Auction for Crew Welfare Fund

[misseli]

Currently on the Silver Wind Fort Lauderdale Caribbean/Cuba cruise.  At the Captain’s farewell last night, the Cruise Director Colin advised the passengers that there would be a special presentation by two of the singers.  A map of the region we had travelled around was placed on an easel.  This map had the Cuban flag drawn on it along with a bottle of rum.  The two singers proceeded to auction off the map for the crew welfare fund.  In speaking with a number of guests about this, the overall consensus was it was tacky and inappropriate as Silversea states onboard gratuities are included in the fare.  I am happy they were able to raise $1000 for the crew fund but not sure how I feel about this.  Having just come off a Silversea Asia cruise at the beginning of March I am wondering if this is a “one of” or has anyone else experienced  Crew Welfare Fund Auction?

[Tothesunset]

That's a new one to me. 

 

We now always give a donation the the crew welfare fund rather than tipping front of house staff - the people behind the scenes on laundry, engineering etc etc work just as hard and are just as important. However, the fund is not well publicised; we only know about it from postings on CC. 

 

When the line so freely pushes the Maruzza charity it's a shame they don't make reference to the crew fund somewhere in the joining instructions or on-board communications. 

Edited April 18, 2019 by Tothesunset

[rojaan19]

We have done 9 cruises  on the Silver Explorer,  and auctioning  off a map of the cruise route done by  one of the regular officers  on board  is not uncommon.   All proceeds go to the crew fund.    I have not seen it happen  on the regular Silversea  ships.

I agree  the crew welfare fund should be advertise,  we only found out by word of mouth from another regular SS  cruiser.  We donate to it every cruise.   And I am glad that the Maruzza charity has become opt in rather than going to reception to opt out of compulsory "donation"  !!

[Jacko]

We have five personalized voyage charts from the Explorer Fleet and will continue to bid on them every time they are offered.  The charts normally have original art work on them from the crew. It is a win-win situation.  We also donate to the crew fund and provide a gratuity to our cabin steward and butler.

[turtlemichael]

12 hours ago, rojaan19 said:

We have done 9 cruises  on the Silver Explorer,  and auctioning  off a map of the cruise route done by  one of the regular officers  on board  is not uncommon.   All proceeds go to the crew fund.    I have not seen it happen  on the regular Silversea  ships.

I agree  the crew welfare fund should be advertise,  we only found out by word of mouth from another regular SS  cruiser.  We donate to it every cruise.   And I am glad that the Maruzza charity has become opt in rather than going to reception to opt out of compulsory "donation"  !!

As you know rojaan19 we are on the world cruise. On previous cruises we have opted out of the Maruzza charity. This time we weren't asked and have not been debited with the $1.00 per day. However we had two lots of friends join us for single segments and both were charged so they had to approach Reception to ask to opt-out. I'm therefore not sure how extensive the opt-in change is.

Edited April 19, 2019 by turtlemichael

[difranco]

On the Spirit at the moment and live onboard account on TV is showing $10 each for the 10 day cruise. Therefore, no opt in option offered. The Maruzza charitable foundation must collect in the region of $2500 per day from the SS fleet. Shame that didn’t go to the crew welfare fund.

Just me thinking out aloud so no offence intended.

[drron29]

On our last Muse cruise we certainly didn't have to opt out of the charity donation.it wasn't on our bill.

That said on about the third day-a sea day with miserable weather-I went down to reception to hand over our donation to the crew fund.The staff member who took it has been on several of our Explorer cruises and did remember me.Likely he also remembered we opted out many times and did it for us.

[spinnaker2]

16 hours ago, difranco said:

On the Spirit at the moment and live onboard account on TV is showing $10 each for the 10 day cruise. Therefore, no opt in option offered. The Maruzza charitable foundation must collect in the region of $2500 per day from the SS fleet. Shame that didn’t go to the crew welfare fund.

Just me thinking out aloud so no offence intended.

I am on the Spirit and I don't have any deductions for the Maruzza foundation on my account. We have opted out on prior cruises. While we do not contribute to the Maruzza foundation, we do support the concept of palliative care in other ways and have done so for years.

And as far as the crew welfare fund, we make sure we contribute before we disembark. The crew are simply amazing.

We have not heard of any auctions aboard to benefit the crew fund, but we do wish that more pax knew about the fund.