Cabo San Lucas: Tender personal aggressive in asking for tips

[fstuff1]

(March 2022): Cabo tenders are operated by Cabo, not Ncl.

 

During the short voyage, one  member of the  tender crew walked to each person with a tip can (coffee can).

They wait in front of you till they got $ or you waved them away.

W T F?

 

 I would imagine this would make less assertive people uncomfortable.

 

I can understand a tip can when we leave the boat but to put one in front of you during the passage and waited???

 

It felt like I was on a NYC subway with homeless begger asking for $ as he walked from one subway  car to the next.

Heck, I would have preferred them over these guys who have jobs because they don't stop in front of each Subway rider till you gave them $ or  waved them away.

 

This happened both going to Cabo and coming back to the ship.

 

Just rubbed me the wrong way.

 

Ncl- If you're reading this, can you get them to stop this behavior?

 

Attached is the pic of one the tender boats I was on.

 

Edited March 14, 2022 by fstuff1

[Paula_MacFan]

I think you mean 'personnel' and not 'personal'.

[mearsfansinboise]

Thanks for the heads up - I'll either have a single ready for the ride there and back ... or think of a way to assertively say no .... 🤔

[tallnthensome]

Anytime I'm on an excursion , tender, taxi,bus , etc I always have singles with me . It's the easiest and even cheap way to get out of uncomfortable situations.  No excuse for being pushy but these people survive on tourism and even tips and lots of tourists are cheap as can be and probably why they felt the need to push.  

[don't-use-real-name]

When ? did the cruise lines (NCL?) stop using its own life boat tenders ?

Seems that better control of the tender movement would be with your own equipment.

Why contract it out ?

If it is contracted out - who is paying the bill ?

Is the contractor paying - a slave wage - bare minimum ?

 

This holding out the tip can/jar leaves a lot to be desired !

 

Cabo Tenders LINK:

CABO TENDERS

[julig22]

Was in Cabo a few weeks ago - didn't notice it then.  Hopefully NCL will put a stop to it. Annoying but I will often leave a small tip anyway - but in the tips can, not to an individual.

Had a whale-watch excursion there and they passed the hat during the excursion. Not a fan.

In Ensenada they specifically told us NOT to give any money to the kids begging in the shopping area - they are trying to put a stop to it. But my experience in Mexico is that everyone expects a tip for everything - at least from the tourists.  Even the cashier that rings up the sale when you buy a souvenir!

[phillygwm]

17 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

Anytime I'm on an excursion , tender, taxi,bus , etc I always have singles with me . It's the easiest and even cheap way to get out of uncomfortable situations.  No excuse for being pushy but these people survive on tourism and even tips and lots of tourists are cheap as can be and probably why they felt the need to push.  

Shame on me, I never even considered tipping the tender staff.  If I'm doing an excursion (whether NCL or on my own) of course I tip.  But a tender just seems like the kind of thing that should be included so it never occurred to me.

[roboref]

The tender service from Cabo was in use on our Carnival sailing back last August. The tip request wasn't quite so obvious, but they insisted on taking a picture of me and the wife, and then asked for the tip. I think it is not cool. Also saw this on the water taxi in Nassau. 

[hallux]

49 minutes ago, don't-use-real-name said:

When ? did the cruise lines (NCL?) stop using its own life boat tenders ?

Cabo has a fleet of tenders that can be hired by the cruise lines to ferry passengers to shore.  This is especially useful for ships such as the Bliss that have 4,000+ people to get ashore.  I believe they still use lifeboats as well, and once other ships anchor up the port tenders may distribute to the other ships to help out (if they chose to hire those services).

 

That out of the way - this aggressive behavior was not my experience when I was in Cabo in 2019, but that was also pre-pandemic so they might not have been as hard-up for the cash.

 

Here are the tenders waiting to board the passengers, from my 2019 cruise - 

[casofilia]

@fstuff1

 

I hope you put your complaint, in writing, to the Shorex manager as soon as you got back on the ship.

 

If not, do it now if the cruise has finished, through the Contact Us tab on the NCL website using the post-cruise portion.

[debenson0723]

This was not done on my Cabo tender in November, either coming or going.  The  tender was one of the rockiest I have been on...no one was walking around.

[jskinsd]

11 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

(March 2022): Cabo tenders are operated by Cabo, not Ncl.

 

During the short voyage, one  member of the  tender crew walked to each person with a tip can (coffee can).

They wait in front of you till they got $ or you waved them away.

W T F?

 

 I would imagine this would make less assertive people uncomfortable.

 

I can understand a tip can when we leave the boat but to put one in front of you during the passage and waited???

 

It felt like I was on a NYC subway with homeless begger asking for $ as he walked from one subway  car to the next.

Heck, I would have preferred them over these guys who have jobs because they don't stop in front of each Subway rider till you gave them $ or  waved them away.

 

This happened both going to Cabo and coming back to the ship.

 

Just rubbed me the wrong way.

 

Ncl- If you're reading this, can you get them to stop this behavior?

 

Attached is the pic of one the tender boats I was on.

 

So how much did you tip?

[roger001]

Forget the tenders..watch for a young lady at the port right after you get there.  I have never, never, in all my life....or port stops, seen such an aggressive person trying to sell something.  Her product was a tiny tube of eye area cream that eliminates wrinkles in the skin.  She grabbed my wife and just flat wouldn't let go.  Began rubbing the cream on.  I explained NO in as many ways as I could.  Her response to me was, "What...you don't think I'm pretty".  Actually, she was fantastic and showing much of her fantastic self with her very low cut blouse.  But, I was not going to pay over a hundred bucks for a tiny  tube of cream.  

[PTC DAWG]

Agree re the “have singles” comment, throw them a buck and move on.  

[MoCruiseFan]

I would have pulled a $20 and some change out of my pocket.  Picked through the change to get 1 or 2 pennies.  Shoved the rest of the money back in my pocket, and then dropping them in the can clearly making it obvious how much i 'tipped".

[njkate]

It's Mexico, both Mexico and Caribbean have aggressive people looking for tips or trying to sell you something. Once on a land vacation to Costa Rica it was like going through a shark tank with aggressive sellers of time shares when you exited the airport 

[rumma]

Coming from a non tipping culture I find this bizzare and sad.  It's the reason we will no longer travel to the US, I'll be extending that exclusion zone wider, tipping weirds me out.  We're looking at Alaska in 2024, I need a few years to build up to dealing with it I also convert, never a good move.

[roger001]

16 minutes ago, rumma said:

Coming from a non tipping culture I find this bizzare and sad.  It's the reason we will no longer travel to the US, I'll be extending that exclusion zone wider, tipping weirds me out.  We're looking at Alaska in 2024, I need a few years to build up to dealing with it I also convert, never a good move.

Tipping in the US is getting outrageous.  Businesses that don't provide any type service, services  that have in the past been a tipping type business, servers at tables, etc, these other businesses now have on the printed receipt a place to indicate how much you wish to tip.  Getting ridiculous.  And this request to tip occurs before anything has even happened, like ordering a pizza at a counter to go.  Tipping was supposed to be for exceptional service.  Service hasn't even occurred yet.  

Edited March 14, 2022 by roger001

[Uff da]

On our tender boat they announced that the people working the boat were volunteers and tips were the only income they made. True or not, that's what they said. They passed the can around after that. At least we knew what they were doing. It was not at all what the OP described. 

 

[jskinsd]

51 minutes ago, Uff da said:

On our tender boat they announced that the people working the boat were volunteers and tips were the only income they made. True or not, that's what they said. They passed the can around after that. At least we knew what they were doing. It was not at all what the OP described. 

 

You say this thread is fake news and not NCLs fault.

[Travelling2Some]

This is just my own feeling but what is sometimes described at "aggressive" I tend to view as "desperate".  I've traveled in developing countries and have seen horrific poverty so I tend towards generosity.  I don't mind tipping at home (United States) as it's almost a subversive act - money changing hands freely without government interference (taxes, lol) Yay!  Have also noticed that the service in non-tipping cultures (with the very notable exception of Japan) tends to be lousy.  As I said, just my own feelings - everybody else is equally entitled to their own.

[fstuff1]

On 3/14/2022 at 4:26 PM, Uff da said:

On our tender boat they announced that the people working the boat were volunteers and tips were the only income they made. True or not, that's what they said.

They passed the can around after that. At least we knew what they were doing. It was not at all what the OP described. 

 

 

i doubt that.

 

The tender that did the shake down was the big double decker.

the smaller 1 level speedboats (see pic) did not do the shake down.

heck, there wasnt even a tip can as we left the boat.

 

[fstuff1]

On 3/13/2022 at 8:30 PM, don't-use-real-name said:

When did the cruise lines (NCL?) stop using its own life boat tenders ?

Seems that better control of the tender movement would be with your own equipment.

Why contract it out ?

If it is contracted out - who is paying the bill ?

Is the contractor paying - a slave wage - bare minimum ?

 

This holding out the tip can/jar leaves a lot to be desired !

 

Cabo Tenders LINK:

CABO TENDERS

 

exactly!

and it seems it's just NCL.

 

Holland America Koningdam uses their tenders.

 

Edited March 16, 2022 by fstuff1

[gknep]

I was in Cabo with Holland America in January. We used the ship's tenders to go ashore but the Cabo tenders to return to the ship. No aggressive behavior on the part of the crew for tips that day at least. 

[Uff da]

On 3/14/2022 at 4:20 PM, jskinsd said:

You say this thread is fake news and not NCLs fault.

WHAT? That is not at all what I said. I said our experience was not like the original posters. That is all. That was an over the top response. Chill out.