okavango

46 minutes ago, GFJM said:

That was the point-hopefully they'll be more organised next Sept.

I doubt it ,for the sake of about three cruises they will just absorb the flak

All a bit irelevent now till september next year

1 hour ago, Vitalsign said:

Turkish stops happily accept Euros and Israel happily accept US Dollars we've never changed to local currency when visiting these countries Marella crew are happy with dollars or euros as during contracts they visit the areas where they can spend them The Philippinos like dollars but even sterling is welcome.

Stirling in the new plastic notes is as good as anything,easy to change to euro if they want ,also good for taking home as its easy to change to any currency, one problem with dollars is if they take them home ,being paper notes they need to be in pristine condition or money changers wont take them , when i go back to philippines in january all my sterling will be in crisp £10 notes ,too much hassle in the past with paper £20 ,they look ,look and look again the slightest sign of damage no no ,will probably bring some home from crew who couldnt change them at home.

1 hour ago, oscarshep said:

Yep, all about the money for sure and although we all see it for what it is we still need to fly. I`d be more easily duped by TUI(and other companies) if they just added it to my holiday cost and squeezed the cash out of me that way.

It is a bit of an insult to our intelligence to be asked to pay to sit together. If my job was to seat 50 couples together on a 100 seater plane and I couldn`t manage it I`d expect to be dismissed.

All companies are out to increase revenue any way they can , the 50 in to 100 is fine ,not so simple with odd nos of travellers, singles, odds/singles selecting seats , the layout becomes more complex ,to be honest in over 100 seperate flights with thoms/tui only ever once been split up and never paid (was soon rectified on the plane), i dont believe they go out of their way to split you to try to get you to pay ,try flying with vermin of the sky, if you dont pay they would put you on seperate planes if they could

Forgot to add ,do cruise companies ever lie ??????

On 8/11/2019 at 12:50 PM, davecttr said:

Marella tips included system has now been adopted by P&O, apparently because so many customers were cancelling the suggested daily charge. Tip on Marella if you want but don't think it is required. don't have a guilty conscience if you don't tip, after all it says no need to tip on your cruise card.

What it says on the card is what really annoys me , until they come clean and state how much to who i will still class them as a set of underhand b******s.

As for P & O ,they say when its included salaries wont change and the cruise price wont go up to cover it , if anybody believes that they are in cuckoo land ,nobody will know the price has gone up as there is no such thing as a set price ,like every other company prices are fluid, or do people think they are going to take a hit of over £1/2 million a week covering the lost gratuities out of their own pocket. Does anyone know any P & O staff well to find out if the salaries increased when the grats went from £5 to £6 then £7 pp a day or did it just go in the company coffers.

57 minutes ago, Britboys said:

• So are almost all the staff on Marella contracted out?  I knew the entertainment staff are all employed by Peel Productions but hadn't thought about hotel/catering staff.

Basically yes , Hotel side is run by Apollo group ,Technical side i think Columbia ship management now serves all the Marella fleet , all the entertainment and their support staff are bought as a package from Peel or for the Explorers i think the company is called Ted ,all the shops are franchised ,about the only Marella direct employees are the general manager and destination services , if im wrong anywhere someone will enlighten us

27 minutes ago, nancyneptune said:

 

 

.........or more likely charge the customer an unknown amount and pay the crew a penny.  Profit before people with Tui now

 

Either way the crew get stiffed ,if the mythical tips was a reasonable amount then its being used as salary ,if its miniscule they lose out because most people think they have already paid them ,cabin staff tend to get the biggest % of passengers tipping ,bar staff/waiters often nothing or maybe only £5-£10  a week ,occasionly some do ok but thats a rarity.

Salary has really nothing to do with Marella anyway ,its down to the employers Appollo ,they are not the best payers or the worst.

Any of the crew who moved over from Spirit to Marella/Appollo took a good hit in salary ,also for their first contract they had to pay their own costs to join the ship  ,up to about £800 airfare, then their uniform deposit, then a substantial deposit on the remote order terminal (on the ships that use them),bye bye first months salary.

12 minutes ago, Brummijam said:

 Some good points made there Nancy.  The last paragraph stating that some of the crew are not aware of included tips is surprising or knowing TUI is it? 🤔

Keep well.

Exactly ,nothing is shown on their salary print outs , i probably know a lot of staff far more intimately than anyone else on here , when you are staying in their homes with them and their families they openly talk about a lot of things behind the scenes , some things hilarious some sad ,things that they would never dicuss on board.

Unfortunately a lot of people believe the spin from marella.

Turn it around and what they are saying " Here at Marella we believe tips should be compulsory ,for your convenience we have already charged you but we will not tell you how much or who actually gets what."

To fulfill their claim they would only need to charge 1p per customer.

Surely a better marketing idea would be " Here at Marella we do not believe in compulsory gratuities ,these are entirely at your discretion to relate to the service you recieve from our staff"

Surely that is good PR compared to other companies and without stiffing their staff.

3 minutes ago, Brummijam said:

 

Most people know that Marella Cruises are gratuities free.🤔

You are not getting the point, they claim tips are included ,if so they are a certain amount of money which has been added to the cruise cost ,you cant have this money deducted so therefore you have paid a compulsory amount of gratuities, now we get to the question for all the believers, how much is the compulsory gratuities

So how much does people think the compulsory gratuities are on Marella ?????

1 hour ago, ormy said:

There is a glorified shed where the luggage is stored and you collect it there, not far from the car park.

Are you referring to the red brick building ? , the luggage is only delivered there for coach pick ups and station shuttle

9 minutes ago, GOQ said:

Might there be a free meal on a five hour flight ?, I believe it's between a 4.5 and 5 hour flight from Cyprus to UK.

NO

14 hours ago, pgilc1 said:

 

What way does luggage work then?  Do you pick it up from the cruise terminal?  How do people going from the ship -> car park get their luggage?

 

Not wildly bothered for the sake of an hour.  Would still give us plenty of time to get breakfast and leave, but just curious.

If you are departing via the terminal your luggage is taken there ,if you are car park its taken there , if coach/station shuttle its taken to near where the buses are parked , sounds like you will be terminal. Four time slots for terminal ,if you are allocated one unsuitable just go change it at reception.

Remember this is based on this year.

5 hours ago, pgilc1 said:

We've booked for Aug 20 (we like to plan ahead) from Newcastle.

 

We'll fly over from NI the day before embarkation, then fly home maybe the evening of when we return or the day after.

 

Whats the latest we are likely to get away with leaving the ship at?  We're in no rush off as we've no coach or train to catch

This year its around 9:15 to get to terminal building ,anything after that  (up to about 10:30)would be to the car park, note: you cant walk from ship to terminal building as you like

1 hour ago, Vitalsign said:

Yes Okavango it's now smaller since last year and consists of three pages the latter can be detached and has the day time activities on one side and the evening entertainment on the reverse which is easy to carry around 

ive had this version on Celebration, Dream, Discovery and Discovery 2 so maybe Brummijams was left under the bed 😀

Wonder what they did to upset their cabin steward LOL

2 hours ago, Brummijam said:

 

Hi. 

I think its been about a year since they stopped leaving it in the cabin, They say all of the information is on the tv and on the onboard App.  Saving the planet apparently.

When was you last onboard ???? ,they actually improved it last year making the whats on/happening section an easy tear off piece so its nice and convenient to slip in your pocket

4 hours ago, Brummijam said:

 

On explorer earlier this year maps were available at destination services the night before docking. They Don’t leave copy’s of cruise news in your cabin any more but these are available to pick up at reception.

Since when no cruise news????????

8 hours ago, davecttr said:

Possible alternatives to Newcastle

Liverpool

Harwich - they used to use it

Southampton

Dover - has new facilities in western docks?

If newcastle abandoned probably liverpool and southampton would make the best split, harwich lacks good infrastructure to get there , dover a bit out of the way as well ,all hypothetical any way till the bean counters get to work

3 hours ago, dronnygirl said:

There is a Premier Inn 10 minutes walk from the port.  They allow you to leave your car in their car park if you have stayed overnight, you just give them a donation for their chosen charity. Depends whether you are happy leaving your car.

Checked premier inn before we went two weeks ago ,they only wanted £95 for the night before  ,plus you are going to be leaving a donation mmmmm

2 hours ago, oscarshep said:

Looking at Explorer 2 from Newcastle july 2020. Ship docks back in Newcastle at 6.00am. Does anyone know what time you have to be off the ship by?   

Last week it was between  7:45 and 10:55 but they tended to be 30mins ahead of time ,what transport method would you be ,i can tell you what it was but as for next year who knows

1 hour ago, nancyneptune said:

 

Well aware that Dubai is a hub Okavango as we have used Emirates  several times. 

 

Lots of holiday packages also available from Glasgow to Dubai and the Emirates both Edinburgh and Glasgow at very reasonable prices

Yes great prices for long distance , only drawback is if you want a one way job ,price nearly as much as a return ,also the dubai leg is expensive compared to a through journey eg: manchester/dubai/philippines £600 ret ,one way £540 ,manchester dubai 6hrs £400 2nd leg through to philippines 8hrs only £200 more

5 minutes ago, nancyneptune said:

 

 

The Caribbean and America would most probably be  mostly 14 night cruises and re- positioning cruises much longer.  I'm feel pretty sure they would fill these flights no problem given the chance.  They may then win back some of the loyal customers they have lost to other companies.

 

They had no problem filling the Dreamliner to / from Jordan and Dubai a couple of years ago.

 

Emirates fill two flights a day every day from Glasgow to Dubai. 

 

 

 

 

But Dubai is mainly just a stepping stone to somewhere else ,flights to a couple of hundred destinations from there

45 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

That would depend on where else they were flying from at the time would dit not?

 

Scottish airports get a lot of passengers from the North of England as it is easier and cheaper for some than going South and parking is easier than say Manchester.

I suppose one of the problems is the long haul itineries tend to be dedicated flights, they are only going to use the minimum no of flights required ,maybe a fairer split would be Gatwick, Manchester, Glasgow ,but would it work  considering the population density south of manchester