TubbyMrT

I'm with you. Too me, its the little things that make the cruise better than the competition. A mint, stationary, a pen, larger bar of soap, many ply toilet paper. These would barely cost $5 for an entire 7 day cruise. Airlines are the same way. I pay $$$$ for a first class seat and they serve me Cheerios for breakfast. For that kind of money they cant come up with a better meal? Sad, so sad.

Fact is that prices will continue to rise and service will continue to decline as long as the Customer allows it to happen. Unfortunately, once the Customer is lost, it is often too late to earn them back. Customers need to speak up!

I imagine that your stateroom attendant would wipe down the balcony area if you would have asked.

Every time I have visited the Viking Crown Lounge on Oasis class it has always been empty. I'd sit and have a drink but it was uncomfortable with several bartenders and waiters staring at me. I thought to myself, what a waste of prime space and labor. I am happy to see that they are trying something different. Something needs to be up there that is going to attract people. Lets give it a try.

I book a suite to get the Barbie size tub/shower as it provides a large person more room than the phone booth shower.

Do the top end $uites have a full sized shower?

Even flying First Class will not get you the perks on United. We always flew Continental to Mexico before the merger and got a pretty decent meal both ways. Our last flight to Mexico on a $1300 ticket per person in First Class got us 1 adult beverage each and a banana and a bag of chips each. The flight attendant sat down and never resumed service after she served everyone their one drink and passed out the snacks. It is getting harder to find luxury and good service even if you are willing to pay for it.

I always fly first class. Last flight they offered Cheerios for breakfast. I pay $$$$ and they can't cough up a decent breakfast? Same decline in service in the cruise fleet. I pay a lot and get less and less.

The bottom line is that the service will continue to decline until the customer leaves. Then they will reverse action and attempt to lure the customer back. Perhaps with a larger bar of soap!

For alternate air, I do charter sometimes. But for the Oasis experience, there are no alternatives.

Harbor Beach Marriott is right on the ocean with no street in between. Also its close to the port so you can see ships coming/going. Couple of restaurants and a large tropical pool area. Most rooms have full balcony.

Would you feel the same way if the hat was worn for religious purposes, or a Sikh wearing a turban, or an man using it to cover up a terrible skin condition or head bandage?

 

Do these people have to wear signs saying, "excuse for wearing a hat during your meal but I have........."?

 

 

Maybe people should just care about themselves and leave other people alone. If someone wearing a hat ruins "your" dining experience, then you have the problem not them

you base your argument on the exception to the rule. Few will take issue if there is good reason. The only way to have a culture is to stick our noses in each others business and apply pure pressure to conform. Everyone must be exactly the same. If not they will be stoned or burned at the stake in the town square. Lol. Manners are for others, they are not for ourselves. By their very nature manners are other peoples business. It is something we do for others and others expect from us in our civilization.

perhaps it can be confusing and difficult to distinguish between a nice person who simply wants to help and wants nothing in return and a person who uses that expectation to trick a person to "owing" them.

Tropical Storm. Doh!

I was excited to get on Allure and ride away from the storm.

However, Oasis fled on Saturday just before they closed the port.

Allure could not come into port so I spent several days at the hotel. Luckily, I was at a five star. They treated us great. It was actually kind of fun to experience a storm of that magnitude.

Once on the ship, the remaining days were sunny.

RCCL was very generous with hotel, food, and missed cruise day reimbursement. They earned my repeat business.

As I responded in my previous quote, RCL does not seem to be your cruise line as it is for the masses. You should try a more upscale line where you are pampered from head to toe.

 

I'm perplexed by your tirade about tipping. Are you complaining that a) it's too low, b) it should be included in the cruise fare or c) added to any bar drinks or specialty restaurant that you purchase. I would think that you would be happy that it is daily rate is added to your folio, and at the end of your cruise you can give extra to those that provided maximum service. That is what I do. Do you want to go back to the envelope thingy?

Thanks. I am guessing that it can go both ways. Perhaps I should remain loyal to Royal, help improve it with my sacks of money, and you should ponder moving to a downscaled line if a $50 fare increase is too much. Just kidding. But it is funny how people pressure other people to leave their party if they are the least bit different.

In response to your questions about my position on tipping a) it is neither too low or too high, it simply should not be added to the receipt. b) If a tip is mandatory, it is no longer a tip. It should simply be added to their wage and reflected in the cruise fare. It is only done this way to enable a lower advertised cruise fare with hidden surcharges as airlines do with luggage fees. At some companies, tips are preferred as they can evade some taxes. c) A tip should not be "added" to anything by anyone but me. No person is entitled to a tip. They must earn a tip. Sadly, simply by showing up, people expect 15% these days. But exceptional service may earn you as little as 20% and as much as 1000% ($100 on a $10 receipt) in my book. The envelope thingy, as you call it, is a waste of envelopes. I have no need for them. They serve no other purpose than to remind people to tip.

To the poster who linked RCI's explanation of "cuts," I thank you.

 

To the one who wants luxury, let me give the other side. Some of us need to pinch every penny in order to cruise, so I vote for keeping prices down. (I can understand how those who pay big prices for their cruise can get bent out of shape with certain "cuts"; however, those of us in the cheapest inside cabin are happy just to be on the ship. (And I chuckle at the comment about how much the cruise costs but complaining about tips. I sometimes wonder if those of us in the cheapest cabins don't tip much more generously than those paying a lot more. Just a thought. Nothing to base it on except comments here and there.)

 

Regarding the little bars of soap, consider that each bar is wrapped and that paper along with what remains of the used bars after we leave must be disposed of.

 

As for me, I never compare my cruise with what we once had many years ago. I enjoy it for what it is at the moment. Makes for a wonderful experience.

 

I love to be on a beautiful Royal Caribbean ship!!

 

Happy sails.:)

 

Kathy

I'm not asking for them to raise the price they charge you. Everyone is welcome to the party. I am asking them to raise the price they charge me and provide me with upgraded quality products and services. No, I am not about to pay $21,000 for a suite just for the $20 premium amenities.

As far as tipping goes, for me, it has nothing to do with the amount of money I have or the cost of the cruise, it has everything to do with the quality of service I receive. I simply do not like them adding it to the check. It is very tacky. In fact, they loose on the deal because I typically tip 20% and they are asking me to tip 15% so I say screw it, take your 15% for being tacky. I simply consider it not a tip but part of the cost of the item. I am the opposite of cheap. On the last day, I typically hand out a significant amount of cash to each person that wowed me for the week. That is how I tip. For a service well done.

I would like the bars of soap to disappear altogether and be replaced by soap dispensers that are on the walls. It would use liquid antibacterial soap that is dispensed on an as needed basis and no need for the cruise line to worry about any cruiser taking home a bar or two of soap -- because there are NO bars to take home. It would mean a lot less WASTE as well. Therefore more cost effective.

What makes you think that the prior guest left pure soap in the soap dispenser before you arrived? Yuk! I would never use something with which the prior passenger could have tampered.

I would rather pay more for a cruise, way more, to be pampered and be surrounded by nice things. I absolutely hate cheap. It makes me cringe. When I pay 4000 - 6000 for a cruise and get a cheap single ply roll of toilet paper it makes me angry. Teeny tiny bars of soap are another thing. These things cost the cruise line pennies. Who cares if some strange passengers pack them to take them home. It would be so easy to provide nicer things and make the guests happy. I don't give a rats butt if they raise my fare to 4010 from 4000 to cover these nice things. My goodness, its a vacation at a nice resort, not a tent on the river.

Don't get me started on the tips included thing either. Just tacky tacky tacky.

The point is, the cruise lines will continue to cut until the Customer pushes back. If the Customer doesn't push back, they will continue to cut and/or raise prices. Its basic economics.

Just look at the airlines. It used to be nice to fly. Everyone got meals, good meals. Then it went to poor meals, then it went to none. Now it is like riding a filthy stinky city bus. But the planes are packed full. So the cuts will continue and the prices will continue to increase until the Customers push back.

I have always packed mine in my suitcase. Positioning it carefully to prevent crushing from external weight and hard internal items such as a hair dryer or sunscreen. If it breaks, its not life/death for me. On departure day I carry it off and stuff it back in my luggage to fly. I already have enough stuff to carry.

I sent them a question many months ago. I never heard back from them. Not in my junk mail either.

I think that it is also dependent on the room you booked and paid and not the room to which you may have been upgraded. Balcony upgraded to JS by RCCL would not get triple I think.

I used 50 minutes in 7days. I Checked and replied to emails each day and remoted into my customers computer system to fix a couple minor issues. For me, 50 minutes worked fine.

Leave him home? Fine... He's welcome to join us singles on Allure.

Leaving the USA is fine. Plants can't be brought into the USA.

If the child is shy, it can work better if the child arrives early as the others filter in rater than arrive later and be overwhelmed by a group of strangers. Getting there first helps make it their turf. Getting there later means they have enter someone else turf. It can increase the anxiety. Once they get over that, they will meet some of the best kids the world has to offer. They will have a great time and may not want return home.

Spring break = flow rider very important to keeping kids entertained. With both running, the lines are usually survivable.

I suppose they could have hired a few tug boats to pull her around the sea at top speed so as to not inconvenience any booked passengers. Lol.:D. Oh, and those passengers could pick up the cost.

As an IT professional, I find the reliability of their web site poor. It can be difficult to navigate and often looses my selections. I would love to create them a nice easy to use and scalable site. Unfortunately I suspect that they do not want to spend any money on this new thing called the internet. Sadly they are loosing lots of business because of it.

Other alternatives

Windows Media Center recorded shows can be played on any modern Windows tablet. Or Older windows with simple conversion. No monthly fee.

DirecTv Genie Go allows offline viewing on windows, mac, iPad, android. No monthly fee for this additional service.

I use Windows as I can grab my videos much faster than the DirecTv Genie Go can encode them to the tablet.

All that is needed for the triumph of bad behavior is for good people to do nothing. Peer pressure, the good kind, makes for a more civilized society. Turning our heads and ignoring bad behavior because it is none of our business allows the bad behavior to escalate. Bad behavior happens all around us, not just on cruise ships.

Having the right to do something is not the same as doing what is right.

One would think that any "pro" with their own board would be up for the challenge of using the "inferior" board provided by the cruise line.

Hey, if your out to impress us, do it by using the board we all use.

If you get to use your own board, then I'm going to bring mine with sandpaper on the bottom so that I don't slide around so much and fall down.:)