canolakid

That 'hassle' and 'gratuity' can ever be used in the same sentence

Randyk47

wrp96

The TV in your cabin should have an option to look at your onboard bill. I typically check mine daily - 1) to know how much I've spent and 2) to make sure there aren't any errors.

In the Oceanview Cafe (the buffet), there will be different stations with different types of foods. What is typically offered will vary by day (for example one day all the desserts will be cakes, another day the theme will be cookies). There will be a stir fry station, a pasta station, typically at least few indian dishes. The buffet will be open from early in the morning until fairly late, with only a few short breaks during the day (the times will be listed in the daily schedule that is provided to you by your cabin attendant the night before).

In the main dining room, there will be a few standards on the menu daily, but there will be several dishes (both appetizers and mains) that will rotate daily based on a theme. The dining room is open for breakfast and dinner on all days, and lunch on sea days.

There is also typically a grill by the pool for burgers, hot dogs, etc, in addition to the spa cafe. These are all no charge eating options.

It is entirely possible to eat well without paying an extra charges if you don't want to do so.

As to tipping, I would actually recommend prepaying your tips now as the tips on Celebrity are about to go up in the next two weeks. If you prepay them now, you miss the rate increase, and then you can decide if you want to tip extra in cash at the end of the cruise.

For docs, as said above all you need is your Xpress Pass. I too just send the actual cruise docs to my phone as a PDF, and find that's all I need now that online check in is available.

GeezerCouple

Double the suggestion to browse through www.CruiseCritic.com

Among other topics, you'll find sub-forums for the cruise line, for Roll Calls for your particular ship and sailing date, for Ports of Call (where your ship will be stopping along the way).

Also, topics like hints for first-timers, Ask A Cruise Question, tips for cabin selection, etc.

And then the topics like travel insurance, air travel (there are a few specifics that are relevant for cruising that might not be emphasized here on FT), and lots more.

Enjoy!

GC

Algebralovr

Please do not do this. Celebrity, along with all the mass market lines, clearly disclose what they will charge you as an auto-grat. You have the option to prepay it as well. They also clearly disclose how the funds are dispursed to the service side employees. If you go to guest services on board, they will be happy to provide you with a letter stating how the funds are divided up. For example, the stateroom attendant gets just over $5 per person per day for 14 rooms to clean each room daily, change linens, turndown service, restock ice, deliver laundry if you send it out. Very long days with no days off. That "gratuity " is their pay for the job they do.

GeezerCouple

Another vote against this, if possible (and it's your choice).

There are many of the crew who work hard (long hours, months away from home/family) to help make your cruise comfortable and pleasant.
Many of them you will never see: laundry, kitchen help, those who keep the pools clean/check the chemicals (and perhaps scrub at times), perhaps hand out (and later collect) towels and water as you leave the ship or return, etc...

Tips typically get spread to all of the staff (or almost all?) who are helping behind the scenes, while you see and interact directly with stewards, housecleaning (the part for your cabin, not the public areas)...

We always tip extra, including to those we see occasionally, along the way. This includes our cabin/suite crew, especially if they've gone out of their way to make our trip especially pleasant/comfortable.

Were some dining room staff extra friendly/helpful to a 2 year old in our group? We asked for the same waitress the next evening. As soon as the same waitress saw us, she rushed over with a huge smile, and ask if we would like for us to have his food rushed out first. WOULD WE?? Oh my YES!!! That made the meals so much better for us, the wait staff, and the passengers dining nearby. Win/win!
We tipped her directly :-)

GC

canolakid

Our cultural norm is to tip for services rendered above and beyond what would be expected... given what was said up thread about tips to an individual having to be added to the collective pot, makes one wonder how this can be accomplished.

GeezerCouple

Right, it is trickly.
You mentioned "all inclusives"... these are land resorts where one fee includes *everything*... including "tips"?
IF so, then that is probably the best way to think of a cruise, but they are (so the joke goes, "for *your* convenience" ) adding the "included tips/gratuities" as a separate line item.

I know. I know....!

We think that is the best way to think about it, to avoid grinding one's teeth while trying to relax.

Given that... we THEN give "real TIPS" to those who have in some or several ways gone out of their way to made our trip even better.

One other thing: On some cruise lines, the BUTLER is not included in the regular gratuities bundle. So we keep that in mind when tipping... that the Butler's tip is NOT "in addition to" the bundled/shared gratuities.
And...with one exception, the Butler made a *huge* difference in our enjoyment, certainly beyond anything we had imagined/expected. (But now? Well, alas, we do sort of expect it, or at least "hope" for more of same :-))
So we tipped him (they've been "him" for us, thus far; not all are) quite generously, two of them especially, as they really went far and beyond.

Anyway, that's how we handle it, and it works for us, etc.

Also, if there were to be a service problem, rather than "taking it out with lower tips - or withholding gratuities - we'd speak with someone on the senior staff, to try to get it fixed, or the crew involved re-assigned.

GC

Sealink

I’m back!

And I have my opinions which I will post shortly.
A mixed bag experience. Both amazing and infuriating at the same time.

Favourite place to dine: a tie up between QSine and The Lawn Grill.

Would I cruise again? Likely.
Would I cruise with Celebrity again? Possibly, but I definitely wasn’t wowed by them.

Badenoch

Automatic gratuities relieve one of having to be constantly thinking about whether to tip or not to tip. There's no need to feel guilty if you don't and yet you remain free to tip directly if the service is exceptional.

Tipping in an environment like a cruise ship doesn't just reward better service it also encourages it. On my first day on a Princess cruise I complimented a young bartender on the quality of her martini, tipped her $10 in cash and told her I'd like the same every night before dinner. The next day as people are milling around trying to order she stopped what she was doing and made mine. On the third day and every subsequent day all I had to do was walk into the lounge and by the time I got to the bar it was ready and waiting for me.

Randyk47

Sealink

Here's my notes about my first ever cruise, taken on the Celebrity Silhouette. I've used the traffic lights to indicate the good, not so good and downright annoying.







- staff were excellent, Celebrity really let their personality shine and it they made the cruise overall an absolute pleasure

- QSine: dining here was USD45 per person, and there was so much food. The sushi here was better than Sushi on 5, their play on every course was a delight. They recommend you go for five or six courses, we were struggling to finish our fourth!





- The Lawn Grill: possibly my favourite meal of the week: the menu has 'Chefs Wanted' on it - so you can actually throw your own flatbread and cook your steaks at the open air kitchen. Again, USD 45.00 but great fun.

- Martini Bar: this tended to be the most social area of the ship, which takes me to my next point:
- the people we met on board were brilliant! Made so many new friends, everyone was so social and up or a chat. It made the occasional person who didn't say Good Morning in the elevator for example, stand out like a sore thumb!
- the beds were very comfortable and there was a surprising amount of storage space in our balcony cabin
- the balcony was nice. It was listed as Obstructed View, but as you can see from the pic below, it was a minor obstruction



- security was excellent, and I felt reassured each time we boarded with the XRay machines etc.

- entertainment highlight: a group of singers called Uptown - really excellent. The acrobatics and trapeze shows were superb, although I heard a few people saying the entertainment was not good. The silent disco was one of the best things I have ever done!

- I really liked the public bathrooms. There was always someone there making sure they stayed spic and span. And actual hand towels - I approve!



- the artwork throughout the ship was lovely

- our cabin was great, with amazing water pressure in the showers!



There was also a sofa, coffee table, tv and minibar between the balcony and bedroom area.

- back to food, the Oceanview Cafe felt like it had been lifted from a car ferry. But it was pretty wholeseome, good comfort food. I liked that the Indian food section had actually spicy, hot Indian food, rather than trying to keep it safe. Also, the pizza here was excellent!



- The bars tended to be understaffed for the amount of people there. This lead to the annoying situation of people arriving at the bar after, being served first. This is an 'amber light' because as the staff recognised us as days went out, we tended to get served pretty quickly. One way we made friends was to ensure we weren't queue jumpers ourselves.

- We went back to QSine for lunch, but it turned out to be a set courses of sea food. Not my first choice. Although, when this arrived, we assumed it was to share. We were wrong!



- On every excursion, you basically signed your life away. Celebrity weren't responsible for your death or injury. While I'm sure the legality could be challenged, it felt like a real downer. I didn't rate the excursions at all, apart from the one to some ancient Mayan ruins which was fascinating.




Yes, I felt sick.

- Grand Cayman was particularly disappointing with what appeared to be the mistreatment of the Stingrays. I was delighted to be paddling in water with the rays happily swimming around me, I didn't care for the organisers grabbing them and dragging them over to a circle of us humans. My pal said one of the rays was actually bleeding, but not sure how it was caused. The snorkling was disappointing too - perhaps one of the storms is to blame? Incidentally, the drive back to the ship, was in a word, hair-raising. I didn't feel at all safe.
There was then a hard sell on photographs on the way back, with the boat deliberately slowed down to ensure the hard-sell could be completed. (USD 40 for a few photographs - emailed!!)

- I know it's for health reasons, but having to hold your hand out to get a squirt of cleansing gel every time you went into the Oceanview Cafe felt very child like. But I guess if it prevents Novovirus then who am I to complain?






- boarding was from a warehouse, basically. Port Everglades Quay 29 was pretty awful. We first queued in blistering sunshine (I'm from London. 24C was blistering!) for an age, before being led into this grim warehouse for security then another huge queue to get our boarding cards.

- there was a faint, yet strange smell around our deck which, was a bit like stale urine. Couldn't really work out why, because a) the ship and cabin was spotless b) it either went away or we got used to it

- had lunch in the main dining room "Grand Cuvee" and it was really poor. We did not return.

Main course. Asked for medium rare, arrived well done. With no further additions to the plate.


Strawberry Shortcake, looked nice, tasted of nothing. And no shortcake to be found.

- The up-selling was incessant on days one and two, embarrassingly so. C'mon Celebrity, surely you are better than this? At every bar and restaurant we felt like we were being accosted (we were followed on several occasions by staff trying to get us to upgrade to Premium Drinks and extra dining packages and this was not a good introduction to Celebrity. )

- Believe it or not, these cakes were tasteless. Or tasted the same. Not sure how they achieved this!



- Wifi was USD249 per device. Having said that, it was fast, and enabled access to Netflix for those lazy moments at sea.

- Certainly not my experience, but during several conversations, other more regular cruisers noted that 'This is not a good ship. Not a good ship at all'. Odd!


Overall then, it was a good experience. I think I would like to try Celebrity Edge, but also see what other brands have to offer.
Don't get me wrong, while I was annoyed by some aspects of the cruise, this is mainly due to what Celebrity promise and what they deliver. I struggle with Celebrity being seen as a more upmarket cruise line. It felt like a Hilton Hotel. (I don't rate Hilton)
WIth eyes wide open, I was happily try Royal Caribbean. They have WATER SLIDES!!

Randyk47

747FC

Randyk47