What is crew incentive?

[SinbadThePorter]

6 hours ago, nocl said:

If I recall gratuities are included for Australians booking cruises out of Australia.  They are not included for Americans booking those cruises.  But then again I have read some complaints about differences in fares between the two.

 

Yet it is true that Princess does not universally follow the "US system".

[chengkp75]

6 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

They are all registered to other countries so they do NOT adhere to US standards and do not pay Taxes. NCL has the only flagged US ship and doesn't have a casino or duty free shops because of that. 

 Where are you getting your misinformation?

The reason the Pride of America does not have a casino, or duty free shop, is not because it is US flag.  It does not have a casino because it never leaves Hawaii, and Hawaii does not allow casinos.  It does not have a duty free shop because it never leaves the US.  A US flag ship that made a cruise like the foreign flag ships do to Hawaii from the West Coast, could have both a casino and a duty free shop.

[KmomChicago]

Thank you for being the reliable fact checker for all of us here with our endless speculation about what we think we know about the rules and the laws.  

 

Honestly I would believe a lot of BS (including my own) without your guidance and willingness to right the ship (see what I did there?) as applicable. 

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

The reason the Pride of America does not have a casino, or duty free shop, is not because it is US flag.  It does not have a casino because it never leaves Hawaii, and Hawaii does not allow casinos.  It does not have a duty free shop because it never leaves the US.  A US flag ship that made a cruise like the foreign flag ships do to Hawaii from the West Coast, could have both a casino and a duty free shop.

 

[majortom10]

9 hours ago, pms4104 said:

Some eateries in US not permitting tips at all ... however, they have raised prices by 20% ... so, if Princess were to follow that model, ya think they'd agree to roll back prices by 10%?  15%?  20%?

Not necessarily when P&O removed their daily added gratuities and became gratuities included in fare their cruise prices didnt rise 10%/15% or 20%. So that is a  bit of a misnomer.

 

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

The reason the Pride of America does not have a casino, or duty free shop, is not because it is US flag.  It does not have a casino because it never leaves Hawaii, and Hawaii does not allow casinos.  It does not have a duty free shop because it never leaves the US.  A US flag ship that made a cruise like the foreign flag ships do to Hawaii from the West Coast, could have both a casino and a duty free shop.

That totally makes sense.

[Daniel A]

On 9/3/2021 at 9:45 PM, taxatty said:

Because it's 21st century semantic game-playing, like "pre-owned cars" instead of "used cars" or a number of others that I can't repeat on CC.

Isn't calling the 'tips' a 'crew incentive' somewhat of an oxymoron?  After all, the purpose of giving a voluntary 'thank you' for excellent service is for the customer to encourage (incentivize) good service from an individual employee.  It's not an incentive if you're getting the same amount of money whether you go above and beyond or not.  I have always objected to restaurants including the amount of the tip in the check such as when the restaurant adds an 18% gratuity to parties of 6 or more.  When dining at a restaurant that does this, compare how much attention the wait staff gives to the tables of less than 6 compared to your table of 8.

 

I tried looking this up by doing a mock booking, but I couldn't get that far to see what they are calling the tips when booking a cruise under Best Price as opposed to Princess Plus.  Do they call it crew incentive or gratuities when it's not a fixed unremovable amount as under Princess Plus?

Edited September 5, 2021 by Daniel A

[cruzsnooze]

4 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

The reason the Pride of America does not have a casino, or duty free shop, is not because it is US flag.  It does not have a casino because it never leaves Hawaii, and Hawaii does not allow casinos.  It does not have a duty free shop because it never leaves the US.  A US flag ship that made a cruise like the foreign flag ships do to Hawaii from the West Coast, could have both a casino and a duty free shop.

Exactly and they pay US taxes and follow US rules. The other cruises do not which was my point about why they do not have to be accountable to US including how they pay their crew and no transparency how they distribute the crew incentives. They declare certain accounting disclosures apparently for being a public stock declaring profits and looses but it doesn't divulge where our tips go.

[JF - retired RRT]

1 hour ago, Daniel A said:

I tried looking this up by doing a mock booking, but I couldn't get that far to see what they are calling the tips when booking a cruise under Best Price as opposed to Princess Plus.  Do they call it crew incentive or gratuities when it's not a fixed unremovable amount as under Princess Plus?

It's still called "incentive". I checked one of my Best Price bookings.

[Sam Ting]

Interesting they set up a charity for their own employees, and people who blindly support it  we remove the charges and tip as we go.  We never tip the behind the scenes crew or the entertainment staff.. 

[voyager1964]

6 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

The reason the Pride of America does not have a casino, or duty free shop, is not because it is US flag.  It does not have a casino because it never leaves Hawaii, and Hawaii does not allow casinos.  It does not have a duty free shop because it never leaves the US.  A US flag ship that made a cruise like the foreign flag ships do to Hawaii from the West Coast, could have both a casino and a duty free shop.

Sorry for offtop, but we have a question for you @chengkp75 on Azamara forum ("structural vibrations"). Would much appreciate your input

[chengkp75]

2 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

Exactly and they pay US taxes and follow US rules. The other cruises do not which was my point about why they do not have to be accountable to US including how they pay their crew and no transparency how they distribute the crew incentives. They declare certain accounting disclosures apparently for being a public stock declaring profits and looses but it doesn't divulge where our tips go.

And, that very same US flag ship charges "DSC" on top of the cruise fare, even when following US laws, and there is no transparency in where the DSC money goes.  Is there any transparency in how the POA crew are paid?  Other than having to meet the Hawaii state minimum wage, nope.  I do know that their compensation package is made up of "wage" and "DSC share", and can vary from week to week, but as long as it stays above the minimum wage, NCL does not have to make up any difference.

[nocl]

13 hours ago, caribill said:

 

 

 

If the "crew incentive" (gratuities) is included because you booked a Princess Plus fare, then they can not be reduced or removed.

 

If you booked with the Princess Savers fare, then they would be posed to your onboard account daily and you can have them reduced or totally removed.

It is still optional in that one could chose not to book the fare with the gratuities included if they did not wish for gratuities to be paid.  The fare is a choice with inclusions, it is not that everyone has to purchase that fare.

[shythom]

Thank you for this informative thread! I am a Platinum Princess Cruiser but haven't cruised for several years. The last time I cruise, it was definitely called Gratuities so I have been learning about Crew Incentive. I really don't have a problem with it.. we do plan on getting the Princess Plus package to include the crew incentive.

 

I just want to know if that incentive covers the Suite Experience Manager (hope I got that right - back when I was cruising they did have butlers for some of the higher-end suites but I think I read somewhere they did away with that). But we're planning on booking the Sky Suite so I want to make sure I understand the breakdown for crew incentives.

 

We normally gave extra to our cabin stewardess, wait staff and anyone we felt who took part in making our cruise special. I would imagine if our Suite Experience Manager does a lot for us, they will get a good extra tip but it helps to know how if they get some of the crew incentive. Or maybe if it's not a lot as it gets distributed equally to others, that we then ensure we tip a bit more.

 

I never know how to go about these things and I'm rusty.

 

All I know is if they do great, I don't mind giving a bit more just to err on the side of caution.

 

 

[onlyslightlymad]

On 9/6/2021 at 12:58 AM, Daniel A said:

Isn't calling the 'tips' a 'crew incentive' somewhat of an oxymoron?  After all, the purpose of giving a voluntary 'thank you' for excellent service is for the customer to encourage (incentivize) good service from an individual employee.  It's not an incentive if you're getting the same amount of money whether you go above and beyond or not.  I have always objected to restaurants including the amount of the tip in the check such as when the restaurant adds an 18% gratuity to parties of 6 or more.  When dining at a restaurant that does this, compare how much attention the wait staff gives to the tables of less than 6 compared to your table of 8.

 

I tried looking this up by doing a mock booking, but I couldn't get that far to see what they are calling the tips when booking a cruise under Best Price as opposed to Princess Plus.  Do they call it crew incentive or gratuities when it's not a fixed unremovable amount as under Princess Plus?

i own a restaurant.  We do not allow tips.  Our staff are fantastic.  They go above and beyond for every customer because they pride themselves on doing a good job.  I would hate a system where customers could pay more to get 'better' service.  I want all of my customers to receive excellent service.

[majortom10]

2 hours ago, onlyslightlymad said:

i own a restaurant.  We do not allow tips.  Our staff are fantastic.  They go above and beyond for every customer because they pride themselves on doing a good job.  I would hate a system where customers could pay more to get 'better' service.  I want all of my customers to receive excellent service.

That is how it should be but many countries including USA seem to have lost the way and the real meaning of gratuities/tips. On my last visit to USA my holiday rep told us that if you get good service tip 20%, average service 15% and poor service 10% which I totally dont get because if I get poor service I dont tip at all. With regards to cruise lines arrogantly automatically adding tips to your onboard account or those that tip in advance beggars belief because the whole idea of tips is to reward good service and how do you know until you have received that service. I have yet to read any dictionary that says tips/gratuiites are to be paid because the company pay the staff poor wages.

[Daniel A]

59 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

I have yet to read any dictionary that says tips/gratuiites are to be paid because the company pay the staff poor wages.

Aha!  You're looking up the wrong thing.  Look up 'Crew Incentive' instead...😂

[majortom10]

28 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

Aha!  You're looking up the wrong thing.  Look up 'Crew Incentive' instead...😂

Yes sorry I have done and it says "get people to pay crew incentive so we as a company can pay slave wages so we can make loads of profit and pay Arnold Donald $15million a year. Scandalous and has no place in 21st century but as long as "mugs" fall for it and keep paying they will carry on doing it.