Tips removed while onboard

[Cruizen Susan]

I have never asked to have tips removed, and I never will. IMO, the crew bend over backwards to give me a wonderful vacation, and I tip them! That being said, some others feel differently.

 

This thread is not meant to be a debate about tipping. There has been plenty of that in the past. I simply want to bring a news flash to your attention, which NCL just implemented. We sail on NCL when we embark from New York.

 

Here is the latest, and I'm wondering how long it will take to trickle down to Celebrity.

 

9:54 a.m. EDT) --- Norwegian Cruise Line passengers will no longer be able to remove or change the daily service charge (DSC) added to shipboard accounts while still onboard.

The charge serves as gratuities for onboard staff including room stewards, waiters and behind-the-scenes support crew. If passengers were unsatisfied with their experience, they could choose to remove the DSC at any point during their voyage. Now, the DSC can only be adjusted by contacting guest relations once they have have returned from their cruise.

A thread on the Cruise Critic forums made note of the policy change, with some current cruise passengers saying that they were asked to send an email to the company to get the DSC removed. No further comment has been provided by the cruise line.

--Brittany Chrusciel, Associate Editor

Edited September 15, 2015 by Cruisen'Susan

[ShakeDaddy]

Good move NCL. Cheap skates won't like this, but if you don't want to tip accordingly cruising is not for you.

Edited September 15, 2015 by ShakeDaddy

[kenevenpar]

I guess too many were stiffing the staff.

[Queen of Oakville]

I think the daily service charge should be non-refundable for any reason. If guests have a customer service issue; they should resolve it during or after their cruise; but it should not impact the DSC. If they seek any kind of financial compensation from the cruise line - it should be to the cruise fare and not to the DSC.

 

 

 

Better yet; the DSC should be invisibly blended into the cruise fare; and they can call it "free grats for everyone". The customer doesn't "see" that they are being charged; and there is nothing to remove.

 

For all the efforts spent charging/removing/debating gratuities; this would do away with the problem.

 

The only downside is for those that will complain that this raises their overall cruise fare and consequently their cost of travel insurance.

[yorkyred]

Just include tipping as part of the cruise cost as some other cruise companies do.

[cle-guy]

Just include tipping as part of the cruise cost as some other cruise companies do.

 

as VERY FEW companies do, and those being generally ultra luxury lines with cabin fares to match.

 

Lines that add on a gratuity:

• Cunard
  
• Costa - and DOES NOT allow modifications
  
• Carnival
  
• RCL
  
• Celebrity
  
• MSC- no modifications without proving bad service
  
• Cruise & Maritime Voyages
  
• Disney
  
• HAL
  
• NCL - Does not allow modifications eff. 9/15/2015
  
• P&O - UK (intersting, P&O Australia does not)
  
• Princess
  
• Oceania
  
• Windstar
  

Lines that Include in Fare

• Saga Crusies
  
• Thomson Cruises
  
• Azamara
  
• Hapag Lloyd
  
• Regent Seven Seas
  
• Seabourn
  
• Sea Dream
  
• Silversea
  

Lines that allow full discretion

• P&O Australia
  

Edited September 15, 2015 by cle-guy

[Grandma Gilly]

Just include tipping as part of the cruise cost as some other cruise companies do.

 

Agree 100% with you.

[cle-guy]

I too would love to see X make gratuities non-changeable.

 

The likelyhood of X including within the fare is slim to none, as in any general cruise search, all of a sudden X fares look higher than all competition, and peep will look elsewhere.

[grandgeezer]

Good move NCL. Cheap skates won't like this, but if you don't want to tip accordingly cruising is not for you.

 

Tips are an extra payment for good/exceptional service, if you aren't getting it why should you reward someone for not doing their job? Before you get your undies in a bundle, we've have never reduced/removed tips on any of our 39 cruises, but I want the option if it so arises. Add it to the fare and it eliminates the decision. Make it a service charge that is included in the fare and market it as such.

[AntjeG]

as VERY FEW companies do, and those being generally ultra luxury lines with cabin fares to match.

 

Lines that add on a gratuity:

• Cunard
  
• Costa - and DOES NOT allow modifications
  
• Carnival
  
• RCL
  
• Celebrity
  
• MSC- no modifications without proving bad service
  
• Cruise & Maritime Voyages
  
• Disney
  
• HAL
  
• NCL - Does not allow modifications eff. 9/15/2015
  
• P&O - UK (intersting, P&O Australia does not)
  
• Princess
  
• Oceania
  
• Windstar
  

Lines that Include in Fare

• Saga Crusies
  
• Thomson Cruises
  
• Azamara
  
• Hapag Lloyd
  
• Regent Seven Seas
  
• Seabourn
  
• Sea Dream
  
• Silversea
  

Lines that allow full discretion

• P&O Australia
  

 

May I add AIDA Cruises and TUI Cruises to those who include in the fare and FTI Cruises to those that add on.

 

I, too, would prefer all lines to include in the fare. We in Germany are not used to tipping in the meaning you Americans do. Service is included in our prices and tip means that I pay extra for extraordinary good service if I feel like it.

[Demonyte]

Make it a service charge that is included in the fare and market it as such.

 

With NCL it is DSC, definition of 'D' is debatable (daily or discretionary) but 'SC' stands for Service Charge.

[Pickels]

Good move NCL. Cheap skates won't like this, but if you don't want to tip accordingly cruising is not for you.

 

We've done this ever since we started cruising in 2003. The auto-gratuities are simply a starting point. If we receive crappy service or "attitude" from a crew member, that's all they get, it's a starting and ending point. BUT, if we receive outstanding service, which we have gotten from all of our cruises, they get an envelop at the end of the cruise, with a nice extra tip as our way of saying thank you for the great service.

[coldweathergirl]

This is a definition from the Miriam Webster online dictionary.

 

plural gra·tu·ities

Full Definition of GRATUITY

 

: something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service; especially : tip

 

I think if they're going to make it mandatory, then it isn't a gratuity and they should be including it in the price of the fare. By making it mandatory they are basically guaranteeing a subsidy to the employees wages via grats. If the prepaid gratuities are a booking incentive then I agree that you shouldn't be able to claw back the amount while on board.

 

We have never adjusted the amounts of our gratuities and usually give an additional one to those who give excellent service but we should have the right to adjust them if service is absolutely abysmal.

 

Hopefully if people do have service issues they go through the proper channels to have them investigated and rectified. Usually an organization likes to know of its deficiencies as that is the only way they can make improvements.

[TeaBag]

I think some people think the crew gets paid amply. I am still shocked by a woman who told me that she ate at the buffet every night because she didn't pay tips!:eek: Who did she think served at the buffet?

 

We pay gratuities up front on every cruise, and then it is done with. We give more at the end as others have said, for great service. These people on cruise ships work hard far away from their families and pay a huge personal price for their jobs.

 

I agree that Celebrity should just make it part of the cruise fare and document it as such.

[dabear]

Agree with costweathergirl. If it is not changable then call it a manditory service charge. We've never reduced the suggested gratuities but have given additional amounts for great service. Frankly, I think that a manditory sc should have a non changeable minimum & a recommended amount that would be charged without any further action. If you have poor service, they should not receive the same amount as someone who is doing what is expected of them.

[grandgeezer]

This is a definition from the Miriam Webster online dictionary.

 

plural gra·tu·ities

Full Definition of GRATUITY

 

: something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service; especially : tip

 

I think if they're going to make it mandatory, then it isn't a gratuity and they should be including it in the price of the fare. By making it mandatory they are basically guaranteeing a subsidy to the employees wages via grats. If the prepaid gratuities are a booking incentive then I agree that you shouldn't be able to claw back the amount while on board.

 

We have never adjusted the amounts of our gratuities and usually give an additional one to those who give excellent service but we should have the right to adjust them if service is absolutely abysmal.

 

Hopefully if people do have service issues they go through the proper channels to have them investigated and rectified. Usually an organization likes to know of its deficiencies as that is the only way they can make improvements.

 

I agree, especially with the last statement. Go to the person, who you think isn't given the level of service needed, and try to work it out with them. Don't go running to their boss unless the service doesn't improve. This doesn't apply to cruising.

[Pavovsky]

Cheapskates??

 

I withdrew the standard tip on a recent cruise due to horrible service. All I asked is that the restaurant where the horrible service occurred would not receive the tip and even asked that they reassign that tip to the cabin stewards. It was a point of principle. We were told no and we had to withdraw all - we did this but tipped individually the appropriate people as advised by guest relations and indeed to excess in the case of the fantastic cabin stewards - I could not even differentiate between their grades.

 

The staff should be properly paid. The US model of rewarding service industry staff has an agenda to take the employer off the hook for paying staff. When will the service charge for alcohol reach 25%?

 

I agree with recommended tips and always follow them unless faced with a poor situation.

 

PS - no doubt I will get comments that what I did was wrong in depriving someone of their tips. But I work hard for my time off and I won't get those evenings back.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited September 15, 2015 by Pavovsky

[cle-guy]

I never understand why people get so worked up over the "tip vs gratuity vs service charge" vocabulary.

 

Does it matter if you pay:

1. $2000 cruise fare
   
2. $1800 fare + $200 gratuity = $2000
   
3. $1800 fare + $200 tip = $2000
   
4. $1800 fare + $200 service charge = $2000
   

 

Is the concern simply the extra use of printer toner needed to print out the itemization of the charges? 'Cause that's really the only thing I can see different from the pricing displayed above.

 

However in reality, option #1 would become $2100 rather than $2000, costing us $100 more, if they included the amount in the fare, as they would have additional costs to consider internally and taxes to be paid on the revenue in some jurisdictions that wouldn't be due if the Gratuity is itemized out as a separate charge, that can be sheltered from Gross Revenue tax schemes.

 

Everyone basically says the same thing, pay staff appropriately, (and again what do we care if the ship pays them $10 an hour and no tips or $50 a month plus the tips - to the staff it is the same end of the day) I don't remove tips etc. So what does it matter if the pricing is just displayed using different vocabulary words that are essentially synonyms these days?

 

For a large business entity, "variable costs" and "variable revenues" you can have versus fixed pricing schemes help make business decisions be simpler, budgets and forecast more accurate etc. So keeping tips as an add-on itemization, lets them operate their business far more smoothly in times of ebb and flow of occupancy, and changing labor standards.

[george35]

On our last cruise I asked our room stewart & waiter, asst. waiter in the MDR would they rather being paid in cash or just let the pre-paid stay. They all said CASH, so I went & cancelled there part of the tips & gave them cash. I asked them why, they all said they don't have to put it in the pool.

 

george35

[yorkyred]

Tips are an extra payment for good/exceptional service, if you aren't getting it why should you reward someone for not doing their job? Before you get your undies in a bundle, we've have never reduced/removed tips on any of our 39 cruises, but I want the option if it so arises. Add it to the fare and it eliminates the decision. Make it a service charge that is included in the fare and market it as such.

 

Been on the one Thomson cruise with tips included and it's some of the best service we had. Had some terrible service on a cruise where tips were not included. I'm not convinced it would see a drop in service standards. Poor staff are poor staff regardless in my opinion.

[jasm8449]

On our last cruise I asked our room stewart & waiter, asst. waiter in the MDR would they rather being paid in cash or just let the pre-paid stay. They all said CASH, so I went & cancelled there part of the tips & gave them cash. I asked them why, they all said they don't have to put it in the pool.

 

george35

 

 

Please clarify.... so they don't contribute their tips to the pool, but they receive money from the pool on top of what you have given them in cash?

[Adidas4fun]

as VERY FEW companies do, and those being generally ultra luxury lines with cabin fares to match.

 

Lines that add on a gratuity:

• Cunard
  
• Costa - and DOES NOT allow modifications
  
• Carnival
  
• RCL
  
• Celebrity
  
• MSC- no modifications without proving bad service
  
• Cruise & Maritime Voyages
  
• Disney
  
• HAL
  
• NCL - Does not allow modifications eff. 9/15/2015
  
• P&O - UK (intersting, P&O Australia does not)
  
• Princess
  
• Oceania
  
• Windstar
  

Lines that Include in Fare

• Saga Crusies
  
• Thomson Cruises
  
• Azamara
  
• Hapag Lloyd
  
• Regent Seven Seas
  
• Seabourn
  
• Sea Dream
  
• Silversea
  

Lines that allow full discretion

• P&O Australia
  

This list is incomplete and incorrect.

 

For a starter P&O australia it is included in the fare. And they are definitely not a luxury carrier.

[SantaFeFan]

Tips are an extra payment for good/exceptional service, if you aren't getting it why should you reward someone for not doing their job? Before you get your undies in a bundle, we've have never reduced/removed tips on any of our 39 cruises, but I want the option if it so arises. Add it to the fare and it eliminates the decision. Make it a service charge that is included in the fare and market it as such.

 

If I receive less than expected levels of service, I will immediately speak up and have it corrected. Why endure inadequate service for the duration of the cruise and then only at the end take action by "punishing" the offending crew members? It is much better to get it corrected when it happens.

[cle-guy]

This list is incomplete and incorrect.

 

For a starter P&O australia it is included in the fare. And they are definitely not a luxury carrier.

 

My data source may be somewhat out of date. It was from 2013, from an article on Crusie Critic.

 

And certainly is not all-inclusive of all lines. But I think it covers the vast majority of main-line cruise ships at sea.

[dbvirago]

I addressed this in another thread and won't repeat all of it, but the gist of it is I always tip according to service, with my total being at or above what the ship would charge, but I always remove them from my bill and tip in cash.