Crew Appreciation Princess Australia

[Galesa]

Hi Folks 

 

I really don't want to start a tipping debate but am I right in understanding that crew appreciation is included in the fare and don't need to worry about tipping housekeeping staff, generally?

[OzKiwiJJ]

That is correct. Princess cruises in our region, booked in Australia or NZ, do not have daily gratuities charged to your account, they are essentially bundled into the fare.

[Galesa]

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

That is correct. Princess cruises in our region, booked in Australia or NZ, do not have daily gratuities charged to your account, they are essentially bundled into the fare.

Great. Thank you.

[MicCanberra]

Correct. If you do decide to reward any staff members with an extra tip, they really do prefer cash, not food.

[hmatt]

We are ready to board next week from U.S. , Do we pay gratuities?
thanks

 

[Aus Traveller]

Just now, hmatt said:

We are ready to board next week from U.S. , Do we pay gratuities?
thanks

 

Yes. You will have the auto-gratuities added to your on-board account. Please be aware that on Princess ships, the tips you pay will go into the fleet-wide pool, a pool that the Australian-based ships are not part of. The crew on the Australian-based ships are paid at a much higher rate than on ships in other parts of the world that rely on tips to augment the salaries. If you wish, you can remove the auto-gratuities from your account and personally hand the cash to your steward/table waiters. It is up to you.

[hmatt]

Thank you 

 

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, hmatt said:

We are ready to board next week from U.S. , Do we pay gratuities?
thanks

 

Do you have Princess Plus or Princess Premier packages as part of your fare? Some versions of these have included "Crew Appreciation" as part of the fare. If you have these included, they will show on the personaliser for your cruise on the Onboard Services page.

 

Other than that, Princess is very different in Australia, in a mostly tip-free society. We still pay, but with higher fares.

[Cruise Junky]

On 2/22/2023 at 2:53 PM, Aus Traveller said:

Yes. You will have the auto-gratuities added to your on-board account. Please be aware that on Princess ships, the tips you pay will go into the fleet-wide pool, a pool that the Australian-based ships are not part of. The crew on the Australian-based ships are paid at a much higher rate than on ships in other parts of the world that rely on tips to augment the salaries. If you wish, you can remove the auto-gratuities from your account and personally hand the cash to your steward/table waiters. It is up to you.

This is super helpful. I booked in US$ but wondered how the tips would work. I don’t normally remove tips, but for this cruise I might and give it in cash.   Thank you for clarifying 

[MMDown Under]

On 2/23/2023 at 8:53 AM, Aus Traveller said:

Yes. You will have the auto-gratuities added to your on-board account. Please be aware that on Princess ships, the tips you pay will go into the fleet-wide pool, a pool that the Australian-based ships are not part of. The crew on the Australian-based ships are paid at a much higher rate than on ships in other parts of the world that rely on tips to augment the salaries. If you wish, you can remove the auto-gratuities from your account and personally hand the cash to your steward/table waiters. It is up to you.

Assuming this is true, why are gratuities charged on a cruise where the crew don't receive the tips?  This demonstrates what a farce auto gratuities are!!

[Aus Traveller]

5 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

This is super helpful. I booked in US$ but wondered how the tips would work. I don’t normally remove tips, but for this cruise I might and give it in cash.   Thank you for clarifying 

The crew you hand the gratuities to will be able to keep it. Otherwise, they will get nothing from you.

[Aus Traveller]

3 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Assuming this is true, why are gratuities charged on a cruise where the crew don't receive the tips?  This demonstrates what a farce auto gratuities are!!

My theory, for what it is worth, is that Carnival Corp management doesn't want people to see that the sky does not fall in when people don't tip. 😉 The ship still operates efficiently and the staff do a great job.

[MMDown Under]

3 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

My theory, for what it is worth, is that Carnival Corp management doesn't want people to see that the sky does not fall in when people don't tip. 😉 The ship still operates efficiently and the staff do a great job.

I agree the staff do a great job,  I spoke to staff on ships newly cruising in Australia.  They didn't care that Australians didn't tip and applied to work on ships operating in Australia. They think Australians on the whole are less demanding and treat staff better.  I don't know what the situation is now with Covid and with less staff.