Cez

crossed my mind

I feel your pain but for that you should blame (or thank) King George III and greed of East India Company (in short)

This is data from previous administration - old news. Obviously you didn't follow state of the union last night. But the good news is that great ideas are spreading among port of calls for Royal, so soon enough you can feel like home and as safe as home

Seriously, you are expecting Royal Caribbean to assign you a bodyguard while on excursion ? Just stay with your group and tour guide and you should be OK. Call me crazy risk-taker but two weeks ago we left Allure in Falmouth and went on excursion to Ocho Rios and Bambo Beach. Happy to report that locals did not line-up to sexually assault us, but maybe it was a pure luck. But in Cozumel OMG - we walked to downtown ( too tired to walk back so we took a taxi on our way back - $8 US) ! No assaults, not even from taxi driver! Only good deals on tequila and rum in Chedrau and Europa.

thanks @WAAAYTOOO I guess phone call to Royal should be made

I guess it also depends on their definition of "salary" - does it include gratuities that they are receiving or just bare basic salary

It depends on your tablet. I'm not sure about Android but iOS devices can not relay WiFi signals to other devices (only 3G/LTE). To share a WiFi to other devices you need to set up a WiFi repeater. You can google this solution

lol ! If you going to Bambo Beach Club you should rather bring water shoes - shooting at the rocks on the beach provides very little relief to your feet

Do you have to request certificate now? Before we had it delivered to by cabin on last night of the cruise. On our latest cruise we didn't get it now despite accumulating more than enough points

We’ve disembark from AOS this Sunday – crew members was very happy with week off in Bahamas . Most of casino stuff are planning to take few weeks off and then restart on Symphony. However, we have experienced bumpy ride compared to the previous cruises. I was wondering if damaged propeller caused that because we had relatively good weather. Unfortunately, I‘ve missed meeting with officers so could not confirm my suspicions.

True but here everybody is eating the same meal and paying more while in suites. Overall I agree that this system is sick and doesn't make much sense but this is becoming academic discussion. If we want to make changes, we could: - Contact RCL and express your dissatisfaction with current system - Boycott RCL and stop cruising or select cruise line that pays all their employees decent wages - Address this issue with politicians to enforce lines operating from US port to adhere to US labour standards. What we SHOULD NOT do is to opt-out paying gratuities because THAT'S HOW CURRENT SYSTEM WORKS and you’ll ONLY effect earnings of people who are working hard for you, while you enjoying your vacations.

Not necessarily. That would be directly an additional tax not a gratuities. Waiter in MDR or support stuff don't care or does work extra because you are from higher paid cabin. In housekeeping amount of work in slightly larger balcony vs inside is insignificant. However work might be more challenging in lower cost cabins with younger crowds. I'm saying this based on my experience seeing our teenage children inside cabin. I felt sorry for their cabin attendant and left her additional tip in my kids habitat

I agree with you 100%, however it is what it is. For me auto-tips serves as absolution on how much, who and when should I tip. Of course if someone is really going above and beyond I'm showing my monetary appreciation. I'm still puzzled if drinking more within drinking package means more tips to bartenders and dining team stuff. Anyone ???

This what I found about Carnival. I guess we can add a ~ $1.00 to each category and apply to Royal nowadays. Interesting reading that helps to understand entire tipping scheme. So far I never removed my auto-tips, but truly I had no reason to do so, every time we had amazing service.

So what are you saying that my Chinese room attended from last cruise made almost 6x median salary in China or equivalent of 180.000 in US. This is for a job that it does not required education, special skills or talent - just basic English. I don't get why you take @monctonguy comments as an anger. IMHO he just stating fact that we should not pity crew and think that RCL is exploiting them like there is no tomorrow. Truly, they are working hard, very long hours in relatively decent working conditions. In return they are getting room and board, plus dream salaries (in their respective countries). Those ships ain't cheep to build or run. RCL is here to make money, you are receiving first class accommodation and service at more/less affordable price, crew earns money. Win-win-win.

Maybe I'm overthinking it but assuming that I've paid $100 as gratuity for my drinking package and consume 100 drinks on the cruise. Is waiter who serves me two drinks gets $2 (percentage of what I paid) or 18% of the price for those two drinks regardless of how many I consume? If the second, it would be one more way to support crew and their families

Since we are on this subject... Does anyone know how tips from drinking packages are calculated/distributed ? If I'm past my break even point (easy ) is waiter receives tips on consecutive drinks or those tips are cupped on what I've paid when purchasing package ?

have you tried to pay with it at the pomp? That's the only place where I've seen this requirement. Paying inside gas station works as usual

I have found another maybe bit less elegant but effective solution. Fido/Rogers Master Card is giving you 4% cash back for purchases made in non Canadian currency (online or physical transaction). With 2.5% exchange fee you are 1.5% ahead of the game. The downsize is that you have to spend this "cash" on your phone bill, upgrade or accessories. So in reality for Fido/Rogers clients only.....

For any Canadian CC if prompted for your ZIP code, just enter the three digits of your postal code following by two zeros. So for example, if your postal code is A1B 2C3, the zip code is 12300

OMG - did he ever tried to break JW Blue bottle ? He would need to put his suitcase under steamroller to do any harm ;)

It's exclusively for Allure and Oasis (for now)

According to my cruise countdown I'll be able to answer your question in 61 days :) I've checked this app few weeks ago and while not very sophisticated it might serve as reminder to attend activities of your choice. I'm looking forward to see how it will behave while on board

thank you @Sabrinaklai @F1guynz @Neaxan @Sabrinaklai @Gears for your input. It's too late for this cruise but I'm going to implement @Gears solution. More money to spend on board :) !

Question for Non US cruisers (and US cruisers with banking knowledge) I'm doing my online check-in (yey !!) and one of the questions always makes me wonder. For as long as I remember RCCL always is giving choice between two conversion options. My CC is charging 2% foreign conversion rate and I always select option B, but would like to have your opinion/advise on this subject