gratuities on Sun Princess

[tazza]

I was wanting to know what the done thing is as far as gratuities. We are going on the Pacific Island cruise. Our last cruise in the US was "gratuities included" in our price but the TA just said to me now that Australia is different and they don't include them - ???

[suexxx]

Hi tazza. We went on Sun Princess this Feb and it was $10.00 per person per day. They add it to your bill each morning. You can reduce the amount or have them take it off altogether and if you want you can give money to whom you feel deserves it. Suexxx

[cazz0069]

Hi tazza. We went on Sun Princess this Feb and it was $10.00 per person per day. They add it to your bill each morning. You can reduce the amount or have them take it off altogether and if you want you can give money to whom you feel deserves it. Suexxx

 

Thats what we did. As a suggestion, we gave our food waiter $50, our wine waiter $30 and our cabin steward $30. I dont know if thats too tight or too excessive, but based on thow good we found the:) service we thought it appropriate.

[cazz0069]

Hi tazza. We went on Sun Princess this Feb and it was $10.00 per person per day. They add it to your bill each morning. You can reduce the amount or have them take it off altogether and if you want you can give money to whom you feel deserves it. Suexxx

 

Thats what we did. As a suggestion, we gave our food waiter $50, our wine waiter $30 and our cabin steward $30. I dont know if thats too tight or too excessive, but based on thow good we found the service we thought it appropriate. We thought the service was outstanding! :)

[NSWP]

Here we go again, if you take your auto tips off with Princess, any cash money you give to your cabin steward, dining room steward etc is supposed to be handed in by those staff. It goes into the Ship's gratuity pool for that cruise, to be shared by all service staff, many of whom you do not see below decks, kitchen hands etc.

 

Your cabin and wait staff are informed if you take off/reduce your auto tip, the onus is then on them to hand in any cash tip, failure to do so..Off the ship!

 

If the full auto tip is kept on, the staff can retain the cash you give them.

 

Trust Uncle Les, he speaketh the truth.

[tazza]

Thats what we did. As a suggestion, we gave our food waiter $50, our wine waiter $30 and our cabin steward $30. I dont know if thats too tight or too excessive, but based on thow good we found the:) service we thought it appropriate.

 

That sounds fair, the $10 a day per person just seemed a lot as we are 4 people - that is almost $500 in gratuities that we would have to pay. On the other hand, somebody mentioned all the "behind the scenes" people that wouldn;t get. Oh boy, I much preferred it to be factored into the price of the ticket and finished.

 

Thanks everybody for your replies!

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

That sounds fair, the $10 a day per person just seemed a lot as we are 4 people - that is almost $500 in gratuities that we would have to pay. On the other hand, somebody mentioned all the "behind the scenes" people that wouldn;t get. Oh boy, I much preferred it to be factored into the price of the ticket and finished.

 

Thanks everybody for your replies!

 

Well then, that is what you have to do then - regard it as part of the fare. :)

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

Hi tazza. We went on Sun Princess this Feb and it was $10.00 per person per day. They add it to your bill each morning. You can reduce the amount or have them take it off altogether and if you want you can give money to whom you feel deserves it. Suexxx

 

Unless of course you are in a mini suite then it is $11.00 per day. :)

[tazza]

Unless of course you are in a mini suite then it is $11.00 per day. :)

No such luck as a mini suite

[Aussiemin]

Les you are correct as i was told by our steward in july they get to know who takes it off.

We left ours on as we always do as its a fair thing there is a lot of staff you dont see that works very hard.

Aussiemin

[cazz0069]

Here we go again, if you take your auto tips off with Princess, any cash money you give to your cabin steward, dining room steward etc is supposed to be handed in by those staff. It goes into the Ship's gratuity pool for that cruise, to be shared by all service staff, many of whom you do not see below decks, kitchen hands etc.

 

Your cabin and wait staff are informed if you take off/reduce your auto tip, the onus is then on them to hand in any cash tip, failure to do so..Off the ship!

 

If the full auto tip is kept on, the staff can retain the cash you give them.

 

Trust Uncle Les, he speaketh the truth.

 

Thanks for that. I didnt realise that. I wonder how many of them are honest about it though. I know when i worked in room service many years ago for Hyatt, i would always put my tips in, but quite easy just to pocket them. No-one is any wiser. Karma, what goes around, comes around i suppose. Thanks for letting us know! :)

[sailawaysally]

From the staff I've spoken to about it they are too scared of losing their job as some have done for not handing it over. A lot of them share accommodation so I guess it would be hard to hide anyway. We always leave our tips on and if service has been really good then we give them a tip as we know they can keep it.