The Cruise

It was kind of exciting to drive to the docks and see this massive ship sitting there, knowing we'd be on it shortly. The beginning of any holiday is always a bit thrilling...not knowing exactly what the next few days or weeks will bring.

It was an quick and easy embarkation. There were no line-ups, although you could see from the miles of rope that twisted back and forth through what looked like an acre sized room, that lines are not unheard of! There's a tip for anyone who might be planning on a cruise...get there late. Embarkation started at noon, and you had to be onboard by 4. The ship sailed at 5:30, and we got there about 3:30.

There are hand sanitizers everywhere, and they are manned by staff who insist you squirt your hands constantly. You don't get to go any further if you refuse to sanitize. I'm not sure if this is just from the recent Swine 'flu scare, or if it's always like this, but I didn't mind. The sanitizer was sort of nice, it didn'ty dry our hands out, I think it had a lot of aloe in it.

We had our pictures taken and were handed what was to be our on board credit card/room key/embark/disbark card...basically your life-line to life on the ship. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING you bought on the ship was paid for with this card. You could not buy a postcard with cash, it is a cash free place. They say it's for customer convenience, but one staff member told us that it was really to keep staff from stealing. They don't handle cash at all, and no tips are given to them. Actually, let's discuss the tipping issue.

TIPS.

We weren't sure how or when to tip the staff. On our last cruise, a series of envalopes was left in our room on the eve of the last day, and each was labelled with "room cleaners", "wait staff", "sommelier" etc. In hindsite, how easy would it be for anyone to steal an envalope full of money? On this ship, it was all so simple. $12 per person, per day was added to your ship board account. As well as, anything you did buy (souviners, liquor, duty free etc) had a 17% "gratuity" added on. I thought that was a little high, I mean really, why should I pay 17% extra to buy $2.00 worth of postcards or a beer when I was ALREADY paying $12 a day? But, that's the way it was.

On the last evening of the cruise, your account bill was delivered to your room so that you had a chance to go over it all. It was broken down daily, very simple to read. So, for example, May 24 showed $15 for photos (yes, I got sucked into those photos that they snap every 30 seconds and then they display for you to purchase). It then showed $12 gratuities twice (once for Steven, once for me) $1.85 for a ginger ale, $6.33 for a glass of wine and $6.00 for a beer.

So, you do not need to bring any cash at all for the ship, the only cash needed was for shore excursions. And not the excursion itself, that was also on the account, but you needed cash for anything you might want to buy while on land.

We found this to be a great way to take care of all the bills and tips. If you are paying by credit card, you do nothing, just walk off the boat the next day and it will be on your bill the next month. If you prefer to settle up with cash, then you have to wait in line the morning you disembark (no thanks!) If you have a problem or discrepancy on your bill, or if you want to have the tips removed, then you also have to line up the next AM. There actually were a LOT of people lined up the next day, I hope they were paying with cash and not having tips taken off. But you know how some folks are....

We ate three meals a day, plus a snack now and then, plus we sat in the lounge with friends a few night and had a drink, so we would have probably left more individual tips than $12 each a day. I think it's an excellent idea, especially since you could have it removed if you really felt strongly that the service was not good. We found the service to be amazing.