans are acceptable. Most people do not wear what I would call "dress pants", unless it's a designated formal night.

And, despite the warnings, you really won't get a big variety of opinions on a question like this. There may be the occasional person who is staunchly anti-jeans, but most will tell you (as you probably have already seen) that jeans are okay, if that's what you want to wear.

On a personal note, my wife had a medical issue that required her to return home mid-cruise for surgery. At our next port of call, St. Lucia, we needed to get approval from immigration to enter the country under a different authority than that provided for cruise passengers. The comment was made to us that it was a good thing that our passports were good for more than six months or we would not have been given permission to enter, even though we were flying out the same day.

I don't doubt that the comment was made to you, but it probably wasn't true. Most likely, if you had a valid passport, but it was within 6 months of expiration, it would have caused no more than a little extra paperwork in a situation like that.

If this is a serious question I would like to know what year you were born if you don't mind saying so. Tipping is a way of showing appreciation above and beyond a thank you and a smile. Typically parents teach their children to tip.

I think you maybe misread (and are being a bit snide with the "typically parents teach their children to tip" comment).

The question wasn't, "why tip?," but rather, "why are people so obsessed with tipping everyone and their granny?" You may not have experienced it, but there are definitely those in these type threads who somewhat obsess about tipping and brag a bit about how generously they tip.

Of course, on the flip side, there are some who sort of brag about their refusal to tip. Most of us fall somewhere in the middle.

I do think some of those who brag the most about how much they tip are just doing it for show, and there are clearly some who tip as a way of buying attention (particularly from bartenders).

As I never said that you replied incorrectly, I'm not going to play your little game. :)

Seems like you did. Okay, maybe you didn't use the exact word "incorrect," but you certainly gave out that message. Not sure why (if you think that you're right) that you're backing away from it now.

I'm not afraid to say that you replied incorrectly, when you portrayed the closed-loop rule as a myth. It is not a myth, and the very source that you cited talks about that closed loop rule.

Now, it does, technically only apply to the regulations for re-entering the US at the end of your cruise, and the link cautions that it is possible that another country could require you to have a passport to enter from a cruise ship. None of the countries that are visited on closed-loop cruises from the US do so, but it is possible that they could change their requirements and begin to do so. Of course, in the unlikely event of that happening, it would mean you couldn't leave the ship at the affected port(s).

So, it is no myth that, on a closed-loop cruise from the US, a US citizen does not have to have a passport. I, personally, think it's a good idea to travel with a passport, even if it's not mandatory, but as of now, in this particular situation, it is not. And that is because of the very real closed-loop cruise exception that you incorrectly call a myth.

Does she know the date and approximate time of her initial call to Special Needs? I believe most calls are recorded, so if they know where to look, they may be able to go back and review the call. If that confirms that she was not told about the 1 year requirement at that time, it may at least convince them to refund her cruise fare.

I doubt they would waive the policy, as it is probably an insurance/liability issue that the legal department would insist upon.

If you haven't done so already, though, I would ask resolutions to track down a recording of the original conversation, rather than just accept that they "don't know who she spoke to" originally.

I have only visited the London area in UK (except for a brief visit to Warrington, which was mostly work). It's nice just seeing some of the parks and architecture, but I would also recommend the British Museum, Tower of London, Parliament, Westminster Abbey. We didn't make it to Windsor on our trip, but it was one of the things on the short list of things to do, and you can get there by train. Pretty much everything we did was by Tube or Train.

A couple other things we did included seeing a show in the theatre district, an afternoon tea, and a tour of Stamford Bridge. We also spent a brief time at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was interesting and not really on our list, but we had a little extra time before the afternoon tea we had booked, and it was in the area. Trying to remember the name of the place we had tea... Harrod's was close by there, as well.

Edit: It was the Capital Hotel, very close to Harrod's, where we had tea. Very nice, and a little more on the "quaint" side, rather than what is, in my opinion, overly fancy at some places.

Didn't say they marketing team does a bad job, they get the job done, just mean they are a joke. Should be ashamed of themselves for the constant bait and switch.

I don't see what they do as "bait and switch." That means advertising one thing with the intention of actually offering something different. When they advertise, for example, every third day free, that's exactly how they structure the pricing, so that the "full" price is reduced by that factor to get the "actual" price. That's just a marketing promotion (gimmick).

Now, if they advertise a particular price, say $1000 pp for a Junior Suite, and they never had the intent of selling JS for that price, but instead offer you something different, that is bait and switch.