brfan

It baffles me how anyone would actually believe that load of crap. Not only does it not make sense, it's just not possible.

Personally I think it isn't the individual crew that would be fired (they may lose days off or promotional opportunities, etc), but if the overall ship rating (based on the total survey results) is down, then it is senior management that will be worried about keeping their jobs, being demoted or moved to a lesser desirable ship. It's my guess it is senior management that puts pressure on the crew to get the 10's to save their jobs. I also would image that if the ship rating is low then life for crew wouldn't be all that happy with the pressure put on them by their bosses.

Hotels often allow check-in at 3 and check-out at 11. Same thing. Perhaps Celebrity could mirror something similar (1pm check-in and 9 am check-out) and charge extra for late check-out. After all it's a floating hotel that happens to have lots of inclusions.

That would only work if the ship is leaving after 6pm or so. Keep in mind that passengers must be on board at least one hour (or is it 90 minutes?) before departure. If they don't start boarding until 1pm and the ship leaves at 4pm or 5 pm that leave only a couple of hours to get 3000+ passengers checked in and boarded.

That's still a reflection of service, and not food though.

 

I've had waiters do the above when they notice a terrible serve, even sometimes before it comes out. So full marks for service. But it doesn't mean that the food is perfect.

I agree, I was just trying to figure out why management might view low food rating with the waiters service. As I agree it doesn't make sense as the waiters don't cook the food. I was told by one waiter to rate the food as excellent so he wasn't impacted, and then put my actual feelings about the food quality in the comment section as that wouldn't hurt him.

The whole thing is silly and pretty much makes the evaluation useless as a means to improve service.

No way would I give 5's when the food is a 3. And I have given lower scores to food on another line a few years ago when their cuisine took a nose dive. They ultimately have improved and we've gone back and are happy again.

Service I give great marks but not for food. How would the food quality affect him personally since he is not the chef?

 

 

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I'm assuming it would look that the waiter wasn't attentive enough and didn't notice you didn't like the food and try to rectify it by bringing you something else.

The idea of DD on Oasis class ships was cancelled more than a year before Harmony MDR was decorated at the shipyard. Who is taking bets on what O4 MDR decoration will be?

I'm not so sure of that, because it was dynamic dining when the ship opened up for booking, but I don't know when the dining room decorating was done in comparison to when the bookings opened. Also I'm guessing that Royal had already paid for the designs /décor and it might have been too expensive to change it last minute. Likely the same reason Allure was changed during her dry dock, even though I think DD was cancelled before her dry dock.

Harmony came out with different styled venues and never had DD.;)

Except Harmony was supposed to have DD, same as Oasis and Allure. That's why Oasis and Allure were upgraded to the DD restaurants during their dry docks. It was only later that the decision was made to not do DD on the Oasis class ships.

 

Not long ago, I did a galley tour on a RCI ship. Hanging on the wall was a ship-to-ship comparison of how the dining rooms were being rated by passengers across the fleet. One ship...I think it was Explorer...was, at the time, scoring the lowest in fleet. If the scale was 1-10, she was somewhere around 5 on the bar graph.

 

Now lets assume the alarmists on this thread are correct and people get fired, keel hauled or made to walk the plank for anything less than a 10, theoretically, Explorer shouldn't have been able to sail. Or at least if she was, there shouldn't have been anyone to man the dining room

Chances are all senior management on the hospitality side (eg Hotel Director, Food and Beverage Manager, etc.) were demoted or fired and replaced by people who were promoted from other ships that were better rated.

I know this has nothing to do with tipping, but WHAT???? What cruise line makes you do that? I just walk off. Am I breaking the rules?

Don't you need to fill in a disembarkation form near the beginning of cruise where you put in your flight times and whether you have transfers, wish to self-debark, etc.?

I was under the impression that there was a maximum number of passengers that were allowed to self-disembark or at least there was when this option first became available.

We just recently returned from 8 nights on Freedom where we did not step foot in the MDR. Not once. We had room service breakfast most days and ate at specialty which we tipped extra for. We didn't remove the auto grats but I have to say I'm wondering why we should be tipping the MDR staff when we never eat in there anymore? I don't expect to use the MDR on our next cruise, either. Now I know some say they work in the windjammer some, but when we used to eat in the MDR I never saw any of our wait staff in the jammer.

There might have been many reasons you didn't see them. You were in the Windjammer after their shift was done or before their shift started. You might have been seated on one side and they were working on the other side (they have their own sections in the Windjammer), they might have been behind the counter serving food, ensuring the food is kept stirred, etc. or in the galley loading the serving trays.

Also they may have been working in the dining room, if it was open for breakfast or lunch.

I maybe wrong, but I don't think this is possible. The cruise line is compelled by law to turn in a passenger manifest to the authorities three days prior to sailing.

This being the case, I don't see how an overbooking could happen. I like many others have been cruising thirty plus years and reading this site all the time and have never heard such a story.

Isn't that requirement just for sailings that start in the United States?

We are Diamond + and on our 9-10-16 sailing, we only each got 1 - 24 hr free time. I didn't bother to ask where our 2nd 24 hr free time was...didn't have the need to waste time.

 

When you go to set up an account on your device, the coupon option is available there for your free session. After it expired (right after 24 hrs), I tried to log in again, but there was not another free coupon offer. We didn't need it for work, just to check email and FB, so just used DH access.

 

If you want/need your entitled 2/24 hr sessions, you may need to go to guest services for help.

Wouldn't the other person who didn't use their coupon need to create another account? I would assume the coupons are based on the folio number on the sign and sail cards.

also the Horizon- sailed on it!

Wasn't the Horizon a Zenith class ship?

Sometimes what they do, and I don't know if this is possible in this particular circumstance, is they will write up the receipt and not charge you until the ship is in international waters and therefore not charge the tax. I've had them do that when I upgrade the drink package while still in port in Florida and they haven't added the tax. However I don't know if that was possible with this particular cruise as I'm not that familiar with the rules as it relates to VAT.

I'm wondering if that was the plan and the person who entered the charge either did it too soon (before ship left) or mistakenly added the tax after the ship had left? That might have explained why the OP wasn't advised of the tax as it was assumed it wouldn't be charged?

Don't I recall the diamond discount having been recently removed?

No, Royal wanted to remove the balcony discount on cruises booked less than 6 months in advance. However there was a huge outcry and they've postponed doing that. Not sure if they will try again or if it has been scrapped altogether.

I think he's been moved to the Harmony. I didn't see him when I was on the Anthem in April, but then again, I totally forgot about it and didn't look for him.

I agree Chipmeister! It is so annoying that it is automatic and before any service has been provided. I strongly think people work harder if tips have to be "earned" as opposed to automatic.

How is it tipping before service? The autotips are not charged to your credit card until the last evening and the crew does not get the money until after the cruise is over.

The one item most forget is the after cruise evaluation, too many poor evaluations and that person is out of a job. I think that is a good motivator to provide good service.

What Celebrity does is add the tips to your invoice as they have done and then a week or so after booking, that amount is deducted. So you will see it on there twice (the second time as a credit).

As to the other amount you mention, could it be the taxes that are added separately?

Can I ask what you enjoyed about Topper?

The music, the performance, costumes and the simple uplifting message of the show. I went in having heard the negative reviews of the show and decided I wasn't going to care what the story was, but just enjoy the performance and when it was over was pleasantly surprised. I wasn't the only one who felt that way and anyone I spoke to couldn't understand why it had such negative reviews.

I agree. RC does have the best entertainment at sea. Especially the oasis and freedom class. That was my intent in my response

As far as RC goes, their broadway shows are amazing. I loved Mama Mia and We Will Rock You and am looking forward to seeing Greece in October on the Harmony.

However, I wouldn't say the same for Royal's "In House" shows. Personally Blue Planet (show on Allure) was one of the worst shows I've seen. The Gift was only slightly better and Spectra's Cabaret was well indescribable, though I did enjoy it even if I didn't really understand it. Basically Royal's "in house" shows (the ones I've seen) are fairly comparable to the ones I've seen on Celebrity's and in fact I would give Celebrity a bit of an edge here as I really did enjoy Topper.

I thought they had changed the concept on board the Quantum class re dining since the original launch - then it was, I believe, reservations every night for any restaurant. Then I read they changed it to you move around the restaurants on a 3-4 night rotation.

 

 

Granted, Wikipedia isn't always the most reliable but there is a citation for the source of information, albeit December 2014.

On the Quantum class ships (at least on the Anthem, not sure about Quantum or Ovation) you have both options. Dynamic choice (where you can make reservations, similar to my time/select dining) and Dynamic Classic where you rotate to each of the restaurants on a set schedule with the same table/table mates and wait staff; similar to traditional dining, with early/late seating).

Royal had planned on the changing the dining on the Oasis class ships to Dynamic Dining and updated the dining rooms when they did the dry docks on Oasis and Allure. However possibly due to Dynamic Dining not being that popular they opted to not go ahead. However the dining rooms weren't changed back so perhaps sometime in the future they may change to that dining style on those ships.

As in the first Edge class ship will stay in Europe?

I'm not sure what the Edge class has to do with the Equinox move. The Equinox change is for 2017 and the first Edge class ship isn't out until sometime 2018.

I'm on the Harmony TA and have booked the 5 dinner and was wondering for booking the restaurants on board are you able to see the main dining room menus for the cruise to help choose the nights you want to eat in the specialty restaurants? As the TA is a one-off cruise, the menus I assume would be different than what they have for a normal 7 night cruise. Plus the differences between the European and Caribbean menus.

You will have a good time here, reading threads like these ;)

 

But there is mostly great people here with good advice

 

this muster drill thread is very interesting, i have never heard of a lot of these "interpretations" of what is supposed to be done - I will take extra care listening to the announcement on my next cruise

 

And I always thought they didn't sound the horn until most, if not all, people were checked in? i could be wrong tho - I feel like every cruise ship/cruiseline I go on, does the Muster Drill a little differently.

From my experience the horn is sounded at the time of the muster drill. So if the muster drill is scheduled for 4:30 pm that is the time the horns will sound. Has nothing to do with whether everyone is checked in or not.

The point is that for a time Royal will have three ships sailing from Bayonne. That will help them to gauge whether there is enough demand to permanently support a third ship.

I assume the third ship you are referring to is the Summit? Unfortunately the Vision will be only sailing out of Cape Liberty for Sept and Oct, not sure if two months would be a good test. Especially since there really is only a couple of sailings from New Jersey during that period. The big test would be if there is a enough demand for more than one Royal ship in the winter.

Apologies. In April Royal made the Rhapsody out of NJ announcement. In June they switched to Vision. My big online ta still shows Rhapsody. In any event, it's a conventional alternative to Anthem.

 

Still would like an X ship though.

The Vision isn't going to be in New Jersey that long as she's moving to Galveston in Oct 2017.