Keel Haul

How is paying the suggested gratuities buying respect?

And this is why servers hate waiting on people from outside the US.

 

It always amazes me that people will spend thousands of dollars to go on a vacation and then refuse to pay $80 per person for the tips.

It amuses me that a certain type of chicken thinks they can buy another's respect with a large tip.

No one ever tips me at work...

I can tell you from my own experience the ship I saw the most drunks and rudeness on was ncl pearl. I hate when people claim it is only a carnival thing. Now as far as fun. I think carnival outshines all. You can have a party and not be full of drunks. Look at many of the deck parties. They te filled with families having a blast. Not fall down drunks.

I just took a huge Schettino and wiped my Arison.

I liked the class argument in this old thread, I mean what do Americans now about class distinction

 

Any other things to do in Croatia with kids ages 10 and 13?

One of the difficulties with older ships is there design tends to be more pest friendly :)

I like Cuba a lot, this is their take. A CUC is about $1.1

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=34470

I wouldn't tip in a restaurant if the service was bad and I would remove the tips on a cruise if I felt the person didn't earn them. Once in a restaurant the service was so bad, on the tip line of the receipt I wrote a little note instead of a dollar amount. I know the receipts have to be turned in at the end of the night so I knew a manager would see the note. Of course this is the exception as I very rarely find service to be this bad.

 

And while I do find auto tips to be convenient, I would remove them if the service was that bad. I see this also as the exception as I think this would not be necessary 99% of the time. I did read a post on one of the boards where someone said in a review that the room steward wasn't doing what he should and when questioned he said he was too tired to do these things. This would have been a circumstance where tips would have been affected. I am not one that thinks tips are automatic but on the same hand I find it a rarity that the person didn't earn them.

 

And no never one time have I ever received a credit card receipt with the tip line filled in by the server. I would complain to a manager if this ever happened. I work for a large restaurant company and I don't feel cheap not tipping if the service is bad.

Disclaimer, my wife sailed with several lines from 89 to 99.

In those days in the Caribbean you could buy pure crystal powder Phenolphthalein. This was used at breakfast when the chicken were going on a nice long tour, it made the tour run smoothly.:)

I don't know anything about Australia, but we have had minimum wage legislation in all industries for quite some time now, so no catching up needed here. Also, Thomson Cruises, which has a predominantly British clientelle has no mandatory tipping last time I cruised with them. No gratuities were added either to our bar bill or our cruise cost and you only tip if service is exceptional. I absolutely agree that all cruise lines should pay their staff a proper wage and not rely on the generosity of passengers, but while maritime law allows shipping lines to sail under flags of convenience it will never happen. Coming from a seafaring city I know only too well that seafarers have always been given a bad deal right across the world.

My wife started her career as a salaried assistant Maitre D with Celebrity.The stories she and her friends tell about the "TREATMENT" given to obnoxious chickens are amazing.:eek:

Do add Liverpool's new public library to your list--it's awesome!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-22565782

Just pay the staff on the ship a proper living wage!

 

Not paying such a wage is degrading and inhumane.

 

Where I live (Australia) it is also not legal

 

If anyone is "stiffing" anyone its the cruise lines failing to pay its staff and expecting you as a customer to pay for its staff in addition to your cruise fare.

 

What I would like to see is a cruise fare that is structured to ensure all staff get paid a proper wage , the current "TIP" is no such thing , it is an on board semi mandatory service charge.

 

Its not an honest way to do things.

 

A cruise fare that honestly covers the true costs is what should be offered.

 

 

Best regards

John

NB for those that bypass prepayment and give cash, this may cause a good cash earner to be "held up" by those he/she relies on to be able to provide excellent service to the chickens.

SPURS!!!! Tell John not to stay up for a Miami lost, he needs his cheerleader sleep for Carnival.

when you walk through a storm hold your head up high......oh the mighty reds

Behind every strong woman stands a strong man?, or bunch of faceless men.

That escapes me completely.

Um. Um. Um. Prolly not the consensus at the moment.

How about - "Bloody hell, those bloody Pommie cricketers could slaughter us in the Ashes".

 

NOTE TO ALL - OF COURSE all these slang sayings are just "tongue in cheek" as most of us don't use this way of speaking but it's interesting to see what we come up with to confuse those who don't have a clue what we're saying! :D

 

Gae

I also like the fact that you have a strong female PM

How do you say in stralian " oh deary me I fear we are going to be thrashed by England again in the Ashes Test series.":)

Tough call...

 

It depends on who you are... the job you have, the latitude you have for your vacations... if you only have 2 weeks of vacations per year, your screwed... if you can't move your vacations to another date, your screwed...

 

However, if you have a good job, a good boss, a certain latitude and can move your vacations to another date, then you're fine...

 

If I was a company president, I wouldn't mind and would have taken my vacations another time so my answer to you would be "it shouldn't have sailed".

 

If I only had 2 weeks of vacations left in my vacation bank and my boss was a executioner (LOL), I would tell you I don't care if it's not ready, I'm going anyway...

Ok. Are you ready for a novel..?

 

I'm going to explain everything that happened in details but first, note that we're not picky people at all. We enjoyed our cruise even with all the problems we had.

 

We checked-in the cruise terminal on May 5 around 1:30 PM. We were told our cabin would not be ready until 5:00 PM. No problem. We got a complementary lunch at the Farenheight 555 Steakhouse (wine included). Only this worth around about $100 for two.

 

We arrived in our Cloud 9 Spa Balcony cabin #11016 on deck 11 around 5:30 PM. I had ordered a dozen of red roses for my wife on Carnival's website about two months ago to surprise her (after all, it was going to be the trip of our lives). The roses were on the table in a vase without water in it. Still, they were in good condition so we simply added water in the vase ourselves. End of case. I'm not being picky, I'm just writing everything in details so you can realise that everything was done at a crazy pace.

 

I went immediately to the balcony as it was the first time we had a balcony on a cruise. As soon as I turned around the bed, my feet were soaked. Our carpet was flooded about 25 square feet (from the patio door to halfway underneath the bed).

 

I tried to call guest services but our phone wasn't working. I went down to deck 3. There was a one hour line-up. A couple crew members were wandering through the line taking notes trying to help people. One of them finally came up to me. I explained him our issue. He told me he would forward the info to the authorities ASAP.

 

When I came back in our cabin, my wife told me the toilet wasn't flushing and that the safe and TV weren't working either... ok... so we went down to Promenade deck 5 and found "public" bathrooms. What we didn't know at this point is that we would have to use these for 2 days.

 

We took showers (yes, the shower was working! LOL) We went for our dinner at the Sunset Restaurant - Late Dining 8:15 PM. Awesome dinner and great service! We went to see the show in Liquid Lounge and came back in our room around 11:30 PM. We noticed that nothing had changed in our room. Our carpet was still soaked-wet, the toilet didn't flush, the phone, safe and TV didn't work...

 

Also, surprisingly, we didn't get any turn-down service... no towels changed, no clean-up, no towel animal... our stateroom stewards never showed up! (???). We went to bed.

 

When I woke up I tried to call guest services. Of course, the phone wasn't working. I went down to deck 3 and waited in line. Another crew member came to me. I explained him our issues. He told me he would forward the info to the authorities ASAP. Sort of déjà-vu...

 

When I came back in our room, I saw one of our cabin steward in the corridor. I politely told him that he had forgotten our room the night before. He said that he was really sorry and that this was because he was really tired yesterday. I couldn't believe it... but I didn't argue with him as we had bigger problems than that at the moment...

 

We went to get breakfast. Then, we went to visit the ship and noticed that the main pool (Beach Pool) and that the Sportsquare & Waterworks were closed. There was a panel saying "we're doing the finishing touches and doing our best to get these sections operational as quickly as possible".

 

We came back in our room around 1:45 PM as the ship was leaving Venice at 2:00 PM. We wanted to see it leave from our balcony. When we arrived in our room, no change... carpet soaked, toilet, phone, safe and TV still didn't work... Ok, now that was just too much for me and I was starting to boil inside (at this point, you must agree it's understandable). I went to get a bunch of Cloud 9 Spa towels myself (the big and thick yellow ones) on Serenity - Deck 14. I put them on the carpet and jumped over to absorb the water from the carpet as much as possible as it was starting to smell (humidity). We really enjoyed the vision of Venice's Grand Canal from our balcony (no kidding).

 

Then, we went visit the ship again. When we came back in our room, someone had came to suck the water off the carpet with a "shop vac" and a big and noisy blower was drying the carpet! Yahoo! Finally! Toilet and safe were also fixed!

 

Two days later, carpet was dry so I unplugged the blower in the afternoon. I left everything there hoping they would put everything back in place (bed was move further from the patio door to help the drying).

 

When we came back in our room around 10:00 PM, nothing had changed so I removed the blower myself. I put it in the corridor. I replaced the bed where it's supposed to be and we had to use the towels we had left on the floor as our cabin steward didn't show up again... unbelievable!

 

I saw him in the corridor the next morning and made it clear to him it would be in is interest to not forget us again as I would do a complaint. Everything was OK for the rest of the cruise, without towel animals but I didn't care... all I wanted is clean towels and a room done.

 

3 or 4 days later, still no phone. That's minor, but I was too curious... so I decided to remove the drawers from the desk were the phone was. I checked under and there were unplugged wires coming off the wall and the phone wire was hanging below... Ha-ha! The AT&T guy didn't do his job! LOL! So I went to guest services and told them what was the problem. They fixed it 3 days later.

 

Sportsquare & Waterworks opened 2 days before the end of the cruise...

 

In details, here are the refunds we got:

 

- Because our room wasn't ready when we arrived : $230 ($115 / person)

- Because Sportsquare & Waterworks we're not ready for almost the entire cruise: $150 ($75 / person)

- Because of all the problems we got in our room (20% off our cruise rate): $368 ($184 / person)

- We don't know why: $32 ($16 / person)

 

Total: $780.00

 

We also got a complementary lunch at the Farenheight 555 Steakhouse worth about $100

 

We think the refunds we got are reasonable and we are happy. Carnival did "everything possible" to resolve the problems we had. It took quite some time because there were problems all around the ship and some far more worse that ours (entire cabins flooded, toilet not working for the entire cruise, no shower, no water, luggage lost etc.)

 

We think that the Destiny/Sunshine transformation should have taken at least a couple more weeks in order for the ship to be 100% ready. They didn't have enough time to test it. Also, the crew were totally exhausted and overwhelmed. There were also many inexperienced crew members. This is not what you usually expect on a cruise especially when you pay big bucks for it...

 

Nevertheless, we will cruise with Carnival again as this is the best and funniest cruise line, but never again on an inaugural...

 

I hope reading this was informative/helpful and for those of you who will be on the Sunshine shortly, don't worry. I'm sure everything will be back to normal very quickly.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

Marc

I was just listening to BBC Radio Merseyside's lunchtime phone in today, a pax rang in from the MV Discovery claiming that she was flying the yellow quarantine. He also stated lots of pax were ill?

Also is this the old bucket that I sailed on a few times from Ft Lauderdale to Freeport?

Max ...while employment conditions may well be poor in the states it does not mean the rest of the world follow their lead! as an example you cannot be sacked in the UK first without 2 verbal and 1 written warning at decent companies anyway unless it is classed as Gross misconduct, then in many cases you have a right to appeal any dismissal at a tribunal which can decide if you were unfairly sacked and either make an award that you are given your job back or compensated for the loss of earnings ie back pay or both! you can also sue for Constructive dismissal against an employer.

 

In the case of Schettino he had a contract with his employer who then sacked him without allowing him to attend any hearing, it is claimed they sacked him in July so in that case as an Employee he is owed any wage due until that date. Schettino could claim Constructive dismissal if it exists under Italian Law.

In the UK his contract of employment would be paramount, unless it state's he can be suspended without pay for any breach of the companies rules he is entitled to his salary till he was dismissed in July.

I dont understand your ref to constructive dismissal as in the UK he would have to claim he was forced to resigned.

Schettino's lawyers may be trying to recover his TFR as well.

Like beauty, it's all in the eye of the beholder (and their social and political ideology)

The power of Masons within the judicial system in the UK is nearly extinct but in Italy?

P2 is still not an invitation to urinate unless they are after you.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/12/roberto-calvi-blackfriars-bridge-mafia

The trial that is captivating Italy at present is http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/29/pope-former-butler-trial-theft