Crew Appreciation - HAL

[Galesa]

Hi Folks

 

Really hoping not to open the "tipping" can of worms but have a question peculiar to HAL.

 

Have cruised twice previously with HAL. Both outside Aus. In both instances: Alaska; and Norway, we willingly paid the daily crew appreciation charge. This was sold as a means of avoiding any uncomfortable situations around tipping; and that the funds are distributed among the crew in lieu of individual tipping. We thought this was a good idea and quite reasonable. 

 

Our recent experience with Princess from Australia resulted in us not "having too" tip anyone as gratuities were wrapped up in the fare we paid. Tipping of cabin staff eg, was completely voluntary and not necessarily expected. A fine idea also. 

 

We are now travelling again with HAL from Australia with an Australian fare structure.

 

My question is, do we pay crew appreciation as a matter of course like we did in the US and Norway/Holland, or, like the Princess cruise, are gratuities wrapped up in the fare and there is no need to pay crew appreciation.

 

Many TIA

[MicCanberra]

I would say not.

On our recent Noordam cruise to NZ they were not included in the fare, we paid them separately. You can prepay these if you wish by going into your cruise manager.

[cruiser3775]

It seems that if the currency aboard is USD, then the cruises from Australia will not charge the crew gratuities in advance. They will start appearing as a daily charge on your on-board account.  Note that, even when this happens, it does not stop HAL from charging you 19% gratuities when you order drinks.

[arxcards]

Charged daily I'm afraid. The $US currency ships of the Carnival brands do indeed charge daily grats, even when operating from Australia - that applies to HAL and Cunard.

[mr walker]

5 hours ago, cruiser3775 said:

 Note that, even when this happens, it does not stop HAL from charging you 19% gratuities when you order drinks.

The auto-grats applied to drink purchases etc have nothing to do with gratuity applicable to services such as dining waiters & stateroom stewards 

[OzKiwiJJ]

For the daily gratuities there should be an offer to prepay them. It's often worth doing that but check the exchange rate first 

[lyndarra]

I always prepay them on HAL.

[MicCanberra]

I have recently prepaid mine on my upcoming cruise, the exchange rate was closer to $0.80 than the current exchange rate of $0.67.

[MicCanberra]

Also note that the Service charģes are going up from $16 to $17 for insides to balcony, and suites go up to $19 as of 1 February 2024.

[Galesa]

Thanks everyone for your responses. Bit late responding as life got in the way.

 

So. When comparing a Princess cruise to a HAL cruise eg,  the daily charge can make a considerable difference to the cruise price, applies v apples?

[MicCanberra]

Yes, cruise dependent.

[Tigerlily75]

On 1/16/2024 at 7:43 AM, MicCanberra said:

I have recently prepaid mine on my upcoming cruise, the exchange rate was closer to $0.80 than the current exchange rate of $0.67.

 

Same here, I saved about $100 by pre-paying them. 

[MicCanberra]

4 hours ago, Tigerlily75 said:

 

Same here, I saved about $100 by pre-paying them. 

For us it was closer to $200.

[Pushka]

So I'm new to HAL. Just booked Japan for next year and took the All inclusive package which includes the bev package that is one down from the highest. Now I'm curious. Does this package not include the tips for drinks either?  I'm going to pre pay the daily charge. In manage your booking, whereabouts does this appear please. 
 

Just checked the fine print. Tips included. 
Choose from a large selection of wine, beer, spirits and cocktails, plus non-alcoholic options like sodas, specialty coffees and more – with service charges on us.

Edited January 21 by Pushka

[Pushka]

So I've finally found out where to pay this but the exchange is not good at all, there's no bargains there and it works out a few AUD more to prepay. If the AUD improves slightly then we won't be prepaying. Also there's a discussion on the general boards that even if you prepay, some are still required to pay more if there's an increase as that prepayment is logged each day onboard and so a gap accumulates.