Wedgie23

6 minutes ago, noobcruiser said:

You asked for explanations, so here you go. 

From NCL's FAQ about Service Charges and Gratuities (I have edited them down)

Thank you kindly. Yes the FAQ was what I was going off of and I was asking if there was any place that had more information. The verbiage in the first part of it made me believe it was just the service staff (though I must have skipped over the part about the steward as I always believed them to be not included) other posters here informed me it was the entire staff even if the FAQ didn't state that. 

20 minutes ago, StolidCruiser said:

For a "long time reader, first time poster not trying to stir the pot", the OP certainly knows every nuance of the gratuity/DSC debate that has gone on ad nauseum for a decade, culminating in the popular:

You either missed half the messages or missed all of the math. Kerri and now several other posters have stated that the bar staff receives only a 20% tip on all drinks they serve. If a passenger such as myself has 5 $10 drinks per day that is $70 going to the staff and $70 missing out of the $140/week UDP auto gratuity. This is going by all the other, more knowledgeable than myself posters here repeatedly stating the bar staff only receives 20% no matter how much pre paid gratuity the customer pays. 

The bar staff is getting their 20% my question is where is all the left over going and is there a way to reduce the gratuity of the UDP so that there is no left over that isn't given to the employees? 

45 minutes ago, noobcruiser said:

Why is it that people only question the cost of things when it comes to the hospitality industry? 

I believe the confusion comes from fees that are not adequately explained yet added on top of the advertised price. For instance the 'free' drink package is $139 per person for tips which I'm just learning aren't all going to the barstaff and the DSC pops up only once you're on the cruise. My first time booked through a TA I had no idea it was coming, if there was, as it was called here a resort service fee, I'd assume it would have been paid for as part of the original booking like with all other resorts/higher end hotels I've stayed at. My original booking showed added gratuities so I assumed they were taken care of but what I was seeing was the added gratuities for the dining and drink packages alone.

In your apple analogy, I expect to go to the store buy an apple for the price advertised pay the tax and leave. Not see the apples price, have a handling fee attached to it when I get to the register, taxed on a dozen apples instead of the amount I'm going to eat and then have a gratuity charge hit my card a week later. If that was to transpire I don't think anyone would be out of line to ask where it's all going. For cell phones, there are many added fees and taxes but you can pull it out and read each one, my company puts an explanation under each but all are ones you can easily google for an answer and an amount if you so choose. 

If the DSC covers all workers, which the site does not say then this is an inadequate tip to be leaving both the room steward and the servers in the main dining rooms, my opinion sure but that clears up my question regarding that. 

As for the added gratuities for the UDP I'm even more confused. I'd much rather have thought the barstaff was getting gigantic tips from me than half what I paid for tips going to the ? fund. If we assume 1/2 passengers have the UDP and 1/2 of those drink similarly to myself for a big ship with 4K you're looking at $70,000 every week customers are charged being told it's being given to staff when it isn't because they didn't drink enough for the staff to get it all. 

NCL has 18 ships I believe with an average capacity of 3K using the same assumptions as above that's approximately $945,000/week or $49.14 million per year in funds billed to the customers as gratuities for staff that are not being given to the staff. Do you feel it to be acceptable for any other business owner to force a sky high auto gratuity charge on patrons for it's staff, then pocket half of it for themselves if that is in fact what is happening?

Just to clarify in case anyone knows, can the UPD gratuity charge be modified at the end of the week like the DSC can?

5 minutes ago, newmexicoNita said:

of course you are going to start another debate so I am not sure the purpose of your post. BTW the DSC which is what it is, does include the cabin steward. If you want to give more that is your choice. As for tipping, it has been mentioned, just like many hotels today,  what you are paying is a resort fee and it goes to many, it is not a tip but a fee. 

That's not my intention but even with the answers here I'm not sure I understand. So the gratuities added for the drinks and the dining packages are not similar to the DSC which is resort fee? 

Does this mean the wait and dining staff in the main restaurants are not getting dedicated tips like the bar staff is? If that's the case then I believe we should be tipping them. I'm assuming the added gratuity for the dining package is the added tip for the staff when using that service, though in those I know you can add on an extra tip on top of it when you dine. At the main restaurants I don't recall ever being given a receipt where I could have billed a tip just for the wait staff, is this possible to do/get? 

Similarly with the added gratuity for the unlimited drink package, kerry stated above only 20% drink gratuity goes to the bar staff so if you pay $139 for the gratuity, order 5 drinks a day at $10 a piece which equals $10/day in 20% gratuities that's only half of the gratuities you've paid, so where is the rest going? 

I wish NCL was more clear on their charges. If I understand correctly the added gratuity for the unlimited drink package cannot be removed or reduced down to the 20% amount per drink that is actually going to the bar staff? And if we wanted our bartender to be tipped higher than 20% we would need to do so in cash even though we are paying much higher than 20% for the auto gratuity?

Thank you all kindly for the replies and information!

49 minutes ago, kerryincork said:

The tips on the drinks package is ridiculous, but not because of the tip percentage but due to the fact the cost of the drink package is $79 pppd. Which is totally too much, but that is how NCL make there money. Also the servers are only getting 20% tip of the drinks you get so if you get a beer the bar tender is only getting 20% of the listed price.

Thank you. That does beg the question though of where does the remainder go? In our case there was quite a bit of difference between a 20% tip and the $139 per person left and I can't imagine were alone there. 

50 minutes ago, kerryincork said:

In regards to the daily service charges there are a lot of people included in this group, to name a few: room stewards, room stewards assistant, waiters in main dining room and buffet and anywhere there are complimentary food service, dish washers, bus boys, laundry workers and general cleaners. Each one of this group is getting a very small cut of your $200.

Thank you. I figured in order for it to be that high it had to be something other than the wait stuff but given the drink gratuity I thought maybe not. 

37 minutes ago, purplecow15 said:

As you mention,  the gratuities for the drinks package makes it come to about $20pp per day. If you purchase 5 drinks as you say you would probably do you will be spending approximately $10/12 per drink and each drink will come with a 20% gratuity charge. When you do the math the  "free" beverage package comes out  the cheapest.

Thank you yes I have done a few 'mock bookings' as I understand they are called here and I notice the price difference between sail away no perks and regular (balcony) with drink package usually comes to a difference of hundreds of dollars depending. So in that case it wouldn't just be the cost between drink package no drink package but the higher room as well. For instance on the next one I'm taking difference between a balcony sail away and a balcony with drink and dining perks was $888 for 2 people, which works out to about $64 each per day we could spend on drinks or anything else we wanted. I do suppose the freedom of not having to care about any of it once you get on board could make up for the high surcharge. Not being a particularly big drinker though I question if it's worth it for me. 

57 minutes ago, KateQ22003 said:

Please note that the daily gratuity you mention is not a gratuity but a service charge. It doesn't go 100% to the staff; it supports their salaries and "incentive programs"

Sorry I don't understand. I believed 'gratuity' and 'service charge' to be synonyms. The charge doesn't go directly to the staff working during your cruise? I am confused on exactly which ones and can't find clarity on the NCL website but I did believe it went directly to some members of the staff.

Long time reader, first time poster yada yada. I know forced gratuities are a hotly debated topic, I’m not looking to start any drama but I have some questions I’m hoping someone more experienced might be able to clear up. I consider myself a good tipper. However when I break these down they seem exorbitant even coming from a high tipping stand point but perhaps I’m not understanding them correctly. 

Firstly the added gratuity for the beverage package, $139 per person for 7 days. That averages out to about $20 per day in tips. Even if you manage to have 10 drinks in a day you’re still leaving a $2 tip per drink, every drink, even if they just hand you a beer. If you’re more like me and have 5 drinks a day, which is still a lot but hey I’m on vacation, that’s a $4 tip per drink. Doesn’t that seem rather excessive? Beer drinkers who only have a few per day are giving more in tips than they would have spent on the beers. 

Then the regular gratuity $210 per week for 2 people. I understand this doesn’t cover the room steward who I always tip separately. However I’m confused about who it does cover. Premium restaurants are tipped separately leaving main dining wait staff of which we went to 5 times in the week. That would mean we left a $42 tip each time. Including the time my husband felt like a plate of Nachos so I joined him and had wings, or the lunch where I had a Reuben and he had a burger, the bill for each on land would have come to half of this tip alone. 

Am I incorrect about who the tips go to? 

I don’t believe in being stingy and if NCL has one great thing it’s their employees. I do believe there’s a line between showing monetary appreciation for good service and tipping like you have a hole in your pocket for a week straight and I think these amounts far cross it, by my math for us the compulsory tips ranged from 75-200%. 

I know you can remove the daily gratuity but I don’t want to be ‘that guy’ however I’m wondering if it would be better to just cary cash and tip every server appropriately and well. We got a discount on our next cruise but baring that I believe I will be getting sail away rooms for the lower price and paying for my drinks ala carte so I will be charged appropriate gratuities on each drink I actually consume. 

Can anyone point me towards information on who the tips actually go to if it is beyond wait staff? Or if you are someone who has tipped cash and removed gratuities how that worked? Is it possible to receive recipes at main dining rooms, bill an appropriate tip to your room for each server so you can A) Not carry the cash and B) Show guest services when you remove the automatic gratuity that you did make sure your servers were well taken care of?