I was diagnosed in July of 2025, did 6 rounds of FOLFIRINOX, had surgery mid-November and 6 more rounds of FOLFIRINOX and rang the bell on March 5th.

About 3 weeks ago I started having sheering abdominal pain occasionally when getting up as well as the return of some GI issues. I was more than a little concerned about the outcome of my CT scan yesterday (May 4th).

The good news is that there's still no evidence of disease!

Bad news is that I developed a hernia and need to set up a consultation with the surgeon though the oncologist didn't seem concerned. Also, the atrophy status of my pancreas went from mild to moderate and I will likely need to increase my Creon (meeting with GI doc is Thursday May 7). Odd part of this is my insulin production has actually increased - no longer on supplemental insulin (oral meds only) and A1C is 6.0 and falling.

I'm sharing this because I know that this stuff can be extremely worrying (you see it on the sub all the time) but sometimes it is still ok.

Next CT scan is in August - LFG!

All, I recently started cruising again after nearly a year hiatus due to being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer (rang the bell on March 5th yay!).

MSC

My first cruise back was with MSC and there was no way to pre-pay gratuities online through the online portal (at least no way I could figure out). When they appeared on the account, I went to guest services to see if I could get a break down on how they are distributed like I had seen with other cruise lines. Guest services said that 100% are distributed evenly amongst crew and there wasn't a specific ration for cabin steward, wait staff, etc. We talked to our cabin steward and to our head waiter and while they were reticent at first to talk about it, they both confirmed that their salary didn't fluctuate based on gratuity nor did they get a base salary + tips, that their salary was fixed. In other words - MSC appears to be subsidizing salary through gratuities. I'm not okay with this.

Carnival

My second cruise back was with Carnival. I went to guest services and they told me they still distribute tips the way they used to. I said so crew members get a contracted base salary plus a variable amount of tips and was told yes. I then asked if I were to remove the gratuities for my cabin steward and then hand the money directly to him, would he receive more/less/same as if I had just left it alone. The answer I got was "slightly more - probably". When I pushed for details the answer was that there is no concept of guest X's tip goes to guest X's cabin steward but rather all of the tips for all guests are first pooled and then proportioned to the crew members depending on department. Since there are always guests that remove gratuities and some guests are no-shows, etc. that the my gratuities would be diluted a bit if allowed to pool but not if I handed the money directly. Our cabin steward confirmed this (that their monthly pay was variable but included both a base salary and a tip amount).

My Issue

I'm not here to debate if gratuities are or are not a good thing. I choose to pay them and prefer them to be automatic. What I am not okay with is a cruise line implying that my gratuities are on top of salary but then using it to reduce how much of the employee's pay comes out of their pocket

Other Cruise Lines

Does anyone have any current and confirmed information on which cruise lines behave more like MSC and which ones behave more like Carnival? I have both Royal and Carnival still booked for the remainder of the year but am interested in any/all cruise lines. So far I have sailed with:

• Royal
• Celebrity
• NCL
• Carnival
• MSC