vjmatty

Or get better advisors if she’s unable or unwilling to do the research herself.

Schadenfreude is fun, but you really can’t predict what side the ship will dock, so you may be disappointed. I value balconies more for usability including while underway so I stick to the aft, which doesn’t provide the benefit of pierside theater.

It would not have made a difference. If ship and independent tours are late, they don’t take the time to sort out at the pier or try to suss out who was on a ship excursion and therefore has the “right” to be late.

Having done transatlantic sailings in December, I go in with the expectation that the outside decks won’t always be an option, but hubby and I aren’t sun worshippers anyway. Sometimes I forget that so many on CC are very Caribbean oriented. Sorry 😕

Looks like a karma farm thread, TBH

Not the room bill since it wouldn’t be fair to an innocent roommate who was on time, like the OP for example. The bill should be assessed individually.

Yes this will work fine…..there are no “sleep police” 🙂

They still heckle. I was on a ship excursion in St Lucia that was late, along with a several other tours totaling over 50 passengers. There were still shouts and catcalls from the balcony. Somebody in the group yelled “it’s a ship excursion, stupid” and everybody shut up all embarrassed 😂

This is only true if you book the b2b as two separate cruises instead of a single cruise. It’s good to try pricing both ways to see which is cheaper and which gives you more OBC. ETA: Whoops! Sorry, I don’t think Royal offers multi legs as a single cruise. I was thinking of Princess.

I used to have a supervisor who said “all meetings should be emails.” I tend to agree.

There is a 12 day transatlantic on Allure in February of 2025…probably the shortest one you’ll see. Would that work?

This ridiculous practice tends to be a US thing. Mediterranean ports don’t do this, and some lines like Princess let you book multiple b2bs as a single cruise. These options along with the interporting that is common in Europe makes embarking and disembarking days less chaotic and even the true b2b bookings a lot more seamless.

For us that’s easy….I’m a vegetarian and hubby doesn’t care much for seafood so we’d wait, and then just book the specialty restaurant on lobster night and a late port day.

All to enhance your cruising experience!

Honestly between Plus, independent excursions and military/shareholders OBC, I almost find it a chore to spend any extra OBC from promotions. Probably because I’m not a gambler and don’t care for the jewelry on board.

It’s not hard to do as long as the category isn’t waitlisted.

I should have been more clear…. I was talking about restaurants. One of the posters here in the restaurant industry mentioned that tipping should not be tied to quality of service.

This definitely brings the phrase “consistently inconsistent” to a new level….not only among ships but even individual staff members on the same ship.

So for those of you comparing crew appreciation to the restaurant industry and saying servers are supposed to get tips regardless of service quality….are you suggesting that the restaurant server who 1) brought me my drink after my meal, 2) screwed up my order by serving me meat and then 3) brought a 9 ounce glass of wine when I ordered 6 is supposed to be given a full tip, because she may have given excellent service to the table next to mine? Or are we allowed to factor in things like incompetence, rude service and/or being forgotten, ignored, etc.

I’m much more cynical…I see counter tipping as one rung above “round up for charity” that’s been showing up on every single checkout screen lately.

According to people on the site that shall not be named, passengers are getting loungers when asking for them on Edge class ships. It’s become my go to question when I see them in balcony pictures.

Mine too….of course he also had some bad habits like not paying his mortgage until the last day of the grace period, using the same logic lol

I stopped prepaying after Covid as well. Much as I like the convenience of monthly payments, it’s easier to just put the money aside and make a couple installments in the weeks before final is due.

Yes I’ve found that if you’ve ever put any amount of money on more than one card for a booking, cruise lines can and will randomly refund to any or all of those cards. It can be hard to track your money especially if any of those cards are canceled. As it stands I’m still deciding among this sailing, the Sun, or RC’s Odyssey for next fall’s transatlantic. RC has the benefit of returning to NY instead of FLL, but we’re already doing the eastbound on Odyssey in the spring and the itinerary is almost the same.

The more I read here and look at what ships have them and which ones don’t, I think they’re just phasing them out because they don’t want to maintain the expense. For example, Infinity in March was loaded with loungers…we had two on our aqua aft balcony… but Infinity also hasn’t been stateside in years so it’s not on Miami’s radar right now. On the other hand, newest ship Ascent, when you look at the pictures and videos on cruisedeckplans, have no loungers on those huge sunset verandas except for maybe one cabin I saw had them on deck 9 or 10. Everything in between seems to depend on which ship and which staff members you ask for a lounger. If it were truly a safety issue they’d all be gone immediately. This varied experience tells me it’s not an emergency, and safety is just the script given to customer service.