The Fun Researcher

We do something similar. Typically as soon as they start their request we just stop them and say “no worries all 10’s” (if they deserve it) and have a good laugh. 😀 Our last cruise the waiter was pretty funny and said “the scores go from one to ten but the only correct answer is 10.” (In a friendly fun way We really don’t mind too much either because we know the drill, we also know just to stop it short and let them know they are fine. 10’s. It’s been almost 10 years since we’ve run into a wait staff that didn’t deserve it and even then it was probably 7-8’s

Isn't it a different horn(s) for drills versus the deep bellowing sailaway/fog horn?

We regularly get asked for 10's by the MDR staff. I can't remember the last time we haven't. Something along the lines of... "If you liked the Main Dining Room service and food, please remember that you'll be getting a survey after your cruise. When you rate the Main Dining Room, that directly relates to our service and reflects us personally. It is very important to us. The scores go up to 10, and a 10 is very important to us, so please, if you liked your service please consider giving us a 10" We are very fun, friendly folks at dinner and easy to please (not saying others aren't), so maybe they feel more comfortable asking us? Rarely have heard it in the buffet, but we've heard it there too.

All ships. The process is the same. They are filling tables between first and second seating, rather than the old way of dedicating space for MTD and having it truly open all hours that the MDR was open. Not only does it make for crazy long lines for the MTD folks, it's forcing early seating to be too early.

Amen!!!! Hopefully they are getting enough negative feedback to change it back eventually. It was just so much better before, for years and years.

Fair enough, no arguments there, but it's far from the scenery I personally want to look at while embarking or sailing away.

What??? How did we completely miss this on our Alaskan cruise on Quantum in July! Love noodles. Looks like it's on deck 14. I pride myself on researching the ships and never saw this. Shame on me! 🙂 ETA: Looks like they change the cuisine in this venue quite often. I'm not sure if ours was noodles, or if it was the other offerings that Splash Away Cafe offers. Either way, we missed it.

We've only done the popular US based embarkation ports: Ft. Lauderdale, FL Miami, FL Port Canaveral, FL Galveston, TX Bayonne, NJ Seattle, WA I like the sailaways best in Miami and Bayonne Ft. Lauderdale feels like a shipping container yard more than a cruise port. Galveston, Port Canaveral, Seattle are o.k. but a much bigger hassle to get to and back.

I don’t disagree. I just look at it as discussion. Nothing more. I try not to judge one way or the other regarding gratuities.

Exactly how I feel. I’m sure we are not alone. Hopefully the room steward is making it up with the auto gratuities due to more rooms per steward. With one a day service the stewards are doing more rooms per person now right? I guess I’m not sure about that. Royal has really put a lot on the shoulders of the room stewards.

Well, I personally wouldn't argue with that! I'd be o.k. grabbing regular 'ol coffee in the cafe promenade if I could use the coffee voucher for an alcoholic drink. 😉

Just doing the math for our family of 5 the base gratuities will now be $630 per cruise. (7 night cruise), up from the current $560. That's can easily be a persons base cruise fare in a number of cases. The $2 per person per day is "only" another $70, however when taken as a whole, $630 in tips is a big number. Like others, we always prepay. We typically tip the waiter and assistant around $50 each on top of that and the room steward another $50-$100. So currently that's around $740 per cruise in tips total and going up to $810. (I'm ignoring the additional ~$1 cash per drink as well) It's been a while since I've calculated the real impact of gratuities, but it's really feeling excessive. The problem is calling them gratuities when in reality it's really just a part of their total compensation package depending on their position on the ship. Is the staff really going so far and above that they need that much additional as a thank you? This is really all the cruise lines fault by not wanting the base fares to appear to increase. For the bazzillionth time I wish they were in the base cruise fare.

Yeah, the whole "voucher' term throws me off. Makes me think of something in hand, like a ticket. (kind of like the old 10 drink card for $80-$90 that they are starting to roll out again). I'm now used to the 4 drinks per day on our card. It's interesting that they can load another credit, specific to coffee drinks, onto our Seapass cards. I'll be interested to see if we ever run into this in the future or not. It certainly wasn't needed on our latest two cruises. (Anthem and Quantum) Diamond lounge was almost always empty which made it nice to grab and go with the coffee.

I have a family of 5. Do the math wiseguy

I really miss this as well. There was another scallop appetizer that had a couple scallops (that were a little larger) on a small plate. That was good too. I REALLY miss the lamb chops the most.

You got it. On the 19th. Can't wait! Our family are fans of the Escargot, and my my inlaws will be with us as well. They love the French Onion soup on Royal, but this is their first sailing on X. I'm sure they'll still order the soup each evening.

Instead of dedicated classics, they were spattering the classics into the main menu. Doing it that way replaced many of the other items that would have been there with the old menus. Providing a dedicated classics section opens things up for more apps, entrees and desserts to add variety to each menu. ...at least that's my understanding.

OP, was just thinking about that yesterday. We always prepay gratuities and add cash on top of that unless we have bad service (which is yet to happen). With the increased gratuities and the downgrade to once a day room service I’m sad to say I may not tip additional cash to the room steward like we used to.

Thank you for this OP. We'll be on the X Equinox the week before Christmas next month and will welcome a broader menu with good default options.

Your bitterness regarding the suite lounge is duly noted 🤣 but there is no need to take it out on Diamonds.

I think it was close. I seem to remember $80 plus gratuity. Either way it's nice to see these coming back. Always nice to save a few dollars if you were going to purchase 10+ drinks at or above the $14 level anyway.

The early bird gets the worm in this case. Will be another benefit of booking early... first dibs of desired specialty dining times.

Good point. When we used the coffee machine in the crown lounge we probably had 2-3 each, daily.

Thank you. Do they give you physical coupons to use, or rather vouchers loaded onto your Seapass card in some way? Sounds like some ships are maybe doing it one way and others differently?

Thank you for this. So the daily coffee added to your card, are there restrictions on what type of coffee? Is it a dollar amount, or certain types of coffees allowed?