Spire2000

Spire2000.....do you know how far mamitas is from the pier you get off?

 

Assuming the tenders let you off at the north pier, not the ferry pier (this is how they used to do it, might not anymore), Mamitas is about a 5 minute walk up the beach to the north. Beaches are public in Mexico so cross in front of the Royal Playa Del Carmen (our favourite resort, by the way) and the new resort being built and you are there. They'll be people at the per who can show you also. Lots of beer umbrellas up the beach, can't miss it.

So are there public beaches that you can walk to when you get off the tender??? Any recomendations?

 

Literally at the end of the pier, both left and right is amazing beach. The whole town of Playa is edged by the beach (hence the word Playa).

 

Playa is my favourite place in the world. I considered moving there about 10 years ago. We've spent many weeks in Playa and look forward to many more.

 

Interested in information overload about Playa? http://www.playa.info/playa-del-carmen-forum/

 

Yes, people get that obsessed about Playa.

 

I doubt most caretakers provide constant supervision in the situations cited above, but you never know, the number of perfect parents on these boards never ceases to amaze me.

 

You're probably right and that's a very sad fact. I cannot imagine not knowing exactly where my 6 year old daughter is every second she is near a pool.

Glad to see the question I asked in the OP was legit. Seems there were other confused about Sabor too.

No fee for reservations - everything is a la carte. $3-$4 per item (margaritas are $12, so be careful!). You don't need reservations, I never saw it that busy on our full ship for Thanksgiving. We ate there 3x.

 

Don't miss the guac or the chicken stuffed jalapenos!

 

Ok, great! Thanks for the info.

I've poked around and can't find a complete answer on this so I'll ask it here.

 

The new Sabor Modern Mexican spot on the Oasis is something that caught my eye. Just now, I was booking our reservations for things and noticed there is no charge for Sabor. When I booked Chopps there was the expected $38 fee but no fee (noted as complimentary) for Sabor. Is this a glitch? Or is it A La Carte pricing? Or is it simply as it says?

 

I booked it and still no charge.

 

Thanks in advance.

My neighbour is a senior sales manager at Coca-Cola. The freestyle machines report back on what people are drinking. Orange Coke is by far the favourite, so much so they are considering producing it in cans/bottles.

 

My favourite was the raspberry ginger ale. Peach sprite was good too.

The news stations are fine if we're just puttering around and want background noise.

 

We like to pile a bunch of TV shows we have to catch up on onto our iPad or laptop though. We usually watch an hour or so of TV in bed and its weird not to do that. I'll go through our PVR and see what we have listed then go to the computer and download the shows as torrents and transfer them to the iPad or whatever. Almost like having access to Netflix.

Is this a free service?

 

http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/tb_862/pstbaetab01-eng.asp

 

DH is retired Municipal worker & we pay a premium for travel insurance

 

Depends on your definition of "free". It is built in to the Public Service Health Care Plan, something all federal employees possess unless you opt out of it.

 

I think it is only for active employees, though I'm not sure. Also, as a municipal employee, your husband would have a different plan.

For anyone who is a member of the Canadian Public Service, and I know there are many of us who frequent these boards, know that you are covered by the Public Service Health Care Plan (Public Service Travel Benefit and Emergency Travel Assistance Benefit).

 

Travel Benefit

 

The Public Service Health Care Plan covers you and your dependants for up to $500,000 each in eligible medical expenses incurred as a result of an emergency while traveling on vacation or business. This coverage continues for up to 40 days after departure from your province of residence.

 

http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hr...etab01-eng.asp

__________________

For anyone who is a member of the Canadian Public Service, and I know there are many of us who frequent these boards, know that you are covered by the Public Service Health Care Plan (Public Service Travel Benefit and Emergency Travel Assistance Benefit).

[B]Travel Benefit[/B]

The Public Service Health Care Plan covers you and your dependants for up to $500,000 each in eligible medical expenses incurred as a result of an emergency while traveling on vacation or business. This coverage continues for up to 40 days after departure from your province of residence.

[url]http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/TB_862/pstbaetab01-eng.asp[/url]

You can use gift cards purchased in the US, but not ones purchased in Canada, or presumably elsewhere.

Not sure why it bothers you as to what we do.

 

Oh, the age old question! Nothing gets out the lecturing schoolmarms like someone removing auto-tips.

Is there a poll that could be started to find out.

I was queuing to query why a mini bar item was added when I had not taken any thing from it, three people ahead of me were removing the auto added gratuities to their daily bill that they never knew about. Found that I was being charged for taking 2 Evian bottles from the fridge which I had not of course, tap water is just fine and saves the waves from the plastic.

 

Remember where you are asking this question. You are asking it to a community of people obsessed with cruising. That's not a bad thing of course, because I am here too, but the majority of people here are traditionalists and enjoy the tradition of cruising. They wish to feel like they "belong" on the high seas and seem to be in agreement with the paltry salaries the cruiselines pay their employees, because they can feel important by topping up the poor pay with tips.

 

Don't for one minute believe that you must pay these gratuities. The cruiselines have set this program in place to make the fares seem cheaper and to put the emphasis on fair salaries on the cruiser via hidden fees applied after the cruise is priced out. If we all stopped this ridiculous charade, employees would leave and the cruiselines would be forced to implement honest pricing and fair salaries in short order, improving the entire industry. But no, you're a cheapo because you cancel the tips and give out to those you feel deserve it and the problem perpetuates.

 

Cruise Critic members make up less than 1% of cruisers, probably something far less than 1%. The opinions heard here are those of an exclusive club.

While not directly related to Royal Caribbean, I had three long conversations with the senior Kids Club employee on the MS Zuiderdam last winter. We had lots in common (comics, music, etc...) and he was missing a lot of the pop culture news from back home.

 

Among the things I discovered was that these counsellors are paid quite well. It is a something of a secret in the childhood educator's programs that cruise ship work is a great way to pay off your student debts and get some travel in. I don't know what they make exactly, but they seem very happy with it.

 

What they can't predict is when they'll work. The number of staff assigned any given week is dependent on the number of children on the ship. Last winter, there were two staff members on the Zuiderdam for 7 children total, 2 of whom never showed up to the Kids Club.

The only one I've actually seen is in the new food court at Rideau Centre at the gourmet grilled cheese place 'MLTDWN'. Their freestyle machine is behind the counter - not self serve. You tell them what combination you want, and they hit the buttons on the screen. Never seen that setup anywhere else.

 

Apparently, there's also new machines at Carleton U and Ottawa U.

 

My hope is the next one we see is ago he new theatre opening at Lansdowne.

 

My next door neighbor is a sales manager at Coca-Cola and he was supposed to tell me when machines started showing up here in Ottawa. Must have a words with him...

 

Some cool things about the machines he's told me... The machines "phone home" regularly. That is, they report stats back to headquarters such as the number of pours any given combination gets... The syrup is highly concentrated, much more than a usual fountain machine. Two drops is all a cup needs... The most popular flavour, by far, is Orange Coke. So much so that it may begin appearing in can form this winter. This doesn't really surprise anyone though since the natural flavour of Coca-Cola is from orange oil, something most folks don't realize.

:):rolleyes:

 

:confused::eek:

 

Not sure what you are getting at but I can do that too!

So, do you tip? Or are you just contributing to the cruise lines not paying their staff an unfair wage?

 

Of course, in amounts that we believe are fair for the service provided, just like we do in a restaurant, a taxi and so on. I've never paid a server at a restaurant a tip before I see what the service is like. I just don't understand why cruise employees deserve different treatment.

 

The wages employees on ships are paid are part of a broken system, no doubt. Going along with the cruise lines ninja-wage-subsidies is only contributing to the problem.

 

On each of our last four cruises (I didn't know any better on our first cruise), I've asked the cabin steward what happens to the cash I give him if we take the auto-tips off. On one (a HAL cruise) the steward didn't seem to understand what I was asking, but on the other three (one RC, one CCL and one HAL) the stewards' eyes lit up and they laughed, each one saying they very much prefer cash.

Not real meat for sure!!

 

McDonalds burgers are real meat. What else would it be? Not sure of the source in the US, but here in Canada they go to great lengths to point out it is 100% Canadian beef. You can't make claims like that, at least up here, without it being true.

 

Now what they do to that meat to prepare it for the restaurants is a different story entirely and there is much speculation on what that might be.

Up until recently, Coca Cola Freestyle was only in the US. The first Canadian machines showed up in Toronto around 18 months ago. I live in Canada's fourth largest city, and we got our first three freestyle machines (in a city of a million people) six weeks ago.

 

And, like others mentioned, I would only ever buy the soda package on a ship with freestyle.

 

Where are the machines here in Ottawa?!? I need to know! :p

First don't pay any mind to the tip police.We have been on twelve Royal cruises only auto tip once.Out of all our cruises never had a problem with a room steward. Someone said tips are personal,and i agree.Some people seem to have a problem with how other people tip.It is your Money tip as you please.Some of these sick minded people will lie to scare you into auto tips.Had a person tell me if i don't auto tip,i should watch my toothbrush.Have a great cruise never worry about the crew they are great.

 

We also do not auto-tip and have always received great service. In fact, last year on the MS Zuiderdam (HAL) we did pre-pay due to some confusion in the booking of the cruise and we received the worst room steward service in our 5 cruises.

 

A lot of people will jump down your throat and call you cheap for not auto-paying, but it's your money and until the cruise industry finds a way to pay their staff properly without hidden charges to the customers they'll need to deal with them not being paid a fair wage. Working on a cruise ship is a choice.

The attached pdf will explain it.

 

Thanks!

 

Looks like it won't start until after we sail...

Right, almost 7 pages of replies to this and everyone seems to know what is going on except for me. So here goes...

 

What is Dynamic Dining?

 

We're booking on Oasis in Feb. Kinda like to know what we're getting into here...

We visited St Bart's in 2012 aboard the Maasdam. St Bart's was an island that always intrigued me. I am a big fan of David Letterman, and he would often discuss his vacations on the island. My impressions before visiting it were that it would be a clean, modern island in the Caribbean, which we all know is the exception rather than the rule.

 

To say I was disappointed is an understatement. Tendering was an ordeal. For whatever reason, the tendering operations that day were a giant hassle. The weather was fine, but everything just went slower than usual.

 

Once we arrived on the island, we discovered that the people who live there really don't care for the cruise ship passengers. I've been to France and I fully understand the way the French behave toward strangers, but this was something else. The rudeness was almost cartoonish in its stereotype. There isn't much to see in Gustavia other than boutique shops selling gem-encrusted jeans or watches made out of pure platinum, and even those places were only perhaps even open and even if they were, there was no one in them. If you did find a place that was open, your act of simply walking through the door seemed to be an affront to the salesperson on a scale that he or she has never before encountered. On two occasions we surprised the surly salespeople who would mutter insults in French with responses. You would think they would have been embarrassed to find out we speak French, but they didn't care.

 

There is a very nice bakery in town, easily the most popular spot around. We had lunch at a restaurant located right across from the tender dock and were sorry we made the mistake. We ordered three hamburgers and fries and one club sandwich. I had a coke, my dad had a beer. The bill was $125. The food was good, don't get me wrong, but that price is insane. We were each charged nearly $3 for water, plain water, for example and no one actually asked for it. Cummon.

 

Granted, we didn't see any more of the island, but that is what you can expect if you plan on just getting out and walking around. I've been to exactly 20 ports in the Caribbean and St Bart's is the only one where I would not leave the ship should I ever found myself returning.

Thanks everyone for the replies and particularly the expressions of happiness at the return of Duckie.

 

For the record, the ship is a fine choice. The dining department seems to be struggling right now (just skip Canaletto; certainly not worth the $10 extra) and the entertainment is tired and uninspired (with the exception of BB King stuff), but everything else is in good shape and the trip was a big success.