HappyTexan44

You would think it would be easy to catch people smoking in the public areas. Don't they have every inch of public spaces on video? It really bothers my sinuses as does cigarette smoke. If I see anyone smoking, I'll video it and report.

Well, Royal skims or doesn't skim, no one has a source so the statement "Royal Skims" has equal validity with your "Royal does not skim." You stating it over and over and over again isn't a source. These are things that I think we can all agree on. 1) Royal isn't transparent about gratuities. 2) What the employees actually get is impacted by the surveys. I doubt they are actually skimming, as in I don't think an evil accountant is pocketing the money. But, using the gratuity to pay the wages of non-tipped positions, that is possible. Putting the gratuity money into a big pool and distributing it based on their formula without regard to who earned it. Yup, totally possible. So, I could totally see a cabin attendant that had a majority of their cabins with 4 people in each being overworked from all the mess, then getting a bad review in a survey and therefore getting the shaft in the tip distribution.

I wonder if it was truly only GTY people that were bumped? If it was, then it wouldn't make sense that it was a maintenance issue. Unless it just happened to hit in an undesirable area that no one would select.

We are getting on Voyager in Feb. If they don't have it by then I am going to ask for a refund. It is such a no-brainer to have a machine that lets customers get just what they want without the need to bother staff. For DH, we will be bringing Diet DP onboard. At the moment, everyone but DH has the soda package, but I've wondered the same thing about the refreshment package. DH drinks Diet DP, iced tea and beer so none of the packages will work for him.

If they hadn't, they would have been left with the Too Bad So Sad letter that they'd initially gotten.

I agree. They had to pay the nice compensation, but they still got the bad publicity. Maybe they are hoping the other 10 cabins that were bumped have the head in the sand and won't hear about his deal.

Also, after boarding has started bumping people becomes a lot more expensive for the airlines. The mandated minimums are pretty sweet. That is why they'll delay boarding until they get enough volunteers. If the problem was that crew needed to be isolated because they were contagious, couldn't they have been put up in a nearby hotel for that cruise?

Me, I'd so prefer a vacation in Australia over a cruise, that flying to Australia for a cruise just wouldn't happen. But, I think someone said that this person drove to the port and lived somewhat near. A vacation a short drive away from home is NOT the same as a cruise, no matter where you live. Just ask anyone that has worked in Hawaii for a few years. So, if that happened to me, instead of a vacation in Australia it would be vacation in/near Galveston when I live in the DFW area. Galveston is really great, but I've been there and done that many times so would have been disappointed. We'd have just gone back home and gone back to work.

I would think you'd be the last ones they'd want to bump since they'd have to refund your flight.

You can't really compare to airlines overbooking. If someone is late (no-shows) for a cruise, they are out their cruise fare. If someone is late (no-shows) for a flight they are given a spot on the next available flight, possibly as standby.

I think it goes beyond expected versus real cancellations. If it were just that, they could have been informed before they got to the port. It sounds like they miscalculated the number of no-show cabins. Apparently there were 2 and they were hoping for 13. I can understand them not wanting to sail with empty rooms. But, they could have informed the people before they left their home. Said something like Looks like we might not have a cabin for you. If you'd like to go to the port and maybe get a cabin based on no-shows, then you can sale for ports/taxes.etc, and we'll refund the rest. Or you can change ... Some people have a flexible vacation schedule (like me) and our departure port is a reasonable drive away. Other people would basically be out a vacation. I don't know how much travel insurance would help in this case. Royal will refund the cruise.

Wow!

The chef doesn't and neither does the dishwasher. The bartender gets a certain fraction of each waiter's alcohol sales and the busboys get a certain fraction of each waiter's (total or food) sales.

Well, sometimes people tip in cash even when paying by credit card because they or someone they knew had their non-cash tips confiscated by the restaurant manager. If the crew said something like "Yes, I get a certain amount per person per day from everyone pays Royal the gratuity" Then people wouldn't worry. But the fact that even the employees don't know smells like Royal is keeping some of it.

So to do online check-in you need to provide a credit card?

I would be unhappy to be on one of these cruises. I have zero problems with Jews (had been engaged to one in college) But, I'd really dislike not having access to all the public areas, and we also deliberately picked a low kid time period. Fortunately, I picked February. I suspect many people pick January after the first week for the same reason.

Oh, I was wondering where the idea that I was born in '44 came from. No, HappyTexan was already taken so I just mashed the number keypad to make it unique.

Well, I wasn't born in '44. But I can narrow it down, we are leaving from Galveston. He'll be the only one in the next year from Texas who plays blackjack on a Galveston ship with a happy wife born after '44. And even then, I'm sometimes grumpy. So maybe the casino will see me being grumpy and think the one they are watching for isn't DH.

I can just see it. "You are from Texas, your wife seems pretty happy and you are playing blackjack. I bet you are that card counter we've been watching for."

I hope they don't get rid of these. I can bring my own darn chocolates, but I can't bring towel animals. Well, if I did, that would be insane.

Yes. Never lost money. It sounds like my idea of having him earn beer money isn't going to work. Plus the blackjack rules on the casino seem brutal enough to take the fun out of it.

I think they like the cheat sheets. They know you are a newbie who will play consistently. I remember going to Vegas back in the dark ages with a friend. Dark ages as in the $1 'steak' and eggs breakfast at midnight. On our last day I played with one of those charts memorized at a place downtown with nice blackjack rules. I think they even had the 7-cards-and-you-win rule. I played for 12 hours, had about 5 cocktails (and tipped), and that $1 breakfast and walked away within $8 of my start. I forget which direction. Not a pro. gambler by a long shot, but super cheap entertainment.

It continuously shuffles? So every hand is basically a fresh deck? Well, that would mean no counting. I doubt he's 160 IQ. But, he's pretty smart. Many people do similar to card counting when playing card games. They know what cards have been played and what cards are left. In a card game there is more to remember since you have to pay attention to suits. That isn't me. I can barely remember my own cards when playing poker. He said he's never lost money playing blackjack. But he did say they made it very unpleasant when they accused him of counting, and took his winnings. That was a while back.

How does Royal handle it when they think that someone is card counting? Both DH and I are math-people, he is better with the mental math. Probably because of that, he just naturally card counts when playing blackjack, as in before I knew him he was ejected from casinos even when trying to not count. Me, I like to just play according one of those charts that give you a tiny edge at a normal casino. I've noticed that Royal's payouts aren't good, so probably just lose slower with a chart. But I was thinking, maybe he should play a little bit of blackjack just to earn some beer money. What will Royal do if they think he is card counting? I wouldn't think we could be tossed from the ship. Would they try to take back the winnings?

And the WJ must be cheaper for them. So people skipping the MDR in favor or WJ and/or Specialty seems like Win/Win for Royal.