Waihekean

No daily limit. Only restriction is one drink at the time. I.e. you can not order a drink (alcoholic or not) and have a water at the same time. Which can be annoying. Once had a drink package on MCS and no problem to have a water and a B52 at the same time. Which was great, as did a lot of dancing. So, kept hydrated and the coffee liquor in B52 kept us awake😉

Cruising from Tampa December'22 and have booked the Quality Inn Airport-Cruise Port.

This hotel has a free pick up shuttle from the Airport and a shuttle to cruise port for a small fee.

Anybody stayed in this hotel? If so, how were the services and amenities etc.

My US TA explained it this way: because cruise was discounted, Deposit is not refundable.

I did not query this further, but I would expect the deposit to be refundable if the cruise line would cancel the cruise.

Thanks for your review. Have not been on CC for ages and are so exited to go on a cruise again. We are leaving from Tampa too and on December 23 this year "22. We are from New Zealand and do not know much about the Caribbean, so I am soaking up any info I can find here. We will be on the Connie as well.😉

Hallo Waihekean. Yes the QM2 library has books in several languages, but sorry to say - apparently not Dutch.

"Queen Mary 2 Holds approximately 8400 English and 800 German book. The rest of 10 000 books are Japanese, Spanish, Italian and French." - quoted from https://ask.cunard.com/help/fleet/library

 

Dank je wel Salacia:D It is not too much of a problem really, as we are leaving from her hometown, so we are just have to make sure she does not forget to take some books with her.

If you are, come and join us on the 3rd of July Roll Call. The cruise that starts on the 1st of July in Southampton is the same cruise that starts on the 3rd of July in Rotterdam. The Southampton cruise just starts and finish two days earlier then the Rotterdam one. We would love to have more cruisers to join the roll call for this cruise.:D

Thank you for the excellent link.

Wow, counted 23 theme nights!

We are having a Masquerade Ball and a Roaring Twenties Ball, which are self explanetary. But besides it mention that the other two are formal nights in the Personal Voyager, it does not explain what sort of Balls they are. Could one of them be to be dressed in black and white?

Does the Library has foreign language books?

I'm having no problem reading English books, but my Mother who is from Holland can only read in Dutch. So, far we always have been able to find a Dutch book or two on our Celebrity cruises.

Presume it will be the same on Cunard?

As a newbie to Cunard, I have not been able to find out if the indoor pool is for general use or does it only come with a spa treatment?

I'm guessing that the high tea might be without charge, but on other ships there was always a charge for it.

Not for this one - note that it says it is for 'residents' of the US and several other specific areas including Canada.

Maybe not for that particular deal, but I was able to book as a non-resident via an US TA that had a promotion that ended on the 3rd of March. I booked on the 4th of March, but Ha Ha did not matter as we are in New Zealand one day ahead. (as the Aussie's would be). So, it would seem Cunard does allow non-resident bookings.

How many hosts would there be? And I'm guessing you would not tip them, as that seems to be a bit uncouth, but maybe at the end of the cruise? If so how much would you tip?

Can highly recommend The Blue Hawaiian Helicopters. Found them through Cruise Critic here and booked with them directly over the internet. Great thing is that you save hundreds of dollars not booking through the ship, but they will pick you up from the ship. You will have to check with them if they still do that and if you have enough time to get back to the ship.

Keep reading in the reviews, that you have actually have to ask for those toiletries. Then the stewart will deliver.:)

Any tips on how to make the time go faster?

Do some kind of project, like a spring clean:rolleyes:, garden project etc.

Highly recommended here on CC over the years is Rome Cabs. Just google them and follow directions on their website. They have an entry for Cruisers.

Have used them several times and they are punctual and provide a very good service.

If you share a van with some other cruisers of your roll call then the cost is not much at all and it is so convenient to be picked up from the ship.

Alternatively is to take an disembark excursion from the ship (if Cunard provides it). This is very handy if you can not get into hotel till after 2pm. Then you might get to do two major sightsees (like Colosseum and St.Peters Basillica) while your suitcases stay on the bus.

Also would like to find some more current info about these OV rooms.

Are they only on deck 7 and 8? Which would be the better deck?

Much appreciated to get what info I can get, as just starting to research for 2017:)

Well, I'am back from lovely Hawaii!:)

I did find that the meals and drinks in Hawaii were a lot higher then in New Zealand, but I heard this from Americans too, so it seems a Hawaiian thing, the high prices. The general tax was low though, but was not included on sales prices and found that quite a hassle.

Did not like that on a bus transfer included with a Luau before dropped back to hotels, we were told by the Tour Escort (he said he was not a Guide) that we had to pay his wages i.e. tip. Asked a Pax how much we should give and she said $10 was the norm. Considering there were about 50 of us on the bus, he made a good wage for just an evening and only working on the bus and not the luau.

Another time on a bus with no escort, but just a driver who was entertaining and had a great attitude, we gladly gave $20, as we felt he really deserved it.

But overall we just went with the flow, kept taking money out of the ATM and try not to think too much about all the add ons. Like 4.5% tax, 18 or 20% tip, plus 50-60% for the currency exchange. Ouch!

Alcohol was really not affordable, especially on the ship. $45 NZ for a small and a medium glass of wine. $18NZ for a cocktail. Paid $140 NZ for a meal at Cagney's, which would be comparable with fine dining restaurant in NZ and we found the meal worth it.

Managed to not overspend on souvenirs, except for a piece of art that with the exchange rate came out very expensive. However, this is a Hawaiian mask and a special memento of the fantastic holiday we had. Plus it will look great with our two Venetians masks in our lounge. Of which one was also very expensive, but we never regretted it.

So, overall we did sort of got used to it to keep adding money on all the time, but glad that it was only for a few weeks, as it sure make life more complicated!

Pina Colada at Sail-away and trying to be on the ship as early as possible:)

In Hawaii it is 4.5%, so I guess it will be usually x3 for tip.

I just figured out your concern with the tax. If I am reading things right' date=' I am presuming that you are thinking that you have to pay the tax separately. That is not the case.[/quote']

 

Indeed that was what I was thinking. Probably because many years ago I was on a stopover (either Los Angeles or Chicago) and when I bought souvenirs the price listed with the items were the exclusive amounts and found they added the tax at the till.

Waihekean - Good for you for planning in advance for all the "little" things that we encounter when traveling. Sometimes I wish that the U.S. would just put a 15% tip on every restaurant charge but then, if service is atrocious, we would not be able to adjust the tip.

 

If you are in a restaurant with a group of 6+ be sure to check if an automatic 15% tip has already been included. Some restaurants are not good about letting customers know this and they double tip.

 

We enjoyed a fabulous family vacation to the North Island of New Zealand last year and even a visit to Waiheke Island. I hope you have a great time in Hawaii. Cherie

 

p.s. If you are getting take out from a restaurant or shrimp truck the tip is usually more like 10%.

Thank you Cherie for more good advise and your wishes. I'm sure we are going to have a great time in Hawaii. Just have to collect a lot of small change and getting used to have cash on me.

Wonderful that you had such a fabulous time in NZ. Is it not amazing how many CC'rs actually visit Waiheke Island?

I feel very lucky to live here:)

Everyone plans differently, I count on $100/day/person for "whatever!". Tax is tax, I pay it and move on rather than complain.

???????? I was not complaining. Just tried to get a grip on how to deal with this.:rolleyes:

Ha, me again. Just never expected that this query about tax and tip would escalate in such a lively debate about a "living wage".

Although we have minimum wage here in NZ, there is debate here about providing a living wage. This because house rentals are really high (about half of a low income earners wage per week). Historically it was at least a quarter.

The minimum wage has been recently upped by 50 cents. Doop di doop.

As an employer I had to deal with this when we took on an apprentice and found that we were allowed to pay below the minimum wage which was at the time 12 per Hr and could pay him something like 10.45. There is no way you can live on that anywhere in NZ and this rate is based on school leavers that still live at home.

So, I paid him $15 the first six months and then upped it to $16 thereafter, as I thought that would be a living wage seeing that he had to get a drivers license for work and needed to save up for that.

I think it is good there is a minimum wage set and the market will also set it's rate like indeed a lot of demand for a certain skill then rate goes up and if not well it goes down.

What I always feel really sorry for that Americans do not have and that is a set time for holiday pay and time off. Here in NZ and in Australia it is 4 weeks paid annual leave and another 15 days for paid public holidays like Christmas and New Year etc. Plus if an employee gets sick there is at least 5 sick days paid.

So, often you read here on Cruise Critic, that a pax can not do this or that, because they only have one week holiday. In that respect I'm really glad that we can have a break from work. Unless you are self-employed of course then it is hard to get time off. The cruise we are going to do is actually annual leave for 2013 for my DH. So, about time!

Thanks everyone for the good advise and Thanks scottca075 for the Trip Advisor Link, that was great and I'm sure also really helpfull for our Australian cruiser.

Have decided that as a general rule will tip about 18% for dining and beverages.

Liked a tip I saw on the T/A link. Say sales tax is 5%, then go x3 to get in the tip range. So say a meal is $50, 5% is 2.50 x3=7.50 tip plus 52.50, so meal costs $60. Can up that if dining and happy or if just had some drinks keep it at that level.

Good to know that don't have to tip at food trucks, just have to work out that the 10.95 meal plus 4.5% = + 0.49, will be 11.44. Then probably give $12 or so.

Also good to know that tipping tour guides was in the 5 - 10% range. Because 15-20% would really add up:eek: by the end of the cruise.

When on my Med cruises was used to tip 10% for transfers and tour guides.

Re: tipping on board I know that there is a daily charge for the servers and that the 18% charge only applies to beverages and with the food I meant the speciality restaurants. Even on a non tipping ship I always give an extra tip for my cabin steward and dining room servers, because I know that although they are sailing in New Zealand or the Med, they will be on the same wages as per usual.

Guess will get used to this adding taxes and tips, as suppose same sort of range of amounts will pop up again and again. Anyway feel much better about it now.

So, Thanks again for helping me to sort it out.