Tips Question

[Minnie29]

Hi all,

 

Next year will be our first cruise and we have chosen Cunard and the QE.

 

Could anyone help me out with a few first timer questions.

 

I understand that we will be charged $ per days for tips. Would it be possible to tip the crew direct rather than pay on our credit card. If this is possible I assume the crew should be tipped in dollars?

 

Can anyone recommend a drinks package? We are not big drinkers but prefer a glass of wine with dinner and perhaps a cocktail afterwards.

 

We are causing to the Norwegian Fjords. Has anyone take this cruise and can you recommend any excursions?

 

Thank you so much

[Jimmys Chippy]

Hi all,

 

Next year will be our first cruise and we have chosen Cunard and the QE.

 

Could anyone help me out with a few first timer questions.

 

I understand that we will be charged $ per days for tips. Would it be possible to tip the crew direct rather than pay on our credit card. If this is possible I assume the crew should be tipped in dollars?

 

Can anyone recommend a drinks package? We are not big drinkers but prefer a glass of wine with dinner and perhaps a cocktail afterwards.

 

We are causing to the Norwegian Fjords. Has anyone take this cruise and can you recommend any excursions?

 

Thank you so much

 

What ports are you visiting?

[Minnie29]

We are visiting Bergen, Flam,Stavanger, Geiranger and Alesund.

 

Thank you

[Jimmys Chippy]

We are visiting Bergen, Flam,Stavanger, Geiranger and Alesund.

 

Thank you

 

We normally do our own arrangements rather than booking with the cruise line and all the places you're visiting can be explored very easly independently.

 

Bergen - There is a complimentary shuttle bus at the port which drops you right in the centre of town. It's a very picturesque place with a lovely old town and something worth doing is taking the funicular that goes up the hill overlooking the town.

 

Flam - The only attraction here is the railway which you are encouraged to book as they tell you the places are extremely limited and you could miss out. Utter nonsense as the train runs all day, is extremely accommodating and half of the train is available for those who aren't cruise passengers. If you get off the ship when you dock, take a short walk to the ticket office and pick the time you want to ride. One tip is to ride all the way to the summit and immediately return, if you get of close to the top to look at the hotel you may have to wait a while to ride back down as the hotel isn't worth looking at.

 

Stavanger - You dock in the city centre so no shuttle required. Again, a nice town with plenty of shop and restaurants.

 

Geiranger - Not a lot here "to do" but there is a hop on/off service bus that is reasonably priced and runs up the hills to some spectacular view points. no shuttle required as you dock close to town

 

Alesund - Is quite dissappointing and you may consider a trip here. There is a good view from the top of a fairly large hill which is a bit strenuos to tackle but worth it. A few shops in town are OK but we headed back to the ship fairly early.

 

One more tip, get up early for the sail into Flam, it's amazing.

[Pennbank]

Agree with whats been said so far, but I would recommend if the ship does not sail along the Geirangerfjord then do a tour along it.

 

You can remove the Gratuity charge at the Pursers desk, but why deny the staff behind the scenes who are also looking after you this benefit. Most persons will tip their cabin staff and Table waiters extra, in addition to the gratuity charge ! Your Bar personal will add 15% to your bar bill for all drinks purchased.

Edited June 23, 2015 by Pennbank

[Underwatr]

I understand that we will be charged $ per days for tips. Would it be possible to tip the crew direct rather than pay on our credit card. If this is possible I assume the crew should be tipped in dollars?

Many people share in the auto-tips that get added to your bill, including some that you may not see often or at all. It's taken more or less as fact here (more proof that it's the case than that it isn't) that if you choose to tip directly to your steward and waiters in cash in lieu of the auto-tips they are obliged to turn this money in to the tip "pool" so that the amount is shared as the company intends. But if you give them an additional tip on top of the auto-tips they are permitted to keep the additional money.

 

So it appears that giving cash to some staff may not have the effect you might be hoping for.

 

If you're concerned about having that amount of money hit your credit card you can add cash to your onboard account instead of or in addition to recording a credit card number against which net charges will be applied. That way only other charges in excess of the cash you provide would go on the card. If you don't register a payment card your onboard charges will not be allowed to exceed the amount of cash you've put up.

 

If you believe that the auto-trips are excessive you should instead consider it a part of the cost of the cruise.

[Scrapnana]

If you do choose to tip (or give extra tips) in cash, use US$. I asked the social hostess about this last year. She said US$ were the easiest for the crew to deal with in sending money home, buying things onboard, etc.

[cruiseluvva]

One excursion I would thoroughly recommend, if you like gardens and flowers is to the Flor&Fjaere Tropical Gardens at Stavanger. The conception of tropical gardens, where lemons grow outdoors is unbelievavle so far north, but it is breathtakingly lovely. It involves a 20 minute boat trip from the harbour and is well worth doing.

 

If the weather is bad, the gardens have hundreds of umbrellas available. There is a coffee shop and there are clean toilets.

Edited June 24, 2015 by cruiseluvva

[pepperrn]

Many people share in the auto-tips that get added to your bill, including some that you may not see often or at all. It's taken more or less as fact here (more proof that it's the case than that it isn't) that if you choose to tip directly to your steward and waiters in cash in lieu of the auto-tips they are obliged to turn this money in to the tip "pool" so that the amount is shared as the company intends. But if you give them an additional tip on top of the auto-tips they are permitted to keep the additional money.

So it appears that giving cash to some staff may not have the effect you might be hoping for.

If you're concerned about having that amount of money hit your credit card you can add cash to your onboard account instead of or in addition to recording a credit card number against which net charges will be applied. That way only other charges in excess of the cash you provide would go on the card. If you don't register a payment card your onboard charges will not be allowed to exceed the amount of cash you've put up.

If you believe that the auto-trips are excessive you should instead consider it a part of the cost of the cruise.

Very well explained Underwatr, thank you.

 

I agree with your every word. Leaving the auto-tip in place, and tipping extra in $ for exceptional service, is something I've done since my first voyage.

 

Thank you again :)

Edited June 24, 2015 by pepperrn

[RJChatsworth]

If you do choose to tip (or give extra tips) in cash, use US$. I asked the social hostess about this last year. She said US$ were the easiest for the crew to deal with in sending money home, buying things onboard, etc.

 

That's interesting. I asked our cabin steward the same question recently about it because we are English and sterling is easier for us than converting to dollars. The cabin steward told me it didn't make a blind bit of difference what currency they were given because they were able to convert to any other currency on the ship at very advantageous rates.

[capnpugwash]

We are visiting Bergen, Flam,Stavanger, Geiranger and Alesund.

 

Thank you

 

If you are going to go to Norway I suggest that you take plenty of money and then double the amount as it is very very expensive for even the basic items.

[Ray66]

Just a bit of extra information about Bergen. We have been there three times and there's lots to do. No need to take an excursion. One time we were docked near the castle (Bergenhus Fortress) and it was walk-able to the city centre. Another time we were docked at a different pier and we needed to take the shuttle.

 

As well as the funicular railway which is well worth doing, there is the old historic UNESCO World heritage part called Bryggen. This area also has some good gift shops. There is also the famous fish market to wonder round and there is a road train tour also worth doing.

[Delbankin]

I agree with underwatr. Tips should be seen as integral to the cost of the holiday. If everyone removed tips the end result would be cruise companies raising costs of the cruise itself.

 

You will always get the argument that people don't want to reward poor service through auto tips but I can't recall any cruise we have taken on any of the seven cruise lines we have sailed with where we have had such bad service we would ever want to remove auto tips.

 

On our recent cruise on QV we tipped extra to our wine waiter, table waiters and room steward. When you get to know a little about their families and lives back home it is difficult not to tip extra because we are so lucky by comparison.

 

There is little sense tipping in dollars when cruises are in Europe. As someone has said, money can be easily changed (I can't believe anyone would be sending hard cash back home anyway) and our experience is that crew members love to go shopping for bargains on shore when they get time off, although I'm not sure many bargains will be had in Norway due to the exceptionally high cost of living.

 

I'm not sure Cunard offer drinks packages on many cruises and in our experience you would need to drink an awful lot to get value for money. We always take a wine package which can sometimes save the price of a bottle but more likely around 10 - 15%. Details can be found on the Cunard website and they offer two different priced packages. There used to be some added value by careful selection however nowadays it seems all bottles offered in the package are of similar prices and only vary by a couple of dollars.

 

Sorry can't help with the other questions as we have only been to Oslo on a previous cruise. Enjoy your trip.

Del.