JJK2008

You may get tipping advice here on CC, but it won't be good advice. Tipping is always a hot topic on CC. Sadly, too many people just can't worry about themselves and MUST interject with their opinion on what people should/should not do whether that is tip, no tip, auto tip, whatever. Do what YOU believe is right for you. Don't worry about what anyone else says.

simcorner.com, we've used them a few times. Very good.  

16 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 We did.  However, all we've talked about since we returned is the things we did not do.  We both agreed that we really need to take a land based vacation to Japan.  We are not use to being on the go as much as we were on this cruise -- I don't think we have had so many shore excursions since our first Med cruise when we did one at every port. 

 

 

Sorry to hear that you have had to deal with a lot of family stuff since Miami. 

 

 Am glad you enjoyed the review.  Was worried that it was no where as entertaining and interesting as I wanted it to be. 

 

 

 It is definitely a fantastic itinerary -- I view it as one of the few that I could do a B2B2B and still feel that I had not seen everything.  Japan is such a fantastic country with outstanding people, food, and fantastic cultural experiences for everyone. 

 

My DW and I are booked for this cruise August, 2025. I found this thread and have read every post. Your review/postings are Outstanding. Can't Thank You enough for the insight. Stay Safe & Healthy. 

John

A tip I got from one of my Aussie friends about driving on the other side of the road. He said "John, just remember to keep Nancy in the gutter." Interesting advice.🤣🤣🤣

Not sure DW was as appreciated as I was for the driving advice.

1 minute ago, Blossom3 said:

We live in the UK and have a cruise booked directly through Celebrity, we have not made final payment and there is a price drop.

Is it worth a call or does it only apply to US citizens?

I would certainly call. I don't think it applies to US citizens only, but I may be mistaken. We check the prices almost daily. We have a cruise booked next year (2025) with Celebrity and have repriced it twice so far. Best of Luck. 

5 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Never heard of this but going to look into it.  (Google Voice)

 

WhatsApp is very common most countries but not as common in the USA.  

I work in 6 different countries around the world and WhatsApp is a daily use both in business and personal.

I could be wrong, but I don't know if Google Voice can be gotten from outside the US. I hope it works for you. I have WhatsApp as well but unless the person I'm calling has it, it's of no use. 

The wifi route is of course the cheapest way. Apps like WhatsApp work very well. The only downside to WhatsApp is the person you call must also have the app downloaded. Conversely, Google Voice is also a wifi phone service that is free, and the best part is you can call ANY other phone. The person you call does not have to have the app. I called my Drs., office in the USA from a hotel room in Australia using Google Voice. It was as if I was talking to them in the same room. I do not know if Google Voice is available to persons outside the USA. Might be worth checking.      

WOW!!!! I saw the title and have read through every post on the thread. Corinne that experience truly SUCKS - and NO, THAT IS NOT A PUN. Absolutely terrible experience to go through.

Welcome to CC, in general I think you'll find most of the people here are good, well-meaning folks. There are of course "some" not so much, just try to avoid them, I do. It's one of the reasons I'm not on any of those social sites. Some people (including myself) try sometime to "lighten" a conversation and sadly their comment is interpreted in a way very different than they intended, it happens. I'm confident the people here are NOT trying to be meanspirited. Actually, I believe they are very supportive of you, as I am.  

Of all of our cruises and travels we have not encountered any bedbugs - Thank God. I'm sure this issue has happened before with all cruise lines susceptible. I just want to believe it is not common or widespread. Thank You for posting. Not something we are consciously thinking of, but I think we all have to be aware. 

Life is short, Cruise/Travel more.   

John

In the US (and many other countries as well) manual transmission cars are going the way of the payphone, vinal records, 8 track/cassette tapes, rotary dial phones, b/w TV's, clocks with hands and more. If you learned to drive on a stick shift or can drive one even today, you're in a small percentage of the population here and showing your age🤣🤣🤣. Growing up, Nancy and I learned to drive both. We have over the years also owned both. I even remember no power steering, power brakes and rollup windows. I feel so old😌😌😌.

Lyle, I understand your thoughts about driving on the "wrong" (other) side of the road with the controls also opposite. In Oz last year we rented 5 different cars in different locations. Like you I had my apprehensions. I had never done this before. The first experience was not bad. We followed friends of ours from The Gold Coast up to the Sunshine Coast to meet up with other Auzzie friends for lunch. I just stayed behind them and did what they did, not bad at all. The next day we were on our own. It was nowhere near as bad as I expected. The only thing I will say is that it required my full attention. Unlike at home where I can get in the car and drive almost on "autopilot" in Oz I had to really pay attention and think. But after a day or so it became easy. 

Side note: we rented different makes and models of cars. They did not all have the wipers/directionals on the same side. YES, this was challenging as more than once I put on the wipers (or not). But other than that hiccup, piece of cake.     

We often will stay pre/post cruise in a hotel. We've brought an extension cord on almost every cruise, never thought about it, always just packed it in our luggage. Nobody has ever said a word about it. 

3 hours ago, arxcards said:

Thanks.

Haiti is a bit far away. I was aware of Labadee being dropped from schedules due to unrest, but nothing more than that. I guess if I was planning to be on a cruise there that I might have sought more detail.

 

Lots more ships have been getting back to cruising to Mexico. I guess that will be next.

Lots of issues going on in Mexico as well right now. The Cartels have moved into the tourist areas. Tourist areas were always unofficially "off limits" for the Cartel gang wars. That has changed. Recently there have been several tourists caught in crossfire from rival gang shootouts and others have just gone missing. There were also 2 brothers from Oz and an American surfer who were all killed. Things are just crazy all over. Stay Safe. 

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

It has been in our news cycle, but also much has been unreported until we sent some planes to repatriate Australian citizens.

 

The world is going mad it seems. The New Caledonia issue has flared over the past two weeks, but there has been an underlying issue for decades. Taking New Caledonia out of our cruise scheduled drops 4 ports, although two of those have been closed since covid anyway.

 

We can handle having Fiji & Vanuatu ports and still getting a decent South Pacific  cruise,  but when the summer season starts, there will be more ships than ports.

 

Anyway, I don't know if you have caught up on the topic here

 

Thank You for the info. Until this morning, I no idea what was going on there. I've been dealing with some other issues (health), so I have been distracted and have not been following the news or goings on here on CC. You're right the World is losing it. Don't know if you in Oz heard about the uprising in Haiti??? The gangs took over a prison and released almost 4000 inmates. These are hardcore inmates, NOT petty thieves. It was all over the news here when it first happened. Now it's "old" news and we don't hear a peep. RCCL stopped all visits to their resort on Haiti - Labadee. Who knows how long that will last. Haiti also shares a border with the Dominican Republic. Cruise ships are still going to the DR, but reports are that the DR has really beefed up the security at the border. Hopefully things will resolve soon ALL OVER. Definitely think we are going to make our way back to Oz. What's the worst thing that can happen in Oz, we get a bad meat pie???🤣 OK, maybe there's no such thing as a "bad" meat pie. Anyway, Thank You for the info, much appreciated.

John 

I admit I'm out of touch on so many things😌. This morning, I read about the fighting going on in New Caledonia between the indigenous population and the French colonists. This conflict is getting Zero press here in the US, at least from what I've seen. Until I saw this news on the internet this morning I had no idea about the conflict, its reason or how long it has been brewing. Also saw that Australia and New Zealand are sending planes to evacuate their citizens. I hope all on this thread and their families or friends who may be in that region stay safe. This is a place Nancy, and I were looking at for a cruise. Not going to happen now or at least in the immediate future. Pre-covid we had a Baltic Sea cruise booked that included stops in Russia. That didn't happen because of the pandemic and sure isn't happening anytime soon. We have a Japan cruise booked for next August. We are also looking at doing another Australia visit perhaps this is the perfect time to combine the two and plan it. The last trip in Oct., Nov., (my first to Oz) was one of the best trips we had ever taken. As much as we did and experienced, we still left lots to do on the table. If we do another Oz trip, I'll be right back on this thread looking for advice and suggestions. Stay Safe & Hope all on this board are doing well. 

John  

3 hours ago, martyap said:

We travel to Europe often, recently more by land. We have taken a number of Mediterranean cruises and would like to try something different. What would you suggest for a first European river cruise? Prefer something more than 7 days, possibly 10-14. What line would you suggest for a first time river cruise? More middle of the line rather than economy or high end. Prefer traveling late April to mid May or late September to mid October.
 

We are currently finishing a three week land/RCCL cruise that started in Lake Como>Milan>Florence>Rome and ending on a 7 day Oasis of the Seas (we had a credit we had to use.) The land portion was great……the cruise not so much. Food was terrible, services diminished everywhere, way too many children (in May!) and more strollers than I could count.

 

i love doing research…..just please point me in the right direction.

TY…..Marty

Hey Marty, we've only done one river cruise, but it was Awesome!!!! We did lots of research for what we were interested in and went from there. I'll share with you what we did and learned and hopefully some of it will be of value to you. The rivers in Europe struggle with water levels every year. Some years high water levels, some years low water levels. This causes issues because of the numerous bridges that must be gone under. Viking Cruise Lines has the most ships by far. So what Viking is able to do (that other lines can't do because they don't have the fleet) is if there is a water level issue Viking will send two ship one on each side of the bridge. Passengers will disembark for their daily shore excursion, Viking will transfer all luggage, passengers return to the "new" ship on the other side of the bridge and continue their cruise.....seamlessly. The Viking ships are virtually identical except for the decor. We learned of this from our research. As a result, we chose Viking. We did NOT have any water issues at the time of year we went, so switching ships for us did not happen. But it was nice to know we had it covered if we had to. We did the Grand European Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest 14 night. It was spectacular. In fact, we're looking to do it again. We chose early June for the cruise. Water levels were fine and we lots of daylight hours. There are 180 guests as I remember. Everyone eats at the same time and as you choose you can sit with different people each meal or not, very flexible. Beer & wine is served complimentary with lunch & dinner. Drinks outside of those time are paid for. In the evening there was a guitar player and singer in the lounge. It was a very different atmosphere than an ocean cruise. With such a small number of passengers you get know most everyone within a couple of days. There are shore excursion in each port each day included as part of the cruise. I'd suggest Viking Cruises. They checked all the boxes for us. Best of luck. Enjoy your cruise whatever you decide.   

1 hour ago, kdnurs said:

 

Never heard of this AARP ones...Could you share information? If these are easier to use, maybe I will suggest these in the future. 

AARP sells discounted ecards for a number of businesses including cruise lines like CCL & RCCL. You save 10% on the amount of the card,,,,you pay $90 for a $100 card and $450 for a $500 card. Each one has its own unique terms & conditions different than cards purchased direct from the cruise line. The CCL ones are super easy to use, highly recommend. The RCCL ones not so much. Yes, they will work but they are VERY restrictive in the rules to redeem them. Unless you follow the terms & conditions to the letter, RCCL won't accept them. Best of luck. 

Have you called????????

We book directly with the cruise line and do NOT use a travel agent. If you use a travel agent for your booking, you'll have to go through them to apply the gift cards. That said, just today, for the first time I bought 3 AARP $100 Carnival Gift Cards for a cruise in December. I have scoured CC reading about the Gift Cards, restrictions, problems, etc. The Carnival Cards seem to be the easiest to use, the RCCL not so much. Anyway, I bought 3 to give it a try. Called the CCL number given 800-764-7419, got through within minutes. Selected existing reservation, explained that I wanted to make a payment with AARP Gift Cards. No Problem. The agent took the card numbers and the pin numbers and applied them instantly. They did have to be applied one card at a time, but it was very quick and painless, no issue whatsoever. Will definitely do it again to pay off the balance.   

Great posts. Thank you for sharing. It's a beautiful part of the World. Enjoy every minute of it. 

47 minutes ago, Pushka said:

I said exactly this on a different forum here and lit a fire. 😂. I call it a bribe. 

Yes, it is a very volatile topic for sure. IMHO people can do whatever they choose, tip, don't tip, round-up, whatever. It's their choice. We certainly will tip when we believe it is deserved. What I find offensive are the ones who ask the questions about tipping and will continue to press the issue when they don't get the answer they want. If you want to tip, then tip. If you don't want to tip then don't. You don't need a "justification" to do it or not and then forcefully engage the people who answer you in the way you disagree with. I think that attitude falls right in-line with the mindset of those who go to a Non-Tipping country, know the country's protocol but will still force their opinion/action onto the society there by ignoring the protocol because they know "it's the right thing to do." That arrogance is blinding IMHO. 

Sorry for the venting. No more tipping talk. 

John  

I'm not an expert on the subject by any means and there are a number of "explanations" and "theories" on how tipping began in America. Some claim it was brought to the states from England as a part of Aristocratic society. The "well to do" giving a "tip" to low-end employees as a small gesture of gratitude. Is this accurate??? I don't know. But at some point (I think in the 1960's) the Federal Govt., passed a law allowing employers to pay less than the minimum wage to certain employees who received tips. This primarily was waitstaff, bartenders, etc. This was NOT porters, taxi drivers, tour guides, bus drivers and many other service workers who receive a regular wage. These workers get paid a regular wage (YES, even here in the US) to do their job. The tipping culture has now morphed into something that is no longer a show of appreciation but rather an obligation. It has gotten so bad in the US that people now will tip for good service, bad service, it doesn't matter. There are also some claims of outright "extortion" for example where porters at the airport or cruise terminal will "require" a tip or your luggage may go where??????????? Are these claims accurate??? I don't know but they are widely circulated. Speaking for myself, we never use porters at the airport or cruise terminal, we bring our luggage on ourselves or at the airport will check luggage at the counter. I am NOT against tipping or trying to be "cheap" (I've been accused of being cheap) when NOT tipping. But I am NOT going to just hand over extra money because it is expected. THAT is NOT a tip!!! To each their own, of course. I will NEVER tell some to tip or not to tip. But I do have an opinion as to what they do or don't do. Unfortunately, there are a large number of people (many here on CC) who will express their opinion on the subject in a very forceful way, I'm sure you have all read them. It is a very hostile topic. I wish the whole topic would just go away. Stay safe & Healthy all. Happy cruising. 

John             

14 hours ago, Kristelle said:

JJK2008, thank you. I have often thought the same.

Encouraging people to tip starts the slippery slope to expected tipping.

Life in general, not specific to cruise ships

 

At most, if anything - round up taxis and pizza deliveries to nearest round number - ie $47:50 - make it $50. Keep the change sort of thing.

 

and if somebody really does exceptional service, not just does their usual job - publicly say so - on Trip advisor,their Facebook page, write letter to their management,send flowers to their workplace etc

 

 

 

 

Kristelle, Thank You for your reply, I agree with you. I'm an American and am looking at this from an American point of view. Even something as simple as telling some people that they can round up or keep the change for service, just opens the door for what they WANT to do anyway. That is why I suggest just saying NO - PERIOD without giving any exceptions. With the tipping mindset, even the slightest indication that it is OK to tip (no matter how innocent that suggestion may be) just opens the door for what they are going to do anyway. It allows them to justify to themselves that their actions are OK. As you mentioned "rewarding" someone for exceptional service comes in different forms, NOT just giving them money. In fact, in my experience writing positive letters, public postings, etc., are far more beneficial than money, as they can affect a person's career or job situation for years. Made my first trip to Oz and NZ last year. My DW and I have a number of friends in Oz (from past cruises) and we got a chance to meet up and visit with them. It truly was a wonderful trip. God willing, we want to go back sooner rather than later. The years are ticking by, and we have far more yesterdays than tomorrows left. Stay safe & Healthy.

John   

12 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Yesterday actually, US time and date I presume.

Happy Birthday Mic. Wishing you many more cruises ahead.  

Just a suggestion to the Aussies and Kiwis, when an American questions about tipping PLEASE DO NOT tell them that a small tip is OK for "exceptional" service. This just opens the door for them and gives them the excuse they are looking for. The term "exceptional" is subjective. Just advise them NO TIPPING under ANY circumstance - PERIOD. This will NOT stop all of them from doing it as some WANT to do it no matter what. But don't give them the excuse they are looking for. Example: an American will feel a taxi driver who takes luggage out of the trunk is "going above and beyond" his/her job and as such "deserves" a tip. When in reality that IS part of their job. The tipping culture is so out of control in the US. People in the US now tip automatically. Good service Bad service, it doesn't matter. Tipping is an American custom that is NOT practiced in most of the world. Sadly, far too many Americans will NOT adhere to the customs of the countries they visit even though they claim they want to. The arrogance and disrespect just frosts me.   

On 5/2/2024 at 2:32 AM, MicCanberra said:

Due to my surgery, we had to cancel a few trips, but none of them were domestic cruises.

Hey Mic, how is your recovery going??? Hopefully well. I know it put you out of commission for a while. You'll come back stronger and ready to go. I can relate, I'm having surgery Friday. This will be the second one since December. I'm saying my prayers on this one. We'll see how things turn out and I'll be back as well. Stay Safe & Healthy. 

John

12 hours ago, cruiseequalsfun said:

@JJK2008 - Hello.  If you didn't mind posting an overview of your cruise on the main Royal Caribbean board that would be great.  There is little to no information / reviews of Enchantment.  We will be sailing her in June and yes I know it is an older ship without all the amenities, but wanted to know in general your review of it, especially recent trips out of Tampa - the ship, what you did in ports, the food, and how the tender situation was in Belize!  Thanks in advance if you can do a short review!

Hey Melissa, per your request I did a quick review and posted on the RCCL board. Hope this helps. Safe travels, enjoy your cruise.  Enchantment of the Seas April 27, 2024 - REQUESTED REVIEW,