Chuck586

Always, Always, Always travel the day before.  Murphy's law will always rear its ugly head if you don't.

That being said, here is a funny day of cruise travel story.  On our first cruise 20+ years ago we were travelling with my parents out of Detroit Metro to Miami to board the Sunsation.  At that time flights and transfers and pretty much everything was booked through the cruise company and they advertised that they would get you to the boat if there was a problem with the flight they booked, blah blah blah.  In any case, we show up at the airport for our 6:00 am flight on Northwest to Miami.  At that time, Northwest was flying 8 flights out of Detroit to Miami on Saturdays and Sundays before noon as Detroit was, and remains, a big hub.  As luck would have it, Northwest was having some employee problems when we were scheduled to go.  Planes would suddenly be called out of service because lavatory lights were not working and other such delays were causing havoc every day.  Anyway, we show up at the gate and there is no plane waiting for our flight.  You would have thought that the other folks waiting at the gate were trying to find an ambulance to get to the hospital.  I have never heard a gate attendant get yelled at as much as the poor lady checking folks in.  People were simply losing their minds because the plane had not been moved to the gate.  

After sitting off to the side for about 15 minutes my group of four was approached by the gate attendant who very quietly asked for our tickets.  My first thought was, well here he go we are not getting to Miami today.  After a few minutes she comes back and hands us back our tickets, smiles and says "thank you for being patient with us, I have bumped your group to first class."  I almost fell out of my chair.  It just shows that civility and keeping calm does sometimes pay off.

Of course I also had to listen to my mother, who had never been on a plane, keep telling me that flying was not so bad for the entire cruise.  She found out how things really work with the return flight in steerage!

Quick drink package question for those with experience and deep knowledge!  We are sailing Star Class in June (fingers and toes crossed!) and have a question about Starbucks.  I understand that Starbucks is not covered under the drink package but I have heard others indicate that Star passengers can get any drink, just not pastries from Starbucks.  Was there a change in availability or am I understanding things correctly??  

Any clarification is appreciated.  

On 10/21/2020 at 2:23 PM, ehw51 said:

My family had a summer house in Petosky, Michigan when I was a teen, Uncle owned the Borden Dairy, I got to deliver milk to the Grand Hotel and the island residents. Horse drawn milk wagon, no cars, just bicycles. My sister still has a place up there, beauti

It is still a spectacular place.  Some would call it ..... PureMichigan.

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I agree with @sk8erguy1978.  It's all about personal choice.  Whether you choose to tip anyone is completely arbitrary.  It's a matter of debate as to whether the Genie's tip is included in the cruise fare for Star Class.  Most people say that it is not. ....but you're not going to get a bill at the end of the cruise if you choose not to tip the Genie...or anyone else.

I absolutely agree with both that there is no "requirement" to tip but I just hate the way it feels to ignore the bar or restaurant line that asks for an additional tip. 

We have a wonderful resort hotel here in Michigan called the Grand Hotel.  It has always been a "no tipping" resort.  The expectations are clearly spelled out for the guests and the staff alike and it just makes everything clear for everyone.  The resort fee at the Grand is $140.00 per night which would cause some to fall over but if that's the cost of doing business so be it.

I just ran across this post and had another question about tipping.  First, however, an observation.  All of the tipping rules for Royal are simply confusing and, I believe, intentionally vague in an effort to increase tips to the staff which, I imagine, has the unintended consequence of shorting tips to staff a lot of the time.  A better system would be to simply charge each person $XX per week based upon the average purchases at dinner, the bar, etc and just allocate it towards the service employees with a rule that there is no other tipping.  That would seem to me to be fair across the board.

In any case, here is my question.  Star Class passengers have already paid for their gratuities in their room.  There is not a specific line item on the bill but it is included in the dear cost of the room.  Here are a couple examples which illustrate my conundrum.  

I order a $10.00 drink from a waiter at the bar or from a pool attendant etc.  The 18% tip on that drink would be $1.80.  Now I generally consider 18% for a bartender that opens a bottle of beer or fills a cup from the frozen cocktail machine to be a pretty good tip.  Let's assume he did a really good job was chatty and maybe complimented me on my Hawaiian shirt do I boost his tip to 20% and really write $.20 on the extra tip line or do I go all out and give him an extra $1.00 and not he is getting a 28% tip.  I personally feel like a schmuck if I give either nothing or the $.20 tip and I feel like I have been had if I end up tipping everyone at 28%.  

Similar situation for dinner.  Let's assume the cost for the dinner I order is $100 for two people.  Assume we follow @WAAAYTOOO guidelines and tip $20 for dinner.  According to the published info, Star passengers have already paid the 18% gratuity towards the dinner, and now another 20% tip at the time of service.  Again, I would say that the service better be pretty spectacular for a 38% tip.

I, for one, find the tipping stuff more than a bit confusing.  I really wish that Royal would simply charge us for gratuities and announce a "no tipping" policy.  Just my humble opinion.

We will be sailing on Oasis on deck 17 in an upcoming (June 2021) cruise.  We have some family members that will be sailing on the ship in a balcony room.  I understand that the rooms on deck 17 are secured behind glass doors which require key card access to even get into the hallway.  Is there a phone in the lobby area for people to call the rooms to "buzz" them in come down and open the doors?

New to the boards but I have a tip question.

What is the general feeling about adding an additional tip to the receipt if you have the full drink package?  Since 18% is already calculated in is an additional something expected or no?  

Is the guy or gal that does not add something more ignored for the rest of the day?