I know that plenty of cruisers are picky and have some crazy requests. This is the thread to post them on.<BR><BR>I will get things rolling with a very tame one. I always bring a cooler with me and I always ask the cabin steward to keep my cooler filled with ice. I determine his tip based solely on this feature. If the cooler is kept filled with ice, he gets the average or better tip. Any problems with my cooler being filled, his tip is reduced.

What do you keep in the cooler, meat from home, groceries, liverloaf?

I had a lot of lower back problems, and was going to physio, I decided to go on the cruise and asked my therapist what to do on the ship. She just said to get a lot of plastic bags and ice my back at night and keep doing my streaches. I got a lot of plastic bags, and the room stewart kept taking them away from me. I think she thought I was nuts with all these baggies all over the room, so she would throw them out or something. I had to go find new baggies all the time. I ended up hiding them.

Hi Mandy,<BR><BR>I believe you are being unreasonable. Cabin stewards are programmed to do the job that they are trained. If they do that job well you should tip them accordingly. If they do extra for you then you should tip them a bit more.<BR><BR>You should not eliminate or reduce their tip if you bring your cooler on board and they have to work extra to fill it with ice. <BR><BR>Paul

Cabin Stewarts programmed? Wow, what are they - robots?

Melissa, the best thing is to explain to the steward what you need and WHY. She would not be throwing out your baggies if she understood why you needed them and I am sure she would keep your iced bucket filled with ice.

Sorry, I didn't mean to call them robots. I was just attempting to make a point that they are trained to do a certain job and not to deviate from that job. Most of these employees come from a third-world country and it is their first job. It is difficult for them to even notice when your tissue box is ready to run out of tissues. <BR><BR>If you wish additional ice and you do not get it from the steward simply call room service and they will bring all the ice buckets you wish - free of charge. Also be sure to hide anything that may look like trash to the steward.<BR><BR>Paul

I requested that she unpack my bags for me and she looked at me like I was crazy! The last time that I cruised was in 1969 and my bags were unpacked for me. Times have changed.

I asked my cabin attendant to squeeze a nasty zit on my back that I just couldn't reach myself. He looked really disgusted and said it wasn't his job. No tip for him.

ttt

Hi Roxanne,<BR><BR>If you book a suite that offers butler service they will unpack your bags for you. I imagine back in 1969 you paid quite a bit more for your cruise (in today's dollars).<BR><BR>In the suites we book we only had our bags unpacked once. It took us three days to find where our things were.<BR><BR>Paul