NutsAboutGolf

Short answer yes. Longer answer, most or all of the gratuity goes to the crew which allows X to pay less in wages. Unfortunately, tipping is spreading everywhere as it saves companies money and/or makes the job more attractive to the employee

I'm guessing with craps, $10 may be the minimum during the day and $25 at night. I don't play craps so never paid attention but that's what some other tables do

Premium now seems to be capped at 5mbps yet when starlink first deployed on the Beyond, folks were reporting speeds of like 50mbps. For those "digital nomads" who want to do an hour long work video call, they're still most likely going to have some hiccups here and there. This site, CC, is fairly complex and even with basic wifi this site will technically "load" yet the format presented makes unusable. With starlink, I've only had Premium so not sure what mbps they're capping it at

In my experience, you're absolutely correct, that there is a X cap on BCC AQ rooms and another X cap on the overall number of BCC rooms. I was only able to find the $20 upgrade on board with future cruises. If nothing else, future cruises was able to quickly look up a ship sailing, if no availability, in seconds, move on to the next sailing, etc. Even in 2019-2020, when calling BCC call center, it took what felt like several minutes for them to change sailings and after checking a few sailing they seemingly got annoyed

Great ideas, I would recommend the OP ask the wedding POC as I wonder if X wants to charge $1K for their photographer and more for prints, if "smuggling" a photographer on board would be is banned like alcohol

Mind sharing a rough ball park of the all in price range and if it was AUD or USD?

dang…lol

Far more common on cruise lines that are popular with kids, parents bring all their children. Went on my first 100% sailing since the restart over NYE, they put this sign on the all the buffet tables

When mentioning this often you attracts other to post their experiences…Also it’s important to ensure their experience has happened no earlier than 2022

2019-2021 = 23 2022 - 74/75 nights depending if we're counting Dec 31 as 2022 or 2023; I did exclude the nights of 2023 Jan 1-2

Thanks for sharing, so we have one port who is checking boarding windows. In the past year, they have not checked in the following 6 ports, L.A./San Pedro, San Diego, Rome/Civitavecchia, Puerto Rico, Miami and FLL (multiple terminals). We're going out of Dover, England in the next month on another cruise line and will report back. The porter "skip the queues" was in FLL

Like most of the travel industry, X has supply and demand-based dynamic pricing (by room type) If there is considerable availability for your room type than the pricing will progressively decrease the closer you get to the sailing so there usually isn't a drastic price drop from 31 days to 30 days (for example)

Yes, however I can only speak for the NON-suites. The revolutionized M-Class ships got the full stateroom treatment including different furniture/nightstand/lamp with outlet. The revolutionized S-Class ships only got new carpet, curtains, pillows, bed slash, etc, but not a furniture/nightstand update. If anyone cares, google an updated room against a non-updated room

Work smarter, not harder...I present the hazmat tux!

Unless you're in love with the idea of the ship having glass blowing or a two deck Retreat, you really make a bad choice with ships so I'd strongly factor in the cost and itineraries. Assuming you want to explore the destinations, check out X's excursions, specifically read the descriptions of the highlight tours to get a very rough idea of what to do and if that's appealing @mahdnc, mind sharing the excursions URL/trick? For the shows, I'd normally say who knows in 2024, however, I would guess the show won't be on at all because I've been on 14 sailing since the restart, haven't heard of this show and they play the same shows on different ships with the exception of the E-Class as they have their own E-Class shows due their more advanced theatrics. There are guest entertainers who could plays some oldies

Besides occasionally roulette at $5, most tables have a $10 minimum. 3:2 BJ is usually $25 and occasionally $50. You have to reach out to the casino about a week before the sail date for them to open the baccarat table. I was surprised to see it open on my last Beyond sailing and the minimum was $300

Unfortunately...

I think most of us deep down knew it wouldn't be around very long, it was eliminated at the start of this year. Honestly surprised someone thought up a small upgrade fee for only AQ, skipping concierge class and then management seemingly approved it

The overall experience is the same between E-Class and S/M-class but you get a more beautiful ship, much better theatrics/shows (they're still mostly musicals) and the Eden which includes the Eden Cafe Rule enforcement is #2 most debated topic on here, tipping is #1. Half the time, the waitstaffs asks that we give top survey marks so while the waiters have nothing to do with dress codes, I do wonder if M'Ds don't enforce it due to the survey. I've been on 14 sailings since the restart and I see some sort of dress code violation every sailing even on Chic nights; most common offense, men in a non-collared shirt and/or shorts

Thanks and make sense. In regards to tipping on drinks, currently with happy hour and at the Cafe (free coffees with elite+), 90% of the time, they take the room card over to the computer and "charge" you $0. 10% of the time, they take the room key, validate you're Elite (plus) and hand it right back to you without using the computer and I later validate no $0 charge appears on my bill.. Always wondered if they got tipped when not using the computer and their reasoning for doing so

@ShawninFL, guessing they meant to quote you

Thanks; was this the norm or only on TAs? ...Some had said X had vouchers just before the pandemic on a TA

I’m just parroting what others have said, supposedly they made this change just before the pandemic. Someone claimed on a TA sailing they given paper drink vouchers

They would need extra staff (drink servers, snack servers, bussers and a host) for at least two hours every day but one/turnaround day. Now they can be redeployed elsewhere

Invite us next time! 🤣