Gratuities/Tips/Hotel Charge ?

Watched a T.V programme earlier on sky put out by a local cruise agent, one item was on the thread title and how NCL are changing their policy so that they cannot be removed or reduced regardless of whether you have a complaint or not!

Seeing as a number of cruise lines have or are increasing these charges it makes you wonder if they will all do the same as NCL?

You can still possibly get service charges back from NCL if you fill out a form detailing the issues with service and then NCL reimburse you.

Kerry ... Thanks for the info, is the reimbursement before or after you leave the ship ?

After, now go to Guest services tell them your issues and they will give you the form to take away.

I personally have never had any problems with the staff that would cause me to remove the service charges, they all really work hard from my experience and they get very low wages.

We were on NCL out of Barcelona over Christmas.

I was amused to see the queue at the front desk growing longer and longer on the penultimate day.

I asked the hotel manager what the problem was and he smiled and said "they're all in line to remove their gratuities!".

I told him I read here that you had to fill in a form and send it to Head Office with detailed reasons for removal. He told me that only applies in the US.

Someone else on here has stated that compulsory charges over and above your invoice price are illegal on cruises sold in the EU.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2036169&highlight=remove+hotel+charge

Bollinge ... An interesting state of affairs especially the the EU part but I have to admit that I have never heard about that.

I wonder how many actually had an issue other than just removing the charge for the sake of it.

Only thing I can see anyone taking off/ demanding taken off the bill is the unicef donation. Don't know if they do this on non US based cruises but ask me to donate don't just add it to my bill even if it is a small amount. If it's on my bill in Feb I'm getting it taken off.