KAZ AN NIGE TOP TIPS - WE ARE CRUISING

Food in the Main Dining Room and buffet along with selected other venues is included in your cruise. All cruise lines provide the opportunity to upgrade your dining experience by paying a cover charge for a speciality restaurant. These are smaller more personal restaurants with service and food to rival many top quality land based venues. As we mentioned they are smaller so spaces are limited. The popular restaurants get booked up early in particular during special events such as Valentines Day. If there is a must do date on your itinerary get this booked in the bag as soon as you board. Often though there will be opportunity to book later and even when ‘sold out’ it is worth popping to the restaurant early on the night and ask if you can be put on a waitlist. 

Don’t read any further if you are of a nervous disposition. This is the most controversial subject when cruising. Should I tip the staff or not? Gratuities are an additional payment where you can either pre pay on booking, pay an amount set by the cruise company at the end of your cruise or choose to give to staff individually. Or a bit of each! P&O Cruises for example don’t charge extra for gratuities but obviously you can give a tip if you wish. Whilst Royal Caribbean charge an automatic amount per person per day, including children. Over a 14 night cruise it’s $18 (recently increased from $16) day per person ($20.50 in a suite- was $18.50) this adds up to $504 extra for two people on a 14 night cruise.  Before you reach for the phone to cancel that long awaited cruise there is another option. Cruisers don’t like to talk about it and it will send you to cruising Coventry if you do. When on board a Royal Caribbean ship go to Guest Services where you can remove, reduce or even increase the automatic tips. If you do nothing the charge will be added to your payment card at the end of the cruise. It’s your choice, just don’t tell anyone else you cancelled the tips for risk of being thrown overboard. 

With the speciality restaurants booked and a few lengths of the pool completed it must be time for something to eat. On embarkation day the buffet is the go to place for food. There are however alternatives that might be worth seeking out as these are usually much quieter. It will depend on what ship you are on of course. The buffet provides an amazing choice of food set out in ‘stations’, with salad bars, fresh fruit, hot food and those naughty pastries. There’s no in an out or one way system, just grab a plate and head for whatever takes your fancy. If you haven’t spent your life’s savings on a drinks package the buffet also provides plenty of free soft drink options. With drink stations offering a variety of complimentary squash style beverages as well as tea and coffee. You don’t need to go thirsty.