Do you tip Marella staff?

[Brummijam]

Just reading another thread on here, so what’s the consensus on tipping aboard Marella ships and do you think that the visible staff (Waiters,housekeeping,bar staff etc) expect it?

 

 

[brian1]

I gave the drinks server a tenner last year after a couple of days,to keep us sweet,lol.Didn't make that much difference.Our steward was bone idle and useless,he didn't get a penny,although we normally tip stewards.

Edited August 8, 2019 by brian1

[campolady]

We tip for good service; would certainly never do so at the start of a cruise in anticipation of getting better service.  We have on all but one cruise left a tip for our cabin stewards (the one exception was when we didn't see them for 12 days until they knocked on the last day and we had had some cleaning issues).  If we have the same waiters several nights we give them a little something too.  We always leave a donation at reception for the Crew Welfare Fund as a 'thank you' to all the crew members we never see but who make our cruises so special; we  take bags of sweets and block of chocolate to give out during the cruise.  We have never found the crew expect a tip but they are always very grateful when we give one.

[Tizzy-Jo]

Agree with Campolady. Have always tipped for good service, never in anticipation or in the hope of getting good service. Hadn’t thought of the sweets or chocolates, but do leave unused toiletries.

[Pensioncruiser]

I found a couple of my shirts had shrunk over the two weeks and was about to ditch them so gave them to the cabin steward, he was delighted, he also received a tip. 

[ollienbertsmum]

The whole of my wardrobe, even the clothes that do not go with me on the cruise seem to shrink after a cruise.  Not sure why:). 

[nancyneptune]

Tips have always been included on Thomson /  Marella cruises.  It's not a new thing like the AI. Tipping extra has always been the done thing. We tip at the end of the cruise and bring chocolate and sweets which are always much appreciated by the crew. We always tip our guides too when on a ships tour. 

[skioncruises]

When we started cruising with Thomson (1989), before tipping was included, the suggested rate "suggested" per person was £1.50 per day and envelopes were left in the cabin two nights before departure.  We still tip this amount to the Cabin Steward(s), Dining Room/Wine Waiters (as we try to have the same waiters for the whole cruise), plus Bar Staff/Waiters around the ship and others we feel warrant it, eg. Tour Guides/Drivers. We also donate to the Crew Fund.

[dronnygirl]

We would tip any staff that we feel have given a good service eg waiters and cabin stewards. I prefer to spread small amounts round the staff. Once we were on Dream and there was a lovely Asian lady that cleaned the ladies toilets and always had a smile, she worked so hard and on the last night I went to find her to give her a tip. There were several others doing the same. My point being that almost all the staff work hard not just the frontline staff so we have also donated to the crew fund

[Brummijam]

Hi Dronnygirl.

some interesting responses to the question and it seems most people do tip staff even though it is a tips included holiday. In my personal experience we seem to avoid looking/booking other cruise lines because of the need to pay gratuity’s then we book Marella and probably pay a lot more out to staff that we feel have looked after us. Other cruise lines allegedly pay staff poor wages and use the gratuity’s to make up the shortfall, It would be interesting to see what the TUI/Marella stance on this is seeing as tips are included, do they pay staff decent wages or do they assume We passengers will tip anyway?

Opinions?

 

[okavango]

So how much does people think the compulsory gratuities are on Marella ?????

[Brummijam]

1 hour ago, okavango said:

So how much does people think the compulsory gratuities are on Marella ?????

 

Most people know that Marella Cruises are gratuities free.🤔

[okavango]

3 minutes ago, Brummijam said:

 

Most people know that Marella Cruises are gratuities free.🤔

 

You are not getting the point, they claim tips are included ,if so they are a certain amount of money which has been added to the cruise cost ,you cant have this money deducted so therefore you have paid a compulsory amount of gratuities, now we get to the question for all the believers, how much is the compulsory gratuities

[Pensioncruiser]

Very good point for which I have no answer, would imagine the accurist  at head office would know😉

[Brummijam]

1 hour ago, okavango said:

 

You are not getting the point, they claim tips are included ,if so they are a certain amount of money which has been added to the cruise cost ,you cant have this money deducted so therefore you have paid a compulsory amount of gratuities, now we get to the question for all the believers, how much is the compulsory gratuities

 

Apologies from me  I misunderstood the question. As you say gratuities are factored into the cost of your holiday,

You would hope that whatever percentage that TUI/Marella add to your fare to cover gratuities does indeed get shared fairly between the crew, but being a large company that is all about profit who knows?

Regarding how much we are paying for this in our package i don't think that they would disclose that either.

I think Marella have been quite clever with this from a marketing point because paying compulsory  gratuities isn't a done thing for the British consumer so if they advertise gratuities included in the price of the holiday people are happier with not having to pay tips even though they are factored in the price.

 

And then we tip the staff anyway.😂😂

Keep well.

 

[brian1]

You can say the same about the free booze.We did a Baltic on Princess,the following year it was £1000 dearer because there was a "free" booze package.Having said that,Marella is the best value for us.

[nancyneptune]

2 hours ago, okavango said:

 

You are not getting the point, they claim tips are included ,if so they are a certain amount of money which has been added to the cruise cost ,you cant have this money deducted so therefore you have paid a compulsory amount of gratuities, now we get to the question for all the believers, how much is the compulsory gratuities

 

Tips are compulsory on Marella,  as they always were on Thomson.  No choice to remove them as can be done on most other cruise lines. The majority of people do give tips on top of that and I'm sure Marella know that.  In fact at the end of the cruise the cruise director has lots of crew on stage to say how wonderful they have been and he hopes people will show their appreciation and he doesn't just mean applause.

 

Same now with AI.  Compulsory and factored in to the price of the cruise.  Some people chose to upgrade by another £50 pp. thinking it's good value, not realising they have already paid an extra £200 / £300  pp as that is how much the price of the cruises have gone up since they they became AI.  New cruisers won't know that. 

 I think it will only be a matter of time before the upgrade for the drinks package goes up in price and some drinks will no longer be available on the basic AI but will be added to the upgraded AI. 

 

Some new cruisers seem to think AI also means the food.  Not so, breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and late night snacks have always been included in the price of the cruise.  In fact the food used to be available 24 hours a day.

 

Before they introduced the supplement restaurants the food was always good in the MDR.  Five courses served quickly and efficiently and the waiters still had time to chat, sing, and do little tricks etc. at your table.  Now they are so short staffed that three courses can take almost two hours to serve. Not the fault of the waiting staff. No wine waiters in the restaurants now slows the service down.  Waiters are run off their feet.

 

Some of the crew we have got to know well over the years say they are not aware of the included tips. They really appreciate any extra tips they receive as they use the money for wifi in port to keep in touch with family back home.

 

Clever marketing indeed from Marella.

 

 

[Brummijam]

30 minutes ago, nancyneptune said:

 

Tips are compulsory on Marella,  as they always were on Thomson.  No choice to remove them as can be done on most other cruise lines. The majority of people do give tips on top of that and I'm sure Marella know that.  In fact at the end of the cruise the cruise director has lots of crew on stage to say how wonderful they have been and he hopes people will show their appreciation and he doesn't just mean applause.

 

Same now with AI.  Compulsory and factored in to the price of the cruise.  Some people chose to upgrade by another £50 pp. thinking it's good value, not realising they have already paid an extra £200 / £300  pp as that is how much the price of the cruises have gone up since they they became AI.  New cruisers won't know that. 

 I think it will only be a matter of time before the upgrade for the drinks package goes up in price and some drinks will no longer be available on the basic AI but will be added to the upgraded AI. 

 

Some new cruisers seem to think AI also means the food.  Not so, breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and late night snacks have always been included in the price of the cruise.  In fact the food used to be available 24 hours a day.

 

Before they introduced the supplement restaurants the food was always good in the MDR.  Five courses served quickly and efficiently and the waiters still had time to chat, sing, and do little tricks etc. at your table.  Now they are so short staffed that three courses can take almost two hours to serve. Not the fault of the waiting staff. No wine waiters in the restaurants now slows the service down.  Waiters are run off their feet.

 

Some of the crew we have got to know well over the years say they are not aware of the included tips. They really appreciate any extra tips they receive as they use the money for wifi in port to keep in touch with family back home.

 

Clever marketing indeed from Marella.

 

 

 Some good points made there Nancy.  The last paragraph stating that some of the crew are not aware of included tips is surprising or knowing TUI is it? 🤔

Keep well.

Edited August 10, 2019 by Brummijam
Because I can 🤗

[okavango]

Unfortunately a lot of people believe the spin from marella.

Turn it around and what they are saying " Here at Marella we believe tips should be compulsory ,for your convenience we have already charged you but we will not tell you how much or who actually gets what."

To fulfill their claim they would only need to charge 1p per customer.

Surely a better marketing idea would be " Here at Marella we do not believe in compulsory gratuities ,these are entirely at your discretion to relate to the service you recieve from our staff"

Surely that is good PR compared to other companies and without stiffing their staff.

 

[okavango]

12 minutes ago, Brummijam said:

 Some good points made there Nancy.  The last paragraph stating that some of the crew are not aware of included tips is surprising or knowing TUI is it? 🤔

Keep well.

Exactly ,nothing is shown on their salary print outs , i probably know a lot of staff far more intimately than anyone else on here , when you are staying in their homes with them and their families they openly talk about a lot of things behind the scenes , some things hilarious some sad ,things that they would never dicuss on board.

[nancyneptune]

26 minutes ago, Brummijam said:

 Some good points made there Nancy.  The last paragraph stating that some of the crew are not aware of included tips is surprising or knowing TUI is it? 🤔

Keep well.

 

 

Not surprising knowing Tui.

 

[nancyneptune]

20 minutes ago, okavango said:

Unfortunately a lot of people believe the spin from marella.

Turn it around and what they are saying " Here at Marella we believe tips should be compulsory ,for your convenience we have already charged you but we will not tell you how much or who actually gets what."

To fulfill their claim they would only need to charge 1p per customer.

Surely a better marketing idea would be " Here at Marella we do not believe in compulsory gratuities ,these are entirely at your discretion to relate to the service you recieve from our staff"

Surely that is good PR compared to other companies and without stiffing their staff.

 

 

 

.........or more likely charge the customer an unknown amount and pay the crew a penny.  Profit before people with Tui now

 

[nancyneptune]

2 hours ago, brian1 said:

You can say the same about the free booze.We did a Baltic on Princess,the following year it was £1000 dearer because there was a "free" booze package.Having said that,Marella is the best value for us.

 

You can't really compare Marella to Princess though. 

[brian1]

3 minutes ago, nancyneptune said:

 

You can't really compare Marella to Princess though. 

True,but for us Marella is as cheap as chips and offers us our remaining bucket list ports at a reasonable standard.Everyone on CC seems to have a similar gripe with their respective cruiseline,AI or not.

[nancyneptune]

33 minutes ago, okavango said:

Exactly ,nothing is shown on their salary print outs , i probably know a lot of staff far more intimately than anyone else on here , when you are staying in their homes with them and their families they openly talk about a lot of things behind the scenes , some things hilarious some sad ,things that they would never dicuss on board.

 

We also know some of the crew and entertainers very well and have entertained some crew members here at home. Some of them are not happy with their working arrangements now but they need the jobs so just have to accept things as they are yet they continue to give service with a smile.

 

Are people aware that the waiters also have to provide their own uniforms. Thomson used to only provide the waistcoat. Now Tui provide shirts. ( I thought they looked much smarter in the waistcoats. ) They also have to do their own laundry in the little free time they have.