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I agree that Carnival has both decreased the service provided and increased the standard tip charge. If you look at it in terms of tips it makes no sense and has no justification. But these are not really tips and while Carnival pays lip service to them being tips Carnival does not really consider them tips as evidenced by the suggested tip going up as service provided by the crew goes down. The charge labeled tips does have one thing in common with a true tip - the money goes to the crew. But for Carnival this set-up is just a way to have passengers pay part of the wages of the crew and is not related to any service provided. The amount of suggested "tip" is not related to service but rather to what the market will bear. They will shift as much wage expense onto their customers as possible under the guise of tips (while keeping their advertised cruises as low as possible). We just prepay the gratuity and consider it part of the cost of the cruise.

I think Carnival handled the entire situation with Freedom very, very well. The ship looks just plain "wrong" but that is a small thing that just brings a smile to my face. Good job Carnival!

I agree that if anyone is qualified to be the arbiter of all things maritime on this forum it is chengkp75. But calling him in all the time would be kind of hard on the poor guy...

That is the reason I order my eggs over easy at the omelet station. Real, fresh eggs.

I agree that tour guides would not be my first choice for charity. Those are high paying jobs for those areas and the "connected" get them rather than the poor and downtrodden. But the point I'm trying to make is that the OP asked about tipping and rather than advice on tipping was getting advice on supporting social causes.

Your personal attack is both false and not appreciated. Giving money to what you consider a worthy cause is perfectly fine. But giving a day's wages is not a tip.

Is a window involved?

The omelet station is always good. While there is occasionally one good item that item never has appropriate side items - like finding a good meat in a good gravy but you will never find mashed potatoes to go with it. The only thing other than the omelet station I can count on is the salad you can make. The nod to the salads is not really saying much. I don't eat salads except out of desperation on a Carnival ship. The few times they have had a chicken noodle soup I have liked it, but since it is good it has not been served on our last five cruises after reopening. I think they are pushing folks to specialty dining with bad free food.