Notes from my 2nd experience which many may relate to all cruises. Seems similar to when you go through a new home building process for the first time and learn lessons about the process that are irritating. Our first experience was a 3 day Disney Magic cruise.

They prepay charge your account, in our case $400 in tips for 2 adults and 2 kids but for the pretty high price you pay already you can't get any decent service anyway. The cruise line should pay for the labor and include it in your cruise cost, not get people to purchase a cruise, not disclose that you will essentially be paying a 15%+ upcharge that many, especially first time cruisers are unaware, then if you opt to remove the extra cost that you didn't budget then the labor force suffers. Unnecessary friction created between the labor and customer while the Cl still reaps obscene profits. How can a cruise line precharge for tips then only staff 2 bartenders for a pool deck with hundreds of people, many who have paid an excessive additional cost for drinks yet cant get served in a reasonable time.

You are often waiting in line because of some poor decision like seating 500 people for dinner but only having 2 sanitation stations. You then rush out from dinner to get to your reserved show or activity on time and then there are no reservations being accounted for by anyone it ends up being just first come first seated. Read more