Tipping on board brittania?

[jeanlyon]

I agree, but I don't want it called a "gratuity". It's a service charge. I tip if I want. If it's a service charge, then I have no choice.

[balf]

Exactly. If you end up paying them out of the cruise fare, that means that will increase to cover them.

 

Yes of course the customer always pays all the costs of every business within the price of the product or the service. But customers are not expected to tip the check out staff in Asda or the dustmen (refuse operatives) or the postman.

 

Which is another way of saying include the tips in the fare.

 

Which I believe would be the choice of most passengers except the ones who don't pay of course.

 

DAVID.

[peteukmcr]

I agree, but I don't want it called a "gratuity". It's a service charge. I tip if I want. If it's a service charge, then I have no choice.

On the invoices in the U.K. for both Celebrity and Royal Caribbean pre paid gratuities are actually listed as "On board service charge" and it has been listed as such for years.

[SteveH2508]

On the invoices in the U.K. for both Celebrity and Royal Caribbean pre paid gratuities are actually listed as "On board service charge" and it has been listed as such for years.

 

NCL also call it a service charge.

[SteveH2508]

Yes of course the customer always pays all the costs of every business within the price of the product or the service. But customers are not expected to tip the check out staff in Asda or the dustmen (refuse operatives) or the postman.

 

Which is another way of saying include the tips in the fare.

 

Which I believe would be the choice of most passengers except the ones who don't pay of course.

 

DAVID.

 

I remember as a kid being told to keep quiet when the dustmen came around at Christmas time because they were after their "Christmas box" (I know that this is now forbidden BTW).

 

Another vote for include the 'tips' in the fare. - stops the pocklers in their tracks.

[Selbourne]

Yes of course the customer always pays all the costs of every business within the price of the product or the service. But customers are not expected to tip the check out staff in Asda or the dustmen (refuse operatives) or the postman.

 

Which is another way of saying include the tips in the fare.

 

Which I believe would be the choice of most passengers except the ones who don't pay of course.

 

DAVID.

 

I agree. Auto gratuities should be abolished and incorporated into a slightly higher cruise price. If that deters a few people from cruising with P&O then so be it. If people booking P&O cruises are so hard pressed that they can't afford the slightly extra cost then you can guarantee that these are the people who will remove the auto gratuities but not tip directly (do the maths - it's the only logical conclusion of that argument).

 

I maintain that I want to cruise with an operator who pays all staff a fair wage that doesn't rely upon gratuities. It will also result in a big improvement in service levels as customers such as me will continue to tip those who provide exemplary service.

 

Finally, although I've never done it myself (or even considered it) I think it's an interesting and clever move to tip certain staff up front (as discussed earlier in this thread) as it would undoubtedly result in them going the extra mile for you throughout your holiday. To say this is 'bribery' is rather silly. The staff benefit financially and the passengers benefit from a better experience as a result. Could be a very smart move. May have to consider it myself!

Edited November 5, 2016 by Selbourne

[mrbluesea]

If I am on say a 14 day cruise I think it's quite reasonable to to tip the cabin staff half way through the cruise and then again at the end of the cruise. It just shows appreciation for service received. Its just the same as tipping the steward who brings breakfast to your room in the morning.

No need to wait until the end of the cruise before giving a tip.

[terrierjohn]

I agree. Auto gratuities should be abolished and incorporated into a slightly higher cruise price. If that deters a few people from cruising with P&O then so be it. If people booking P&O cruises are so hard pressed that they can't afford the slightly extra cost then you can guarantee that these are the people who will remove the auto gratuities but not tip directly (do the maths - it's the only logical conclusion of that argument).

 

I maintain that I want to cruise with an operator who pays all staff a fair wage that doesn't rely upon gratuities. It will also result in a big improvement in service levels as customers such as me will continue to tip those who provide exemplary service.

 

Finally, although I've never done it myself (or even considered it) I think it's an interesting and clever move to tip certain staff up front (as discussed earlier in this thread) as it would undoubtedly result in them going the extra mile for you throughout your holiday. To say this is 'bribery' is rather silly. The staff benefit financially and the passengers benefit from a better experience as a result. Could be a very smart move. May have to consider it myself!

Demand and supply dictates cruise ship wages, just as it does throughout industry, and you can rest assured that if the P&O wage (inclusive of service charge) was not in line with the rest of the cruise industry, then the staff would vote with their feet.

Incidentally it would not surprise me if the cruise lines were not regularly asking their waiters and bar staff how they wanted paying, fixed flat rate from the company or floating "tip" rate from the passengers; and since the major mass market lines are still using the "tip" route, you can draw your own conclusions from that.

[the english lady]

Working on the theory that if you give certain people upfront money, so they looked after you and made you "special" , what would happen if everyone decided to tip upfront ,so everyone was "special". How would the staff deal with that scenario?

Unlikely I know but that is what wandered into my mind.

The staff know what is expected of them. I was under the impression that nice as having money is, if they wanted to progress upwards the questionnaire was more important.

Should one of the questions be..did you tip you room steward up front to give you very good service, or did he do it without the financial incentive, just to be a fantastic steward, and progress upwards.

We do not tip up front , we leave the auto grats in place, and do not tip on top.

Never had a problem getting a drink anywhere, or the room steward very quickly getting to know when was the best chance of finding our cabin empty to tidy it up.

[Selbourne]

Demand and supply dictates cruise ship wages, just as it does throughout industry, and you can rest assured that if the P&O wage (inclusive of service charge) was not in line with the rest of the cruise industry, then the staff would vote with their feet .

 

I see your point and it would be a logical argument but for the fact that different cruise lines focus their recruitment on different parts of the world , so that may not be an easy choice for individuals to make. For example, P&O have major recruitment operations in a couple of specific areas in India and the Far East (hence the two principal nationalities of waiting staff and cabin stewards), whereas, to take another UK based operator, Cruise and Maritime Voyages, their staff are principally Eastern European. Certainly in the case of P&O (but I would suspect others as well), staff are flown home in large groups at the employers expense. This makes it very difficult for staff to work for an employer who doesn't focus on their home region. I would imagine that even if several cruise lines recruit from the same countries they may well focus on different regions in order that they aren't all fishing from the same pond, as it were.

Edited November 6, 2016 by Selbourne

[Selbourne]

Working on the theory that if you give certain people upfront money, so they looked after you and made you "special" , what would happen if everyone decided to tip upfront ,so everyone was "special". How would the staff deal with that scenario?

Unlikely I know but that is what wandered into my mind.

The staff know what is expected of them. I was under the impression that nice as having money is, if they wanted to progress upwards the questionnaire was more important.

Should one of the questions be..did you tip you room steward up front to give you very good service, or did he do it without the financial incentive, just to be a fantastic steward, and progress upwards.

We do not tip up front , we leave the auto grats in place, and do not tip on top.

Never had a problem getting a drink anywhere, or the room steward very quickly getting to know when was the best chance of finding our cabin empty to tidy it up.

 

The scenario that you describe just wouldn't happen. If all human beings were generous and inclined to tip regularly and even in anticipation of service yet to be received, then we wouldn't be having this debate as P&O would have no need to apply auto gratuities!

 

Of course, the approach you are currently taking is absolutely the right one given the current system. If auto gratuities are applied and you don't remove them, then you should feel no obligation whatsoever to tip in addition.

 

The questionnaire is indeed of great importance to some staff. We had a very enlightening conversation with our cabin steward on Britannia this year. She told us that she had worked on other P&O ships but really disliked working on Britannia as the management were unpleasant to work for and unreasonable in their demands. She had lost 2 stone in weight (and she was small to start with)

and when it was questionnaire time she was almost pleading with us to give the top score (she told us which specific questions she was assessed against) as she would 'get into trouble' if she didn't get good results. Very sad.

 

As previously stated, you will never struggle to be served a drink as the drinks waiting staff receive commission on all sales, so you are effectively tipping them without knowing.

[davecttr]

The problem I see with a discretionary service charge is that people who get the charge removed are having their holiday price subsidised by the rest of us who leave the auto tips on. If you then tip some staff individually you are still getting subsidised by the rest of us because those tips are not going to all the staff who would share in the auto tipping pool. The logical conclusion is to include tips in the fare as P&O Australia does.

 

I don't think the crew are given the choice of 'gratuities' or a much more complex living wage. IMO the arrangements in place are for the convenience and profit of the company not the staff.

 

I can't see how where the staff are recruited would make any difference. Thomson include the tips in the fare and their staff come from all over the world. A few years ago in captains question time they gave a breakdown for that ship:

 

Officers - mostly European

Hotel - Indonesian

Bar/waiters - Filipino

Deck /engineering -Malaya

Security - Nepal

Entertainment - almost everywhere. Dance mostly british.

 

Yet on other Thomson ships there are large numbers of eastern Europeans, equally efficient and happy so the wage structure must work for them as well.

 

ps - I find a Nepalese security team kind of reassuring. I wonder why ;)

[terrierjohn]

I see your point and it would be a logical argument but for the fact that different cruise lines focus their recruitment on different parts of the world , so that may not be an easy choice for individuals to make. For example, P&O have major recruitment operations in a couple of specific areas in India and the Far East (hence the two principal nationalities of waiting staff and cabin stewards), whereas, to take another UK based operator, Cruise and Maritime Voyages, their staff are principally Eastern European. Certainly in the case of P&O (but I would suspect others as well), staff are flown home in large groups at the employers expense. This makes it very difficult for staff to work for an employer who doesn't focus on their home region. I would imagine that even if several cruise lines recruit from the same countries they may well focus on different regions in order that they aren't all fishing from the same pond, as it were.

A large number of P&O waiters are from Goa, but equally Celebrity also have a lot of Goanese amongst their waiters, so the staff clearly have a choice and, even though the gratuity level on Celebrity is far higher, they appear willing to opt for P&O contracts.

My assumption being that the P&O base rate is far higher than Celebrity resulting in parity between the two.

Your comments about your cabin steward are more worrying, and these sort of comments do appear in a number of reviews. This is quite the opposite on Celebrity where the cabin staff and waiters do seem far happier, and quite a number of them have been working for Celebrity for 15-20 years.

[Waju]

I think all talk of tipping/auto gratuities should be banned on these boards! It should be a completely personal choice as to whether or not you leave auto gratuities on or take them off, whether you tip extra at the beginning or the end of your cruise or don't - it's your money so its up to you.

 

I've actually never understood why it seems to be really important to tip the waiters - they deliver the food to the table. The people who have done the important bit are in the kitchen preparing and cooking it. If the waiters service is good that's because the kitchen have plated it up quickly, he/she wouldn't be able to get it to the table if the kitchen hadn't yet peeled the spuds. I wouldn't dream of tipping the lovely lady who brings me my breakfast in Sainsburys on a Sunday morning!

 

All that said, the fairest way would be for the cruise line to pay their staff a fair and living wage and charge passengers accordingly. The passenger can then choose which line they want to/can afford to travel with.

 

Don't worry about tipping, its your money - do whatever you want with it and have a lovely, stress free cruise.

[kruzgal]

I think gratuities needs to be rolled in to the cruise fare as we don't have a strong tipping culture in this country, especially when compared to the US. I was surprised on the Britannia facebook page recently when the subject of tips was brought up and there was post after post advising people to have them removed without question. It was just considered perfectly normal to remove them. We have cruised with various lines for many years and never removed the tips before but I am now questioning our approach. I feel that I am being stupid subsidising the many non payers and in future I may change my stance and remove the tips. If we all removed them the company would be forced to change the way they pay their staff and roll it in to the cruise fare, fairer on everybody.

[jeanlyon]

I'm not sure why you think those that remove them don't tip? We remove them, but we do tip, the same amount, just personally. I am friends with others who cruise and they do the same.

[SteveH2508]

I'm not sure why you think those that remove them don't tip? We remove them, but we do tip, the same amount, just personally. I am friends with others who cruise and they do the same.

 

Some do, many do not - and I will bet a pound to a pinch that those who do tip in cash, tip less in total than the total of auto-tip.

 

BTW - we leave the auto-tips in place and tip a bit extra if we feel it is deserved.

[terrierjohn]

Some do, many do not - and I will bet a pound to a pinch that those who do tip in cash, tip less in total than the total of auto-tip.

 

BTW - we leave the auto-tips in place and tip a bit extra if we feel it is deserved.

Some say they do tip the full amount, but if so why not leave the service charge on, and why is handing over an envelope so important to them.

I always say thank you to our steward and waiters as they provide the service to us during the cruise, and I get the impression this is appreciated far more than seeking an obsequious thank you from them on the last day.

[kruzgal]

I'm not sure why you think those that remove them don't tip? We remove them, but we do tip, the same amount, just personally. I am friends with others who cruise and they do the same.

 

Purely because of the nature of the posts on the facebook page...very matter of fact and up front along the lines of ...you don't have to pay, queue up, fill in the form and get them removed. This wasn't one post, but multiple posts all in the same vein. Those of us who do pay are subsidising those who don't and it is grossly unfair. Much better, in my opinion, to roll a smaller amount in to every cruise fare and say 'service charge included'.

 

It would be easy for P&O to look at how many customers typically pay their tips automatically (I suspect quite a low percentage) and distribute that amount across all cruise fares. Given that P&O tips are relatively low anyway there would be very little additional cost to every holiday and they could advertise saying "no tipping" "gratuities included". The staff would be no worse off and they would have a marketing advantage - they are missing a trick!

[insanemagnet]

It would be easy for P&O to look at how many customers typically pay their tips automatically (I suspect quite a low percentage) and distribute that amount across all cruise fares. Given that P&O tips are relatively low anyway there would be very little additional cost to every holiday and they could advertise saying "no tipping" "gratuities included". The staff would be no worse off and they would have a marketing advantage - they are missing a trick!

 

So doing it your way P&O would receive the same amount of money, but need to advertise higher headline fares. And the additional revenue would feature in its accounts for taxation, etc.

 

I think they will pass on your idea.

 

 

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[kruzgal]

I am sure they will, but it's a shame. Other cruise lines manage it without a problem.

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

 

BTW - we leave the auto-tips in place and tip a bit extra if we feel it is deserved.

 

 

Why would you tip twice? Madness!!! I bet the stewards have a right laugh at your expense.

 

 

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[terrierjohn]

Why would you tip twice? Madness!!! I bet the stewards have a right laugh at your expense.

 

 

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Because the auto tip makes their wage up to a reasonable level, and the extra bit is if they exceed the standard, and I hope they don't feel the need to laugh.

[balf]

So doing it your way P&O would receive the same amount of money, but need to advertise higher headline fares. And the additional revenue would feature in its accounts for taxation, etc.

 

I think they will pass on your idea.

 

 

Sent from my XT1072 using Tapatalk

 

No, they would advertise as "all gratuities included". I don't believe the quoted price is the main priority with most customers: ship, itinerary, and preferred line are what most look for before price.

 

I have sailed on no tipping ships and the whole atmosphere was more relaxed both for the staff and the passengers with not having this unfair and decisive system in force.

 

DAVID.

[balf]

Because the auto tip makes their wage up to a reasonable level, and the extra bit is if they exceed the standard, and I hope they don't feel the need to laugh.

 

You don't think the staff laugh at the passengers then?

 

David