winningstudio

I need to book our return train journey home from Southampton and I wonder if anyone can tell me what time approximately do you leave the ship at the end of the cruise ?

I would be grateful for anyone's opinions on The Baggage Handling Company or other luggage carriers.

We will be travelling by train from Durham to Southampton in July with a connection change in London and we are considering having our luggage (3 or 4 cases) taken by courier. We are sailing on the Ventura.

What have you been charged and was it a good service ?

I'm a cruise virgin myself, but here's my take on it...

 

I will no doubt now be leaving auto tips on, but I seriously doubt that I will be tipping anyone in addition to this. Nor will I feel obliged to do so regardless of what other people on my table are doing (although I'm on freedom dining). I accept if others are tipping on the last night might make me/you feel obliged to do the same, but maybe these tippers removed auto tips? Regardless, I won't allow what others do to influence myself. If I don't want to tip extra (and I doubt I will) then I won't do so. Others can do as they please. Maybe some of them doi it to feel self important, or richer than others on the table. However, I don't have such insecurities.

 

Rant over :)

Well said Stevie I am right there with you

Thats a fair point for anyone not happy with the price increase since making their booking, and is an option that I hadn't thought of. I assume you could visit the reception desk onboard and reduce the auto tip to whatever amount you choose? As you say, you could then pay the £5 fee on any future cruise.

Well I cant see why not surely if some people are taking them off altogether then having people pay a set amount is better than nothing. Yes I shall be visiting the reception desk and reducing ours.

Also during our last cruise on Ventura we paid the full auto tips and tipped the cabin steward, after reading the posts in this topic we will now not be doing tipping the cabin steward.

This has been a great thread and I have followed it with much interest as I am sure many others have.

In our case we booked a cruise in early February before the rise in the tips was announced, I am annoyed that P&O did not say that anyone who had booked previous to the announcement of the tips rising to £5 pppd could pay the original price of £3.95 pppd. To me it shows a lack of respect and is poor customer service.

So I intend when we cruise in July to ensure we only pay the £3.95 pp and after that fair enough £5.