burdekn

Revisited Guest Relations and they agree that Gratuities = Service Charges which were inlcuded in our booking so all now resolved. Thanks for all the support.

Thanks again wrk2cruise, he couldn't really tell me, just that they covered different items. We have now found a few other Australians on the cruise who have had the same issue and have had the charges reversed. I wish I had kept the original newspaper add that think stated that gratuities were included, which is normal for Australian booked cruises as we don't have a tipping culture, with everyone receiving a living wage. However I do not want to see the crew disadvantaged by not receiving the gratuities that they deserve, so just gathering some facts so that I can revisit Guest Relations and hopefully see a different person.

We sailed out of Miami, but booked from Australia. Because we don't have a "tipping culture" - everyone is paid a living wage - the quoted fares for us are generally on a "gratuities included" basis, which I recall ours was, hence the quote above re service charges being included. So now just collecting my facts before going back to Guest Relations!

Thanks so much wrk2cruise - that was my assumption as well but when I went to Guest Relations I was told gratuities are different to service charges, so I left confused! He did say he could remove the charge from my account, and we could then pay gratuities as we saw fit, but I am not wanting to see the very dedicated staff miss out if the gratuities don't come to them to some source.

Currently sailing on X and the gratuities are coming out of our OBC on a daily basis. Our booking statement stated that "a service charge for your dining and stateroom attendant is included in your cruise fare". We assumed that this related to gratuities, so were surprised when the gratuities appeared on our daily statement. Can anyone explain the difference between a service charge and a gratuity in simple terms for a lost Aussie/