Gratuity

[ldubs]

43 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

My first cruise, before we had internet, had no idea. Booked through an agent, no mention of it at all.

 

but then I also had no idea that some companies indeed some countries don’t pay their staff and make them live on charity.

 

I believe you.  Now let's move to the 21st century.  I know I'll get a lot of comments otherwise, but i still think it is pretty amazing if someone booked a cruise and wasn't aware.   

(BTW, not commenting about or intending to ridicule the OP.  OP was well aware of grats and asked about payment options.  )

Edited November 9, 2018 by ldubs

[donaldsc]

On 10/31/2018 at 8:27 PM, ldubs said:

Are there really people who book and show up for a cruise with no idea that there is going to be an additional daily gratuity added?  This has been going on forever.   I don't want to sound cruel, but if someone honestly didn't know about this before seeing their shipboard statement, I would wonder how they even managed to book a cruise and find the port.

 

OK, maybe, just maybe, someone "won" a "free" cruise for listening to a timeshare sale pitch and didn't read the fine print?   

 

It is called selective memory.  You remember only the stuff that is  advantageous to you either financially or personally and you somehow don't learn or forget everything else.

 

DON

[TruckerDave]

On 10/31/2018 at 12:20 PM, Not Mrs C said:

This is one of the reasons I will never go cruising again.  Total rip off.  We went with Holland America, they added a substantial amount to our bills for gratuity. They then proceeded to add 10% to the bill every time we ordered a drink at the bar.  The excursions were over priced.  We were told on a number of occasions by the cruise line if you don't book with them you will not be guaranteed to get back to the ship on time.  Utter rubbish.  On one excursion all the passengers took a rail trip.  Over $100 per head from the cruise line.  If you walked to the station 500yards from the boat, you could get the same train ride for about $25.  Same train same times (only one train ran).  Never book an excursion through the cruise liner every single one we could get cheaper in the local resort. As for gratuity - I would prefer to tip were I have received good service, cruising to me is not exceptional service, its like staying in a floating all inclusive hotel.  I would not except poor service for the price paid.  Everything was added on as extras, wifi! bottled water in the room, over priced drinks packages (with them confiscating or charging corkage if you attempted to bring your own on board, even for consumption in the cabin.

No No No my advice to you is tip where you feel necessary and ask for it to be removed from your bill.

 

What exactly does this have to do with the OP's question????

[TruckerDave]

On 10/25/2018 at 2:57 PM, Toofarfromthesea said:

Pay it now if it is convenient, but really, it probably didn't go up enough to really make much of a difference.  On a 7 day cruise for 2 people we are talking about less than $30, assuming it didn't go up more than $2/day.  Personally, that is too small an amount to affect my actions in any way.  YMMV

You must be new here.  People on this website with go on a 6 paragraph rant if something goes up a nickel.  

[ldubs]

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

 

It is called selective memory.  You remember only the stuff that is  advantageous to you either financially or personally and you somehow don't learn or forget everything else.

 

DON

 

Mrs Ldubs frequently accuses me of having selective hearing.  

[Underwatr]

1 hour ago, TruckerDave said:

What exactly does this have to do with the OP's question????

I'm just wondering why that poster continues to hang around a cruise-specific forum.

Edited November 9, 2018 by Underwatr

[Expat Cruise]

7 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

It is called selective memory.  You remember only the stuff that is  advantageous to you either financially or personally and you somehow don't learn or forget everything else.

 

DON

It is selective memory when many want to believe these fees are required or mandatory. The daily fee amount is only a recommend amount by the cruise line, it means nothing. The fee is 100% optional so the guest can pay whatever they want anytime they want.

[donaldsc]

37 minutes ago, Expat Cruise said:

It is selective memory when many want to believe these fees are required or mandatory. The daily fee amount is only a recommend amount by the cruise line, it means nothing. The fee is 100% optional so the guest can pay whatever they want anytime they want.

 

Here is the problem with your approach.  Like it or not, the price of the cruise is based on the fact that the gratuities will pay for much of the salaries of the crew - cabin attendants, waitstaff and also many people you don't see below deck.  That is the way it is.  The people who choose not to pay their gratuities for whatever reason such as the fact that they come from a non-tipping culture or they are just being frugal are basically counting on the rest of us to do what is right and expected by paying the gratuities. I would imagine that this group would complain greatly if the gratuities were eliminated and the cruise lines increased their fares by $20 to $30 or more per day per person to cover the costs of the increased salaries.

 

DON

 

[Expat Cruise]

 

 

It is not the guests job to pay the salaries of the behind the scene people.  Paying daily  gratuities  in this way is not doing the right thing. In fact it is the wrong thing if you care about the crew.  They need to pay a fair wage to the crew without including tips in that wage. If people really want to do the right thing stop paying these fees and make the cruise lines accountable for their staff.

 

[Tayyar]

3 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

Here is the problem with your approach.  Like it or not, the price of the cruise is based on the fact that the gratuities will pay for much of the salaries of the crew - cabin attendants, waitstaff and also many people you don't see below deck.  That is the way it is.  The people who choose not to pay their gratuities for whatever reason such as the fact that they come from a non-tipping culture or they are just being frugal are basically counting on the rest of us to do what is right and expected by paying the gratuities. I would imagine that this group would complain greatly if the gratuities were eliminated and the cruise lines increased their fares by $20 to $30 or more per day per person to cover the costs of the increased salaries.

 

DON

 

Yeah, it will happen. In short, customers have to pay gratuities By hook or by crook. 

[donaldsc]

On 10/25/2018 at 11:57 AM, Toofarfromthesea said:

Pay it now if it is convenient, but really, it probably didn't go up enough to really make much of a difference.  On a 7 day cruise for 2 people we are talking about less than $30, assuming it didn't go up more than $2/day.  Personally, that is too small an amount to affect my actions in any way.  YMMV

 

The problem is that I doubt that it will go up by just $2 per day if they have to pay the crews.  The money from current gratuity rate is used to pay the crews.  If they drop the gratuity, the fare will probably go up at least as much or more than what we pay now in our gratuities.

 

DON

[spookwife]

On 10/31/2018 at 11:20 AM, Not Mrs C said:

This is one of the reasons I will never go cruising again.  

 

  so uhh, why are you on a cruising specific  message board?  one would think that once you made the decision to never cruise again, you would have no need nor reason to stick around.  

[donaldsc]

On 10/31/2018 at 9:20 AM, Not Mrs C said:

This is one of the reasons I will never go cruising again.  Total rip off.  We went with Holland America, they added a substantial amount to our bills for gratuity. They then proceeded to add 10% to the bill every time we ordered a drink at the bar.  The excursions were over priced.  We were told on a number of occasions by the cruise line if you don't book with them you will not be guaranteed to get back to the ship on time.  Utter rubbish.  On one excursion all the passengers took a rail trip.  Over $100 per head from the cruise line.  If you walked to the station 500yards from the boat, you could get the same train ride for about $25.  Same train same times (only one train ran).  Never book an excursion through the cruise liner every single one we could get cheaper in the local resort. As for gratuity - I would prefer to tip were I have received good service, cruising to me is not exceptional service, its like staying in a floating all inclusive hotel.  I would not except poor service for the price paid.  Everything was added on as extras, wifi! bottled water in the room, over priced drinks packages (with them confiscating or charging corkage if you attempted to bring your own on board, even for consumption in the cabin.

No No No my advice to you is tip where you feel necessary and ask for it to be removed from your bill.

 

 

 

Goodbye. 

 

DON

[zqvol]

On 10/25/2018 at 12:21 PM, IMDINA1201 said:

Our first cruise is booked for October 2019.  We're very excited but have so many questions.  I received an email today letting me know that the daily gratuity amount will be higher effective 12-1-2018. I'm being given the option to pay it now vs. when the amount goes up.  Anybody have an opinion about this?  

 

The gratuity or service charge is added to your on board account daily. We normally prepay it, just so that most of the cruise is paid before we sail. Since yours is almost a year a way, the question for me at least is do I want to give the cruise line that money now, and possibly pay interest on it if it is on a CC, or do I want to wait until closer to the cruise. If the increase is less than a dollar per person per day, is it worth paying now to save $14? Personally I would wait.

[ldubs]

On 11/9/2018 at 6:27 PM, Expat Cruise said:

 

 

It is not the guests job to pay the salaries of the behind the scene people.  Paying daily  gratuities  in this way is not doing the right thing. In fact it is the wrong thing if you care about the crew.  They need to pay a fair wage to the crew without including tips in that wage. If people really want to do the right thing stop paying these fees and make the cruise lines accountable for their staff.

 

 

"Do the right thing" and the staff don't get paid.  But it is certainly very convenient for you.    

 

[Expat Cruise]

8 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

"Do the right thing" and the staff don't get paid.  But it is certainly very convenient for you.    

 

The right thing is always the right thing. Does not matter if easy, hard, convenient, liked or disliked.... it is the right thing to do. And paying a fee that is optional and represented as doing one thing but does a completely different thing is not right ever.

 

[ldubs]

30 minutes ago, Expat Cruise said:

The right thing is always the right thing. Does not matter if easy, hard, convenient, liked or disliked.... it is the right thing to do. And paying a fee that is optional and represented as doing one thing but does a completely different thing is not right ever.

 

 

Problem is the current system uses incentive pay in the form of gratuities, so withholding gratuities is really not doing the right thing.  It comes across as more of a pretense to save you money at the expense of the crew.    

 

It is pretty clear that we are not going to agree on this.   

[Expat Cruise]

22 minutes ago, fyree39 said:

Cheapskate.

Well by a poll here on Cruisecritic only 52% of the people polled agree with the DSC charges, so I guess I'm in good company with the 48% that do not agree with them. Again if you want to pay them go ago but nothing anyone can do to change what others do.

 

From Email :  The Truth About Tipping on a Cruise

"What Our Members Say: In a poll taken on Cruise Critic's message boards about auto-gratuities, 52 percent of more than 3,700 respondents said they appreciate the convenience of auto-tipping on a cruise."

[Underwatr]

AKA the minority.

 

You also assume no one responded "I don't know"

 

[Expat Cruise]

Did not assume anything, sorry if people don't like the facts, the facts are only  52% agree with the DSC system.

 

[Underwatr]

Respondents self-selecting makes the survey faulty.

[dwayneb236]

Cheap is cheap no matter how it's justified. 

[donaldsc]

12 hours ago, Expat Cruise said:

Did not assume anything, sorry if people don't like the facts, the facts are only  52% agree with the DSC system.

 

 

Nobody likes the current system.  However, getting back at the cruise lines by cancelling tips just ends up stiffing the hard working crew members.  That really serves to teach the cruise lines a lesson.

 

Don

[Toofarfromthesea]

15 hours ago, Expat Cruise said:

The right thing is always the right thing. Does not matter if easy, hard, convenient, liked or disliked.... it is the right thing to do. And paying a fee that is optional and represented as doing one thing but does a completely different thing is not right ever.

 

Screwing the crew and then rationalizing that you are really helping them is what is never the right thing to do.

[mjkacmom]

3 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

Nobody likes the current system.  However, getting back at the cruise lines by cancelling tips just ends up stiffing the hard working crew members.  That really serves to teach the cruise lines a lesson.

 

Don

I like the system, much easier than the envelopes on the last night, it’s not costing me any more having it added automatically.