the penguins

I assume you are in Aqua in which case you can eat in Blu at any time.

How important are the Fjords in your planning? If you look closely none of the big cruise lines really do the Fjords. For example compare X's itineraries with the 12 night Classic Round-trip from Bergen on Hurtigruten (22 ports and days of scenic cruising) and you will see what I mean. No need for H's more expensive Expedition Cruise the Classic works fine. To be clear we have done the Fjords on Royal, Celebrity and Hurtigruten - all good in their own ways but for Fjords, Scenic Cruising and a true local experience Hurtigruten is unbeatable.

You will also proably have to wait until the cruise finishes before X will issue the paperwork needed for the insurance as they will say you could still join the cruise later.

no such thing as bad weather only the wrong type of clothing. If the your goes ahead take it and enjoy.

we always book independent guides and lots of companies offer the service. We have used Toursbylocals in many countries and never had a bad guide. You deal direct with the guide all the money is handled via the Head Office in Canada, the guide only gets paid after the tour and you get a full refund if the ship doesn't dock. The best guides get booked up very quickly. We choose a guide with a vehicle that holds 6 passengers and share with one other couple from the Roll Call - we like the space.

we did the first Transpacific on Solstice - Corporate forgot about the extra day and left the Cruise Director one Guest Entertainer short. Funny thing was the CD spent several hours trying to make the numbers work before he finally realised what the problem was. He arranged for a wonderful variety show which included him being able to demonstrate his stunt man skills. Nothing changes with X

Choice is a great thing.

Correct the $2 goes to the staff you don't see (eg laundry, washroom attendants etc). Dining is the waiter/assistant. Cabin steward is separate. Bars tend to pool as they work together especially places like the Martini Bar which is more like a show. Somelliers get the tips added to each drink.

X doesn't have specific drink limit but it does include a condition that drinking must be responsible. We have seen passengers escorted back to their cabin being told very clearly that they must remain there until the following morning and that any attempt to leave their cabin would result in more drastic action being taken. All done very quietly and without fuss.

The OP is travelling International not European. Minimum check in time for International is usually/typically 3 hours. We would never book a flight so early as delays can happen at every stage of the journey - late arrival at Port, delayed immigration at Port, traffic to airport etc.

At the prices quoted Princess would seem to be by far the cheapest as for £50 (approx $65 ) you get the drinks, WiFi and grats plus a few odd extras like special desserts at dinner.

check your cruises Roll Call as there maybe private tours you can join which are usually much better value than X's offerings. Or book your own private guide (this is our preferred option) and get other Roll Call members to share with you.

question 3 - yes. Makes me glad our answers to 1 and 2 are no and neither of us drink any alcohol. What we "save" on drinks/wifi we spend on private guides. Choice is wonderful

True - but we would be carrying it for "others" as we don't drink any alcohol - perhaps we should offer this as a service for say $10 a bottle cash 🤣

My thoughts/questions are: 1) Do you really need the Wifi? Our free Elite + Captains Club minutes are more than enough - share one lot and once that's used you will see if the second lot will last until the end of the cruise. If not use the second lot as a discount on a full package as by then there could well be a special on the remaining days. Free WiFi in every port. 2) how much do you drink? All speciality teas/coffees/chocolate are free if you are Elite+. Japan is port intensive so not much drinking time in the day. 3) if you are a couple do you both drink the same amount of alcohol? Do the maths (sorry math) and you may find neither WiFi or drinks packages are the best option. These products are priced to give X a profit I.e. the majority of passengers lose. No right or wrong just personal choices.

beds are high with lots of storage space underneath.

There are always new passengers joining CC who rightly ask the same questions. There have been at least 2 other threads in the past week plus one Poster on this one who said X doesn’t publish any breakdown of the tips and clearly this is not correct. The confusion isn’t helped by cruise lines adopting different ways to share the tips (or as Princess call it Crew Appreciation) for example with X each cruise is a cost centre in its own right whereas Princess shares the tips across the fleet - know idea how.

Also I assume they never had any sheets or towels washed and never used any of the public restrooms as staff in there are also included in the Auto Grats.

Plus the route for every day has to be signed off by every Bridge Officer from the lowest to the Captain plus the Environmental Officer before its submitted to Corporate. A system one Captain described as planning by Committee.

no your not - it's something everyone who chooses to remove the auto grats has to accept i.e. removing the grats means some staff work for less money.

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it's like any other restaurant. If lots of people turn up at the same time you may have to wait. Worst case is you get a buzzer so you can wait in a bar/louge/al bacio etc. Agreeing to share a table can also cut the wait time. We always pre book for 6.30 every night as soon as we book the cruise as we like a relaxed meal and go to the theatre for the 9.0pm show. WNo right or wrong just personal choice.

Never had a cabin at the rear but always feel a vibration when having breakfast in Tuscan.

X publishes the breakdown and the current figures are shown below. If you were to remove the auto grats it would be impossible to tip all the people who woluld otherwise be covered (for example the laundry staff).

X does break it down and you can collect the breakdown from Guest Relations. The current breakdown is shown below: