Service charges

[lillylulu]

We have already pre paid our service charges for our trip  I think it was $15 per person /per day . Just read the haven is $18:50 per person / per day but they say this doesn’t include the butler or concierge, so why is the charge higher then ? 

[AndyCapn]

Larger rooms, and more public areas in the Haven area to be served and cleaned.

[Calvin]

10 minutes ago, lillylulu said:

We have already pre paid our service charges for our trip  I think it was $15 per person /per day . Just read the haven is $18:50 per person / per day but they say this doesn’t include the butler or concierge, so why is the charge higher then ? 

Just guesses but, the Haven contains the largest cabins (in general), with fewer cabins per deck area, and more area for each crew member to cover. I suspect that the overall service is expected (or at least the passengers shelling out the big bucks are more demanding) to be better, hence the presumed higher crew to pax ratio in that area.  If I'm not mistaken,  many other ships have a higher service charge per day for suites than for the balcony or less type cabins. 

LOL, probably the REAL reason is because the ships know they CAN charge a slightly higher fee!  I'm sailing on the Bliss, in the Haven, in a couple of months, and I noticed the higher per day charge, but the reality is:  Who do you know that would allow an extra $3.50 per day per person, that would say no to the Haven for that reason?

I kind of view it as simply a more expensive way of cruising, just like if I bought an expensive car, I'd expect to pay much more for oil changes, repairs, etc.

[Outerdog]

42 minutes ago, lillylulu said:

We have already pre paid our service charges for our trip  I think it was $15 per person /per day . Just read the haven is $18:50 per person / per day but they say this doesn’t include the butler or concierge, so why is the charge higher then ? 

 

Once upon a time, the daily service charge was the same for all cabin categories from the Deck 4 insides all the way up to Deck 14 Garden Villas. Then, an up and coming MBA discovered they could get a few bucks more per person in the suites without adding any additional costs and without providing any additional services! And so it was. There was no good reason for the extra DSC charge for suites then, and there is no good reason for it now.

 

[Old & Retired]

The correct and only answer is because they can.  NCL has now even increased the DSC on club suites to almost suite/haven levels.  A club suite is almost identical to a regular old balcony.  Don't give me larger cabin, more to clean, crew to passenger ratio etc.  It is simply because NCL can charge more so they do.

[kylenyc]

5 hours ago, lillylulu said:

We have already pre paid our service charges for our trip  I think it was $15 per person /per day . Just read the haven is $18:50 per person / per day but they say this doesn’t include the butler or concierge, so why is the charge higher then ? 

The extra $3.50 haven surcharge is used to collect the salty tears of non-haven passengers paying $15 per person per day.

Edited November 22, 2021 by kylenyc

[BirdTravels]

13 hours ago, lillylulu said:

We have already pre paid our service charges for our trip  I think it was $15 per person /per day . Just read the haven is $18:50 per person / per day but they say this doesn’t include the butler or concierge, so why is the charge higher then ? 

Yes. Make sure you have a few hundred dollars in cash to tip your butler, concierge, room steward, and other Haven staff. 

[All-ready2cruise]

9 hours ago, kylenyc said:

The extra $3.50 haven surcharge is used to collect the salty tears of non-haven passengers paying $15 per person per day.

So close to being so true. LOL

[Calvin]

2 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Yes. Make sure you have a few hundred dollars in cash to tip your butler, concierge, room steward, and other Haven staff. 

Oh, I thought the convention was to tip the butler and concierge? I thought the room steward, etc., were included in the (higher) daily service charge.  Am I wrong?

[BirdTravels]

9 minutes ago, Calvin said:

Oh, I thought the convention was to tip the butler and concierge? I thought the room steward, etc., were included in the (higher) daily service charge.  Am I wrong?

Most people tip their room steward above and beyond the few cents they get from the DSC. In reality, the DSC in aggregate just get your room steward to their minimum contract salary. 
 

Just like a waiter in your local diner. In our area, minimum wage is about $15/hr. But service workers with tips can be paid as little as $5/hr. So the first $10 in tips per hour just gets that waiter to minimum wage. So the first 10 patrons who leave a buck for their breakfast are just getting the waiter to minimum wage. 
 

Same is true of ship crew. 
 

Regardless of cabin class, we normally leave our room steward an extra $5 per person in the cabin per day. 

[ColeThornton]

50 minutes ago, Calvin said:

Oh, I thought the convention was to tip the butler and concierge? I thought the room steward, etc., were included in the (higher) daily service charge.  Am I wrong?

 

You are under no obligation to tip the room steward anything more than what you have paid in the daily service charge.   That's your personal choice.

[bookbabe]

You can also tip anyone extra that you feel deserves it (or not, if the reverse is true).  
 

We gave the Bliss Haven assistant concierge (Ayelyn) a larger tip than her “boss” a couple weeks ago because she was the one who did All The Things, fixed any issues and made our cruise fabulous.  Her boss was pretty non-existent until the last day or two of the cruise.  
 

She also got a glowing Hero Card and mention on the post-cruise survey.  That’s another nice way to recognize crew who go above and beyond.