Does staff know if you increase automatic gratuities.

[blhlls]

I am on the Nieuw Amsterdam and plan to use some left over obc to increase the automatic gratuities.  I was wondering if staff Will know we are doing that?  

[GeorgeCharlie]

They must get some type of notice - as we have previously signed over residual amounts of OBC and have had our cabin attendants thank us for the extra monies. 

 

[blhlls]

Thank you.  I wanted to make sure they knew how much we appreciated the service.

[AncientWanderer]

38 minutes ago, GeorgeCharlie said:

They must get some type of notice - as we have previously signed over residual amounts of OBC and have had our cabin attendants thank us for the extra monies. 

 

 

I had no idea that you can do this.  Very good to know.

[freestyling]

In our experience when we inform guest services of the HSC increase amount to add to our folio or the Neptune Lounge Concierges (when we are fortunate enough to have a Neptune Suite) 48 hrs before debarkation then the stewards typically (8 out of 9 times) thank us. When doing this the day before using same method we have only been thanked 1 time out of 5. Not a big deal, but like you, I just wanted to be sure the extra amount for HSC was being distributed in whatever manner HAL uses. 

Edited September 11, 2019 by freestyling

[blhlls]

I love the contributors to this board.  All those niggles about how to do something put to rest.  Thank you.

[oceanmom]

On the Rotterdam last month, we had a lot of non-refundable OBC from HAL as well as refundable OBC from the big box store. We had promo pre-paid gratuities from HAL and didn't spend all the non-refundable OBC. The last day, I went to the concierge, filled out the form to "remove" gratuities BUT wrote on the form that I wanted to have the remaining non-refundable OBC  put into the gratuities pool and have the refundable OBC returned to my credit card. Worked perfectly.

 

 

[erewhon]

Thanks for this thread, on cruises when we have increased our HSC   I was not sure if the staff would be aware.

It is a very easy proceedure to increase the amount.

[nw gardener]

Glad I came across this thread!  We have quite a bit of OBC for our next cruise and I was wondering how to do this on HAL.  When you fill out the form,  can you break the amount down among  certain crew members (say room steward , waiter, bartender,  etc)? 

[freestyling]

I’m unaware of being able to specify whom you want the additional gratuities to go to. I was told that they would go in the same crew member pool for HSC. I believe the form that oceanmom was referring to was the removal of existing HSC.

[Himself]

I would just give the extra money to the person or persons who went out of the way to make your stay extra special.

[nw gardener]

Thanks,  I normally definitely do try to reward those that make my cruise enjoyable,  wasn't sure if there was a way to get that extra OBC to them. But if I can just increase it across the board I will,  and give extra to those I wish.

[oceanmom]

36 minutes ago, freestyling said:

I’m unaware of being able to specify whom you want the additional gratuities to go to. I was told that they would go in the same crew member pool for HSC. I believe the form that oceanmom was referring to was the removal of existing HSC.

 

Yes, it was the form to remove HSC but the box to remove existing HSC was not checked and the night auditors figured out how much non-refundable was and included it as a deduction on the final statement. I wrote "Please calculate non-refundable OBC and add it as additional payment to the gratuities pool."

 

And there is no space to indicate exactly who you want to receive the additional gratuity. I always plan to bring extra cash for extra gratuities. If I don't have enough cash, I get a cash advance at the front office and give it to those who provide extra service to us--cabin stewards, concierges, MDR stewards and wine steward.

[GeorgeCharlie]

11 hours ago, freestyling said:

I’m unaware of being able to specify whom you want the additional gratuities to go to. I was told that they would go in the same crew member pool for HSC. I believe the form that oceanmom was referring to was the removal of existing HSC.

 

It seems like you can instruct them to not put the extra OBC into the general pool. We specified which crew members we wanted the OBC credit to go to. When those crew members were thanking us for the extra monies and we asked them how much they received, it matched what our instructions were. 

[kazu]

8 minutes ago, GeorgeCharlie said:

 

It seems like you can instruct them to not put the extra OBC into the general pool. We specified which crew members we wanted the OBC credit to go to. When those crew members were thanking us for the extra monies and we asked them how much they received, it matched what our instructions were. 

 

Excellent!  That’s good to know.  Thanks 🙂 

[Himself]

If one puts the extra money in the hand of the person you want to reward, you know they will get it.

It was the way it was always done at HAL until HAL adopted the Carnival way. 

[erewhon]

11 hours ago, GeorgeCharlie said:

 

It seems like you can instruct them to not put the extra OBC into the general pool. We specified which crew members we wanted the OBC credit to go to. When those crew members were thanking us for the extra monies and we asked them how much they received, it matched what our instructions were. 

 

Thank you for this information.

[ScottishMaid]

I was told at the Maasdam Front Desk that I could NOT use the non refundable OBC to donate to the crew fund. I had prepaid gratuities.

[oceanmom]

1 hour ago, ScottishMaid said:

I was told at the Maasdam Front Desk that I could NOT use the non refundable OBC to donate to the crew fund. I had prepaid gratuities.

 

Another example of inconsistencies between ships. It worked on the Rotterdam last month for us.

 

The prepaid gratuities showed up on the final statement as "Hotel Service Charge Day xx" with matching debit and credit.

 

The donation of excess non-refundable OBC to the gratuities pool was entered on the final statement as "Hotel Service Charge--GRA1-SU".