Tipping Cabin Stewards

[Gettingwarmer]

[quote name='Tom Baker']

The only time that (I know of) any UK customer has received a "refund" since the new practises began is when port fees have been reduced (in the EU)and they have to return any saving back to the customer by law, which takes the form of OBC added to their cruise account and not through direct refund.[/QUOTE]

Sorry, this has now changed and we can now get price drops or refund of full cruise up to six months before sail date thenafter there are penalties. See T&C cancellation. They won't tell you, you have to check and then ask. We have done this since the rules changed. It is a great improvement.

[bhopal21]

[quote name='pablo222']D. Explain to the driver how the whole idea of tipping is wrong,
and that the cab company should simply pay him a decent wage, and
not expect the customer pay his salary. That he is simply driving the
cab, and not doing anything above and beyond the normal duties
of a driver, so you will not be tipping. And that when
it says 40 cents per 1/5 mile on the side of that cab, that is what you expect to pay, and resent the cab company lying to you, and expecting a
tip on top of the quoted price.

This will give you a great opportunity to see more of the area, after
the driver puts you out on the side of the road.[/quote]

Absolutely.

[SIZE=3]NOT!

[SIZE=1]Mike:)[/SIZE]
[/SIZE]

[Cruisin' Chick]

[quote name='pablo222']D. Explain to the driver how the whole idea of tipping is wrong,
and that the cab company should simply pay him a decent wage, and
not expect the customer pay his salary. That he is simply driving the
cab, and not doing anything above and beyond the normal duties
of a driver, so you will not be tipping. And that when
it says 40 cents per 1/5 mile on the side of that cab, that is what you expect to pay, and resent the cab company lying to you, and expecting a
tip on top of the quoted price.

This will give you a great opportunity to see more of the area, after
the driver puts you out on the side of the road.[/quote]

Does sound like what some people will say on these tipping threads. But at least some will keep on the autotips knowing this is the standard.

As for the poster who you responded to (who was responding to me), no, the crew member doesn't know for sure that any one passenger is going to keep on the autotips. At any time, the passenger can go to the passenger services desk, even on the last night, and remove the autotips. But hopefully that is a rare occurrence when the process is explained (that any cash given to the crew member will be placed into the tipping pool unless the tip is kept on).

[janecambridge]

So...auto tip left on and any extra tip to cabin steward,he keeps.
Auto tip off and any tip given to them has to be shared.???
What is the gratuity at the bar then? Do the workers who work behind the scenes get any extra for going beyond their duty,ie special food requests etc?
Very confusing...

[caribill]

[quote name='janecambridge']So...auto tip left on and any extra tip to cabin steward,he keeps.
Auto tip off and any tip given to them has to be shared.???
What is the gratuity at the bar then? Do the workers who work behind the scenes get any extra for going beyond their duty,ie special food requests etc?
Very confusing...[/quote]

Any beverage purchases have a 15% gratuity automatically added. This is shared by all beverage personnel. An additional tip may be given. If in cash, the person you give it to may keep it although he/she may share it with others on his/her shift. If given on a receipt, it goes in to the bar tipping pool.

[Renmar]

My take on the tipping issue the way it is recommended by the cruise line;

1. It is a win, win for all parties.

2. For the cruise line; because they have the money sitting in their account for a while before they fork it over to their personnel. This will give them some, although not much, interest income. This is especially the case when clients pre-pay the gratuities.

3. For the clients; because they don’t have to deal with the problem of figuring out how much, if any, to give to the workers. The amounts are pretty well the same throughout the industry so one would assume that some “Bean counters” figured it out. They also have the opportunity to reduce the amount if they, in the unlikely event, receive bad service.

4. For the workers; because if they do a proper job they will receive the expected pay and also the workers behind the scene will receive their cut. The behind the scene workers don’t have to rely on what the front line workers are willing to pass down.


I think there is no need for clients complaining that the gratuity guidelines are not fair because they know exactly what they getting into when they book (at least they should know).

As for handing out any extra tips, that is entirely up to each individual. If you want to do it, go ahead, if not, also good.

I for one see no need to add any extra cash either before, during or after the cruise especially when I look at a $ 828.00 gratuity bill for our upcoming 36 day B2B2B cruise.

Add to that about an other $ 150.00 for our bar bill gratuities--$ 90.00 for the additional corkage fee for the wine we bring with us (over and above our free allotment).

And although I don’t see the need I am a sucker anyway and most likely will spend an other $ 50.00 or so in small bills to some of the servers/stewards.

This totals to almost the same amount we paid for our 10 day cruise for 1 person.

I know that a few people won’t agree with me but that is OK it will keep these boards lively.:)

Theo

[pablo222]

[quote name='Renmar']
2. For the cruise line; because they have the money sitting in their account for a while before they fork it over to their personnel. This will give them some, although not much, interest income. This is especially the case when clients pre-pay the gratuities.
[/QUOTE]

A friend works in dining. She typically gets her cut of the auto tip
deposited into her account about four days after the cruise ends.

So, unless people pre-pay, princess is not holding the bulk of the
money for too long.