Tipping on NCLA

[honestguy]

Just to clarifly whats going on with NCL and their American flagged ships. First off as some of you know I worked on board the POAL for one contract. I was a front waiter. I made $9.85 an hour. Anyone who thinks this is a good rate of pay let me know cause it isn't. When I left my land side job in charlotte NC I was making between 17 to 18 dollars an hour with tips. I think it was $17.66 to be exact. With overtime on the ship I was still wasn't coming anywhere close to that on board. I took the job based on the recruiters claims that I could make 500 to 600 dollars a week on board in tips. I figured if I made half of that I would be doing good. I never came close. The most I ever made in a week was 200 dollars in tips. Most weeks it was around 100. Keep in mind anything you leave gets split with the back waiter. Whose pay is only $7.38 an hour.

 

I considered myself to be in the top 5 percent of waiters on board. I only worked 4 weeks in the main dining as a front waiter. After that I was moved to pacific heights, which is specialty dining. There I came close to making what I was promised by the recruiter. Only a very few works there however.

 

The reason for tipping policy problems is clearly with NCL. They have never clearly stated a policy on board, and then you read on hear that they say crew is very well paid. Tell that to the dishwasher making $6.50 an hour.

 

The Pride of Aloha has only ever had one sailing with a guest rating over 80 percent. It is usally around 75 percent. Now I dont know where international ships ratings stand, but I know they are much higher. The truth is the ratings won't get better until NCL can hire better qualiflied workers. Mainly waitstaff. They want fine dining servers, but most fine dining servers make over 30 dollars an hour in tips landside. NCL never gets any fine dining servers. They are lucky to hire kids from Applebee's. The kitchen staff isn't much better.

 

What you are left with is alot of unhappy workers and guests. To anyone sailing on the POAL or POAM ask the workers about the food they serve the crew, and see what the response is. Its not all about tips either. NCL has a very flawed product in the America ships and until the start treating the crew like the American workers they are, and not like an international ship crew the ratings and the unhappy guests and crew will stay! I hope for all my friends on board they get it right.

[Goldryder]

With all due respect the wages and conditions quoted are not so bad when you also mention that you have no household bills to worry about. You get room and board on the ship, granted its hard work but then that is how it should be, no-one ever said working on a cruiseship is easy.

 

Working aboard ship is entirely different ballgame to working landbased.

 

You get to see the world that some members of the public could only dream of seeing. OK the wage wasn't as you expected but thats the nature of the beast and perhaps your expectations were too high. At the end of the day, you will only get out of a job what you put into it.

 

Room and board on a liner in return for some hard graft isn't for everyone. Perhaps it was you own error of judgement that got you onto the ship by thinking of the money too much.

 

When on the Jewel a few weeks ago I gave extra tips where I thought they were deserved and I am afraid if I had been 'looked after' by someone who was not happy with the job they were doing on purely monetary reasons and they made it clear by their actions/attitude, then sorry but they don't get the extra. When you sign a contract of employment, you take the rough with the smooth, no ifs or buts, and that goes whether you are working on a ship or in an landbased cafe.

 

Sorry if this seems harsh but you chose to work on a ship, maybe you should have looked into it better and not had such high expectations of it, the recruiter gave you examples of the best you might expect if you worked for it, if that did not happen, that is not the fault of the cruiseline...that reflects on your work standard, which going by what you say you had in tips, wasn't that great, was it?

[honestguy]

Read my post, cause I don't think you read it the first time. First off I was in the top tier of Waiters. Many others didn't come close to what I made. I know cause they were my roommates and friends! The reason for the tipping problems were with NCL. Cashless ship most people have no cash, and can't leave a tip. Also when being told they don't need to tip most people won't. It you get great service in England do you tip? Probably not cause it isn't the custom to in England. Secondly room and board was included, but I agreed to have food not slop and slop is what they served the crew. I'm sorry I don't expect to find bugs in my food. I ate off the ship almost everyday, otherwise I wouldn't have ate. My point was they have trouble retaining crew. Most people never come back for a second contract. Alot of the waiters never complete their contract. Its an ongoing problem on board.

[Goldryder]

Actually yes we Brits do tip, if we feel that it is deserved, which I did more than once on Norwegian Jewel.

 

If you had a problem behind the scenes while aboard a ship (regardless of line) you should have taken it up with that line at the time.

 

If you had a rough time, chalk it up to experience and move on, don't harp about it as there are others more than willing to take your place aboard the ships.

 

You say that you are 'top flight', well had you been top flight in the eyes of the passengers you served, then its logical to believe that you would have top flight tips too. The fact that you feel hard done by is a reflection of how you came across to your passengers and a reflection of your standard of work.

[honestguy]

I love how you can question my work ethic, and act like you have such great insight on board. When truth be told you just completed your first cruise in almost 30 years. As for there being plenty of people to take my spot NCL dont exactly have them lining up to get on board. It sucks when your on board and you have a friend that went all through training with you and works with you just ups and quits because of the way NCL runs their ships, and treats their employees.

[Goldryder]

I love how you can question my work ethic, and act like you have such great insight on board. When truth be told you just completed your first cruise in almost 30 years. As for there being plenty of people to take my spot NCL dont exactly have them lining up to get on board. It sucks when your on board and you have a friend that went all through training with you and works with you just ups and quits because of the way NCL runs their ships, and treats their employees.

 

Take it up with NCL. However, you will find there are others from other lines just as deflated as you are and who had their expectations raised well above what they should have been, only to have woken up and got off the ship.

 

No point whinging about it, its past history. If you and your friend are not cut out for ship life, do something else. If you thought life on a ship was all glitzy, then it was you who are mistaken, its damn hard work. You misjudged things, the line, as with all lines all over the world, told you what you could expect IF you worked for it, you didn't get what you expected which means you obviously didn't cut it.

[Luv4dacruise]

This is a very interesting thread. I am honestly thinking that some poeple might be under the assumption they need not tip how they normally would on another line because the NCL America ships are bound by American laws and minimum wage. I don't know if it is common knowledge or not, but most other cruise lines, the crews hourly rate is below minimum wage. I am just saying that if this is in fact common knowledge (as it is in my head) that could very well be a factor for a good percentage of passengers.

[karfest]

I run a store with approx 250 employees ranging in age from 15-75. Wages start at 5.75. No one gets tips. I have single moms working for 6.50/hour who somehow get by on this. They are also having to pay for housing, food, child care, etc. I should show them your tale of woe and see what they think.

 

Thank you for the information, but your attitude comes across badly. Maybe I'm just reading you wrong...I apologize if I have mistaken your intentions. This is one of those experiences that you put in the Live and Learn category. It's over, it was a bad deal for you...time to move on and hopefully work for someone who will aprreciate your talents.

[honestguy]

I think everyone is missing the point. Service is lacking on board the NCLA ships. First off everyone has to realize how it works on international ships. Some of the people who trained us at Piney Point MD, and who worked on board international ships stated that all waiters start out as back waiters.(assistants) and work that job for at least 3 to 5 years before being promoted to front waiter. Now a good front waiter on the international ship can make upwards to $5000.00 US dollars in a month. Now most of that comes from tips. The hourly wage is something around 90 cents an hour. If it wasnt for tips they wouldn't make it. They have to work a ton as well somewhere around the 90 hour mark I was told.

 

Now on board the POAL we would work 65 to 75 hours a week. As for the pay, my point is its not good enough to attract qualified workers in America. Take the 5000 the international worker is making that is alot of money in his country. More than some doctors or lawyers make in other countries so they are more than happy to work for that amount of money. Now before everyone starts saying thats a ton of money I want you to realize something. Go to a fine dining restaurant in your home town.(and no outback is not fine dining) and you'll fine that the servers there are professionals. Most in there 30's 40's even 50's. Know what they make? At least 5000 a month if not more, and guess what they work maybe 40 hours a week. My point is NCL is not attracting fine dining servers to work on board, cause the pay is not good enough, and the people that they do hire don't stick around long enough to become great servers, because of the conditions. A great server on the POAL might make 4000 a month, and thats very few. My last job in charlotte I made 2500 in cash alone a month working 30 hours a week, and it wasn't close to fine dining.(It was just a sit above the outbacks of the world) Thats why people don't stay.

 

Now back to the Britt that keeps making it personal, and for everyone else. I've never been fired from a job. I completed my 20 week contract on board. NCL expected me to come back. I have references from every job I've ever worked. When I got out of high school I work 70 hours a week on a truck farm. I know what hard work is. I've done it. The truth is it isn't the hard work. I didn't find the work that hard on board to begin with. It was the way NCL does things. I mean there are weeks where 30 people walk off before there contract is up. When we would pull in Honolulu there was weeks when a 100 new people came on board, and after a few weeks a bunch had quit. Thats hard to watch I'm sorry I was friends with alot of those people and they were good workers.

[RLJPHX]

This thread is a little confusing to me. NCL states in their materials and documentation that tipping is not generally required because of the $10.00 per person service charge.

 

Given this guidance from NCL, I suspect that most people don't tip at all. Some may leave a "little extra" as a supplement to the service charge. A few may leave "full fledged" tips, especially in the pay restaurants. This is what I did on my last cruise. Is this how others understand the program?

 

Given my interpretation of this policy, I wonder is Honestguy talking about tips over and above the service charge? Or is he talking about the service charge which NCL says is distributed to the Staff? If its additional tips, it would be unreasonable to assume that these would amount to much, especially if you're working in the regular restaurants.

 

Honestguy - fill us in.

 

Everyone else - What is your tipping habit on an NCL cruise?

[Retired not Expired]

This thread is a little confusing to me. NCL states in their materials and documentation that tipping is not generally required because of the $10.00 per person service charge.

 

Given this guidance from NCL, I suspect that most people don't tip at all. Some may leave a "little extra" as a supplement to the service charge. A few may leave "full fledged" tips, especially in the pay restaurants. This is what I did on my last cruise. Is this how others understand the program?

 

Given my interpretation of this policy, I wonder is Honestguy talking about tips over and above the service charge? Or is he talking about the service charge which NCL says is distributed to the Staff? If its additional tips, it would be unreasonable to assume that these would amount to much, especially if your working in the regular restaurants.

 

Honestguy - fill us in.

 

Everyone else - What is your tipping habit on an NCL cruise?

 

He worked on the NCLAmerica ships which use an American crew and has not been charging the $10 per day service charge.

[Goldryder]

When on NCL Jewel I tipped $10 over and above the included in Le Bistro as I was extremely well looked after, $5 over and above for lunch in Tsar's and $10 in Tsars the same evening for dinner. I also ensured that the cabin steward and stewardess were left $10 each as they had been superb. This was on top of the $10 a day pooled gratuity.

[RLJPHX]

I was not aware that NCLA was not charging the fee. In that case, people should be tipping. However, if the service is as bad as some say, I can see why tips would be low. Also, if people have bad service in one area, they may be likely not to tip anyone else.

 

Is the no service charge policy still in effect? We are cruising on Dec. 31 POAM and would like to know.

[honestguy]

No there is no 10 dollar a day on POAL. AS for POAM I can't comment, as I never served on board. Working in the main dining areas the tipping was poor. Being that there was no charge It was hard for people to figure what to tip. Some left a dollar some left ten dollars a person a night. You just never knew.

 

A word of caution for everyone sailing international though. The ten dollar a day tip is broken down as far as I know as this. $6.50 goes to the dining staff, and 3.50 goes to the room steward. I will be the first to tell you that I was a bad tipper on cruises before I worked on board. When I sail in October My cabin Steward will be recieving somewhere between 75 and a 100 dollars from myself. and I will leave the dining room staff at least 20 bucks a night. I had a friend as a cabin Steward and he brought in around 800 bucks a week in tips. The best cabins left around 100 and the worst left nothign

[mortysmama]

this 'tipping policy' is getting more confused by the hour....and I use to think it was a very easy system. Now, I have a question.

 

I generally tip my room stewart and concierge in the very beginning of the cruise to let them know I appreciate all the efforts they will be making on my behalf during the cruise. Generally...more follows at the end of the cruise assuming that I received good service. My question is this: Does the extra tip (before and after) get put into the general pool of tips for all to share, or do they keep it themselves? I'm NOT referring to the Hawiian cruises, just the regular NCL cruises where there IS a $10 pp tip billed.

 

Thank you for any information that can clear this up.

 

Happy cruising!

[Don Haynes]

Surely with tips and overtime you were making in the vicinity of at least $12-13 an hour, probably more. This means you were making more money per hour than half of America..... With free room and board, and with no need to buy cars or gasoline on top of no utility bills, you were better off than most of us....Far better off.....

 

Isn't there a seafarers union. You were earning union wages and you're still complaining..... I wonder what the union pay scales are for the long term employed..... Far More? Restaurants in my hometown don't pay waiters minimum wage..... Its the tips that brings their salaries up to snuff.....

 

Was it the long hours? Felt like being in prison onboard? Guess what, been there, done that. I didn't make half of what you were making when I was in the Navy.....

[johnql]

Does the extra tip (before and after) get put into the general pool of tips for all to share, or do they keep it themselves? I'm NOT referring to the Hawiian cruises, just the regular NCL cruises where there IS a $10 pp tip billed.

On regular NCL ships, if you keep the automatic $10 pp/pd in place, any additional is kept by the person that you hand the money to.

[Host CMLA]

I think everyone is missing the point. Service is lacking on board the NCLA ships.

I think I get the point. But after you say how bad the service is, you then to spend the majority of your comments talking about how little money you made being one of the best waiters ever and that you made so much more money before at other jobs. Is the point of your postings to let everyone know how bad service is or to let everyone know they should tip more?

 

Thankfully for you, your contract if over and you can go back to making all the money you used to make. I guess it's true...live and learn. Sorry it was a tough lesson to learn. But it's 20 weeks out of your life. That's nothing in the grand scheme of things. Now you'll move on and be all the wiser for the experience. :)

[sunshine 229]

I just came back to the board after a few days on holiday and read through all the previous posts on this thread and it seems to me that honestguys point in posting is not to whine about the fact that he didn't make as much as he expected while working on the POA, but to answer the question that has been asked several times on this board about why NCLA can't seem to solve the service problems that keep being reported on the POA.

 

Honestguy, if I read his posts correctly, finished his contract. Then he chose not to return since he could do much better elsewhere. I don't hear any whining there, just a simple statement of how things are and an explaination for why we keep on seeing reports from passengers that much of the wait staff on this ship seems to be inexperienced and bellow par. If many of the staff feel the same way about the job that honestyguy did they will not be returning, causing a chronic shortage of well trainned experienced staff on this ship. I'm not sure why some feel it is necessary to attack the person who is trying to explain the situation to them.

As one of you posted,

"This is one of those experiences that you put in the Live and Learn category. It's over, it was a bad deal for you...time to move on and hopefully work for someone who will aprreciate your talents."

 

It seems to me that is just what he has done. Problem is, too many employees doing just that, will lead to constant turn over of staff on this ship.

[Gypsy509]

I agree with Sunshine on this topic

[hawai50]

I think sunshine is right too. I do think part of the confusion is between POAL and POAM because only one is acutually charging the sevice charge right now.

[honestguy]

Well at least someone gets it. Thanks to Sunshine and Gypsy. I am posting all the posts to try to inform people of whats going on. I'm complaining or whining. Just simply giving my insights to what I've seen while on board.

 

I am anything but negative I'm not on here suggesting people not take the cruise. I'm not saying NCL is a bad company. All I am saying is that there is a problem. Its been a problem since the POAL has sailed, Its gotten better but its still a problem. Anytime you have 25 pecent of your guests walking off unhappy its a problem. Anytime you have a bunch of employees quiting its a problem

 

I want people to realize I had a great time while on board I spent 20 weeks in Hawaii. I spent 7 nights on beaches while there. How many people can claim that. I camped on a side of a Volcano. I've made friendships for life. I have over 600 photos that I show family and friends.(they have a ton of fingerprints on them too)lol. I miss my cabin. You know how great it was to get off work and to be able to hear the ocean crash against the ship. Talk about sleeping good. Most people I tell this to finds it scary I thought is was great. All in all I had a great time. If I had to do it all over again I would in a heartbeat!

[Host CMLA]

All in all I had a great time, and if I had to I Would do it again in a heartbeat.

You mentioned that the wait staff on international vessels make a lot more money. If you enjoyed being onboard ship, have you considered working on a non US registered ship?

I'm not sure why some feel it is necessary to attack the person who is trying to explain the situation to them.

I don't see where the OP is being attacked and the mention of an attack isn't brought up until you said it. People can have a discussion and not agree without it being an attack. If you think this thread contains attacks, you should report them as board violations and let the board administrator take care of it.

[honestguy]

Cecilia

 

That is kind of my point of this whole thread. There are very few Americans working on board international ships, and the reason for this is simple. They can make the same working far less hours in far better conditions than working on a ship. My point of my whole post was they aren't attracting the right people, and the reason is its tough very tough. We as Americans have it good, and living on a ship isn't the best thing, However coming from a third world country most people are just happy to have a roof over their head, and food to eat. Let alone getting paid for it. Ship is very appealing to them.

 

I don't like when people say the America project will fail cause Americans are lazy. I think it will work, but changes need to be made. You can't have a 1/4 of your guests walking off unhappy each week. You can't have alot of your crew quitting or not coming back for 2nd 3rd even 4th contracts. The sad fact is that for most workers its 1 and done. If they even complete the first one.

 

I don't feel that the crew is treated right. People want to say I'm lazy or spoiled thats fine. Its just My opinion is all.

 

As for attacks. I havn't been attacked its just people voicing their opinions is all, and I'm glad cruise critic is here for us to discuss this and other topics

[Tom1234]

Thank you for your insight into what goes on behind the closed doors. Its to bad when the truth is told it falls on deaf ears, and people don't want to here it. Having just sailed on the Pride of America August 10, we were expecting more. More being customer service, smiling faces, a hello or how you doing. Thank god for the ports of call and and nightly entertainment in Hollywood theatre. Other than that the ship is new, but offers little else. If employees keep jumping ship weekly I don't see how things can improve fast. Talking to some of the dinning staff, assistant waiters are being promoted to head waiter without the proper experience and training because their is no experienced help to do the job. Maybe some off the hiring laws for USA Flagged Ships might have to change?

 

Having said all that, I wish I was leaving again next week for another week in the islands. :)

 

Regards,

 

Tom

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