mz-s

grats are are not posted or able to be removed until the last night. What if I tip extra on day 2? They hang on to it just in case I remove my auto grats on the last night? Don’t make sense blerk.

What makes no sense to me here is how does that $5 bill know whether or not I've removed my autograts?

They will tell you how much the "housekeeping team" gets but not your individual room steward.

Speculation is NCL cut their base salary to compensate for fewer crew and higher grats. Wouldn't surprise me if CCL and RCL have done / will do the same thing. The end result is the customer pays more to get less, cruise line pays less, and the crew get screwed. The cruise lines get the gold mine, we get the shaft.

Ain't you ever seen Jurassic Park when Dodgson has a special Barbasol can?

Yes I have had that, if my wife and I both have the same offer on our account at the time of booking then we'll both receive our comps. DOU, FunPlay, etc.

The offer I have with DOU for me and a companion states this in the terms and conditions: Drinks benefit is valid for the eligible VIFP Club Member and one travel companion (assigned to the same stateroom). So I hope OP reports back and lets us know what the casino host says.

That is a shame and explains why Carnival isn't transparent about it. I wish I had a facebook so I could frankly and directly ask JH, "If I give my steward a $20 bill next cruise, what happens to that money? Who gets to keep that $20?" No assistant and 35 cabins to clean every day is ridiculous. Obviously Carnival fired half or more of their stewards, and then hiked our gratuities to give the few that remain a small pay increase on the back of their customers. Shameful!

A big problem I have with the constantly increasing automatic gratuities and constantly decreasing level of service is the lack of transparency.

The automatic gratuities are not mandatory amounts. Just as people are free to pay more if they decide to, people are free to pay less if they decide to. As others have reported on this thread, the grats are split with so many brilliant "behind the scenes" crew it's anybody's guess how much of that $16/day your individual steward actually receives anyway.

I swore I've read or watched Heald say that if you hand cash over to a crew member, that cash stays with that crew member. But I can't find it. And Carnival doesn't say anything official. So it's all hearsay in the absence of something like that.

It never hurts to ask the host once you board. It seems like a reasonable request. I personally have not had good luck with getting them to extend comps like this, but I've not been in this particular situation.

I think the main reason is the Fun Times drives revenue - it's an easy way to advertise bingo cards, drink of the day, etc. I wonder if they're going to bring back all the other advertisements that used to be delivered every day - art auction and Effy ads etc. I don't think it's going to affect how many people carry their phones on them.

I wonder if they still put a sticker on the card if you have FTTF? That's pretty much the only thing that really needs a sticker anyway.

I agree, we are usually ready to be home by then as well.

Not all lines, but on the big three it's gone. Most if not all the other lines still have it as far as I'm aware.

Honestly, we are usually starting to get homesick by that point so while my wife and I always go to the MDR on the last night, we don't really get emotional about leaving the cruise.

They don't ring them up under your folio so it's a loophole!

Indeed, it seems that the mainstream lines are cutting amenities in lockstep. New cutbacks every week here lately. A service you enjoy is here one day, gone the next and often the only way we find out is somebody reports here. First from one line and the others follow a few weeks/months later. "To reduce waste" or "due to lack of use" or whatever the excuse is...we all know the reason.

Boarding typically begins at around 11AM, give or take. Often earlier but that is a good average I'd say. Yes they still have the guava juice at breakfast, at least on Lido.

If you look at your invoice, what specifically has increased in price - was it the passenger fares, taxes, port fees, etc?

The dogs at airports are also likely sniffing for explosives, not drugs. So there are probably different protocols.

Typically casino offers state for new bookings only. But you can call and see if they'll extend it to your existing booking anyway, no harm in asking.

I'm curious as well. In airports where they've employed dogs, they've had people walk two-by-two in groups while a dog criss-crosses their path. I wonder how this is done for the cruises.

NCL has an American-flagged vessel so they can cruise the Hawaiian islands without needing to visit a foreign port. The other lines need to visit a foreign port which is why they have so many sea days.