Charles4515

And the restaurants that do feature lobster keep the lobsters live in a tank until they are ordered. The lobsters served on cruise ships on lobster night have been frozen, So they are meh.

The cabin steward does not have knowledge of your intent. (they might have some intuition based on experience) They will have knowledge that you are not auto paying or pre paid. And of course at the end they will know if they did not recieve auto pay, pre-paid or cash from a passenger. The OP was asking if the crew knew if gratuities were pre-paid. The answer is yes. Otherwise the crew would have no accounting of their gratuities.

Yes, while it is our responsibility it is disappointing that the online agency did not send out reminders. It is not hard. I get some kind of reminder from all my medical providers of appointments. Email and text. I use the calendar and reminders app on my iPhone and they work quite well. Like for my estimated tax payments. The IRS does not send out reminders so when I get the dates after I do my taxes I set up reminders for all four quarters a week in advance of the due date. Then I get a notification on my iPhone.

Correct. It is disabled.

You are making an important point. Those big box stores and other online agencies that can't be named are call centers. The people answering the phone and taking bookings are not travel agents.

The Travel Authorisation and fee was ended November 13, 2022.

HAL is not upscale. The lobster served on other mass market lines similar to HAL is not upscale by the way. It is not Maine Lobster. It is a cheap variety. Also I have been on three non mass market cruise lines that are truly upscale of HAL. They don’t have a lobster night.

It would have been nice of them to send a reminder but ultimately you should have kept track of the date. My travel agent does remind me, she actually asks for my final 10 days before the actual date to prevent mishaps. If it is like all my bookings the deposit went to the cruise line so the travel agency did not keep your deposit. Celebrity kept it.

I think the point being made is that one meal being dry could have been a one off. I have to say I don’t recall many exceptional meals at specialty restaurants on Celebrity. I have had mostly very good meals. Pork Tenderloin I would never order. They tend to do better with Beef Tenderloin or steaks. The specialty restaurants are better than the MDR. Many times had to ask for something else on the menu in the MDR. Never felt the need to ask for something else in the specialty restaurants. The service is a lot better in the specialty restaurants. I do a specialty restaurant at least once for a break from the MDR. Twice on a long sailing. It is also a way to use OBC. I never book a Celebrity specialty restaurant at the the standard cover charge. Staff from those restaurants are often hanging out outside the buffet trying to get reservations. We negotiate a better price with them.

I would suggest turning off data so you don't get any surprise charges. There are apps your phone that might use data in the background or may send back analyitics to your cell carrier.

It is not required but it is a cruising norm. I wish we did not have the tipping culture in the US but until it goes away I follow tipping etiquette. You do what you want to do. I have choosen to participate in the auto gratuiites so I want the crew to know. If they know that I participated then they are going to know who has not. Who would mind that? And they do know who has and who has not. They should know.

They are not asking about AT&T Wifi calling. The AT&T cruise package is a cellular plan purchased from AT&T. It is not over WiFi. It does not require a Royal Caribbean internet package. The connection is thru a microcell that connects to the satellite. Before the ships had WiFi I made some cell calls over the microcell. (Cellular at Sea) The quality was similar to WiFi calling.

They use the satellite and an onboard microcell. Unlimited Talk and Text means exactly that. Only a limited amout of data is included. Cellular at Sea has been on cruise ships for many years. The AT&T cruise package is using Celluar at Sea. Celluar at Sea is owned bt AT&T. As for your lecture it really is not appropriate. It is not our buseness as to why OP wants to check in at home every day. You should not even have replied as you did not have a clue how the AT&T cruise package works.

If you don't need data then it might work for you. Checking home once a day. The included data is very limited and and if you go over could get large charges. It is good enough for callling once a day. The reason the Royal plans cost more is that they are internet plans, i.e. email, Facebook, web surfing.

I like the Lawn Club.

A European would get the same reaction if they tried to use Euros in the USA. US merchants won’t even take Canadian currency. I think most who get a $2 bill in the US hoard them. The same with $1 coins. That is why they, $2 bills and $1 coins are not in general circulation. I bring 50 dollar bills and if I need more I replenish at guest relations.

They will remember you as a goofball if you hand it out on a cruise ship.

They probably don't expect to get a tip from those who remove the auto tips. Despite the claims some here make that they remove them and pay cash many are lying. In any case the crew gets the list because if someone paid the autotips and pays an additional cash tip as many do, the crew does not have to put that cash into the pool. Any cash under that has to go into the pool. So the crew needs to know. Also the cruise line has an algorithm of what cash tips will be from those who remove auto gratuities. If more don't actually tip a crew member what the algoritm predicts the crew member is going to have to make it up. That is how the share of the pool is figured. So not turning in all the cash and getting caught probably is not worth the risk.

One time I saw the list laying on the cabin stewards cart in the hall.

The documentary in my opinion is somewhat vague on some matters probably for legal reasons. I would guess that litigation by survivers and survivers families and possible criminal charges is not settled. We have to draw our own conclusions. Mine is that the company that owned the island and was also the tour company bares the responsibility for the deaths and injuries. There should not have been land tours. There was increase gas and mud being ejected in the days before the eruprtion. An eathquake in the area. The documentary is on Netflix. I will warn that it is very disturbing.

A little research on the internet would have informed the tourists that the Volcano was always active. Always releasing gas. It has erupted often. So to me this cis not a case hindsight is not 20/20. It was a known fact the volcano was active and erupted often. Some people get a thrill out of taking risks. They get high off of tempting fate. To me this excursion was tempting fate.

If the flight info posted was correct they should have gotten there in time to board.

You should always book a flighr a whole day before. In the winter I book two days before. Even if bad winter weather is not in your local area storms a thousand or two miles away affect flights.

I suggest for a group that size you would be better off using a travel agent otherwise you will be doing all the work. You might want all the group seated together in the MDR. A group event. Also there might be group perks available. Easier with a travel agent.

RCI does have responsibilities although in my opinion they were secondary. The tourists on White Island when it erupted were not all from the cruise ship. There were tourists who drove to the tourist center on the coast and who flew to the island on a helicopter. I climbed the falls Dunns River falls too but we were informed it was slippery. We also had the option of climbing a staircase alongside instead of the rocks.