What is “Cruise Appreciation?l

[indigosails]

It’s listed in the Plus Package

 

[katisdale]

tips

 

[waltd]

I think it's crew appreciation.

[jebby]

It's the daily service charge (gratuity) that is automatically added to your onboard account.  

That is $14.50 per person per day for balcony categories and below, $15.50 for mini-suite and club class, and $16.50 for Suites.

[NSWP]

Tips, I call it the AWS - Automatic Wage Subsidy. In other words Carnival Corp don't want to pay the full amount of the service crew wage, they want another donation from pax.  Should be like Princess ships in Australia and UK I think, daily auto tip of $15 whatever if included in your overall fare and unable to be removed. Thus there is no need for further tipping.

[NownZen]

1 minute ago, NSWP said:

Tips, I call it the AWS - Automatic Wage Subsidy. In other words Carnival Corp don't want to pay the full amount of the service crew wage, they want another donation from pax.  Should be like Princess ships in Australia and UK I think, daily auto tip of $15 whatever if included in your overall fare and unable to be removed. Thus there is no need for further tipping.

Do you tip in restaurants?

[NSWP]

2 minutes ago, NownZen said:

Do you tip in restaurants?

Rarely in Australia as the waitstaff and kitchen staff are probably earning $25 to $30 an hour or on a public holiday, probably $60 an hour.   Overseas I might drop a couple of dollars or round the bill up like if the bill was $45, round it to $50. 10% is fair enough in my view. Tipping is not in the Aussie culture as a rule.

 

Stand by for incoming, lol.

[Bobbiegentry]

17 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Tips, I call it the AWS - Automatic Wage Subsidy. In other words Carnival Corp don't want to pay the full amount of the service crew wage, they want another donation from pax.  Should be like Princess ships in Australia and UK I think, daily auto tip of $15 whatever if included in your overall fare and unable to be removed. Thus there is no need for further tipping.

This ☝️
 

Marketingspeak for subsiding the responsibility of the cruise line. 

[JimmyVWine]

27 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Rarely in Australia as the waitstaff and kitchen staff are probably earning $25 to $30 an hour or on a public holiday, probably $60 an hour.   Overseas I might drop a couple of dollars or round the bill up like if the bill was $45, round it to $50. 10% is fair enough in my view. Tipping is not in the Aussie culture as a rule.

Tipping changes by region. When one travels around the world it is imperative to read up on the customs and practices of the region one is visiting. Do you bow or shake hands?  Do you present gifts or not? What color of flowers are are welcomed and what colors are an insult. Are tips expected or is tipping insulting. “We don’t do that in my country so I won’t do it here” is self-centered and culturally insensitive. A world traveler must be nimble and flexible. 

[antmaril]

Crew Appreciation = Gratuities. 

[nbsjcruiser]

11 hours ago, NownZen said:

Do you tip in restaurants?

They're already getting their "tips" with the crew appreciation so there is no expectation that they will get additional tips. Having said that, I will tip extra in extraordinary circumstances when someone goes above and beyond, i.e. our room Stewart has really done a splendid job or if we get good service in one of the specialty restaurants. If the service meets expectations or is sub-par in those circumstances, I just figure they already got their tip and wont add extra.

[Lady Arwen]

11 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

Tipping changes by region. When one travels around the world it is imperative to read up on the customs and practices of the region one is visiting. Do you bow or shake hands?  Do you present gifts or not? What color of flowers are are welcomed and what colors are an insult. Are tips expected or is tipping insulting. “We don’t do that in my country so I won’t do it here” is self-centered and culturally insensitive. A world traveler must be nimble and flexible. 

You can’t be any clearer than that.  Best response regarding tipping I’ve ever read. Thank you, sir.

[david63]

11 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

Tipping changes by region

There then comes an interesting point.

 

Princess is ostensibly an American cruise line which operates some of the time out of the UK with the majority being UK passengers - so which region's rules apply? Do I adopt US tipping practices or UK tipping practices?

[sloopsailor]

40 minutes ago, david63 said:

There then comes an interesting point.

 

Princess is ostensibly an American cruise line which operates some of the time out of the UK with the majority being UK passengers - so which region's rules apply? Do I adopt US tipping practices or UK tipping practices?

 

You follow the cruise line's recommendations for the cruise you are on. Just like when cruising on an Italian based cruise line like MSC tipping is not recommended so I don't. I also don't expect mostly American style food and entertainment on MSC. 

 

This concept is not at all difficult to understand. 

[ontheweb]

16 minutes ago, sloopsailor said:

 

You follow the cruise line's recommendations for the cruise you are on. Just like when cruising on an Italian based cruise line like MSC tipping is not recommended so I don't. I also don't expect mostly American style food and entertainment on MSC. 

 

This concept is not at all difficult to understand. 

Correct, not a hard concept to understand unless one is looking for an excuse not to leave tips. 😊

[SantaFeFan]

13 hours ago, NSWP said:

Tips, I call it the AWS - Automatic Wage Subsidy. In other words Carnival Corp don't want to pay the full amount of the service crew wage, they want another donation from pax.  Should be like Princess ships in Australia and UK I think, daily auto tip of $15 whatever if included in your overall fare and unable to be removed. Thus there is no need for further tipping.

 

FACT:  If the staff's salary included the gratuities instead of them being kept two separate incomes, many of them would be paying much more in income taxes in their home country. Many of the countries the majority of the staff are from only include salary when their annual income taxes become due, while tips earned from service charges are not counted. The staff then pays less to taxes, and keeps more for themselves. If the service charges were included, their taxed salary would be much higher.

 

The fact is that the cruise lines do this to help the crew keep as much of their earnings as possible, something that has been validated by a member here who for years was the purser on various cruise lines. They understand how tips work and how keeping them separated can increase the staff member's annual income.

 

However, when cruising in some countries where the majority of the passengers are of a culture of not tipping and bristle at having to pay them, the cruise lines have had to resort to making the exception to include the gratuities in the base fare because too many people removed the gratuities and the affected crew members did not want to work on the ships cruising there because of the greatly reduced income they ended up with. 

 

If people actually cared about their wellbeing, they would happily pay the service charges separately to help the crew save money.

[PrincessLuver]

26 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Correct, not a hard concept to understand unless one is looking for an excuse not to leave tips. 😊

 

Tipping in most places where it is customary is an extra monetary reward for exemplary service of going above and beyond the normal service and is a customer decision.  

 

Some companies have started adding it into the bill and allowing no or little choice for the customer to decide how to reward for the service they received.  It is not automatic like Princess would like you to believe and it turns it into a wage subsidy the way they do it.  

 

There will be a lot of guilt tripping on CC to leave the Crew Appreciation Charge but it is still your choice.  

 

Outstanding service on Princess is not always guaranteed so neither should a tip be. 

Just because the cruise line would like you to do it does not mean you have to just like countless people on CC chose to ignore mask rules, dress codes, chair hogging rules, etc.  Live free!!

 

 

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by PrincessLuver

[david63]

55 minutes ago, sloopsailor said:

You follow the cruise line's recommendations for the cruise you are on

Exactly - so as long as I leave the Crew Appreciation in place there is no need to tip anyone anything extra as there is no cruise line recommendation to tip anything more.

[PrincessLuver]

3 minutes ago, david63 said:

Exactly - so as long as I leave the Crew Appreciation in place there is no need to tip anyone anything extra as there is no cruise line recommendation to tip anything more.

 

I believe you will be charged a gratuity for all bar service paid drinks.

[ontheweb]

39 minutes ago, SantaFeFan said:

 

FACT:  If the staff's salary included the gratuities instead of them being kept two separate incomes, many of them would be paying much more in income taxes in their home country. Many of the countries the majority of the staff are from only include salary when their annual income taxes become due, while tips earned from service charges are not counted. The staff then pays less to taxes, and keeps more for themselves. If the service charges were included, their taxed salary would be much higher.

 

The fact is that the cruise lines do this to help the crew keep as much of their earnings as possible, something that has been validated by a member here who for years was the purser on various cruise lines. They understand how tips work and how keeping them separated can increase the staff member's annual income.

 

However, when cruising in some countries where the majority of the passengers are of a culture of not tipping and bristle at having to pay them, the cruise lines have had to resort to making the exception to include the gratuities in the base fare because too many people removed the gratuities and the affected crew members did not want to work on the ships cruising there because of the greatly reduced income they ended up with. 

 

If people actually cared about their wellbeing, they would happily pay the service charges separately to help the crew save money.

And adding the tips to the fare just might put the passenger into the next higher monetary catergory for insuring their trip. So this system in addition to benefiting the crew also can benefit the cruise customers.

[ontheweb]

29 minutes ago, PrincessLuver said:

 

Tipping in most places where it is customary is an extra monetary reward for exemplary service of going above and beyond the normal service and is a customer decision.  

 

Some companies have started adding it into the bill and allowing no or little choice for the customer to decide how to reward for the service they received.  It is not automatic like Princess would like you to believe and it turns it into a wage subsidy the way they do it.  

 

There will be a lot of guilt tripping on CC to leave the Crew Appreciation Charge but it is still your choice.  

 

Outstanding service on Princess is not always guaranteed so neither should a tip be. 

Just because the cruise line would like you to do it does not mean you have to just like countless people on CC chose to ignore mask rules, dress codes, chair hogging rules, etc.  Live free!!

 

 

 

Tipping for exemplary service may very well have been the way it started out, but presently it is expected unless the service is truly awful. And one can still tip extra in appreciation of exemplary service.

 

[ontheweb]

16 minutes ago, david63 said:

Exactly - so as long as I leave the Crew Appreciation in place there is no need to tip anyone anything extra as there is no cruise line recommendation to tip anything more.

And you no longer need to make sure you have the proper bills to stuff the envelopes with.

[Princessfan20]

31 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Tipping for exemplary service may very well have been the way it started out, but presently it is expected unless the service is truly awful. And one can still tip extra in appreciation of exemplary service.

 

 

People in hell want ice water too but that does not mean they are going to get it.  Our expectation is that tipping will be based on service, attitude and gratitude.  We do generously tip but it is not automatic and we decide how much when and where.

 

We still control our money and we decide what we will do with it not the corporations which some on CC make it sound like they are greedy because they do not want to pay taxes with their Crew Appreciation scheme as some have defined it??

Edited October 3, 2022 by Princessfan20

[sloopsailor]

17 minutes ago, Princessfan20 said:

 

People in hell want ice water too but that does not mean they are going to get it.  Our expectation is that tipping will be based on service, attitude and gratitude.  

 

We still control our money and what we do with it not the corporations which some on CC make it sound like they are greedy because they do not want to pay taxes with their Crew Appreciation scheme as some have defined it??

 

Please read post #16. That post explains that it's not the cruise line trying to avoid paying taxes. It's about what the employees pay in income taxes in their own countries. Since those employees sign up over and over again, they must be quite satisfied with how the company controls their salaries and income. 

 

Personally, since I believe in treating the staff with respect and appreciation, I am comfortable with how Princess takes care of their employees and would never remove or lower the gratuities to benefit myself at the expense of the people who work hard to make my cruise memorable. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by sloopsailor

[Princessfan20]

52 minutes ago, sloopsailor said:

 

Please read post #16. That post explains that it's not the cruise line trying to avoid paying taxes. It's about what the employees pay in income taxes in their own countries. Since those employees sign up over and over again, they must be quite satisfied with how the company controls their salaries and income. 

 

With all due respect I doubt anyone knows the corporate intentions of CCL's for Crew Appreciation scheme and also that they do not know the the tax situation or country tax tables for each crew member on the ship.  

 

If Princess is so benevolent then why did they change the system from where we were able to tip to who and how much we wanted on each cruise.  

 

It really is a salary supplement and nothing more and there is nothing wrong with that but they should just lump it in the fare and be transparent.  

 

We know that Princess saves a tremendous amount in corporate taxes by structuring this income in this manner and passing the tax burden on to its' crews.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Princessfan20