RotaryMike Posted November 10, 2016 #251 Share Posted November 10, 2016 2 months ago, somebody was nice enough to do us all a favor and point out the 12/15 gratuity increase - and give us the (no pun intended) TIP that we could prepay by 11/15 and save enough to by a drink by the pool! let's just say, thank you steve, this has gotten way off topic and dragged out, and brings to mind what has become a famous quote, "at this point, what difference does it make" !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetiredNTraveling Posted November 10, 2016 #252 Share Posted November 10, 2016 2 months ago, somebody was nice enough to do us all a favor and point out the 12/15 gratuity increase - and give us the (no pun intended) TIP that we could prepay by 11/15 and save enough to by a drink by the pool! let's just say, thank you steve, this has gotten way off topic and dragged out, and brings to mind what has become a famous quote, "at this point, what difference does it make" !! I appreciated that post and as a result, we pre-paid our gratuities yesterday for our Oct 8, 2017 28 Day Hawaii, Samoa & Fr. Polynesia cruise! Didn't save a great deal but any little bit helps! Just Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chunder Worthy Posted November 10, 2016 #253 Share Posted November 10, 2016 They just continue to chip away $$$$..... This is why I have absolutely no qualms or compunctions about bringing my own alcohol on board with Cruise Caddys. Debate among yourselves [unsubscribing]. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuizer2 Posted November 10, 2016 #254 Share Posted November 10, 2016 No way to argue with a post like this: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=51303697&postcount=107 but... but... but... its personal choice I dont deny ALL the onboard staff do an incredible job, cant be easy trying to get thousands of people fed, watered, entertained, cabins clean, tidy and presentable - I`m British I dont tip... Cruisefan2012 That is an important point. Tipping seems to be fairly unique (not totally unique but fairly unique) to North America and totally foreign to some other cultures. There are cruise lines that pay their workers a living wage and those workers do not expect a tip. In addition, not every worker in the land based service industry in the United States gets tipped. My Mom was looking into an assisted living home and they had strict rules against tipping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrak Posted November 10, 2016 #255 Share Posted November 10, 2016 I believe that one of the reasons the gratuities keep increasing it simply to "make up" for all of the people who remove the gratuities. In order to maintain a certain level in the tip pool those who do pay have to pay more due to those who don't pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierlesscruisers Posted November 10, 2016 #256 Share Posted November 10, 2016 I believe that one of the reasons the gratuities keep increasing it simply to "make up" for all of the people who remove the gratuities. In order to maintain a certain level in the tip pool those who do pay have to pay more due to those who don't pay. I certainly can't argue with that logic. Personally, I think they just ought to lump that gratuity amount in with the rest of the cruise cost. That would certainly eliminate the problem with the cancellations. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaglady10 Posted November 11, 2016 #257 Share Posted November 11, 2016 Can we use OBC to pay gratuities? I've heard yes and no. This will be our 15th cruise but we've always pre-paid so this question never came up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuizer2 Posted November 11, 2016 #258 Share Posted November 11, 2016 Can we use OBC to pay gratuities? I've heard yes and no. This will be our 15th cruise but we've always pre-paid so this question never came up. Yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krozulo Posted November 11, 2016 #259 Share Posted November 11, 2016 I believe that one of the reasons the gratuities keep increasing it simply to "make up" for all of the people who remove the gratuities. In order to maintain a certain level in the tip pool those who do pay have to pay more due to those who don't pay. The problem is that as gratuities go up, the people who removed them at the lower levels will never suddenly start paying them. But more people will get fed up and remove them, requiring more frequent increases. The best way around this would be to remove gratuities and roll the wage increase into the trip cost. Now all the cruise lines would have to do it at the same time to avoid the perception that one is significantly more than the other, but considering that there are few parent companies it should be easy to do. Sprinkle in some creative marketing and the other cruise lines would quickly fall in place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KruzeKrazy! Posted November 11, 2016 #260 Share Posted November 11, 2016 We take a fairly pragmatic view of tipping: our total cruise cost equals travel to/from + any hotel/food pre- and/or post-cruise + cruise fare + excursions + onboard extras + tipping + miscellaneous expenses. Whatever that totals then the overall vacation experience is either worth it or not worth it. If worth it and we can take the time we go. If not worth it we don't go irrespective of whether we can take the time. We don't try to decipher all the behind the scenes gymnastics of how the money flows and to whom - that is the cruise line's business and between them and their constituencies (e.g. employers, contracted workers, etc.). What we try to do is have a great vacation - that is our part of the equation to ensure that the total benefit received is greater than the total paid out. And so far no cruise line nor cruise experience has failed to provide more benefit to us than we paid out for it. That's our story and we're sticking to it... [emoji2] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucky TGO Posted November 11, 2016 #261 Share Posted November 11, 2016 Here is my question: Our next cruise is April 2017, we will have $1100 OBC. If we prepay gratuities is there a way that we can use our OBC for that? If not, we would be better off waiting to pay on board with OBC. Does anyone have the answer to this, would sure appreciate the input. You can't use your OBC to prepay gratuities sorry. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeyancho Posted November 11, 2016 #262 Share Posted November 11, 2016 We take a fairly pragmatic view of tipping: our total cruise cost equals travel to/from + any hotel/food pre- and/or post-cruise + cruise fare + excursions + onboard extras + tipping + miscellaneous expenses. Whatever that totals then the overall vacation experience is either worth it or not worth it. If worth it and we can take the time we go. If not worth it we don't go irrespective of whether we can take the time. We don't try to decipher all the behind the scenes gymnastics of how the money flows and to whom - that is the cruise line's business and between them and their constituencies (e.g. employers, contracted workers, etc.). What we try to do is have a great vacation - that is our part of the equation to ensure that the total benefit received is greater than the total paid out. And so far no cruise line nor cruise experience has failed to provide more benefit to us than we paid out for it. That's our story and we're sticking to it... [emoji2] Pragmatic Indeed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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