markeb

Yes, it is. It's also a Tennessee Whiskey. It meets all the legal definitions for a bourbon first, then goes through the Lincoln County Process. Nothing in the Lincoln County Process changes the product from meeting the legal definitions of bourbon. Tennessee Whiskey was listed as straight bourbon under NAFTA. Probably other international trade agreements. JD chooses to not call itself bourbon, unless its useful, like for international trade agreements... This is one of the oldest arguments in whiskey!

Is there a reason you don't want to use Uber? I'm assuming you're talking Penn Station? To where?

I'm pretty sure their stock is down because they've leveraged an incredible amount of debt, fuel prices are up, the general stock market is down, and much of their target audience is retired or in semi-retirement and watching their 401k/403b balance drop 15-20%. Most analysts are going to assume most people will circle the wagons on necessities. The good news is most recessions are all but over by the time they meet the criteria to be considered a recession. The bad news is you're fighting perception for a luxury good... The new variant doesn't help, but I'd be hard pressed to make a case that's driving RCG's stock prices.

If that's what's driving down their stock price. It could be their P/E ratio (they're not paying dividends), their ROE, or just as likely their Return on Debt, since they've taken on a lot of debt over the last two years. With no return to investors, all those ratios are bad. If you're looking for a short to mid term return, I don't see a cruise line as a good bet. The stockholder credit is an operational expense and likely has little or no impact on their ROD. It's also good PR, and they need that. Don't invest in RCG for the shareholder credit. If they meet your other criteria for an investment, go for it. Even though shares are pretty low right now, I wouldn't invest just to get the credit.

Isn't the stock for the Royal Caribbean Group (RCL on the NYSE). Not Celebrity? So that would be Richard Fain, not LLP...

Most sources will tell you Norway doesn't really have a tipping culture. Some guides for free walking tours only receive tips, and some higher end restaurants add a service charge. There's no such thing as a "tipped worker wage" in most of the world, so they're not making up a low salary on tips. I don't recall tipping there either on a land visit or a cruise visit. Like you say, maybe a few Krone. And since they're almost cash free, you'll have to grab the credit card machine out of their hand before they close out your tab. You have to add a tip before they run the card, not after like the US. (Again, almost the entire world except the US.) I don't know that I've ever been handed the machine to add a tip unless I've asked or offered. It's just not normal.

You're given a bill for $500 for food and beverage. You tip $100 (20%). You're done. Seriously. It's that simple. The restaurant does the rest. You don't chase down the sommelier and give them a tip. The drinks and wine were on your tab already. What happens after that is none of your business and is between the employees and their employer. In most better restaurants if you gave cash to the sommelier separately, they'd try not to give you a funny look, but they'd drop it into a tip jar/box/whatever out of sight because they pool tips. This is not rocket science nor difficult.

Serious question. How would you tip at a shoreside restaurant? I typically tip on the total bill. They can figure out how to tax me differently on alcohol versus food. I assume they have a system for distributing tips. I've never seen anyone in a Midtown restaurant tracking down a sommelier to hand them cash. I have bought a bottle of wine in Blu once, which gave me the opportunity to directly tip a very good sommelier. On shore, my understanding is their percentage is usually based on alcohol sales to the table. Distribution of gratuities on packages is (intentionally?) unclear.

The $2 bill occupies the same place in America as the $1 coin. Don't bother. If you're going to use cash, which I personally only use when I have no tab to add a tip to, give two singles instead of a $2 bill.

None of the others are. Why are you sure they are? Even Cruise Critics articles refer to them as concessions.

That's interesting. I'd assume they'd share in the pool for the drink tab. And probably have to share in the pool for the drink tab...

Not in this thread, but in the past folks have posted they did this and were thanked by their waiter/butler/cabin attendant as soon as the next day. It would appear the system notifies them, and quickly. Not the case if you do it the last night, but you're doing it to thank them, not to be thanked for tipping them... Interestingly, the form allows you to designate an individual by name. That may be the only way to be sure your additional gratuity goes to that individual. I just assume cash is pooled like it would be on land.

Pretty sure the duty free products belong to the duty free contractor, not Celebrity. Probably the same folks who run airport duty free. I've been on ships where they've had a decent match between duty free retail and bar inventory, but it's not the same source, and frequently different products. We'll see what they have in the Retreat and the WCB in 3 weeks...

I'm going to be honest (and probably unpopular). If you want some small bills for room service and excursions, do that. You can get an additional gratuity form at guest services to designate an additional gratuity to your cabin attendant and waiter which will get paid out of OBC if you have any. That solves the excess cash question, and the conversion is on your credit card with your other on board charges. People still love to carry cash, but it's all but unnecessary, and if the USD isn't your home currency, it's just a sunk cost that you likely won't recover. I think I still have SG$60 or more of the SG$100 I withdrew in Singapore two weeks ago. Didn't even drop any at duty free leaving the airport. In this day and age I certainly wouldn't pull more than that for any foreign travel...

I'm assuming Disney has stocks because they have deeper pockets and ordered bourbon even when they weren't sailing. Or they're able to divert product for export to their theme parks. I just looked and for the first time in months our local Virginia ABC store shows good stocks of Woodford Reserve. It's been hit and miss for months. After the last big "where's the bourbon" discussion on the board, I did a little extra searching and the cruise lines are able to bypass the three-tier distribution model. They order direct from the maker (probably Brown-Forman for Woodford) and the product is delivered "for export", so they apparently don't have to go through a Florida distributor. That was a bit of a surprise, and I don't remember where I found the information, but it makes sense. Whether someone like Disney is able to float their order between domestic (using a distributor) and export (distributor not required) is an interesting question. I have to assume most cruise lines dramatically reduced their orders while shut down and they're now competing with outlets who maintained demand. And for the rarer Buffalo Trace products like all the Van Winkles, you just keep buying because if you ever stop, you'll never get in line again.

We're not big Champagne drinkers, so we're OK with whatever they have (in general). I'd probably rather have a good Cava for the money anyway... And Chandon Brut isn't a "Champagne" but a California sparkling wine made in the Méthode champenoise.

The potty training is probably the issue, not the cruise line. It limits opportunities (like the pools), regardless of cruise line. There are always children on Celebrity cruises. Not as many as Royal Caribbean, but I'm doubting he'll be the only child on the ship. And their children's program usually gets rave reviews around here.

At least for my cruise on Equinox at the end of the month, it's Cattier. Or that's what's listed... $15 + gratuity.

Uber. (or Lyft) Stay off the meter...

Uber has killed taxis and limo services for non-business (and a lot of business) trips. And you may well get one of the car services' drivers making the Uber trip. BTW, Google maps will show you an estimate for today for Lyft in their app. Uber won't be much different.

That's an impossible question to answer. What wine would you bring onboard? What wines do you normally drink? There are menus posted with various wines by the glass that "should" be available. They're generally $10-12/bottle wines. Drinkable, but nothing spectacular. But they could be what you like. If you're driving to the port and looking to bring a $75-100/bottle retail wine onboard, then bring it. But unfortunately no one can really answer your question.

I have to confess that I pretty much go with Hendricks and a vermouth rinse. I'll vary between olives and a twist of lemon. And I find it criminal when I order a dry martini and am asked what vodka. This never happened to the other fella! (OHMSS)

OK. The app works before boarding and uses your Celebrity credentials. The Wi-Fi uses your folio number. But what about the other aspects of your reservation and shipboard accounts through the app?

Probably a silly question, but if you're using the Celebrity app, especially onboard, do you just share a logon? Or do each of you have your own logon and add the reservation? They didn't have an app the last time we were on Celebrity! I really don't know if there are instances where we'd want to do something separately, or if you can even have two sessions with the same logon credentials. I've never tried to create a logon for her under her own Captain's Club number, so I don't know what that would do! All our logons are randomly generated for security (yes, I've been hacked in the past). We have to share a logon for our baseball tickets, but not for airlines, for instance. I'm traveling with my wife, so it's not a security concern, just not best practice, and a PITA to type in a 20 character complex password on a second device... Thanks!

The posts only go back a couple of years now. Was that 2016? That was a bizarre weather year on the East Coast. And I remember being guilty early of thinking it might work, but the Philly folks were looking at their local weather and saying find another flight "now"! And then I think we all piled on, and you beat the rebooking rush and made it! Not without challenges and some bizarre routings, but you made it. That was an example of CC at it's finest. No 100 post threads about dress codes/recommendations/etc. or what is or is not in a drink package, or available on the ship. I honestly think that was the best of the CC community, and it ultimately worked out for you!