Princess Auto-Tipping????? Yes/No?

[SunnyCosmo]

I also hope to not upset anyone. I believe it is an individual choice. For those truly confused by this I understand. I am very much against anything that is "automatic" I like choice..even the control of it. The real point though is not the "principle" it is the convenience and let's face it..the amount IS low. You can have a guilt-free conscience by just leaving the auto/tip in place, not leave another dime for anyone and still get off rather inexpensively on tipping. Try to think of it like the bar drinks. Do you want to pay for each beer with cash? Or the convenience of a tip included that you just sign for? Really, I buy a $2.50 beer at the bar put out $3.00. Tip 50 cents. Doesn't seem like much but that's 20%. (Personally I think 50 cents is cheap but that's different for each person for sure) but then again I'm by the pool all afternoon and had 7 beers: to tip seven dollars would seem practical but kind of expensive. Forget about all that regarding "what society thinks". $10 PP Per day is low isn't it? I know it's just my opinion but jeez the cruise line is saying " Tip more if ya like but we'll just be glad to get this for our people. I'm really tryin to remember getting bad service on a cruise...I just don't think I ever have. Forget about how much they may need it or their conditions or what that amount of money means back home. $10 for approx. 5 people who are really trying to make your vacation great is just doing the decent thing.

 

How bad does the service have to be that you actually would tip less? It just doesn't happen. And if that's what you focus on then all this "principle stuff" is just B.S. I'm certainly pro-tipping. It is how things work in the U.S. right or wrong, like it or not.

 

That said, to our friends in the U.K. If you truly are paying $1500 US for a cruise I pay $1000 US. I'm with you if you turn off auto tip and use envelopes and instead putting money in them put a note that says your service was excellent and mention your servers/waiters by name say they were great but since you paidXXX more than a US passenger whose custom is tipping and tipping is not your custom. Feel no guilt.

[phillipahain]

That said, to our friends in the U.K. If you truly are paying $1500 US for a cruise I pay $1000 US. I'm with you if you turn off auto tip and use envelopes and instead putting money in them put a note that says your service was excellent and mention your servers/waiters by name say they were great but since you paidXXX more than a US passenger whose custom is tipping and tipping is not your custom. Feel no guilt.

 

 

I guess that would soon concentrate the minds at Princess HQ ......when all their staff hand in those notes ........what a wacky idea

[dan40]

MissLioness,

No offence taken or intended by me to you. To deadbeats, I hope they take severe umbrage to my posts. They've earned the insult.

 

A funny aside to teaching a lesson to the deadbeats. We were sailing on the Destiny out of Miami [she was new then]. It happened to be spring break and we rode the rental car shuttle to the ship with 2 college guys. At the pier the porters grabbed the luggage as is their wont. The college guys pointed out their bags and just turned and walked away. I tipped the porter $2. for each of my bags. In line to check in, the college guys were laughing at the "nerve" of the porter having his hand out just for grabbing a couple of bags. We got our luggage about an hour after we boarded and were unpacked and having cocktails before the "pumpkin parade" We ran into the guys and had a drink with them, they didn't know if they had received their luggage yet. About 11 that nite we saw them again and had another drink. One of them said, "I'm sure glad we didn't tip that porter. We still don't have our luggage." Barb and I just gave each other that knowing look.

 

Dan

[Cellen]

I notice this topic seems to have veered somwhat from the tipping policies. We have cruised with a UK cruise line that includes tipping in the price and has a no tipping policy, which I prefer. Then it is your choice to tip extra to your cabin steward, waiters etc for good service.

 

On the topic of the prices we pay for Princess cruises in the UK - they are sold to us as a complete package with flights, all transfers, port charges etc included, and this is the norm for the UK package holiday market. Also, all travel companies selling in the UK have to be ABTA bonded, which means that we are protected by an arbitration service if there is a dispute. Plus, with air inclusive holidays the company also has to be ATOL bonded which gives consumer protection in case of airline failure etc. I don't know if this is the same in the US but it all adds to the cost of holidays.

 

We are booked on the Diamond Far East 16 night cruise, November 24th '05, and could only get an inside cabin or fully obstructed view when we booked in June because this is a very popular cruise. We paid £1988 each (approx $3479) for an inside J category cabin, inclusive of direct scheduled flights, to Beijing and from Singapore, transfers etc. How horrendous does that price sound to our US friends?

[SunnyCosmo]

Since I had the time I just called Princess to see about that Diamond cruise in November 2005. I could get a price for category K $2384 U.S. PP double but NOT including any airfare. did include "operational overnights" good luck.

[donna5]

Cellan

 

I just went to one of the online agencies and did a price check for the Nov 24 05 sailing.

 

Inside J cat $3594.00 p.p.($7,188.00 cabin)

 

Obstructed GG cat $3794.00 p.p. ($7,588.00 cabin)

 

On both of these I put in that I needed air from Grand Junction, CO.

They did say it qualified for $200 shipboard credit.

 

There seems to be a lot available at this time.

Hope this info helps.

[BULLPENT]

wow, after reading all these posts on tipping, I truly have a headache!! YIKES!!

[bdjam]

Regretfully I had to observe the need for auto-tipping grow. 2 things happened. One, cruising became more and more mainstream instead of just for the newly wed and nearly dead. As that transition occured, attendence at the final dinner fell off [TIP TIME]. The second thing that happened is that minor snack bars morphed into full buffets and alternative dining. Then the main dining rooms became ghost towns on tip night. Because the cheapskates could now stuff their bellies and not face the waiters they were stiffing [hmmm, stuffing and stiffing?...oh well]

Well said and absolutely the truth. What’s worse is watching hard working wait staff be stiffed on the last night. I remember one waiter one night on Sun Princess – for 10 days he bent over backward to make the table of 10 next to ours happy – on the last night they all left without leaving a dime. He went far above the auto-tip value of his service…all he got was a look of dejection on his face. I felt really sorry for the guy.

The intent of my thought was that if a company raises prices, and pays the employee better, the company would not have to encourage tipping to supplement the employees income. Bad service, you say... well, fire the employee. There are plenty of people who ar looking for jobs. ---in a perfect world, this would work wonderfully.

The fact is that most of us are able to buy a Princess cruise at some pretty good prices. Given the low cruise fare, it would seem to me that a reversible auto-tip on one’s on board account wouldn’t be that big of a catastrophe. If we want tips included in the price of a cruise (or the price of a meal in a restaurant) we’d hear from the factions complaining about the increase in prices. So nobody wins. The bottom line is that Princess is a US company and in the US tips are expected to supplement wages. Princess doesn’t do anything different than your favorite restaurant in town. Tipping should be part of the cruise budget – just like souvenirs and shore excursions (hopefully guides and drivers are tipped?). It’s unfortunate that those in the UK aren’t given full tipping information, but that still seems to be a UK travel industry issue, not one of Princess Cruises and certainly not one of the wait staff.

As for plenty of people looking for jobs - that may be the case but continued turn over also is a cost to business - so if you're going to fire everyone who occasionally delivers marginal service then you might want to start saving for fare increases as well.

[JUSBRENFL]

We just got back, I had the tips taken off my account. Keep in mind, any drink you buy from the bar service or waiters, they also add 15% tip. I told the desk, I was not happy with the service, and I would give my tips how i wanted to give them. No questions asked, they removed the automatic tip. The soda card is a joke. Sometimes you will wait 20 minutes for a drink to arrive.

Otherwise, we had a great time and still spent an extra 800.00 on board.

Everything you buy is put on your account, drinks, souviners, internet, shore excursions, etc...

[LARGIN]

JUSBRENFL... The waiters are not in the tip pool. You stiffed everyone else.. You received your $800 worth of stuff, they got nothing. :rolleyes:

[JUSBRENFL]

JUSBRENFL... The waiters are not in the tip pool. You stiffed everyone else.. You received your $800 worth of stuff, they got nothing. :rolleyes:

Largin, I did give tips to the other people, I gave them myself. As this was my first cruise, it was a learning experience for me. I was very happy with the cruise. I was not happy about the room. I paid extra and upgraded to a mini suite for the new changes just announced by princess a few weeks ago, and they were not done. No new mattresses, no champagne in room at embarktion, no automatic robes, i had to ask for them.

Like I said, new to cruising, i learned alot and will know more for next time.

thanks for your comment

[LARGIN]

Remember that If the auto-tip is removed, their tip is removed. If you remove the auto-tip and tip them individually, they have to turn over that money into the pool so that you're really hurting them, not helping. If they're caught keeping the tip, they could be fired. If you leave the auto-tip on and give them extra cash, they are allowed to keep that 100%.

[coiran]

Largin, I did give tips to the other people, I gave them myself. As this was my first cruise, it was a learning experience for me. I was very happy with the cruise. I was not happy about the room. I paid extra and upgraded to a mini suite for the new changes just announced by princess a few weeks ago, and they were not done. No new mattresses, no champagne in room at embarktion, no automatic robes, i had to ask for them.

Like I said, new to cruising, i learned alot and will know more for next time.

thanks for your comment

 

I have always had to ask for robes and other amenities - It isn't a problem for me - I usually say "could you please get me XXX" - instead of " you were supposed to XXXXX"

 

Ron

[JUSBRENFL]

Remember that If the auto-tip is removed, their tip is removed. If you remove the auto-tip and tip them individually, they have to turn over that money into the pool so that you're really hurting them, not helping. If they're caught keeping the tip, they could be fired. If you leave the auto-tip on and give them extra cash, they are allowed to keep that 100%.

thank you again, i agree, i think the auto tip is wonderful, the service is wonderful, me being a 1st timer, i didnt understand everything and how it works. We are not independently wealthy, and it seemed everytime we turned around, another tip was being added.

thanks

[bdjam]

thank you again, i agree, i think the auto tip is wonderful, the service is wonderful, me being a 1st timer, i didnt understand everything and how it works. We are not independently wealthy, and it seemed everytime we turned around, another tip was being added.thanks

What I find remarkable is that Travel Agents selling cruises aren’t more interested in communicating the policies regarding tipping to their clients. Is it an attempt to ensure the client isn’t aware of the tips until the commission is paid and the client is on board? Or is the internet travel agent industry not providing the information that should be given to potential passengers? Or is it the passenger not seeing the value of the service that they received? Either of the three ways – the staff on board are the ones who lose out.

 

And you don’t have to be independently wealthy to tip fairly on board a Princess ship. You only have to add $10 per person per day to your cruise fare. Given the way the tips are pooled, if one tips less than that amount, the reward to the staff is negligible.

[phillipahain]

Cellen

 

 

I think you will tend to find that Princess cruise packages for the Med , The Baltic and The Far east booked in the UK do tend to be on a par price wise with the USA

 

Not always but certainly when we have checked recently

 

However cruises to Alaska , Caribean , Mexican Riviera, Panama Canal , South America etc tend to be almost half the cost when booked in the USA versus the UK

 

One needs to truly compare true "cruise only" prices to get a real comparison

and thats not easy unless you have access to travel agent stuff because if you asked Princess UK for a cruise only price all they do is give you a minimal "no air " discount which reflects the charter price they pay for a flight and not the full price you as a punter would pay

 

The big difference between booking in the UK and the USA is we are forced to book and have a NON REFUNDABLE deposit plus loose a % of the whole cost if we had to cancel

Wheras generally in the USA you can cancel penalty free right up to final payment

 

There is also a difference in the information provided in USA Princess brochures to that provided in UK brochures