More Questions for who just got off the DQ

Sandy,
soft drinks are complimentary in the bar and the dining room and available only during meals or when the bar is open. the bar is open every day at 10 am. Budwiser is a "domestic" beer and with the automatic gratuity charge is about $3.50 to $4.00 a bottle, not sure of the price. they had three types of fancier beers, Abita Amber, my favorite Sam Adams Boston Lager and another, one I found to be very good, Anchor Steam. those three beers are exactly $4.60 with the tip, a number i'm a little familar with... ;-).
they have specials on Vodka drinks every day from 10 until Noon, if memory serves they were $2.85 with tip. non-special mixed drinks were in the $5 to 6 range.

coffee, regular, decaf, and fancy-schmancy along with all kinds of tea, regular, decaf and herbal are available 24 hours in the forward cabin lounge. They also have a small refrigerator where the old brass coffee maker used to be that will hold sandwiches and yougart in the future...there were none for our cruise. most of the day there is also fresh baked cookies. all the above is free...

no metal detectors anywhere. The company will give you a security swipe card that you will need to get off and on the boat once the cruise starts. the swipe card brings up your picture on a computer screen at the security desk on the bow. They take your picture the first day.

Bottled water is available. Is it free? I don't know...bringing your own is fine.

and I don't remember if blue packet sweetner is available, pink definitely is, and I suspect blue is too.

and the robes...we were told they arrived in too small a quantity to stock both boats, so the DQ didn't get them yet. we were also told they will be available for purchase in the gift shop for $75...

Thanks Bruno!!!!....Actually prices seem quite resonable compared compared to mainstream cruising on the high seas...BTW Splenda comes in yellow packages...I'll bring my own. LOL
Is the swipe card also your key to your room?
Sandy

Sandy, you just made me spill my coffee...a good morning chuckle...

the DQ is 80 years old and on national historic registers. I'm just glad the stateroom doors have brass tumbler locks that work most of the time! Our door lock was quite stubborn this time. if anybody in engineering is reading this, the lock on 322 needs some TLC.

the stateroom doors are opened with a good ol' brass key with a brass oval room number tag...

Bruno...I'm actually glad to here we have real Brass key's....and they haven't modernised them...LOL

OH BTW...They haven't got rid on the chalk board yet for wake up calls?

Sandy

wake-up chalk board is still there.

a little more on the door locks...the boat is patrolled by a watchman, our buddy michael, who tours all decks, with a watchkey system, starting at 10 pm and continuing non-stop until 6 am. with how well the staterooms are watched at night, and with people always out on deck during the day, Deb and I have never worried about the security of stuff in our stateroom, despite the balky doorlock.

Thanks, Bruno,

Some more stuff I added to my fact sheet :-).

I think it was our last cruise on the DQ in 2003. We just boarded and walked around me wearing a DQ T-shirt. An elder man approached me obviously thinking I´m a crew member and asked me whether this card is also his room key. I told him to go to his cabin. He will find the door open and two keys on his bed.

Carmen

The last time I was on the Boats, Splenda was available. However, I use the pink stuff, and always carry a supply with me as some restaurants on land do not have the pink stuff. If you have a preference for the yellow packet[Splenda], I would carry some with you in your checked bag(and in a plastic bag--don't want to ruin clothes). After seeing what is aboard once you get there, you will know. Plus you can always ask the Hotel Director to get some.

Margaret

OK I have to add a couple of stories here.

Bottled water is not really free since it has to be carried to the boat and is therefore inventory that needs to be accounted for. But, I had customers who were told by their travel agents that bottled water was free and I made them laugh as I poured them a glass from the bar gun and told them it came from the very big bottle in the bottom of the boat. The man asked, "Is it fresh?" I said back, "See that blue hose out there? They are pumping it into the big bottle as we speak." That passenger became a good friend the rest of the cruise.

Feel free to bring your own bottled water but the airlines will not let you bring more than 3 ounces past security so you would have to purchase it at just as costly a price as if you bought it on the boat.

As for free soft drinks, iced tea, lemonade, or even hot coffee and tea-- when I first boarded the boats as a bartender on the AQ, I was assigned the outside bar and the softdrinks were free and the tips were not pooled or shared. There was no way I could possibly make a living wage under that arrangement. Who is going to buy any fancy drinks from a plastic cup? The AQ did not even have the ice cream at the outside bar for ice cream drinks.

I became the lemonade queen featuring Boston Lemonade like they serve on Boston Common. Virgin ones were $2 and the spiked ones with fancy names were $4. I ended up making more than the bartender in the Engine Room Bar. So, the company basically stole my idea and offered the lemonade for free and again put the outside bartender out of business.

But, with the shared gratuity program or tacked on service charge and the drink prices still kept at a fairly low cost, most bartenders are going to be on board for the adventure of the job. Any land based bartending job pays far better but is not nearly as much fun.

And my last story is because my hot drink preference is actually Salada tea with milk and sugar. For a crew member to get that was an adventure. I had to supply my own tea bags and china cup. Getting hot water from a passenger area while not in uniform was forbidden. Getting milk and sugar from the crew mess was practically impossible as there was never any available on a regular basis. My second choice of a drink is then ginger ale. For some reason, the crew mess on all three of the boats never had ginger ale available. I was not really supposed to carry a drink for myself away from the bar. Sometimes toward the end of my days as a crew member, I used to get off the boat on breaks and buy myself ginger ale and Salada tea bags. Yes, I know I am an unusual character but that is just how things were.

The only other thing I caution people on who like to travel with their own bottles of anything is to consider the liability issues. One of the reasons why places charge corkage fees or frown on people bringing their own is not just because of lost revenue- it has to do with liability on not having control of the substance. So, I have learned when I travel to try to accomodate whatever is available to me.