Gratuity ?!? $30/person per day???

[MommaBear55]

That's STILL $420!!!!

 

 

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Yes, welcome to the cost of cruising. You are from NH, a tourism dependant state where many of the people depend on tips to supplement their $2.35 an hour. Can you imagine what life would be like in your community would be if everyone who ate out suddenly stopped tipping?

[e2011]

Yes, welcome to the cost of cruising. You are from NH, a tourism dependant state where many of the people depend on tips to supplement their $2.35 an hour. Can you imagine what life would be like in your community would be if everyone who ate out suddenly stopped tipping?

 

Thats an interesting idea. I like it! That would make all restaurants self service. I would be ok with that because then my water glass would always be full and my food would get to my plate hot! And when I wanted ketchup I would not have to wait 10 minutes and remind the waitress 2 times! Therefore self serve would be completely opposite of my experience last night at Outback! LOL

Edited February 19, 2016 by e2011

[DeeDouble302]

I add the gratuity into the cost of the cruise. I pay it before I sail and don't think about it again. Disney, like other cruise lines, discloses the fee in the contract. If you feel THAT strongly about it, you won't be the only one standing in the long line at Guest Services on the last night of the cruise to have it removed. *shrugs shoulders*

 

 

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[MommaBear55]

Thats an interesting idea. I like it! That would make all restaurants self service. I would be ok with that because then my water glass would always be full and my food would get to my plate hot! And when I wanted ketchup I would not have to wait 10 minutes and remind the waitress 2 times! Therefore self serve would be completely opposite of my experience last night at Outback! LOL

 

If I wanted to do all that work, I would eat at home! If I had service that poor, I would have left less than my usual 20% and asked to speak with the person in chqrge

[e2011]

If I wanted to do all that work, I would eat at home! If I had service that poor, I would have left less than my usual 20% and asked to speak with the person in chqrge

 

You are on to something. We should probably all eat at home more. Restaurant food is killing us slowly.

[philpcruiser]

I think what some people here are trying to say is that they'd prefer if all the miscellaneous charges were outright included in the cruise fare. Leave discretionary tipping up to the person. The cruise fare should include all costs (port charges, fuel costs, tax, wages (from the captain down to the person cleaning the dishes), etc., etc). For example, say my cable bill is quoted to be $120 per month. Then I get a bill adding on local tax, state tax, federal tax, franchise fee, box rental, remote control rental, sports surcharge, etc. Now my bill is $180 per month.

Please. Quote the bottom line when advertising cruise fares.

[GUT2407]

I think what some people here are trying to say is that they'd prefer if all the miscellaneous charges were outright included in the cruise fare. Leave discretionary tipping up to the person. The cruise fare should include all costs (port charges, fuel costs, tax, wages (from the captain down to the person cleaning the dishes), etc., etc). For example, say my cable bill is quoted to be $120 per month. Then I get a bill adding on local tax, state tax, federal tax, franchise fee, box rental, remote control rental, sports surcharge, etc. Now my bill is $180 per month.

Please. Quote the bottom line when advertising cruise fares.

 

I agree on the all inclusive fare what I worry about is tha it would start all over again. Many would insist on tipping yet more, calling anyone who didn't names, and the crew would expect yet more of everyone.

[cb at sea]

If you ate 3 meals per day in a restaurant, and stayed in a hotel (you do tip the housekeeper in hotels, don't you???), you would pay a similar amount.

 

This is the cost of traveling!

[moki'smommy]

I agree on the all inclusive fare what I worry about is tha it would start all over again. Many would insist on tipping yet more, calling anyone who didn't names, and the crew would expect yet more of everyone.

 

This is what I saw on Princess. The $13 per person per night charge is automatically included (as was the spa tip and soda package tip). There are no coupons, envelopes, or whatever as there are on DCL. On the last night, there was a lot of cash handed over in the dining room. Guess I'm cheap--the service was quite decent but not exceptional. I didn't tip above the automatic charge. In fact, we even discussed it on the level of "They did their job, but nothing more."

[pmd98052]

I thought Disney just took the money via your shipboard account?

 

Do I really have to mess with envelopes on the final night?

 

(Can you tell my first Disney cruise is coming up!)

[sarah.austin]

I believe you can pre-pay gratuities through the DCL phone line. I'll be calling to pay mine tomorrow :D:D:D

[moki'smommy]

I thought Disney just took the money via your shipboard account?

 

Do I really have to mess with envelopes on the final night?

 

(Can you tell my first Disney cruise is coming up!)

 

If you do nothing, your tips will be charged to your shipboard account. However, you will get envelopes and coupons in your room indicating the charge. You place the coupon in the envelope and hand it to the appropriate person on the last night. On DCL, it serves as a "fallback" system for the servers in the event that someone was substituting for another crew member, etc.

 

For example, we once had a very different name on the coupon than our server (yes, some do go by names other than their legal name). I asked about it, and it turned out that the guy named on my coupon had left the ship after the previous cruise for a scheduled vacation but the computer didn't seem to know that. My guy said it was no problem--he could submit the coupon and have that money credited to his account rather than the guy named in the system.

[sarah.austin]

Yes, welcome to the cost of cruising. You are from NH, a tourism dependant state where many of the people depend on tips to supplement their $2.35 an hour. Can you imagine what life would be like in your community would be if everyone who ate out suddenly stopped tipping?

 

Sorry, I find this post rude. Just because I was SURPRISED by the amount told to me by my friend ($30/day), and then was still surprised at the additional charge doesn't give you the right to insult me. It was a simple question and statement.

 

The cruise line CLEARLY outlines port fees/taxes as well as insurance fees. They are clearly spelled out in my bill when you login and view the details of my cruise. Service fees / gratuities are NOT as clearly spelled out. They are buried deep within the cruise contract, which is full of legal mumbo jumbo.

 

That said, I am calling tomorrow to pre-pay my $420 gratuities for my end of April cruise with DCL. $420 is almost my entire daily cruise charge limit. I'd hate to not be able to drink a specialty drink because my daily cruise tab is overlimit due to gratuities.

 

Sheesh.:mad:

[pmd98052]

If you do nothing' date=' your tips will be charged to your shipboard account. However, you will get envelopes and coupons in your room indicating the charge. You place the coupon in the envelope and hand it to the appropriate person on the last night. On DCL, it serves as a "fallback" system for the servers in the event that someone was substituting for another crew member, etc.

[/quote']

 

Thanks so if I do nothing they add the $12 per day per person to our onboard account charges and then some magic envelopes and coupons show up and I have to stuff those coupons into envelopes and then hand out - it all seems like a lot of work? Can't they just allocate the right amounts for me and I don't have to mess with this?

[moki'smommy]

Thanks so if I do nothing they add the $12 per day per person to our onboard account charges and then some magic envelopes and coupons show up and I have to stuff those coupons into envelopes and then hand out - it all seems like a lot of work? Can't they just allocate the right amounts for me and I don't have to mess with this?

 

You don't have to hand out the envelopes, but they will appear in your cabin. Provided that the right names are on the coupons, the right people will still get their tips that have been charged to your account.

 

It really isn't a lot of work. It will take less than 5 minutes of your cruise time. The servers will come to your table to say goodbye (even though most people will see them the next morning at breakfast). You simply hand them the envelope. For your stateroom host, if you don't see him/her, leave the envelope on the bed. He will get it when he does turndown service.

[MommaBear55]

Sorry, I find this post rude. Just because I was SURPRISED by the amount told to me by my friend ($30/day), and then was still surprised at the additional charge doesn't give you the right to insult me. It was a simple question and statement.

 

The cruise line CLEARLY outlines port fees/taxes as well as insurance fees. They are clearly spelled out in my bill when you login and view the details of my cruise. Service fees / gratuities are NOT as clearly spelled out. They are buried deep within the cruise contract, which is full of legal mumbo jumbo.

 

That said, I am calling tomorrow to pre-pay my $420 gratuities for my end of April cruise with DCL. $420 is almost my entire daily cruise charge limit. I'd hate to not be able to drink a specialty drink because my daily cruise tab is overlimit due to gratuities.

 

Sheesh.:mad:

 

Sorry you found it rude. I didn't set out to insult you, just a commentary on how our state's are impacted by tourist dollars. I don't think a lot of people realize that servers even in the States are paid around $2.35 an hour. I live next door in Maine and know what tourism does for our economy. With the lack of snow this year our local economy has taken a hit. We are also impacted by the current Canadian dollar.

 

Please double check your onboard account. There have been reports of people who have paid the auto grats ahead being billed again onboard.

Edited February 25, 2016 by MommaBear55

[moki'smommy]

Paying gratuities up front just places a credit for the amount of your gratuities on your account. It will then show up as a deduction which SHOULD equal the amount paid.

 

It is no different than just placing that dollar amount as an onboard credit. It is not as if they place a note that says "prepaid gratuities" and then don't show them as a deduction.

[broberts]

Certainly you can do this. But remember that for those in tipped positions' date=' the tip makes up almost all of the monetary compensation they receive. Don't short good people as a method of voicing an objection to a policy that they had nothing to do with. If you tip in cash, do tip an appropriate amount based on the service received. DCL has provided a guideline as to what is appropriate.

 

If they don't earn it, fine. In our experience, that has been very rare.[/quote']

 

It is a vexing problem. How else can one meaningfully express dissatisfaction with current practices of quoting cruise fares and remunerating certain cruise employees?

[Host Mick]

Cruise tipping as a form of salary is a beautiful thing.

With the tipping system, you as the consumer are able to pay the person providing the service almost immediately a wage based on your own assessment of the quality of the service provided.

If this person provides outstanding service, they are rewarded for it, motivated to do it again, even better perhaps to keep up the income stream.

On the other hand, poor service, as judged by the consumer is punished with below average wages, discouraging the service person and possibly forcing them to decide that the cruise business isn't worth the effort. This drives them to leave and get replaced by a better employee thereby improving the cruise experience for all future cruisers.

Ever wonder why so many waiters and stateroom stewards are so terrific? The slackers were driven out and excellence was rewarded. Future cruisers thank you.

[moki'smommy]

Cruise tipping as a form of salary is a beautiful thing.

With the tipping system, you as the consumer are able to pay the person providing the service almost immediately a wage based on your own assessment of the quality of the service provided.

If this person provides outstanding service, they are rewarded for it, motivated to do it again, even better perhaps to keep up the income stream.

On the other hand, poor service, as judged by the consumer is punished with below average wages, discouraging the service person and possibly forcing them to decide that the cruise business isn't worth the effort. This drives them to leave and get replaced by a better employee thereby improving the cruise experience for all future cruisers.

Ever wonder why so many waiters and stateroom stewards are so terrific? The slackers were driven out and excellence was rewarded. Future cruisers thank you.

 

This is correct to a point. It assumes that everyone understands the tipping system and that everyone has the same standards as well as accepting the system.

 

Supposedly the reason that the standard tips are now charged to your account automatically is that the tips when the Magic was in Europe were much lower than normal, likely due to different tipping standards in Europe. The current system was initially instituted as a trial on the Magic only, and spread to the other ships after the Magic tips became higher than on the others.

 

There are always jerks out there--we had a favorite server who is no longer with DCL. He was quite upset when we first saw him on one cruise, and with some insistence, I got him to tell me what was wrong. It seems that on the previous cruise he'd had a table of 16 people who totally stiffed him on tips. This incident was before automatic tipping, but we were told by another server that up to 1/3 of guests stiffed their servers! My take is that the guests were jerks as he was always totally excellent with us.

 

And then there is the idea that no matter how good the server might be, there is a budget for the individual family of guests. A guest may not choose to or be able to increase tips regardless of service level based on their own resources. Logically this would average out over many cruises as there are also guests who are able to be very generous.

 

No matter how or why, tipping will never be a perfect system. I'd love to see tipping as a "service charge" built into the cruise fare with the option of tipping extra for superior service. But, as you pointed out, this would guarantee a living wage for those rendering substandard service.

[tinybiny]

 

There are always jerks out there--we had a favorite server who is no longer with DCL. He was quite upset when we first saw him on one cruise' date=' and with some insistence, I got him to tell me what was wrong. It seems that on the previous cruise he'd had a table of 16 people who totally stiffed him on tips. This incident was before automatic tipping, but we were told by another server that up to 1/3 of guests stiffed their servers! My take is that the guests were jerks as he was always totally excellent with us.

[/quote']

 

This was a big problem on our Alaskan cruise, also done before the automatic tipping was put into place. Our last night had a late port stop in Victoria. Anyone going to Victoria would have missed dinner. The night before, we gave our servers their envelopes (saw a few other cruisers do it, too) and we also cashed a check for an extra $100. to give our server at the end of dinner. She burst out in thankful tears and said that most people weren't tipping at all on that cruise. I assumed the lack of tips had to do with going ashore for dinner on the last night - the standard tipping night. It was really terrible planning for DCL, but they did add the automatic tipping by our next cruise.

[nona0541]

Right, I understand that gratuity is warranted for good service. My last cruise was on NCL and we tipped separately. DCL does it different apparently.

 

Also, I have booked 3 nights of special dinners (Remy & Palo) so I understand special gratuity applies there. Then why would I be charged for the dining server when I'm somewhere else, giving more gratuity? (I have read somewhere that those places cost more and do not include gratuity).

 

Again, I'm certainly NOT opposed to gratuity but it really should be built in to the cost.

 

I have been on 15+ cruises with NCL and they have ALWAYS added $12 per day per person and if you tipped separately you would have had to remove the automatic service charge and then did your tipping. All of the cruise lines today add an automatic service charge to you OBC.

Edited February 26, 2016 by nona0541

[e2011]

I found this on the internet:

 

Tipping varies extensively among cultures. Though by definition a tip is never legally required, and its amount is at the discretion of the one being served, for travellers it can cause some serious dilemmas. In some circumstances failing to give an adequate tip when one is expected to is a serious faux pas, and may be considered very miserly, a violation of etiquette, or unethical. In some other cultures or situations, giving a tip is not expected and offering one would be considered at best odd and at worst condescending or demeaning. In some cultures it might be seen as a bribe, and in some circumstances (for example tipping government workers), tipping can even be illegal.

In most countries service personnel get paid enough to live on, and they do not have to rely on tips. While intentions are clearly good, (mostly North American) tourists are sometimes not aware of this, (or they know, but they just feel bad not tipping), and they export their generous behaviour to other countries where tipping is traditionally not customary, especially to tourist areas. Of course, this is quickly accepted (how would you react if someone gave you extra money) and creates expectations that were not there before.

If you are tipping in a foreign country, ask yourself what that amount means for the one you are giving it to, not how much (or how little) it is for you. In some countries people occasionally get tipped a month's salary. While this definitely is cool for them, it can cause serious trouble. Think a waiter earning more than the chief of police...

Another problem is that, while tipping was originally intended to improve service, some employers use it to underpay workers with the expectation that tips will make up the difference. Good examples for this can be found in Namibia, even at government-owned facilities, and in the United States, where restaurant staff are routinely paid less than the minimum wage for other occupations.

In countries where tipping is expected (the US for example, where service personnel depend on it), complicated unofficial standards and customs have developed over the exact percentage to tip, and what should and should not be included in this calculation. In other countries and cultures the topic is way more relaxed. It is not easy for the traveller to know what to expect when they go to a foreign country. The idea of this article is to have some basic idea of the customs in other countries before you go there and embarrass yourself:

 

Wow! The US has the same low balling of service staff as Namibia. As Trump would say..thats really sad.

Edited February 27, 2016 by e2011

[bmc alabama]

]

 

Wow! The US has the same low balling of service staff as Namibia. As Trump would say..thats really sad.

 

 

As a former waiter, I can tell you that there are not many waiters that want to be paid via wage rather than tips. When I waited tables (at a mid-level chain restaurant), I made $3.27 an hour from the restaurant. However, I came home with usually $60-$100 in tips for a 4-6 hour shift and I'd do much better than that on holidays, and this was in early 90's dollars.

 

My actual wage was much higher if you looked at what I actually brought home. In Europe, where wait staff is often on a "minimum or higher wage", there isn't as much tipping as it is built in. However, the consumer still bears the cost through higher menu prices. There is no free lunch.

 

I'd rather work in a system where I could be rewarded for my productivity or excellence by making more $$ by waiting harder (picking up tables, etc.) rather than having no incentive to do beyond the basic.

 

But that's just me...

 

 

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[e2011]

As a former waiter, I can tell you that there are not many waiters that want to be paid via wage rather than tips. When I waited tables (at a mid-level chain restaurant), I made $3.27 an hour from the restaurant. However, I came home with usually $60-$100 in tips for a 4-6 hour shift and I'd do much better than that on holidays, and this was in early 90's dollars.

 

My actual wage was much higher if you looked at what I actually brought home. In Europe, where wait staff is often on a "minimum or higher wage", there isn't as much tipping as it is built in. However, the consumer still bears the cost through higher menu prices. There is no free lunch.

 

I'd rather work in a system where I could be rewarded for my productivity or excellence by making more $$ by waiting harder (picking up tables, etc.) rather than having no incentive to do beyond the basic.

 

But that's just me...

 

 

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And of course you declared all those tips on your tax return...