Is Caribbean Princess going to be late into Houston this morning?

[caribill]

Its not about what Pierlesscruiser understands or what a US living wage is. Its about what the service staff is used to and have come to expect. They are used to 70 to 80 percent of their wages coming from tips. All of a sudden a day that was supposed to be an "easy day" turns in to an extra hard day and they get hosed financially to boot.

 

 

Nobody has said with any authority that the service staff do not receive appropriate tip money for that day, only that passengers were not charged for it.

 

In the past Princess has in some way made up for the lack of passenger tips in situations like this and I assume that Princess will do so this time also.

[nealstuber]

Nobody has said with any authority that the service staff do not receive appropriate tip money for that day, only that passengers were not charged for it.

 

In the past Princess has in some way made up for the lack of passenger tips in situations like this and I assume that Princess will do so this time also.

 

 

See post 163 of this thread. If a passenger on board talking to the actual staff impacted is not an authority,...

 

On what authority do you base your assumption that Princess has compensated the crew in similar situations?

Edited December 1, 2015 by nealstuber

[Spotter]

See post 163 of this thread. If a passenger on board talking to the actual staff impacted is not an authority,...

 

On what authority do you base your assumption that Princess has compensated the crew in similar situations?

 

Certainly both are possible. Meaning that Princess might plan to compensate employees AND said employees were not yet aware of this at the time conversations with passengers were taking place. Given the intense focus from the top on down of keeping passengers informed, comfortable and entertained--I seriously doubt their focus would've been/should've been on discussing compensation with employees until after all passengers were off the ship.

 

Or at least that's how I would've handled it.

[JimmyVWine]

Question regarding tipping under the circumstances of an extended cruise:

• Assume that "auto tip" is left on.
  
• Assume that any additional cash handed to a crew member is kept by that crew member only and not pooled ship-wide or fleet-wide.
  

If the arrival of the ship is delayed such that the entire crew is working "tip free" for that day, is there a way for passengers to provide an additional tip that would in fact be shared by the entire crew? While it is nice to tip out your cabin steward in cash, and the waiters who actually waited on you, the thousands of other crew members with whom you did not interact on that last, additional day would get nothing. Yet they were also working "tip free". If I were ever in this situation, I would want, (and would hope that others would too), to make sure that the entire crew is taken care of, and not just my one steward, two waiters and the barista at the IC. Now, it is true that if every passenger tipped their stewards and their waiters, there would be a lot less inequity. But the "auto tip" money gets distributed to many more crew members than solely the ones with whom we have face-to-face interaction. Is there a way to add a tip so that the "behind the scenes" crew members also get compensated? Perhaps a trip to the Passenger Services Desk? Anyone know?

[satxdiver]

Glad to hear the CB has arrived at port, loaded, departed and now is on its way to Costa Maya. We were on the Emerald last March when fog created a problem. The ship was late returning to port due to fog but finally did arrive late that morning. We were able to board by late afternoon and it all looked good...until the fog rolled in again. The fog got so bad we were not even able to see the parking lot. We spent the night on a floating hotel tied to the pier. We finally were able to leave around lunch the next day and did make all three ports - thank you Princess. We were in the future cruise office booking another cruise out of Bayport for the March of 2016 when we noticed the ship was leaving the port. It was still very foggy but we could see a little. We went slow in the channel taking longer than normal to reach the Gulf.

 

Later I went to a session with one of the senior bridge officers. What he said was that by the time they had loaded the ship and got ready to sail, the fog had rolled in and the port authority had closed the channel which is too narrow for a large ship. The crew had badgered the port authority calling every half hour asking to leave when finally on Monday morning they let the ship depart and enter the channel. We were the only ship to use the channel that day. The bridge officer said that he thought the port authority was tired of hearing from us and let us go. The ship has very high tech guidance systems and they could safely travel the channel in thick fog which is about what they had to do.

 

At Bayport and even Galveston the dreaded fog is a problem this time of year. I have been grounded at the two Houston airports due to fog so it impacts all travel. Hopefully our coming Bayport cruises (B2B) will not be impacted by fog.

[dlbaqua]

Safe travels to all...sounds like quite an ordeal. We were delayed about 8 hours coming back into Galveston a few years ago and it was not "a fun extra day at sea" at all. Sounds like Princess did a nicer job than Carnival in this case.

For those leaving I hope you have a wonderful vacation.

[Loonbeam]

Last I knew the official policy was Ship management had the call on compensating staff for things like this. Compensation could be extra time off, cash, or nothing, or a party...

 

In short, past anecdotes do not predict future behavior.

 

 

See post 163 of this thread. If a passenger on board talking to the actual staff impacted is not an authority,...

 

On what authority do you base your assumption that Princess has compensated the crew in similar situations?

[caribill]

Is there a way to add a tip so that the "behind the scenes" crew members also get compensated? Perhaps a trip to the Passenger Services Desk? Anyone know?

 

You can have the PSD add to your contribution to the tipping pool, but it will still only go to those in the tipping pool, not to others who may work hard, but are not in the pool.

 

Of course people like those who work in the Spa probably did no business that day, had time off, and lost out on any possible tips.

[caribill]

See post 163 of this thread. If a passenger on board talking to the actual staff impacted is not an authority,...

 

 

Post #163 says:

 

"We found out that at least the room attendants and our dining room servers were basically working with out pay as they wont get paid tips for today, as we aren't being charged."

 

I interpret that as the person poster assuming that since they were not being charged, the crew would not get compensated.

 

The person posting did not say any crew member said anything about tips that day.

[JimmyVWine]

You can have the PSD add to your contribution to the tipping pool, but it will still only go to those in the tipping pool, not to others who may work hard, but are not in the pool.

Thanks. It is good to know that there is a way to get all of the pool participants some tip money. And yes, there are hard working people who are not in the tipping pool. But if they are not in the pool, it has to be assumed that their compensation is contract-based and the fact that one group of passengers stayed on the ship instead of another group of passengers getting on should not matter. They get paid the same amount either way. It is only the crew members whose income is largely derived from tipping who get shafted by the fact that no auto-tip money is collected for that additional day. To everyone else, the "extra day" is just another day.

 

Maybe someone would like to put this in the proverbial "Suggestion Box"...

If a cruise is extended (and hence, the next one shortened) such that tip money is not collected for that extra day, a card should be placed in every mail box outside each cabin asking if the guest would like to voluntarily extend their auto-tip by a day to account for the services rendered to them for that extra day. Maybe even make if a reduced amount of say, $10 per passenger. I'm guessing that at least half the passengers would do so. That way, the people in the tipping pool would get something for their efforts for that day and passengers wouldn't have to worry about scurrying around the ship tipping cash to people who serve them. The cards would be collected at the end of the cruise and adjustments to the final bills would be made accordingly.

[AllisonJames]

While I personally like the auto-tip feature as it eliminates the old days of distributing cash in envelopes around the dining room (and we always do anytime dining so don't forge a relationship with a particular team of waiters like we used to during the set dining times), we always leave cash for our cabin steward due to all the very personal service that is provided for the length of the cruise. And in my opinion, this was extra important on Sunday because the cabin stewards really got the brunt of the service challenges! I hope my fellow passengers recognized that.

[srlucado]

...this was extra important on Sunday because the cabin stewards really got the brunt of the service challenges! I hope my fellow passengers recognized that.

 

Here's one passenger who did.

 

I have to say, the service aboard ship was exemplary. I'm going to miss Princess when they stop sailing out of Houston.

[nealstuber]

Just curious as to what those one the abbreviated sailing ended up with.

[easyboy]

Min wage for the areas most of the tipped employees come from is 30~60 usd per month.

 

I heard this too from some crew staff. Must be true then.

[swilliams1660]

Min wage for the areas most of the tipped employees come from is 30~60 usd per month.

 

I heard this too from some crew staff. Must be true then.

 

Since it's now posted on the Internet, it absolutely must be true.

[Loonbeam]

Having spoken to many crew as well as many corporate staff, these numbers are not out of line for some positions, especially when just starting. It also depends on what country they are from, how their currency compares, etc.

 

 

Since it's now posted on the Internet, it absolutely must be true.

[pablo222]

 

Since it's now posted on the Internet, it absolutely must be true.

 

Posted on the internet is pretty good.

 

But, if a princess phone rep says it, then it is the word of god.

[nealstuber]

Still anxious to hear how those on the shortened sailing wee accomated.

[ChaserX]

Still anxious to hear how those on the shortened sailing wee accomated.

 

We have been given a 1-day refund of the cruise fare paid as a refundable onboard credit. They advised those with travel insurance from Princess or other providers to contact those providers for consideration of expenses inccurred.

Unfortunately, the delayed departure caused us to miss Grand Caymen, which evidently was a disappointment for the crew as well, as it's a favorite stop and the CB only stops there a few times each season. Our itinerary became Costa Maya-Belize-Cozumel.

Captain(Nick Nash) and Cruise Director (Bob) are great. Both of them came to our Meet and Mingle the day after we sailed.

[DebJ14]

The good news is that the weather forecast for docking tomorrow looks great. It will be a clear and crisp 44 degrees and no fog is forecast.

[Colo Cruiser]

Good to hear. :)

[satxdiver]

Houston Sunday forecast:

12/6/2015 70/47 63% humidity 0% precipitation sunny

 

12/13/2015 72/50 48% humidity 20% precipitation partly cloudy

 

It looks good for this Sunday and next Sunday. Hopefully the fog will stay away for the rest of the season. We are boarding in February.

[easyboy]

They advised those with travel insurance from Princess or other providers to contact those providers for consideration of expenses inccurred.

 

Any suggestion on reliable "other" insurance providers?

 

Anyone had experience (filing claims) with Allianz Global?

[Coral]

Any suggestion on reliable "other" insurance providers?

 

Anyone had experience (filing claims) with Allianz Global?

 

I have filed claims, several times, with Allianz for medical expenses on a cruise and also for canceling cruises and they were exceptional each time. Painless experience. One time, I had sent some of the information in but not everything that they required as I was still gathering that but wanted to get the claim started. Before I could send the rest of the paperwork in, they had paid the claim. I don't remember the time frame in paying the claim but it was within a week or two.

[nzOdy]

My daughter (who was on the ship) sent me this news item about a child being removed from the ship with two adults due to abdominal pain yesterday. I hadn't seen this reported anywhere else.

 

 

 

http://abc13.com/news/caribbean-princess-cruise-ship-delayed-to-dock-due-to-fog/1103453/

 

 

Yes, that happened. It was a case of appendicitis. Heard about it from the head nurse during a ships tour.