MsMidge

Your assuming the DSC affects the crew in any way at all. I have heard from crew that their pay does not change from week to week anymore., Years ago, it was always different depending on how many tips they got, but now not so much. I believe this line, like the others are using the funds to subsidize their obligations. Why else would they not be at all transparent or make it removable at all?

I would trust the people that are actually there to describe what is going on. Sounds like a lot of the crew are infected. Wonder if they are the only people required to have testing. Maybe everyone else is keeping quiet as they dont want to have to be quarantined etc. Based on some reports here, the last thing I would do would be to report to medical if i felt sick. The treatment of the positive folks sounds horrible.

Everything on NCL is mediocre, nothing really stands out. Everything is fine on NCL, just don’t expect to be wow ed with anything.

Your assuming the employees pay is affected by how many people pay the DSC. Isn’t this the cruiseline that shares the DSC fleet wide, so your money could be going to pay the crew on other ships. More likely its going to the company and their shareholders. That’s why they aren’t transparent where it goes.

In what part of the world is it customary to give the tip to the owner to distribute as they see fit if they distribute it at all? Nowhere.

I heard their pay never changes from week to week, so the number of people who opt out of the DSC has no affect on their pay whatsoever. Therefore, participating is like sending in a donation to the company so they can reimburse themselves for what they should be part of the fare to begin with.

At least they did not take your money and then tell you they didn’t have whatever you ordered refusing to give it back.

They start following US labor laws, and we will start following US tipping customs. Oh, its not customary to give your tip to the owner of a company to do with whatever they want. The voluntary tip goes directly to the server, housekeeper etc.

If they then owe more taxes good. That would theoretically less taxes would have to be paid by others that dont have all kinds of attorneys and accountants to get them out of paying their fair share.

It would be even more if it was cash in the pocket! Somehow people are being hoodwinked into thinking its better to let the owner decide to do with the tips, rather than the people that are actually serving you.

Seems to me, years ago when people tipped directly, they figured some were being way over paid with tips and they could somehow start to control the tips and use it as they please to pay the rest of the crew.

Seems to us the auto grants are actually designed to reimburse the cruise line for the wages they are obligated to pay its crew to provide the services sold to the consumer.

We plan on doing this cruise next spring, if they are still around, and really going for just the islands, not the ship so much. That being said, sounds like they better start paying excellent wages to get the crew to provide excellent service.