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DIY Gratuities


KennyFla
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4 hours ago, sidari said:

PC ... What you quote for Germany may well be right, in my earlier post setting out the charges the Costa text about charges is direct from the UK website! and the German ruling clearly does not apply.

Yes, but the question is "Is Costa following UK law with this procedure or not?". Do you not have the "final price" rule like the other Europeans? Then why don´t the cruise lines not charge you these port taxes? Or do they? 

 

I suspect a little bit that Costa is breaking UK law like they did in other countries before, but nobody sued them so far 😄

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I do suspect that there are folks who do take off the DSC and pocket the money.  I witnessed some people ducking out of the YC's  Le Muse rather quickly on our last evening.  Two of those people had remarked earlier in the cruise that they always remove the DSC.   It reminded me of an excursions end, and witnessing the number of people who rush to exit the rear of the bus to avoid tipping the driver and guide.  

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5 hours ago, Nashna said:

I do suspect that there are folks who do take off the DSC and pocket the money.  I witnessed some people ducking out of the YC's  Le Muse rather quickly on our last evening.  Two of those people had remarked earlier in the cruise that they always remove the DSC.   It reminded me of an excursions end, and witnessing the number of people who rush to exit the rear of the bus to avoid tipping the driver and guide.  


So true...being cheap is not limited to any particular nationality although I can think of a few who rise above...lol.  
 

I feel sorry for these people.  They think they are entitled but do not want to pay the tab.  Pax skipping out of the YC after removing the DSC.  Now that is really low!  

 

As Grandfather used to say...“You can’t live a Champagne lifestyle with a beer pocketbook”.  
 

 

Edited by CGTNORMANDIE
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I have slightly different question: why give out cash to each crew member? Why does it seem that nobody wants to simply charge that extra gratuity to their on board account and add the name(s) of the targeted crew members? We did this once because we did not have enough cash and did not have ATM machines available when we realized that our cash was so low. Would these funds still go to the targeted individuals in full? Or would the funds go into a pool like the Daily Service Charges?

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22 minutes ago, Best Cat Mom said:

I have slightly different question: why give out cash to each crew member? Why does it seem that nobody wants to simply charge that extra gratuity to their on board account and add the name(s) of the targeted crew members? We did this once because we did not have enough cash and did not have ATM machines available when we realized that our cash was so low. Would these funds still go to the targeted individuals in full? Or would the funds go into a pool like the Daily Service Charges?

Depends on the cruise line.  We were on a line where we tipped our waiter extra and he asked us if we had kept the service charge on our account.  When I asked if it made a difference, he told us that there was a list on file of those who had removed the charge, if we had removed the charge, he would have to give the amount we tipped back into the pool.  We went on three different cruise lines that year and I can't remember which one it was.  

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On 2/13/2020 at 6:45 PM, ron746 said:

WHAT ABOUT ALL THE SERVICE STAFF IN THE BACKGROUND,THE PEOPLE YOU DONT SEE BUT STILL PROVIDE SERVICE TO MAKE YOUR CRUISE COMFORTABLE,( THATS WHY YOU SHOULD PAY THE SERVICE CHARGE  AND WHO SUPPOSEDLY THE MONEY GOES TO)

 

Isn't that why I pay the fare to cruise in the first place? The whole point of a cruise/ 'all inclusive' holiday is that sundry tasks are taken care of for me, for which I am paying a premium. At home, I don't have a cleaner, cook, ironing service etc. - but nor does it cost the same sum per day to live at home as it does to cruise. I expect the cruise to be comfortable, because that is how it is advertised to me, and that is why I pay an agreed sum out of my disposable income to partake in it. Does the mechanics of how your money as a customer pays for staff at the bank, post office, bakery etc. concern you as much as it does on a cruise line? There are tons of people in the background of those operations too, and they aren't given a second thought, let alone a tip/gratuity/trinkets & chocolates.

 

On 2/21/2020 at 10:15 AM, mickey89 said:

 

Love your post, exactly my sentiments........

 

I do get a chuckle out of how generous people like to be seen to be to crew (and particularly butlers) on these forums. If true, I'm glad they are willing and able to redistribute so much of their wealth to others, but beyond a certain point, it gets sickly, and then becomes charity rather than anything else.

 

Honestly if some of the sums disclosed on here were true, I would happily quit my job and retrain as one. Just as oil rig workers accept the compromise and are well rewarded not just for the technical skill required for their work, but the time spent away from home/risk of their operating environment etc. - I would be happy to work solidly for 7 days, 9 months at a time to be so well rewarded by the extremely wealthy cruisers.

 

It is all relative - oil rig workers earn 3 or 4 x the mean wage because of the sacrifices they make, as well as the skill required - just as ship workers will likely earn a multiple of their home countries' mean wage because of the skill and sacrifice involved. The cold hard numbers are different, but the relativity is the same. Ship workers live well at home (as they should - for they work extremely hard), but shouldn't be pitied, and certainly shouldn't be the subject of virtue signalling by Westerners. Relativity is important as the cost of living is so vastly different.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Nashna said:

Depends on the cruise line.  We were on a line where we tipped our waiter extra and he asked us if we had kept the service charge on our account.  When I asked if it made a difference, he told us that there was a list on file of those who had removed the charge, if we had removed the charge, he would have to give the amount we tipped back into the pool.  We went on three different cruise lines that year and I can't remember which one it was.  

 

I was referring an extra tip given with not even touching the Daily Service Charge. Why give a crew member cash instead of a charge to our on board account targeted to each crew member? I really don't like carrying cash. I never have more than $20 on my person at home since plastic is so much more secure. I don't like carrying a few hundred dollars onto a cruise ship just to tip. And, if I charge it to my on board account, I get points from my credit card company. Double win for me -- no chance of theft and helps to finance the airfare for my next cruise. 🙂 

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1 hour ago, Best Cat Mom said:

 

I was referring an extra tip given with not even touching the Daily Service Charge. Why give a crew member cash instead of a charge to our on board account targeted to each crew member? I really don't like carrying cash. I never have more than $20 on my person at home since plastic is so much more secure. I don't like carrying a few hundred dollars onto a cruise ship just to tip. And, if I charge it to my on board account, I get points from my credit card company. Double win for me -- no chance of theft and helps to finance the airfare for my next cruise. 🙂 

Because you can't be sure they get it unless you hand it to them. The thought is that the company cheats them and keeps part of it.

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2 hours ago, Best Cat Mom said:

Wow... that is really hard to believe!


I can’t tell if you are being serious. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say the cruise lines are “Cheating” or “stealing” dsc, it seems obvious that the companies are doing something other than returning 100% immediately to crew.  Like I stated above, at one time ncl published that they spend some of the collected fees for things like crew parties, crew flights, and staff bonuses. Shell game so-to-speak. If it was as simple as putting xxxx toward cabin stewards and xxxx toward dining staff (Continued until the full $15 pppd is accounted for), the cruise lines would publish exactly how the money is distributed. Without full disclosure, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume cruise lines are using (at least a portion)  of the dsc to apply toward general staff expenses.

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12 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:


I can’t tell if you are being serious. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say the cruise lines are “Cheating” or “stealing” dsc, it seems obvious that the companies are doing something other than returning 100% immediately to crew.  Like I stated above, at one time ncl published that they spend some of the collected fees for things like crew parties, crew flights, and staff bonuses. Shell game so-to-speak. If it was as simple as putting xxxx toward cabin stewards and xxxx toward dining staff (Continued until the full $15 pppd is accounted for), the cruise lines would publish exactly how the money is distributed. Without full disclosure, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume cruise lines are using (at least a portion)  of the dsc to apply toward general staff expenses.

 

Totally being serious here. I'm not talking about the DSC -- I'm talking about us saying "Give a $100 bonus to John Smith, our butler, for the wonderful service this week on our cruise and please charge it to our cabin" at guest services. If I did this at a hotel, I would not expect that they would redirect the funds anywhere else so why would that not apply here as well?

 

I really thought all the threads on the boards regarding 'where does the money go' were about the DSC, not any extra monies that we choose to distribute.

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I do think the DSC go to the employees and this is why. My DH & I were casually chatting with a  waiter. In that conversation I asked him about working during a dry dock. He described the duties of dry dock.  He doesn't like it as much because he  doesn't get paid the gratuities but the trade off he only has to work 8 hours.

 

I never asked him about the gratuities. 

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1 hour ago, cruisingnewtoit said:

I do think the DSC go to the employees and this is why. My DH & I were casually chatting with a  waiter. In that conversation I asked him about working during a dry dock. He described the duties of dry dock.  He doesn't like it as much because he  doesn't get paid the gratuities but the trade off he only has to work 8 hours.

 

I never asked him about the gratuities. 

 

I agree that the employees get SOME Of the DSC.  However; I can find no evidence to support that ALL of the DCS is returned directly to the crew. If cruise lines would be more transparent, it would be easier to be assured that all DCS went directly to crew and that the corporation wasn't saving some to pay for crew expenses. In a paper released several years ago, NCL actually admitted to keeping some DSC to pay for crew parties and motivational incentives (which, imo, should be on the companies dime).  Without transparency, there is simply no guarantee.

 

Note: I am taking no stance on whether or not individuals should pay the DCS, just discussing where the DSC actually goes.

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