Hoopster95

Royal's public website is garbage for mock bookings. I don't have access to any travel agent booking engines, however the two third party websites I use are extremely user friendly and anyone can easily see all cabins available with an interactive display of each deck. One of those sites rhymes with Tea Planner, the other with Brew On. For your sailing there are 50 Promenade view interior cabins available as well, so you may get those cabins as well. Also what hasn't been mentioned is that with the "RoyalUp" program, I assume several interior cabins will come available closer to sail date that you will not see now, These cruisers may win upgrade bids, and thus you may get assigned their cabin very close to sailing date. I'm pretty sure this happened to me a few years ago.... following a ship I booked a GTY balcony and checked daily to watch the cabin inventory. The cabin I received was no way ever available on the list I was watching online leading up to my assignment.

I posted the following in previous various threads ..... I did a whale watching tour out of Campbell River (Vancouver Island) and we sailed much of the channel (Georgia Strait) that the cruise ships go through as we followed a pod of Orcas. There's a specific part of the voyage that enters and goes through the Seymour Narrows... super dangerous swirling currents and there's also aerial electrical lines spanning the passage. At the time, looking up at the wires I couldn't even believe that a Radiance Class ship can get under those wires. This was also the reason that Capt. Hendrik (at the time Capt. of Ovation in 2019 the very 1st time she did Alaska) answered that Q Class can't do the BC inside passage during Captain's Corner when asked https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2661933-ovation-may-13-24-live-in-alaska-wlots-of-photos/page/22/#comment-57534562 Note as we get closer to the shortest span between the islands you can see the towers on one side in the first photo. Below we are at about 3/4 way across the channel As we get closer and go under, the photos aren't the greatest however you can see the visibility marker balls attached to the wires. They're not that high in my opinion, But I guess they're high enough for the cruise ships (Radiance and smaller?) to get under.

Yes!!! That’s right! Welfare is likely better income than Royal, and you don’t have to work 304 days straight at 12 hours per day.

Because I’ve asked. Sometimes It’s pooled and Shared. This is first hand face to face employee information, not something”I heard”

No worries. 👍

+1. Also I think the chances of Getting higher than a JS are zero with a guarantee booking. RCL is 100% revenue driven, and RoyalUp is built for exactly that. Before they give a free GS to a guarantee they’ll obviously accept a RoyalUp bid for more $$&

Excellent! Fully agreed. However this was a reply to the other poster who is comparing an American worker, with an American lifestyle and American expenses… same as I am. In the end, market forces as always determine the actual truth. If Royal actually pays their stateroom Attendants $35k-$45K then why are there not thousands in line in Miami trying to get such a lucrative job? Thousands???… how about one American in line. There isn’t because the job does not pay what is being claimed here. Market forces will also determine if they change anything. If 50,000 cruisers per week can magically come Together… every single week…. And remove gratuities on every single sailing, then of course Royal will notice and make a change. That’s not happening… so I don’t wish to hurt those employees on board by removing the auto-gratuities. Those that remove 100% hurt those that they do not see.

+1 … especially the last sentence.

All of us know exactly what they get paid… minimum wage. There’s no question. On the cruise lines, lots of questions and in my opinion lots of misrepresentation by the cruise lines.

This is incorrect. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t. This is ship dependant.

I demand you take 10 of your closest family, go live in the Philippines or Bangladesh full time, only you out of the ten have a job. You work for the entire family. Oh, and by the way, “work” Means you work for 7 months every single day without a single day off, 10-12 hours per day. You don’t get to go home and see your family each night or sleep in your own bed. As I said in a previous post, there sure are thousands of Americans lining up in Miami at the cruise line head office looking for a Windjammer job…. NOT. If these jobs were so lucrative, paying for room and board and travelling the world, why is that?

You’re too intelligent not to have thought of this, so I hope not to Insult… just wondering if you factored in the WJ busperson cleaning plates off tables that do not receive a direct tip from an 18% mandatory bill (ie. UDP or beverage package)…. How do they get their gratuities “supplemented” when cruise lines underpay them? How about other “behind the scenes” staff (cooks, etc?)

Yes, this is the first main point. The second main point is the so called “gratuities” are not gratuities at all… cruise lines just call them that to divert the public from seeing the truth. As was already said, cruise lines pay the employees LESS THAN minimum wage, which is then supplemented by these “gratuities”. If Royal does not get enough gratuities from us the paying customer, they have to increase their substandard payment to these employees in order to reach their contractual minimum salary. Bottom line…. These “gratuities” are NOT gratuities at all, they are part of these employees wages. All cruise lines should be forced to eliminate mandatory “gratuities” and simply add them to our total cruise fare. This is gross misrepresentation in my humble opinion.

Sending good vibes your way. If you do miss Jewel's departure in Amsterdam, at the very worst you actually have your passport and you can then arrange to join the ship in Invergordon. I'm ignorant regarding American travel insurance, however I'm just wondering if you have some sort of high-end "cancel anytime for any reason" or "we pay for any issues" type of policy that can give you trip interuption regarding this passport issue? See you onboard! 😉

Words of wisdom. I need to listen to you. Lurking for months with the very odd post and got drawn to this hot topic. Just some backgournd... pre Covid, a very well known contributor to CC, ChengP75, is/was a cruise ship captain, and replied to us here on this forum often on legal matters, mechanics of a ship, regulatory matters, Panama Canal, etc when being discussed. He ran circles around those complaining about this "gratuity" and what it really meant, with proof, facts and figures. I do not have the energy to search for these threads.... especially these past two years with the re-launch of a new Cruise Critic Platform (pretty much destroyed all previous cruise reviews and searching for information). He also gave up responding to this topic. Anyways, happy cruising.

Yes I know. Just know that without this "gratuity" there wouldn't be a cruise for you to go on. It should really be called a mandatory "resort fee" or "service fee" like some hotels call it.

And what are those amounts you have read? And then let's add that $16 per day gratuity from 6000 cruisers divided into 2000 employees on a per hour basis and see what they really get. Bottom line is that of the cruise lines had to pay employees a "real" salary (based on North American Standards) without charging a "gratuity", your cruise fare would not be at all competitive.

Great post. Thank you for being thoughtful rather than reactionary. I googled the following in ten seconds: "cruise employee salary maritime labor law" https://www.google.com/search?q=cruise+employee+salary+maritime+labor+law&ei=A0lYZM-PB_KL0PEP_euFyA0&start=10&sa=N&ved=2ahUKEwiPnc-AwuT-AhXyBTQIHf11AdkQ8NMDegQIBhAW&biw=1565&bih=872&dpr=1 https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/pay-salary/how-much-do-cruise-ship-workers-make https://highseascruising.com/how-much-do-cruise-ship-workers-make/ https://www.businessinsider.com/carnival-royal-caribbean-norwegian-median-worker-pay-2019-6 "Carnival and Royal Caribbean paid their median employee less than $20,000 in 2018" "1. Food service worker National average salary: $31,798 per year Primary duties: Food service workers are in charge of food and beverage preparation, storage and service. They should enjoy working with people and have basic math skills. They report to restaurant managers and usually work nontraditional hours, especially for opening shifts." So $31,000 per year.... they work every single day, no days off, most split shifts 10-12 hours per day

Excellent points Everyone knows the price would be more if they got real pay and not tip pay. I disagree. I think half don't care I agree... probably more and the other half would feel better paying more upfront if they knew 100% the crew were getting it all. Totally disagree. Go back to the last ten years of posts on this forum and read every single tip/salary discussion. Ignorance is bliss.

I'd be insulting you if I instructed you on how to use "google". What I am getting at is that the entire cruise industry has been a joke in not paying an appropriate salary to employees in order to falsely advertise low prices for cruises to us, the ignorant public. Those "gratuities" are what supplements the extremely low mandated wages

Nope. The average cruise ship "worker" earns approx $2-3 per hour. Why do you think every single Cruise ship in the World, other than NCL in Hawaii, is registered in off shore countries? Now figure out American minimum wage for 2000 employees on an Oasis Class ship, and see where your cruise fare ends up. And we see sooooooo many Americans lined up at Royal Caribbean trade shows trying to get a job as a cabin steward.

Please quote the Maritime Labor law and the minimum wage for the typical crusie ship worker. That is all I ask from everyone on this thread.

Then your cruise would be $3000 per person instead of $699 for an interior

This is not their guarantees salary