new gratuities charges

[Sutho]

I personally think it is all lies when people claim to leave the auto tips on and then tip extra. It is all a load of BS.

 

If people seriously did that then P&O would not be increasing the amount to compensate for the people that did not tip at all and had the auto deductions removed. Besides no one has the money to go out and tip all these people the kind of money they claim to be tipping.

 

It is quite clear that people who cruise P&O are cheap and thrifty. Always looking for a bargain and ways to cut costs. Get real people - anyone who tries to cut costs certainly does not have the psychological make up to go out and tip someone cash. They are cash strapped themselves if they need to be thrifty and cheap.

[Sutho]

If you want proof the British are stingy and do not tip here it is. It is officially recognised by cruise line managing directors that British passengers do not tip. Mind you they will comment and argue to they are blue in the face that they do in fact tip above and beyond but in reality the truth is below:

 

http://www.thetravelmagazine.net/i-3668--brits-don-t-tip-says-royal-caribbean-cruise-line.html

 

There are plenty more news articles like it all over the net. All I have to do is find and post them. Hence the reason for this it reinforces my idea that the reason P&O introduced auto gratuities were 1.) because too many people did not pay. The reason they were increased 2.) because too many passengers opted out and the increase is to compensate for that.

[bazzaw]

If you want proof the British are stingy and do not tip here it is. It is officially recognised by cruise line managing directors that British passengers do not tip. Mind you they will comment and argue to they are blue in the face that they do in fact tip above and beyond but in reality the truth is below:

 

http://www.thetravelmagazine.net/i-3668--brits-don-t-tip-says-royal-caribbean-cruise-line.html

 

There are plenty more news articles like it all over the net. All I have to do is find and post them. Hence the reason for this it reinforces my idea that the reason P&O introduced auto gratuities were 1.) because too many people did not pay. The reason they were increased 2.) because too many passengers opted out and the increase is to compensate for that.

 

Sutho

 

You are like a dog with a bone - can't you let it go?.

 

Cruiseline management do what they think needs to be done -- and NOBODY (yes, not even YOU :D) except them knows the reason.

 

Barry

[Sutho]

That was a fact stated by Royal Caribbean UK manager about basing their ship in the UK in 2009. He said the British passengers refused to tip at all in most cases. It hit the headlines pretty big over there as Royal Caribbean had set up in the UK with Independence of the Seas on sell out cruises. It resulted in a lot of disgruntled staff because the British passengers refused to tip them.

 

On this thread there are lucky to be 5 contributors. P&O has two ships with around 3000 passengers, another 3 with close to 2000 passengers. If a ship like Azura did a cruise a week with new passengers each week it is close to 150000 passengers per year. Compared to that one persons voice on here is 0.003% of that total. Which is why I am very reluctant to believe what I read people do on here.

[davecttr]

This argument on tipping is getting boring

 

Can we have a boring argument about dress codes instead :D

 

i like dress code rows because i can argue FACTS ;)

[Blackrat]

Tipping is a problem that really shouldn't exist but is now here, as has rightly been pointed, out by US influence.

 

We left auto tipping on for the last cruise but I still took a bag of £1 coins for the poor chap who woke me up every morning with orange juice and coffee. Not our steward and a different chap most mornings. £1 no big deal.

 

I didn't give the waiter or steward any more and was happy with that.

 

On the other side of the coin :) we have been on a cruise where on a table of 8, there were us and another couple on the last night (before auto tipping). Included in the absentees were a couple who had family that worked for P&O which for me made it slightly worse.

 

I think there are elements of truth to both sides of this thread. I suspect that even if you included tips in the price of the cruise there would be some who would still tip and others who would change to other cruise lines for cheaper prices.

 

At the end of the day you have to be happy with what you do and try not to worry about what other folks do or think.

 

Blackrat

[jeanlyon]

My last on the subject. I have been on 7 cruises, all of which was a table for 8. Before autotips came in, I have never seen empty tables on the last night and certainly on all the tables I was on, everyone handed over an envelope.

[simonpjd]

Anyone on here who asks about 'how to stop the autotipping' (with a little smiley face) can only have one thing on their mind. They do not want to tip as much as £3.50 a day. If you are happy you leave it. If you want to tip more you can top up the £3.50 with cash at the end of the cruise.

I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of people who turn off auto tipping end up tipping less than the recommended amount.

Now I wait for the deluge of denials - on no not me sir. mmm. But then no one will come on here and admit it will they.

[Sutho]

Anyone on here who asks about 'how to stop the autotipping' (with a little smiley face) can only have one thing on their mind. They do not want to tip as much as £3.50 a day. If you are happy you leave it. If you want to tip more you can top up the £3.50 with cash at the end of the cruise.

I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of people who turn off auto tipping end up tipping less than the recommended amount.

Now I wait for the deluge of denials - on no not me sir. mmm. But then no one will come on here and admit it will they.

 

Its exactly what I have been saying all along. If we were to believe what people were saying that they leave tips on and then tip extra then the cabin stwewards and dining waiters on P&O would be taking home over 50 pounds a day. Average dinging waiter could look after 40+ passengers a day who would tip direct spilt to waiter/assistant. The cabin steward around 10 cabins on average probably less than 20 passengers a day. That is quite a cut of the tip (IF we were to belive they get the whole cut and not what Carnival skims off the top).

 

I find your sentiments are right that people will never admit on here that they do not tip. I find and this is true on a psychological persective that the most vocal about it are normally the cheapest ones that never tip or tip really cheaply.

[berlingo]

Well with my hard hat firmly in place I am prepared to confess to be "stingy, cheap and PROUD!". (I love getting a bargain and hate not getting value for money.)

 

In addition I do not agree morally with an employees wages being dependent on gratuities. However until the system changes I do not wish to penalise the hard working staff.

 

However I am happy to say that we are indeed amongst those supposed fictional people. On our last cruise we kept all of our family of fours auto tips on our account and in addition tipped our cabin steward and two waiters extra in cash. We did so in recognition of their service and acknowledgement of how lucky we are to be able to cruise.

 

No unfortunately we are not millionaires. Nor did we do it to brag or lord it over others. No one saw us do this and we told no one on board of what we had done. Plus no one on this site knows me from Adam! I do however confess to feeling good when our assistant waiter quietly came over to say thank you again the next morning and told us how he was also going home that day.

 

The main reason I post this is to challenge some peoples veiw of the world. I am sure there is proof that some people do not tip but this does not prove that many others do not tip well. Choose to believe me or not but please do not judge others by your own standards.

 

Happy cruising.

[terrierjohn]

Its exactly what I have been saying all along. If we were to believe what people were saying that they leave tips on and then tip extra then the cabin stwewards and dining waiters on P&O would be taking home over 50 pounds a day. Average dinging waiter could look after 40+ passengers a day who would tip direct spilt to waiter/assistant. The cabin steward around 10 cabins on average probably less than 20 passengers a day. That is quite a cut of the tip (IF we were to belive they get the whole cut and not what Carnival skims off the top).

 

I find your sentiments are right that people will never admit on here that they do not tip. I find and this is true on a psychological persective that the most vocal about it are normally the cheapest ones that never tip or tip really cheaply.

Sutho, Be careful you are one of the most vocal posters about tipping, and you have previously commented that you tip below the P&O recommended level.:p:D

[daiB]

Well with my hard hat firmly in place I am prepared to confess to be "stingy, cheap and PROUD!". (I love getting a bargain and hate not getting value for money.)

 

In addition I do not agree morally with an employees wages being dependent on gratuities. However until the system changes I do not wish to penalise the hard working staff.

 

However I am happy to say that we are indeed amongst those supposed fictional people. On our last cruise we kept all of our family of fours auto tips on our account and in addition tipped our cabin steward and two waiters extra in cash. We did so in recognition of their service and acknowledgement of how lucky we are to be able to cruise.

 

No unfortunately we are not millionaires. Nor did we do it to brag or lord it over others. No one saw us do this and we told no one on board of what we had done. Plus no one on this site knows me from Adam! I do however confess to feeling good when our assistant waiter quietly came over to say thank you again the next morning and told us how he was also going home that day.

 

The main reason I post this is to challenge some peoples veiw of the world. I am sure there is proof that some people do not tip but this does not prove that many others do not tip well. Choose to believe me or not but please do not judge others by your own standards.

 

Happy cruising.

 

No no no this cannot be right. I have been reliably informed that I am the only one in the world who would be stupid enough to pay more than was suggested. This is a wind up.:rolleyes:

 

 

Now we know why certain Oz people sail with P&O as RCI have just come into line and will be starting full Auto tips in March. Their suggested amount is over £7.00 that is double the proposed new P&O tip.

 

Perhaps we will get some peace and the RCI forum will have to put up with a certain person.

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

 

 

BTW Berlingo. 100% agree.

[frenchmartiniplease]

Wow!

 

Just come in near the end of this thread. Bit heated is'nt it?

 

We decide what we wish to tip when cruising. I agree with berlingo (think that's right name) With P&O, we leave on autotips and round up where we want to.

 

Noone elses business but ours. Not bothered what anyone else does, it's up to them.:D:D

[bazzaw]

Anyone on here who asks about 'how to stop the autotipping' (with a little smiley face) can only have one thing on their mind. They do not want to tip as much as £3.50 a day. If you are happy you leave it. If you want to tip more you can top up the £3.50 with cash at the end of the cruise.

I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of people who turn off auto tipping end up tipping less than the recommended amount.

Now I wait for the deluge of denials - on no not me sir. mmm. But then no one will come on here and admit it will they.

 

Possibly this is the way that you think - and then believe that everyone thinks and acts as you do??

 

We recently went on 2 Cunard cruises - QV and QE. Cunard have a system of automatic but not compulsory gratuity deductions of $11USD per person per day. On the first cruise on QV, we were quite happy with this arrangement and left the deductions on -- BUT, as we have been accustomed to giving waiters /stewards an envelope with the tip inside, we felt on the last night a little "obliged" to give extra in cash. Being a non-demanding person who asks little from staff, we believed that $22USD per day was sufficient - so on the next cruise on QE, we asked to have the automatic deduction removed and we gave the required amount in the envelopes as per usual.

 

Please do not assume that others think and act like you!!:mad:

 

Barry

[jeanlyon]

Barry, totally agree. We removed the auto tips on Fred Olsen and tipped the recommended amount by cash. We prefer it that way. Removing tips does NOT mean that you don't tip, it means you like to do it personally. That's what a tip is - a gift freely given, not added to your account, which is a service charge. Not everyone is tarred with the same brush!

[Sutho]

I would prefer it as pre-paid rather than added to the account. My next cruise in two weeks time with Celebrity Solstice I have pre-paid all gratuities and purchased the drink package which also included a gratuity charge. I am very happy with this method and do not plan to give away a dollar more to anyone regadless of the circumstances.

 

It is slightly complicated with P&O and I can understand that people would want to remove them. One thing I almost forgot was that P&O now charge authorisations to your credit card on a daily basis. This means on a weeks cruise when you get home you have a weeks worth of authorisations plus the final balance. Too bad if it is a low limit card.

 

When it first was announced P&O was introducing auto gratuities I bet that it would not last long as people would not want it automatic. We are now seeing a price increase to compensate for the lack of people supporting the scheme.

[Josy1953]

I personally think it is all lies when people claim to leave the auto tips on and then tip extra. It is all a load of BS.

 

If people seriously did that then P&O would not be increasing the amount to compensate for the people that did not tip at all and had the auto deductions removed. Besides no one has the money to go out and tip all these people the kind of money they claim to be tipping.

 

It is quite clear that people who cruise P&O are cheap and thrifty. Always looking for a bargain and ways to cut costs. Get real people - anyone who tries to cut costs certainly does not have the psychological make up to go out and tip someone cash. They are cash strapped themselves if they need to be thrifty and cheap.

 

 

Regardless of which cruise line we choose to cruise on we leave the auto-tip in place and if we think that we have had exceptional service from a particular member of staff we give an additional amount. I take exception to the comment that "people who cruise P&O are cheap and thrifty. Always looking for a bargain and ways to cut costs". People choose P&O for various reasons, we have just booked a P&O cruise because we liked the itinerary and I am a big fan of Strictly Come Dancing., the cost was NOT a consideration in our decision.

[GHDPeter]

I just got off the Aurora as she is doing her world cruise, at San Francisco, Auckland and Sydney with new checkins the reception desk was flat out after embarkation with people removing auto gratuities.

 

Was also a bit amazed at the rush for ice cream at the buffet, pax pushing to open the buffet for lunch, they were queuing before the buffet opened and some were actually taking food as the staff set the buffet up, people putting towels on 2 sun lounges so that no one would lay next to them, pax asking that the tomato and onion confit be removed from the bacon baguette in the cafe then complaining that it was dry and the french always ruin a classic bacon butty!

 

The english class system is definately alive and well on board the Aurora, but what I noticed as an unaffected Aussie was that those who spoke with the most poshest accents were the tightest with money.

 

But the service and the staff were fantastic and I saw many examples of their care, kindness and respect towards several older single ladies and no request was too much trouble.

 

However I did experience first hand problems with P & O systems, procedures and communications. It took 4 hrs to sort out my account ( i changed cabins and had a credit to be transferred) and to sort out getting the left over cash back.

 

Prior to embarkation and during the cruise pax were the last to be informed of changes or port times, that even included while onboard.

[GHDPeter]

I was told by reception on the Aurora that the Auto Gratuity was split between the cabin steward, waiter and Assistant Waiter, I did tip extra to the bar and wait staff that I frequented most and who gave me exceptional service

[simonpjd]

Oh well I was right that no one has admitted stopping the auto tipping and then tipping less than suggested or not at all. I do understand why some pax stop the autotip and pay in person - especially on lines like Fred O where the service is far more personal than on the larger ships.

 

In reality I consider £3.50 a day to be too cheap. On a river cruise in Russia the suggested was $24 per day. HollandAmerica I think was $12.

Perhaps we should start a new thread listing all the companies and their suggested tipping rate.

 

On P&O I would bet the average cost per day is around £150 so £3.50 is under 2.5% - not much really. London restaurants expect 12.5% minimum.

[Sutho]

Here is a little story from last years US election campaign.

 

Kind of gets to the core of the pro and anti automatic tipping debate I think.

 

I copied and pasted it:

 

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no... one would be rich, a great equalizer.

 

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

 

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

 

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

 

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

 

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on) These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

 

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

 

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

 

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

 

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

 

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

 

Can you think of a reason for not sharing this?

Neither could I.See more

[davecttr]

What has that to do with tipping policy on P&O :confused:

 

please explain

[jeanlyon]

I didn't understand it either! LOL - Tips on Fred O are £4 per person per day. We tipped just that in an envelope. We made a friend whilst on board who has cruised with Fred a lot. She always removed the autotips and tips personally. However, towards the end of the cruise, she found she had too much OBC left, so she put the autotip back on and used her OBC. !

[daiB]

I didn't understand it either! LOL - Tips on Fred O are £4 per person per day. We tipped just that in an envelope. We made a friend whilst on board who has cruised with Fred a lot. She always removed the autotips and tips personally. However, towards the end of the cruise, she found she had too much OBC left, so she put the autotip back on and used her OBC. !

 

Too much OBC, sorry I do not understand?

 

I would like too much OBC please.

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

 

:cool:

[hammers]

Anyone on here who asks about 'how to stop the autotipping' (with a little smiley face) can only have one thing on their mind. They do not want to tip as much as £3.50 a day. If you are happy you leave it. If you want to tip more you can top up the £3.50 with cash at the end of the cruise.

I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of people who turn off auto tipping end up tipping less than the recommended amount.

Now I wait for the deluge of denials - on no not me sir. mmm. But then no one will come on here and admit it will they.

 

Hi, just back from the Azura, I cancelled auto tipping after consulting with my follow diners who had all cancelled auto tipping. We then handed over our tips in cash on the last evening. I also asked our cabin steward for her preference. She was reluctant to say so I assumed by her manner that she preferred cash. I can confirm the tips paid were higher than tips recommended by P&O.