Majestic Princess-Gratuities--Australia Cruises

[dalibi]

Read under reviews:  Is this true?  wow if so, this would save a lot!!  I have never been on a ship without tips added to our account.  Thanks for your help!

 

 Princess Cruises has a policy of no tipping in Australia, but a gratuity is automatically added to spa treatments. The onboard currency is Australian dollars; in Asia it is U.S. dollars.

[Adventures ahead]

9 minutes ago, dalibi said:

Read under reviews:  Is this true?  wow if so, this would save a lot!!  I have never been on a ship without tips added to our account.  Thanks for your help!

 

 Princess Cruises has a policy of no tipping in Australia, but a gratuity is automatically added to spa treatments. The onboard currency is Australian dollars; in Asia it is U.S. dollars.

We bought our 2020 NZ and AU cruises when tips were included as a promotion. They might show up on our account and be reversed, or they might not show up at all... not sure how their accounting department will handle it.

I understand that when a cruise is purchased in Australia, tips do not appear on the onboard account but I think they pay more for the sailing. 

Edited April 16, 2019 by Adventures ahead

[fishywood]

10 minutes ago, dalibi said:

Read under reviews:  Is this true?  wow if so, this would save a lot!!  I have never been on a ship without tips added to our account.  Thanks for your help!

 

 Princess Cruises has a policy of no tipping in Australia, but a gratuity is automatically added to spa treatments. The onboard currency is Australian dollars; in Asia it is U.S. dollars.

 

My understanding is that policy is solely for residents of Australia and New Zealand booking any cruise that either starts or ends (or both) in one of those two nations. Even if the ship's onboard currency is AU$ if you are for example a US resident (I've no clue where your 'Big Red Lighthouse' is domiciled) you will be quoted the fare in US$ and still assessed the daily service charge on board.

[Aus Traveller]

5 hours ago, fishywood said:

 

My understanding is that policy is solely for residents of Australia and New Zealand booking any cruise that either starts or ends (or both) in one of those two nations. Even if the ship's onboard currency is AU$ if you are for example a US resident (I've no clue where your 'Big Red Lighthouse' is domiciled) you will be quoted the fare in US$ and still assessed the daily service charge on board.

Correct. However the OP has the option of cancelling the auto-gratuity and personally rewarding the staff who serve him. As staff on the Aussie ships are paid a flat salary that takes the tips into account, they are not part of the tips pool. Princess isn't going to bother with the accounting nightmare of trying to work out which stewards served a particular passenger who paid tips, then dividing that money among them. Anyway, this is not how the tips pool works on other ships. The amount paid on those ships is spread around - Princess says "fleet-wide". It does not stay on the particular ship for that particular cruise. Any gratuity paid on the Aussie ships will go into the fleet-wide pool. Because the ship isn't in the tips pool, staff can keep tips given to them personally. 

[land lover]

6 hours ago, dalibi said:

Read under reviews:  Is this true?  wow if so, this would save a lot!!  I have never been on a ship without tips added to our account.  Thanks for your help!

 

 Princess Cruises has a policy of no tipping in Australia, but a gratuity is automatically added to spa treatments. The onboard currency is Australian dollars; in Asia it is U.S. dollars.

Only unless there has been a recent change.On Princess ships in AUS using AUD curency tips show up on everyone's OBA  except those who booked thru Princess AUS. There has always been conflicting info about how Staff/crew is paid in Australia. I asked my room attended on Sea Princess, we cruised for 38 days this last fall...he(who had 15 years with Princess) stated being on an Australia based ship made no difference in his compensation. In fact he felt outside of Australia compensation was better....I did not have enough nerve to ask for more detail.  But then again maybe he was hoping for a bigger additional tip from meI doubt it though he was such a genuine guy.

 

Being from North America..we just pre-paid grats...

Edited April 16, 2019 by land lover

[Aus Traveller]

6 hours ago, land lover said:

Only unless there has been a recent change.On Princess ships in AUS using AUD curency tips show up on everyone's OBA  except those who booked thru Princess AUS. There has always been conflicting info about how Staff/crew is paid in Australia. I asked my room attended on Sea Princess, we cruised for 38 days this last fall...he(who had 15 years with Princess) stated being on an Australia based ship made no difference in his compensation. In fact he felt outside of Australia compensation was better....I did not have enough nerve to ask for more detail.  But then again maybe he was hoping for a bigger additional tip from meI doubt it though he was such a genuine guy.

 

Being from North America..we just pre-paid grats...

Agreed. Stewards on the Aussie-based ships get the same pay as those on other ships, but their pay is a set amount per month. I think it is likely that the stewards on ships operating in 'other' parts of the world receive more tips given to them personally, compared with those on the Australian ships. Many Aussies will tip, but I don't think it is as generous as (for instance) Americans who are used to tipping.

[Reina del Mar]

Just off AUSTRALIA /ASIA cruise. Ship's currency was Australian Dollars.

 

Those who had booked in AUSTRALIA had gratuities included and those who had booked elsewhere had them charged to their folio account unless they had prepaid or cancelled.

 

An Australian passenger we spoke to was concerned that the price of drinks had increased significantly, since the implementation of gratuities being included for Australian passengers...just reporting what we were told !

[DDG 41]

2 hours ago, Reina del Mar said:

An Australian passenger we spoke to was concerned that the price of drinks had increased significantly, since the implementation of gratuities being included for Australian passengers...just reporting what we were told !

That's because the 18% Bar " gratuity "is now included in all bar purchases whereas before it wasn't. So no overall price change just 1 charge instead of two. 

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, DDG 41 said:

That's because the 18% Bar " gratuity "is now included in all bar purchases whereas before it wasn't. So no overall price change just 1 charge instead of two. 

The change (to include gratuities) was on 1st May 2011. I suspect the comment by a passenger about increased drinks prices would refer to more recent increases. 🙂

[land lover]

Was amazed at the local bottle wine selection and many inexpensive choices(grat included) on our Sea Princess cruise.