MN Dis Fans
<font color=green>He's a tramp, but I still love h
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2004
- Messages
- 859
I 100% agree with you and DCLShel.
We always do personalized thank you cards, and hand our tips directly to the servers / stateroom host the last night of the cruise, and always end up giving quite a bit more than the recommended amount. I can only think of 2 times in the 11 cruises we did where we only gave just the minimum suggested. On our last Alaskan cruise, the stateroom host that we had was terrible. He never remembered to bring ice, he actually knocked a hole in the wall 
of the room when he was making up our DS's beds, (I actually called it in, as I was concerened that we would get the blame for it) I think we only got towel animals like twice during the week, and on and on. I spoke to him about his lack to attention to detail like everyday during the cruise. Hopefully, we're all wrong, and we'll get the excellent service that most of us have always experienced, and we'll be adding to our tip amounts on the last day, but am worried that there'll be a lack of incentive, if they know they will at least get the min amount from everyone.On another note, after 6 months of checking the Delta website daily, I have finally managed to get the exact flights we were looking for out of Fargo to Seattle at the standard 25,000 miles / ticket.
Up until about a week ago, we were still scheduled to fly from Minneapolis, but flights from Fargo finally opened up! 
This will save a 3 hour drive, and a lot less hassles in the airport. Check in at Fargo is so much easier. We'll still be going through MSP, but in transit, so just need to be able to get from one gate to another. Still lot's of rooms showing up available on the DCL website. I've noticed that they've introduced 2x new booking classifications. (VGT) Verandah Guarantee? & (OGT) Oceanview Guarantee? at some really drastically reduced prices. Of course, the website states on new bookings only, and you must pay in full when you book. Has anyone gotten any upgrades yet? I think they normally do this at about 5 weeks out, but perhaps they'll be giving some a little earlier.
What I had planned on doing, and probably still will, will rebook the same cabins once onboard our Alaskan cruise, to get the 10% onboard discount. That will save us almost $1.5K. 
Even with this, I was doing a bit of research and we can do a 14 night Northern Baltic in a higher level suite, with connecting verandah room on Carnival for almost $2k less! I don't mind paying a bit more for peace of mind on DCL, but come on! 
Has any thought been given to a cut-off date for signing up? I also noted that a couple of the cabins signed up haven't given cabin numbers. It's going to make it difficult for delivery of FE goodies. Or, will these be PM'd to everyone once a cutoff date has been decided? 
That gives people 3 more weeks to sign up and its 4 weeks before the cruise sails in case people are making gifts. Thoughts? 
I suspect the reason that we have never been upgraded, is we pretty much always book the SPH connecting cabins, 
). But the old way at least seemed more like a "tip" - that is, something tangible that you actually put in an envelope and personally gave to your server at the end of the trip. 
