Withdrawing Daily Auto Gratuity fees onboard

[HappyInVan]

1 hour ago, TAW1963 said:

As Abraham Lincoln once said, “better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and to remove all doubt.”

 

No No!

 

Those folks lack management, business and operational experience. But, they have legitimate concerns. They just need to listen to the people who know what they are doin! 😉

Edited February 11 by HappyInVan

[RedneckBob]

On 2/8/2024 at 11:48 AM, RICHARD@SEA said:

I recently went on a 9 day ROTTERDAM cruise  which was a total disaster....bad service, bad food including food poisoning & a cabin that should never been sold due to structural problems / noise.

 

I'm a 3 star Mariner w HAL (since 1976) & I  don't think I will ever sail on HAL or any CARNIVORE CORP line ship ever again.

 

On another recent post on this board someone posted about nickel & diming on drink packages.  

 

I have  always tipped extra to my cabin stewards and  dining room waiters or deck stewards & anyone else that went out of their way to help. So today the lines imposed DAILY fees along w an 18% gratuity to drinks.  On my recent Rotterdam cruise the service was horrible - the worst was in the bars.  I never ate in the main dining room as I don't care for the cattle car atmosphere & service currently levels.  The specialty steak house I ate in was really bad  - it was half full& at times tehte was NO waitstaff or manager around - and to top it off I got food poisoning after eating there.

The bartenders & few waitstaff in the bars were too busy having fun among themselves & left customers waiting to order drinks.  One nite I had one pre dinner  drink & was handed a bill for $52...when I said it wasn't my bill the waiter said "its your card".  I also checked my final bill & there were seveeral overcharges  - I nw ask for receipts & check my final bill.

 

 

I don't want to hear about staff cutbacks due to covid etc.... like I told the Hotel Manager... " I'd like to see the bonuses of the HAL & CARNIVORE CORP Executives".

 

So I decided as cruising has changed so must I.... if I am on a ship w auto gratuity I will visit the GUEST RELATIONS DESK & have it removed for the voyage.  Then I will go ahead & tip those staff that have assisted me while onboard.   If service is good or better I add $$$$.  If its not I deduct - as I would do when ashore.

I won't  be forced to help a corporation pay salaries in the guise that I am paying a gratuity.

 

This is along the lines when a cruise line , hotel or restaurant says I am their "GUEST"  well I don't charge my guests  & I paid in good faith for the products these corps sell....  Its lie the inmates are running the asylum!!!!

What cabin were you in. Had similar issues with cabin on Rotterdam during Covid but was moved to another cabin since ship was half full.

[RedneckBob]

On 2/9/2024 at 4:19 PM, MISTER 67 said:

You didn’t bother to post my whole thread but yes when you’re use to evening turndown service for 44 years of cruising with chocolates on the pillow then all of a sudden it’s one thing after another that is being taken away from us then it’s good bye HAL, we will stick with Celebrity and Princess.

No more chocolates but for some reason we get each nite a prune on our pillow! 😀

[grapau27]

I am very much Pro tipping.

We have done 67 cruises to date and always tipped.

I have read countless tipping threads on 

Royal Caribbean.

Princess.

P&O.

The same things are said over and over again that are said on here.

If your cruise line promotes auto gratuities we should accept this as part of our cruise unless for exceptional circumstances.

The crew understand the tipping process on board.

On P&O no tips are expected as they are included in the cruise price but we still get excellent service.

Any cash tips I give are greatly appreciated.

 

[RedneckBob]

4 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

I am very much Pro tipping.

We have done 67 cruises to date and always tipped.

I have read countless tipping threads on 

Royal Caribbean.

Princess.

P&O.

The same things are said over and over again that are said on here.

If your cruise line promotes auto gratuities we should accept this as part of our cruise unless for exceptional circumstances.

The crew understand the tipping process on board.

On P&O no tips are expected as they are included in the cruise price but we still get excellent service.

Any cash tips I give are greatly appreciated.

 

I prefer tips be included in cruise price!

 

Forgot,,congrats on 67 cruises! 

Edited February 11 by RedneckBob

[pmjnh]

9 hours ago, kirkc said:

i want details on the alleged food poisoning. 😂

 

Funny, I was thinking the same thing. Food poisoning is a pretty serious accusation... BUT.. one persons definition of food poisoning can differ from another's. Norovirus causes the same symptoms as food poisoning...as does a reaction to a food or ingredient that might not agree with you for various reasons. Overeating, over drinking .....and  If you haven't cruised in a while, I have seen people go hog wild over having as much food suddenly available to them , especially  desserts and drink...that a persons  digestive system  might not be used to..So..for the OP, did you sit at a table with others who ordered the same dish?

How long after your meal did you get sick...and what were your symptoms ?? Did others get sick as well? If others got sick from eating the SAME menu item, then it could certainly be associated with FP. If you were the only one then it most likely was not food poisoning. Did you go to the infirmary and IF you went to the infirmary, did you ask if anyone else got sick from the offending menu item?  

 

That all said, if it was truly food poisoning, I am sorry that happened to you. As a medical professional, one person's definition of "food poisoning"  is not always actual "food poisoning". But if you were sick in the cabin, the cabin stewards had to work pretty hard to clean up that bathroom...unless you did that yourself, of course.  I hope you tipped them well.

 

[badtwin]

First a couple questions.  Does anyone know exactly how the crew appreciation is paid out between all the various crew members?  I know what the blurb on HAL says but I wondered in dollars and cents.  Second, are tips from bar bills and specialty restaurants and whatever else gets an automatic tip put in the same pool or do those tips got to the direct service providers?  I ask because it seems that the OP finds the most fault with the food and beverage servers but I assume a large portion of crew appreciation goes to all those behind the scenes that make my cruise experience pretty good on HAL.

 

I am one who used to find the crew appreciation a bit annoying - sort of a pricing gimmick to keep the base price of the cruise lower.  And since nearly every other cruise line does the same, it would be hard to be the one line that changes.  The only justification I could figure out was that it is a way to increase compensation when work load increases.  That is, on a full ship crew will have to work harder but they have a bigger pool of crew appreciation.  If the ship is not as full, they still get their base pay but may have a slightly easier time of it. 

 

Just to be clear - I was a waitress a few summers and I know service is hard work.   When we cruise, we give extra where extra is due.  I get very annoyed when I hear complaints about the bar service when I can see the wait people are working very hard.  On our last cruise, it often looked like the bottleneck was number of bar staff - they couldn't make the drinks fast enough to keep up with the waiters.  But there is only so much room behind the bars too.  Service will be slower during times of peak demand.  Live with it.

 

 

 

[DCThunder]

Does HappyinVan seriously think that the only compensation for hotel department employees on a ship comes from the auto gratuity?  That's the impression I'm getting from his posts and especially #144.

[kazu]

15 minutes ago, badtwin said:

First a couple questions.  Does anyone know exactly how the crew appreciation is paid out between all the various crew members?  I know what the blurb on HAL says but I wondered in dollars and cents.

 

I don’t know the exact breakdown any longer but I do know that a significant percentage goes to your cabin steward, MDR servers & Lido servers.  The remainder goes to everyone “behind the scenes”.  It was similar to what used to recommended when we did our envelopes before the auto gratuity was brought into effect, I believe.

 

 

15 minutes ago, badtwin said:

  Second, are tips from bar bills and specialty restaurants and whatever else gets an automatic tip put in the same pool or do those tips got to the direct service providers? 

 

The bar bill gratuity goes into a separate pool for the bar staff.  I believe that the gratuity for specialty dining goes to the pool for those servers but I am not 100% sure on the latter.

 

15 minutes ago, badtwin said:

  That is, on a full ship crew will have to work harder but they have a bigger pool of crew appreciation.  If the ship is not as full, they still get their base pay but may have a slightly easier time of it. 

 

Absolutely correct.  A full ship (assuming people leave the auto tip in place) means more crew appreciation that they all share in.

 

[HappyInVan]

21 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

I don’t know the exact breakdown any longer but I do know that a significant percentage goes to your cabin steward, MDR servers & Lido servers.  The remainder goes to everyone “behind the scenes”.  It was similar to what used to recommended when we did our envelopes before the auto gratuity was brought into effect, I believe.

 

 

 

 

Yes, but what proportion of their income comes from this gratuity 'tax'? This is what's important. As I understand it, landside F&B servers derive a large share of their income from tips and service charge.

Edited February 11 by HappyInVan

[kazu]

1 minute ago, HappyInVan said:

 

Yes, but what proportion of their income comes from this gratuity 'tax'? This is what's important. As I understand it, landside F&B servers derive a large share of their income from tips and service charge.

 

Frankly, it’s none of our business.  I served in the hospitality business putting myself through University.  None of my patrons had the gall to ask me what proportion of my income came from tips.   

 

What you “understand” is not necessarily the case.   Or have you not heard of minimum wage?

[pmjnh]

45 minutes ago, badtwin said:

Does anyone know exactly how the crew appreciation is paid out between all the various crew members?  I know what the blurb on HAL says but I wondered in dollars and cents. 

 

we were on the Oosterdam in October/Nov. there was a coffee chat on the world stage with the Hotel Manager, Darren. 
 

Someone in the audience asked this question. He responded that the automatic gratuities were pooled with all the ships  of the HAL  fleet and that at the end of each month, all crew members throughout the fleet are issued a check. 

[Haljo1935]

9 minutes ago, pmjnh said:

 

we were on the Oosterdam in October/Nov. there was a coffee chat on the world stage with the Hotel Manager, Darren. 
 

Someone in the audience asked this question. He responded that the automatic gratuities were pooled with all the ships  of the HAL  fleet and that at the end of each month, all crew members throughout the fleet are issued a check. 

 

1 hour ago, badtwin said:

Does anyone know exactly how the crew appreciation is paid out between all the various crew members? 

That is what I've heard during similar chats - tips pooled and distributed fleetwide, not shipwide to passenger-specific sailing. I've not heard a breakdown of percentages given during the chats; I've seen some % here on CC but nothing official from HAL. So long as they're fully distributed, I personally don't care what the breakout is and follow my heart for anything additional. 

[Gunther1]

I think we need to start a conspiracy theory re this, as it seems to be morphing into it pretty quickly.

 

 

[grapau27]

34 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

Frankly, it’s none of our business.  I served in the hospitality business putting myself through University.  None of my patrons had the gall to ask me what proportion of my income came from tips.   

 

What you “understand” is not necessarily the case.   Or have you not heard of minimum wage?

I Absolutely agree Jacqui @kazu.

 

[shandryl]

On 2/8/2024 at 8:33 PM, kirkc said:

Food poisoning? How much time did you spend in the infirmary? Was there any discussion of having you medically evacuated for treatment? Assuming you were given complete medical reports to give to your local physician. How many others were affected? I’m surprised it didn’t make the news.

👏👏👏

[Overhead Fred]

Please relock!!!

[Wakepatrol]

I have a question. Why aren’t the tip removers doing it the second they arrive at the pier?

why are they waiting till the last day?

please somebody answer this

[HappyInVan]

3 hours ago, pmjnh said:

we were on the Oosterdam in October/Nov. there was a coffee chat on the world stage with the Hotel Manager, Darren. 
 

Someone in the audience asked this question. He responded that the automatic gratuities were pooled with all the ships  of the HAL  fleet and that at the end of each month, all crew members throughout the fleet are issued a check. 

 

 

Excellent! Thanks so much. Now, we have the facts.

 

Looks like what any pax does, will have a negligible effect on crew compensation. Either withholding gratuity or adding to the pool. As I suspected, cash is king. I'll go that route to reward our service heroes. 👍

 

 

[KAKcruiser]

And they will have to turn it in or lose their jobs.  

[Gunther1]

Curious…..what was the insubordination?

[Dismomx5]

22 minutes ago, HappyInVan said:

 

 

Excellent! Thanks so much. Now, we have the facts.

 

Looks like what any pax does, will have a negligible effect on crew compensation. Either withholding gratuity or adding to the pool. As I suspected, cash is king. I'll go that route to reward our service heroes. 👍

 

 

Since we know that the only way to ensure that those service heroes get to keep your gift of money is to keep the gratuity on your account, I'm glad that you are going to do that. 👍 I do the same. I pay the gratuity (would never think to remove it!) and ADD tips to those that I see-stewards and servers, put money in the laundry bag for the laundry, and even a couple of dollars to those I see regularly shining the elevator. 

Edited February 11 by Dismomx5

[RuthC]

3 minutes ago, Dismomx5 said:

I pay the gratuity (would never think to remove it!) and ADD tips to those that I see-stewards and servers, put money in the laundry bag for the laundry, and even a couple of dollars to those I see regularly shining the elevator. 

I'm especially appreciative of those who keep the public restrooms sparkling and well stocked. 

[Mary229]

5 minutes ago, Dismomx5 said:

Since we know that the only way to ensure that those service heroes get to keep your gift of money is to keep the gratuity on your account, I'm glad that you are going to do that. 👍 I do the same. I pay the gratuity (would never think to remove it!) and ADD tips to those that I see-stewards and servers, put money in the laundry bag for the laundry, and even a couple of dollars to those I see regularly shining the elevator. 

The crepe and ice cream lady. I don’t know how she keeps her smile all day. 

[Wakepatrol]

15 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

The crepe and ice cream lady. I don’t know how she keeps her smile all day. 

Her contract allows her to throw six cones per shift at boorish passengers