ldubs

The medallion (not the app) does what your old cruise card did. Use it to open the cabin, pay for stuff and to exit/re-board ship. It is kind of cool that the cabin door will unlock when you are a few feet away. It is the diameter of maybe a quarter coin and thickness of a wristwatch. Comes with a lanyard. It is waterproof, including saltwater. I found that out by mistake. In my opinion, there is no reason to have it mailed prior to the cruise. We just picked ours up during the boarding process -- easy peezy. BTW, one feature of the medallion app is the ability to send texts to each other while on board. A lot of folks find that handy.

I have a lightweight nylon rain coat of Land's End brand. Has a big hood, pockets inside & out, and folds up to a pretty compact size. Just single nylon without any lining, but it is large enough to easily fit over other bulky outer wear. Been my traveling companion for years. I recently tried to get another, but sadly it looks like Land's End no longer has them.

I was just joking. But anyway, those are awesome road trips!

IMO, Celebrity has the best dress code. Chic night is much better than the old formal nights. Most of our Celebrity cruises have been in Europe. Dress is across the board. Some formal and some casual and some in between. Best of all, everyone having an enjoyable time. Though, I have to admit I did ask the question here a long time ago and still am not sure what qualifies as "designer" jeans. 😀

You have driven all the way to Alaska? 😀

Our travel time is completely flexible because we are both retired. So we are in a position to jump on a cruise in short notice if the pricing was really attractive and we wanted a get-away. If I really wanted a specific itinerary, needed a specific time, and/or an expensive airfare was involved, I would likely book further out and hope any price drop happens before final payment. I would think demand is higher for spring cruises. So to me, that would make it a little more risky. Just my opinion. It really depends on your comfort level and what alternative you have if things don't work out.

That famous Greek philosopher said "the only thing constant is change". Actually, for me it is 4 drinks, but I still like it.

"If you fly economy, don’t expect access to the airport lounges" Unless it is a perk earned from the airline's award program. I have no idea what a concierge lounge is or does, but clearly that is the issue here. A perk was earned and now is being removed. I can understand the complaint(s). BTW, the 5 drinks anywhere is a change we really like.

I've done the wake-up call many times in the past. Works great. Now days I use the cell. I have never brought an alarm clock to a cruise.

We have gone to the diamond lounge from time to time. It is nice option but not considered a "must do". Can someone describe how the concierge lounge compares? Just curious is all.

As a grandparent, I enjoy spoiling the heck out of them! haha Seriously, I think Markndonna has it right.

Pros & cons of staying with one cruise line: Pros: Earn perks faster. Familiarity/comfort level. Cons: Might pay more for a specific itinerary. May not have preferred itinerary. May forego an opportunity to experience something you might like more. Won't earn perks on other lines. For us the perks are pretty nice. I would not discount having them. However, unless everything else is equal, perks don't dictate our choice for a cruise. Fortunately, while not top tier, we now have some status on the three cruise lines we prefer. It took us years to get to this point.

The Philippines has income tax. The question is does taxable gross income in the Philippines exclude gratuities? I don't know the answer.

I don't know how or where RCI pays taxes, but if the rules are anything like the IRS, if tips are not voluntary, then they are no longer treated as tips for tax accounting. Not saying it is good or bad. Just that it may be a big factor because they would be counted as taxable revenue I expect. I wonder how service charges are treated under IRS rules.

"I'd bet that the vast majority of cash tips aren't reported to the IRS" If they are any good at all, they know exactly how much to report.

Oh man, that brings back memories of the paper route. The monthly subscription was a couple bucks. Anyone who gave a buck tip had their paper porched every day from then on. Haha.

I understand your thinking here, and being from America, I'm used to that approach. But is it more equitable? I could see an argument that, based on the degree of effort needed, headcount might be a better basis than fares paid. Additionally, and maybe even more important, it is likely going to be a lot less complicated for cruise passengers to apply the daily suggested gratuity. There are a lot of jobs where superior performance is recognized by other than customer gratuities. Of course, in our culture, that isn't applicable to a lot of service jobs. The most obvious being restaurant workers. And, I'm pretty sure the high performers in our restaurants would be against replacing our current tipping system. I wonder what the cruise ship staff would prefer.

That is actually a good and difficult to answer question. If grats increased by $10/pp/day for a 10 day cruise, all things being equal, we probably would not stop cruising. The only real answer I would be comfortable giving is it is the total cost of the cruise that matters. If/when the total cost exceeds what we feel is worth it, then we will move on.

If will be cheaper and worth the cost if you use more than $8.99 sodas per day. Only you will know the answer to this. I like to have a soda but wouldn't have enough in a day to justify the package.

We had a 9:30 pick up scheduled earlier this year. We were off so fast we wish we had made it earlier. Disembark didn't present any issues for us.

I'm not sure I follow. Is not the price of the Plus package also going up $10/day? I'm not following how the increase to Grats and wifi encourage purchase of a higher priced package. I don't normally purchase these kinds of packages so may not fully understand.

I think this is a pretty good description of the difference. Considering the OP's preferences, I think Princess is a good alternative.

X2 -- that is a comfortable flight time. For same day LHR flights we have always done the ship Xfer from Southampton.

Just for conversation sake, Carnival says two bags per person at no more than 50# each. Applicable to cruises of 6 days or longer. I'm kind of agreeing with Hank that probably no one is enforcing that. Though to be sure, I've never attempted to bring that much luggage.

Vietnam has rules specifically applicable to cruise passengers. The visa is handled by the cruise line. A small fee is applicable. I don't know if this has changed since covid. Best source for you, IMO, is Oceania Cruise Line.