The Fun Researcher

Monday, Delta, doesn't matter if it's coach or FC, no pre-check, no clear.

Looks like we are the only ship in port that day in July (it's a Monday on the Quantum)

When I look to book through Royal Caribbean (which I don't intend to do) it looks like the earliest departure that shows up is 12:20pm so maybe I answered my own question and 11:20 is pushing it? I wouldn't worry about it cruising out of FLL or MIA if we were cruising out of Port Everglades or Miami respectively since the airport is so close to the cruise pier. Just don't have experience with Seattle cruises (alaska)

Our cruise gets back to Seattle cruise terminal at 7am according to our itinerary. I see it's about 30 minute drive to Seattle airport from there. Is 11:20am too early to depart SEA that same day? Seems if we did self disembark as early as possible we could get to SEA by 9am, leaving a couple of hours for check-in and getting to the gate. Anyone have experience that can help? Thank you.

Good call!! I’ll have to look at mine too and see if it says 2 per room. I’ll print it out if it does edit: looked it up and sure enough mine still says 2 per room. I’ll be printing that out for sure since I’m solo in my room

Amped Freedom and Amped voyager classes are our favorite so far but we have not tried the quantum class yet. It will be interesting to see what we think in a couple of weeks on the Anthem

I agree that the percentage may increase, particularly due to the once a day room service.

I think this thread has somehow, believe it or not, been more civil than others like it in the past, hence it has stayed around.

@Longford”However, there are ways to circumvent the policy ... which I will not discuss here. 😁 ” Such a tease

Has anyone had this communication pushed to them? We sail on 18 days.

Exactly. My wife, son and I have connecting cabins for our upcoming Anthem cruise this month with mine being solo so I could double the points to get us to Diamond. I’m paying for two but now I can’t bring my two bottles on? We were planning on 4. With the alcohol prices on Royal each bottle is worth bringing. I want to see how this is going to get enforced over the next few weeks.

Well... it's also money that is expected to be distributed to tipped employees on the ship. Compensation packages are based on employees receiving these gratuities if service levels meet expectations. Again, if auto grats are removed, I just hope that cash is distributed at least to the same level of auto-grats, if service was met.

Sounds like a good opportunity to try Nachi Cocum. We've never done PB, but have always enjoyed NC.

Source? Love DVC. I'm fond of the Poly quiet pool myself. Not so much the Boardwalk main pool, although I LOVE the location of the Boardwalk Villas

Who was it that said if they don't get 10's they don't get their full share of gratuities? One person in this whole thread, but we are somehow latching onto it as gospel?

Very different things. Gratuities on a cruise ship are for an expected level of service and are a fixed amount daily. If I get that level of service, the folks on the ship get exactly what is suggested, and expected. In our case, in addition they also get whatever extra we decide to give the room steward, wait staff and bar staff in extra cash. If I somehow had a really bad experience that clearly was the fault of a certain tipped employee, I would ask to remove their gratuity if we couldn't resolve the issue otherwise. Those that remove tips and pay in cash, how do you determine what is appropriate? I'm guessing by some out of date formula? Perhaps your whims that day? If your expectations were met does the amount you hand out at least equal that of what the auto grats would have been? The pay structure for workers on a cruise ship are setup based on the auto gratuity structure since the majority use that method. It is significantly different than a simple restaurant since there are many more roles on a cruise ship that are impacted by gratuities, at least according to those that seem "to know". Who knows really, so much hearsay and secrets regarding this topic that who knows what the correct answer is. However, I prefer to let Royal handle it since they are the one setting up the compensation for their workers, and the workers took the job knowing those expectations.

Same

Interesting, I've never had anyone to my right or left requesting them removed as far as I could tell. I'm not at guest services very often to be fair.

True. It just got me thinking out loud I guess. 🙂

I'm o.k. with the automatic waters versus having to call and select your beverage choice

There is a far higher percentage than I thought who remove auto-gratuities. I would have guessed low single digits. I see some rationale on both sides but lean far in favor of just leaving them (or prepaying). I can't get onboard with those that remove them and then don't distribute them manually regardless. I'll just assume they distribute them manually unless service is bad. Manually doing it still smacks of the mindset that these folks somehow think they know better than Royal how to distribute gratuities. So be it. To make cross shopping easier I would like to see gratuities rolled into the price for all cruise lines in North America. (like the airlines were forced to do with all the taxes and fees years ago. Still provide the option to remove them onboard if warranted.

Understandable when you're paying roughly double the price. We have multiple sets of friends that, after multiple Disney cruises, swore them off because the value just isn't there for them. Once their kids tried Royal Caribbean and NCL they never looked back. Disney is a great cruise line but you're paying for it (and I particularly don't like their ship layouts)

Thanks for the reply. Yeah as I said, the extended version is sold out online already. I was wondering if they opened up more extended offerings once onboard. Sounds like it’s only the short ones though. That’s what you’re saying right?

We've done the escape room on the Navigator and loved it. Haven't done the one on Oasis so can't compare, but the one on the Nav. is well done IMO. Dan

See you there. Just don't take my spot! LOL. Looks like all the extended sessions are sold out. (not sure if I want the extended version anyway) Do they open more of these once onboard?