Cancelling Gratuities

[Masters101]

We always tip as required and really hate the entire process. We sincerely believe good service deserves rewards. What about bad service? If the food is bad, your room is not cleaned, dinner is cold, waiter takes forever to serve your meal. You ask for a four top and never get what you requested. Why should I care what the cruise line pays their employees, if the service is good they get rewarded. The truth is we do care about the employees and the fact most of them have kids they only see every five to seven years at Christmas time. The fact they work extremely hard to make us happy and for a short period of time allow us to relax. We hear so many different stories about their pay and don't know truth from lie. As I get older I have realized I can not change a lot of things, however I can do the right thing and tip appropriately. What if that was your son, daughter, wife, or husband working for the cruise line? They use that money to feed their families and give up their lives to provide for them.:(

[paul929207]

I think I have this FAQ almost finished:

 

Tipping:

 

Official Princess standard guidelines as follows for ships other than those based in australia, however individual ship's pursers have latitude to modify the process as appropriate for their ships.

 

1> The auto-tip added to your bill is pooled among dining servers and housekeeping and their support staff. If you remove the hotel charge any cash tips are put into the pool up to the pool amount. If you retain the hotel charge, the individual receives the additional amount. It is that individuals decision to 'tip-out' any support staff from the overage.

 

2> The 15% bar charge added to bills are pooled among the bar and bar support staff. I have not confirmed if this is across all bars or specific to venue. Cash tips given directly to a server or bartender are retained by that individual. Tip outs are at the discretion of the individual, tho most servers will feed a little back to the bartender, and the bartender often tips out to the support staff. It's also not unheard of for bar staff to tip out a particularly productive server, hence the sometimes hard sell.

 

3> Casino tips are pooled among all dealers and cashiers (not sure if even split) and MUST be deposited in tip boxes by the dealer/host. Drink tips in the casino follow the rules above.

 

4> Servers in specialty restaurants receive a portion of the service charge (pooled). They would not tell me what this amount is. Additional tips may be kept or pooled depending on the policy at that particular venue and ship. There does not appear to be a corporate guideline for this.

 

5> Tips given to other activity/support staff (passenger services, kids programs, etc) are generally pooled by department but there is no set policy.

 

Again, I must stress these are Princess guidelines as confirmed by corporate, however specifics may vary from cruise to cruise based on ship operations policies. If you have questions on your cruise, the purser may be the best resource to ask.

 

Other items:

 

Why are tips not included in the fare?

 

There are advantages to line, crew and passengers by doing it this way. For the crew, many of them pay a fee to their agency based on their contracted pay rate. Tips are not included in that rate, any guaranteed income (which is what it would be if included in fare) would be. Thus, the staff keeps a higher percentage of tips.

 

For the line, they pay less on contract, which helps them keep fares appearing lower, plus there are tax advantages. The downside is the effort involved in administering the system.

 

For passengers, the hotel charge is not charged until on board. This means it does not have to appear on a credit card charge 75 days out and does not have to be counted for taxes and trip insurance costs as it would if included in the fare.

 

____________

Great summary

[itravelalot]

This topic will get people fuming.

 

Yes, I have heard of actual lists on other lines that are given to cabin stewards and others.

These people work so hard and very long hours.

We go the other way.. We keep the automatic tips on and then tip people who we feel have gone out of their way to make it a nice experience for us.

 

I would NEVER remove those automatic tips.:mad: Some of that money goes to people you never see. So by removing tips, you (those cruisers) are taking it away from very hard working people behind the scenes.

[swedish weave]

This topic will get people fuming.

 

Yes, I have heard of actual lists on other lines that are given to cabin stewards and others.

These people work so hard and very long hours.

We go the other way.. We keep the automatic tips on and then tip people who we feel have gone out of their way to make it a nice experience for us.

 

I would NEVER remove those automatic tips.:mad: Some of that money goes to people you never see. So by removing tips, you (those cruisers) are taking it away from very hard working people behind the scenes.

 

I will add another word of caution to those who remove the auto-tips.

 

The person you blame as the reason you want to remove the tips may be the roommate / wife/ husband/ girlfriend or boyfriend of the person who spills coffee on you, serves your meal cold, or forgets your order, etc. I am sure you get the drift.

 

Cruise ships are like small towns and there are no secrets. They talk to each other.