Sept 18 2010 WB TransAtlantic Pirates/Capt Jacks Re-Repoing Repossession Cruise Pt.4

[KermitRocks]

This is what we woke up to this morning. Looks like we will be a while getting out.Donna

We just spent an hour and a half with the snow blower to clear our driveway. They are saying another 12 inches today on top of the 20 or so we have already gotten. I just hope I don't get callled into work since I work for the electric company and it will be difficult getting there. Donna

Such amazing pictures. Stay warm and safe!!!

Mrs. Woody and I are packed for our cruise on the Sapphire Princess. We only have carry-on bags!
We leave in a few hours. I'll catch up when we return.
woody

Have a great trip!!!

guess what guys ......

...... only 32 weeks until we board the Disney Magic

I'M SOOOOOOO HAPPPPPYYYY!!!!

I've been a Windows girl since ... well lets just say that it was before Windows 95 and I'm an IT professional working mainly with Windows and I bought a Macbook Pro last October and I'm totally in love with it.

I got the 15" and seems really large to me, even though my last laptop was a HP Pavilion Multimedia POC (Piece of Crap). The stupid thing, besides being a virus-ridden paperweight, had a design flaw (just out of warranty I might add) that caused the CPU to overheat the hinge of the screen, meaning it couldn't shut and the frame around the screen peeled away. Nice. A real POC.

Anyhow, 17" would have been too big for me, the 15" seems like the right size, as the 13" seems too little (do they even make a MacBook Pro in 13" anymore?)

I just love the ease of use with the Mac and how even simple stuff like taking photos off my camera is super easy. It took awhile to learn how to use the touchpad, but once I read the manual and saw all that it could do, I love it now and have mostly abandoned the mouse. Hope that helps!

Thanks for the information. I think I'm sold on the MacBook. Now I just need to go and play with them to see which size screen I want. Ooh I love getting new toys.

 

[paulasillars]

I could use some advice - How much do you generally tip on the cruise for room service and Palo's? For hotel room service, i generally tip 15-20% but since you only pay for drinks on the cruise, are you supposed to tip just as much as if you were paying for the full meal? What about palo - since it only costs 15, how much do most tip - 20?

Thanks...

I'm probably not a good one to ask about tips as its a foreign concept for me - we don't tip here in NZ, so I use this website below for working out how much to budget for my tips for the cruise ship - Disney also give you a "recommendation" for you to base your tip up or down on.
http://cruisetip.tpkeller.com/

I believe tips are included with alcoholic drinks but I don't drink so don't know for sure.

As for Palo, I have been told that the cost is a service charge aka tip but of course you can give more if you wish.

 

[orlandothebeagle]

I am getting my vacation hair cut next weekend. It's shoulder length right now and I'll probably go up to my chin. I am also going from dark brown to blonde! We'll see how it goes.

Krista

Yes, pics please.

Kimberly: Guess, it's not only your car that is being infected by unwanted rodents. I sent you a PM for updates on the hotel roll call.

It's been a good day for planning. Thanks to Lyn (Lyn9856) we have flights booked to Barcelona. Plus, the four of us (Lyn, Bob, Candida and me) are now booked for Praktik Barcelona.

Things are getting done

Jon

Woody you are my hero! I have achieved Carry-ons only for one trip so far and it was only four days.

Have a great time.

pj

I know, He should lecture us on a sea day, "how to pack Woody style"

I didn't hear about another foot of snow on Tuesday/Wednesday!

My parents and twin live in Allentown and they only got about 4 inches (trust me, my sister wanted more!) and I think we got about 8-12 inches here (I wanted more too) in Quakertown. I have to work Wednesday night so I hope it's not too bad!

We've spent the day inside just relaxing and I cleaned (oh the fun!). We're probably going to play a game later...it's been a nice day!

Tomorrow is the big Super Bowl Party and I can't wait!!!!!

At least you are all set for today!

I could use some advice - How much do you generally tip on the cruise for room service and Palo's? For hotel room service, i generally tip 15-20% but since you only pay for drinks on the cruise, are you supposed to tip just as much as if you were paying for the full meal? What about palo - since it only costs 15, how much do most tip - 20?

Thanks...

You tip at the end of the cruise for meals and stuff.
At dinner you sign for the drinks before you leave the table(not soft drinks)
Well, I cant mind exactly, but it is obvious enough on board what to tip.

Found these on another web site(per person)

Position 3 day 4 day 7 day 10 day
Resturant Server $12.00 $16.00 $28.00 $40.00
Resturant Assistant Server $9.00 $12.00 $21.00 $30.00
Head Server $3.00 $4.00 $7.00 $10.00
Stateroom Host(ess) $12.00 $16.00 $28.00 $40.00

Room Service At your discretion At your discretion At your disrection At your disrection

And yes bar bills have a bit to add extra but tips ARE included for sure.

usually a few bucks for room service, palo is included,but some give extra. last time I done Palo, I did not tip extra(and thats not like me) service were at best poor and at worst down right over the top annoying.

Hope this hepls, I found it all very confusing first time I went so just ask again if I/we have missed anythign out.

 

[GOS]

This is what we woke up to this morning. Looks like we will be a while getting out.

Donna

That's a lotta snow.

 

[kamgen]

Good morning everyone! Not much snow here..actually just a dusting on the grass. Nothing major....but more is coming I here so we will see. So far it hasnt been too bad, just unbearably cold!!!My boys have been under the weather now for over a month. Might have to make another trip to the doctor this week. Liam just got over his pneumonia two weeks ago, so this is awful! Now Ryan has a terrible cough. To think they didnt get sick when we lived in Florida really makes the idea of moving back more appealling!

As for tips: we usually follow the cruiseline guides for how much to tip, we will tip more if we feel it is justified though. Sometimes we bring little gifts for people. We have done the phone card thing and bring our own thank you cards. We will see. Right now this cruise feels so far off. We have so much going on between now and then, so hopefully we wont run out of time!

 

[HallsofVA]

So 32 was the magic number yesterday. 32 weeks until our cruise. And 32 inches of snow officially recorded in our local area yesterday!

 

[gismo1554]

I could use some advice - How much do you generally tip on the cruise for room service and Palo's? For hotel room service, i generally tip 15-20% but since you only pay for drinks on the cruise, are you supposed to tip just as much as if you were paying for the full meal? What about palo - since it only costs 15, how much do most tip - 20?

Thanks...

OK well I will admit now to being a bit mean. The $15 you pay for Palo goes to the server as a tip so unless they are absolutely fantastic I very rarely give much more than rounding up to $20.

As for room service I tend to give $3 per order which I think I got from some cruise guidelines on tips. I do not tip like I would if I was paying for the proper meal.

Drinks wise a tip is automatically added to all bar bills so again unless exceptional service don't usually do more than a rounding of it. I think the automatic is 12% but not 100% sure on that might be more.

I'm probably not a good one to ask about tips as its a foreign concept for me - we don't tip here in NZ, so I use this website below for working out how much to budget for my tips for the cruise ship - Disney also give you a "recommendation" for you to base your tip up or down on.
http://cruisetip.tpkeller.com/

I believe tips are included with alcoholic drinks but I don't drink so don't know for sure.

As for Palo, I have been told that the cost is a service charge aka tip but of course you can give more if you wish.

Thats the site I use too.

Yes the tip is included in alcoholic drinks and any soft drinks brought from a bar. And the charge at Palo is a tip.

Good morning everyone! Not much snow here..actually just a dusting on the grass. Nothing major....but more is coming I here so we will see. So far it hasnt been too bad, just unbearably cold!!!My boys have been under the weather now for over a month. Might have to make another trip to the doctor this week. Liam just got over his pneumonia two weeks ago, so this is awful! Now Ryan has a terrible cough. To think they didnt get sick when we lived in Florida really makes the idea of moving back more appealling!

As for tips: we usually follow the cruiseline guides for how much to tip, we will tip more if we feel it is justified though. Sometimes we bring little gifts for people. We have done the phone card thing and bring our own thank you cards. We will see. Right now this cruise feels so far off. We have so much going on between now and then, so hopefully we wont run out of time!

Glad the snow wasn't too bad. Hope the boys are OK!

Lynne, good luck to Scotland today. Just started playing and my fingers are crossed for them. Mind you after my disasterous day yesterday maybe I shouldn't tempt fate lol

 

[calmpets]

Just to clarify, a portion of the $15 Palo fee goes to the server - not the entire thing. It still means a basic tip is included, but it's not the full $15. And drinks are auto-grat at 15% everywhere on the ship.

 

[gismo1554]

Just to clarify, a portion of the $15 Palo fee goes to the server - not the entire thing. It still means a basic tip is included, but it's not the full $15. And drinks are auto-grat at 15% everywhere on the ship.

Thanks for this. I was told by a server in Palo they get all of it but hey who knows.

 

[pilk]

OK well I will admit now to being a bit mean. The $15 you pay for Palo goes to the server as a tip so unless they are absolutely fantastic I very rarely give much more than rounding up to $20.

I don't think you are mean, well at least when it comes to tipping. I can't speak to how you interact personally with people.OOCH, I just got hit by Candida for saying that. You are a very nice person (was that better)

First a disclaimer: The following veiw is by no means a statement/point of view/opinion of the pilk family, DIS Boards, Sept 18 2010 WB TransAtlantic Pirates/Capt Jacks Re-Repoing Repossession Cruise, or any of the entities affiliations. It is the sole opinion of the writer, (hey that would be me)

The whole thing about tipping has become such a grey area. Once upon a time tipping was for exceptional service, for virtually any service industry. Gas station attendant, paper deliveries, rest. service, taxi, and so on. But, around here it is now rare to see someone tipped for paper deliveries, gas station work and some food service places. Case in point most people tip when you eat a restaurant or buy something a coffee shop but what about your fast food places. I have never seen or heard of someone at Buger King or McDonalds getting a tip. Now I am seeing a mentality of some being of the view that tipping is a requirement. I have heard servers complain that someone left a "small" tip. But, the service the person got (from what I could tell) didn't deserve a "large" tip. The other thing is in some places the tip are pooled and then divided among everyone. So, is it far to tip poorly because of your server, yet the food was excellent and the cooks deserve something.

When it has come to tipping it is always hard because we all have different ideas about what is good or bad, tipping practices are different from one place to another. I have always tried to tip fairly for the service received, but it is still difficult.

No back to our regularly scheduled broadcast:
Knock, knock
Who's there?
Disney
Disney who?
I just stopped spinning so I am Disney.

Ok, so that was bad. Where is the gang plank gone? I walk myself off it

Jon

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Found these on another web site(per person)

Position 3 day 4 day 7 day 10 day
Resturant Server $12.00 $16.00 $28.00 $40.00
Resturant Assistant Server $9.00 $12.00 $21.00 $30.00
Head Server $3.00 $4.00 $7.00 $10.00
Stateroom Host(ess) $12.00 $16.00 $28.00 $40.00

From these figures I worked out that the tipping for our 14 night cruise should be:

Stateroom host : $ 56 per person
Server : $ 56 per person
Assistant Server : $ 42 per person
Head Server : $ 14 per person

Which for us (2 people) works out as $336 in tips for the cruise

Palo I would probably tip an extra $10 if the service were wonderful and for room service $2 or $3 depending on what we were ordering. For bar drinks delivered to us by a server we would generally tip $1.

 

[acourtwdw]

Just got back this morning from the Magic!!! It was a wonderful week and very relaxing. Amanda is worried about the crossing and being bored while at sea. I know that there are some folks on this thread that have done a long cruise. Is there any words of wisdom out there?

 

[orlandothebeagle]

I don't think you are mean, well at least when it comes to tipping. I can't speak to how you interact personally with people.OOCH, I just got hit by Candida for saying that. You are a very nice person (was that better)

First a disclaimer: The following veiw is by no means a statement/point of view/opinion of the pilk family, DIS Boards, Sept 18 2010 WB TransAtlantic Pirates/Capt Jacks Re-Repoing Repossession Cruise, or any of the entities affiliations. It is the sole opinion of the writer, (hey that would be me)

The whole thing about tipping has become such a grey area. Once upon a time tipping was for exceptional service, for virtually any service industry. Gas station attendant, paper deliveries, rest. service, taxi, and so on. But, around here it is now rare to see someone tipped for paper deliveries, gas station work and some food service places. Case in point most people tip when you eat a restaurant or buy something a coffee shop but what about your fast food places. I have never seen or heard of someone at Buger King or McDonalds getting a tip. Now I am seeing a mentality of some being of the view that tipping is a requirement. I have heard servers complain that someone left a "small" tip. But, the service the person got (from what I could tell) didn't deserve a "large" tip. The other thing is in some places the tip are pooled and then divided among everyone. So, is it far to tip poorly because of your server, yet the food was excellent and the cooks deserve something.

When it has come to tipping it is always hard because we all have different ideas about what is good or bad, tipping practices are different from one place to another. I have always tried to tip fairly for the service received, but it is still difficult.

No back to our regularly scheduled broadcast:
Knock, knock
Who's there?
Disney
Disney who?
I just stopped spinning so I am Disney.

Ok, so that was bad. Where is the gang plank gone? I walk myself off it

Jon

very good

From these figures I worked out that the tipping for our 14 night cruise should be:

Stateroom host : $ 56 per person
Server : $ 56 per person
Assistant Server : $ 42 per person
Head Server : $ 14 per person

Which for us (2 people) works out as $336 in tips for the cruise

Palo I would probably tip an extra $10 if the service were wonderful and for room service $2 or $3 depending on what we were ordering. For bar drinks delivered to us by a server we would generally tip $1.

 

[pjpoohbear]

Annette

There is so much planned on sea days that Amanda should be more worried about what she will miss out on. On the PC cruise they had special Disney guest speakers, I made it to everyone of those, very special. There are cooking demos, dance lessons, movies, tastings, pools side activities, and those are just the adult only events. I brought 6 books on the PC cruise and only read three of them, everyday had something to do.

Pj

 

[KermitRocks]

No back to our regularly scheduled broadcast:
Knock, knock
Who's there?
Disney
Disney who?
I just stopped spinning so I am Disney.

Ok, so that was bad. Where is the gang plank gone? I walk myself off it
Jon

I laughed. No gang plank for you.

Just got back this morning from the Magic!!! It was a wonderful week and very relaxing. Amanda is worried about the crossing and being bored while at sea. I know that there are some folks on this thread that have done a long cruise. Is there any words of wisdom out there?

My very first cruise was the 14-day Panama Canal cruise. I loved it. I was not bored at all. DCL has tons of stuff to do. In fact, I had so much to do I had to find time to get some down time at the pool. I had a blast!!!!! My second cruise was a 4-day cruise and boy did it go by fast! I'm happy I'm on another 14-day cruise that's for sure. It's going to be great!!!

 

[DisneyCruisin]

Hi everyone,
Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

I haven't been here in ages. I hope to be checking in more often now that we are just months away from sailing. 7 months from today, we'll be arriving in Barcelona for the last Med cruise. I can't wait.

Haven't had time to go all the way back, but I LOVE the pictures of the snow. I'm so jealous. We dodged the bullet here in the northern suburbs of NYC. Not even a flake. People thought I was crazy for being disappointed.

 

[DisneyCruisin]

Just got back this morning from the Magic!!! It was a wonderful week and very relaxing. Amanda is worried about the crossing and being bored while at sea. I know that there are some folks on this thread that have done a long cruise. Is there any words of wisdom out there?

We did the WBTA in 2007 and we LOVED the sea days. I am most looking forward to them on this cruise. There is so much to do and see, you can be as active or as lazy as you want, and never be bored.

 

[TheDisneyGirl02]

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!!! Our buffalo chicken dip is in the oven and we're leaving for the party soon! I'm not much of a football fan, but I love the Superbowl, mostly for the commercials.

For now, Dave and I are watching the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet. Here's a link to it!

http://animal.discovery.com/

Enjoy!

 

[lyn9856]

The whole thing about tipping has become such a grey area. Once upon a time tipping was for exceptional service, for virtually any service industry. Gas station attendant, paper deliveries, rest. service, taxi, and so on. But, around here it is now rare to see someone tipped for paper deliveries, gas station work and some food service places. Case in point most people tip when you eat a restaurant or buy something a coffee shop but what about your fast food places. I have never seen or heard of someone at Buger King or McDonalds getting a tip. Now I am seeing a mentality of some being of the view that tipping is a requirement. I have heard servers complain that someone left a "small" tip. But, the service the person got (from what I could tell) didn't deserve a "large" tip. The other thing is in some places the tip are pooled and then divided among everyone. So, is it far to tip poorly because of your server, yet the food was excellent and the cooks deserve something.

When it has come to tipping it is always hard because we all have different ideas about what is good or bad, tipping practices are different from one place to another. I have always tried to tip fairly for the service received, but it is still difficult.


Jon

Jon! You make me laugh So sensible

Tipping for us UK peops is even harder. We tip because we approve here in UK. Well at least we and everyone I know do. If its good..we show our appreciation. If its bad..well.hmmm. But we do find it hard in the USA!
I always used to look forward and be happy to find the "Christmas Box" annual tip money for the Postie...and the Dustbin man...but now we never have the same Postie or Binman longer than a month running..go figure!
Dont worry too much about tipping in UK! I'll be happy with 10% in Lyn's kitchen, or a free load up of the dishwasher

 

[KermitRocks]

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!!! Our buffalo chicken dip is in the oven and we're leaving for the party soon! I'm not much of a football fan, but I love the Superbowl, mostly for the commercials.

For now, Dave and I are watching the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet. Here's a link to it!

http://animal.discovery.com/

Enjoy!

I'm also going to a Super Bowl party and not a huge fan of the game. (Although I will be cheering for the Saints b/c I love a good underdog story.) I'll "watch" the game but will be mostly socializing with friends. The die hard fans are in front of the tv and I'm way in the back so I don't bug them.

Buffalo chicken dip sounds yummy. I made a carrot cake last night.

Happy Super Bowl everyone!