October 1st, 2011 Western Caribbean on the Magic!

[karentan]

at least our FE gift delivery will be easy for you guys!

 

[snugglepeas]

Hi everyone, Im Paula my DH and I just booked last night we are going to be in stateroom 7634. anyone else book around us? It's just DH, myself and our 5year old(at time of sailing)

 

[B9erSteve]

Hi everyone, Im Paula my DH and I just booked last night we are going to be in stateroom 7634. anyone else book around us? It's just DH, myself and our 5year old(at time of sailing)

Welcome! I've been In a stateroom near that one before. Is it a verandah? If it is it may have been that one. This is my third cruise and I want to save money for Aulani in 2012. So no verandah for me.

 

[Fire14]

Hi everyone, Im Paula my DH and I just booked last night we are going to be in stateroom 7634. anyone else book around us? It's just DH, myself and our 5year old(at time of sailing)

were down hall in 7620

 

[snugglepeas]

Welcome! I've been In a stateroom near that one before. Is it a verandah? If it is it may have been that one. This is my third cruise and I want to save money for Aulani in 2012. So no verandah for me.

Yes it's a verandah room it's the last room before the handicap rooms, we decided to go all out as it's our first cruise and it's our 10th wedding anniversary

 

[B9erSteve]

Our first cruise we were upgraded to a verandah for free, and on the second, I decided that I really wanted that verandah and upgraded myself. You'll really like it. I'll probably be spending more time on deck this time since I'm not getting one this time.

 

[karentan]

congrats on the 10 year anniversary

we're sticking to a cat 11c this time, as we never spend too much time in the room anyway, on our first 3 night, we booked a 12, got a 9, and on the second 3 night, booked a 12, got an 11. the way i see it is that i'd rather spend the extra on shopping/food/drinks etc. then again i've never done a 7 night before, so might end up changing my mind after 7 nights in an inside cabin!

 

[B9erSteve]

congrats on the 10 year anniversary

we're sticking to a cat 11c this time, as we never spend too much time in the room anyway, on our first 3 night, we booked a 12, got a 9, and on the second 3 night, booked a 12, got an 11. the way i see it is that i'd rather spend the extra on shopping/food/drinks etc. then again i've never done a 7 night before, so might end up changing my mind after 7 nights in an inside cabin!

I would have done the same for this cruise too, but I'm cruising with a bunch of friends from work and they were wanting to stay on the same area of the ship with porthole views.

Now when I book on the Dream (or Fantasy) I'll be inside all the way. Those "porthole" monitors seem like a lot of fun

 

[karentan]

yeah i've heard about those! i think it'll help people who may be a bit claustrophobic, nothing beats a proper window or verandah, but its gotta be better than nothing!

 

[B9erSteve]

You're right about nothing beating real sunlight! I'm thinking more about the entertainment value that it would deliver to my kids. They'd constantly be trying to guess what cation character would pop up next.

 

[KilleriMac17]

This will be my first cruise. snugglepeas is my EW(evil wife)
never been on a cruise before. or outside of the U.S.(except the one time when I was 4). looking forward too it.

 

[B9erSteve]

Welcome Aboard! I'm Steve. My Wife is Laura. At the time of sailing this will be our 4th Disney Cruise. (I just booked a short 2 night Cruise on the Wonder on Jan 21st which is our 3rd.)

 

[karentan]

2 night wonder cruise? wow thats short!

 

[KilleriMac17]

My wife and I were wondering.. when you eat lunch/breakfast at a sit down restaurant, do you tip the people? Normally at a restaurant I would anyways, but they normally get tips at the end, but that's usually for your nighttime wait staff. I haven't seen anywhere that mentions the people during the day. I know you tip room service. Just haven't seen anything on the daytime restaurants.

 

[B9erSteve]

2 night wonder cruise? wow thats short!

Yeah it is, they're filling a gap between the 14-night repo and the beginning of the 7-night Mexican Riviera cruises. The Price was excellent and We've not been on the Wonder yet so I jumped all over the deal.

 

[B9erSteve]

My wife and I were wondering.. when you eat lunch/breakfast at a sit down restaurant, do you tip the people? Normally at a restaurant I would anyways, but they normally get tips at the end, but that's usually for your nighttime wait staff. I haven't seen anywhere that mentions the people during the day. I know you tip room service. Just haven't seen anything on the daytime restaurants.

No you have no need to tip anyone until the end of the cruise. I believe that any alcohol has tip included. The suggested tip amounts are fine, however, I find that I like to tip a bit over that amount since the staff have always worked hard to make our trips wonderful. The exception to the above. (and it is purely up to you) is Palo. The surcharge for eating there includes the tip. But I've found that 1) it seems fairly paltry (I'm not sure how much of that $15 actually goes to the wait staff) AND if you have a Palo server on your side you'll get some awesome service there. Example: We had brunch at Palo. I tipped our server a bit (she was awesome) then when we had Dinner at Palo, she made sure that she had us at one of her tables. She was so helpful and fun that our dinner there was truly magical. I tipped her generously for that!

Overall, tipping is always at the discretion of the customer. One should never feel overly obligated to tip, but after having these people work so hard for me, I personally want to reward them for their hard work.

 

[KilleriMac17]

No you have no need to tip anyone until the end of the cruise. I believe that any alcohol has tip included. The suggested tip amounts are fine, however, I find that I like to tip a bit over that amount since the staff have always worked hard to make our trips wonderful. The exception to the above. (and it is purely up to you) is Palo. The surcharge for eating there includes the tip. But I've found that 1) it seems fairly paltry (I'm not sure how much of that $15 actually goes to the wait staff) AND if you have a Palo server on your side you'll get some awesome service there. Example: We had brunch at Palo. I tipped our server a bit (she was awesome) then when we had Dinner at Palo, she made sure that she had us at one of her tables. She was so helpful and fun that our dinner there was truly magical. I tipped her generously for that!

Overall, tipping is always at the discretion of the customer. One should never feel overly obligated to tip, but after having these people work so hard for me, I personally want to reward them for their hard work.

Yeah, we may do the brunch at palo. I normally tip higher than the 'required' unless service is really bad. I was just wondering what happens to the daytime servers if most people dont tip.. maybe they are all pooled...

 

[B9erSteve]

Yeah, we may do the brunch at palo. I normally tip higher than the 'required' unless service is really bad. I was just wondering what happens to the daytime servers if most people dont tip.. maybe they are all pooled...

The daytime servers are the nighttime servers. (you may not see yours though). The tips that they receive at the end of the cruise covers their duties for those periods as well. Which is why I'm usually generous.

 

[KilleriMac17]

The daytime servers are the nighttime servers. (you may not see yours though). The tips that they receive at the end of the cruise covers their duties for those periods as well. Which is why I'm usually generous.

thats what I kinda figured, I am not a cheap tipper so thats good atleast(don't wanna have to keep carrying around spare bills everywhere)

 

[B9erSteve]

thats what I kinda figured, I am not a cheap tipper so thats good atleast(don't wanna have to keep carrying around spare bills everywhere)

Nice!