markeb

What are the stops? Do any of the ports of call require a passport?

This has been the norm in a lot of the restaurant business in the US. The front of the house staff do better because of tips than most of the back of the house staff that are on some version of full pay. There were some changes to the law over the last few years that allows back of the house staff to share in mandatory tip pools, but only if the business doesn't take a "tip credit". The tipped employees themselves frequently don't want the system to change.

Head space timing issue. I was trying to be sure how many ships they had, and pulled up Viking. Stuff happens sometimes... Need to close CC for a week!

And yet, the RCG CEO keeps making public statements that would put the corporation at risk from the SEC if not true that they have record bookings regardless of how much they raise the price. Apparently no one around here, but SOMEONE is booking Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, and Silversea. Just looked again. Twelve ships all under 1000 passengers. They can live by scooping up crumbs...

FWIW, the ceviche was delicious on Equinox. The Luminae menu does suggest (require?) stepping out of your comfort zone on occasion.

If you're going to be sleeping (you hope) anyway, look at rebooking in Car 2 (the Quiet Car). No talking, cell phone use, etc. And the conductors generally take that seriously. You can do that in the app. I "think" that train originates in New York, not Washington (many of the NB Acelas originate in DC). If you are earliesh and get a red cap, you'll be on the train and asleep before they start official boarding. But there's no reason to be there an hour early. Thirty minutes (maybe 40 if it does start at Moynihan) is the earliest a red cap can get you down. If Google is right, H&H opens at 6:00 😬...

That's something I forget. Didn't they used to put "attaboy cards" into your welcome aboard packet? Or am I thinking Royal. I know I've done them in the past. Everything's in the app, but I don't remember a way to do an attaboy in the app!

Roger that. It sometimes feels like people want to be sure that only their waiter is getting the extra. They probably have more control over a direct cash tip, but they're probably not keeping it all either.

The wait staff works multiple venues. Your MDR waiter for dinner is taking turns carrying trays and drinks in the OVC for breakfast and lunch. If done correctly, the workload should balance out. And the pooling would cover that as well. I've never seen anyone leave a tip at the OVC. I'm sure some people do, but not many. I don't know how they're pooled and split. In some venues it does seem they track who works what tables. But odds are the front of house people you see are getting help from other front of house people you didn't see. That's why they pool. And there's some formula for splitting. In land based restaurants that don't pool, the waiter (the one who took the order and presented the bill) is going to be "tipping out" the other staff that worked your table. On a credit card transaction that may be handled by the POS system, although they may have to select people and their roles. For cash, they're literally dividing the cash and giving it to the busboy, the bartender, etc. It would be incredibly rare for one person to keep the entire tip. It's part of the culture of the restaurant. Back of house is a black hole. That was never part of a traditional tip pool in the US. You still can't mandate sharing pooled tips with back of house personnel if you take a tip credit against salaries; everyone has to be earning at least minimum wage. They might get tipped out if there's no mandatory tip pool. It's complicated. I think most of us assume the ship's follow some version of the US model though they don't have the same legal obligations. But I don't know of anyone on Cruise Critic who's actually worked as wait staff on Celebrity and would have a definitive answer.

Those are after the UN opening, New York Fashion Week, and the US Open, so that's good. But September has always been crazy stupid in NYC, especially Manhattan. Just to confirm, by "next September" you mean this fall, or literally September of 2025 (next year)?

They already have. That's how this works in almost every establishment in the world. And the employees agreed to the process when they accepted employment. And them may be the employees themselves, who are probably tipping out others if they're not mandatorily or voluntarily pooling. The ship isn't a mom and pop restaurant where one person does everything for you. Your really good waiter appears really good partially because he or she is taking care of those that take care of him or her...

Pretty much second @cruisestitch. The by-the-glass list was never great, but a lot of the interesting "other wines" seem to have dropped off. And there seems to be significant variety from ship to ship and venue to venue. The "Steel" chardonnay is a very nice unoaked French style chardonnay. If you love oak and butter, it's not that. The Cake Bread Primitivo was very nice for a red. Beyond that, try wines and discard the ones you don't like. Most of the venues will give you a taste of anything on the package; that may be enough to rule something out for you (although that can be dangerous, too).

That's a twist I've not heard before. There are too many urban legends on what's done and how. I just tip and let them figure it out. Which is what I do on land.

Does it matter? Even if they pool it, they're getting more than if you hadn't left extra. The stock answer on CC for years has been that if the customer leaves the auto tips in place, the individual can keep the extra cash gratuity. The flaw in that logic is the customer could remove the auto tips up until 10:00 pm or so the last night and the individual with a cash tip would have no idea they now owed the pool. I just choose to accept that what happens to the gratuity is between the employee and their employer.

A lot of that depends on what you like, especially in a Pinot Noir. It looks like there's one Zinfandel from Mendocino County on the menu. There's also a Primitivo (same grape, long story) by Layer Cake from Puglia, Italy. If memory serves the Primitivo is pretty good; I don't think I've ever had that Zin. Those are both in the premium package. Decent selection by the bottle. Pinot Noir is a different story, and you'll probably have to pay extra, or if you're looking for a really nice Pinot Noir, just buy a bottle. The primary Pinot Noir if a Mondavi California that most people seem to despise (I've never had it and can't imagine I ever would). The "Elevated" Pinot Noirs are Cherry Pie and their Elegance co-brand with Kendall-Jackson. They're showing that in the app as a Sonoma County wine. I've had it and it's OK. I thought they were selling the Penner-Ash from Yamhill-Carlton region of Willamette by the glass, but I don't see that on Ascent. It's been available by the bottle, but the MDR on Ascent shows Grand Moraine from the same area. $80 a bottle (20% discount for premium package plus 20% gratuity so just under $80). As far as reds worth an upcharge, the Kiona Merlot from Red Mountain Washington is very nice, maybe the best upcharge on the menu. The Opulence Cabernet from Grgich Hills is $25, so $9.60 over the package. It's as good as I'd expect from Grgich Hills and not as crazy stupid of an upcharge as Caymus. You're probably just going to have to try a bunch of wine and see what you like. But the better wines are by the bottle. Even more so than in the past. And remember each venue has some variation on their wines, including the by the bottle wines.

THANKS! We did look at the Tonglen Lake Lodge, but no availability when we were there. Denali Bluffs and Tonglen were the two properties that most interested us. I did look at the Seward Military Resort, but I'm a retired O5, so it's actually more expensive than the Edgewater (or essentially the same price). Rank based pricing. Go figure. So Edgewater looked most interesting. Harbor 360 is sold out. We're spending two nights in Seward to get the Gold Service train down. Like I said, there's a part of us that didn't really believe we were doing this...

I think I would have simply looked at you and asked if you worked for the restaurant and when you said no thanked you for your interest. And ignored you completely.

Most of the car services now book through Uber and Lyft. They'll probably pull up with stickers for the company you booked through and an Uber and Lyft sticker.

Thanks again. We booked some places to stay as some are getting booked. Denali Bluffs Hotel--Not the cheapest, but looks very nice Hotel Edgewater in Seward--Likewise. Looks nice, good reviews, and the price was acceptable. Plus they run a shuttle to the train station and the cruise terminal Planning on the train from Anchorage to Seward. Just waiting until tomorrow to determine if my wife (retired military family member) gets the military discount or only me. Fly into Anchorage and spend the night. Drive back to Anchorage, spend the night, then take the train down to Seward. We'll figure out details for Denali and Seward later (but relatively soon). Two nights in Seward to do the domed train down (not available the day before). And the hotel says it has laundry! Back to research and questions. I suspect this would be a lot simpler if we were either a) only going to Denali and a land based trip, or b) only doing a cruise. And we've cruised out of Europe doing both without this kind of angst!

That makes perfectly good sense. And fortunately (no idea how easy or hard it really is) they now allow medical exceptions on the "everyone must have the same package" rule. It's actually a little bizarre they don't stock more ginger ale. It's kind of the go to for many of us for any motion issues. I've probably seen that, but it didn't really register. I also don't recall them selling ginger candies, which would seem a great idea and probably a money maker. When we've driven, which is rare, we have typically taken our two bottles of wine. Usually something in the middle range that I'm not worried about shocking too bad on the drive. That's never been to save money but to have something I know full well won't be on the ship. Have to remember the gift thing next cruise. If there's a whisky I'd drink available to gift...

It's seemed pretty heated here! I just don't follow a lot of other social media on cruising. If any. Let's me keep my losartan dose lower...

"Cookiegate" is an example of social media rage coupled with poor internal messaging of their strategy. Celebrity attempted to add a new offering for an additional fee. They even put it with the gelato, which is already an extra fee item. They clearly didn't communicate internally that they intended to make this an additional offering, and folks on Equinox (I believe it was Equinox; everything was on Equinox at the time) apparently moved the standard cookies out of the case to encourage sales of the new, "better" cookies. A logical move if you haven't been told why they're doing this. And the 'net, including Cruise Critic, blew up. And the rage reached critical mass before they could simply ensure all the previous cookies were still at Cafe al Bacio and that they didn't intend for the hot chocolate chip cookie to replace the free cookies. Maybe that was necessary to wake up some of the operational folks, but they were doing a lot of experimenting at the time, and this one might have worked if done better, and probably not in conjunction with everything else. But I will still argue that social media rage torpedoed the idea. I pay for gelato on occasion. I like it better than ice cream. I probably would have paid for an occasional hot chocolate chip cookie. Never got the chance.

Any specific recommendations for hotels? Looks like a lot of interesting places are booked for when we want to be there. Probably not surprising.

Have you done the math on that? Recently? The promotion may be over, but Celebrity had the premium beverage package on special for $69.99. Martinis at the martini bar are $17. Much of the (barely) drinkable wine is $17. Much of the beer is $11 or more. A latte is $5. Bottled water is $4. So are sodas. It doesn't take much effort to hit 69.99. Four martinis or martini priced drinks plus a latte should do it. Or three, a few bottles of water, and a latte. A little more effort to break even at $99. The cost of alcohol without a drink package is ludicrous. The cost of the package really isn't. (And no, I'm not adding the gratuity. It cancels out algebraically in the calculation.) I certainly don't advocate having 4-6 alcoholic beverages of any type every day, but people do it all the time on a cruise. And then presumably revert to baseline at home.

You'll need original identification, usually passport. Your boarding pass is available in the app and can be saved to your wallet. I print the luggage tags at home. I have clear tag holders that I bought years ago from Cruise Critic (does CC still have a store?). They also float down that great South American river (Amazon) and Celebrity and Royal Caribbean share the same size and format. Print, cut, stuff them in the holders, stuff the holders in a Ziplock, and put them on the bags at the hotel the night before the cruise. Just part of our ritual. I know the porters will fill them out, but if the tags are on the bags when I get there, it's less than 30 seconds, most of which is fishing for a tip... I do tend to save my edocs to my iPad. Ditto my travel insurance. That may just be me.