MNfamilycruiser

So, are you suggesting there is some cause/effect relationship between auto-gratuities and your perceived decline in service from bar staff, where gratuities have always been added to drink prices?

Does anyone know how the tips from the packages are allocated? That would be the most significant change.

I would say there certainly seems to be less bar staff - coinciding with the push for sell packages? Or just part of the constant cost reduction efforts.

I am European - Scandinavian - Finnish, so forgive me not undestanding properly the tipping etiquette in US.

 

I have understood that basically you're supposed to tip in US restaurants according to the level of service you've experienced. That is: to tip less if the service is poor and tip more if you feel it is great. Somewhere between 10 - 25% on top of the bill, right?

With My Time Dining I can be served by different waiter team each night - some are great and others are not - and all of them get the same tip. It just sounds unfair. I am paying automatically somebody something - dont know how much and to whom and for what service. Weird!

 

And with the "behind the scenes employees" and "those people are also working at Windjammer etc": how would I know if their service is good or bad? Before the auto tipping, we did not deliver tips to those people, right? So did RCI change their salaries somehow?

 

The easiest way for me is to keep the auto tips and just leave it like that, even though for our upcoming Freedom TA we will end up paying more tips than what we are paying for our daughter's cruise.

 

But it still does not keep me from conteplating the weird concept. I can tell based on all these discussins it confuses even natives in US let alone foreigners coming from non-tipping environment.

You do understand the tipping etiquette in the US. The reason it is so confusing and causes so much argument and discussion is that RCI is using a weird hybrid system. It is not really a true tipping system, and it is not really a true service charge system.

My guess is that the auto-gratuity system was put into place as they had more worldwide presence. With more of their passengers Americans, they could rely on the true tipping system. At some point that stopped working well - staff weren't being tipped adequately? People were uncomfortable using the tip envelopes when they were unaccustomed to tipping at home?

Now? They are pushing the limits by trying to include more behind the scenes people. Having less staff to do the same amount of work etc. It is really a service charge, except they don't call it that and you CAN remove it.

Maybe removing the auto gratuities would send a message. I read on another thread that if the employees don't make a certain minimum wage with tips RC has to pay the difference. So if we revert back to tipping the people serving us directly, appropriately to their service, it might make a statement to RC. The behind the scenes people will still get paid the same amount. They never would get extra tips anyway - their wage will not change.

Probably need to use the surveys as well - high scores for people who provided excellent service, but always mention if it seemed like they were overworked/not enough staff. (Sorry - it has been a bit since I did a survey - hoping there is a place comment)

I am very reluctant to book this because I never do such a short cruise & the prices seem high for really only 2 days of fun/3night cruise. My dd wants to do a bday cruise with only mommy and it was a toss up between this ship and NCL Sky. I just can't justify paying so much for so short! I just took a 5 night cruise with my mother in Feb for $950 on Independence and now this one is almost the same price for 3 nights on older ship.:eek: I know I am probably being frugal, but I prefer that $ go to a longer cruise again. It is just her bday month she is in college, so I can't really have her missing classes.

 

Anyone have any experience on this particular ship/Itinerary (Coca Cay/Nassau? Should I just go with the least expensive room on deck 2? I am reading things about mold and smells and now I am starting to worry!

The prices might be higher because of the month/season. We recently did this itinerary again on Enchantment and enjoyed it very much. It was quite relaxing and fun - not as much planning needed.

Hi,

I keep going back and forth on this question so thought I'd throw it out to the cruise critic crew to get their thoughts. :D

Long story short I need to change my grand suite room for my family of 4 (2 adults 2 children) on a July 2017 Anthem sailing. I have two choices. I can move to the Royal Family Suite. In order to do this, I would add my niece to our room since the RFS requires 5 to book. So in total it would be 2 adults and 3 children (aged 16, 11, and 4 at the time of sailing).

 

The other option is to book the family connected stateroom which is 3 separate staterooms (a jr. suite, a balcony, and an interior) that you can book together. If I were to do this I wouldn't add my niece, instead it would be 2 adults in the jr. suite, my 2 kids in the interior, and 2 grandparents in the other balcony room. The advantage to this being that since all the rooms are connected and have an interior vestibule the 4 year old could easily go over to the grandparents room whenever he wanted.

 

Of note, we're getting married on this cruise and we have a good amount of family & friends joining us so there's a lot of flexibility when it comes to room configuration, which is why I said earlier for the RFS I could add my niece, otherwise she can stay with her parents or other family. I expect no matter how we book it, that the kids will move around rooms throughout the trip (i.e. one night when all the cousins get together and do a cabin sleepover).

 

That being said, me and FH would like some privacy but also expect to have dinner every night with family who won't be in a suite so the perk with the RFS of being able to go to CK for dinner wouldn't really help us. Also, if we were going to use the RFS the majority of the room would be made up of young kids so things like the exclusive CL wouldn't be used by 3 of the people in the suite.

 

I believe on Anthem in addition to priority boarding jr. suite also has access to CK for dinner, not sure if they have access to breakfast as well. Access to it for breakfast would be nice because me and FH could do that on our own together.

 

Ok now for price. The difference in price between the two options would be about $2200. Meaning we'd pay $2200 more for the royal family suite.

 

So based upon the situation above what would you do? RFS or Family connected?:D

 

I guess a third option would be to just get 2 connecting balconies for us and our 2 kids but we like that the jr. suite has a bathtub as it will be much easier to wash the 4 year old since he loves bath time.:D

From what I have read - JS can only use CK for dinner.

I would do the family connected. You still get double points, you will have more privacy, and 3 bathrooms.

Given the people who would be in the RFS - I just don't think you would get $2200 worth extra. We have been in one when we were on a cruise with several family members, and we barely used the CL at all.

The benefit of going from Gold to Platinum.

I understand I have to complete a cruise. Maybe I didn't phrase my question clearly enough. I should have asked, " is anyone of aware of any exceptions to the "must complete a cruise" when one is close to advancing to the next tier?" No big deal either way. I was just curious. Tough crowd! :)

Thanks!

Not necessarily tough - brutally honest?

If you think this point is annoying/frustrating try one point between Emerald and Diamond:eek: That is our situation.

OK, thanks for taking the time to explain it to me. I got the feeling we were talking about different arrows/checkboxes.

Showing the image helped a lot :)

I see the downward arrow on the left, always have. I do not see the check mark on the right, never have.

I think that means that under your user options - you have chosen Do Not Subscribe under the default thread subscription mode.

The check mark on the right shows you threads you have subscribed to.

rumors may be fun for some people, but they accomplish nothing.

Isn't having fun an accomplishment? It is in my book.;)

Do you see the downward arrow () on the far left that signifies that you have posts in a thread? That's what I meant by "downward arrow" in my previous post.

No, for me the downward arrow just means there are posts in that thread that I have not seen. Like I said, I have those on nearly every thread there is. They all disappear if I use the Forum Tools button and "mark this forum as read".

Never mind - we are talking about different downward arrows! The one you are referring to is in a different column on the very far left. The one I am referring to is in the column with the title - it is just to the left of the title. The one the OP was referring to was the checkmark that is to the far right of the title "cell/column". I can see why people are getting confused.

I'm still not sure we are talking about the same indicator. I'm talking about the checkmark right next to the name of the thread.

I think others are talking about the downward arrow that means you have a post in that thread.

That is funny - until you posted this, I always saw the indicator immediately to the left of the thread title as a checkmark.

But it is a downward arrow - it indicates there are new posts in that thread that you have not seen. If you hover over either indicator it tells you what it is for.

The one to the left of the title (downward arrow ) - says "go to first new post"

The one on the far right of the title "cell" , same location as the attachment icon appears (checkmark ) - says "you are subscribed to this thread".

Since I do not post in, or even look at many threads I have many, many downward arrows and very few checkmarks. :D

Update!!!

 

Go into your user control panel

scroll down to messages and communications

Under default thread subscription mode

select no email notification

was previously set on do not subscribe.

 

Now from this point on you'll see a check for every post you've started or replied on

:D Ah! Yes, that is how mine is set as well - except for my roll call. Glad you figured it out. You must have changed it recently.

So in the example you posted, I see check marks:confused:

To the left of the thread title - are those the check marks you mean?

If that is what you mean, like I said before. They disappeared for me if I marked the forum as read and if I sorted the threads differently. That is in the upper left corner.

If they are to the right, that means you have posted in that thread.

You could try clearing your cache and deleting cookies in your browser. Also log out of CC and log back in.

The is missing

Anyone know how to fix?

Did you mark the forum as read?

Also when I sorted the threads on the forum differently they appeared and disappeared. The check mark means there have been new posts on a thread since you last looked at it.

I-Cruiser-- would you email me the walking tour? Thanks.

 

Bhung88 AT gmail dot com

This is it:

http://www.visitalesund-geiranger.com/ImageVault/Images/id_5084/scope_512/ImageVaultHandler.aspx

That's not how they explained it to me, but I should know better by now. :rolleyes:

 

Odd that they would demote SOs that are unlinked, but not children.

I might guess that it is because children who are over 18 might very well continue to cruise with the family. But once an SO is an ex, and replaced by another :rolleyes: not so much... You might even have people angry if an ex gets to keep their status.

My daughter turned 18 in November, she for sure will be travelling with us this summer on a cruise and next summer. Unfortunately for her, we are/were one point short of Diamond before she turned 18. Even though she has been with us for every cruise except 2 - 3 night cruises the conversion that happened before wasn't as good to her as it was to us. ;) She will have several cruises to go before she makes Diamond on her own.

Not alone. One of the reasons my husband likes cruising is that he CAN'T be reached by his work. ;) As long as they never know he really could if he wanted.

“You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could've, would've happened... or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the f**k on.” - Tupac

 

Actually, this works for most threads

Wow! Hillel and Tupac quoted within a few posts of each other....very interesting thread!

Not even Diamond here - although we will be after our Serenade cruise this summer. But I have enjoyed reading all the comments/complaints/ideas. And doing my part with one more post.

We have stayed in suites for several of our recent cruises - I can't say I have ever noticed any snobbery. As a matter of fact we met a few Pinnacle couples (and a D+) on our Alaskan cruise that went out of their way to have us join their group when we were in the lounge. Very welcoming and friendly. :D

And I totally missed the 1000! That went quick.

The itinerary is: Copenhagen / At Sea / Alesund / At Sea / Honningsvag / Tromso / At Sea / Geiranger / Olden / Bergen / At Sea / Copenhagen

 

 

 

 

On another thread someone said "FYI - The ship docks at the new Oceankaj, which just opened last year". Thanks for the info with the credit cards - I've got an Amex, MasterCard, and Visa all with no foreign transaction fees so I should be able to make it work! I know in the Caribbean US Cash is so widely accepted I've never bothered exchanging it to local currency. If I do exchange to local currency - any suggestions on the best places to do that (lowest fees, etc.)?

 

 

On the ports of call board there is someone who lives in Alesund - iCruiser - his advice is invaluable! The thread is quite long, but so much information about the area.

There is also someone who lives in Copenhagen - same thing - excellent advice available! Yes RC uses the Oceankaj terminals.

So - the advice I have gleaned is that the best location to get cash is at ATM's - they are all over the place and have the best rates.

You will be able to use your credit cards for quite a bit, less need for cash.

Some unmanned locations would need a card with a chip and PIN - but you usually can find someone to physically run the card if you have no pin.

I think, the loss of deposit pre final payment would also apply. But I have never succeeded in booking through a Dutch TA (another story).

 

You could quite legitimately make the booking in US on his behalf though?

I am starting to think that might be best.... or he would have to book directly with RC

Update in price is handled differently within the different sub-markets inside RCCL.

 

For the Nordic markets customers RCCL have the policy that price updates can be done for a change fee (250 SEK/NOK/DKK or 30 Euros) up to 42 days before sailing.

If between 42 - 30 days the price can still be adjusted but it would count as cancellation and making a new booking. For Nordic countries this would mean either 5% on Cruise fare for Sweden, 300 NOK/DKK for Norway and Denmark and 50 Euros for Finland.

The exact rules changes from country to country to meet requirements of the laws to sell vacations packages in each country.

 

Other markets have 60 days limit but no change fees. Another have a deadline of 75 days. Some pays out back to the credit card and some of them apply it as refundable OBC on the sailing.

Trying to learn them all is confusing but I tried my best ;)

 

In your bookings confirmations the policy should be mentioned in the Terms and Conditions section.

On our T&C the cancellation policy is under paragraph 9 and policy for changes to the booking is written under paragraph 13.

That layout should not be too different for your markets.

 

I know it is a long read but I strongly advice to read them through at least once :)

 

 

Good luck!

Sorry to intrude on this thread..;)

What are the rules for the Netherlands? We have a young friend from there who is hoping to join us for our August cruise. The prices are very high now, and I have been telling him NOT to book unless he confirms he could get price drops. It might be better at this point for him to wait until after final payment date. But then final payment date is different for each country?

DW feels more comfortable in case we have questions or whatever

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Even if you book online through the RC website, you still can call up and ask questions and make changes.

Once you are booked, whether online, by phone, or through a travel agent - you can go into your booking on the website and make dining arrangements, beverage package purchases, shore excursion purchases etc. Or call them and ask questions about it.

Liquid medication is already exempt from the 311 rule. And syringes aren't something you need a doctor's note for. Unless you're going to Singapore or someplace like that. (though DH didn't; they saw the other prescription drugs and worked it out)

 

Feel free to keep the doctor's note, but it's actually not needed.

 

For the gelpacks, though, THAT is where the note probably comes in handy.

I think he occasionally did not have it in the labelled prescription bottles - which probably is not the best idea.:rolleyes:

These are helpful for when you leave the ship if you need to take it with you. Remember how hot it will be once you venture out. Also for getting from home to ship.

 

I got mine online. AMAZON prime can get it to you quickly.

 

Also, if fridge isn't in room, while you wait for attendant to get yours delivered you can use mini fridge.

 

Best of luck.

Yes, the Frio packs are perfect for the time spent flying and/or travelling in the car. My husband uses them and also gets a note from his doctor that allows him to go through airport security with the needles and the liquid medication - so it doesn't count as part of your liquids. We have never been stopped or questioned about it yet.

We also brought items made in our state - Pearson's candy is here so we brought a Pearson's Salted Nut Roll and Nut Goodie bars.

Also some wild Chokecherry jelly That was more nostalgic on my part, probably not specifically from our state, but something I remember my grandmother making when I was a child.

We live close to a tourist "attraction" - the Mall of America - they happen to have several Minnesota stores that made it easy to pick out items from our state.

Thanks for the video, also to stay healthy I try to stay out of elevators using stairs instead and not using the hand rails.

:D I agree! This is also what we do. Always use the stairs and never touch hand rails.