daze6399

Glad you enjoyed the cruise!! What cabin did you have on 6?

We're staying near the forward elevators and wondering if it's very noisy or other possible concerns?

You all caused this to happen. Think about that. Ponder it. Embrace it.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

You are on a roll tonight eh?

I was hammered for 65 hours and blacked out for

the other 7. Like most C&A members, your expectations were unreasonable.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

This. This is good stuff.

Many threads on many boards have addressed the poor pay that a lot of crew members make, both tipped and otherwise, but the one consistent fact is they do receive a salary. A figure that I read recently on a website other than CC is that tips constitute some 85% of their income, with the other 15%coming from salary.

That would also make sense. However at the pay rate they're making you could argue that they're not really getting "paid" if they're marking only 15% of their income as salary. [emoji47] however, that's neither here nor there.

I would suspect there's a rough standard in the industry and I would suspect that the tipped crew members make very little salary, although I wouldn't be surprised either way.

I thought you had to leave it outside your stateroom the last night. What are the advantages/disadvantages to both ways? We will be picking up a rental car after the cruise so there's no sense in doing the luggage valet. What would be the better option for the luggage, leave it outside for them to pick up or take it ourselves?

Depends on how much gear you've got and how you feel about hauling it all with you that morning.

Advantage to self debarkation is that you can be off the ship early and there's no searching for your bags in the pile, but you've got to drag it with you from your cabin all the way through the process.

Have you looked at carnival?

(That's really not a dig at carnival, they have a lot of cruises and are a good bit of fun).

You're being an baby. Adults handle things logically.

Well. I'm sure this will help the situation. [emoji849]

OP had an issue and is reasonably (I feel) frustrated. They are working it out and felt the need to share their experiences on a website dedicated to sharing experiences with cruise lines, good and bad.

I'm sure calling them a baby just made their day that much better. Why add anger into the world? I hope you have a great day, I really do.

Bermudians would disagree.

As would the people from the state where I live. It is exceptionally common to go into a nice restaurant (no outback) and see lots of people in nice shorts, collared shirts, and sperrys. Dressed for dinner, dressed up in shorts.

As was mentioned tuxedos did not used to be considered "formal". I work for an exceptionally conservative company, in an exceptionally conservative field. I wear jeans and a button down shirt to work, as does my boss, his peers, their boss and his boss.

Times change and fashion changes with the times. This blanket idea that shorts can not be considered dressy is as logical as saying the internet is a fad, and I suspect said by the same people, for the same reasons.

Now if you'll excuse me I need to run to the gas station and I can't find my top hat.

Why would working solely for tips surprise you?

Many if not most restaurants in the US operate that way, servers are paid very low wages and expected to supplement their income with tips. If they make less than minimum wage their company is required to fill the gap. The last place i tended bar paid bartender $2.25/ hour and the bartender had to tip out the barback 30% of the tips for the night.

Consider that most of these ships are not registered in the US and likely do not follow US employment law, tips only makes a lot of sense.

I've never had it, but I've heard some really good things about it. Apparently the guacamole is very good.

Just got off the ship on Saturday and she was beautiful as always! The dining room chairs are new and there is also new carpet in different places throughout the ship. The slides are so fun! I was too scared to try the Flow Rider. We had a wonderful time and already booked for next January. Hoping the rooms will be refreshed by then but there was absolutely nothing wrong with ours how it was :)

Great to hear!! What kind of room did you have?

Ouch!

RCCL IT strikes again!

Because the guidelines specifically reference that a SUIT is fine - just as it says no SHORTS. Specifically, "suits and ties or tuxedos for men, cocktail dresses for women."

Yup, it sure does. and lots of people don't get turned away for not wearing a suit. Again, it's up to the staff to enforce it. If you want the staff to enforce it, that's a very very different conversation. This is about a pedantic need to follow rules to the letter, even when they're not rules. Even when the not rules are about something as asinine as some one wearing nice shorts to a dinner in a part of the world where nice shorts are perfectly acceptable in any dining venue.

No such thing as 'dress shorts'. Conflicting term. Kind of like having a dressy T-Shirt. That does no exist either! Now excuse me whilst I go change into my casual tuxedo.

Ahh...but we're not talking about "formal night" the dress code doesn't mention "dress" anything.

We're talking about the rest of the nights. It doesn't say "Semi-formal, wear your church clothes" etc. In fact, I just went through a cruise compass and it says "Casual" for every night but formal. (5 night Western on Navigator) admittedly it does say no short pants, but it mentions it in the same sentence as flip flops and bathing suits, so it could easily be read as no "swimming shorts" which may be what is meant. We don't know.

While we're at it, why are we not bashing the heathens who dare show up on "Formal night" in a suit...or anything without tails for that matter? That's semi-formal and that's WRONG.

Again, I say. The dress code is enforced by the staff how they see fit, and if they allow it, then why are we going round and round?

I hate adding to these threads but I can't help it. No one said anything, but I am sure people cared. Why is it so hard to follow the guidelines as outlined by the cruise line?

I'll add as well....why should anyone care? If your @$$ isn't hanging out of your pants/dress etc....what does it matter.

There's a difference between being slovenly and being decently dressed, and you can be nicely dressed without wearing pants (for men), especially in the Caribbbean. The dress code is a guideline, and if the staff don't feel someone is dressed inappropriately then why are we going round and round and round in circles about it?

I agree... But Is this applicable to the drink package, though?

No, it is not applicable to the drink package. I do not know of any way to remove the tips from the package.

I don't think RCI will ever enforce this, nobody likes being told what to do with their vacation dollars, especially if they think it's trivial fashion etiquette. Despite the polarisation, it's easier to alienate the shorts crowd, than the pants crowd, and generating revenue wins.

Exactly. I would love to them update their policy to something more ambiguous, and leave enforcement up to the hotel manager on the ship.

Imagine the threads we'd have then.....:eek:

Policy is two bottles of Wine per stateroom.

No hard liquor, no water, no soda, no other drinks.

As to enforcement, that varies. Hard liquor is typically removed and returned at the end of the trip.

Wow - 220 seems quite low. That is like a successful trip to the buffet.

Yeah, seems pretty low to me as well. It's what I saw reported in a thread, so grain of salt and all that.

I guess it would help if I told you the name of my ship LOL. (DUH). Totally thought I posted that.

 

It is Adventure of the Seas. Thanks!

LOL. No worries, it's a good general question. :o

Adventure I happen to know from a recent review is 220 for one and 260 from the other.

Depends on the ship and the slide.

I've seen as low as 220 lbs reported. There might be some with lower limits than that though.

I saw a recent review with a few pics of the new 2 level miniature golf course. I think that is one thing that was supposed to be done in the drydock/reburbishment 2016, but got done a little later. I'll have pics come Mid May

I knew I'd forgotten something.

dual level mini golf.

i'm assuming deposit is same for 2 vs 3 ppl. so if at 91 days out, i tell them i just have 2 people, i will have no issues whatsoever then? i really would have this nailed down one way or the other by 91 days out. id make that a mission.

 

i hope. but good to know the 15 day rule

Pretty sure deposit is PP. If you cancelled the 3rd party in the room, but hadn't made final payment yet you might not get that deposit back, it would be credited to your overall total, but I wouldn't count on getting it back.

Thinking about renting a car in San Juan between arrival and departure on a sailing.

We'll be arriving at SJU on Friday afternoon and sailing out Saturday morning, we have another part of our party arriving Saturday to sail with us, I'm wondering if it would make sense to rent a car overnight vs paying for Taxis/Shuttles etc for everyone.

I've got a couple of specific questions, and I welcome any general input.

First I'd probably need to rent a minivan to accommodate everyone and their luggage, but we are staying in a hotel in OSJ that night, so I'm wondering about parking and general drive-ability in that area. I.E. is it worth the hassle of trying to drive in an old part of town, in an area I'm not familiar with in a relatively large vehicle? I suspect it would be a little more expensive to get taxis to the hotel and to the Cruise terminal, but I don't mind paying for convenience, and not having to go through the "you can't turn down the one way street going that direction" issues common to many downtown areas.

I'm not sure how much driving we'll be doing that night, I suspect after traveling all day we'll mostly just want to go to the hotel, eat dinner, and maybe wander a bit so the rental would just be to the hotel and to the cruise terminal.

thoughts?

I've seen it both ways with cash tips. Bartenders sometimes put cash tips in a common jar, and sometimes put the cash tips in their pocket.

I would suspect that ALL tips are "supposed" to be pooled either with a bar team, or with all of the bar support staff (I can argue both ways on the "fairness" of that practice, but it's not relevant) but there are always some people that don't like pooling their tips for whatever the reason might be and just put the cash in their pocket.

I have also known multiple bartenders that have customers that want to be sure their tips go to the bartender that helps them out, so they put the cash in their pocket and then put it in the communal jar when no one is looking.

It's hard to say for sure what any specific bar staff does with a cash tip, no way to track it.

I will say that I've worked in several bars in several positions and believe me, EVERYONE earns every bit of money they make from tips. If they don't earn it, they'll be run out of the team in short order. So remember folks...tip your bar staff! :D