ANGELSwithANGLES

It's no different than on Celebrity. One time a bunch of people missed it because it was listed on the sign by Guest Services and it was placed all the way in the back in a corner.

Does the a Celebrity page have a stickie?

As much as I would love to agree, and take advantage of something like this...for reasons unknown , I do not. It almost feels like cheating, and I think not having them combined helps the brands to maintain their separate identity. MSC's honoring of statuses has more to do with trying to gain a bigger share of the market I believe.

It would definitely entice me to try one of their other brands. Every time I venture out, it always is to one of their competing brands. I would like to HAL and Love Boat myself one day.

It was always my understanding that if you changed levels during a cruise- you would be that level at the start of the cruise. I have 197 VIFP days. Just booked a 3 night cruise. 197 + 3 = 200 so I thought his would turn me Diamond- yet when I do my online check-in it still says Platinum. Is my logic flawed?

Your assumption is correct. You should expect to being the correct color upon boarding.

You're right. It's a service charge. That's really what it is.

 

You can sign up through various agencies to work on the ship. Be aware that they typically cost thousands of dollars just for getting you the job. Then be prepared to work 12-14 hour days 7 days a week for 6-8 months at a time all the while getting verbally abused and mistreated by a bunch of entitled whiners (aka guests) and your supervisors. Don't forget you'll be sharing a cabin with at least one other person who may or may not have bad BO, snore, and has a sensitive colon (if you know what I mean [emoji6]). Oh and if you're lucky, not all of your guests will believe there is a conspiracy theory out to embezzle the money that is allocated to you in the form of gratuities. I could go on but I'll stop. You should understand by now.

This is actually a bunch of hogwash. Google CAREERS ON A CRUISE SHIP and learn what really goes on.

I'm not going to even respond to the first part. That is pure crazy talk.

 

The way Carnival has it set up is that the workers are paid a good chunk of their money BY the customer in the form of gratuities. Do I like it? No. Can I change it? No. So in order for them to get what they are expecting, people need to pay their gratuities. If you have horrible service, then it should be addressed immediately with a supervisor. So no matter how you slice it, the customer pays the salaries of everyone that works for Carnival whether they think so or not.

 

That's why I think they should just add them in and make them mandatory. That way the customer doesn't have to worry about tipping and no one gets stiffed.

There's our difference. I don't worry about it for myself, or worse, as you describe above, for other people.

It's $2 per person per meal when I eat in the service restaurant. It's about $15 per person if I eat in the steakhouse. When they close the dining room as they do now, and I serve myself, or eat while in port, they wont even see me.

When you launch your cruiseline, you can set it up anyway you like, all while competing with your competition for their business.

I forget the name of the place, but the owner of a restaurant or a chain was so sure he could bust his customers thinking by eliminating tips and putting it into the cost of goods.

6 months in, he already had to go back to the old way. He eating crow.

Actually yes I would still leave my auto tips on because it's not their fault that I chose to eat in the Steakhouse every night. Especially since I was assigned to their table and now the space is empty where they could have had another guest. They will also lose out on the possibility that the other guest would have also tipped them above and beyond the auto gratuities. And in all actuality, if service was good I would have given extra as well. So now they are getting the minimum they were counting on to begin with.

 

Again, I don't sweat the small stuff. I don't look at gratuities as a punishment that I must pay, but rather the cost of going on vacation. Amazing how when you change your attitude to look at the brighter side of things instead of worrying about who is out to get you, the better life in general is. Karma doesn't forget. Do unto others as you would have done to you. Nothing religious about that, just the truth. If the rolls were reversed, I would only hope that I had more people on the ship that felt the way I do vs the "What have you done for me and why do you deserve to get paid?" crowd.

So they have an empty table that they don't have to attend, and they deserve a tip for work they are not performing.

Where do I sign up?

In any case I see you are confused. What you are describing is clearly not a tip.

It is what it is. Call it tips, call it wages, call it whatever. Bottom line is its part of cruising and I would be very happy if it was mandatory just like taxes/port fees. Guess what? I have to pay a port fee even if I don't get off the ship the entire time. That's not fair. Boo hoo!

 

No one is asking you to give more. If you pay the auto gratuities then you are done. If you give any additional then that's totally on you.

 

One way or another we are all paying the crew's wages whether it's broken down or rolled into the fare. If someone can't afford the gratuities, then they shouldn't cruise. If your culture isn't used to tipping, well then I'm sorry but ours is. "When in Rome" as they say. Same as if you can't afford all the extra fees when it comes to flying. I'm looking at a fare for one of my friends right now where the actual airfare is $139 and taxes and BS fees are $32. $139 is a whole lot better than $171. Yet if they want to go, they have to pay it. Supposedly the 911 fee and whatever else pays the TSA people who no one likes! I hope they add it all in just like the airlines do so it's not an option and people will know what the cost of cruising really is with all fees included.

 

Don't punish the hardworking crew by being cheap and skipping out on the gratuities. I feel your pain as far as having a family of 4. We have cruised a lot with the kids and my sister is thinking about trying one out. There are 4 of them as well. When doing research and giving her pricing I automatically add the gratuities in so she won't have any surprises.

If you can't afford to buy everything on the ship does that mean you can't afford to cruise? If you can't afford a suite, does that mean you can't afford to cruise?

Such silliness posted here. It's the cruiselines that aren't paying the workers on their ships. I hope you are defending the workers to the company and not the customer.

The fact remains Carnival or that specific ship is choosing to make people think tips should be the same whether they eat in the dining room or the lido deck. Until they start offerering table service up top, there should be no equivalence to the two.

Something else like what? If Carnival wanted more money all they would need to do is increase fares and pocket it. If they were lying about where it went, a lawsuit would have been filed long ago. Lawyers live for that kind of stuff.

 

As far as what JH said is what those of us who have tried to explain time and again for those that can't seem to comprehend how it works. Even if you don't eat in the MDR, your waiters work elsewhere on the ship during the day. You do eat at some point somewhere on the ship, correct? So you are utilizing their services one way or another. Whether through Room Service, breakfast or lunch when the MDR is open, brunch, etc. so by leaving the auto gratuity in place, the dining team will get paid.

 

No one said the guys in the buffet are getting paid the same as everyone else. Not sure where that came from.

 

I can only hope that the "more to come" aspect of the gratuities decision is that they will be renamed a service charge and that they are mandatory so people can stop worrying about being scammed out of a couple bucks a day. It really is sad.

That's pretty funny. They're off working somewhere else not for you, and you want to tip them. That's like eating at mcDonalds and tipping the waiters in the restaurant nest door serving someone else, because someone in the business told you to. I suppose if you ate in the steakhouse every night, you would still tip the MDR people for some reAson. No clue why, but it it serves you, do it.

Carnival does want to raise the fare. They would rather you see $499 for a one week cruise, and not $584. And would love to move more of that fare off the base price and onto your sail and sign account.

And I didn't say the guys get paid the same. I said I would not TIP the same in a place where I served myself, as allowed to being served.

The good thing is you can tip anyone how You wish. I will do the same.

It's the same at is was before so I'm not sure what the big uproar is.

A someone mentioned unthread, this is the beginning of something else. Why they are confusing a non service eatery with a service one, I have no clue. But I'm not about to fall into thinking that I should tip the same wherever I eat. Even they don't believe that, having different scales for the pay for restaurants.

Wow. Now our accounts are being flagged as to what we purchase. And then passed off to an agency? This has gotten absurd as well.

I'm guessing it's the same people that used to get them before. The amount for them has not changed. This is how it's worded now:

 

The majority of the tipping amount goes to employees such as the stateroom steward, assistant steward, dining room waiter and assistant waiter. A small portion goes to a mix of other personnel who are in guest-facing customer service positions within areas such as culinary and hotel services, along with certain key positions in entertainment and guest services.

Those are the salaried personel. This mirror is so smoked that a vampire could now we it.

Nothing but cash tips for me from now on. This has gotten absurd.

I love sunrise/sunsets and since we have early dining I will probably be missing sunsets [emoji20]. Can anyone recommend tables (13 guests) or table location where I could still possibly catch the sunset? Also how do you know which dining room you will be assigned? Will I get this info before sailing or once on board?

 

Oh and I've been wondering...when leaving Miami are we sailing into sunset or will it be to our back, side etc? I'm thinking we are sailing towards it but prefer to hear from someone who knows for sure.

 

Thanks!

 

 

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We used to be smart and ask for tables of eight because we knew at the time they were the window tables.

But during most sunsets, they would close the drapes for the sun being in someone's eye. And then by the time you got them to open them back up again it was dark.

Yes, in Maui coming and going, and off the coast of Maine. My DD laugh to this day, cause I was doing Dori noises to get some dolphins to come up, and up comes a whale. And then down goes a whale.

Thank you! I must have confused the steakhouse on Freedom with Chops on Royal (we have a cruise scheduled with them later this year). My mind is swimming with details from both lines.

Lucky you. I did that once. Ugly too anxious waiting for my RCcl cruise, sk I did a quick buy of a CCL in between to get rid of that feeling.

We are sailing 4/2/16 and I reserved a table the first night for us at Chops with the hope of getting the 50% off wine sale I've read about from others. Does anyone with recent information know if they are doing this on the Freedom still? Thank you.

There is no Chops. It's a steakhouse, and free wine is offered the first two nights on all ships.

Even if true, if your room is done to your liking (in terms of the number of refreshes), why do you care? Our cabin steward on the Sunshine last month handled 35 (including the captain's suite I might add) with an assistant. Same for the cabin steward down the hall, had conversations with both of them. They also said the biggest obstacle to getting their job done was getting in the rooms (people sleeping late or staying in their rooms in the evening) which adds value to offering the "option" of alerting what the cruiser would like (including twice a day).

I don't. I didn't care before, and I don't care after. All I care about is the quality they perform for me. If less than adequate, I will respond with a pay adjustment. If I'm told they will only service me once daily, it will be an automatic cut in half to $8 a day. If they lie to me and tell me that this is the only thing offered, the entire amount will be removed. I do not reward liars.

You "Read" but don't know as a fact. Would this be a true statement?

Yea, that's why I stated read.

I would agree it could have been handled better, but doing a hypothetical, let's say it is resolved. Would that end the discussion from your perspective?

Sorry. I learned in fifth grade not to talk in hypotheticals.

I just hope they have the stewards service the same number of cabins that they used to, instead of pushing them to be faster and cut corners.

I read someone post they were going from 20 to 35 cabins.

So......... You are ok with it being resolved or it's not ok?

I guess you haven't read the responses. It's quite clear this is quite a mess. And certainly not resolved. And in true tradition, no a peep of a response to the complaints as I've seen a myriad of times previously.

I think they honestly thought this was a brilliant way to cut steward services. Offer a "test" form that suggests it's one or the other, let stewards decide how they want to present it, and eventually announce that an overwhelming majority of guests preferred a cheap cruise with top-notch once-a-day service. And then the annoying people on CC and FB demanded a form with the "both" option and wouldn't let it drop. ;)

 

Wasn't it a cruise critic uproar that caused NCL to reverse their short-lived rule banning people from taking food to their cabins?

You my dear have hit the bulls eye with a pin.

A guest does not feel pampered and relaxed when they have a disagreement with their steward and have to go to guest services to complain. Carnival should be more concerned about how often this is happening and bring a stop to it.

 

What made me fall in love with cruising as a family vacation was when I came back from breakfast or dinner and the room had been completely transformed and a clean stack of towels was magically waiting for me. I am not a jeerleader or a cheerleader, just a stressed out mom who wants that vacation experience at an affordable price.

That's just it. CruisIng used to be an experience where you could just exist without a care in the world. Now it's, what's included, what's not, what's changed, why can't I do, where do I need to be and when, or not, and becoming just another ordinary experience.

I completely agree. He got plenty of followers to focus on the angry words of the supposed Hugh, but this is one topic that seems to have many of his followers genuinely concerned, in light of their own experiences and many reports.

 

Since this has been going on for months, how hard would it be to switch out all the forms and have a meeting of head stewards to make it very clear there will be consequences if guests are told they can only choose one?

It should take no longer than 20 minutes. It didn't even need to be posted on his page. JUST TAKE CARE OF IT.

Which simply tells me they got caught and don't know how to get to their endgame. You can thank Cruise Critic for that.

There is no Hugh. John makes up names and has his minions on here looking for hot topics he can then post about to flame all of his followers. Just read the "questions/comments". They are written in his very English way using his style of writing. I read a lot and when you read one author a lot you know their voice. He can deny it all he wants and his many followers can go to bat as well but I (and others) can see right through this.

Of course there's no Hugh. It's his immature way of getting a pot shot into those that don't submit to the companies changes while taking a pot shot at Cruise Critic. It is so schoolyard.

John posted on his FB page, explaining the issues with a couple of stewards, that the new cards (with the word both) are on the ships and the issues have been addressed.

And once again there are people telling him he is full of ship. This includes people that have just returned, people that are currently on board, and peoe on ships that ate not even supposed to be on the pilot (splendor being one of them).

If in fact this is not hogwash, how hard is it to contact housekeeping on each of the "six" ships (including those suddenly mentioned) and reinforce the company's policy. To make the passenger have to go to guest services to get their rooms serviced in the traditional twice a day process if they get pushback from their steward is just over the top.