Gratuities on 7 day UK to UK on Princess US$ ships

[windsor26]

Please can anyone advise me if there are gratuities daily on these cruises and if so how much for inside rooms

[John Bull]

 

Searching for a direct answer to a direct question can be frustrating, but .....

 

1.

If tips are included, cruise lines tend to shout that in their literature. For instance Marella and P&O always make it clear that they're included.
Princess usually add daily - and drinks - service charges, last I heard pre-pandemic it was about $12 per person per day and 15% on drinks. If they or the cruise travel agents don't mention tips in their advertising for a cruise,, it's a safe bet they're charged extra. 

 

 2

For some cruises, British cruise agents (and presumably Princess themselves) are now offering  "Princess Plus".

 Princess Plus! Upgrade For Just £30pppd & Receive a Premier Drinks Package, Wifi & Tips!.

But it's not offered on Sky Princess 23rd July,, which kinda confirms that tips are charged extra on other UK cruises.

 

3. About 8 years back we sailed a Princess cruise out of Sydney - we booked from the UK and daily tips were included. I think the same applied to Aussie passengers.

Ditto drinks.

And  Princess permitted folk to take as many bottles of wine aboard as they wanted. No corkage charge for one bottle per person (or was it two per cabin), extra bottles charged at $15 per bottle.. We knew the wine prices aboard, and even with the $15 charge the good Aussie bottlo wine that we took aboard was cheaper than ship's cheapest. So we took enough for dinner for the whole cruise.

That was years ago, don't assume its all still the same now.

 

4.

You should get a simple & immediate answer if you phone one or two Aussie cruise specialist agents, they should be able to give you an immediate direct answer. And they can usually give better cruise prices than cruise-line brochure prices, as well as good general cruise advice 

But you'll have to google "cruise agents Australia" because we can't name agents on Cruise Critic,

Use the phone, don't bother hunting websites.

 

JB 🙂

[windsor26]

Thanks John Bull  I ask because like you said as Aussies on Princess and Carnival company cruises from Oz no tipping etc  but somewhere I was told cruises from UK are also tipless by Princess  BUT  if I go into the Princess site the information given is always relative to USA that is why I asked so anyone who has cruises from UK would be able to assist me with what they found 

[John Bull]

I had a little dig around Princess' website from the UK - even though it's a dotcom website the terms & conditions include clues like "The combination of travel services offered to you by Princess Cruises is a package within the meaning of the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 ", so the website has clearly been adjusted for the UK market.

I suspect that if you dig deep into their website from Aus you'll find references to Aus, in which case my presumption is that all the information - including tips - will apply to both of your cruises,

 

You may have already realised that there are no sections in their website about "tips" or "gratuities" - but that they're in the FAQ under the heading "crew appreciation". 🙄

 

Yes, you need first-hand information from a recent cruiser - but it needs to be specifically from folk who've booked in Aus.

Here's a thread from the Aussie Cruisers forum, which might clarify - or might further confuse 😉

 

 

 

JB 🙂

 

[windsor26]

Thanks  but actually we booked in UK as we have bank account there and can use our sterling (and it was appreciably cheaper via a UK T A) so perhaps someone who has recently cruises from and to UK can advise me    I wish I could find the paperwork/website that I saw it say other than Australia and UK  (for tips)

[John Bull]

9 hours ago, windsor26 said:

Thanks  but actually we booked in UK as we have bank account there and can use our sterling (and it was appreciably cheaper via a UK T A)

 

Yep, booking in Aus seems to get the worst deals - thro a US T/A is usually even cheaper than UK

But why not e-mail your question to the UK agent who booked the cruise for you?

 

JB 🙂

[Cruise___master]

I don’t quite understand the tip situation on cruise ships?

 

surely you should tip what you want each day or at the end of the cruise?

 

are cruise ship tipping pre-calculated on your onboard spend?

[windsor26]

58 minutes ago, Cruise___master said:

I don’t quite understand the tip situation on cruise ships?

 

surely you should tip what you want each day or at the end of the cruise?

 

are cruise ship tipping pre-calculated on your onboard spend?

It used to be like that but for several years all over the world (except for Australian based CARNIVAL owned cruise lines)  you are charged a set amount per person including children per day of the cruise  including the first and last portion days.  It depends on your cabin what you are charged as obviously suites pay more than ocean views     Some people remove these tips and pay directly what they think they want to  but if they do the money given has to be given to the cruise line accounts department (or they get sacked)  then it is apportioned with the rest of the tips taken in the normal way  IF YOU DO NOT  remove your tips and give extra at the end then this money can be kept by the person you have given it to.   The odd tips you may give to a drinks waiter will be theirs to keep as they do not get part of the daily tips fund.