Scotico

1 hour ago, Joseph2017China said:

So why wouldn't you eat it if you bought it?  

Not many people know what a mud cookie is. Look it up.  Very bad for you. 

Someone was selling mud cookies last week in Labadee.  She had a box of them and was selling 2 for $1.  People were actually eating them.

Avoid the Italian night.  Nothing was good.  If I were go again on Royal, I would do specialty every night.  

11 hours ago, Anton said:

Just left Odyssey this morning and I observed this survey activity in the Windjammer on Saturday.  It was a headwaiter and in this instance he was clearly guiding people to rate the food, service, everything as "a 10" and then recording their cabin number.  He slowed down and looked at me but didn't stop.   Not sure why although I was alone and he seemed to head for couples and families.  Everyone in earshot gave rave reviews whether they believed it or not.  As you said, doing it face-to-face leads many people to not want to hurt anyone's feelings so they tell the staffer what they want to hear.  I'm not afraid to be critical so maybe he sensed it.  Anyway, I found it to be off-putting.  At dinner on the final night our headwaiter asked us (a table of three pinnacles) if we were going to "help" our waiter and assistant by giving them a 10.  We told him "they were fine, but you'll find out a score when we submit our cruise surveys". 

So did you see the elderly person taken away by security on Saturday at the main pool. My daughter and a few other girls were swimming and one girl splashed her. Keep in mind they are all 8-9 years old. Well the lady hit one girl who was splashing. The father called security and they removed her. If these people don’t want to deal with kids then they should just use the solarium. 

10 hours ago, Starry Eyes said:

What happened with the medical exception for Internet for the defibrillator mentioned in another thread?

 

 

So I never needed a defibrillator so all was good

2 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

This makes my blood boil.  You are bilingual, possibly trilingual, and those morons are monolingual.  

 

But a more important question, @Scotico - who is the Cruise Director?  🙂

Sorry for the delay in posting on feedback. Just returned home and lost 4 lbs somehow. The cruise director was someone named Ana I believe. 
 

I should have been more clear about the food. Overall it was very salty and over seasoned (ie. the jerk pork chop was so over seasoned that it was not edible and this was from many cruisers around us. It was extremely spicy). 
 

one thing I can say is that their service is excellent. We ran into the same servers in the wind jammer every night since we always sat at the same table and they always brought out extras fir the kids like chocolate milk and desserts not on the buffet. I still believe they are a bit overwhelmed with always trying to get feedback from customers and dealing with some really obnoxious cruisers making ridiculous requests (this AM someone sitting next to us requested that the server going around with the juice and coffee cart fill her 64oz yeti thermos with coffee. 
 

Also someone mentioned that the toilet paper was prison grade. We brought a few rolls of our own. We also brought our own liquid hand soap. 
 

We also had an issue with our AC. When you lock the door going out to the balcony, the AC took about 30 min to go from unoccupied to occupied in the room. They worked on it a few days but could not fix it. Not a deal breaker but annoying at night if you are out on the balcony before going to bed. They ended up giving us $250 in shipboard credit. 

We are on now and we were not very impressed with the cruise. One thing I can say is that the cruise staff are very friendly but I think management is pressuring them to get feedback from customers. A few times while dining in windjammer, a staff member came to our table to rate the staff, food, overall experience. This is not something I thing you should answer face to face. I felt bad for staff members asking this. They looked very uncomfortable. 
 

The food in the MDR is awful. We only ate there one night (Italian). The service was very slow for us. Other tables were on dessert and we were just receiving our main. They blamed it on my sons burger that was not made correctly. Everything is so salty or over seasoned. The only good that we are able to tolerate is the solarium bistro or two70. Windjammer is hit or miss. The load is a few areas with Indian-food and Asian. We ate a lot of salads there. The spealty coffee shops and very understaffed. In two70, only one person is staffed there to handle scanning cards and making the drinks.
 

With the room, the cabin steward was excellent. I would suggest you bring your own shampoo/soap/conditioner. The soap they supply is not good and it burns kids eyes. Also there are many people around us smoking from their balconies. 2 down from us every morning they light up and are out there for  at least an hour eating and smoking. The smell always enters into our cabin. We complained to the front desk but nothing has changed. We also mentioned to the cabin steward who said he will report it to his supervisor. 
 

the show are pretty good. We were impressed with the book. Make sure you get reservations and get there early too. 
 

not sure we will be cruising with RCCL again. We also ran into a few rude passengers who did not like us speaking Spanish. One told us this is an American cruise and we should be speaking English. We just smiled and kept speaking Spanish. Thankfully there was another passenger there who told the old man to shut his mouth. My kids were there and I did not want to act out in front of them. 

1 hour ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

Yes, at least some of those positions, whether they know it or not.  In many/most American restaurants waitstaff are required to "tip out" (give a percentage of their tips to be pooled among bussers and other back-of-house employees, as well as a percentage of alcohol sales to the bartenders) to other employees who aren't tipped directly by diners at tables.

 

In most cases servers don't keep 100% of the tips they receive, just like MDR waiters don't get 100% of the foodservice tips in cruise autogratuities. 

I have also worked all areas in a Restaurant Kitchen, everything from Dishwasher to Cook.  I never received any tips.  We were given a decent hourly wage.  Wait staff only shared a % of their tips with bus boys.

12 minutes ago, Longford said:

 

The daily service charge - described by the cruise lines as "gratuities" - is, IMO, meant to shift the burden of paying a decent wage to employees from the employer onto the passengers.  I subscribe to the belief that gratuities are appropriate when someone providing the service to you directly goes above and beyond what the job descriptions call for. It's not a charity payment,  it's for services rendered.  Go ahead and raise the price of a cruise by xxx Dollars to fairly compensate back of the house staff or other staff we don't often come into contact with.

Exactly!!

16 hours ago, karena1 said:

I don't care where I eat or anything, I would never take off the auto pay.. Everyone works so hard to make our cruise great.  And even though we buy the beverage package and tips are included, we still tip per drink because they deserve it.

 

I was in the service industry for years, so I know how hard they all work.  For us, it is just part of the cruise cost.

Does everyone tip the dishwasher/line chef/cleaning crew when they go out to eat.  Do you all tip the people who clean the sheets of set up the continental buffet when you stay at a hotel.  Why should these auto grats go to people in the back of the house on a cruise ship.  I think these tips should only be for those with a customer facing position.  Those in the back of the house should be receiving a reasonable wage from the cruise line.  Some of those receiving the tips already make a great wage (ie. assistant Maitre d on Royal Caribbean has a salary range between 3200 to 5100 per month) where a front of house staff worker has an average salary of 21,884.   

I just wish they would go back to the days where they give you envelopes and tip out cash instead of placing it on your account.  

I somewhat agree with OP though.  If you have the UDP and never use the dining room/windjammer/food stations then you should be obligated to only tip the room stewards.  I don't believe back of the house/maitre D/laundry workers should be part of the tipping pool.  They should be given an adequate wage and not rely on gratuities. Most restaurants do not tip the back of the house and how many of you actually tip when you go to starbucks, pick up your dry cleaning or even stay in a hotel.  

We pre-paid our gratuities since we are sailing with kids and they tend to be more high maintenance but really wish they would just go back to cash tipping at the end of the cruise.

25 minutes ago, bajathree said:

Not sure when your sailing is...but we switch back to daylight savings time on March 12th which will make local time in Curacao and Florida the same until we switch clocks again on Nov 5th.

It is next week so before the time switch. 

We have a tour in curaçao at 9:30am. Ship says it arrives at 8am. Is that 8am local time or 8am ship time which I think is 1 hr behind?

So we purchased the Deluxe beverage package and the total for the 2 of us on our 8 day cruise was $1400.  We could not justify spending that much since we are not heavy drinkers and will be traveling with kids.  We will be bringing wine onboard instead and purchasing drinks fi we really want one.  One thing we really need is the specialty coffee and waters.  Do you all find the refreshment package a good value.  We will be purchasing mocktails and plenty of the sparkling waters along with coffees and fresh juices.  Also it's 31.99 PP per day and that's with 10% off.  Do you all ever find it cheaper once you board?

19 minutes ago, davekathy said:

I no longer use TSA approved locks as they kept on disappearing. I know use zip ties. I bought heavy duty finger/toe nail clippers I carry in my carry on. No issues with TSA or the cruise line security. It doesn't have a nail file. Cuts the zip ties with no problem.  

Guess I will be bringing my nail clippers instead.

I have a very small swiss army knife on my keys I take anywhere.  Will security give me problems at the port?  I use the scissors on it to cut the tie wraps securing the zippers on my luggage.

Does Royal have Step Stools available for kids to use in the bathroom.  Kids have a hard time reaching the sink without one.

There are 6 of us traveling.  Do they have larger taxis that will accommodate us (ie mini van) in Aruba.  We want to go to a beach for a day but not too far from the port (Manchebo or Eagle) 

We really do not want to go to Eagle Beach or Palm beach.  What are some nice close beaches near the cruise port?

Is $37 PP a good price for Giovanni’s Italian Kitchen.  There is a 1 day sale for this place.  

2 minutes ago, cruiseguy1016 said:

 

My wife uses bonine and it works great for her. She takes it on the morning we leave home to help with issues on the plane and then she takes one every morning on the cruise. 

 

I'd like to give my opinion on the kids. For our first cruise with the kids, my wife insisted on giving the kids bonine because she didn't want to deal with them being sick. She assumed that because she gets motion sickness, the kids would get it, even though I never get it. I said how will we know until we try? On the second cruise she agreed to try it without giving the bonine to the kids. They had no issues at all. So, my recommendation is not to "force-feed" the medication until you're sure they're going to need it.

I agree.  I will try out the kids for one day to see how they are.  Will also bring plenty of ginger candy for upset stomach.  Do the meds work during the day if you take it at bedtime the night before.  

Going to be traveling with a 4 year old, 8 year old and 2 seniors along with myself and wife.  Need some recommendations on motion sickness meds.  I do not get motion sickness.  The children and seniors have never cruised so I need to be prepared for them.  When do you recommend.

Is there a website where we can check to see any upcoming cruises that have these large groups.  My wife and I ended up on a gay pride cruise for our honeymoon.  We had the best time and everyone was really nice

Sorry for the off topic question but did anyone notice a menu in Spanish?  

Just got mine.  Mine leaves at end of month.  Started wondering if they have us on the wrong cruise.