Forced gratuities

[friedshrimp]

Like I said if someone asked specifically about FEES I would not think it means tell me everything that costs money. I would assume they meant what they said and not that dumb to think fees meant tell me everything that costs money.

 

But that's assuming everyone that has a brain knows how to use it. ;):D

[jbanana1]

Firefly, what I meant was that the agent may have mentioned or thought they mentioned the tipping policy before the OP asked about any other fees. I do not think of tips as fees either. If the agent mentioned the tipping policy earlier in their conversation, the OP may not have remembered it.

 

My point is even though it is hard for us to believe that anyone can cruise and not know the cruiseline's tipping policy, the OP said she didn't. Then the issue is whether Carnival's policy is out of line from other cruiselines. The answer should be no since Carnival's tip prices are the same or lower to other cruiselines and even though they are automatically added to your bill you have the option to adjust the amount - it doesn't have to be all or nothing as some others have said.

[newcatintown]

But a good TA should understand if someone asks about FEES, they are asking "What is this going to cost me?" and a good TA will tell them everything that costs money so they buyer can be fully aware. That said, the very first thing under the Manage Your Cruise tab for Newbies (New to Cruising) is "Prepaid Gratuities/Tips", so there is no reason why anyone who took five minutes to understand what they were getting into wouldn't know about tips. Granted, I guess you have to want to know what you are doing and maybe some people prefer walking around in the dark?

 

 

 

 

Thanks. While this is not what I found quickly (CCL home page, 'cruising 101' at the bottom, 'whats included' compares land based/cruise vacations by dollars. Short list, and gratuities are listed. Two clicks and I was there. No need to dig through 27 pages of a contract.

[Bulldog3777]

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/faqs/onboard-services/gratuities/

 

 

Take a look here at Disney's tipping that says per person PER CRUISE.

 

And I use to wonder what my students with poor comprehension skills would grow up to be. Now I know. Even my students would be able to see a 3 night cruise would be $12 per day per person...

[Nanaimobound]

I'm sorry I don't quite get how Carnival wasn't "up front with this information".

It is clearly outlined on the website, the cruise contract clearly states gratuities are automatic as well.

Travelers either need to fully research things before booking, or use a travel consultant and get answers that way.

Even with "gratuities" which are clearly a large part of what amounts almost to slave labor on cruise ships,(contracted wages aside these employees are all doing more than one or two duties on board, working over 12 hours a day), Cruising is still a tremendous value on the side of the consumer. You still get a great vacation usually for much less than you would taking a land or destination trip. Keep in mind you are not witnessing all that is being done on your behalf by these hardworking people. Believe me they are earning that gratuity regardless of the amount of the wages.

[tpajet]

Whatever. I still don't think it was as opened it could have been. And no, the carnival agent didn't tell us when we called. And whether you disagree with me or not, I wonder how many of you have violated the board rules with some of the rude comments made. All I did was ask a couple simple questions.

[dramasweetheart]

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I hate to say it but it shows that it is not included but what is would additionally cost you on a per passanger basis. I know it is stated on carnival.com the cost and who it goes to. Feel free on what you think you want to leave them, but I have never taken any money away from these people because it is the best service I have ever have and they work so hard. Okay the representative may have not told you but it is easy to find if you just look for it.

 

This is from Carnival FAQ:

Service Gratuities

 

For your convenience, we automatically charge the gratuities for dining and stateroom staff to your onboard Sail & Sign account. The total amount is $10.00 per guest, per day (our recommended guideline) as follows:

 

$ 3.50 Per Day Stateroom Services

 

$ 5.50 Per Day Dining Room Services

 

$ 1.00 Per Day Alternative Services: distributed to other kitchen and hotel service staff

 

For Cruises-To-Nowhere, gratuities of $10 per guest, per day must be prepaid.

 

Our Staff is totally committed to exceed your expectations in every way possible. If you are not satisfied with the service you receive, we encourage you to contact the Guest Services desk while onboard. This will allow us to address your concerns in a timely and appropriate fashion. At your discretion, you may adjust the gratuities at any time while onboard. Gratuities will be deemed undisputed unless a request to modify is received prior to disembarking the ship.

 

For beverage purchases, fifteen percent of the bill is automatically added to the Sail & Sign charge. Room Service staff may be tipped as service is rendered. Tipping your Maître d’ is at your discretion, based upon the service you receive.

 

NOTE: BARBADOS CRUISES

All gratuities are pre-paid and automatically added during the booking process for Barbados itineraries.

[wendymac]

Wow, what a bunch of rude, stuck up jerks on here.

 

First of all I am speaking from experience hence why I am familiar with the Internet policy. Secondly we had asked the carnival agent upon booking over the phone if there were any others fees or charges and told no.

 

Also I don have a problem tipping if the service is good but don't just add it in automatically. Let me leave what I think is appropriate for the service we got. And to the poster who said the comment about working for $10 per week, I wouldn't expect that either but I guess I would expect Carnival to pay the staff a wage too.

 

Ultimately I don't have the issue with tipping but Carnival should have been more upfront. As someone else said here why not just include it with the cost of the cruis ticket and why would carnival not be more upfront about it?

Sorry not to be rude but it clearly indicates that there are gratuities added to your account- you seem to be computer literate so I am surprised that you would not have read this on the website.

[Sargent_Schultz]

You can read everything Carnival has ever published, and no where does it say that tips are mandatory, much less forced. Such statements do not enhance one's credibility.

[B and C Blake]

To the OP .. May I ask what country you hail from?

 

I read on a previous thread you made reference to RyanAir, Isn't that an overseas airline?

 

Are you from overseas?

[tpajet]

To the OP .. May I ask what country you hail from?

 

I read on a previous thread you made reference to RyanAir, Isn't that an overseas airline?

 

Are you from overseas?

 

No. I am from Tampa. I am an airline employee, hence the TPA JET. It's also the reason I'm familiar with both Spirit (as mentioned here I had posted about them) and Ryanair.

 

To answer your question, Ryanair is an Irish based airline that operates throughout Europe, and they are famous for being the ones who pretty much pioneered all of the "pay for everything" fees. Granted in the US paying for a checked bag is not new (think People Express) but was not common either. And before anyone says anything, no, I don't agree with charging to check a bag in. Anyway, Spirit Airlines has pretty much followed most of what Ryanair has come up with. All the way down to having advertising on their overhead bin doors. Each overhead bin door is basically a billboard. I'm not sure about Sprit, but Ryanair actually took out the tray tables and seat pockets on their aircraft to save something like 200 pounds of weight. While any weight savings does help, the weight of the tray tables is really not that much of a fuel savings. The safety info is now a sticker on the back of the seat in front of you. Just as well that they do all of that anyway - the cabin is done in a horrid bright yellow color. But they are dirt cheap, so people fly them. And that's why they don't give a you know what about the high number of complaints they get.

 

They also don't book any connecting flights. If you want to fly a connection you have to buy two tickets, go claim your bags after the first flight, and re-chcek them in.

 

And here's a good one. They charge you a fee to check in with an airpot agent, vs checking in on line. However if you don't have an EU passport, you can't check in on line. So for example if I were to fly them, I would have no choice but to pay the airport agent fee since I have no other way to check in.

[firefly333]

No. I am from Tampa. I am an airline employee, hence the TPA JET. It's also the reason I'm familiar with both Spirit (as mentioned here I had posted about them) and Ryanair.

 

Sounds like you can get interline rates then. lucky you.

[truchattycathy]

I read what the OP said, but I do think he/she doesn't want to pay them as he thinks it's too much money. I think he/she needs to learn to read as others have posted and I also believe the posters on here advising he/she can remove them is giving him/her all the ammunition he/she needs to do so.

 

This poster would surprise me if he/she paid the full amount. Sorry, just my opinion. If I am wrong, I apologize, but I do believe this person is traveling on less than a shoe string.

 

I agree with you about the OP wanting to remove the auto-tips but I don't think budget has anything to do with it. OP came on these boards with an argument to justify their actions. Not gonna get if from me.

 

I do cruise on a thin shoe string, but I have never ever considered removing my tips. I usually tip extra.

[tpajet]

Sounds like you can get interline rates then. lucky you.

 

You can, but it's not maybe as good as you might think. It depends on the time of year, and right now is not one of the times with any deals. There are a couple websites that do interline travel, including cruises. For ours we would have saved something like $40 for our group, but you can't pick you specific cabin since it's not booked directly with Carnival. We did two adjoining cabins, and $40 was not worth the savings to end up wherever there were cabins left on the day of sailing. I supposed we could have booked it and then called carnival, but at the time Carnival's site only showed one set of adjoining staterooms available (turns out there were quite a few, but they didn't show up online). But it was easier to just go ahead and book it directly and know we had the two cabins.

[tpajet]

I agree with you about the OP wanting to remove the auto-tips but I don't think budget has anything to do with it. OP came on these boards with an argument to justify their actions. Not gonna get if from me.

 

I do cruise on a thin shoe string, but I have never ever considered removing my tips. I usually tip extra.

 

I never said we removed the tips. All I was saying it just be a bit more clear that they will be charged so I am a bit more prepared.

 

And while we are at it, for those who were saying that a TA might not take the word fees as including tips, I would say I can answer to that first hand, having worked the ticket counter and sold many tickets in my time. If you came to me and bought a ticket, I'm going to tell you that it costs x number of dollars to change the ticket plus any difference in fare. I'm also going to tell you that it will cost you x number of dollars to check a bag in. (I'm not saying the amounts because I will not say the airline I work for - they get real touchy about us posting things online unless we either don't identify the airline or we post some 3 paragraph disclaimer about how my views are not theirs, etc)

 

Now, if I had a passenger that checked in, and told me they didn't know they had to pay for their first bag, I'm not going to go on about how it's in our contract, etc, etc, they should have read our website, etc, etc. If it was booked by one of our phone agents, I'm going to wonder why that agent didn't tell them.

 

But if you were to ask me if there were any fees or charges with the ticket, I'm going to tell you what all you would normally expect to pay. And that was my biggest point here is that the Carnival agent on the phone didn't tell us the tipping info. For all of you who have said that this is to be expected, I would tell you that this was our first cruise, and we didn't know what all to expect. Sure, it's somewhere in the 27 page contract. But on that note, even our contract of carriage is nowhere near that long, and we are hurdling you through the air, in an aluminum tube, 5 miles off the ground, 500 miles per hour.

[Sargent_Schultz]

But on that note, even our contract of carriage is nowhere near that long, and we are hurdling you through the air, in an aluminum tube, 5 miles off the ground, 500 miles per hour.

 

nickel and diming us all the way, knowing some nonrev stole the last first class seat. i'd rather pay tips. :p

 

when i benefited from interline rates we knew all about service industries and tipping.

[tpajet]

nickel and diming us all the way, knowing some nonrev stole the last first class seat. i'd rather pay tips. :p

 

when i benefited from interline rates we knew all about service industries and tipping.

 

Well, didn't you know what first class is for? That's the non rev section!!!

 

BTW on your signature line about SW being for an airline, it's funny that I find that here. It's been a few years, but I used to work baggage service on a regular basis, and I had one of the Carnival reps come in trying to figure out why every time they have a cruise, their list shows people on Air Namibia, when they are actually flying on Southwest. (Neither of us had even heard of Air Namibia) I had a suspicion and a quick internet search confirmed it. Southwest's code is WN (this much I knew). SW is the code for Air Namibia. So what was happening (and may still, I don't know) is that the Carnival reservations staff were just using the code SW for Southwest flights, and when Carnival's computer printed the passenger list for the airport greeters, it was going by the correct code, and printing that airline's name.

[Sargent_Schultz]

Well, didn't you know what first class is for? That's the non rev section!!!

 

I quickly found out how the game was played. Also how the taxes on international flights could easily exceed tips on a cruise ship.

 

BTW on your signature line about SW being for an airline, it's funny that I find that here. It's been a few years, but I used to work baggage service on a regular basis, and I had one of the Carnival reps come in trying to figure out why every time they have a cruise, their list shows people on Air Namibia, when they are actually flying on Southwest. (Neither of us had even heard of Air Namibia) I had a suspicion and a quick internet search confirmed it. Southwest's code is WN (this much I knew). SW is the code for Air Namibia. So what was happening (and may still, I don't know) is that the Carnival reservations staff were just using the code SW for Southwest flights, and when Carnival's computer printed the passenger list for the airport greeters, it was going by the correct code, and printing that airline's name.

 

I can believe it. The line in my signature (forgot it was there since I block signatures), was for the benefit of some who insisted on using codespeak. SW is the IATA code for Air Namibia, but is also an abbreviation for South West (generic). At some point, ICAO codes are going to replace IATA codes (long overdue IMO) and SouthWest (SWA) shouldn't be confused with Air Namibia (NMB). One would think.

[newcatintown]

I never said we removed the tips. All I was saying it just be a bit more clear that they will be charged so I am a bit more prepared.

 

And while we are at it, for those who were saying that a TA might not take the word fees as including tips, I would say I can answer to that first hand, having worked the ticket counter and sold many tickets in my time. If you came to me and bought a ticket, I'm going to tell you that it costs x number of dollars to change the ticket plus any difference in fare. I'm also going to tell you that it will cost you x number of dollars to check a bag in. (I'm not saying the amounts because I will not say the airline I work for - they get real touchy about us posting things online unless we either don't identify the airline or we post some 3 paragraph disclaimer about how my views are not theirs, etc)

 

Now, if I had a passenger that checked in, and told me they didn't know they had to pay for their first bag, I'm not going to go on about how it's in our contract, etc, etc, they should have read our website, etc, etc. If it was booked by one of our phone agents, I'm going to wonder why that agent didn't tell them.

 

But if you were to ask me if there were any fees or charges with the ticket, I'm going to tell you what all you would normally expect to pay. And that was my biggest point here is that the Carnival agent on the phone didn't tell us the tipping info. For all of you who have said that this is to be expected, I would tell you that this was our first cruise, and we didn't know what all to expect. Sure, it's somewhere in the 27 page contract. But on that note, even our contract of carriage is nowhere near that long, and we are hurdling you through the air, in an aluminum tube, 5 miles off the ground, 500 miles per hour.

 

 

and this is where you are missing the boat, so to speak. The price they quoted you is what it will cost you to go on the cruise. While tips are HIGHLY recommended and encouraged, they are not mandatory. It is entirely feasable to pay the cruise price, as quoted to you, and not have to spend another dime. Unlikely, but true.

 

Nor do you have to look through the 27 pages you keep mentioning. Two quick clicks on the CCL page took me straight to this information.

[crusinpsychRN]

Almost all the mass market cruise lines add the gratuities to your onboard account on a daily basis, unless you pre-pay them. You can go to Guest Services and ask to have them removed but if you are going to do this you need to do it immediately you board the ship. If you don't it will be assumed that your room attendant or waiter has done something wrong. We choose to pre-pay (not Carnival so don't know if they offer this option) as it is much more convenient to just have it added at the time of final payment. There are dozens of threads on this subject. Just do a search on tipping and you will find masses of info.

 

And if you do, you end up on "Fred's list"!!

[Cruisefan6163]

Mandatory? Nobody is forcing you to cruise.......

[Tripper10]

Mandatory? Nobody is forcing you to cruise.......

 

Or tip...

[makeda]

To OP, I fyou can't afford the tip, you can't afford to go. That's the way the game is played, like it or not. If you don't wanna tip, go camping.

 

unless you have walked the mile of the op, your comment is just plain rude

[JPH814]

Wow, what a bunch of rude, stuck up jerks on here.

 

First of all I am speaking from experience hence why I am familiar with the Internet policy. Secondly we had asked the carnival agent upon booking over the phone if there were any others fees or charges and told no.

 

Also I don have a problem tipping if the service is good but don't just add it in automatically. Let me leave what I think is appropriate for the service we got. And to the poster who said the comment about working for $10 per week, I wouldn't expect that either but I guess I would expect Carnival to pay the staff a wage too.

 

Ultimately I don't have the issue with tipping but Carnival should have been more upfront. As someone else said here why not just include it with the cost of the cruis ticket and why would carnival not be more upfront about it?

 

 

If the tipping procedures for Carnival comes as a surpise to you, you just are not paying attention.

 

Having a non-tipping policy (what you call including the tipping as part of the cruise fare) exists on a very few cruise lines. It is the exception in the industry, not the rule. Those cruise lines that have a "no-tipping" policy trumpet it in all their materials.

[near the beach]

The OP said they didn’t know about tips. :confused: I wonder if they know about the fuel surcharge. :eek: Have a nice day. ;)