fastpitchdad

4/20, there is a shop in town down by the water that is probably doing brisk business 🙂

My guess, DSC goes towards variable overhead and Gratuities go the the qualified service staff.

I have no issue with taking good care of them as long as it it over and above and not at the expense of everyone else who puts them in position to give you great service. I do the same thing and tip with cash in addition to prepaid.

If even 1% of people who have gratuities removed does that I would be shocked. There are two reasons to remove gratuities prior to a cruise, because they don't want to pay it, or because they want to tip servers/bartenders/stewards to try to get better service because the staff think it is over and above and have no idea that gratuities were removed.

I thought the guy in the observation lounge was good last week (was that Archie?), and the Beatles of course but they skipped a couple of shows due to illness.

Or just "The Market" 😉

I will start by saying the shot glass exchange was the best m&g idea I have seen, we are stealing it for our Lisbon to Rome next August. My good: I thought the entertainment was great, the Argentinean Beatles are amazing, not just a great Beatles cover band but great musicians (especially Juaquin). The food we had at specialty restaurants (OB, Tep, LB) was excellent with good service. We tried to have lunch at Taste/Savor but the lines were always too long. We did Food Republic instead one day and it was pretty meh. Yulia the Cellar Master was amazing, she was fun, entertaining, and informative. We did 4 tastings over the 5 day cruise (and stored our wine with her). She is transferring to the Dawn to be with her husband. The Thermal Spa was nice for the first 4 days. We had Free at Sea Plus and didn't have an issues getting a bottle of Moet every evening. I never had an issue with drink service at any of the bars (a couple of bartenders were a little grumpy). Despite the crowds, Spice H20 usually had open space in a hot tub (although the jets were broken in one) and fast bar service. I love the new wings at The Local, just plain with ranch. The weather in Victoria was amazing. Gyu Kaku in Vancouver (and Tim's bits). My bad: I tried to upgrade unlimited internet to premium unlimited on day 1 thinking I would pay the $10 per day difference but they wanted to charge me the full price with a small discount. I agree that the ship felt really crowded and the main problem is that everyone would gravitate to the same popular places while complete wastes of space like American Diner were always deserted. The ugly: 730pm Vancouver counts as a port day so they completely oversold day passes for the Thermal Spa to the point where it was standing room only. Embarkation was apparently a mess. We are platinum and got on early but others took hours to get on once boarding started. Lines and slow service at any restaurant that wasn't Speciality (the buffet was a madhouse).

Sounds like he is "spending more time with his family".

Get the Thermal Spa instead.

I was wondering why the group was so excited to see the guy in the Saints shirt.

Yes, we hit the nearly empty thermal spa this morning and then headed out. It is really good Dim Sum and we are going back to no carbs after the cruise so we need our fix 😀.

We are on board as well, heading to Don Mee's for Dim Sum 😀

We were told by guest services that there were 4300 plus 800+ kids but I guess they could have just pulled that number from their ... . It does feel really crowded.

We are on the Bliss now, it is pretty crowded but there are still some spring breakers (5000+ guests). Even so, it isn't too bad, never have to wait for a drink although there are lines for the MDRs at lunch (not sure about dinner).

Why not fly in with the wine?

I disagree, in fact excursions can make the port locations even worse. For example, Ketchikan is a charming town to explore but being at Ward Cove can make that impossible with an excursion.

With NCL dock locations and port times, I have a really hard time recommending them for Alaska even though I am pretty loyal to them as a cruise line.

I will complain the next time I am there 🙂

I missed the incremental part, so you are saying that MDR base level service is covered by general gratuities so a $10 pp tip should suffice. I see the logic, I guess it depends on the service. Around here a Dennys build your own omelette is $18, $20 if you add avocado.

$50??? Breakfast for two at Dennys costs more than $50.

That's too bad, it was a great lounge. Btw, my wife quilts as well (it has become kind of an obsession 🙂 all of her machines have names). We have a home in down in Central Oregon but her long arm is here in Washington so she occasionally drives into Prineville to use one there. She is looking into a quilting cruise next year with someone she follows on Youtube.

I just looked at a map, was it replaced by the Bliss Lounge since 2017? I talk about Spinnaker throughout my review.

We took this one. https://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com/tour/post-cruise-highlights/akvrlstyvrpst

I really liked the Star, it's Spinnaker is the best on the fleet and it has a forward hot tub that is wonderful for sail away.

Are you cruising with anyone who has the drink package? They could carry wine on for you with no corkage.