ldubs

We stayed at the Elephant Design Hotel in Prague. It had a terrific breakfast. It has been a few years though.

Wow, good one!

Who would have thought we would experience two years of shut down because of a world wide pandemic. Crazy to think about it.

Good they got it off their chest!

What happened?

That would make sense. It would have to be on the honor system I guess. It looks like the only guideline is that one must be logged on to access a Role Call. That clears up a lot - thanks.

IDK. It is pretty easy to identify those ships that cater to families. The prime family vacation times are no mystery. So, someone who doesn't want to be around kids books a family oriented cruise. Pretty much a guarantee they will be back here to complain about it. My suggestion is to not voluntarily do things you know you won't enjoy.

I have a way to go to match your collection but I can fully understand. It is sad day when one of the favorites gets to the point it has to go in the rag bin. My current favorite, which I've had a long time, is a Clippers #24 World B. Free T-shirt. I pretty much wear it only a few times a year on sea days and always get a comment from my fellow old dudes. Haha.

Celebrity says 90kg (198 pounds). There is an exception for Celebrity Xpedition Class (I don't know what that is). So, as far as the cruise ship goes, you can pretty much bring as much as you can reasonably carry. If flights are involved, then the airline' luggage policy will apply. That might typically be one carryon and one checked at no more than 50 pounds. This will be spelled out by the airline for your ticket class.

Our first Med cruise was on Grand Princess. It was called the "Grand Mediterranean". It was a fantastic itinerary. Since, we have done more Med cruises on Princess as well as RCI and Celebrity. All have terrific Mediterranean itineraries, IMO. But I always think fondly of that first Med cruise on Princess.

They are kinda everyday wear for me (no not formal night).

Yeah, I wear a lot of T shirts but might not want a "roll call" one, whatever that means. I hope you are right about it not being a scam.

What does it mean by a "person asks to join the roll call"? Can't anyone join a roll call? BTW, agree it sounds fishy and I would avoid.

This is new to me. I know there are rules for automatic or mandatory gratuities, but wasn't aware of the distinction you make.

Makes sense. I just see it as a way for me to give spare change that likely would not otherwise be donated. I suspect the same would apply to most people doing these rounding up donations at the local hardware store. I imagine a fair amount of money is going to the specified charity as a result. As far as the businesses lacking altruistic virtues, are you suggesting that they not have a tax deduction for charitable donations?

I think maybe it is normal in general for pic's to become less of a thing for folks who have been on a lot of cruises, IDK. On our recent Caribbean cruise, I was surprised at the crowds of people doing business at the photo store area (named Focus). We were there to pick up our two freebies. I guess pics are still in demand by a fair number of folk.

For credit cards charges some retail stores around here are giving an option to donate to charity by rounding up to the dollar. I like that approach.

I would need to eat our a whole lot more for that to happen! 😀 For us the difference could be less than rounding up to the dollar 🙂 We frequently have large family group outings where the bill is split after the fact. Usually for treating out-of-town folk, B-days, etc. Those are pretty large bills where the amount becomes more meaningful. In those cases the tip included on the bill by the establishment is calc'd before tax.

Yes I agree that while suggested, they are optional. Question is, is one making a good show of it by withholding tips for other than poor service. My social norm would say a head shaking no. Your's would say a perfectly acceptable yes, I think. One of those culture clashes I guess. BTW, I'm OK with adding it to the base fare. I think a lot of others, particularly those who reduce or withhold grats, would strongly object.

For an employee it would all be income for tax purposes. For the business' tax return, there are apparently different tax accounting rules for wages vs tips.

With some exceptions, I tip on the total bill. More out of laziness than anything else. The difference after subtracting sales tax is not worth the effort -- about $1.50 per $100. If credit card fees are included, they should not be thought of as gratuities. And they could be excluded from the amount to be tipped if wanted.

I voted "yes but will consider others". We have three cruise lines which would be pretty much equal in preference. Which on we select would come down to itinerary and cost. There are other cruise lines that we would take depending on the objective of the vacation, like say, a family get together vs an itinerary driven trip. And, there are some we would avoid.

In my state restaurant workers are paid the state minimum wage before tips. Our state minimum wage is about double the Federal minimum. Either way, tips are counted as part of income, as they should be. For most states tips are counted towards the required minimum wage obligation. Personally, I would not worry too much about a credit card tip being distributed to staff. However, some states allow any card fees to be subtracted before distribution. My state does not allow this. It is interesting that per American IRS rules, a "mandatory gratuity" must be treated as wages paid for tax purposes as opposed to a tip. Mandatory gratuities are often added around here for parties of 6 or more in restaurants.

It is not common here to tip fast food workers other than maybe the coin change in a tip jar, if one exists. And, I would not argue that good service would be a basic job requirement. What we each describe points to the differences in accepted behavior in our respective countries.

If you have cruise lines you enjoy you could check their Mediterranean itineraries. If you have perks, so much the better. There are a lot of Med itineraries. Major embarkation ports are Rome (Civitavecchia), Barcelona, Venice (Ravenna) and Athens (Piraeus). We like Rome and Barcelona because we have more preferred flight options to those places.