samcanadian
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Posts posted by samcanadian
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We just finished our crew, and paid for a cab to take us to Marigot. With four kids it was really kind of a waste of time. The shops were mediocre, and we were probably just better off shopping in Phillipsburg and saving ourselves the Cab fare. We still met a few people and I got a chance to flex my French a little but in the end we were very happy to just get back on the boat.
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What a trip. Once again Royal Caribbean exceeded all expectations. Our 5 and 3 year olds couldn’t have had more fun than they did.
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Best to leave a review on their Google page. I'm glad you got your money back, but sorry that you're missing out on your vacation.
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On 1/13/2023 at 4:16 AM, Seafarer said:
The RC app is one place to look (under dining). Another place is up top under CruiseCompass. Look for last month's sailing. Last year, we spent a couple of hours walking around familiarizing ourselves with the ship and enjoyed lunch at the Solarium Bistro. Your family is gonna love this ship.
Thanks for the response. We're getting very excited, less than two weeks out!
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24 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:
Yes, this is still an option, you can do this at guest services.
21 minutes ago, Maggie M said:I think you can go to Guest Services still and do this. We usually bring cash and put it in the envelopes that the Guest Services desk provides and give it to our head/assistant waiters and Stateroom Attendant on the last night. We do this in addition to the pre-paid gratuities as kind of a 'bonus' for great service. But I would imagine you could just do the lump so of your choosing at the end of your cruise too without the auto-paid gratuities - we just haven't tried it yet!
Thank you! I also found it on the Royal Caribbean site regarding the Gratuities
As of September 7th, 2022, the automatic service gratuity of $16.00 USD per person, per day for guests in non-suites staterooms, or $18.50 USD per person, per day for guests in Suites, will be applied to each guest’s SeaPass account on a daily basis. The gratuity applies to individual guests of all ages and stateroom categories. As a way to reward our crew members for their outstanding service, gratuities are shared among dining, bar & culinary services staff, stateroom attendants and other hotel services teams who work behind the scenes to enhance the cruise experience.
In the unlikely event that a guest onboard being charged the daily automatic gratuity does not receive satisfactory service, the guest may request to modify the daily amount at their discretion by visiting Guest Services onboard and will be able to do so until the morning of their departure. Guests who have pre-paid their gratuity will not see a daily charge during their cruise.
The automatic daily gratuity is based on customary industry standards. Applying this charge automatically helps streamline the recognition process for the crew members that work to enhance your cruise. We hope you find the gratuity to be an accurate reflection of your satisfaction and thank you for your generous recognition of our staff.
A 18% gratuity is automatically added to all beverages, mini bar items, and spa & salon purchases.
Guests can pre-pay gratuities by calling 866-562-7625 or logging into www.royalcaribbean.com before* their sailing. For guests booked through travel advisors, their advisor may add pre-paid gratuities to the guests' booking prior to sailing*. If gratuities are not prepaid prior to sailing, they will be automatically added to the guests’ folios once onboard.
*Pre-paid gratuities can be added to an individual reservation at any time outside of 48 hours of the sail date.
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We went on an RC cruise about 4 years ago and we were able to remove the auto gratuities once we were on board the ship, since we decided to tip each employee individually. Is this option available anymore, or are you stuck paying the pre-determined gratuities every day?
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14 minutes ago, Maggie M said:
How was traveling on a cruise with little ones? I'm considering bringing our son next year on one for a week - he'll be 4.
We brought our daughter who was almost a year old and went with relatives who also had a son the same age and it was fantastic. We even left her with the on-board babysitter for an hour and a half while we did the escape room. We brought SMALL umbrella strollers with us because while the boats are huge, sometimes you get tight spots to maneuver in. They're also super useful for the long walks back from the beaches back to the boat at the end of the day.
We'll let you know how it goes with a 5 and 3 year old in a month! I expect nothing but good things again with Royal Caribbean.
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Are you still able to remove the auto-Gratuities by going to the customer services booth aboard the ship and requesting they do so? We did that on our last cruise and paid the specific employees we liked the most directly.
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19 hours ago, Seafarer said:
We sailed on Symphony last year and booked it again. This will be our first leg of a B2B.
Soon!
One question I had...do you know what's open for lunch on Embarkation day?
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Is El Loco Fresh on Symphony of the Seas open on embarkation day?
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If I cruised every single month, I suppose the novelty would have worn off for me long ago too.
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St. Maarten Now
in Shore Excursions
Posted
I didn't necessarily see too much hurricane damage, but the Marigot side was just kind of boring and we would've been better off saving the cab fare and sticking around in Philipsburg in the ultra-touristy shops.
Of course, we may have GONE to the wrong place too...but we sort of just let our Cab Driver show us where the best place was. He dropped us at the Taxi stand near the West Indies shopping mall and we walked up and down the general area as shown below.
Oh well, still got some exercise and got to use my french with the locals which was a treat in itself.