Don Pedro

We are in a GS this Sunday on Brilliance but no email from concierge, is that the norm? Some had told me to expect email a week or two out... any feedback on Willie?

 

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I got an e mail from Willie at about 2:30 yesterday. One interesting thing was that the evening CL function was listed as being from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. That was the same hours as I just had on the Jewel. Looks like RCCL has cut the time by 30 minutes.

Just off the Jewel after a great Southern Caribbean cruise from San Juan. Ship is in excellent shape for its age and the crew was outstanding. Katy, who entertains, in the schooner piano bar was fabulous. If you are D+ or in a suite, Diago is one of the best concierges I've experienced. Think you will enjoy the Jewel.

OK I'm curious. RCCL seems to be adding the Izumi restaurants as paid specialty dining options on a lot of ships. How many people would consider this? I know we don't mind Japanese food on occasion, but we'd never consider paying extra for it on a cruise.

 

Izumi was included in one the specialty restaurant packaged on the Allure. I am not a big fan of oriental restaurants and usually avoid sushi unless it is deep fried in bacon grease. I seriously considered skipping my scheduled night in Izumi even though I had paid for it in the package. Some good friends convinced me otherwise and I glad they did as really enjoyed Izumi. I had the beef that you cook on a flat rock and it was very nice. Admittedly, I prefer some of the other restaurants but Izumi is well worth the price especially for sushi fans.

Many people I talk to are not even aware the tip can be removed, but I am talking about Northern Europeans, with the exception of restaurants tipping is not the norm here, that said we are more than happy to tip for good service.

 

Unless the service was really bad I see no reason to remove a tip unless I suspected the people I wanted to tip were not getting their fair share.

 

Here is a reason. I never eat in the Windjammer or the MDR. I only eat in specialty restaurants. A tip is included in the surcharge plus I always tip a bit extra. I see no reason to tip people who have not served me and most likely people I have not even seen.

 

If you wonder where I have breakfast and lunch the CL, Park Café, Vintages and Sorrentos are available on most ships with many other options on the Oasis Class ships. It is possible to remove the tips for the MDR while leaving those for your cabin attendant on your sea-pass account.

Here you go

 

http://www.padi.com/scuba/padi-courses/diver-level-courses/view-all-padi-courses/scuba-diver/

 

Thanks, don't know why I couldn't find this on the PADI website. Years ago I was an avid PADI diver and don't recall this course being available. It certainly fits the bill for cruise ships. Their limited time in port coupled with the required surface intervals, between dives, would make it difficult to get the required four open water dives. It could be done but it would be an exhausting day for most people.

Nope. The Scuba Diver certification is a specific certification by PADI. It includes the first two open water dives, and would allow the holder to dive to 40 feet, accompanied by a dive master.

 

I'm sure you have a good basis for your comments and it is just something I've missed but when I go to the PADI site he lowest certification level I see is the Open Water Diver.

Note that this is a PADI SCUBA Diver certification and not PADI Open Water Diver certification. See PADI web site for differences. There are a few.

 

You may have noticed something I missed but PADI has several different certification courses. They begin with the Open Water Diver then the Advanced Open Water Diver, Rescue Diver, Master Diver and Dive Instructor. Each certification course builds on the previous level. If this is the OP's first certification it would have to be the "PADI Open Water Certification".

 

I suspect the title "PADI Scuba Diver Certification" encompasses all the levels because the ship's dive instructor could also be certifying someone to the Advanced Open Water or Rescue Diver levels.

Sending out emails are not standard practice. Some do and some don't. I'm probably at about 50/50 as far as receiving an email prior to the cruise.

 

Really! I have always received an e mail from the concierge. I notice that you have several 3 and 4 day cruises. Perhaps, e mails are not routinely sent out on the shorter sailings.

[quote name='Ocean Boy']It doesn't matter how mild the winter is in general. What counts is the weather on travel day.[/quote]


How true! We live in north central Texas so snow is rarely a problem here. However, it is not unusual to experienced incidents where a line of severe thunderstorms or tornado activity have shut down airports in the Dallas-Ft Worth, Houston or San Antonio areas.

So, winter weather is not the only cause of travel delays. Mechanical problems also cause delayed flights plus we live in an era where an unattended suitcase can shut down and entire airport for several hours.

We always travel to the port city a day or two before the cruise. Plus we buy the cruise insurance.

Being that my wife and I are both seniors we are probably a little overly sensitive to the "rude group" label that many of you seem intent on using as an identifier for us oldsters.

 

We are sure that most of you recognize elements of poor behavior in all age groups. Not just among us seniors. As we age many of us may experience physical or mental changes that affect our personalities and the patience necessary for raising a family and dealing with people may no longer be a strong attribute.

 

Some of you expressed the belief that seniors think they have "earned the right to be rude". Perhaps in some cases that is true but we suspect in most instances there are other factors involved. If someone truly believes that they have a right to be rude there are probably some deep seated emotional problems involved.

 

This thread started about snobs and like most threads evolved into something else. Namely rudeness. We think that many of the experiences that have been described might better be described with terms such as boring, thoughtless and abusive

 

Others may see it differently but we tend to classify rudeness as either an accidental or an intentional act. If someone cuts in front of me in a line they could be rude or perhaps they just didn't think before cutting in. Most of us have had instances where our mind took a short vacation. What many people refer to as a "senior moment". Incidently, we've witnessed quite a few younger folks prematurely using up their share of senior moments!

 

Back to our line buster, if I call it to their attention they may profusely apoligize or they might escalate the situation to abusiveness.

 

We've encountered many types of people. The vast majority have been interesting thoughtful folks that we've enjoyed meeting. Sometimes first impressions are wrong. We've meet people who had snobish aura who were anything but snobs when we got to know them. Sometimes people who seem to be boring have amazing life stories.

 

Occasionally we've met a true snob, but to be honest we usually have a lot of fun dealing with them. Thoughtless people often tend to be a little ditzy and are often a joy to be around.

 

So, people may be snobish, thoughtless, rude, abusive, boring. We can excuse all but intentional rudeness and abusiveness.

There is rude and then there is abusive. We can tolerate a little rude but abusive is another story.

On one cruise were seated at a table for eight. On the very first night one of the men at the table got upset when a waiter asked him to repeat his order and blurted out "@%&%# what's matter with you, don't you speak english?" His social skills, with either his table mates or waitstaff, didn't improve one iota for the rest of the meal and the next evening he and his wife had the whole table to themselves.

Perhaps the rigors of travel got him off kilter or he missed his meds. We don't know his problem but we sure didn't need his attitude.

He was an older man, about my age and it seems like we oldster have taken a pretty good rap on this thread for being rude.

Rudeness, however, comes in all genders, sizes, shapes, colors and ages. Most often it is merely a result of not thinking how our actions may affect others. We may accidently be rude but taking it to an abusive level is inexcusible.

It seems that this proposed exception fails to address the need for a passport if a cruise passenger had to fly home prematurely from a cruise.