Daily Service Charges

[riclop]

Does MSC Seaside have an option to prepay the Daily Service Charges like other cruise lines do?

Yes by calling.

[8420PR]

Playing dumb? No one is playing dumb. I am simply stating that some people get frustrated paying their vacation, in full, months in advance only to find hundreds of dollars of additional charges during the trip.

Yeah, I also think most people do it to save money. Many times I've been told by people that I can save €70 by removing the service charges at reception.... Personally, I blame MSC as if they confirmed/published how it is split between staff then I think less people would remove it. Worst case was a neighbour on NCL who accused the cabin attendant of stealing cash as a justification for removing the service charge.

[MarkusToe]

Lets be real here...EVERYONE knows daily gratuity/service charges are in addition to your cruise fare for ALL the mainline cruise companies. It amazes me how people play "dumb" on this topic!!

 

nope, not true:

NCL and TUI do not charge gratuity nor tax nor service charge - bookings made in Germany :)

 

do you know why: EASY, its angainst the law here....

[gatlinburg]

needing some help please. When we booked our upcoming Cruise to the Mediterranean last year, I was sure to add some "onboard" credit $$$ to our account when booking our excursions, and wifi, and drink packages. I'd like to add some more credit, but for the life of me, I cannot remember how to do it, and I'm needing a walk-thru on how to add some more $$$ to our onboard credit amount. Thank you~ *leaving out of Marseille on "The Wonder" 31-3-18

[korpo024]

I don't want to start a firestorm by asking this- but does anyone know if you can decline to pay the daily charges like you can on other cruise lines?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

YES you can, and it is totally normal on an European cruise, to do so, if you are not getting the service you think you deserve. I Always get frustrated by people who complain a lot about a cruise line, but do pay the tips....in europe you only tip, when you get good service.

So if the ship is messy, if the room is messy, or the staff do not try to give you service, than DO NOT TIP! If you do, the European cruiselines, will think they do a good job....so they never learn....

[korpo024]

Whats your definition of bad service?? Unless its consistently bad for the whole cruise...this shouldn't be an issue!! Also, don't forget....assuming you had a bad dining experience for the WHOLE cruise....but your room steward was fantastic... your taking $$ from him/her unless you make sure to pay them seperately.

 

What a strange view on tipping...but hey..I am European...and I only tip when I get good service...

[1AL]

What a strange view on tipping...but hey..I am European...and I only tip when I get good service...

 

Americans have an expression which says: There's a sucker born every minute.

Truly applies to most Americans and their ridiculous tipping mentality.

Ah America: the land of handouts, freeway off-ramp beggars and gun-slinging crazies!

[pukekolive]

Playing dumb? No one is playing dumb. I am simply stating that some people get frustrated paying their vacation, in full, months in advance only to find hundreds of dollars of additional charges during the trip. Also, in reference to your comment about playing dumb, MSC is not particularly clear about daily gratuities. If you are a new cruiser and simply go on the website, it is not exactly easy to find out about additional fees and many new cruisers would likely expect that once their booking is paid for, that's it. There is no mention of additional gratuities during the booking process nor is it easy to find this information on the website. It is there. I know it is. But, you have to search and dig for it before you can find it. Again, for the awesome perfect cruise people on this website. No problem. For someone who is new, how can you just say "oh, you're playing dumb." Go and search "daily gratuity" on the MSC website and tell me how many search results you get? Here, I'll make it simple: ZERO. Try "daily service fee." I'll make it simple again. ZERO results when searching on the MSC website.

 

You can't say this isn't by design. Why wouldn't a cruise line want to talk about all the extra fees like daily gratuities, drinks (no menu prices on the website), specialty food etc that is not included during the booking process? Because all this stuff adds about $1000 to the cost of your vacation, that's why. This information is all segmented so it's therefore harder to get an aggregate number on costs.

There's a very obvious table of gratuity rates based on Cruise destination in the MSC printed brochure for Australia and New Zealand entitled 'Service Charge Table' so not hidden here. Plus there is a section in the Terms and Conditions and we have the option to prepay gratuities with our fares as we do not too here.

 

Sent from my SM-A320Y using Forums mobile app

[Beamafar]

Truly applies to most Americans and their ridiculous tipping mentality.

 

The mind boggles at their acceptance that (some) people should depend on the generosity of their customers for their income, just so employers can get away with not paying a decent wage. :rolleyes:

[awj.hove]

Have been fortunate never to have experienced such poor service / food as to want to reduce or refuse to pay the service charge. I do not have as much experience as many on the Forum but have done 2 cruises with MSC, 2 with Thomson's, and 1 with Royal Caribbean.

I have already purchased enough On Board credit to cover the Service fee and plan to buy a bit more soon to cover some drinks in bars as neither my wife nor myself drink much ( have already purchased the wine and water package plus internet )

One thing that does worry me is whether MSC put a hold figure against your card when you register it as I would be annoyed if a Direct Debit for a Utility did not get paid because of that particularly when I have gone to the effort of making sure there is enough in the On Board Account.

[1AL]

The mind boggles at their acceptance that (some) people should depend on the generosity of their customers for their income, just so employers can get away with not paying a decent wage. :rolleyes:

 

All the while the top brass rake in MILLIONS and MILLIONS of $$$$. Trickle down economics does not seem to work well with cruiselines' employee remuneration (especially those lower down the food chain). Here is what some of the top guns at some major cruiselines have earned in recent years. Data is from required financial filings. Here is the source of this info: http://crew-center.com/cruise-lines-top-paid-ceos-salaries-2015

 

 

According to Bloomberg the biggest compensation for 2015 was paid to the Norwegian cruise line CEO Frank J. Del Rio of a staggering $31.9 million. This is quite enormous sum of money considering that in 2014 his compensation was only $2.1 million.

Richard Fain, Royal Caribbean CEO holds the second place, finishing the year with $9.4 million in compensation, bonuses and stock awards. His compensation paycheck for 2014 was $12 million.

Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc Chief Executive Officer and President, Arnold W. Donald, cashed $9,373,908 in total compensations in 2015.

Holland America Line Inc. Stein Kruse has been HAL Chief Executive Officer since December 1, 2013. Mr. Kruse total compensation in salaries and bonuses for 2015 was $4,001,725.

Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises CEO, Jason Montague, paycheck for 2015 was $3.4milion.

Costa Crociere S.P.A. Chief Executive Officer Mr. Michael Olaf Thamm finished the fiscal year 2015 with total compensation of $3,393,80. He has been with Carnival Corporation as Chief Executive Officer of The Costa Group at Carnival plc since July 2012.

Comparison with the crew member salary

So let’s compare NCL CEO paycheck of $31.9 million with a cruise ship waiter average monthly salary of $3000. It will take 10.633 months or 886 years to reach a $31.9 million yearly compensation of his CEO or by the end of the year 2902.

 

Royal Caribbean CEO yearly compensation of $12 million compared with utility cleaner monthly salary of $650. It will take 19.846 months or 1653 years to reach the $12 million yearly compensation of his CEO or by the year 3669.

Edited March 30, 2018 by 1AL

[suzyed]

Americans have an expression which says: There's a sucker born every minute.

Truly applies to most Americans and their ridiculous tipping mentality.

Ah America: the land of handouts, freeway off-ramp beggars and gun-slinging crazies!

WOW! Just WOW!

[korpo024]

Not sure if it will expand to the Seaside, but the Divina has started something new. You have to get the form to reduce or remove gratuities from your room steward. That way you can look them in the eye to say you are sorry you are taking money away from them. :o

 

Bret

 

Not the case on Divina now May 2.

[korpo024]

All the while the top brass rake in MILLIONS and MILLIONS of $$$$. Trickle down economics does not seem to work well with cruiselines' employee remuneration (especially those lower down the food chain). Here is what some of the top guns at some major cruiselines have earned in recent years. Data is from required financial filings. Here is the source of this info: http://crew-center.com/cruise-lines-top-paid-ceos-salaries-2015

 

 

According to Bloomberg the biggest compensation for 2015 was paid to the Norwegian cruise line CEO Frank J. Del Rio of a staggering $31.9 million. This is quite enormous sum of money considering that in 2014 his compensation was only $2.1 million.

Richard Fain, Royal Caribbean CEO holds the second place, finishing the year with $9.4 million in compensation, bonuses and stock awards. His compensation paycheck for 2014 was $12 million.

Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc Chief Executive Officer and President, Arnold W. Donald, cashed $9,373,908 in total compensations in 2015.

Holland America Line Inc. Stein Kruse has been HAL Chief Executive Officer since December 1, 2013. Mr. Kruse total compensation in salaries and bonuses for 2015 was $4,001,725.

Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises CEO, Jason Montague, paycheck for 2015 was $3.4milion.

Costa Crociere S.P.A. Chief Executive Officer Mr. Michael Olaf Thamm finished the fiscal year 2015 with total compensation of $3,393,80. He has been with Carnival Corporation as Chief Executive Officer of The Costa Group at Carnival plc since July 2012.

Comparison with the crew member salary

So let’s compare NCL CEO paycheck of $31.9 million with a cruise ship waiter average monthly salary of $3000. It will take 10.633 months or 886 years to reach a $31.9 million yearly compensation of his CEO or by the end of the year 2902.

 

Royal Caribbean CEO yearly compensation of $12 million compared with utility cleaner monthly salary of $650. It will take 19.846 months or 1653 years to reach the $12 million yearly compensation of his CEO or by the year 3669.

...And they expect me to tip?! Hahahaha

[cruzeluver]

In 20 plus cruise have never felt the need nor felt the slightest inclination to remove pay from the crews that have taken such good care of me. But if such a situation were to arise, it would be after trying to resolve the service quality issue without success, and I would let the crew members know and not just take away their pay while continuing allow the to provide me with service.

[travelberlin]

What a strange view on tipping...but hey..I am European...and I only tip when I get good service...

Well you will usually get a good service from your waiters and cabin attendant. The tips are for them to increase their income.

You will not always get good service from guest relations or from managers, but if you remove the tips you are not affecting them.

Ivi

[suzyed]

In 20 plus cruise have never felt the need nor felt the slightest inclination to remove pay from the crews that have taken such good care of me. But if such a situation were to arise, it would be after trying to resolve the service quality issue without success, and I would let the crew members know and not just take away their pay while continuing allow the to provide me with service.

I would do the same.

[perakcruiser]

You think the guests that remove the DSC do this because a poor performance of a single crew member? Sure, possible, but I think this is a fraction.

 

From my observation :D there are two main reasons why guests cancel:

 

1. The ones that always cancel by saying "Nice try, MSC, but I already paid you for this holiday in advance. If I tip anybody on this boat or not that is only my personal thing."

 

2. The ones that are unhappy with MSCs performance and think that the company does not deserve any extra reward. Or at least not with an amount of 10 Euros per day.