You'll be waiting awhile.Originally Posted by lol wow
I have quit cruising until they get rid of the fail policy where you get locked like a prisoner in your room if you have COVID.
You'll be waiting awhile.
I have quit cruising until they get rid of the fail policy where you get locked like a prisoner in your room if you have COVID.
why can't none of you idiots make the joke about he's still gay cruising why am i always put in these spots
The infamous 2006 Party Poker Cruise (with Jean Robert Bellande's degeneracy, neverwin cheating on his fiancee with Chantel, who was also cheating on her fiancee, etc) was on a ship which had just completed a gay cruise.
All of the pools and jacuzzis were closed for a few days for "cleaning" -- I kid you not. The pools eventually reopened, the jacuzzis remained closed the entire week.
In 2022, everyone is probably too woke to do extra disinfecting of jacuzzis after a gay cruise, but in '06 that was a thing.
That's your main concern? How about being buried alive by a couple of half ton-ers reaching for more cannelloni?You'll be waiting awhile.
I have quit cruising until they get rid of the fail policy where you get locked like a prisoner in your room if you have COVID.
I saw this of course now, and it was New York City and that crowd, they obviously this mess happened
Heres the thing and i just went on a cpl Carnival Cruises here and honestly done right, and theres nothing with it at all in my view. Some people understand how to be able to go on a Cruise they minimize or dont drink Alcohol or gameble and it seems to work for some of them, but I also saw how and in groups probably because Group Rates and the organizer goes free there really sometimes big groups of people all know each other, interacting having fun, on a Cruise in the middle of the Ocean, and then you add Alcohol and everything else across all the ships and, its not overly shocking and because of them two parts of this location at all its out of New York City here.
South Florida is more Caribbean and the islands maybe way South toward South America and it seems the people are taking a much more involved and properly planned, real vacation, its not really a 3 day party crowd the one i was on in March. The people were actually really excited to be there of course and, it was a good time happy crowd but was also kinda Spring Break time of year, I could ever see anything like this on the news now having happened with the crowds or people i cruised with. It doesnt only take one bad situation and that can happen across thousands of people too Florida Resident especially last minute to fill the boat get incredibly cheap offers or can, no airfare etc
Agree and see how it's not for someone else viewed as overky fancy maybe lol, these were my first ever and fun.
Last edited by garrett; 07-01-2022 at 02:00 PM.
Yeah gambling and alcohol are the main draws for cruising degenerates.I saw this of course now, and it was New York City and that crowd, they obviously this mess happened
Heres the thing and i just went on a cpl Carnival Cruises here and honestly done right, and theres nothing with it at all in my view. Some people understand how to be able to go on a Cruise they minimize or dont drink Alcohol or gameble and it seems to work for some of them, but I also saw how and in groups probably because Group Rates and the organizer goes free there really sometimes big groups of people all know each other, interacting having fun, on a Cruise in the middle of the Ocean, and then you add Alcohol and everything else across all the ships and, its not overly shocking and because of them two parts of this location at all its out of New York City here.
South Florida is more Caribbean and the islands maybe way South toward South America and it seems the people are taking a much more involved and properly planned, real vacation, its not really a 3 day party crowd the one i was on in March. The people were actually really excited to be there of course and, it was a good time happy crowd but was also kinda Spring Break time of year, I could ever see anything like this on the news now having happened with the crowds or people i cruised with. It doesnt only take one bad situation and that can happen across thousands of people too Florida Resident especially last minute to fill the boat get incredibly cheap offers or can, no airfare etc
Agree and see how it's not for someone else viewed as overky fancy maybe lol, these were my first ever and fun.
It's food you dumb fuck. The first impression upon boarding a cruise vessel is the immediate assault on eateries by the morbidly obese.
If you can ignore this trough feeding, which lasts from beginning to end, then you are good to go anywhere. Meaning you qualify as a prison guard in Guatemala where torture is promoted.
I basically use cruises to get to multiple hard-to-reach destinations (usually islands) without having to expend much effort. You only have to pack/unpack once.
I usually get one balcony and one inside cabin for the family (even if it's just the 3 of us), but the inside is only used for sleeping. The balcony cabin is very important so you can relax outside without having to be on the public deck with the masses. It's even more important nowadays, as you are held in your room like a prisoner if you get COVID, so you sure as fuck don't want to be trapped in a windowless "cell" for a week! But even pre-COVID this was important for me to have.
The food is also important to do right. I eat almost all of my meals at the upcharge "specialty" restaurants. Very much worth it. Huge quality and service difference, and the atmosphere is way better. You don't feel like you're in a naval mess hall.
I book my own excursions for the port calls. I don't ever do ship tours. I either get my own private tour which I arrange beforehand, or I rent a car and drive myself to what I want to see. Depends where I am. Some of those third world countries are very tough to drive, and in some cases are dangerous to drive if you're not used to it. I did drive myself last time I went to St. Kitts, and while difficult at times, it was actually fun.
I will occasionally do the karaoke on board if not too crowded. I'll also do the basketball tournament if it goes.
I avoid the casino for the most part. Slots/video poker are awwwwwful. Blackjack also runs on continuous shufflers, so fuck that. Poker rakes 10% up to $25, so even though opponents tend to be horrendously bad (way worse than $1/$2 in your local casino), I still won't do it. There is an ongoing debate whether one can be profitable in a cruise ship $1/$2 game, but I still think you're not long term due to the horrible rake.
I have always found the quality and service in the main dining room to be very good, the up charge places seem like a total money grab.
But then again I smuggle on my own booze and have 3 kids vs Druff and his selfishness of only one kid.
Agree that doing your own tours is the way to go, cheaper and more flexible schedule for a modicum of work.
Played Blackjack on a cruise and the hot Russian dealer didn’t even let anyone make decisions, it was weird, she made all the decisions based on basic strategy….I got up and left.
Last edited by Texter; 07-04-2022 at 12:58 PM.
That's weird about the blackjack. Maybe a way to stop counters? But most of counting has to do with bet size and less to do with strategy modifications (though that's part of it too), so I'm not sure.
Specialty restaurants are much nicer. Better atmosphere. Not jammed and noisy. Service at least attempts to be upscale rather than making you feel like a number. They will make exceptions to keep you happy. I've eaten a few meals in the main dining room, and it wasn't terrible, but it was a noticeable difference.
You and I have gone 12 rounds on this subject and oddly enough the discussion has spilled over into the local private game circuit here in So Fla. I’ll make a separate thread on that if I find the time.
As far as the cruise ship discussion I’ll stick to my guns and use a evidence based response. I’ve never had a losing week playing poker on a cruise ship and On a few occasions I’ve won as much as I spent, meaning the week long vacation for my family cost me nothing. The amount of rake is proportionate to the games players. If paying 10% up to 250 allows you to play with a bunch of tourists who want to give money away that’s the price of admission.
if someone wanted to really focus on poker, and as part of their Cruise with games being available. Maybe a good Poker player could make money but idk that would have to be Cruise specific id think for sure
Poker specific Cruise which right off the bat i think would be full of much more skilled players on average so tougher probably for sure to be able to grab and run like on a shortish cruise. A not Poker Specific Cruise i think for sure would be the easiest game lol and if planned properly could be done well. As far as going on a Cruise to make money playing poker there wasn't any games and only a Digital table on these boats but some boats, and no Covid do run poker I believe but for now, it was all Poker being played on a digital table which im not so into i guess.
Jump to 50 seconds for the relevant bit.
and they play poker in the ships casino
Dream Caribbean cruise turns to nightmare: Woman, 21, raped by Indonesian Carnival Cruise line worker and awarded $10.2 million in damages says 'the jury did not just validate me, but they validated other sexual assault survivors'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...2-million.html
Getting raped on a Carnival Cruise?The woman was attacked during her first time on a cruise ship, with a crew member forcing her into a closet where he raped her
Her attacker, Fredy Anggara, has never been arrested or charged in connection with the attack
Jane Doe has now been handed $10.2 million in damages by a jury at the District Court for the Southern District of Florida
Doe, from Washington, filed a complaint against Carnival Cruise Line in November 2019
It's all part of the "fun".
TheStreet did an article about the state of the tip stealing hustlers that is the cruise industry today.
You’ll love this Druff.
https://www.thestreet.com/travel/man...ou-have-to-pay
These tactics are akin to the resort fees that allow for tricking internet vacation price shoppers. Biden wants to get rid of resort fees.
This was written by a hack who just believes the info fed to him by the cruise lines. He's making the same mistake that people on cruise forums make -- believing that the mandatory "tips" actually go to the back-end workers. They don't. The cruise line pockets them.
Here's what the guy wrote:
It's still technically optional but opting out of daily gratuities -- what the cruise lines call the fee added to your onboard account each day for each person in your room -- is literally taking money out of the hands out of the lowest-level workers on cruise ships.
.
.
.
The cruise line does not explicitly say that you can modify or have those charges removed, but you can by visiting guest services (that's a fairly terrible thing to do even if one crew member provided bad service, because you are also punishing people who you may never even meet.)
This is what they tell sucker passengers so they don't opt out. "You're literally taking tips out of the pockets of super-low-wage workers from third world countries! Shame on you, American cheapskate!"
But that's not what's actually happening. I researched it, and found out the truth, though it was fairly well hidden.
Here's what I wrote about the matter 3 years ago, on this very forum:
I came to learn that the mandatory auto-tip (now standard on almost all cruise lines) actually goes into the pockets of the cruise line. See, there's a maritime minimum wage, which all cruise lines have agreed to adhere to. However, that minimum wage applies to TOTAL pay, not base pay. Therefore, any "tips" count toward that wage, and if the employee is tipped as much as the mininum wage, then the cruise line can legally give them zero base pay. So what's happening here? The mandatory "tips" are actually now acting more as a resort fee, where it makes the cruise look cheaper (since you pay the tips at the end, not when you book), and they simply subtract those mandatory tips from the wage that the employees would have otherwise received. Sneaky, huh? This is industry-wide, and not just on one cruise line.
So yes, you're right. It is like a resort fee.
Good job Druff.
As you suspect, it prolly was written by a hack. TheStreet has declined to the point of typically awful clickbait. They used to be better.
I rather forgot why we described the cruise lines as “tip stealing scammers”. There is a thread out there somewhere devoted to the tip hustle.
And I'll explain why this switch to auto-tipping happened. It's not quite what you would think.
Cruise lines exist to separate you from your money. Upon studying how to extract more dollars out of each passenger, they discovered that passengers were instructed to bring cash onboard to put in "tip envelopes" for service staff you routinely encountered -- room steward, waiters, maitre d', etc.
The cruise line CEOs slapped themselves in the forehead and thought, "Shit! Why are we letting passgengers' cruise budgets be partially wasted on this shit? This money should be going to us! We don't need to be arbitrarily enriching a few select employees!"
They reasoned that the stewards, waiters, and maitre d's did not work any harder or have a tougher job than other staff on the ship, but these people got tipped a ton of money while everyone else got tipped zero (or near zero), with the exception of bartenders.
So they decided to turn the entire tipping model on its ear. They eliminated the envelopes, killed the expectation of cash tips (though it's not against the rules to still do this), and made this daily auto-gratuity system. Then they used the tips as base pay, to where they only made up the difference for these employees to reach the maritime minimum wage. They justified this tip-pocketing by giving employees some "services" such as rudimentary healthcare and other bullshit. I think they're also giving them a base pay slightly above the maritime minimum wage.
Anyway, bottom line is that when you opt out of the tips, it comes out of the cruise line's pocket (because they have to make up that money they were otherwise subtracting from the minimum wage pay), and doesn't affect employee pay at all.
This was industry-wide, not just on one line. One of them started this procedure (I forget which line did it first), and the others almost instantly followed.
They came up with the bullshit story that this tipping system "covers tips for the behind the scenes workers", so everyone would feel good about it. But when it's all said and done, what the cruise line actually did was pocket the tips for themselves instead of encouraging you to hand it to select workers you liked.
I discovered this and several other dirty secrets (and pricing tricks) about the cruise industry, from a combination of my experiences and research. Sucks that I won't be going on an cruise for quite some time, and now it's just useless shit to know.
It all comes back to me now. They didn’t eliminate the envelopes. You are auto billed for gratuities and still given envelopes on the last night of your cruise.
The constant on board hustle for the upsell and incremental revenue makes the experience feel low rent.
Prolly never do it again.
Envelopes are gone on Norwegian since I started cruising them in 2013, and I didn't see them on my last Princess Cruise (2011), either.
Which line was this?
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