daxwise

I asked fellow travellers and was told a dollar per bag.

But in all honesty I'm not comfortable giving tip everywhere and to anyone doing a job they're already being paid to do.

And here's the longer explanation to that.

As a European I'm not accustomed to the US way of tipping.

Within the European Union (with local exceptions) we have laws and regulations clearly stating that if anything costs money there's a price tag, and that's the price, a fixed price. Tax included, and when applicable, tip included.

Services are performed by employees. They have salary. Tipping is considered free money and of course some people take it if offered. But the people accepting a tip increases the younger they get. Older generations often consider it an insult to be offered a tip and there's a lot of explanations to that. One of them being that it can be seen as they're not happy with their job and the tip is to take pity on them.

I've worked within the service sector almost all my life and never accepted a tip though offered plenty. I'm already well paid.

In a restaurant the bill already have the tip included in the price.

When it comes to goods and the buyer starts bargaining over the price it's not unusual they get thrown out of the store.

When it comes to the luggage handlers in POM I'm really uncomfortable giving a tip to a guy that lifts my bags a meter in the air, doing a job he's paid for. Considering the amount of bags he's better paid than me, tip alone. One customer a minute and the cheap ones (like me perhaps) only giving him a dollar per bag and some giving him $5 or $10 that would give him $100 extra well within the hour. I'd like to think I'm not cheap, but I just don't think I should give him money for a job he's already been paid to do. Especially for lifting a bag that I just put in front of where it's supposed to be. And the horror stories about people tipping in fear of what's going to happen with their luggage if they don't, well, that would mean they're tipping him for not only doing a job he's supposed to do (and already getting paid for), it's tip for him doing his job well, as is already expected of him if he wants to keep his well paid job.

We're simply not accustomed to the tipping culture and really don't know when and to who we she should tip. So I love cruising where there's a line on the contract stating the exact amount of gratuities.

Over the years I've learned who should recieve an extra tip, and I gladly give it, depending on the service I got.

On the ship there are people giving the bartenders a tip for every drink they get, not considering they already paid 12% according to the receipt.

There's a bunch of unwritten laws when it comes to the culture of tipping. I've learned some, but defenitely not all. I don't even know everything there is to tipping in my own country, where it's still uncommon to give a tip.

Thank You Paul for an extensive review.

We're going B2B in the same cabin, hump balcony 1243, on Feb 20 and Feb 27 beginning with the Eastern Caribbean.

It was a very nice read. I loved the short reviews on the entertainment.

I'm not a musical lover but if you say the production show is great I'll take your word for it. We saw the Elton John singer on the Constellation Dec 2014 so we already know we can do something else that night. I agree he could perform better and also play "Don't let sun...". But in my humble opinion that's one of the few songs that actually improved when Roger Daltrey got hold of it and recorded it for the soundtrack to "Lost Boys". Youtube it, you'll probably like it.

To me it's important to have great comedians. A good laugh is the best way to end the day.

I think Captain Peppas captained the Equinox a few years back but I could be mistaken.

Anyway, this review is extra valuable now when we're boarding in just a few weeks from now. Most likely the crew will be the same as on the presentation in the Dailys.

Thank you again.

/Dennis

This thread is very interesting. It looks like many of us will be able to take advantage of free beverage packages thru the 123Go promo going on now thru Jan 27th on sailings thru April.

Here in Europe (Sweden) we never have any promotions of any sorts and always have to pay full price (because Celebrity Cruises only promotes to North American citizens (and on rare occasions to the UKs)), but for once we've seen a similar 'free drinks package' on offer. But the thing is the TAs of this frozen peninsula don't know either cruising or Swedish marketing laws, because the package offered for free is the Classic Package, but the TAs value it as a Premium Package. That is a big No No and could result in heavy fines.

You mentioned specialty coffees. I have had the drink package three times and everytime I ask for a specialty coffee after dinner I am refused at the main dining room. Any suggestions?

What?

You should've asked to see the Maitre'D, and the Maitre'D would've kicked the waiters butt...

Celebrity do NOT deny service to anyone unless the customer has been very very very obnoxious.

Thank You so much for your replies... :)

I'm a bit curious.

Celebrity allowes for two bottles of wine to be brought onboard.

Are they flexible about the size of the bottles?

An ordinary bottle is 750ml, but a magnum bottle is a lot bigger than that.

Where should I pack the two (normal sized) bottles - in the checked luggage or in the hand luggage?

Do I need to declare the wine brought onboard in any way?

How much is the corkage fee?

On our last cruise this spring we had the Premium Alcohol Package but for our trans atlantic we're considering Premium Package (all premium drinks except for alcohol) and maybe bring our allowance of two bottles of wine onboard since we're boarding in Barcelona Spain, the land of terrific Rioja wines.

I've never done this before so I'm a bit curious.

/Dennis

We will probably purchase the Premium package for our cruise in October. Can anyone clarify one point first though. When in the restaurant can you CHOOSE which wine you have by the glass? I have seen a wine list and some of the "by the glass " wines we like and some we definitely don't!!

The only wines offered by the glass are the ones specified as sold by the glass. Wines with a pricetag per bottle only (no price info per glass) are only sold per bottle.

It's a valid question, although I don't think they will allow it.

Maybe some very nice bartender will allow that, but I wouldn't bet on it.

It's the same as only having half a Midleton Rare ($25) or an eighths of a glass of expensive bubbles. There's a fixed price, and we have a fixed plan/budget.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

I can open the spreadsheet, but I can't change the values in the formula column. The formulas come up, but the numbers that are in the sheet will not change. Help!!!

In the google docs archive menu choose 'save as', 'excel', to get a local copy.

This way you can make all the neccessary changes in the document.

I know which sheet to select, it's the unlabeled columns, cells that don't automatically update when it looks like they should, and handful of cells showing up as broken that are making me think there's a problem. ^_^

The values in column B is sometimes given with a . (dot) instead of a numeric separator , (comma), which renders column G to report a value error.

I'm gonna replace the dots with commas and see if it makes any difference. At least it seems that way.

I finally found the original online program posted by poolboyclay in 2010

 

 

You can download and save your own excel file.

 

 

 

Beverage package evaluator Updated version 1.4

 

online version in Google https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...4T2Vocnc&hl=en

Megaupload has been closed down (but I still had to try the link) but the google docs version does the trick.

Thanks mate..!!

THis is rather a late query,do hope someone reads it!

 

Can my other half get his malt whiskey on the premium package?

 

Hoping someone knows this

 

Thanks

I hope I don't come across as smug - if so I apologize in advance.

Since whiskey is served by the glass the Premium Alcohol Package will cover it, or at least the initial 12$ of the glass. If it costs more than that (Midleton Very Rare is 25$) you pay the difference from 12$ and up.

To me Midleton is just about the only whiskey that's drinkable so I'll have a few of those, and the package will cover almost half of it :p

Without ever having the package before I now feel like an expert after reading up on all the 23 pages of extremly useful information.

Thanks to you all for helping us decide and insure this is a convenient and hassle free deal offering a lot of freedom and allowing us to sift through the entire drinks menu (if we wanted)...