JimInBuffalo

Not good publicity or RCL

Saved money by pre-paying. I saw the letter and went ahead and pre-paid all of the gratuities for my upcoming cruises for me and my wife. I have a total of 54 days so at $4 per day, it adds up to $216 that I am “avoiding “ and since I paid it on my RCL Visa, I get 2 points per $1 that I will use as OBC.

On the ships that don’t have Sorrentos, the pizza is available at the Park Cafe

Like Sorrento’s Pizza and I wish that they would start charging for it! That way I would not be tempted to eat pizza every day on top of all the other food that I am eating. We frequently go there after the show or late night activities for a snack. Believe me, I don’t need it. Also, I see a lot of empty pizza boxes in the hallways in the early morning waiting to be picked up. Probably from room service the night before. If so, those people are paying the service fee and ostensibly are paying for the pizza already.

Just got off the Serenade last Saturday 4/8/23. Food selection and quality was very good. No issues with any of the food onboard. We ate in the MDR deck 5.

I can assure you that the piece of paper that I show in the initial post is legitimate and came directly from the Customer Service desk on the Enchantment of the Seas in January 2023. The reason I asked for it was because during the question and answer review with the captain on the ship held in the theater, another question asked the question about the division of the tips. Not knowing the answer, the captain told everyone in the audience to go to Customer Service and get the list. Please, do not take my word for it, instead go to the desk on your next cruise and post a picture of what they give you. thanks, -Jim

The difference in tips for the Steward vs. MDR staff is that the steward we see on the first day is always the same for the entire cruise. I like to tip him on the first day since I know I will probably be asking for additional towels, etc. at some time during the week and I want to be sure that he will take care of us. Also, my wife likes the towel animals in the room and that is something that seems to be optional for them to do. (I could care less, LOL). In the MDR, we have seen where either the staff gets changed during the week or we decide to eat more meals in the specialty dining rooms and therefore, not spending the entire cruise in the MDR.

This is what we typically do as far as extra tips: I will give the waiter a couple bucks every time I order drinks at one of the bars/clubs. I give the Stateroom steward and extra $20 on the first day of the cruise to make sure that he is attentive to us (we’ve never had a bad steward), I give extra tips on the last day to the Head Waiter, waiter and asst. waiter in the MDR. I do this because we normally have an assigned dining time and sit at the same table every night (other than nights we dine in specialty dining). That being said, next week I will be on a cruise where I had to take “My Time” seating and I am sure that we will have a different team and table every night. I do not expect to tip extra unless the service is over and above normal. One other note, on one of our cruises in January, I did not leave a tip for the waiter on the first week. This was because he did not do a good job even after I told him on the second night what our expectations were. The following week we had a different waiter and I told him before the first dinner what I expected and he did everything to our liking. I don’t think I was asking too much. My list was this: <> Have our drinks on the table when we arrive (starting 2nd night) <> Take our order as soon as possible after all are seated <> Bring coffee/tea either before or with the dessert <> Make sure that we are served all dishes in time for us to make the next show that evening (some nights there was only one show, not the staff’s fault, but we needed to be done and at the theater 15 minutes before the start time or we would not get seats.

It worked for us.

Thanks for the replies. I will definitely check to see if my auto insurance gives any discount for leaving the car in a garage for the entire month. One item that I hadn’t thought of as far as additional expense is the travel insurance. We took out an annual policy with Allianz as opposed to individual policies per trip. It will save us in the long run but obviously, it is an additional cost for being away. The policy costs about $250 per year so the more you travel the more savings you would have over the course of the policy.

Yes, that’s what we did last week. It worked out great! We were onboard for 28 days (consecutive cruises). We used our phones in the ports to get internet/calls and then used the free days when we had extended sea days. Had we purchased internet for the entire time, it would have cost over $500

Read your comments about the apple blossom. Did you know that those are not made onboard but are purchased frozen and then baked (heated) onboard. they are also a favorite of mine. I found this out because on a cruise in 2022, I bit into my apple blossom and found something that shouldn’t have been there. It was white, thin and rubbery, just like a very dry piece of apple could appear. However, it was a rubber hose washer that somehow had dropped into the manufacturing process and became part of the dessert. I called the waiter over, who called the head waiter, who called the maitre’D, who brought out the chef. The explanation that I got was that being and “outsourced” product, they had no control over the contents. I was surprised and a bit confused but I was not injured other than it ruined my desire for another apple blossom! I was just on 3 back to back cruises and they had them available very often on the menu. I tired them again and I am still an fan, regardless. BTW, they sell an item almost identical to these at Aldi’s in the frozen food section. -Jim

Get on board as early as possible and go directly to the MDR. Talk to one of the managers/head waiters and tell them what you would like to do. We have found that if you do this early enough, while there is still some flexibility in seating, you will be pleased with the result. It couldn’t hurt to have a tip in your hand as you tell the employee “thanks” after you get what you need.

Hi, this one is just for fun. We recently took a cruise for 28 days, basically the entire month of January 2023. As you can see we live in Buffalo and we wanted to get away from the snow for the month. This was the first time we have done this after 60 cruises. Our previous longest cruise was 14 days. We liked it so much that we signed up for 33 days in January 2024 while still onboard. We primarily cruise with RCL/Celebrity. The purpose of this topic is to get some help in doing an analysis of how much money the cruise actually cost us when we take into account some of the expenses at home that we did not have to pay while we were away. I would love to say that it’s cheaper to live on the ship for a month than to stay home but I don’t think it will work out that way. It will be enough for me to say that I had some significant savings that contributed to paying for part of the cruise. I have an excellent, itemized account of what the trip cost us, so that part is done. That being said, I have listed the following items that I think we saved on while we were away: <> cost of food that we didn’t have to buy at the grocery store (and didn’t have to cook) <> cost of any dining out locally <> cost of entertainment at home (movies, purchased videos online, etc.) <> reduced cost of heat and electric while we were away (thermostat turned down to just keep the house from freezing) <> reduced cost of water usage (minimal in my location but could be much more in the adjacent town) <> newspaper put on hold for the month <> internet, phone and TV - all from one provider, put on “seasonal hold” (reduced rate, not eliminated, internet speed reduced but enough to monitor home security system and CCTV system online with my phone from the ship. <> gasoline for normal day-to-day driving around town (I took an average of the miles per week times the cost of the gas needed) So far that’s all I could think of. Our friends have a house cleaner so that could be an example of an additional cost. What would you include?

It’s true, only a couple of showers in the entrance to the spa, just before the stairs to the gym

Small world, i use to own a cottage and a commercial building on Main Street there. Almost time for the Polar Bear Swim

I don’t eat Lobster so this isn’t a problem for me. We were able to order the steak and lobster combo as noted above and gave the extra tails to our table mates

We were there twice in the last month and each time we had an Oasis Class and a Vision Class ship in port. There was plenty of room for more people each time. The facilities are being well maintained and the staff is excellent. Got two Shack Crispy Chicken Sandwiches which were excellent. Don’t forget the funnel cakes! We saw two NCL ships at their neighboring island. I had forgotten that they still need to tender into the island. That made me appreciate the dock we had. I haven’t had to tender into any port with RCL for as long as I can remember.

Please see the information in the picture which represents the breakdown of your pre-paid daily gratuities as paid on Royal Caribbean as of January 2023. this list was obtained from the Customer Service desk on our latest cruise.

Just got back from a triple back to back on the Enchantment and can confirm that there are no saunas in the spa are

Hi, with this thread being so large I would like to know if anyone has been on the RCL Serenade of the Seas recently and confirmed that they still have the separate Sauna and steam rooms. Planning on going next March/April out of Tampa. Would appreciate any comments. thanks in advance…….

Hi, can you or any others on the thread give a synopsis of the entertainment that you had on the Summit for your cruise. We are on the July 10th sailing. This will be our sixth cruise on the Summit for this itinerary. We normally go every year at this time, but the last two years were moved out, of course. We will be celebrating our anniversary and our SIL’s birthday while on board. It would be helpful to determine what days they have “formal’ nights (understanding that its a relative term). I am assuming they would be on Monday and Friday if past precedent is followed. Finally, what specialty restaurants have you been to in recent cruises and your opinion of same (along with prices)? Feel free to included any other info that you think would be helpful. I find this the best place to get details before I go. -Jim