Hoopster95

This is incorrect. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t. This is ship dependant.

I demand you take 10 of your closest family, go live in the Philippines or Bangladesh full time, only you out of the ten have a job. You work for the entire family. Oh, and by the way, “work” Means you work for 7 months every single day without a single day off, 10-12 hours per day. You don’t get to go home and see your family each night or sleep in your own bed. As I said in a previous post, there sure are thousands of Americans lining up in Miami at the cruise line head office looking for a Windjammer job…. NOT. If these jobs were so lucrative, paying for room and board and travelling the world, why is that?

You’re too intelligent not to have thought of this, so I hope not to Insult… just wondering if you factored in the WJ busperson cleaning plates off tables that do not receive a direct tip from an 18% mandatory bill (ie. UDP or beverage package)…. How do they get their gratuities “supplemented” when cruise lines underpay them? How about other “behind the scenes” staff (cooks, etc?)

Yes, this is the first main point. The second main point is the so called “gratuities” are not gratuities at all… cruise lines just call them that to divert the public from seeing the truth. As was already said, cruise lines pay the employees LESS THAN minimum wage, which is then supplemented by these “gratuities”. If Royal does not get enough gratuities from us the paying customer, they have to increase their substandard payment to these employees in order to reach their contractual minimum salary. Bottom line…. These “gratuities” are NOT gratuities at all, they are part of these employees wages. All cruise lines should be forced to eliminate mandatory “gratuities” and simply add them to our total cruise fare. This is gross misrepresentation in my humble opinion.

Sending good vibes your way. If you do miss Jewel's departure in Amsterdam, at the very worst you actually have your passport and you can then arrange to join the ship in Invergordon. I'm ignorant regarding American travel insurance, however I'm just wondering if you have some sort of high-end "cancel anytime for any reason" or "we pay for any issues" type of policy that can give you trip interuption regarding this passport issue? See you onboard! 😉

Words of wisdom. I need to listen to you. Lurking for months with the very odd post and got drawn to this hot topic. Just some backgournd... pre Covid, a very well known contributor to CC, ChengP75, is/was a cruise ship captain, and replied to us here on this forum often on legal matters, mechanics of a ship, regulatory matters, Panama Canal, etc when being discussed. He ran circles around those complaining about this "gratuity" and what it really meant, with proof, facts and figures. I do not have the energy to search for these threads.... especially these past two years with the re-launch of a new Cruise Critic Platform (pretty much destroyed all previous cruise reviews and searching for information). He also gave up responding to this topic. Anyways, happy cruising.

Yes I know. Just know that without this "gratuity" there wouldn't be a cruise for you to go on. It should really be called a mandatory "resort fee" or "service fee" like some hotels call it.

And what are those amounts you have read? And then let's add that $16 per day gratuity from 6000 cruisers divided into 2000 employees on a per hour basis and see what they really get. Bottom line is that of the cruise lines had to pay employees a "real" salary (based on North American Standards) without charging a "gratuity", your cruise fare would not be at all competitive.

Great post. Thank you for being thoughtful rather than reactionary. I googled the following in ten seconds: "cruise employee salary maritime labor law" https://www.google.com/search?q=cruise+employee+salary+maritime+labor+law&ei=A0lYZM-PB_KL0PEP_euFyA0&start=10&sa=N&ved=2ahUKEwiPnc-AwuT-AhXyBTQIHf11AdkQ8NMDegQIBhAW&biw=1565&bih=872&dpr=1 https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/pay-salary/how-much-do-cruise-ship-workers-make https://highseascruising.com/how-much-do-cruise-ship-workers-make/ https://www.businessinsider.com/carnival-royal-caribbean-norwegian-median-worker-pay-2019-6 "Carnival and Royal Caribbean paid their median employee less than $20,000 in 2018" "1. Food service worker National average salary: $31,798 per year Primary duties: Food service workers are in charge of food and beverage preparation, storage and service. They should enjoy working with people and have basic math skills. They report to restaurant managers and usually work nontraditional hours, especially for opening shifts." So $31,000 per year.... they work every single day, no days off, most split shifts 10-12 hours per day

Excellent points Everyone knows the price would be more if they got real pay and not tip pay. I disagree. I think half don't care I agree... probably more and the other half would feel better paying more upfront if they knew 100% the crew were getting it all. Totally disagree. Go back to the last ten years of posts on this forum and read every single tip/salary discussion. Ignorance is bliss.

I'd be insulting you if I instructed you on how to use "google". What I am getting at is that the entire cruise industry has been a joke in not paying an appropriate salary to employees in order to falsely advertise low prices for cruises to us, the ignorant public. Those "gratuities" are what supplements the extremely low mandated wages

Nope. The average cruise ship "worker" earns approx $2-3 per hour. Why do you think every single Cruise ship in the World, other than NCL in Hawaii, is registered in off shore countries? Now figure out American minimum wage for 2000 employees on an Oasis Class ship, and see where your cruise fare ends up. And we see sooooooo many Americans lined up at Royal Caribbean trade shows trying to get a job as a cabin steward.

Please quote the Maritime Labor law and the minimum wage for the typical crusie ship worker. That is all I ask from everyone on this thread.

Then your cruise would be $3000 per person instead of $699 for an interior

This is not their guarantees salary

Great comment. I assume you've only sailed on the larger ships? I spent 25 days on Rhapsody in Feb/Mar... superb first name basis service. Superb staff and crew. They loved everybody and everybody loved them. You get to see them and actually talk to them everyday. Absolutely the best crew in a very long time on RCI. Oh, and while Symphony & Harmony had 1 day stateroom service, Rhapsody still had two. Of course, now that I post this, someone on the Haifa cruises will post that I'm wrong and that everything is different. I can say this with 100% certainty, and has been said for years on this forum: RCI - Really Consistently Inconsistent

Before anyone else on this topic makes one more post, I would like them to post exactly what a cruise worker gets paid, what law states their pay scale, and what these "gratuities" actually are.

Thanks for clarifying. This is partially correct. Any port HAL goes to, the largest Royal ship also goes to. Some current smaller ships (NCL & Oceania come to mind) also visit Prince Rupert & Wrangell. The most interesting port HAL has done in the past (and only 3 times pre-Covid) has been Port Alberni within Vancouver Island, where only the smallest of cruise ships could've gone. It was the Maasdam. https://www.vancouverislandfreedaily.com/news/video-port-alberni-welcomes-the-first-of-three-cruise-ships/ As far as route, only (most) ships sailing from Vancouver go through the Southern portion of the inside passage. All Seattle based ships, including HAL, head out to the Pacific Ocean and also miss the Southern portion of the inside passage, which is roughly Vancouver to Prince Rupert. Green is the full inside passage from (most) Vancouver based cruise ships. Red is the route that Seattle based cruise ships follow. They both do the inside passage in Alaska, the northern portions depending whether they are visiting Juneau, Skagway and/or Ketchikan.

This is Juneau port photographed from atop Mount Roberts. 5 ships in port. 4 (the maximum amount) are docked. What is the ship out there with tenders running back and forth? Yes that's a HAL ship. The smallest ship will likely tender.

I’m just trying to learn…. What exact ports does HAL smaller ships go that Royal larger ships cannot go?

twangster, you are, and have been for years, the number 1 reviewer on these boards hands down. Your explanations, information, pics and videos are always first class. Being critical myself with my own review photos I personally didn’t notice any issues with your photos. Phenomenal review again and truly appreciate your time and effort putting these reviews together. Back to lurking 😉

I found this answer in 5 seconds by typing the following into my google searc "quantum of the seas connecting balcony"

One thing that has not been mentioned is immediately when you board the ship go to deck 4 in front of the Attic (Comedy/Nightclub venue).... or upon stepping into the Promenade immediately ask a staff member where the Show reservation desk is. Normally there is a desk there with RCL staff adding show reservations for cruisers for the whole week. Also, if you are tech savvy and know the RCL app, those same shows will be available from the app the day you board. I've recently been on both Symphony and Harmony (Jan & April 2023) within 3 weeks last minute booking, with all shows showing "sold out" on the cruise planner, and yet I had reservation to ALL shows the day I boarded. Not only that, I attended Columbus twice, Grease twice, the water show twice... standby line was no problem finding seats within 15 min of the show starting. By the way, I only had a very late boarding check in time (2-2:30pm) because of my very late booking of the cruise, and still got all shows reserved once on board without a single issue even though most of the ship had already boarded before me. @jlewisrnBreathe ... relax

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2661933-ovation-may-13-24-live-in-alaska-wlots-of-photos/page/32/#comment-57577120

I’m sitting at the other table in your Izumi photos lol! For those of you that remember me on these forums…. Hi! Sitting here at MIA in the lounge awaiting my flight, and I thought I myself “I haven’t lurked on CC boards for months… maybe I should see if someone posted a live review”. Lo and behold. I feel compelled to post for the first time since Covid. Hey drumexpert great job with photos. Did you happen to go Jazz on 4? If not, you missed a genious percussionist! They were Argentinian and that drummer needs to be discovered for a record label or major artist. You focused a lot of your review on food…. I too had the UDP and also agree with your positive opinions at all venues. In my opinion this was the best ship by far for food since even before Covid. All specialty dining was above average compared to previous sailings. I always stay away from Jamie’s … I sailed this time with 1st time cruiser so we tried everything regardless of my preconceived notions. Jamie’s is normally mediocre at best, but even this venue was great here on Symphony. I’ve often compared RCL dining to Oceania because of my few experiences with Oceania regarding amazing elevated food… both times in CP150 could’ve been on Oceania. Absolutely top notch foodie quality awesome meals, beyond tasty exceptional and just great service. The beef tenderloin and lobster thermadore were exquisite. CP150 wins on Symphony as the best dining venue hands down. I cant be any more positive regarding the specialty dining on this ship this time around. Very surprising as I’ve always experienced various hits and misses no matter what sailing. Anyways, good to see you had a great time drumexpert.