NutsAboutGolf

In my experience, it's a lot more about the how many sea days are on the sailing and how long the ship in the tender port...Generally if you have a port day before and after the tender port day and your all aboard is later, its doubtful you'll have hundreds waiting. I did a sailing with Mez, San Diego and the tender port of Cabo where it tenders from 7am-2pm if I remember correctly. Only time I can recall an absolute cluster of everyone wanting to be on a tender ASAP

If we can't beat 'em, join them right? We should add our Venmo QR code to our CC signatures. "Like our posts? Don't be a freeloader, show your appreciation!" (I'm totally kidding) I promise this QR code doesn't go to Venmo or any other pay site, but for those willing to scan the code, it will probably put a smile on this Tuesday morning

The port

In Belize the tender crew requests tips over the PA system

I'll explain my position in a different way...Specialty restaurants are bookable in the cruise planner; it's something you purchase in advance to save money vs paying more once on board

I'm a big fan of transparency so I respectfully disagree with you. With the gratuity email, for non-suite guests on a typical 7 night sailing one's gratuity only goes up $3.50 which is still only pennies more than the $1.60 yet X still sends out an email notifying you of the increase

RCI is superior with entertainment and activities. On X you have one nightly main show offered at 7 and 9 (730 and 930 in Europe), usually one is a comedian, one is a magician and the rest are musicals which could be concert style or Broadway style but there aren't any branded Broadway shows like Cats. Then you have a passenger participation game in-between the main shows. There's no other shows, no karaoke bar, no sing-a-long piano bar, dedicated comedy lounge and obviously no aqua theatre show or skating rink show. They do have trivia once a night and more on a sea day along with bingo a few times a sailing

If in an IV and your neighbor sleeps with their IV window down, it turns off your stateroom's AC...Many don't believe this yet its been reported time and time again

A press release is a pretty big leap...X did set precedence with emailing us every time the gratuities increase...Sounds like the OP is indeed wanting an email whether or not you agree with them

Tell everyone on here as we get called MANY things...lol...However, keep in mind there is a drastic difference between someone from San Diego and someone from Seattle...Additionally, in CA specially, there are a lot of transplants

Entitlement comes in many forms, passengers can be the nicest people but then if their request is denied, they "snap" and act rudely. Same goes for those who can't handle their alcohol or are known as "angry drunks". Location plays a surprisingly large part, we all know that Canadians and those from the mid-west of the US tend to be the most friendly people. However, the worst entitlement offenders that I see time and time again are from gamblers. Of course there are exception to all these yet my overall point is that there is far more to the entitlement dynamic than stateroom type

Phew, turn-down service for steerage (like us) lives to see at least one more day! Back to the topic on hand, you wonder the motivation of upping the gratuities since it supposedly goes all to the crew, are they now paying them less salary?

"Plenty" is quite subjective, X typically has one game show between the main shows at 8pm (830pm in Europe). Can be difficult to make both a standard show and the game show unless you have dinner super early or super late dinner While typically there SHOULD be at least one night of a comedian and one night of a magician, they are not guaranteed. Have been on two sailings where there wasn't a comedian at all and one that unfortunately didn't have a magician either as the resident one was on break. The CD apologized repeatedly but we were stuck with 7 nights of musicals

Probably...However, outside of the shows, they generally don't classic rock loudly, they'll usually soften it up or simply only play instrumentals

They'll occasionally replace (NOT upgrade) worn items like carpets without a drydock

Why only the butlers? It's a total crapshoot in the service industry as some people are more "needy" than others. Let's take stateroom attendants for example, some will have to clean a very tidied up stateroom and another may have to deal with extremely messy people. If you're the kind of person who is willing to leave multiple buffet plates of half eaten food for your attendant to deal with, it wouldn't be a big surprise if they also left the bathroom a disaster

We get desensitized to things quickly...In the past, when one sees/hears "X-Ray", did the thought of a Celebrity cruise enter their mind?

Totally understand any product/service cutback is disappointing, yet this is unfortunately covered in your cruise contract. I doubt complaining to an online chat person will yield anything yet perhaps complaining to the exec offices will result in an OBC credit or something. Agree with it or not, it seems X's parent company, RCG, wants to standardize some of X's experience with RCI. For now and I hope this changes in the near future, they're not taking any of the "passenger friendly" experiences such as better and more frequently entertainment

Didn't they change the name a while back to "Host" or something? Have never stayed in any X suite but did in NCL pre-pandemic for a Hawaii only cruise. We did not like him as he was quite pushy, abrasive and borderline rude yet with that being said, if we had a request that he DIDN'T fight us about he got it done. Some NCL examples, something like: "dinner on your balcony? No, it'll be too cold when it eventually arrives" and "I made you a dinner reservation in Maui; you already have a tour booked? I'll have it canceled so you can go to the great restaurant I booked"), I've only heard good things about X hosts/butlers with the exception that some wish they were more proactive in offering available services

Yup and the big issue is you still have to pay for the perks unless you’re deemed a “whale”. Alcohol was the trickiest especially if you don’t yet have elite or above status

@kwokpot, care to share the details? I cannot as I have never used them…We are mulling over using them for Virgin Voyages but are very tight on vacation days

Gamblers rarely share their “coin in” only how much they won Sort of the win/lose dynamic as a new car purchase deal at a dealership. Many will brag about the purchase price, the low interest, etc but leave out how little they got for their trade in With that being said, you can be strategic with it if you factor in the cost of the cruise fare. BCC has really tightened up on offers and there’s no signs of them coming back. In 2021, there were reports that a couple would do a $1000 room charge on slots, play it through until it’s completely lost and they could book any X sailing (excluding the expedition ships as they have no casinos) they wanted in aquaclass which often had a cash price for two over $4k

This is correct with BCC comped sailing and an easy way to think about it is your current BCC comped sailing is a reward from your last sailings play. UComp is entirely different however

Drinks within the classic packages are free for all, if actively playing in the casino. This is regardless if a comped cruise or not. Occasionally, they’ll break the rules and give a gamblers non-gambling significant other (or companion, etc) free drinks as well At times there can be zero servers and the pitboss/manager has to call over the bartender to take and fulfill a drink request

Mexican Riviera and a Puerto Rico embarkation/disembarkation are nearly slam dunks