sparks1093

I guess it depends on the server. On one of our recent sailings I tried to get two specialty coffees at once, both without alcohol, and the server said that I had to wait 5 minutes to get the second one. Probably only a matter of training, I don't know. If I had had DW's sail and sign with me she might have given me both at once, who knows.

It all depends on what you are consuming on sea days. Our first experience with a drink package was on Royal and we did have one long, tiring day in one port. When we got back aboard we only had a couple of drinks each before turning in. But when we averaged everything out over the entire cruise the numbers worked. So, you don't need to break even every day in order for Cheers to work, you just need to average it out. (And when factoring in the other drinks that are available it makes more sense for many.)

I hope that the behavior that happened on DCL doesn't happen on CCL but if it does then I wouldn't be surprised if CCL takes a similar stand.

I'm not sailing with DCL so it doesn't matter. I do understand that it does bother some people.

As long as you have the document showing sole custody that is all you need. Do know that check-in agents/government officials may ask your children who they are traveling with and they need to hear the answer from the child, they don't want any prompting from you. You might want to let them know that it is okay to answer these questions, especially if they are shy.

Since we are cruising with littles this time we bought 50 ducks for them to hide. As long as ducks aren't hidden where they shouldn't be (shops, toilets, safety equipment) I don't see it as a big deal.

We've been on Legend twice and she was comparable to Pride. Décor not to our taste but tolerable for 7 days. The key with any port intensive itinerary is to pace yourself as much as possible. We've flown to Germany a couple of times and haven't had too many issues with the time change. We took the night flight and dozed on the plane but no matter how tired we were when we landed we made it a point to stay up until 8:30/9pm. Woke up fairly rested the next day and were good to go. Coming back was a different story, but by then vacation is done.

It is interesting how in all of these discussions we talk about how this affects the customer and how this affects the business owner, but we rarely discuss how this affects the individual worker (other than maybe to commiserate about the poor workers have to work for tips). I know many people that make a very good living by working for tips and if they have any complaints at all their number one complaint is the lack of full time hours, which is the same complaint most people have who work by the hour. I know one gentleman that works for a resort here in my state and he earns north of $50k per year working for tips as a bellhop. Imagine how much prices would have to go up at that resort to guarantee him that kind of salary? Of course, there are some who would say that no bellhop deserves that kind of income, but that is for another thread. So let's look at two restaurant workers. One works for a straight hourly wage of $15 per hour with no tips and one works for smaller hourly wage of $5.46 and tips. They both work a 4 hour shift. They both serve 4 parties an hour with an average tab of $100 and each leaves an 18% tip. At the end of the shift the person making a straight hourly wage has earned $60. At the of the shift the other server has earned $280 in tips plus the hourly wage of $21.84 for a total of $301.84. 4 parties an hour is a moderately busy night and a $100 tab is not at all uncommon nowadays, but you can do the math using any numbers you wish to use, the tipped employee makes more at the end of the shift and from the worker's perspective that is all that matters.

Even though we play as a team we are lucky to disembark with only one. Unfortunately my memory isn't what it used to be. We'll be sailing with two youngsters in April and I hope they push us over the top at least once (when we do travel with our kids we rotate who takes home the coveted prize and it's our turn in April 🙂).

The option for pre-purchasing a bottle for the cabin has been around for a while, certainly before the pandemic. Each cruise line is a bit different, but Carnival still checks alcohol brought back ashore. There are two reasons for Cruise Cash- to give it as a gift to a cruiser (probably how it started) and for the convenience of the passenger. We used to purchase it before every cruise as a budgeting technique, but now we are empty nesters, so we don't need to. As for the drink packages, remember first and foremost they are designed to make the cruise line money, period. That they save some passengers money is how it is marketed, but just like with gambling the odds are always with the house. For every person that fully gets their money's worth there are likely two that don't. If selling some sort of partial drink package would make more money than they would be doing it. They have people on the payroll whose only job is to figure out new and innovative ways to part the passengers from their cash while they are onboard.

Yes, they do make choices but that doesn't mean that people should remove the tips that pay them. I know you aren't saying that but there are folks that say exactly what you just did and end it with "since I'm not responsible for paying them and they choose this job I remove the tips".

They were a hassle to load correctly and I had big, clumsy hands that didn't make it easier. One or two I didn't mind but if we had a special event in the ballroom and there were a couple hundred, egad. Our big, commercial dishwasher cleaned anything and everything as long as it was loaded in the rack correctly. Higher pressure and temperature than a home machine.

When we applied for DW's passport there was nothing indicating that additional documentation was necessary to support a name change. We sent in her naturalization certificate with her maiden name and a copy of her drivers license with her married name and the passport was issued in her married name. As I recall the only discussion about a name change was when one was changing the name on a previously issued passport and in that instance supporting documents were required. So I would probably be inclined to just submit the documents required by the website and then let State reach out if additional documents were necessary.

I worked as a dishwasher when I was a teenager and didn't like to see them come back into the kitchen, but as long as they got loaded onto the dishwasher rack correctly it was alright.

Is the difference in cost the same as what it costs to add that to the MSC booking? I'm going to guess that the online website isn't showing you your total and won't until you go to pay for it, but that is simply a guess.

Some of the clam shells are vented but you can always ask the attendants to prop the back up a few inches or do it yourself if you need to.

Yeah, I stopped reading when it started talking about liking to try different local cuisines. Granted, it might be hard to do that on a cruise ship but when one is in port it is most definitely possible. There are many cruise lines that do feature local cuisine for the ports visited as well.

When I was stationed on an aircraft carrier I had a young sailor that worked for me that had to be sent to bed if we took anything over a 1 degree roll repeatedly. Absolutely could not handle it. I often wondered if it was more psychosomatic then physical, but I never knew and couldn't ask. (To his credit he never took unfair advantage of his condition.)

Ok. As I recall he did have his expired passport with him, he used his birth certificate for boarding. Missed the ship because of a miscommunication with his family, he was waiting at the agreed spot and by the time he realized they weren't coming he didn't have time to make it back. Since his family was still onboard he needed to meet up with the ship. His passport was issued the next day, but he had booked his flight for the following day just to be on the safe side.

This wasn't the thread by klfhnger was it?

Which has always been a problem unfortunately, once or twice every cruise DW received one that wasn't melty in the middle.

As it does everywhere, of course. As I recall the normal serving is 4oz and that mold looks like it might be close to that anyway but it's hard to tell from the picture.

For me if it's not a venue that I happen to be using, not much.

I don't know. I would try to order both at once and see how it goes. I don't generally eat this dessert but DW loves it and has it almost every night.

Order two.