Some random questions

[Alaska777]

Hi all-
I have a few questions about the Fantasy.

1) Alcohol - can you bring champagne (instead of wine) on board?

2) Are the locker rooms still closed?

3) Are cash tips appreciated? With covid, we sort of stopped touching money. I’m wondering if it’s annoying/inconvinient now?

Thanks all!

 

[Kwami]

Hi all-
I have a few questions about the Fantasy.

1) Alcohol - can you bring champagne (instead of wine) on board?

2) Are the locker rooms still closed?

3) Are cash tips appreciated? With covid, we sort of stopped touching money. I’m wondering if it’s annoying/inconvinient now?

Thanks all!

1. Champagne is wine, so you an probably bring it. Maybe someone else here has tried to do that?

2. Yes.

3. Yes. You can use the app for most tips, though. You only need cash for tipping people when you aren't in the ship (e.g. bus drivers, luggage handlers, excursion guides) or when you get room service.

 

[BriarBelle]

Hello!
Yes, champagne is allowed, we brought it on a few weeks ago

 

[Lizgistix]

From my experience, cash tips on the ship are always appreciated.

 

[bakerworld]

Years ago I read it was better to hand increased tips to the cabin steward and food service personally. I noticed on the website the increased tips can be added via CC on the site. Does anyone know in this COVID climate whether increased tips for the cabin and servers are still better handed out personally on the last full day?

 

[Cruising Engineer]

CC tips are reported as income. Cash

 

[Alaska777]

That’s the content I’m here for. Off to the bank!

 

[Snowwhyt]

I grab about 50 singles, some $2 if I can, $50 in 5’s and $50 in 10’s. Also bring $50 and $100 dollar bills for end of cruise tips.
This usually covers airline to airlines tips.

 

[Colo17]

Years ago I read it was better to hand increased tips to the cabin steward and food service personally. I noticed on the website the increased tips can be added via CC on the site. Does anyone know in this COVID climate whether increased tips for the cabin and servers are still better handed out personally on the last full day?

Yes. Although we did ours night before since we were not going to the breakfast. If you really don't like handling cash just go down to Guest Services. They have a form that they print out increasing or decreasing the gratuities for the four people assisgned to you (with full names of waiters, headwaiter and cabin attendant). You can either add to their amounts or replace their amounts with a fixed amount from your room account. Then you get a new set of tickets to give to the various people. And yes, if you have onboard credit you can use that to increase gratuities. While we prefer cash this was a great way to use up a huge OBC.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Years ago I read it was better to hand increased tips to the cabin steward and food service personally. I noticed on the website the increased tips can be added via CC on the site. Does anyone know in this COVID climate whether increased tips for the cabin and servers are still better handed out personally on the last full day?

Even the prepaid "base" tips are still physically and personally handed to your service staff. Sometime around the last morning of your last full day, you'll get a piece of paper with the names of 1) your room host, 2) the head waiter in your dining room, 3) your server, and 4) your assistant server. The paper will show you how much of your prepaid tip is going to each of them, and there are perforations to tear four tickets showing the amount, one for each. You'll also have four small envelopes, again one for each. Even if you're not adding to the base tip, you fold the ticket and stick it inside the envelope, then hand the envelope to each of the four people.

Understanding that everyone has a different level of sensitivity to COVID stuff, I'll just add... even now, this whole interaction is very "old school" from what I've seen. Eye contact, handshake, sincere thank you, discretely handing the envelope. Obviously if someone is uncomfortable with that, there's no obligation, but from what I observed, most people handled that particular interaction in a distinctly pre-COVID way.

 

[Kariyaffa]

On Facebook a cast member posted that now that they can’t get off the ship they prefer people to give extra tips through guest services rather than cash since if it goes into their account it’s easier for them to use it to order things from Amazon or send to their families. He also said that even in the before times he personally preferred it done at guest services since even when he was allowed off to shop he didn’t want to waste time going to a bank to convert the money to local currency since they get such minimal time off

 

[JimJoonie]

Posting a question here cause it's a random one.

Are there any opportunities for tours of the ship on embarkation day? I remember pre-covid that there were tours of the inside of the ship like the galley. Is that still a thing? Thanks.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Posting a question here cause it's a random one.

Are there any opportunities for tours of the ship on embarkation day? I remember pre-covid that there were tours of the inside of the ship like the galley. Is that still a thing? Thanks.

For passengers, or just someone who wants to visit?

There used to be galley tours on longer cruises. And a general ship's tour (mostly to orient yourself) on embarkation day.

 

[JimJoonie]

For passengers, or just someone who wants to visit?

There used to be galley tours on longer cruises. And a general ship's tour (mostly to orient yourself) on embarkation day.

Yes. that's what I'm referring to. Specifically for passengers. I've always wanted to see the inner working of the ship but everytime I've been on, I've gotten distracted by my kids and lunch.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Yes. that's what I'm referring to. Specifically for passengers. I've always wanted to see the inner working of the ship but everytime I've been on, I've gotten distracted by my kids and lunch.

There haven't been "inner workings" tours on DCL for a number of years. Time was you used to be able to tour the bridge and all, but no longer. Just the "where are things located" tour on embarkation day. Don't know if they are doing galley tours currently, as they were typically only available on longer cruises.

We've had behind the scenes tours on HAL, and Princess.

 

[Akck]

Also, cash is about the only way you can tip CMs who aren’t assigned to you. We had help and great talks with one of the pool deck CMs whom we tipped. We also tipped a CM who helped find my wallet that I lost.