Gratutities

[dkjretired]

I'm assuming since you have mentioned additional tips a few times then this was in addition to the daily amounts that you did not take off. The only time I've seen it reported that the tips had to be pooled is when the auto grats are removed. You would be the only report I can remember seeing that didn't remove them and the recipients had to pool them.

 

I said this in an earlier post but I don't think half the things about tipping are accurate. Who pools what? Who keeps what? I take everything on tipping with a grain of salt.

[Jade13]

Maybe the better question is if the staff is paid "peanuts" and is so underpaid why do they line up for these jobs?? Because they make more than they could in their country is my assumption. I guess Celebrity could do like the company that announced a few months ago that every employee, regardless of job description, would make $70,000 annually and is now close to bankruptcy due to the good employees quitting since there is no incentive for anyone to excel.

 

What company was that?

[blueboro]

What company was that?

 

Gravity Payments...article attached.

 

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-company-copes-with-backlash-on-70000-minimum-wage/

[The-Inside-Cabin]

I was on a HAL ship recently and during the course of a tour we had an opportunity for some Q and A with the onboard revenue manager. She said that the Hotel Service Charge (that is what HAL calls their gratuities) has a 97%-98% participation rate in North American Markets. She went on to say that the participation rate was significantly less in Australian/NZ markets but that if the participation rate fell below a certain number, (not stated) that the cruise line makes up the difference.

 

This has caused many to speculate on the HAL boards that the price charged to Australians/NZ has been adjusted to compensate. If this is the case, then this could cause a death spiral. People from Oz/NZ would rightly ask why they should pay a higher fare and be expected to leave the HSC in place.

 

Several folks tried dummy bookings, even to the point of having people book using USA and AUS/NZ IP addresses and compare differences to validate this hypothesis. Results were inconclusive.

 

When I travel I read up on local customs and try to conform. For example when in Oz, I jump in the front seat of a cab. Interesting observation is that in some heavy tourist destinations, I started to see an expectation for Americans to tip outside local custom - I refuse and try and confirm with what the locals do as best I can.

 

On a cruise ship, the local custom is auto tip so I cheerfully go with the program. I do get a sense that there is a trend for others to tip above auto tip (for whatever reason). - I won't do this unless there was some extraordinary service provided. E.g getting me an extra deck chair for my verandah deck etc .

[Wine-O]

Maybe the better question is if the staff is paid "peanuts" and is so underpaid why do they line up for these jobs?? Because they make more than they could in their country is my assumption. I guess Celebrity could do like the company that announced a few months ago that every employee, regardless of job description, would make $70,000 annually and is now close to bankruptcy due to the good employees quitting since there is no incentive for anyone to excel.

 

Didn't take him long to find out that socialism won't work no matter how often it's tried. ;)

[cle-guy]

Didn't take him long to find out that socialism won't work no matter how often it's tried. ;)

 

The good news for employees who left, they can now put a big salary on their resumes, which makes them look far more attractive to prospective employers, who just assume higher salary = higher qualifications.

[SantaFeFan]

On a cruise ship, the local custom is auto tip so I cheerfully go with the program. I do get a sense that there is a trend for others to tip above auto tip (for whatever reason). - I won't do this unless there was some extraordinary service provided. E.g getting me an extra deck chair for my verandah deck etc .

 

I don't tip extra unless the service levels were better than what my expectations were when booking the cruise. I would say that about 50% of the time it was better than expected, and additional tips were given as a result.

 

I would never think to remove the auto-tips. I consider those to be part of the cost of cruising, just as I do transportation to and from the ports, and items purchased while visiting a destination. As a informed traveler, I research the cultural norms of where I travel - including the different cruise lines - and am not so arrogant as to force my own cultural ways on the people who generously allow me to visit their country (including cruise ship staff).

[chamima]

We have, also, many times been told by the assistant stateroom attendant that we must give his additional gratuity to the main stateroom attendant.

 

I was also interested to see that, when in Luminae on our latest cruise, all the envelopes we had handed out to our waiters, the sommelier and hostess were collected "backstage" unopened by the maitre d' and taken elsewhere. They were clearly our distinctive gold "Thank You" card envelopes. These were additional gratuities and we had also given the maitre d' an envelope containing additional gratuities for all the Luminae staff to whom we had not given individual additional gratuities.

 

 

 

I wonder if what you observed in Luminae had to do with the "open seating" concept.

We travel in Aqua and in Blu, by the second or third night usually have a favorite waiter whose section we ask to dine in after that.

We also tip (extra, in addition to the daily service charge or whatever it's called) that same waiter, our breakfast waiter, the assistant waiter, the sommelier and the Maitre D'. We put their names on the envelopes and intend for the money to go to them but I could see where, in that situation, all of the extra tips are pooled amongst the dining room staff.

We've also had them ask us for our cabin number, which leads me to believe each extra tip has to be checked against the "tip removal" list. That could be another reason all of the envelopes were collected in the back.

 

 

BTW- I've never had a bar waiter or the Al Bacio server ask me my cabin number. They just pocket the cash with a smile. ;)

[The-Inside-Cabin]

BTW- I've never had a bar waiter or the Al Bacio server ask me my cabin number. They just pocket the cash with a smile. ;)

 

Only people drawing from the auto tip pool have to make sure you haven't canceled auto tips...

 

Bar staff is not in the general tip pool since they get 18pct on the spot and it can't be removed. Same for spa and casino employees. I don't know if bar/casino/or spa people pool tips amongst themselves.

Edited August 4, 2015 by Pete and Judy

[Host Walt]

This thread was about tipping policies, not curent microeconomic news in the Northwest USA.

 

Several off topic posts have been removed.