iowananny Posted 3 hours ago #901 Share Posted 3 hours ago 1 minute ago, Thought2go said: On some of the Oceania FB pages you find people bragging how they always slip the Maitre’d a hundred each time -or the Sommelier a 50 -it makes me cringe. Because it will most definitely color the staffs impression of all of us. My husband and I have never slipped anyone a hundred. Well, I take that back we have slipped our kids more than a hundred more than once, but that's a different story. We've always received very good service on cruise ships without extra tips. I really wonder if those who give big tips really do get that much better service or if it just makes them feel important. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEC Man Posted 3 hours ago #902 Share Posted 3 hours ago 17 minutes ago, iowananny said: After Covid I was willing to tip more because I know many people in the service industry really did suffer when they couldn't work. We spent less because there was no place to go so, I was willing to share what we had saved. At the time it just seemed fair. But now everyone wants more and more and more tips. We went to a Mexican restaurant yesterday that gives the amounts to tip at the bottom of the receipt. It used to be 12, 15 or 20%. Now they suggest giving 15, 20 or 30%. We didn't get that much service to even consider a 30% tip. This summer I went to a sweet corn stand that sold corn from the back of a pickup truck. They had a tip jar out. I'm not going to tip when I buy three ears of corn. At least in our area the employees are grocery stores are not allowed to take tips even if they do help you take your groceries to the car. I hope it stays that way. I'm tipping less and not feeling guilty about it. Maybe I'm just a mean old lady but I don't care. If I get outstanding service from someone on a cruise ship, and there have been times when I have, I'm willing to slip them a little bit something extra but I'm not going to just start throwing money at people because they've come to believe they deserve it. It has gotten to the point in US restaurants that I prefer to pay cash to avoid paying an added credit card service charge and to avoid having the credit card processed at the table via a hand held device (Toast is a major brand of these) that has preset tip amounts while the server is standing over your shoulder in an intimidating (intentional or unintentional) fashion. With cash I have a moment to think through the appropriate tip amount. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njhorseman Posted 2 hours ago #903 Share Posted 2 hours ago 4 hours ago, terrydtx said: Since gratuities are now included in Oceania cruise fares, I hope they do not cave and let passengers get the grats refunded to their OBC accounts. Since gratuities will be baked into the base fare and not a separate line item on the bill there will be no way to remove them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osandomir Posted 2 hours ago #904 Share Posted 2 hours ago 16 minutes ago, iowananny said: After Covid I was willing to tip more because I know many people in the service industry really did suffer when they couldn't work. We spent less because there was no place to go so, I was willing to share what we had saved. At the time it just seemed fair. But now everyone wants more and more and more tips. We went to a Mexican restaurant yesterday that gives the amounts to tip at the bottom of the receipt. It used to be 12, 15 or 20%. Now they suggest giving 15, 20 or 30%. We didn't get that much service to even consider a 30% tip. This summer I went to a sweet corn stand that sold corn from the back of a pickup truck. They had a tip jar out. I'm not going to tip when I buy three ears of corn. At least in our area the employees are grocery stores are not allowed to take tips even if they do help you take your groceries to the car. I hope it stays that way. I'm tipping less and not feeling guilty about it. Maybe I'm just a mean old lady but I don't care. If I get outstanding service from someone on a cruise ship, and there have been times when I have, I'm willing to slip them a little bit something extra but I'm not going to just start throwing money at people because they've come to believe they deserve it. I’m totally agree with your observations. The tipping culture just got out of control and often doesn’t correlate with the level of service that we receive. And we’re definitely not in the position to throw our money right and left. That being said, as you mentioned as well, if we receive good personal service which often happens on the Oceania ships we are willing to tip more to express our gratitude. And we always feel good about it ourselves. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osandomir Posted 2 hours ago #905 Share Posted 2 hours ago (edited) 36 minutes ago, SEC Man said: It has gotten to the point in US restaurants that I prefer to pay cash to avoid paying an added credit card service charge and to avoid having the credit card processed at the table via a hand held device (Toast is a major brand of these) that has preset tip amounts while the server is standing over your shoulder in an intimidating (intentional or unintentional) fashion. With cash I have a moment to think through the appropriate tip amount. We still prefer to pay with a credit card as we get rewards for spending that we value more than the savings for paying in cash. We also like when the credit card is processed at the table because it largely prevents the credit card fraud. By the way, it was always the case in many other countries where we have been recently traveling to. We also noticed that everywhere the servers were grateful for any amount of tip we provided. Edited 2 hours ago by osandomir Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare terrydtx Posted 2 hours ago #906 Share Posted 2 hours ago (edited) 32 minutes ago, njhorseman said: Since gratuities will be baked into the base fare and not a separate line item on the bill there will be no way to remove them. That doesn't mean there will not be some trying to get them back as an OBC. I have seen that like I said above on other cruise lines like Holland America. Edited 2 hours ago by terrydtx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iowananny Posted 1 hour ago #907 Share Posted 1 hour ago 1 hour ago, Thought2go said: On some of the Oceania FB pages you find people bragging how they always slip the Maitre’d a hundred each time -or the Sommelier a 50 -it makes me cringe. Because it will most definitely color the staffs impression of all of us. My husband and I have never slipped anyone a hundred. Well, I take that back we have slipped our kids more than a hundred more than once, but that's a different story. We've always received very good service on cruise ships without extra tips. I really wonder if those who give big tips really do get that much better service or if it just makes them feel important. We will never stop tipping at restaurant with a server, I'm just tired with the excessive tipping and tipping at places where it was never expected before. I'll never tip a self-serve machine when I check out myself. But they do ask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njhorseman Posted 1 hour ago #908 Share Posted 1 hour ago 52 minutes ago, terrydtx said: That doesn't mean there will not be some trying to get them back as an OBC. I have seen that like I said above on other cruise lines like Holland America. They can try all they want. You can't get a refund of something that doesn't exist. You also won't get a refund of port taxes when O misses a port call because O also bakes the port taxes into the base fare. This isn't Holland America. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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