Gratuities for toddlers?

[nana541]

"A person's a person, no matter how small"
Dr Seuss, Horton hears a Who!


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[richstowe]

[quote name='MarElz']If it is only you and your child in the room, you are paying the same rate as you would if you were cruising alone, as the solo supplement tends to be 100%, so maybe your child is free after all, other than tips. All depends on how you look at it! [/QUOTE][quote name='Loonbeam']I shall now repeat what I said earlier. The infant still counts as a passenger. The passenger count per section is fixed regardless of age. Thus, the infant is taking up a slot, so if he or she goes for free that's one less slot than can be sold..
[/QUOTE][SIZE="3"]Exactly ! Why is this so hard to understand ?[/SIZE]

[quote name='antsp']Well remembered, he was not part of the tipping pool so your post is not relevant. I do tip and never have removed them, the fact is it is a personal tipping and your choice, and you can remove it. If you do, it's nothing to with anyone else but yourself.[/QUOTE]Like most organizations , those at the top of the pyramid get too much, those at the bottom, too little .
I have no doubt "the son" wasn't paid much . Those who are part of the tipping pool are paid even less.

[alreadypacked]

[quote name='JRT5000']I'm paying full fare for my two kids on the Regal this December. Do you want to see the invoice?

Now come on......a 1year old will be affixed to the mother the whole cruise....[B][COLOR=red]the cruise line won't do much if anything for the child.[/COLOR][/B] The baby will not take any resources from the ship......they should be on there for free in my opinion.[/quote]

I can see where, at first glance, one might conclude that the fare or gratuity cost might seem excessive for a child that young.

Something to keep in mind is that cruise fare pricing is basically a loss-leader. It's designed to get you in the door. Cruise lines rely heavily on back-end sales (alcohol, gambling & bingo, shopping etc.) to turn a profit. I'm not necessarily writing in support of this; I'm just stating a fact.

To the cruise line bean-counters, a baby or toddler in a room at the 3rd or 4th passenger rate is a loss of revenue because they do not drink, gamble or shop. While older children also do not drink or gamble--as do not some adults--they are often old enough to go on excursions, shop (or convince their parents to buy them things), buy soda, play arcade games, eat in the specialty restaurants etc., so they are at least revenue generators in some sense to the bean-counters.

Having worked in the hospitality/travel industry in the past, I can attest to the fact that some babies & toddlers in fact do create a lot more work for the staff in terms of clean-up and trash collection. I'm not just speaking of the extra trash removal consisting of diapers, wipes and baby food jars. Sadly, a good number of parents allow babies and toddlers to throw and/or smash french fries or other food onto tables and floors, dump salt & pepper shakers, spill drinks, dump sugar caddies, doodle on surfaces with crayons and otherwise create a royal mess...

That they happily leave behind for the staff to clean up.

[Julia’s Journey’s]

You could sit and watch a movie in the shade during the day or under the stars while your child sleeps in a stroller, you will find places to be besides your cabin if you want too.

[piper28]

Princess obviously doesn't feel that it fits their business model to discount for kids or infants, or to waive the gratuities for them either. But that's something one knows ahead of time, and should consider when booking a cruise as to whether you want to support that business model or not. My personal guess is that part of the choice in doing that is they're trying to discourage infants without explicitly banning them from the cruise line. Obviously that's something not everyone will agree with, but that's why there's choices in cruise lines. (Personally, I consider it a plus, because I really wouldn't want to be that person next to a screaming kid in the cabin next door. While Disney typically gets great reviews, I've never been that enthused about booking on them because I'd just as soon not deal with the kids there, so I choose other lines that aren't as friendly to kids.)

[RDC1]

[quote name='piper28']Princess obviously doesn't feel that it fits their business model to discount for kids or infants, or to waive the gratuities for them either. But that's something one knows ahead of time, and should consider when booking a cruise as to whether you want to support that business model or not. My personal guess is that part of the choice in doing that is they're trying to discourage infants without explicitly banning them from the cruise line. Obviously that's something not everyone will agree with, but that's why there's choices in cruise lines. (Personally, I consider it a plus, because I really wouldn't want to be that person next to a screaming kid in the cabin next door. While Disney typically gets great reviews, I've never been that enthused about booking on them because I'd just as soon not deal with the kids there, so I choose other lines that aren't as friendly to kids.)[/QUOTE]

I would put it that their business model is built around a revenue per passenger approach, and they are not willing in increase overall fares to subsidize the loss in overall revenue from passengers that happen to be young children. Every young child means less revenue from that passenger slot then they would normally expect, even at normal fare.

Disney's model is to assume a high number of young children. Have some items that appeal to that group for revenue, as well as set their overall fares higher to make up for the revenue from that set of passengers.

It is all statistics, and numbers. Nothing as intentional as discouraging or encouraging. They have a product and a business model and the fare structure that supports it.

[cruzsnooze]

[quote name='Working 2 Cruise']Please do not listen to Lerin. It's always more difficult to cruise with a child, especially a one-year old. I don't know what happened to make this poster feel that way, but be assured that Princess and its crew do care, very much so.

Unfortunately, there will always be negative people.

Have a great cruise![/QUOTE]
Just because someone honestly expressed their opinion doesn't make them negative. Opinions are not positive or negative they are opinions.

[Lovetocruiseprincess]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS]The day they allow kids to cruise with out paying gratituties is the day I'm going to cancel my gratituties also.:D[/FONT]

[JRT5000]

[quote name='piper28']Princess obviously doesn't feel that it fits their business model to discount for kids or infants, or to waive the gratuities for them either. But that's something one knows ahead of time, and should consider when booking a cruise as to whether you want to support that business model or not. My personal guess is that part of the choice in doing that is they're trying to discourage infants without explicitly banning them from the cruise line. Obviously that's something not everyone will agree with, but that's why there's choices in cruise lines. (Personally, I consider it a plus, because I really wouldn't want to be that person next to a screaming kid in the cabin next door. While Disney typically gets great reviews, I've never been that enthused about booking on them because I'd just as soon not deal with the kids there, so I choose other lines that aren't as friendly to kids.)[/quote]

I don't agree. I think Princess does not discount because they don't need to. All mainstream cruise lines are trying to market to this demographic.
Frankly 30 -50 year olds will spend more on excursions and alcohol, etc than the average 80 year old...

In my experience RRCL and Princess discount 3rd/4th passengers by 1/3rd at the most....that's because the demand is good enough at that % for their business model.

Celebrity and HAL discounts the 3rd/4th passengers at 2/3rds or as HAL does sometimes....free 3rd/4th promos.

They do so because they are having a harder time attracting that age group....

[JRT5000]

[quote name='Loonbeam']I shall now repeat what I said earlier. The infant still counts as a passenger. The passenger count per section is fixed regardless of age. Thus, the infant is taking up a slot, so if he or she goes for free that's one less slot than can be sold..

Princess should give up that revenue why?[/quote]

Actually I didn't realize that the infant was the 2nd passenger in the cabin. Totally agree on the full fare..and the tips etc.

But in terms of the the 3rd and 4th passenger....in my opinion a 6 month old..or a 1 year old even a 2 year old should not be charged full fare.

[davekathy]

[quote name='Lovetocruiseprincess'][FONT=Comic Sans MS]The day they allow kids to cruise with out paying gratituties is the day I'm going to cancel my gratituties also.:D[/FONT][/QUOTE]

Me too...

[shredie]

[quote name='JRT5000']Actually I didn't realize that the infant was the 2nd passenger in the cabin. Totally agree on the full fare..and the tips etc.

But in terms of the the 3rd and 4th passenger....in my opinion a 6 month old..or a 1 year old even a 2 year old should not be charged full fare.[/QUOTE]

It still takes fuel to move the ship through the ocean with that baby on board. The electricity must still be generated. The refrigeration for the milk, etc., the washing of the towels, the purchase of baby foods, the vacuumed carpet, etc., all these still cost money. The only things I can think of that might be obviously less with a baby are dining room or buffet food.

[Loonbeam]

Still affects the total count. Each muster station has X capacity. If they sell a bunch of 4 person cabins in whatever section, at some point they can only sell 2s, limiting availability (and also resulting in some reshuffling which is why GTYs are so important to cruise lines).

If they built discounts for them into the pricing, other pricing would have to increase to keep the same average rate per cabin (which BTW is exactly what Disney does...)

If a ship is not selling well, they could (and have) offer it as a promotional rate...

[quote name='JRT5000']Actually I didn't realize that the infant was the 2nd passenger in the cabin. Totally agree on the full fare..and the tips etc.

But in terms of the the 3rd and 4th passenger....in my opinion a 6 month old..or a 1 year old even a 2 year old should not be charged full fare.[/quote]