NCL Tipping Questions

[seemoreroyals]

8 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

You are 100% o.k. with your interpretations. The $218 pp is the gratuities on the drinks. The $17.80 is the gratuities for the 2 specialty dinners. And the $20 pp pd covers your room steward, MDR waiters and a bunch of other hardworking crew members that make your cruise experience wonderful. 

 

No additional gratuities are "necessary".

 

We always give our cabin steward some extra cash (for us it's about $10-$15 per day - paid on the last day of the cruise). We also give bar waiters and bar tenders a buck or two for a round of drinks. 

 

As you clearly pointed out over $700 is already earmarked for tips. gratuities, whatever you want to call them for a couple on a 7 day cruise assuming they have the drink package and the specialty dinner package.  As long as a significant amount of people continue to tip quite a bit more the bean counters will continue to raise the tips for all of us.  You can take that to the bank.

 

When DSC first started, what was it $12 per day per person?  Might have been less than that.  Now in less than 20 years  it is at $20 per day per person.  I would not be at all surprised  it that figure is raised to $25 or $30 per day per person.  If that were to happen would you continue to pay your cabin steward $10 to $15 extra per day?

 

Right now two people on a 7 day cruise are prepaying just over $100 per day for tips, gratuities, whatever.  In a perfect and honest world NCL would step in and reassure cruisers that it is not necessary to tip extra.  Unfortunately they don't.  And the DSC's continue to rise and the tensions and awkwardness associated with tipping continue to persist and NCL continues to extract extra monies from people.

 

 

 

 

[Smitheroo]

9 hours ago, Bostonjetset said:

An extra $70-$105 per 7 night cruise on top on the auto tips?!?  For once daily stateroom service?  I guess to each their own. 
 

I just leave the auto grats and maybe give an extra $20 if service is excellent.  With the reduction of service and increase in the auto grats I didn’t leave extra this last cruise though. 

lol, I had the same reaction     One thing to keep in mind though- the room stewards didnt decide amongst themselves they were only doing 1 room clean a day. They were told by their employer and from what I've heard (which may or may not be true) the amount of rooms they were responsible for doubled.  Its quite possible your room steward could be in your room more than once.  Its your decision the amount extra, if any , you tip.  But you are tipping the room steward, not NCL.  And I dont think NCL is going to adjust their way of operating because the room stewards arent getting tipped as much. What will change the way they do things is when they no longer can get room stewards.  We are seeing it all around us in the non-cruise world.  My personal reason for tipping room stewards extra is just to say thank you, I'm happy you are willing to do this kind of work.  I also love how my two experiences so far with room stewards didnt involve them with their hand out pointing out the "additional tip" line. (which I realize doesnt exist as there is no receipt to sign) 

[Phoenixon]

43 minutes ago, Smitheroo said:

lol, I had the same reaction     One thing to keep in mind though- the room stewards didnt decide amongst themselves they were only doing 1 room clean a day. They were told by their employer and from what I've heard (which may or may not be true) the amount of rooms they were responsible for doubled.  Its quite possible your room steward could be in your room more than once.  Its your decision the amount extra, if any , you tip.  But you are tipping the room steward, not NCL.  And I dont think NCL is going to adjust their way of operating because the room stewards arent getting tipped as much. What will change the way they do things is when they no longer can get room stewards.  We are seeing it all around us in the non-cruise world.  My personal reason for tipping room stewards extra is just to say thank you, I'm happy you are willing to do this kind of work.  I also love how my two experiences so far with room stewards didnt involve them with their hand out pointing out the "additional tip" line. (which I realize doesnt exist as there is no receipt to sign) 

Why would they be getting tipped less if the gratuity has gone up and the number of staff cleaning cabins (the pool of people receiving that gratuity) has fallen? Both those changes would increase the gratuity on an individual basis. 

[Smitheroo]

1 minute ago, Phoenixon said:

Why would they be getting tipped less if the gratuity has gone up and the number of staff cleaning cabins (the pool of people receiving that gratuity) has fallen? Both those changes would increase the gratuity on an individual basis. 

Sorry, I was referring to additional tipping done by guests, in cash.

[Phoenixon]

4 minutes ago, Smitheroo said:

Sorry, I was referring to additional tipping done by guests, in cash.

Ah, I see! Makes sense. 

[cruiseny4life]

1 hour ago, seemoreroyals said:

In a perfect and honest world NCL would step in and reassure cruisers that it is not necessary to tip extra.  Unfortunately they don't.  And the DSC's continue to rise and the tensions and awkwardness associated with tipping continue to persist and NCL continues to extract extra monies from people.

Norwegian is pretty clear that additional tips are not necessary, unless utilizing the staff that are not shared among all staff (i.e. butler, concierge, youth staff, etc.). 

 

Source: https://www.ncl.com/faq#!#what-about-gratuities

[Bostonjetset]

3 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

Norwegian is pretty clear that additional tips are not necessary, unless utilizing the staff that are not shared among all staff (i.e. butler, concierge, youth staff, etc.). 

 

Source: https://www.ncl.com/faq#!#what-about-gratuities

They are clear additional tips are not required but they are a bit disingenuous by saying “unlike most other ships in the industry”. I’ve sailed most major lines and none of them require or expect tips above the daily grats that are auto charged. We sometimes leave more because we want to and they are grateful but the policy on other lines I’ve sailed is the same as NCL except all have lower daily charges than NCL does. 

[cruiseny4life]

16 minutes ago, Bostonjetset said:

They are clear additional tips are not required but they are a bit disingenuous by saying “unlike most other ships in the industry”. I’ve sailed most major lines and none of them require or expect tips above the daily grats that are auto charged. We sometimes leave more because we want to and they are grateful but the policy on other lines I’ve sailed is the same as NCL except all have lower daily charges than NCL does. 

Hmmmm....perhaps disingenuous (gosh, that's a whopper of a word), but wasn't the question at hand when I responded. Ugh...now I want a flame grilled yummy Whopper with cheese. Thanks a lot! 🤠

Edited November 13, 2023 by cruiseny4life

[Smitheroo]

17 hours ago, dbrown84 said:

awesome answer!!  I've given up on distinguishing between gratuities and the DSC as most people here dismisses it even though NCL itself distinguishing between them on their website.  The only reason I like to point out that DSC are not tips is to point out it's the hero cards that effects crew member's pay

yeah, well you know how that goes in the working world.  People receive commendations (hero cards) who shouldnt and those who should, often dont.    It doesnt hurt to submit a hero card but dont think that all who should be recognized actually are.    Some people might be going around telling everyone how awesome their room steward is and never get around to filling out the card.  I sure hope that Hero cards arent the only thing that NCL uses to recognize their employees. And a little extra cash is nice because you cant eat hero cards

[macewank]

9 minutes ago, Smitheroo said:

yeah, well you know how that goes in the working world.  People receive commendations (hero cards) who shouldnt and those who should, often dont.    It doesnt hurt to submit a hero card but dont think that all who should be recognized actually are.    Some people might be going around telling everyone how awesome their room steward is and never get around to filling out the card.  I sure hope that Hero cards arent the only thing that NCL uses to recognize their employees. And a little extra cash is nice because you cant eat hero cards

How what goes in the working world?   I told people to make sure they submit the Hero Cards, because they are how crew get recognized.  It's literally the way you and I as customers provide feedback.  dbrown was just agreeing with me

Why do you feel the need to argue with everyone and everything on these forums?

Edited November 13, 2023 by macewank

[Smitheroo]

2 hours ago, macewank said:

How what goes in the working world?   I told people to make sure they submit the Hero Cards, because they are how crew get recognized.  It's literally the way you and I as customers provide feedback.  dbrown was just agreeing with me

Why do you feel the need to argue with everyone and everything on these forums?

I am not arguing. I am providing another point of view. Isnt that the point of a forum. Or do you look at it like a soapbox you get up on and give your opinion and everyone else  needs to shut up or agree with you. 

 

Definition of forum:   An environment where participants can pose issues for discussion and respond to any contribution , thus creating threaded discussions that can spawn a discussion tree where the discussion branches out  in many directions.   Or do all you want to hear is  yes m'am, you're right ma'm

 

Now, back to discussion.  What I meant by how it goes in the working world.   I have worked a long time, probably a lot longer than you have.  People that should be rewarded by a hero card often arent for many reasons,  The people that need to write them just dont get around to it, after all, they are busy traveling, in this case.   So these people get left out even though they might be great workers. This type of reward system often doesnt work as well as it should

 

Advice:  You dont like what I write, just scroll on. Who died and made you boss?