In My Humble Opinion
Mike's Personal Answers to
Frequently Asked Questions
About Cruising
Tipping
Many people ask about tipping their dining room steward, especially if they eat many meals on deck or at the buffet, or in alternative dining. There are two important things to realize about tipping on a cruise. First, the cruise line is doing you a favor by letting YOU determine how much the direct service you receive is worth, rather than just adding it into the cruise cost you pay. Second, cruise line waiters get their tips on a "once for all" basis from the dining room patrons. Keeping these two points firmly in mind will help you decide easily how much to tip your dining room servers.
Most cruise lines recommend about $3.50 a day for your waiter and $2.00 a day for your bus boy. That is, a couple will expect to tip about $11.00 a day for their food service all over the ship. Whether you have breakfast and lunch in the dining room, the buffet or poolside, you still tip only your dining room server. Stop and think what you would tip for meals ashore. $11 is 15% of a $75 dinner charge. A couple can rarely get out of a nice restaurant ashore for $75. So the $11 you tip your servers aboard ship is already accounted for by just the dinner alone. Whether or not you eat breafast or lunch in the dining room, you should still not "cheap out" on the tips for your servers! Of course you will adjust the tip upward or downward according to the QUALITY of service received.
On the other hand a lot of ships recommend tipping the headwaiter $5 for the cruise, or even more. Now I have rarely had a headwaiter do anything for me except schmooze around the last night with his hand out. So he usually doesn't get much from me. There have been a few exceptions where they have helped me out and get a tip. Also on Princess we often have the hand tossed salads and pasta the headwaiter makes so he can get a tip for that!
Now we have to add to that to account for 2002 developments. Many ships are now adding a "gratuity" to your onboard account, usually about $10 a day per passenger, and you no longer hand an envelope directly to your server. All the tips are pooled and divided among all the servers. Considering the many alternatives available these days, I guess it is probably the only fair way, but I don't have to like it. My solution is to buy a pocket full of pre paid phone cards and hand them to the servers I particularly like. They can always use phone time as calling home is one of their biggest expenses!
Embarkation and Disembarkation
It is rarely worth waiting in line to embark or disembark a ship. We have found that most ships begin boarding about 1 to 1 1/2 hours BEFORE the published time (depending on how long it takes the crew to clean up and get the ship ready) so if you arrive at that time you will be able to just swoop on board and have the whole afternoon to enjoy the ship. Disembarking is a process several hours long no matter how you do it, so the best thing to do is just to find a chair in the library, piano bar or one of the lounges and wait for your number to be called. Relax and go with it and you will suffer minimum headaches!
A lot of lines these days are allowing early embarkation. Many times when the ship sails at 5 PM, you can go on board as early as 11 or 11:30 AM. They will tell you that your cabins will not be ready but you can enjoy the public rooms, and have lunch at the buffet, and then go down to your cabin. The only problem is dragging your carryons around for that time, so you should be careful to minimize your carry on luggage.
Waiting in Lines
Seldom do you need to wait in line aboard ship. The Dining Room will have long lines 5 minutes before the scheduled meal time, but 5 minutes after you can walk right in to your table and sit down. Shore excursions will begin lining up long before scheduled, but the buses are not going to leave until the scheduled time and until the proper count of passengers are on board. The Captain's Cocktail Party will have a long line at the scheduled time to shake hands with the Captain, but half an hour later you can breeze right in and all you have missed is a free watered down drink!
The exceptions to this seem to be the beauty parlor and spa appointments, which go quickly. Also if you want your dining arrangements changed you will need to see the maitre d' right away. And you want to sign up for shore excursions as soon as possible since the best often sell out quickly. However many ships have drop boxes for this, or even interactive TVs!
Shore Excursions.
I think it is almost always wise to take the ship's sponsored shore excursions. They call at that port many times, and almost always have the best buses, the best drivers, the best guides who speak the best English all lined up. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have taken the ships excursions, and they would not be still offering them if they did not have lots of satisfied customers. Also the ships excursions usually take the ships schedule into consideration and will have you back in time for meals or sailing times without fail.
On the other hand if you just walk off the ship and try to negotiate a tour at dockside, how in the world do you know what you are getting into? Can you judge a cab drivers honesty, knowledge or even ability to speak English in a couple of minutes conversation? You will probably have to pay in cash, and do you want to let a strange driver know you are carrying that much cash on you? And what if the cab breaks down or has a flat? You do not want to be standing ashore looking sad as your ship sails out of the harbor.
Now, in the more "civilized" ports such as New Zealand or Alaska, we have had considerable luck by making arrangements in advance for a driver and car to meet us, especially if we wanted to go to someplace the ship's tours do not go, such as the Waitomo Glowworm Caves in New Zealand. We had a wonderful private tour there, and it did not cost much more than the ship's excursions. However, you must understand that nobody is going to be waiting for you to come back, and if your driver has a problem you may miss your ship! That is why we only do it in countries we would not have too bad a time being stranded in!
Early or late seating
I really tend to like early seating, although we often wind up on late seating because my wife likes it better. But I find early seating fits in with my lifestyle at home better. With the wide availability of buffet breakfasts it is not necessary to get up early and go up to t he dining room for breakfast. Early dinner leaves you time to go see the show, then enjoy the piano bar or dancing or the Casino, and still make the midnight buffet while you are feeling hungry for it.
Inside or Outside Cabins
We usually opt for the least expensive outside cabin. We like to have the sunlight come in every morning, and like to be able to look out and see where we are. On the other hand, cabins in higher categories are usually just on a higher deck or located nearer the middle of the ship and we do not see any need to pay for these things.
Booking a Guarantee
You can often book on a "guarantee" basis, meaning that you will get the category you booked, or, sometimes, a higher category cabin. However, the disadvantage is that you have absolutely no choice where they may move you in that "upgrade". So if a specific cabin location is important to you do not book a guarantee! You might get moved from a midship cabin to one near the ends of the ship, or from one near the elevator to one way down the hall, or from a nice quiet room to one right under the galley or disco, or from one with a clear porthole to one with an obstructed view. Consider all these things and decide whether just because a cabin is more expensive it will be more desirable for you!
Insurance
As we have gotten older and less carefree, we have begun to buy the insurance. In our younger days we just took our chances and never had any problems. However if you can't afford to lose the cost of your cruise, look into it. Also consider the possible expenses of medical evacs and hospitalization in a foreign country. Your travel agent can probably offer you a better deal than the cruise line insurance. Be sure to check about coverage for pre-existing conditions! There are a couple of companies these days which offer all the coverage EXCEPT trip cancellation for a much lower charge. If you can afford to take a chance on losing your cruise fare but want the medical and evacuation coverage you might consider that.
Dressing for Dinner
It is traditional on cruise ships to have a few formal nights in the dining room. This is a big part of cruising which many experienced cruisers enjoy very much. Normally I will wear a tux and my wife will wear a long gown. If you can't manage that, at least you need to struggle into a coat and tie and your wife can wear a church dress. If you plan to spend your vacation in jeans and sneakers, then you need to go camping or spend the week at Sandals!
Visitors since May 23, 1998
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