Deck10 007

First posting and nice name Deck 8 123.

The Aquarius is still limping but did not skip Penang. She left Singapore at 2.20 pm and was 1 hour late getting into Penang. She left Phuket abit earlier and had to cut the air con to the casino to divert power to the propulsion.

I understand from the first officer that she is running on 2 of the 4 engines and is awaiting spare parts to arrive for the other 2 engines. At the moment she is max out at 14 knots.

Have a nice cruise.

I am going this sunday on the Aquarius and I heard from my friend who went last sunday that the ship has a mechnical problem. They had to skip Penang and head straight for Phuket. The ship also got back to Singapore 3 and 1/2 hours later than scheduled. It sounds to me like the ship is limping and could not go as fast as she was suppose to.

Perhaps Electricron can shead some light on this. Maybe 1 or 2 of the diesel engines have broken down.

Apart from this the ship is carrying about 50% capacity of about 900 pax. There are very few gamblers on board and on for a csaino ship this may be their biggest problem. Service is OK, the usual high Star Cruises standard.

Overall there are not many happy pax from what I can learn

Does anybody know what the occupancy is like on the Gemini nowadays.

Number of Australian, local and others.

Just as an after thought, The Pride of Aloha presently in Hawaii will be transfered to Asia in June this year. There is a good chance that it will be homeport in Singapore. It is in the same class as the Virgo or better. So I would wait for the schedule to be posted before you decide on your choices.

Hi and thanks so much for this great forum -

I am in the position of booking for our first ever cruise ! In fact, it will also be our first holiday away from South Africa. Not only am I extremely excited by this but also extremely nervous about spending money, a lot of money, doing the right thing.

I have always dreamed of doing a cruise, as well as a trip to the Singapore region. The Star cruises seem to be absolutely ideal !

 

My concern is this: after much internet research, my wife and I both felt that the Virgo was the ship to go on ... problem is, it';s not doing the area we want to visit over July this year (our time of travel). The travel agents have suggested we go on the Aquarius -

I need advice from you guys who have done all the ships, especially the Aquarius.

 

We are not gamblers, and have never been on a ship before, so don't know whether we will experience sea-sickness.

 

Can we expect to be "blown away" by the Aquarius, as much as we would have been if we went on the Virgo ? We enjoy our food --- I've read that this is a bit disappointing on the Aquarius - is this true ?

 

Do they also have "extravaganza" type shows on board ?

 

We're looking at the 5 night cruise to Phuket ... is this a good choice on the Aquarius ?

 

Sorry for all the questions, just don't want our very first trip together to be disappointing.

 

Regards all !

I just want to let you know that the Aquarius is a casino ship.

1 and 1/2 floors of casino space to be precise. If you are not a gambler there is nothing much else on board.

The food is mostly all Asian Cuisine.

The Gemini does a couple of cruises in the July period and I would advice you to go on the Gemini instead.

SSV,

Do you not line up for the Gala Dinner before the fire drill. Look for me there before the fire drill ends as we will be ushered into the Lido after the fire drill. Just ask for Deck 10 007 and I will tell my wife to look out for you.

electricron = Oh, I assure you Star will want any "new" ship now if offered and after what happened on the Wind , I'm sure there is no problem finding space for casinoS. I'm not a big fan of the America though, she looks sick with bumps.

 

deck10007 = I must say that you have very humourous posts. Never fail brighten my day. Thank you eh, we should meet up on Virgo someday (my next trip is Dec 30)

 

Boeckli = Your email is noted. Imagine the Dawn in Asia as Superstar Scorpio, I'll pray for the (almost impossible) day to come...

I will be on the Dec 30 cruise. Sure we can met up if you promise not to step on my tail.

Electricron , now who is really doing all the speculation.

Due to the drop in US $ their take home pay in US $ tanslated into their home currency has drop tremendously. Star Cruises need to do something about this newly developing situation or else moreale will drop and service standard will suffer.

I thought only gamblers only get to go on the ship that often.

I am going on the Gemini this Sunday and if I had to pay the cash price of S$4000 I don't think I would go.

What is it like to be loaded like you.

I thought I'll post an interesting article here on Tipping in Singapore and elsewhere

http://richardsrussell.livejournal.com/81008.html

Bruce, now I understand you.

Regards, John

Are you in favour of tipping or not. Do you agree with this policy change or not. If you do get on Star Cruises ships again would you tip.

So much can be said about the American and the Australians and culturally the Australians are now moving closer to the Americans.

That is not to say the American way of doing things is the best way. In Asia tipping has been a spotty matter. The Japanese don't tip. I remember taking a taxi in Tokyo and the fare came to the equivalent of $14.95 and the taxi driver handed me a 5 cent change back.

My message here is to help out and reward the crew and are you on board on this or not.

You are going from one exteme to the other extreme. From a no tipping policy to an automatic tip deduction system. It becomes like a tax on all services and is very unpopular with pax on the American NCL network. To get the $10 deduction reduced I understand you have to see the supervisor and explain to him why you want this amount reduced.

For Star Cruises in the large outlets like the restaurant your tip will be kept by the crew you tip whereas in small outlets like the bar the tip will be pooled and shared out every 2 weeks.

All in all money is money. So just put down your money and ask the supervisor to arrange payment in which ever way you want.

The new president David Chua is making sweeping changes to Star Cruises and it seems even this most fundamental policy of the company is now history.

I am posting this message here because alot of CC Internet users here especially on the Gemini are Australian and they are known to be good generous tippers. But of course it apply to all nationalities and on all Star Cruises ships.

Mike, on the Libra are you doing your part for the crew there.

Thr crew on the Star Cruises I would say is paid and average of US$300 per month and since the US$ has dropped against all currencies their take home pay has drop also. Any small tip would mean alot to them. For instance if you have 2 beers it would cost you about S$15 (US$10) and if you give a US$1 tip that would mean 10% more pay to them as their pay works out to be $10 per day. Incidentally this David Chua have raised my regular bottle of Australian wine from $25 to $28. But I am not complaining because I don't drink that much.

So for all the wonderful hardworking crew on Star Cruises let us show our appreciation in a tangible way.

No you are not bashing Star Cruises and I am not the defender of Star Cruises. But I just like to put forward a different perspertive to what you said. In my opinion their website is adequate for Asians but your expectations as Australians for their website is much higher. We just dont use the online services as much as you or the Americans.

The coming entry of the other American Lines into the Asian market would be one tough lession for them. Star Cruises ships have never sailed 100% full unlike in the American market. Yet Star Cruises operation in Asia is profitable because of the cross subsidy from their casino operations. If the American Lines miss this point it will be one painful lession for them.

Asians just do not plan their vacation than more 6 months ahead. Also Star Cruises management themselves dont know and have to juggle on where to homeport their ships and actually not many countries here will accept their ships. So yes it is one problem for Australians.

As for the room upgrade that has been a mangement decision. Yes it does not make sense to us. Why not pick up the extra revenue on the ship. As it is the cheapest cabins always get sold out first and just to think if cheap upgrade is available on board the higher priced cabins will never be booked.

Now for the other gentleman. Most of the time the front line staff do not have the answers to his questions. How they should response to his query in the best possible mode is a matter of conjecture. As Diector of Marketing of course this and that could be done and maybe some improvement in this department is always possible for Star Cruises.

One final note. Yes the Gemini can do with an Austalian TV channel.

Suppose to replace the old casino ship Wasa Queen. Dailly cruise to no where. Read that as gambling in International waters. At last count it is competing with 8 other casino ships in HK. I just think what Star Cruises would do with all the empty cabins now as the local like to gamble right through the night and then go straight to work when the ship docks back in HK in the morning.

Great review of................................the shore excursions,tmbl on the go.

Could you give us your review of the ship ,Gemini now.

She did not ask the money changer about the double dip first and the money changer just process the change in one shot.

In times of heavy currency fluctuation the banks will change their bid and sell rate every hour or minute if they have to.

There is one exception to this for US to Euro conversion and vice versa but this is for large amount in offshore accounts and not in bank notes.

This double dip in currency exchange as you call it is the universal way the money changing business is conducted world wide.You have not been short changed by Star Criuses and it is done in the same way as with any bank or in any country.

My wife did do the double dip exchange once on the Gemini and I scolded her for her ignorance and also the ship will give you the worst rate comparatively. I did not blame Star Cruises for this transaction.

Just like you change your money here, if I go Australia and want to change my Singapore $ to Kiwi $ your bank will take this as 2 transction, 1 Sin to Aus and 2 then Aus to Kiwi.

Have a good rest, get well and you may have a different perspective of things afterwards. Having gone through the experience you had, you may need a little time to get your feet on the ground again.

The many things you said about Star Cruises and the Gemini is just not fair to them. We can talk about this at a later time. Let me just say to others giong on the Gemini that it is a 3 star ship with 7 star srevice. I find myself in the unusual position of defending Star Cruises here.

Bruce, you said you have not been on the Virgo and you have now upgraded yourself. The Virgo is a 5 star ship and I think this is what you want.

Regards, John

Bruce (BJC) you had the cold/flu virus not the norovirus. But you were sick on the first night ( in the doctor's clinic). So did you get the virus before you board the ship.

You said half of the pax were sick. Is it really that bad. Earlier postings here said the virus is contained and only 15 pax were affected.

You were sick in Kuching and in Singapore. Does that mean that you were sick for about the whole cruise.

I am going on the Gemini in 2 weeks time on June 24 and I hope the virus will be gone by that time.

Regards, John

In today's Singapore newspaper it is reported that 90 pax have been affected by this virus. We should be able to read more about this in the CC news section soon.

Now that the Gemini would be homeport in Australia from Nov 18, you must be one happy man now.

Cheers mate, John

I didn't know I was opening a can of worms here. I know how you feel when you paid such alot of money when these gamblers (yuck!) did not have to pay any money.

To illustrate what Star Cruise is trying to do now here in Singapore, they are now advertising the Gemini as a 4N fly cruise holiday sin- phuket in today's newspaper for ( hate to mention this) $480 pp twin sharing.