"Crew Appreciation" charge on Australia & NZ cruises?

[Astro Flyer]

25 minutes ago, jwattle said:

Not sure if it's been answered yet, but it IS dependent on where booked. I DO have to pay gratuities on our upcoming Australia cruise, but since we have Premier, it's included.

Thanks for confirming what I’m expecting after reading discussions on the OZ/NZ board. And based on posts there & my CP showing CA as in USD, it appears that will be converted to over $23 AUD because onboard spending is in AUD.

 

As I recall, people posting on that board said not all cruise lines use AUD when sailing Oz so apparently that is not required by Oz law. When cruising Europe onboard spending is not in Euros so don’t know why it’s different in Oz. We’ll also sail Auckland to LA and that onboard spending including CA and OBCs are in USD.

 

 

[Astro Flyer]

These are the amounts to purchase the packages

 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, Mary loves to travel said:

Oh, that's an interesting question!

So, I just went into my personalizer to find out:   for an Australia cruise next year (starts and ends in Australia).   Currently booked with Standard fare.    To add on Plus is $60 USD per day, Premier is $80 USD per day.

 

The above yellow highlighted comes from the fine print on the "Score for '24" promotion.

 

Mary

When we are booking in North America (N.A. residents) to cruise in Australia/NZ, we pay everything like we booked for a local voyage.  We pay CA on top of cruise fare and pay the regular rates for Plus/Premier because the CA is in those packages.

 

On the ship, the bar pricing - as an example - has the 18% baked in to the AUD prices.

 

 

[jwattle]

I should have specified, we have the Premiere fare Package that includes WiFi and gratuities🍾

[Mary loves to travel]

7 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

When we are booking in North America (N.A. residents) to cruise in Australia/NZ, we pay everything like we booked for a local voyage.  We pay CA on top of cruise fare and pay the regular rates for Plus/Premier because the CA is in those packages.

 

 

 

 

this is exactly what I expected.   It was just reading the fine print that made me wonder.    Seems the consensus is that what I saw is one of those very rare P website errors 🙂    

[skents]

On 7/15/2023 at 10:08 PM, Mary loves to travel said:

thanks for bringing this back around!     Where it really comes into play is if one might or might not buy one of the packages:    if one is normally borderline break-even on a package, knowing the Crew Appreciation won't be charged can be quite a deciding factor when evaluating the package.

I realize that people who tend to have 3-4 or more alcohol drinks will get benefit from the package either way, but for those of us who are lighter drinkers, this is important to know.

 

 

I had this issue come up in Feb 2023 when I rebooked  our upcoming Australian cruises that were originally booked in March 2022.  I had originally booked the plus package and one of the sale packages came out in February with the details of the sale showing tips were included, which is the same language the original post included, whether I took the plus package or not.  I rebooked without the plus package. 

 

After everything was updated in my online account, it showed I still had to pay tips. I had my travel agent send the link of the details from the Princess website to his Princess contact.

 

About two days later, he was notified that my tips would be covered. 

 

My online account shows my tips have been paid.  I printed the travel summary for each of the three cruises showing tips are covered in case something comes up later.

[Steelers36]

50 minutes ago, skents said:

I had this issue come up in Feb 2023 when I rebooked  our upcoming Australian cruises that were originally booked in March 2022.  I had originally booked the plus package and one of the sale packages came out in February with the details of the sale showing tips were included, which is the same language the original post included, whether I took the plus package or not.  I rebooked without the plus package. 

 

After everything was updated in my online account, it showed I still had to pay tips. I had my travel agent send the link of the details from the Princess website to his Princess contact.

 

About two days later, he was notified that my tips would be covered. 

 

My online account shows my tips have been paid.  I printed the travel summary for each of the three cruises showing tips are covered in case something comes up later.

Interesting.  I am sure we paid them back in 2018/2019.

[Mary loves to travel]

51 minutes ago, skents said:

I had this issue come up in Feb 2023 when I rebooked  our upcoming Australian cruises that were originally booked in March 2022.  I had originally booked the plus package and one of the sale packages came out in February with the details of the sale showing tips were included, which is the same language the original post included, whether I took the plus package or not.  I rebooked without the plus package. 

 

After everything was updated in my online account, it showed I still had to pay tips. I had my travel agent send the link of the details from the Princess website to his Princess contact.

 

About two days later, he was notified that my tips would be covered. 

 

My online account shows my tips have been paid.  I printed the travel summary for each of the three cruises showing tips are covered in case something comes up later.

 

Thanks very much!   I am pursuing this right now -- quite a savings!!

 

Mary

 

 

[Mary loves to travel]

Monday morning update!

 

Just off the phone with our wonderful CVP who confirmed that YES, for cruises originating in and returning to Australia, Crew Appreciation is already included for all passengers, regardless of package.

 

The wording I've quoted in prior posts is to state that no discount will be given on Plus or Premiere package prices due to the already included Crew Appreciation.  The prices are the prices.

 

So, for those of us who are borderline break-even on a package, this is significant input into deciding on whether to buy a package.    For those who are nowhere near "borderline break-even", it doesn't really matter 🙂

 

Cheers,

Mary

[Astro Flyer]

1 hour ago, Mary loves to travel said:

Just off the phone with our wonderful CVP who confirmed that YES, for cruises originating in and returning to Australia, Crew Appreciation is already included for all passengers, regardless of package.

Thanks…did the CVP mention how it works without a package? Would it be $23.44 AUD which is the current exchange rate for the $16 USD tips.

The packages are not cost effective for us so we will incur CA.

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Astro Flyer

[Mary loves to travel]

11 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

Thanks…did the CVP mention how it works without a package? Would it be $23.44 AUD which is the current exchange rate for the $16 USD tips.

The packages are not cost effective for us so we will incur CA.

 

 

CA is included in the base cruise fare, for all cruises originating from AND returning to an Australian port.

 

So, even without a package, there is NO Daily Charge for CA  🙂

 

(somewhat similar to you, the package is not cost effective for us, or maybe borderline; so really knowing if we'll be charged daily CA is an important factor in deciding about a package.    In this case, clearly we will go without a package).

 

Best,

Mary

 

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Mary loves to travel
clarify

[Astro Flyer]

7 minutes ago, Mary loves to travel said:

 

CA is included in the base cruise fare, for all cruises originating from AND returning to an Australian port.

 

So, even without a package, there is NO Daily Charge for CA  🙂

 

(somewhat similar to you, the package is not cost effective for us, or maybe borderline; so really knowing if we'll be charged daily CA is an important factor in deciding about a package.    In this case, clearly we will go without a package).

 

Best,

Mary

 

 

Thanks for the clarification & hopefully it will not change before our Spring 2025 circumnavigation of Australia. 
 

[lolo11]

36 minutes ago, Mary loves to travel said:

 

CA is included in the base cruise fare, for all cruises originating from AND returning to an Australian port.

 

So, even without a package, there is NO Daily Charge for CA  🙂

 

(somewhat similar to you, the package is not cost effective for us, or maybe borderline; so really knowing if we'll be charged daily CA is an important factor in deciding about a package.    In this case, clearly we will go without a package).

 

Best,

Mary

 

 

That's great, but I wonder why there is the option to prepay CA (gratuities) in the personalizer under the payment section? 

[coo359a2]

I've lost track of what has been said  going  back and forth from post to post. We have booked for this fall 6 B2Bs.  The first 3 Cruises  were booked in Feb 2022 (Standard Fare) with the first leaving on 26 Sept from  San Francisco to Sydney, then 2 that are AU ports to AU ports.  Booked in the US,    paid in US dollars  and prepaid CA at $14.50US pp pd. The next 3 cruises also booked in Feb 2022 are Princess Plus (all ports in AU) and were booked in US, paid in US dollars and CA included in the Plus package.   All 6 Travel Summaries show the CA is $14.50 pp pd. 

For the cruises booked at Standard Fare, the Payments Section in your Personalizer did show the amount due  per person for the CA  and a block to check to prepay the CA.   For the Plus cruises, it had the standard statement that the CA is included in the promotion package.

Edited July 17, 2023 by coo359a2

[Mary loves to travel]

49 minutes ago, lolo11 said:

That's great, but I wonder why there is the option to prepay CA (gratuities) in the personalizer under the payment section? 

I think that’s a web error- the programming for Crew Appeciation tells it to show on all cruises unless explicitly part of a promo or package.   I mentioned that to my CVP and she agreed it is confusing.  
 

For those who’ve prepaid CA, I suspect it will work as it does for any other cruise:  once onboard your account will show a credit of what you’ve prepaid.   But, on Australia cruises there will be no daily CA charge to offset (on cruises that originate from an Australian port AND end in an Australian port).  

Mary

[coo359a2]

4 minutes ago, Mary loves to travel said:

I think that’s a web error- the programming for Crew Appeciation tells it to show on all cruises unless explicitly part of a promo or package.   I mentioned that to my CVP and she agreed it is confusing.  
 

For those who’ve prepaid CA, I suspect it will work as it does for any other cruise:  once onboard your account will show a credit of what you’ve prepaid.   But, on Australia cruises there will be no daily CA charge to offset (on cruises that originate from an Australian port AND end in an Australian port).  

Mary

Are you saying that CA is included in the  Standard Fare as well as Princess Plus even if booked in the US  as long as the cruises are strictly Australian ports.

[Mary loves to travel]

10 minutes ago, coo359a2 said:

Are you saying that CA is included in the  Standard Fare as well as Princess Plus even if booked in the US  as long as the cruises are strictly Australian ports.

Yes!

For all cruises which originate and end in an Australian port, Crew Appreciation is already part of the base fare.   
 

 

[coo359a2]

12 minutes ago, Mary loves to travel said:

Yes!

For all cruises which originate and end in an Australian port, Crew Appreciation is already part of the base fare.   
 

 

Then we must have paid for something we didn't have too.  I'm sure it won't be refunded but whatever as we have no plans to go back to AU/NZ.  Now to wonder how/if Princess will do the Covid testing they mention in their emails for each of our AU cruises.

[Astro Flyer]

1 hour ago, lolo11 said:

That's great, but I wonder why there is the option to prepay CA (gratuities) in the personalizer under the payment section? 

As I recall, even passengers with a package see the option to prepay CA which is included in their package. As Mary wrote it’s apparently another longterm glitch in the Cruise Personalizer that Princess has not corrected.

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Astro Flyer

[t&atravel]

29 minutes ago, Mary loves to travel said:

Yes!

For all cruises which originate and end in an Australian port, Crew Appreciation is already part of the base fare.   
 

 

This must be something new as this was not the case in early 2020.  Our cruise Sydney to Sydney around New Zealand charged gratuities.  We were told that cruises “booked” on the Australian/New Zealand princess site has the fare adjusted to include gratuities but if you booked in the US the fare did not include them and were charged separately.  For our second leg around Australia were going to prepay them so they would be paid in USD and not added to our account in AUD.  That second trip was cancelled due to covid.

Edited July 17, 2023 by t&atravel

[lolo11]

I wonder if the plus/premier "fares " which include wifi will be available to purchase on board or if it will just be the stand alone beverage packages? And the cost? I was planning on purchasing the full plus (wifi, drinks) on board. 

[coo359a2]

4 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

As I recall, even passengers with a package see the option to prepay CA which is included in their package. As Mary wrote it’s apparently another longterm glitch in the Cruise Personalizer that Princess has not corrected.

 

Not on our  Bookings and Personalizer for our cruises.  If we have the Plus, we only see the statement - Crew appreciations paid for as part of the promotion.  For cruises without a package, they list each name on the booking and the amount of their CA.   

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, lolo11 said:

That's great, but I wonder why there is the option to prepay CA (gratuities) in the personalizer under the payment section? 

Most likely because there is no software smarts to remove it in the situation where not required.  Also, this change sounds new to me.  Or is PCL thinking/hoping a lot of guests from N.A. won't think about it and are used to paying the CA?

[Steelers36]

53 minutes ago, lolo11 said:

I wonder if the plus/premier "fares " which include wifi will be available to purchase on board or if it will just be the stand alone beverage packages? And the cost? I was planning on purchasing the full plus (wifi, drinks) on board. 

Supposed to be on all ships.  Except will be in AUD from Oz and your OBC gets converted 1:1 (bummer), so might not be the best plan.

[konatyme]

So glad you actually talked to the PVP about this, Mary. It sounds like you got the definitive answer (at least as long as Princess doesn't make any changes!). Now we will have to do some re-figuring and decide whether or not to keep Plus on the round-Australia cruise.