Celebrity to INCREASE gratuities

[Loyal2RCCL]

FYI.. Just received a heads up from my Celebrity Rep:

 

Celebrity will be increasing gratuities by $.50 per guest/per day for all bookings made on or after April 29, 2013, for all cruises that begin on or after April 29, 2013. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT TO BE MADE APRIL 17, 2013.

[mferranti]

Good. Maybe they'll be better able to attract and keep competent employees.

[stellarose]

Are going to be told? Summer cruise.

 

Great.....

[CPT Trips]

FYI.. Just received a heads up from my Celebrity Rep:

 

Celebrity will be increasing gratuities by $.50 per guest/per day for all bookings made on or after April 29, 2013, for all cruises that begin on or after April 29, 2013. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT TO BE MADE APRIL 17, 2013.

 

Thanks for the info . . . Your sig looks like you should never say never!

[Wine-O]

FYI.. Just received a heads up from my Celebrity Rep:

 

Celebrity will be increasing gratuities by $.50 per guest/per day for all bookings made on or after April 29, 2013, for all cruises that begin on or after April 29, 2013. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT TO BE MADE APRIL 17, 2013.

 

I wonder how they are going to break it out or just going to add it to "other."

[tserface]

Don't you mean increasing the "suggested" gratuities. Even though I enjoy tipping, I think this is kind of ostentatious of them. If they want to give the employees a raise, why not just do it rather than trying to guilt gratuities out of passengers. We always give more than expected, but we expect it to stay optional otherwise it really is a fee and they might as well call it that.

 

A "gratuity" is something someone gives in response to good service. It's bad enough they automatically add on the 15% for drinks. To me that just makes the drinks cost more and kind of puts me off from really tipping in response. I think calling it a gratuity when it is required is a scam.

 

Here's how Merriam Webster defines gratuity:

 

"Something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service; especially : tip"

 

Tom

 

FYI.. Just received a heads up from my Celebrity Rep:

 

Celebrity will be increasing gratuities by $.50 per guest/per day for all bookings made on or after April 29, 2013, for all cruises that begin on or after April 29, 2013. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT TO BE MADE APRIL 17, 2013.

[Loyal2RCCL]

Thanks for the info . . . Your sig looks like you should never say never!

 

I HAVE to go on the NCL Breakaway for work, but I would never spend my money or personal time on NCL.

 

I will say, I am curious to see what they've done with this new ship.

[mickey89]

 

A "gratuity" is something someone gives in response to good service......................................

 

 

 

Totally agree, how can you pre-pay Gratuities even before the service ........

 

Celebrity need to be honest to their passengers and call it what it is - a Service Charge

[richsea]

Here we Go!!!!!!!!:eek::eek:

[Keith1010]

Thanks for the information.

 

Keith

[dkjretired]

Here we Go!!!!!!!!:eek::eek:

 

I agree Rich, much ado about nothing....

[richsea]

I agree Rich, much ado about nothing....

 

You just know that this will evolve into a gratuities/service charge/why do we have to prepay/they should pay them more thread. Hope I'm wrong.

[Denny01]

Totally agree, how can you pre-pay Gratuities even before the service ........

 

Celebrity need to be honest to their passengers and call it what it is - a Service Charge

 

And RCL, and NCL, and HAL, and CCL, and Princess, and...and...and.

 

So everybody would be happy as a lark if Celebrity took away the option of removing the daily OB charge and labeled it Service Charge....yeah, right.

One big drawback would be we'd have 1/2 the number of threads and some posters would have 2 or 3 posts instead of 1,986!

 

Just a thought.

 

Den

[tserface]

Sorry, it's likely my fault, but I thought the wording in the original post "Celebrity will be increasing gratuities..." sounded arrogant. I pre-pay my gratuities like a good X citizen and, as I said, I'd tip regardless of their stupid policy, but to say they are "raising gratuities" just sounds like an oxymoron to me.

 

I always find a great deal of joy in tipping for good service, but Celebrity keeps trying to steal that joy. I'm not sure why.

 

I'm not sure why some think the discussion of calling it what it really is, is so irrelevant or evil. The discussion is not a diversion from the subject of the thread. What about when they start charging 20% extra for drinks and call it a tip? Or 30%?

 

Tom

 

You just know that this will evolve into a gratuities/service charge/why do we have to prepay/they should pay them more thread. Hope I'm wrong.

[tserface]

That is kind of unfair. I doubt that many people post on this subject just to get their post count up. There's not much to be gained by that.

 

I, for one, wouldn't mind them just calling it what it is. I don't know what a daily OB charge is, but I do know the definition of gratuity. I looked i up just to be sure.

 

The whole industry perpetrating the hoax doesn't make it any less a hoax.

 

I'd rather they just "suggest" amounts, like they used to, and let us do the tipping as we see fit. If they think their employees deserve more than than they should add it onto the cruise price.

 

Tom

 

And RCL, and NCL, and HAL, and CCL, and Princess, and...and...and.

 

So everybody would be happy as a lark if Celebrity took away the option of removing the daily OB charge and labeled it Service Charge....yeah, right.

One big drawback would be we'd have 1/2 the number of threads and some posters would have 2 or 3 posts instead of 1,986!

 

Just a thought.

 

Den

[midwestchick]

What happens if you chose prepaid gratuities as one of your 1 2 3 promotion. How will those people be affected? :confused:

[A Sixth?]

Here we Go!!!!!!!!:eek::eek:

 

THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!!:p:p:p

[jackdiamond]

Whatever you wish to call it, in my opinion it is still too low. Also, I look forward to the day when the gratuities are mandatory. Of course, that would disturb those who utilize euphemisms to justify their stiffing endeavors.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!!:p:p:p

 

You better believe it , we getting 30 cm (12") of snow in the next 48 hour good thing the plane leaves in 96 hours :eek:

[tserface]

This is a digression, but I'm curious. I see people do these kinds of posts often. If you don't want it to go that direction, why try to push it that way with comments like these?

 

Tom

 

You just know that this will evolve into a gratuities/service charge/why do we have to prepay/they should pay them more thread. Hope I'm wrong.

[navyrotorhead]

... so there will be absolutely NO confusion EVER again about ANYTHING!

 

 

EVERYBODY knows that...

 

Shipboard "tips" aren't really tips, they are "service charges." :)

 

"Kleenex" is a brand name, when what you are using could be ANY brand of "facial tissue." ;)

 

"I'm taking the subway" could very well be misconstrued as a threat to rob a sandwich shop. :rolleyes:

 

Hopping on a "plane" is IMPOSSIBLE since it is two dimensional geometric construct. :cool:

 

Hopping on a "subsonic, heavier than air craft, designed for civilian transportation, powered by hydrocarbon-burning high bypass turbofan engines, utilizing a high aspect ratio, super-critical wing, employing laminar flow control measures to delay the onset of boundary layer separation." :eek:

 

That is SO much more accurate and precise. :p

 

We must ALL learn to be more pedantic with our semantics.

[dkjretired]

You just know that this will evolve into a gratuities/service charge/why do we have to prepay/they should pay them more thread. Hope I'm wrong.

 

I agree with you....

[librarylady19]

And RCL, and NCL, and HAL, and CCL, and Princess, and...and...and.

 

So everybody would be happy as a lark if Celebrity took away the option of removing the daily OB charge and labeled it Service Charge....yeah, right.

One big drawback would be we'd have 1/2 the number of threads and some posters would have 2 or 3 posts instead of 1,986!

 

Just a thought.

 

So true Denny.

50 cents per day seems odd - why not a $1. Such a minimal thing in relative to the cruise cost but yet so many people get worked up about it. :confused:

[dkjretired]

And RCL, and NCL, and HAL, and CCL, and Princess, and...and...and.

 

So everybody would be happy as a lark if Celebrity took away the option of removing the daily OB charge and labeled it Service Charge....yeah, right.

One big drawback would be we'd have 1/2 the number of threads and some posters would have 2 or 3 posts instead of 1,986!

 

Just a thought.

 

Den

 

Denny:

 

You have to remember that for many of us who have been on this board and cruise critic for many years, the numbers of posts are irrelevant. What most on here do not know is that many of the oldtimers including myself have been through several web site changes where we lost the numbers on all our posts. I probably lost 50,000 posts over the years since I go back to the beginning of cruise critic when they were solely on AOL. I post a lot less now and rarely will post on dress code threads anymore. I know someone will say I'm nuts but this board is addictive. They are probably right.

[Jane2357]

Oh for crying out loud - it is 50 CENTS - people! $1.00 whole dollar a day per couple. If this is alarming to some of you I can only wonder how you afford the gas or taxi or plane ticket to even get to the dock. Insert head shake.