PlatinumMan

14 hours ago, Kristelle said:

 

 

1) I dont dispute your experience.

Just pointed out it isnt the experience of others so doesnt seem typical of Viking.

 

2) so you pre paid gratuities thinking that gave you preferential or superior service to others.

No it doesnt work that way and that isnt why most people pre-pay them

Your sentence after that doesnt really make sense to me.

Yes  I would pre pay them purely for convenience - indeed that is what  I do, I go on gratuities included i n the price, for convenience, or pre pay them at beginning of a trip (eg Wendy Wu tours, you pay tips in local cash at beginning of trip)

 

3) yes, possibly was a newer crew, possibly needed more training.

But the level of service would be the same, whether poor service or excellent service, - pre paying tips does not get you any better service than anyone else.

 

 

Dead horse has been significantly beaten

20 hours ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

I expect good service on Viking as, bottom line, we've paid a lot for it. I expect staff to be well paid according to EU and UK standards. I don't expect to have to pay more towards the staff. 

Thank you for the best response yet!

2 hours ago, Kristelle said:

I don't think anyone is objecting to your report of poor service.

 

Although it isn't the experience others have reported. 

 

the pushback was more to the expectation that you would receive preferential or superior service than other guests  because you pre paid gratuities. 

1) My experience was my experience,  and tye replies are mostly judgment and not providing solutions 

2) Why else would you ever prepay then? "Convienence" is not a suitable answer. If anyone would read the OP. my searches all saved I would be billed reregardless, so my only intent was to avoid a bill at thecend of the cruise that I was under the imprethat I had no control over.

3) I 100% agree that this was a newer crew that was yet fully trained. Many young and French, and that culture has a distinct cultural difference from the Viking's very short meal times.

2 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

It is quite possible that tipping and gratuity discussions have been inside other topics, and I do read most posts about Viking and have been active since our initial cruise in 2017.  
 

EXACTLY!!!

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

 

This has been discussed on CC for ever about tipping on Viking.  Some countries that Viking sells to include grats and some don't - like Canada and USA.  We (CAN and USA) either pre-pay or are charged when we disembark to which we have full control if we pay what is charged (suggested) or we can increase, decrease, or remove completely.

 

It has also been discussed how these tips/gratuities are distributed to the crew and this is a mystery.  I have emailed Viking to get a phone call back and a very vague generic answer with giving me no more knowledge than I had before asking.

 

Never would I assume that paying in advance would get us a "badge" on our profile once boarding the ship so that the crew would give us better service.  Viking service, in our eyes, is one of the main reasons that we keep going back.  Viking service in our eyes is amazing with or without the gratuity.

 

Now some will come and say that this practice is a "bribe" but from our standpoint it is not.  If a serving team in the dining room is exceptional, we ask for them night after night.  We will pass a gratuity in cash to each member of the serving team.  This is as a thank you, not a bribe.  Notice that I say when we find they are exceptional we pass a tip... not before to get exceptional service, but when we experience great service we give something.

 

On our last Viking Rver cruise, the very first night we loved the serving team of 3 where we sat in the dining room.  This team on the second night automatically brought me a San Pellegrino water without asking.  The second morning for breakfast the server brought decaf coffee without asking because they remembered from the first morning.  These are the type of crew servers that we consider passing a gratuity to directly, but usually near the end of the cruise because we are not doing this as a bribe.  These are the type of crew members that do go above and beyond because they just turned over a ship of 180 people and they remember my preference the second time they see me.  To us this is exceeds expectations service. 

Again, we tried different sections of restaurant and aquavit. It was no different.  Same servers were 50/50 if ever came back to refill water, much less any other drinks.One night was so bad we left the Aquafit to get reseated in the restaurant. The Matre De took care of us that evening, and I explained what had been happening. We received no apology, but finally got water refills for dinner. I researched for weeks before the cruise and found none of these discussions you profess to be on these forums. Maybe you read every thread, but if, like thus one, it goes off topic, then it is not searchable beyond the thread title. Or maybe this was long ago and locked from searching. Please provide links to these "talked about forever" posts, because I could not find them. Or don't,  since due to our poor experience on viking's bus tours with a luggage boat, we will never use them again.

34 minutes ago, Kristelle said:

 

 

 

Although I dislike tipping and go on trips that have tips included in the set price (obviously reflects Australian culture) even  I can see the difference between pre paying tips before the service expecting preferential treatment (bribe style)  and paying tips afterwards as thankyou/acknowledgement of exceptional service already delivered.

 

(not saying everyone who pre pays tips is expecting preferential treatment, I realise many people just do it for convenience)

Unfortunately their prepaid amount for tipping is very high and NOT adjustable from their set prepaid amount ($280)

3 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I don't know where you got the idea that prepaying gratuities would get you better service.  In other contexts that is known as a bribe.  If I thought that the only way to get good service on a cruise line was to prepay gratuities (or bribe the servers in any other way), I would run away from that cruise line!!!

Please google the definition of bribe, nothing dishonest nor illegal is occurring. Do you work a job not knowing your salary? Most cruise workers work almost entirely for the tip money and are paid little or nothing else. How hard would you work if you were told this month you'd be getting a bonus versus you might not get a paycheck at all? 

this would be more akin to a work contract than a "bride". 

"You keep using that word, but it does not mean what you think it means" --Princess Bride

17 hours ago, Mitina said:

Last time we had envelopes was on a river cruise in 2017.  Since then, suggested gratuities are now included in the final bill. Never did it, but asking for the amount to be adjusted is supposedly easy.

100% wish we would gave known. We absolutely got no better service by prepaying gratuities.  DON'T FALL FOR IT LIKE WE DID. SHAME ON YOU VIKING!

36 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

I have never in 10 Viking Cruises had an envelope left in my cabin...?  Not River, not Ocean.

Same, they seem very inconsistent in how they operate 

3 hours ago, pontac said:

 

That, but also competition. Scenic include gratuities for everything - i.e. for coach drivers and guides as well.

 

Why doesn't Viking? I'm assuming - and it's only an assumption - that the majority of their customers are from the USA who are used to and happy to pay tips. While it's easy to not deliver tip envelopes to UK cruisers its not so easy to manage driver/guide tips.

 

Viking - and I expect the others - have different offerings in different markets.

Our host has said he won't book Viking while they require full payment so long before travel. But plenty of Americans do, so I'm assuming Viking won't see the necessity to change until their US payment policy becomes a serious obstacle to them getting bookings.

Agreed, and major reason I'd not use Viking in the future.  American style add-ons for everything except the included tours.  NTW,no tours on extensions and they charge double the hotel house rate. You "can" book extensions on your own, but if you use their air booking they charge an extra few hundred $ to do so. Also, the same applies if you wantvto book your own air. They cater to 70-90 yo Americans, and it shows in their time wasting slow tours that rarely actually go jnside the attractions ( unless an expensoptional) and in their brand unseasoned food. I will be sticking with UK and Austrailian based cruiselines.

11 hours ago, pontac said:

 

Reference to  UK, as per start of my post. Gratuities & SSDP included in UK prices since pandemic, SSDP not included as standard in 2025 Cruises.

 

The SSDP is still available to buy.

Drink oackage NOT included on USA bookings in 2023 for our 2024 cruise

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

 

No, it comes down to NOT prepaying your gratuities, then if you want to "adjust" rather than "argue/justify" the amount you can see Guest Services.  There should not be, and we have never experienced any issue with reducing our gratuities or removing them completely at the end of a River or Ocean cruise.  You should never have to argue or justify anything.  We have just approached and indicated that we wanted to reduce or remove and have never been challenged on that request.

 

And you use the words "mandated tip" - nothing is mandated from a North American (Canada USA) Viking guest.  Our gratuities are not included and we are not responsible or required to pay anything.

 

We do pass "cash hand gratuities" to certain crew members that go above and beyond, but never do the envelopes.

Please re-read my OP. From posts here on CC,  I read that the tips would be automatically charged at end of cruise. I prepaid under this misinformation. 

REGARDLESS, the point of my post is to clarify this for any other first time Viking cruisers. For us, one and done, too much bus time that we never saw coming. We'll stick with Seaborn,  thank you very much! They communicate much better, much higher level service, and best of all, one price, no surprises,  no misinformation...ever

2 hours ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

Gratuities are included in the price for us . 

if only 🤦

2 hours ago, Canal archive said:

On the Orient Express you just get a bill, pay it! It’s right.

Not always, and not all crew do their job well....at least not on Viking. 

2 hours ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

Gratuities are included in the price for us . 

This wasn't even the subject , but it cost us an additional $280

We never had a bill so this option was not made available to us.😮‍💨

I NOW know not to prepay the tips. We had hoped by prepaying that the staff would be informed of this prior to boarding to ensure superior service.  This did not happen. Fool me once....

Just completed cities of lights tour from Paris to Prague. Everything I had read said that Viking will automatically charge your room with the recommended tips and that you would need to go to the burser to argue/justify any reduction.  Well, we prepaid, but onboard were told that they still do the old fashioned envelopes. I wish we would have known because only two or three servers were great and the others only looked to pushing out as many plates in the shortest time with no service at all. I can't tell you how many meals we went without so much as a water refill. However or cabin stewardess was always pleasant, respectful, and did a good job. I wish we could have directed our "mandated" tip mostly to her and the good servers instead of it being split with the low performers. Viking leaves a lot to ge desired when it cones to communicating processes with the customer. Very disappointted.