Toofarfromthesea

I responded to the topic of the post I quoted. Threads drift. Like your post, that I am responding to is about thread policing, and is also a shift away from formal nights trending towards being permanent.

No, it says more about envy than anything else. The appeal of a ship within a ship like MSC's Yacht Club, as compared with small luxury lines, is that you CAN go out and enjoy the wider activities and ambiance outside of the enclave that a large ship provides.

This is what I just got for my Jan 2024 cruise: Due to the devastating wildfires in Maui the port of Lahaina has suspended cruise operations indefinitely, and Koningsdam will no longer call to Lahaina, Hawaii on Sunday, January 21, 2024. Instead, the call to Kona, Hawaii has been moved two days earlier to Sunday, January 21 from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Additionally, we have added a port call to Kahului, Maui, Hawaii on Tuesday, January 23 from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The call times to Nawiliwili, Kauai, Hawaii have also been amended.

I'm new to this, so how do points accumulate? Amount of play? Time spent playing?

I've sailed in MSC Yacht Club, a true ship within a ship, twice, and in all of my research into Club Orange I can conclusively say that it has virtually nothing in common with Yacht Club. Which is not a knock on Club Orange, which I have on both of my upcoming cruises (yup both - booked the second one today! - Yay!), as it costs waaay less and is not intended to compete in any way, shape, or form with Yacht Club. It's like comparing apples with carburetors.

Yup. I've never understood equating getting more because you paid more to a class system.

How much, or on how many cruises do you need to gamble to qualify for these?

To paraphrase the Rolling Stones: You can't always blieve what you're told

I can certainly understand not reading the 'for dummies' thread in it's entirety, but I found it well worth my time to read the most recent 15 pages or so. I learned a lot of things.

Assuming the website works, which it hasn't for a lot of us.

In a way it is like the difference between flying and taking a train. If we had flown from Minneapolis to New Orleans we wouldn't have seen much, while our river cruise down the Mississippi let us see a lot.

I've never been, but maybe Greek Islands?

Interesting, I've never encountered that in a hydro pool. I hope that's not the case on Koningsdam.

That's the first thing I've heard that makes any sense. Thanks.

But she's not in those countries so once they confiscated them there would be no law breaking.

I just saw a YouTube video on the La Lido Loca channel with a news item when a woman had CBD gummy bears detected. The strange, some might say over the top, result was that unlike other prohibited items that simply get confiscated, they ended up denying her from boarding. I don't generally come to the Carnival board, but I came today to see if anyone here had any details about this. The address of the video is: Link to video

You might take a look at some of Rick Steves' travel videos on YouTube. He has videos on just about every part of Europe, and even some on cruises. They might help you familiarize yourself with what's out there and you could see what appeals to you to begin whittling things down. You can find them by going on YouTube and just searching on Rick Steves.

In some of the crew's home countries I've heard that tip income is taxed at a lower level than wage income. IAC, there really are only 2 things to be aware of, are tips included in the base or promotional price or not. If they are, done. If they are not, they are an easily knowable number and you can just add them to your base price to get an adjusted base fare.

The hot tub should be hot, well above body temp. But not too hot. The hydro pool should be warm.

Two rules to live by in cruising: 1) always know exactly what a booking would include from authoritative sources (which do not include Cruise Critic or verbal statements from cruise line or TA employees), and 2) ALWAYS do the math.

You misunderstood my point, which perhaps I didn't make clearly. I'm not talking about the cost of booking a cruise. I'm talking about the cost of the tips. And the fact that the only solution that is acceptable to you is to be reimbursed for that cost. Seasoned cruisers know certain things. Among them are the only thing that matters is what the invoice says, and even then there can be issues. Cruise representatives frequently get things wrong and verbal assurances from them aren't worth the paper they're written on. And they cannot commit the cruise line verbally. And pricing mistakes, particularly verbal ones, are not binding. I don't say you are not owed an apology and maybe some kind of compensation. They aren't obligated to give you anything, but maybe $100 OBC as purely a goodwill gesture on their part might be in order. But the full amount of the tips because someone made a mistake does not seem reasonable to me.

If you get the Have-it-All package you get specialty dining, 2 on a 15 day cruise I think. Other than that you book them separately.

It's been a long time since I was in a hydro pool and I thought that was the case, but I am glad to hear you confirm that.

So, in the end it IS about the cost.

I've never understood that desire. It is easy to find out the amount of the gratuities and then effectively include them in the price by simply prepaying them.