azalea4va

Actually, I just discovered it it relevant. Certainly making sure someone providing a service is fairly compensated is important and as long as the money ends up in the person's pocket, who care what it is called. But how the money is provided and what it is called does matter. If I give my waiter $10 for their service, I consider it a tip. In the US that gets reported differently than an amount of money provided by an employer as part of their compensation purposes. In many countires, the compensation system for service employees is far different from how it works in the US. For example, wait staff get paid a "normal" wage just like say a worker in a Walmart store. There is no "tipping" wage. But more importantly, there is a $250 difference with respect to my upcoming cruise. I am about to cruise on Holland America and will receive a $250 onboard credit for being a stockholder. The HAL description of that credit says the following, "This benefit ... cannot be used for ... gratuities charged to your onboard account". So the question becomes, can that stockholder benefit be used for the "Crew Appreciation" charge (HAL's official term) that gets added to one's account? Others on this board have reported the benefit can be used for the crew appreciation charge. If that is the case, HAL considers the Crew Appreciation charge as being something different that a gratuity. If HAL considers them to be the same thing, then that would not be the case. And I would consider using different terms in their official documents as unacceptably confusing and deceptive. In my case, if I cannot use the stockholder credit for the crew appreciation charge, with the all-inclusive package, there will be nothing I want I could use the credit for except excursions. But I usually sign-up for excursions before the cruise and pre-pay them. So if gratuity and crew appreciation are the same, I have to delay signing up for enough excursions till I am onboard (and risking them becoming sold-out) so the stockholder benefit can be used to pay for them. Otherwise that $250 benefit goes unused. For me, $250 is not irrelevant. I have written HAL requesting a clarification. [ I know this is an NCL forum but I am addresing the concept of service charge vs tip which I found out can be relevant on any cruise line. ]

I have bid on an upgrade to a haven suite for a Jan NCL sailing. I have prepaid my service charge to avoid service charge increases. The amount at the time was $31 for a couple per day. Because of the announced rate increase, if paid after Dec 31, the service charge on a haven suite will be $50 per couple per day. The NCL Terms and the NCL FAQ do not address this issue. They do not even mention what happens with the service charge if one is upgraded from a "regular:" stateroom to a haven absent any change in the rate structure for service charges. How much more will I pay if I am notified of an upgrade after Jan 1? I see three possible scenarios. 1. $0 added charge. I have prepaid the service charge and the amount I have to pay does not change. 2. $90 added charge. The haven rate at the time I prepaid was $37/couple/day so I have to pay an increase of $6/day. 3. $285 added charge. I will charged the difference between $50 and $31 per day, or an additional $19 per day. Since nothing in their terms says one is responsible for increases in service charges with an upgrade, I would think scaneario #1 is both the moral appropriate and the legal required scenario that applies. But ...