gratuities

[DAGVBSB]

I still tip selectively above the auto-gratuity. Not required or expected but always appreciated and it normally makes everything go smoother onboard.

 

So do I. I leave the $10 a day on the bill so that all those who provided service that we didn't see (like deck hands, public area janitors, etc.) would be taken care of as well. Then I have always given my room stewards something a little extra. (the amount is based on the level of service that I feel I got for the week.) I have also tipped some waiters and one Maitre'd (Sonny on the Dawn) who went out of his way to help our family the entire week.

 

As far as removing the tips, you can asked to have the auto gratuity removed from your bills on all NCL ships except one.... the Pride of America.

 

On the POAm, it is considered a "resort charge" instead of a gratuity and therefore cannot be removed. It is also allocated differently on the POAm, so make sure that you do tip your service providers on that ship!

[smeyer418]

NCL should just add it into the original fare.

 

NCL, and I am sure other lines, nickle and dime people to death on these ships (auto-gratuity aside).

 

Do you like paying more? Thats what will happen if they collect it with the fare. First there is overhead -there are US taxes(its small but still there) and there is commission(the cruise lines would have to fight with the TA's if they were not to pay commission on more of the fare than they already do NCF and Fuel surcharges are non commissionable). Right now NCL doesn't even charge the crew for the credit card cost- a couple of percent that is charged the cruise line and if it was included you were never be able to adjust if even when you really have a service problem. I don't even mention that they cruise line would mark it up to show that their profits remained at the same percentage.

 

Or you simply could leave the service charge on couldn't you and do the exact same thing...

but then again you couldn't brag on how you took it off....

[DAGVBSB]

Do you like paying more? Thats what will happen if they collect it with the fare. First there is overhead -there are US taxes(its small but still there) and there is commission(the cruise lines would have to fight with the TA's if they were not to pay commission on more of the fare than they already do NCF and Fuel surcharges are non commissionable). Right now NCL doesn't even charge the crew for the credit card cost- a couple of percent that is charged the cruise line and if it was included you were never be able to adjust if even when you really have a service problem. I don't even mention that they cruise line would mark it up to show that their profits remained at the same percentage.

 

Or you simply could leave the service charge on couldn't you and do the exact same thing...

but then again you couldn't brag on how you took it off....

 

Agreed and let's add that these tips are for the employees. Corporate NCL does not see a dime for this. These are the working people who work their tail off to make your cruise better.

 

Do you tip the waitress at the restaurant? Many of those tips go into a general tip pool to also pay hostesses, bus boys, cooks, etc. This is really the same thing.

 

The Auto tip just makes it easier to get the money to EVERYONE on the crew who has provided you with service. To me it's a great idea!

[KerCar]

What nickle and diming? I hear that about every cruise line and yet no one can give an example.

 

We choose to take the ships excursions but I know that every port of call has local tour operators, who are less expensive.

 

I was one of two people who showed up for a margarita tasting. Because there were only two of us, the bartender canceled they tasting and gave the other person and me a free margarita. No charge, no gratuity. I sat there and talked to her about the other NCL ships I'd been on, just shooting the breeze. Then she decided to give me a free, full sized margarita. At no time did I whip out my room key.

 

I've sat at the bar, drinking orange juice. Never had a bartender throw atitude, be rude or have trouble getting served. I'm just nice to people.

 

I never understand the whole "nickle and diming" complaint either. When we cruise, we are in total control of how many "nickles and dimes" we spend. Our final bill is the one part of the overall cruise cost that we can control. Here are some examples of how I WASN'T "nickel and dimed" on my last cruise;)

 

I waited until the last night of the cruise to buy my pictures and ended up only buying the best one.

 

We opted to eat in Windows every night, but one. We decided that our one splurge would be at Cagney's.

 

We chose not to play BINGO or any other activity that required a surcharge.

 

I limited myself to 2 spa treatments.

 

With a family of 4, I planned our excursion in advance and only booked one through the ship.

 

DH signed up for a CAS card and was able to enjoy some free drinks in the evening. I treated myself to one or two fun drinks each day. At dinner we bought bottles of wine rather than glasses and saved the leftovers for the next night.

 

We signed up for a future cruise deposit and received a $100 OBC.

 

Even with the future cruise deposit our final bill was well within our budget and in my opinion worth every penny since we had spent our money wisely:) Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with eating in specialties every night, playing BINGO, or buying every picture they take, BUT if these are the choices you make, you have no one to blame but yourself when your final bill arrives:D

[KerCar]

The Auto tip just makes it easier to get the money to EVERYONE on the crew who has provided you with service. To me it's a great idea!

 

Agreed 100%:) Like you and others have said, I always leave the auto tip on and tip those who have gone above and beyond extra. The kid's crew is not included in the tip pool so I make sure to tip them extra, as well. In addition, I take note of anyone who has provided top notch service throughout the week and fill out STYLE cards for these individuals on the last day.

[terrymtex01]

We always leave tips above and beyond the auto tips - we usually only eat in the specialties or room service, and we tip all of our waitstaff for B,L,D (including Cagney's) and whenever we order a bottle of wine as well. I also always add an additional tip for drink service, above the 15% they add on. I don't think anyone was ever insulted!

 

Robin

 

For breakfast and lunch.. since I don't have a bill to judge the tip on... what do you recommend tip wise. We are sailing on the NCL Pearl in October and staying in a AE, so I am sure we will be having b and l in Cagney's during that cruise as well.

[KerCar]

I'm just nice to people.

 

This is a GREAT piece of advice! I truly believe treating people with kindness and respect will get you a lot more in life than being pushy and rude. A positive attitude goes a long way:)

[goodml]

Do you like paying more? Thats what will happen if they collect it with the fare. First there is overhead -there are US taxes(its small but still there) and there is commission(the cruise lines would have to fight with the TA's if they were not to pay commission on more of the fare than they already do NCF and Fuel surcharges are non commissionable). Right now NCL doesn't even charge the crew for the credit card cost- a couple of percent that is charged the cruise line and if it was included you were never be able to adjust if even when you really have a service problem. I don't even mention that they cruise line would mark it up to show that their profits remained at the same percentage.

 

Or you simply could leave the service charge on couldn't you and do the exact same thing...

but then again you couldn't brag on how you took it off....

 

Exactly. It's all to do with accounting/revenue streams/wage reporting. Gratuities are a well known additional cost associated with cruising and one that should just be budgeted for when choosing this type of vacation. There's no need to find it offensive. By having it done automatically it becomes an efficient way for the crewmembers to receive their pay. It's especially necessary with freestyle dining. Plus, I love the fact that we no longer have to make sure we have lots of cash on hand at the end of the cruise to stuff into envelopes.

 

People complain about being nickle and dimed to death but it's a situation that we, the consumers have created. We're always looking for the cheapest price for everything. We started cruising in 1989 and paid more for that 7 night cruise than we have for any since. Even then the gratuities were extra. When we choose this type of vacation we have to understand the costs that are associated with it and if that doesn't suit us, then we have to look for something else that does.

[smeyer418]

I must also tell you that the people who say I want the good old days of better service are full of hot air. They would prefer if the crew said "yes sir masser". I find it much less servile that the crew can be assured of a their minimum fee that having to relie on people who take it off for any whim having nothing to do with service. So they didn't smile and show their pearly white teeth enough for you? So you didn't like the steak(as if the server had anything to do with it)...so there weren't any towel animals(they are there to clean your room not entertain you).

 

During WW II when the hotels were full(before my time BTW), the line was Try the mayflower-a hotel in DC with notorious high prices that has been there since at least the Civil war-{its the hotel that Eliot Spitzer had his assignation} so how was the service on the other Mayflower you came over on?

[goodml]

I must also tell you that the people who say I want the good old days of better service are full of hot air. They would prefer if the crew said "yes sir masser". I find it much less servile that the crew can be assured of a their minimum fee that having to relie on people who take it off for any whim having nothing to do with service. So they didn't smile and show their pearly white teeth enough for you? So you didn't like the steak(as if the server had anything to do with it)...so there weren't any towel animals(they are there to clean your room not entertain you).

 

 

I agree.

[Fishbait17]

For breakfast and lunch.. since I don't have a bill to judge the tip on... what do you recommend tip wise. We are sailing on the NCL Pearl in October and staying in a AE, so I am sure we will be having b and l in Cagney's during that cruise as well.

 

For the two of us, we leave a five, for the four of us, five to ten. It really depends on what we order though. A big breakfast with many, many side dishes, etc we leave more than a simple one dish lunch with a glass of water. We usually only eat at Cagney's for one breakfast and one lunch (two on occasion) on a 7 day cruise, the rest is room service or somewhere else or we skip it altogether, so it doesn't add up to much. We also leave about double that for dinners at the specialties - again, depending on how much we make them work lol - plus the auto tip added to the food and wine tabs.

 

Robin

[insidecabin]

This is a GREAT piece of advice! I truly believe treating people with kindness and respect will get you a lot more in life than being pushy and rude. A positive attitude goes a long way:)

 

What a lot of people seem to forget is that the ship is one big family, a sort of collective like the Borg.

 

Sneeze in your bathroom and the person washing the pots finds out.

 

If you a real nice person then the word spreads, works the other way also.

 

There are alot of couples working on the ships so you never know who x is sleeping with and they do confide.

[weltek]

I've never tipped a cabin steward extra during the cruise, but would like to do it on our next one, if warranted. Most of us have two cabin stewards, thus, do you leave an envelope for each of them?

 

I can't recall...does NCL have envelopes in their standard rooms, or should I pack extra?

[terrymtex01]

I've never tipped a cabin steward extra during the cruise, but would like to do it on our next one, if warranted. Most of us have two cabin stewards, thus, do you leave an envelope for each of them?

 

I can't recall...does NCL have envelopes in their standard rooms, or should I pack extra?

 

One of my favorite tips I have learned from CC is that now when we cruise I pick up a little packet of Thank You cards from the store.. You know the kind.. there are like ten Thank You cards in the package for just a few bucks. NCL does not have tipping envelopes in their staterooms, at least none we have seen on any NCL cruise.

 

We do leave a Thank You card in a seperate envelope along with the tip for each person we are tipping extra.

[CruisnGram]

But there were also some on the ship I encountered who had an attitude. Especially some of the bar staff; if you did not order an over priced drink from them or ordered a beverage from the pre-paid soda card, you were sometimes greeted with a scowl not a smile.

 

Wanna know something funny? The bar personel who you seem to have the biggest complaint about, are not included in the auto-tip. So that completely blows your theory about people not being friendly or not wanting to work hard if they know they are going to get a tip anyway through auto-tip.

 

The people that you mentioned who were hard workers, and had that smile on their face? They were the ones who got screwed by removing auto-tip, not the crankly bartenders.

[weltek]

One of my favorite tips I have learned from CC is that now when we cruise I pick up a little packet of Thank You cards from the store.. You know the kind.. there are like ten Thank You cards in the package for just a few bucks. NCL does not have tipping envelopes in their staterooms, at least none we have seen on any NCL cruise.

 

We do leave a Thank You card in a seperate envelope along with the tip for each person we are tipping extra.

 

Thanks, Terrym...great tip! <---no pun intended, really!

[lyndyb]

Do you like paying more? Thats what will happen if they collect it with the fare. First there is overhead -there are US taxes(its small but still there) and there is commission(the cruise lines would have to fight with the TA's if they were not to pay commission on more of the fare than they already do NCF and Fuel surcharges are non commissionable). Right now NCL doesn't even charge the crew for the credit card cost- a couple of percent that is charged the cruise line and if it was included you were never be able to adjust if even when you really have a service problem. I don't even mention that they cruise line would mark it up to show that their profits remained at the same percentage.

QUOTE]

 

I have to say that I think NCL should disclose the automatic gratuity assessment somewhere on the confirmation documents or have it stated somewhere among the booking screens, as it is is a cost that will be incurred on the cruise, even if they don't include in the cost of the cruise. There are those who may not do research and this could come as a surprise to them.

 

I discovered this only when browsing on the NCL site after having booked the cruise. Initially, I was a little put off by it - juvenile, but anything stated as mandatory always puts my back up - but when I thought about it, I realized it was a result of Freestyle.

 

On the other hand, prior to Freestyle, wasn't it just the waitstaff, room stewards and Maitre D's that got the tips? Do we know that any of the other staff not previously receiving tips now share in the tip pool - or is it the same set of folks that received tips directly in the past? If that's the case, an alternative would be to return to the former discretionary, direct tipping and have everyone leave a tip for the wait staff each meal. However, I daresay that would add up to a lot more than the $10 per person per day!

 

I'd be curious to know how the staff feels about this new system. I guess it's a delicate subject, but has anyone spoken to any of them about it?

[pumpkin228]

Just read a review on another site by a guy on the Jewel Baltic cruise.

He states that on the last day of the cruise he went to reception had his gratuities removed and tipped staff directly.

He said they didn't like it but let him do it !!

Didn't think this could be done on NCL...any comments

 

This can absolutely be done! I just got off the dream this past week and I went to reception on the saturday and asked them to remove half of the gratuities this way some people that may have helped me along the way still got something, I took the other half and gave it directly to my bar waiter that was very attentive and to the kids club crew as they were wonderful to my son. The bar waiter we had said not to add gratuities to the checks as its is rare that they would ever see it.

 

Oh and I forgot that when I went to reception they just had me sign a piece of paper and right a reason why I wanted the gratuities taken out. I just stated there were some special people I wanted to reward directly with cash.

[Bigdog49]

This can absolutely be done! I just got off the dream this past week and I went to reception on the saturday and asked them to remove half of the gratuities this way some people that may have helped me along the way still got something, I took the other half and gave it directly to my bar waiter that was very attentive and to the kids club crew as they were wonderful to my son. The bar waiter we had said not to add gratuities to the checks as its is rare that they would ever see it.

 

Oh and I forgot that when I went to reception they just had me sign a piece of paper and right a reason why I wanted the gratuities taken out. I just stated there were some special people I wanted to reward directly with cash.

 

:rolleyes: I don't know where to start :rolleyes:

 

Just for the record the Kids Crew staff are not in the tip pool and the expectation is if you use the service you tip over and above the minimal tip. The bar staff gets 15% from every check. The only reason they would not see the extra is if they did not cover the $1000 a month draw against those tips.

 

So you took 1/2 the money from those that make perhaps $50 a month without that tip pool.

 

Shakes head slowly and goes off to the next thread. :confused:

[goodml]

Where's the guy with the popcorn? We need some here.:D

[mbisson]

Where's the guy with the popcorn? We need some here.:D

 

This one is gonna turn too nasty for popcorn. Where's that emoticon of me hiding under a chair.

[electricron]

Where's the guy with the popcorn? We need some here.:D

 

Okay, here's the guy with some popcorn!

 

[KerCar]

Okay, here's the guy with some popcorn!

 

 

Wow!!!! Now that's a lot of popcorn:D

[electricron]

Wow!!!! Now that's a lot of popcorn:D

 

Should be enough for all of us. :D

[goodml]

Excellent!:D