jaymumma,
As a wedding present, my wife and I...
Congratualations on your marriage, and best wishes to your bride!
1)What is normal tipping policy on a cruise?
Celebrity's current "guidelines" are as follows.
1. "Per Deim" Tips
>> Waiter: $3.50 per passenger per day
>> Assistant Waiter: $2.00 per passenger per day
>> Head Waiter: $0.75 per passenger per day
>> Cabin Steward and Assistant: $3.50 per passenger per day
>> Assistant Chief Housekeeper: $0.75 per passenger per day
>> Butler: $4.00 per passenger per day (applicable only to suites)
Note #1: Celebrity suggests tipping one half of the above amounts for each child under twelve and the amounts above for each child of age twelve or over.
Note #2: You can either tip in cash or submit a form to the Guest Relations Desk to have tips of at least the above amounts added to your shipboard account.
2. Bar and Wine Service: Gratuiety of 15% Automatically Added to Bill
3. Miscellaneous
>> Room Service: At your discrssion, but a tip upon delivery is customary
>> Casino Dealers: At your discression
>> Other Staff: At your discression, but only for services that are beyond the normal performance of their duties
4. Shore Excursions
>> Guide and Driver: $1.50 per passenger for 1/2 day tour or $3.00 per passenger for full day tour
Do NOT tip the ship's officers, as doing so would be exceedingly gauche.
I generally deviate from these guidelines somewhat.
>> 1. It's not customary to tip a person with whom you ordinarily do not interact. Thus, I see no justification for the line to that one tip the assistant chief housekeeper -- and I also am not aware of any other line that suggests a similar tip. You can tell, from the way that Celebrity's cruise directors push this tip in their disembarkation talks, that a LOT of other passengers also balk at it.
>> 2. Until reently, it was customary to tip the Maitre d' and the head waiters only if they performed special services, so the suggested tip to the head waiter is also questionable. Nonetheless, this person is very involved in service in the dining room so I do go along with it.
>> 3. I generally give the suggested amount to my cabin steward and a separate amount, following the same guidelines as for the assistant waiter ($2.00 per passenger per day) to the assistant cabin steward.
AFAIK, Celebrity is the only major cruise line with assistant cabin stewards, but they work very hard so I think that they deserve the same consideration as an assistant waiter in the dining room.
2)If we decide to skip the regular dinning room for dinner is there an additional charge? Same goes for room service (if even offered)?
Skipping dinner in the dining room is generally a mistake because the food in Celebrity's dining rooms is very good and the service is part of the ship's entertainment. Nonetheless, there are several alternatives.
>> If you want to eat early and light, the grill by the main pool serves burgers, hot dogs, fries, etc., until 6:00 PM.
>> Some Celebrity ships have a pizza and pasta bar that's open from lunchtime until 1:00 AM. On ships that have it, there's no additional charge to eat at the pizza and pasta bar.
>> All Celebrity ships offer "alternative casual dining" with full table service in the buffet area during the dinner hour. Reservations are recommended, and tehre's a charge of $3.50 per passenger, which is basically a gratuity for the servers.
>> In her upcoming refit, MV
Century will get a very fancy specialty restuarant with tableside preparations of many items and synchronized service. This restaurant will have a service charge of $30.00 per passenger, which will include gratuities for its staff.
3)Charge for sodas and water or only booze?
Basicaly, you pay for any beverage that comes from a bar or from the Cova Cafe di Milano. The buffet area offers complimentary coffee, tea, and juices 24x7.
Bottled water is an extra charge, but you can refill the bottles yourself from the tap in your room -- and don't hesitate to do this! The tap water aboard ship, being distilled, is much purer than nearly all water that you get on land -- including most bottled water.
4)Since we are in a concierge class room, what are the services rendered and do we only tip them when services are provided or mandatory regardless?
I'm not aware of any additional services that would warrant tipping in concierge class.
5)Do you have to pay for shore excursions or are there shuttles provided to see the towns on your own?
Yes.
By way of amplification, "shore excursions" generally are organized tours or outings that have specific itineraries of their own. I highly recommend taking a shore excursion if you are visiting a locale for hte first time, for a couple of reasons.
>> 1. The guides on shore excursions generally describe the lay of the land, explain local customs that unsuspecting visitors often cross, and alert you to potential hazards during the course of the tour. The awareness that they provide could spare you a considerable amount of difficulty and embarrassment if you subsequently go into town on your own.
>> 2. European ports of call are very rich in historical and cultural attractions, including signficant art and architecture. Many of these attractions have long queues (often 2-3 hours) for admission, but shore excursions (and other organized tours) have reserved times so they skip the queues. As a result, you'll see a LOT more of the attractions in the ports of call by taking shore excursions, especially on a cruise in Europe.
To give you an idea how rich most European ports of call are, note that most of the tours leave the ship around 8:00 to 8:30 in the morning and return to the ship around 5:30 to 6:00 or so in the afternoon, with lunch included, simply becasue there is that much to take in!
That said, Celebrity generally also offers complimentary shuttles between the pier and the downtown area of a port of call in ports where they are not within a reaslonable walking distance of one another. In some ports, the pier is right next to the downtown area.
6)What is the best way to cover currency exchanges since some of the port cities do not use the Euro? (i.e. go to a bank ahead of time to get money specific currency, use the exchange on board, atm machines in specific cities)
It's generally best to make major purchases on credit cards and let your credit card company do the conversion. Most regular merchants welcome Visa and MasterCard for purchases over $20 or so.
For "pocket money," the best strategy is to convert about $100 per person to the currency of the port of embarkation before you leave the United States, then do subsequent conversoins aboard ship as the need arises. The equivalent of $100 per person in cash in the local currency is a good guideline, but convert currencies that you will no longer need to the currency of the next port of call on a rolling basis, augmenting them with greenbacks when necessary.
As you can probably tell, we aren’t “well off� people and just want to know what to be financially prepared for.
Fair enough. That being the case, though, it might be a while before you have a chance to return to Europe so you might as well plan to do it right. There are plenty of ways to control costs without depriving yourselves of the best that the ports of call have to offer -- limit what you buy to bring back, stay out of the casino and the bingo games, avoid spa treatments, and drink sodas rather than alcoholic beverages in the lounges.
Obviously, we are also more interested in exploring the ports on our own vs. being tied down to a tour group.
Again, you will be much better off taking organized shore excursions in European ports of call due to the long queues at many attractions. Most of the tours in Europe include lunch in a local restaurant and some time for shopping or independent exploration in an area where you will be safe. I realize that this means budgeting about $300 per day in port for shore excursions and souvenirs, but you probably would spend about as much between taxis and admissions and not see as much if you try to do it on your own.
Thanks for any insight you all may provide and soory for all the questions. Yes, I'm a newbie
The only additional detail that I would mention is that Celebrity Cruises is very much an "upscale" line with a fairly "upscale" cadre of passengers. The "suggested" dress in the cruise literature tends to be the minimum of what nearly all passengers actually wear rather than a maximum, and it's expected in all of the evening areas -- so don't go with the intent of "dressing down" after dinner on the "formal" and "informal" evenings. A DARK business suit -- and I emphasize the DARK -- is acceptable on formal evenings, if you own one. Likewise, your wife could wear her prom dress or a dress that she wore as a bride's maid at a friend's wedding on the formal nights. I mention this so you can plan accordingly and avoid a situation in your wife spends your whole cruise bidget on fancy clothes that she did not bring, as you watch in horror....
Have a great cruise!
Norm.