Auto Tip? ...... or not?

[NYGirl1002]

I have a friend who cruises at least once every year, so does her mom. She just came back from two cruises with one week in between.

 

Anyway, she told me that on both cruises she went to the desk and had them take away her auto tips. She then requested envelopes and took care of people on her own the last 2 days of the cruise.

 

The reason for this was in talking to several crew members they were told that they only get a small percentage of the auto tips and the rest was kept by the cruise line. She was up in arms upon hearing this. Both her mom and her have decided to tip on their own from here on in. She said lots of passengers did that on both cruises.

 

I am taking my first cruise in 2 weeks. She told me to do that too but I'm a little leery. It's me, my husand and daughter traveling. What do you all think?

[paul929207]

The autotip is shared by all the people who help make your cruise special. This includes the cabin steward, waiter and assistant waiter that you deal with every day. It also includes people you never see like the people in the laundry, dishwashers and cooks.

 

On Princess, if you take off the autotip and give the tips to those you see, they are required to put the tip into the pool up to the amount that would have gone there from the autotip. They can be fired if they are caught not contributing.

 

If you are giving the same amount as the autotip, you have accomplished nothing.

[LARGIN]

The autotip is shared by all the people who help make your cruise special. This includes the cabin steward, waiter and assistant waiter that you deal with every day. It also includes people you never see like the people in the laundry, dishwashers and cooks.

 

On Princess, if you take off the autotip and give the tips to those you see, they are required to put the tip into the pool up to the amount that would have gone there from the autotip. They can be fired if they are caught not contributing.

 

If you are giving the same amount as the autotip, you have accomplished nothing.

 

Agree.. Leave the auto-tip in place.. If the service is better than you expected, tip extra..

[Teetype]

I have a friend who cruises at least once every year, so does her mom. She just came back from two cruises with one week in between.

 

Anyway, she told me that on both cruises she went to the desk and had them take away her auto tips. She then requested envelopes and took care of people on her own the last 2 days of the cruise.

 

The reason for this was in talking to several crew members they were told that they only get a small percentage of the auto tips and the rest was kept by the cruise line. She was up in arms upon hearing this. Both her mom and her have decided to tip on their own from here on in. She said lots of passengers did that on both cruises.

 

I am taking my first cruise in 2 weeks. She told me to do that too but I'm a little leery. It's me, my husand and daughter traveling. What do you all think?

 

 

This is probably the most debated and discussed topic on this boards. In a better world, it wouldn't be an issue because people would be paid their worth.

 

But as cruise lines persist in making you think the price you pay them to cruise covers everything, we continue to need to tip.

 

In answer, as others have said, leave the auto tip in place. The people who benefit from it are those who make the cruise a special event in your life.

 

It's also acceptable and very appreciated to include some extra directly to those you feel have really made a difference in your vacation.

 

Tee

[cavkc]

The only comment I would make is that whilst we would auto pay once onboard, never again would we pre-pay gratuities before we cruised.

 

We recently had to cancel an RCI cruise 2 weeks prior to sailing as I broke my leg. We had made the choice to prepay the tips when we paid the balance of the cruise, however when we cancelled, we were told that portion was non-refundable.

 

To cut a long story short, they finally agreed to refund the gratuities, but I felt it should have been automatic, afterall, why should we have to still pay for 'good service' when we would not even be there. Particularly when our suite was resold 24 hours after we had cancelled!

[LHP]

The cruise lines do not get the tips when you use the auto tips, the crew gets them.

 

This was put in place because far to many crew were getting stiffed at the end of a cruise. Years ago, the last night in the formal dining room on some cruises had a noticable decrease in occupany because people were avoiding their waiters and assistants.

 

Folks get to drinking and drink up all their tip money. At least now if they are going to do that they have to go to the Purser's desk and reveal themselves to be the cheap scoundels that they are.

 

Personally, I don't even think of them as tips anymore. I think of it as a service surcharge that we prepay before we sail. Then I "tip" extra when it is earned...which it usually is! They do a great job.

[WeBeGone]

Leave the auto tip in place. Then tip extra if someone goes over and above. Removing the auto tip is just a horrible thing to do because then it negates any cash the person is given.

[cb at sea]

I prefer tipping the folks who have served me IN CASH at the end of the cruise. We would never not tip, unless service is horrible--and that has NEVER been the case! We did once have a room attendant that was apparently (or maybe not apparently!!!) invisible, as we never saw him, but he kept our cabin is "ship-shape" order--we left his tip in our room, with extra included!

I don't like the "auto-tip" or "pre-paid" tips--I want to HAND the tip to the person and thank them! Then, it's us to THEM to do with their money what they want. They don't have to wait until their next paycheck to recieve the tips--and I think they like that, as most send the money directly home to family.

[Happy ks]

It's probably worse for the service personnel to have a guest remove the auto-tip and then receive tips in cash. Removal of the auto-tip would indicate to management there is a service problem and they will probably be questioned about it.

 

I don't want this to come out wrong, but we have had a few service personnel onboard ships, both cabin attendant and restaurant servers, try to make us feel more sympathetic about their life. I've felt as though they were possibly trying to get us to give them more gratuity. Not all of them and not often, just a couple of times.

 

Other than that, I can't even imagine discussing the subject with service personnel onboard a cruise ship, just as I would not like it if they questioned me about my income.

[CowPrincess]

It's probably worse for the service personnel to have a guest remove the auto-tip and then receive tips in cash. Removal of the auto-tip would indicate to management there is a service problem and they will probably be questioned about it.

 

While I agree that autotips should remain in place, I honestly think that management also knows that there is a certain segment of cruisers who DO want to pay cash tips, just as there is a segment of cruisers who will use any excuse to avoid tipping. I suspect (though will never be able to prove) that the only time a staff member is "flagged" or "watched" is if autotipping removal exceeds a predetermined percentage. For example, if management has determined that historically 10% of cruisers remove autotips, they'd wait until a particular staff member's percentage was consistently 15 or 20% removal. Just a suspicion, have zero proof.

[Sundagger]

The reason for this was in talking to several crew members they were told that they only get a small percentage of the auto tips and the rest was kept by the cruise line. She was up in arms upon hearing this. Both her mom and her have decided to tip on their own from here on in. She said lots of passengers did that on both cruises.

 

I see your cruise is on the Oosterdam. It is absolutely NOT TRUE that HAL keeps any of the autotip (Service Charge). It is all distributed to your cabin steward, your dining room stewards (who may also work the Lido), and some behind-the-scenes personnel. That money is the primary source of income for those people.

[NYGirl1002]

Thank you all for your replies. I was hoping to get a straight answer here as I was not sure to believe her or not. I'd rather be safe and leave the auto tip in place and also take care of any extra special treatment, just as I had planned originally.

[lovemylab]

I don't like the "auto-tip" or "pre-paid" tips--I want to HAND the tip to the person and thank them! Then, it's us to THEM to do with their money what they want. They don't have to wait until their next paycheck to recieve the tips--and I think they like that, as most send the money directly home to family.

 

With auto or pre-paid tips, you receive vouchers so you are still able to hand them something and thank them for the service.

 

I also have a hard time believing that they send the cash you have given them for a tip immediately home to their family. I work for a bank and the only way to send money overseas (other than mailing cash or a cheque) is through a wire transfer - and they aren't cheap. I'd be willing to bet that if someone is going to send money home they are sending a large amount at once - and are likely doing this on payday.

 

I am sure as long as the staff member is being tipped they are happy.

[dforeigner]

Straight from the horse's mouth:

 

Hotel Service Charge

Our crew works very hard to make sure that every aspect of your cruise meets the highest standards. This includes those crewmembers who serve you directly, such as dining room wait staff and the stewards who service your stateroom each day. There are also many others who support their efforts whom you may never meet, such as galley and laundry staff. To ensure that the efforts of all of our crewmembers are recognized and rewarded, a Hotel Service Charge of US$10 per passenger is automatically added to each guest's shipboard account on a daily basis. If our service exceeds or fails to meet your expectations, you are free to adjust this amount at the end of the cruise. The Hotel Service Charge is paid entirely to Holland America Line crewmembers, and represents an important part of their compensation. A 15% service charge is automatically added to bar charges and dining room wine purchases.

 

In terminals, airports, ports of call and on shore excursions, we suggest that you extend gratuities consistent with customary local practices.

[nadalina]

My SO is an assistant maitre d' in the dining room of a major upscale cruise line and well-known ship and I'd like to add a little bit of information on this thread. (He has been with his current cruise line for 9 years and for a previous line for 5 years.) The crew members in the dining room, at least on his ship, actually prefer to have gratuities automatically added to the guests' onboard accounts. Three things are accomplished by this: 1.) They are given a list of guests and the amount of gratuities that have been paid, thereby assuring the crew member of the amount of their income for that cruise, based on how many guests are in their section; 2.) It allows them to relax and focus on giving outstanding service instead of worrying and wondering about their income for that cruise; and 3.) They don't have to wait around on the last night of the cruise, making sure to make themselves available to the guests, even though they may have pressing duties to perform, and wondering if some are going to leave without giving them anything. This is embarrassing and uncomfortable for them. And for those of you who might think that adding gratuities automatically to the guests' shipboard accounts might also make those service personnel relax a little bit too much and slack off on their level of service, I can assure you that, in general, this is certainly not the case. In fact, it works just the opposite and gives them the incentive to perform at their highest level.

 

One other comment is that my SO and I just returned from a Med cruise on one of Costa's ships and our gratuities were automatically added to our onboard account. However, we were not given vouchers to give out to our service personnel and when we asked our waiter about it on the last night, he claimed that he knew nothing about who had paid and who might have had their gratuities removed. This made us feel very uncomfortable and we did not know exactly what to say to our waiter except to assure him that we had paid. We had proof on our onboard account statement that the tips had been paid, so we didn't know why our waiter had not been properly informed, but, unfortunately, it also made us question whether our waiter was being truthful with us or was hoping for additional cash in person, which we normally do but since we had only had dinner in the dining room four times that week and the service was considerably less than expected and desired, we decided not to give extra, though we certainly did for our cabin stewardess because she was excellent.

 

I agree with the person who said earlier in this thread that in a perfect world these people would be paid a decent salary and these gratuities issues would not be such a big deal. But the truth is that the gratuities mean everything to these crew members. In most cases the gratuities amount to at least 98% of their income, and even when they become a supervisor or in a management position in the dining room or specialty restaurants, gratuities still amount to more than 50% of their income.

 

Just thought I would add some insight from an extremely experienced and reliable source.

[ikelmay]

Nadalina, thank you for your very informative post. I for one would much prefer to see these personnel costs built into the cruise price, bit it isn't going to happen - the cruise lines gain too much by it.

 

So while we are stuck with the system, the auto tip is by far the easiest option for everyone. I didn't even consider how difficult and awkward it must be for stewards to have to hang around waiting for their in-cash tips at the end of the cruise and as you said, wondering if someone was going to stiff them.

[CC Help Michell]

To the OP, Nadalina's very informative post is completely consistent with every crew member I have ever asked about this, as well as every crew member I've seen posting or blogging about it. I think that when your friend related what crew members on her ship allegedly said about the cruiseline keeping the auto tips your friend may have ... um... "exaggerated" in an effort to explain why she removed the tips.

 

No cruiseline keeps a portion of the tip pool. It's a direct pass-through to the crew and they see it in their paycheck, and you can rest assured that if there were a cruiseline keeping a cut of them some crew member somewhere would have posted or blogged about it. I have no doubt that your friend probably did see a lot of people removing the autotips -- what I question is whether any of them actually DID then tip in cash. Even if they did, I wonder whether they tipped anything close to the recommended daily amounts, or if they just stuck a $10 bill in a couple of envelopes and handed one each to their steward and waiter (who then had to turn that cash back into the tip pool). :(

 

As Nadalina says, crews love autotips and the tip pool -- they come out far ahead of the old system where even if there were a few great tippers, there also were a lot of deadbeats who would duck out on dinner the last night, etc. The new way is much better and fairer for the crew -- and isn't that who is supposed to benefit from the tips? It's also more inclusive of those behind the scenes people who received no tips under the old system. Your line, HAL, states that your $10 per day is divided this way: $3 to the dining room service staff, $3 to the cabin service staff, and $4 to the support staff (bakers, cooks, laundry attendants, public housekeepers, etc).

 

I think you made a good decision and hope you have a great cruise!

[Krazy Kruizers]

HAL's auto tips and policy.

Should you decide to remove the auto tips -- you will have to sign a form and give a reason.

When you remove the auto tips your cabin steward and dining room staff (as well as their supervisors) are given the names of the passengers who do this. The crew has been instructed that they are not allowed to receive any cash tips from those people -- they must turn it into their supervisor who then turns it into the front office to be divided by all the crew which for HAL includes the "behind the scenes people".

Over the last few years we have personally seen people in the dining room get into arguements about this policy when they had removed the auto tips and tried to tip the dining staff personally.

The crew know that if they are caught keeping these tips from such people they can be fired.

But the crew also know that those of us who do keep the the auto tips in place -- they are allowed to keep all extra tips we give them.

So Please -- keep those auto tips in place.

[miamibobk]

Are personell receiving cash tips, in addition to the auto tip, required to turn those tips inro the pool as well? We have often given extrs cash tips for extraordinary service but did not intend for it to be shared.

[Cuizer2]

Are personell receiving cash tips, in addition to the auto tip, required to turn those tips inro the pool as well?

 

At the end of every cruise I always check to see if there are any tips in the pool. So far none. So I doubt that they have to put their cash tips into the pool.

[cv322]

To the OP...don't be classless for heaven's sake...especially on HAL :D. The crew works extremely hard every single day to make your cruise experience very special. Give them their due...and then ask the purser's desk for envelopes to enclose cash for those persons who were above and beyond what was expected. Do the right thing...leave the tips in place. NONE of the monies collected through auto-tip goes to the cruiseline. Your friend is grossly uninformed!

[NYGirl1002]

Hey CV if you read my second post in this thread you will see that I am going to keep my auto tip in place and also give cash where warranted.

 

I was only trying to get people's opinions on something that was told to me by someone who goes on cruises every year. I wasn't asking because I wanted to do it.

 

Anyway why do I have to explain myself to you.

[CruisnGram]

I prefer tipping the folks who have served me IN CASH at the end of the cruise. We would never not tip, unless service is horrible--and that has NEVER been the case! We did once have a room attendant that was apparently (or maybe not apparently!!!) invisible, as we never saw him, but he kept our cabin is "ship-shape" order--we left his tip in our room, with extra included!

I don't like the "auto-tip" or "pre-paid" tips--I want to HAND the tip to the person and thank them! Then, it's us to THEM to do with their money what they want. They don't have to wait until their next paycheck to recieve the tips--and I think they like that, as most send the money directly home to family.

 

So I guess you make sure that you tip the buffet personel? And go and seek out the people working in the laundry? And how about that guy polishing the brass and vacuming the carpet?

 

Seems like a lot of people to track down to me and if you aren't tipping all of those who work very hard to make your vacation wonderful, then you are screwing some of them over.

[CC Help Michell]

So I guess you make sure that you tip the buffet personel? And go and seek out the people working in the laundry? And how about that guy polishing the brass and vacuming the carpet?

 

Seems like a lot of people to track down to me and if you aren't tipping all of those who work very hard to make your vacation wonderful, then you are screwing some of them over.

 

Don't you get it yet? :) Posts like the one to which you are replying, about the joys of hand-delivering an envelope and saying "thanks!" are all about what's best/most pleasing/most preferred for the passenger. Tip pools are all about what's best/most pleasing/most preferred for the CREW. We're more about thanking the crew -- so we prefer what they do, and it's quite clear they prefer auto tips and tip pools. It's pretty much that simple when you get right down to it.

[CC Help Michell]

Are personell receiving cash tips, in addition to the auto tip, required to turn those tips inro the pool as well? We have often given extrs cash tips for extraordinary service but did not intend for it to be shared.

 

No. If auto tips are left in place, they don't have to turn in any extra cash tips. But if auto tips are REMOVED, then any cash they receive is turned into the tip pool and shared. The crew does comply with this for several reasons, including: 1) their job is at stake. You might be kind with your $100 tip or whatever, but they won't risk their livelihood to try to hide/keep it when the rules require it to be pooled because you removed autotips; and 2) the rest of the crew does know who is getting what, who has had auto tips removed, who has received "an envelope," etc. Imagine the smallest community you've ever seen, then cut it in half. That's a cruise ship, and they know, and there will be consequences if a crew member tries to cheat the system. That's how it has to be in a small community. Their world is about doing this job months at a time with this same group of colleagues -- your individual cruise week is just a blip.