Cruise Ship Tipping Hurricane Irma Hurricane Maria Updates St Maarten St Thomas Puerto Rico

How. You doing everybody it's Bruce here with traveling with Bruce how, you doing today. Welcome. To my. 23rd, daily. Today. Is December the 30th, 2017. Coming, up to the end of the year folks unbelievable, I haven't. Done a daily for a week I'm. Going through what you tube withdrawal but. I took a little break spent. A little Christmas, time with my my, family and, back. Here at the house and. Got. To make some more videos but I gotta say folks what what is going on with my channel I I leave, you guys a. Week, ago I have 132, subscribers. I'm, all excited because I'm getting ready to do the 150, subscriber. Countdown, only 18 to go to reach 150 subscribers this, is great I'm, all gearing up for it and I'm, looking at my channel every, day and it's the, subscriber, counts going up but going up then this morning. 175. Subscribers, well so much for 150. Oh my. Goodness a matter of fact my, 150th. Subscriber. Is a friend of mine who, I personally know, who took, great delight think I'm. Number 150, I'm here, 150, a subscriber, I thought, wow this is fantastic and, it just kept coming and just kept coming that you guys are coming on board it's fantastic. People, are hearing about the channel 175. Subscribers, now I'm looking at 200, I can't believe it this is still December, I've. Had over a hundred subscribers, this. Month. I was, excited to get to 100. Back, on about, the middle of the month and now it looks like I got more than 100 subscribers who've come on board in the, month of December, alone so, the. Analytics, are really kicking in folks societ suspected, and. It's. Coming, on and I can be happier, and more grateful it's fantastic. Thank you everyone, for watching. I. Hope. You had a good holiday it's. Cold up there isn't it. It's. Just terrible. We, got back here a couple days ago and I uh six. Inches of snowfall and since I got home I'm glad I got all what I did, but. You know winters winter what are you gonna do and you. Know what I think about when it's winter I think about going on a cruise and. Tell. You there's some news on the cruise ships that are going on I thought today I'd do a little update on a couple of things I read, the other day but. A week ago I guess a, couple of cruise lines have quietly starting, announcing. Increases. In the daily, amount that they're going to charge for tipping. And. I thought I would talk about tipping, today, those. Of you who've done cruises for years and years you're. Familiar with how tipping works, those. Of you have never taken a cruise. You. May not know about it very much although you've heard some things about it you're not quite sure what it means and, I, thought I would clear, the air a little bit about what tipping is all about. And. How it really works on a cruise ship because, it's a bit different than then. If you're taking a vacation say, at a hotel or. At a resort, you know and. By the way a speaking, of resorts just for fun I went, on, Expedia. Calm. The other day just to take a look at how much would it cost for, for. A hotel, room with a beach view the ocean view in South. Miami just, you know to give me an idea and. Oh my goodness I. Thought, about if. I'm comparing a hotel. Room say on a four, or a five star, hotel versus. You know five-star cruising. It's. Not even close for. The money what. You're paying for a hotel room is unbelievable, I'm looking at four. To seven hundred dollars, a night, and, say, February in Miami, for, $700. Per, evening and then you got to buy your meals you're gonna have to rent a car if you're gonna go anywhere, and. Then your tips on top of that of course taxes, and fees I couldn't. Believe what cruise ships you. Know you can find cruises, for you. Know balcony, cruises, balcony, rooms you. Know as I've been showing you some. Of the balconies I'm finding her in the fifty dollar range seventy dollar range 100 all arranged you, know and once once I hit 120, a night I start kind of stopping oh eight hundred a week nine hundred a week oh my that's too high it.

Doesn't Have to be I mean you can go to the sky's a limit of course but, compare. The two when. You get all your meals on the ship included. There is no resort fee because you're on a resort. Taxes. The fees are reasonable compared, to these, on shore fees I mean you, know some of these some, of these states are really. Hard up for cash and, you not only have your you know state, taxes, say for Florida then, you've got your your county, taxes. Then your city taxes. You, add that up these hotel occupancy fees. And these resort fees and we're, talking 20 25 30, %, add on to your room charge this, is getting ridiculous. And the poor hotel operator can't pick up the hotel and go somewhere else where it's cheaper to operate that, building, is stuck there and it's there forever they got to bring the tourists in at all costs, and I guess. That they can get six seven hundred dollars a night they're, full alright for. Those of you looking for a reasonably. Priced vacation, that's. Not the way to go obviously cruising, is the. Way to go but. Back to tipping, for a second. On. A cruise ship the, the the the cruise ship operators, basically, are suggesting, a thirteen fifty $14, fifty cent a day per person tip. Fee, or gratuity, charge. That. They can basically, pre, you, can prepay it before you even get on the ship and that's what I like to do I booked my cruise I pay. For my taxes of visa obviously because that's automatically, charged and I had my gratuities, automatically. On my on my bill and so, before I even shed a. Step foot on the ship I prepaid my gratuities, and tips and I don't have to worry about it now I don't have to worry about finding an envelope and finding, a $5 bill or a $10 bill or a bunch of $1 bills. And tip this guy and tip this person in it I have to worry about it's all included in the fee the 1350. $14.50. Charge. Is divided. By. The cruise line to. Various, departments, on the ship automatically. Now you. And I when we're on a cruise we. See our room steward every day is the person that comes into the room and does, our bedding every day it changes our, towels every day gets us iced if we want you. Might see a secondary, person that kind of comes and go in our room but what we don't see is we don't see the people doing the laundry downstairs. We don't see the guys operating, the icemaker, we, don't see a, lot of the behind the scenes staff like in the in the restaurant you know when you're sitting down before, a restaurant you got the guy coming to you with your your meal well, that's your waiter and you might have a busboy you see the people. Running around with dirty dishes and the secondary staff and in the dining room and.

Of Course the maitre d and that type of thing you don't see the chefs you. Don't see the sous chefs that do all the prep work you don't see the dishwashers, you, don't see all the grunts that just do all the hard hard, labor to make things run right and, so when, you are leaving. A tip, the. Gratuity charge that includes, everybody. On board they all get a slice of that amount of money and it, goes a long way to their overall salaries. A, lot of these employees. In. The lower levels not. Management management, is one level of cruise another, area. Completely, but you know from. From dishwasher. To to laundry people to, the folks doing the ironing to, the folks, doing the vacuuming. You. Know all these all, these folks are sous chefs and all the other kitchen staff these. Folks are generally, from. I'll. Say quasi. Third world countries not necessarily, third world countries but a lot of them from the Philippines, Indonesia. We're. Getting paid and US dollars is a big deal, and tip, money makes a huge, difference on, their, take-home, pay and they'll. They'll they'll, have say an 11 month or 12 month contract at a time and then they get a month off maybe two months off and they, get to see their families once a year for for, a month or so all, during the year all during the their. They're wiring money back home so, the cruise lines will, make arrangements with them to automatically. Send money back home to their families, while they're on the cruise ship working away and so, every every tip they get or, really means something is important, now as a passenger, I don't know if you know this but you do have the right to decline. Making. Tip. Payments tips, are a suggested, gratuity, they're not mandatory, and, I. Have been on cruises, where you. Know at the end of the cruise I see a lineup of people at, the hotel desk on. Checkout, day day. Before the day uh and, I've. Seen I've heard people talking, you, know in the cafeteria. Line or, at the cafeteria or, you, know the buffet line or the buffet table. You killed some people talking about the complaining, of both their service or not, happy about this or not I me about that and some, people actually make a point of going down to the hotel desk and and. Reducing. The amount that they're going to pay towards tips, others. Insist. On making. Tip, payments. Directly to their staff in person. Well, that's great if you know who to tip but if you, if you don't see the dishwasher, and you don't see the sous-chef and how would you how, are you gonna get a tip to them and so. I, kind. Of go with the ship companies on this the ship lines the operators if, they're suggesting 1350, at a 1450, day and tips and that, covers everybody I'm a happy guy to pay it to me, if, I'm on a in. Miami, Beach and I'm at the Fontainebleau, Hotel 4, star 5 star property, and. I'm paying 500, a night for a room 609. For a room 5, ten dollars a day for the for, the room, person. Is. Nothing, I mean that's cheap. So there's five ten dollars a day in in, tip money there, now, of course in a hotel room you talk. About two people automatically, and so if you're, leaving ten dollars they, for, a tip for the rooms for the room attendant you know it's five dollars each it. Doesn't compete with a ship but you add up the other tips that you're gonna be paying breakfast. Every morning you know if you're in a five-star hotel and you're paying for breakfast you, talk and twenty dollars a person for breakfast at minimum, and you're looking at a six eight dollar tip for breakfast that's four, dollars each, then for lunch, you.

Know If you're talking. About a nice lunch 50. $60, for lunch easily. There's, another $10, in tip money and then for dinner you, know you go to the the nice restaurant, in the hotel you're. Talking, a hundred hundred twenty dollars for dinner talking, twenty dollars in tip money well you add up that dinner tip and the lunch tip and the breakfast. Tip and then all during the day when you are ordering a drink. By the pool or, a beverage you're, adding a buck here fifty cents here a buck here two bucks there you're. Spending twenty twenty-five hours a day a person in tip money you're already spending it you. Know you could get your car brought up from the valet giving, them a couple of bucks you. Know it just it just goes it just flows, some, days of course you don't take the car out you don't tip the valet some, days you eat you. Know you take a walk from the hotel to you, know maybe a restaurant down the street or you hit a hotdog stand for a quick bite you don't leave a tip at all all right but, it all varies, it all comes out in the end whereas with a cruise ship you've. Covered everything you got the room steward, so you've got this kitchen, staff you've got all the laundry staff, and I just personally feel at, ease with myself even. Even the staff in the sauna by the way you know where I you know I you know I love a sauna I don't have to tip the people in this in the room in the spa understood, tip anyone at the spots all covered all taken, care of so, to, me I just get that peace of mind knowing that I've made my tips to everybody everyone, is covered, I don't have to worry about anyone else if I wish to drop. An extra tip on anyone's, particular, person. That I particularly, enjoy. The. Service of that's, up to me to decide and, that's. Great, anyway. There's a bit over a little review on the on the, tipping you know you add up the money if, it's $14, a night a day, per, person on a cruise. For, a. 7-night, cruise it's. It's about a hundred dollars a week. If. The cruise ran if, you got the balcony for eight hundred dollars a person seven, hundred almost a person you add your taxes of fees to add the tips another hundred dollars, it's. Not that much money and buy it by the cruise lines having bumped the tips just in the last week, or so they're suggesting starting, January, and February they're, going to raise the tip suggest, a tip amount by a dollar a day. $7.00 a week person, this, is not a killer of the you, know something, I was pricing out the cruise sort of like that it's keeping the cruise in a very reasonable, amount of you. Know affordable. Range, for all of us so, I'm happy to do it I'm happy to make those arrangements, the, higher end staff on these cruise ships they don't get tip money that, the top managers. You. Know the restaurant managers the the top end step they get well paid salaries, get really well paid salaries, and they. They don't generally get tip money it's the lower rung staff that really. That $200, a week 250, hours a week whatever they're getting is, everything. It is huge, amount of money it goes a long way towards their towards. Their lifestyle. And family back home. Now. Another topic I wanted to talk about today just a little update those. Of you who are regulars of mine you've been watching my channel so, you know that I've been, doing. A number of stories over the. Last, number of months about these hurricanes hurricane, ARMA Hurricane Maria of, the islands, of st. Maarten st. Thomas, Puerto Rico all the nightmare stories in the Caribbean bit. Of good news today, that I read. Just. Heard that in st. Thomas cruise. Ships are back, in. St. Thomas Annette that's great news for the local economy, apparently, just around Christmas day there were three cruise ships in town in, one day so over 10,000, cruise ship passengers, and crew visited, the island in one day this, is sorely needed business, for, the st. Thomas if. It was the st. Martin right it's a, lot of business people in st. Maarten live off of tourism, and the cruise ship segment, is a big one there, still are a high, number of resorts, in in, these islands that have not yet been rebuilt, or reopened, it'll take them a full year, to get fully rebuilt out, you.

Know Not only did the the islands suffer dramatic. Infrastructure. Issues, so your roads washed out power. Lines snapped. In half. You. Know wires everywhere, transformers. Destroyed so the entire electrical grid had to be rebuilt in many many areas the plumbing, the sewer, systems had to be reinstalled, and redesigned rebuilt they're still being done in some, of the outlying areas still haven't been finished yet roadways. Have to be repaved. Grocery. Stores reopened, corner, stores hardware stores I mean you name it so if you're gonna rebuild, a hotel. Or a resort. You, need the grid up first. Of all so that you have power for, the power tools you're gonna need to, operate the. Rebuilding, of your resort then you have to order in all of the raw. Materials, that you're going to need your new roof your, new air conditioning systems your new electrical, systems and you, need the personnel, that either local, or brought in to, help rebuild, the resort. So at, Lightspeed, some, of these resorts will take a year to. Be fully rebuilt. With. All the new filtration systems, for the swimming pool all new deck chairs all new everything. Landscaping. Is going to have to be done and, and cleared up because when you're a tourist, in. In st. Thomas or st. Maarten or. You. Know some of the Isle on other, islands down there like st. Barts, you're. Not coming, to a resort, to be in the middle of a construction zone you're coming to resort, to come, and relax and, and have no. Noise no. Disruptions. You. Coming to recharge, your batteries, and if you're spending somewhere, you. Know five hundred a thousand, a night fifteen, hundred a night two thousand. A night for. Some of these you. Know suites you. Expect the best and of course the staff have. To be able to service all your your, needs your, favorite, drink better be there your favorite meal, and you, know your BAM you're gonna get it well these resorts just are not in a position to months after this massive storm, to, be able to operate and offer these kinds of services, right off the get it's. Gonna take them quite some time so next. Year is by, the time is really when these resorts will be up and running so the folks in in these islands who really, depend on tourists, to get by and make, ends meet you. Know fishing boat fishing. Boat charter operators, just. Scuba, diving operators. You. Know a day, trip bus, bus rider drivers, so take you know bus tours around islands and this type of thing a lot, of these folks are still laid off or are, working part-time at best. So, having, cruise, ships come back and at least having day. Visitors off of cruise ships great. News great, great, turn around. It's a wonderful, thing to see but I'm. Sure that a, cruise, ship passengers, who are getting off of these ships and are just hanging around the you know within a mile or so of the ships won't. See too much in the way of damage but if they go in a ways go. Downtown, a few blocks off the main drag or, or take a bus tour around the island you're going to see remnants. Of what had, happened there. And it was Armageddon I mean it was really tough but one. Thing at a time was better I did also read today that the Cayman Islands are doing very well there, in the Western Caribbean so they'd weren't affected by the Hurricanes, this time around although the hurricane, can visit the Caymans but didn't this year and they, just announced a record traffic, record. Traffic by air and, record. Traffic, by. Cruise ship visitors, and that's because of course. Passengers. And, tourists, are going to the islands that can accommodate them and offer the nice weather and services, in the Cayman Islands. It's. The high end part of town when you're talking about the Caribbean, the, Cayman, Islands are not known as a discount, travel, island, if you're, looking for a super deal you're, never gonna go to the Cayman Islands you're gonna go for a nice vacay. Cayman, Islands are right up there ritz-carlton, has a hotel there the Westin has a hotel, there are some really nice resorts. There but you are paying dearly for it, cruise, ship passengers, love the Cayman Islands because when you get off the ships hang. Out even on the public beaches no. One approaches, you begging you for money there, are no homeless people in the Cayman Islands there's none of that nonsense so it's just not tolerated.

There's. There, are no like, soldiers on the beaches like like you know armed soldiers, to protect you not needed the. Islands are a very safe and secure place well-to-do. Generally, speaking high standard of living and if. You're a local there there, is no excuse for you, not having a job there are just tons of work if you're an Islander available, for you and so you don't have that that. Issue of homelessness and, and and people begging for a dollar so they can feed themselves going, on like, in other Caribbean. Areas, or Mexico, or other some nations so. The Cayman Islands are doing well the numbers are great but. As a tourist, you might be turned off by that if you're a regular visitor, to the Cayman Islands you. Know you're kind of used to the fact that it's expensive, here so, not. A lot of riffraff around. In. Other words you're not going to have, gazillions. Of tourists. Who are looking, for 999. T-shirts, as. Their big expense, to take back home you're, talking about tourists with some capital and some cash who are paying for serenity, well. This year there isn't as much serenity. As normal, in the Cayman Islands there's a lot of spillover going on and I, guess say it's, busy and it's active, and so traffic is probably a bit of a problem this year. Beach. Congestion, maybe not so much there's a lot of areas. On the island you can go for for beach time and then of course on the resort's hey if you're in the ritz-carlton and they can hold 800 people they can hold eight hundred people it's, not like they're gonna have 16 under there this year they're. Gonna have 800 people there there just might be more expensive this year than last year because more, demand but. That's. What's happening in the Caribbean, certain islands are benefiting. From the hurricane scenario, others are still, recovering and of, course I'll finish off by talking, about Puerto Rico and San Juan we're. Still hearing stories here. We are in the. End of December three. Months two and a half months after the hurricane only. Half the island on average. Has electrical. Electric. Power only, half all. Of Florida is recovered, all of Houston is recovered, you. Know any any island. Any any mainland. State. That got hit with the Hurricanes. Powers. Back was back weeks ago months ago but.

Her. Tow Rico US, territory, only, half and, that just shows you the logistical. Nightmare, that these. Officials, are dealing with the. Contractors, and so on it. Is a mess, and, you. Know the reality is and was that, before the, Hurricanes got to Puerto, Rico the. Electrical, grid was, held together by duct tape already it. Was a disaster. The island is in a fire antral whole, upwards. Of eighty billion dollars in, debt and the. Electric, rates that. Islanders, were paying were sky-high, and the electric company just didn't, have the capital to. Upgrade its. Infrastructure, over the last number of years it's in effect been getting, worse and worse and worse on a quality scale and when, the Hurricanes, came in it just wiped out what was still standing and it didn't take much to cause outages. There. Were blackouts, in Puerto, Rico for. The last two years they've been blackouts all over the place all over the island so, many building. Operators, and resort operators in Puerto Rico do not rely, on the grid like. We do at home they they they are happy when it's up and running but they're prepared for when it goes down with their own generators. I mean unthinkable, on the mainland that you'd have a generator, system as a backup, for your resort because you can't rely on the grid, you. Know to supply, you with the power but. Here we are down. The line and I have a suspicion, that, these. Blackouts, will continue, I don't, think the the system, has been upgraded it's. Been basically brought, back online, patchwork, batch, by bad bit by bit by bit but. I don't know if it's up and running like, it should be so anyway, we'll, have to see how this plays out as time goes on and the. Future what will the future be for the island I kind of hope that the this this disaster. Has spurred. A lot of the islands and the Caribbean, to really start thinking about going solar and going, with windmills rather. Than just the the old standby, diesel operated. Generator. Systems, and it's expensive, its high-end, pollution, you know the the, fuel scenario, it can be cut off with a bad storm and then your generators, don't work even anyway, because you have no fuel, sunshine. Is sunshine wind is wind and. It's free it's perpetual why not take advantage of us I'm kind of hoping that as we, go forward we'll hear more, and more stories, of the conversion, of power. Systems into these you, know renewable, resources and I think it's a smart way to go but time. Will tell, well, anyway there you go that's today's, daily, daily number 20. Three on December. The 30th, 2017. I gotta say folks thank you so much for watching my channel, thanks, for keeping up with me, I'll. Tell you you got ahead of me there 132. Subscribers, on my last video I've got 175. Now we're 25 away from 200, and it's. Unbelievable. Five to, seven to ten subscribers a day are coming on board from time, to time it's, just it's just one online I want to pre pre. Pre predict. Buy 200, subscriber, but that's, a lot sooner than I thought and it's, fantastic, we're probably going to get later today or tomorrow my thirty, thousand. View. On my, channel, I, seriously. Thought I would, hit a hundred subscribers when, I reached 30,000, subscribers I didn't, think I did. It's. Amazing. Thanks. Again for watching my channel I'll, see you again probably. Next couple days I say I've got a bunch coming up new, videos coming up and it's a new year coming so if I don't talk to you between now and New, Year's Eve, Happy. New Year everybody, let's. Look. Forward to 2018. I'll hopefully make it an even better year than. In, the mean time this is Bruce saying so, long donkey, traveling.

2018-01-06 09:57

Other news