New Gratuity Rate

[davekathy]

1 hour ago, grandgeezer said:

Another reason to stick with MSC, their gratuity rate is $12.50 p.p. per day, no matter what cabin you're in be it the inside or Yacht Club Deluxe Suites.  We give them extra that almost puts them up to Celebrity's rates, not out of pity, but because they actually deserve it. 

What makes you think MSC isn't going to raise their daily gratuity rate in the future? I can think of other reasons why I wouldn't book a specific cruise line and the daily gratuity rate has absolutely nothing to do with it. 

[davekathy]

4 minutes ago, RealBatman said:

Perhaps I'm in a testy mood... but bring it on!

 

What a bunch of whiners! Let's see... $1 per day, 2 people in a cabin, is an increase of $2 per day. A 7 day cruise is an increase of $14!

 

We pay in the thousands of dollars for an exceptional experience, and you want to quibble about a $14 increase that goes to the people who make YOUR cruise such a wonderful experience?? REALLY??

And some of you want to make sure you get it paid before the increase so you don't have to pay the extra $14??? 

 

Sheesh.

 

 

Agree and we have never concerned ourselves with how much a staff or crew member gets paid. We know and pay the daily gratuity amount and life is good.  

[Life Buoy]

4 minutes ago, RealBatman said:

Perhaps I'm in a testy mood... but bring it on!

 

What a bunch of whiners! Let's see... $1 per day, 2 people in a cabin, is an increase of $2 per day. A 7 day cruise is an increase of $14!

 

We pay in the thousands of dollars for an exceptional experience, and you want to quibble about a $14 increase that goes to the people who make YOUR cruise such a wonderful experience?? REALLY??

And some of you want to make sure you get it paid before the increase so you don't have to pay the extra $14??? 

 

Sheesh.

 

 

How many cruise days does Celebrity have annually? What is the average number of passengers on each cruise? Dollars add up!

I wonder if people who give a little extra to their cabin attendant or waiter will reduce what they gave or give no extra. The staff are the real losers unless they get the extra dollar that they deserve. 

[mom says]

3 hours ago, Life Buoy said:

I just wonder how much of the tip the cabin attendants and servers are going to receive. 

 

46 minutes ago, dadofjessie said:

My biggest concern is that it goes to ship staff and not to company coffers.

What is your basis for doubting that the crew would  receive their due share of the grats? The line is  quite clear about who shares in them. If you do a search you can find the breakdown on who gets what. I can think of  several consequences if the line was to withhold a portion for themselves: a huge blow back from their customer base, a major uptick in the crew turnover rate ( which is by and large quite low), plus possible legal charges. 

[davekathy]

23 minutes ago, Life Buoy said:

How many cruise days does Celebrity have annually? What is the average number of passengers on each cruise? Dollars add up!

I wonder if people who give a little extra to their cabin attendant or waiter will reduce what they gave or give no extra. The staff are the real losers unless they get the extra dollar that they deserve. 

This is nothing new. The daily gratuity rate increases happen every couple of years. The only thing that frosts my stones about the increase is all bookings made prior to 6 January 2020 are not exempt from the increase. The dollar a day per person increase isn't the issue for us for bookings made after 6 January 2020. If you don't have a BP buy a few less drinks during the cruise and you've got your money back. 

Edited December 27, 2019 by davekathy

[bikerunner]

1 minute ago, mom says said:

 

What is your basis for doubting that the crew would  receive their due share of the grats? The line is  quite clear about who shares in them. If you do a search you can find the breakdown on who gets what. I can think of  several consequences if the line was to withhold a portion for themselves: a huge blow back from their customer base, a major uptick in the crew turnover rate ( which is by and large quite low), plus possible legal charges. 

Definitely legal and stakeholder issues if this was the case.  The money is set aside as gratuities and unless they are doing some back end accounting, which would be caught by now the money is shared among the people it is appropriated to.  Yes it would be nice to personally be able to do it on ones own but the nature of the business model has changed.  The crew on the last few on Celebrity has been the most enthusiastic I have seen over the years I cruised with Celebrity.  I think there would be like mentioned big turnover and crew wanting to go to ohh maybe MSC who looks like they give less to there crew members.  

 

Like someone mentioned, the whining over the last few months has gotten pretty comical to me.  I have never had a bad cruise, I had ones I wont do again, ummm MSC, Carnival and RCL mainly.  Not my style but they were not bad just not how I prefer.  Every line is different and trying to make its own niche in the market.  Yes I would love to pick and choose things from many different ones but thats not possible.  Find the ones that work best for one.  Celebrity has changed over the years, somethings I miss many I didst even notice were gone to someone pointed out.  

[cruiser02]

Question:  If your gratuities are pre-paid by a TA or included in the suite amenities are service charges  ( 20% ) added during the cruise for beverage service covered in the gratuity  pre-pay?    This is using a premium beverage package> 

Does that made sense.  ?

Thank you 

[davekathy]

4 minutes ago, cruiser02 said:

Question:  If your gratuities are pre-paid by a TA or included in the suite amenities are service charges  ( 20% ) added during the cruise for beverage service covered in the gratuity  pre-pay?    This is using a premium beverage package> 

Does that made sense.  ?

Thank you 

No. 

Edited December 27, 2019 by davekathy

[Spif Barwunkel]

Solstice class ships hold 2850 passengers and 1500 crew. Using $16.00pp as the per day gratuity average, a seven day cruise would put $212.80 in the pockets of each crew member, if all 1500 indeed got an equal percentage of the gratuities. And, perhaps some of those 1500 are in positions that do not share in the gratuity process. Whatever the case, a good hard days  work times seven is certainly deserving of more cold hard cash....in my opinion.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

To address the pre-paying “to get it done before the deadline”... I always pre-pay to have as much of the trip paid as possible and I almost always give additional cash as well (I have only withheld additional twice - on fathom where the service was less than stellar). My TA usually adds it at booking - I just verified that it was done for all scheduled cruises.

[hcat]

 

We used to add it just before the  final payment due date,   but  added it today to 2 res that did not have grats as a perk...

 

We do give extra on board...in cash.  Worked well on EDGE where we had the 4 mdr plan.....tracked down the servers and hostess we had more frequently who took good care of us, plus stateroom attendant and bar waiters..( esp ones who laughed at the $1 upcharges for Baileys!)

Edited December 27, 2019 by hcat

[ONT-CA]

Simply put, we have customary amounts of gratuities we directly give to individuals with whom we come in contact.  That total is averaged out over the number of days of the cruise and that amount is subtracted from the daily charge currently in effect.  This includes additional tips in the bars as well as specialty restaurants. Our 'suggested' gratuity account is then paid in full.

Edited December 27, 2019 by ONT-CA
typo

[davekathy]

5 minutes ago, hcat said:

So if you add the grats to your res, is that equivakent to pre paying?

We uaed to add it just before final payment hut may as well do it today

Yes. 

[wpgcycler]

29 minutes ago, ONT-CA said:

Simply put, we have customary amounts of gratuities we directly give to individuals with whom we come in contact.  That total is averaged out over the number of days of the cruise and that amount is subtracted from the daily charge currently in effect.  This includes additional tips in the bars as well as specialty restaurants. Our 'suggested' gratuity account is then paid in full.

 

Why mess with what works?

[Bo1953]

2 hours ago, davekathy said:

What makes you think MSC isn't going to raise their daily gratuity rate in the future? I can think of other reasons why I wouldn't book a specific cruise line and the daily gratuity rate has absolutely nothing to do with it. 

Thank you for this...

 

Our sentiments, exactly. Daily gratuity is really an after thought, upon debarkation and sometimes later than that.... LOL

 

bon voyage

[pilot]

3 hours ago, dadofjessie said:

My biggest concern is that it goes to ship staff and not to company coffers.

I have no concern. I keep my auto tips on and the staff and company can sort it out. 

[pilot]

2 hours ago, RealBatman said:

Perhaps I'm in a testy mood... but bring it on!

 

What a bunch of whiners! Let's see... $1 per day, 2 people in a cabin, is an increase of $2 per day. A 7 day cruise is an increase of $14!

 

We pay in the thousands of dollars for an exceptional experience, and you want to quibble about a $14 increase that goes to the people who make YOUR cruise such a wonderful experience?? REALLY??

And some of you want to make sure you get it paid before the increase so you don't have to pay the extra $14??? 

 

Sheesh.

 

 

I agree. 

[Redtravel]

it seems like the gratuities on most cruise lines have been increasing every year.  It is nice that you got notice allowing you to beat the increase by prepaying.  I have sailed on other lines that just raise the gratuities. No advance notice. I prefer just including the gratuities in the basic cruise fare.  The luxury cruise lines do not charge extra for tips. 

[dadofjessie]

1 hour ago, Redtravel said:

it seems like the gratuities on most cruise lines have been increasing every year.  It is nice that you got notice allowing you to beat the increase by prepaying.  I have sailed on other lines that just raise the gratuities. No advance notice. I prefer just including the gratuities in the basic cruise fare.  The luxury cruise lines do not charge extra for tips. 

And why do they include gratuities and others don't?

[Pentlands]

P and O now include grats. Mostly because many people gave up paying the 'expected' ones.

 

I am not sure how Celebrity calculate who is goiung to get what, when they do not know who will withhold their grats.

 

P and O admitted that they tried to keep wages constant and so they 'estimated' how much passengers would 'contribute' during the season and that pot of money, set up by P and O in lieu of the grats was then distributed and re-inbursed by the gats system. So someone withholding grats made no difference to what the employee received.

 

Whilst I have no interest in what staff are paid, I think that a cruise company needs to be transparent about how they calculate what is going to go to staff do they do it on a cruise by cruise basis or what?, so that the customer can then decide if they wish to tip in that way or personally.

[Covepointcruiser]

Cruise lines including gratuities also charge higher fares.   Many passengers will still give extra for exemplary service.   Some premium lines have a crew welfare fund to accept extra tips.

[NMTraveller]

🍿

[publicpersona]

5 hours ago, mafig said:

I wouldn't NOT cruise Celebrity because of this

 

We've done 50+ cruises on Royal/Celebrity and never thought of trying anyone else. But in a few weeks we sail on MSC. Royal/Celebrity simply haven't done enough to earn our repeat business lately. It's not a bad business practice to constantly focus on increasing revenue, but when your customers feel that all the time, you've failed.

[JeanieC,Aston]

11 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

Cruise lines including gratuities also charge higher fares.   Many passengers will still give extra for exemplary service.   Some premium lines have a crew welfare fund to accept extra tips.

 Marella Cruises includes grats and doesn't charge higher fares.

[Globehoppers]

This is just another way of increasing the cost/price of a cruise.  Nothing else.  Instead of merging "gratuities" with the cabin price Celebrity is spoofing you into believing there is no price increase.  Problem for Celebrity is that with "gratuities" approaching $20pp/day that added cost in becoming noticeable.  And by claiming "gratuities" are still voluntary and once onboard you can "delete" gratuities (has anyone tried that?), they maintain that myth.

 

There is no reason that Celebrity and others should run this type of scam in the name the crew.  Just increase the price of the cruise to be upfront on how much the cruise will cost.  Im sure there are tax issues involved...  We have always, and still do, provide individual gratuities to those who directly enhance our cruise.  "Required" gratuities implies that some cruisers don't and that the cruise line is forcing the issue so that all eligible crew receive something "extra" over the low pay provided by Celebrity,