Drink Package Tipping

[doones2]

12 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

You need to understand that MSC is a European cruise line where things go different. Read the MSC webpage. The staff gets a decent salary and does not rely on your tips. Secondly only American guests can remove the gratuities and they usually don´t do. Certainly you can add a personal tip, but do it discreet and if possible not in an insulting manner. 

If the staff is getting a decent wage, why do you think a service charge is tacked on to our daily bill on MSC?  We are going on a Mediterranean cruise, nothing to do with Americans, and still paying the service charge. I would never think to not tip.

[insidecabin]

6 hours ago, doones2 said:

If the staff is getting a decent wage, why do you think a service charge is tacked on to our daily bill on MSC?  We are going on a Mediterranean cruise, nothing to do with Americans, and still paying the service charge. I would never think to not tip.

Depends where you book.

US bookings pay the service charge

UK bookings have them included in the base fare.

 

Same as the drinks package promotions are different

UK get premium extra

US get easy+ with WiFi.

 

Just priced up one cruise not much difference ($50).

But UK has better package and service included.

 

 

[RudiRatlos]

8 hours ago, doones2 said:

If the staff is getting a decent wage, why do you think a service charge is tacked on to our daily bill on MSC?  We are going on a Mediterranean cruise, nothing to do with Americans, and still paying the service charge. I would never think to not tip.

From a european point of view, service charge and tipping are not really the same thing. A service charge (wether included in or added to the price)   is payed as a fee for the received service, an additional tip is given as a reward for good service.

[perakcruiser]

11 hours ago, doones2 said:

If the staff is getting a decent wage, why do you think a service charge is tacked on to our daily bill on MSC?  

You are really asking this question? 

Thanks to the service charge MSC can advertise a cruise with € 399 while the real price is € 489. Again, apart from Americans the service charge cannot be removed, changed, whatever. 

[MandyMooToo]

15 hours ago, insidecabin said:

Depends where you book.

US bookings pay the service charge

UK bookings have them included in the base fare.

 

Same as the drinks package promotions are different

UK get premium extra

US get easy+ with WiFi.

 

Just priced up one cruise not much difference ($50).

But UK has better package and service included.

 

 

We are booking from the US and are being given the premium + package and Wi-Fi. Not sure if that differs between US sailings or not but I we do not have the easy+ package. 

[insidecabin]

5 minutes ago, MandyMooToo said:

We are booking from the US and are being given the premium + package and Wi-Fi. Not sure if that differs between US sailings or not but I we do not have the easy+ package. 

The one I looked at US came with E+ that was a UK sailing maybe other med ones get something different or maybe a TA perk or YC that gets premium.

[MandyMooToo]

4 minutes ago, insidecabin said:

The one I looked at US came with E+ that was a UK sailing maybe other med ones get something different or maybe a TA perk or YC that gets premium.

We booked direct, interestingly enough our TA doesn’t book with MSC, so it could be a YC perk as we are in a YC cabin. But with this being our first cruise on MSC I have no idea. Caribbean itinerary. 

[insidecabin]

3 minutes ago, MandyMooToo said:

We booked direct, interestingly enough our TA doesn’t book with MSC, so it could be a YC perk as we are in a YC cabin. But with this being our first cruise on MSC I have no idea. Caribbean itinerary. 

YC gets premium.

[doones2]

14 hours ago, RudiRatlos said:

From a european point of view, service charge and tipping are not really the same thing. A service charge (wether included in or added to the price)   is payed as a fee for the received service, an additional tip is given as a reward for good service.

The service charge is the tip, no after what you call it.

[doones2]

12 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

You are really asking this question? 

Thanks to the service charge MSC can advertise a cruise with € 399 while the real price is € 489. Again, apart from Americans the service charge cannot be removed, changed, whatever. 

All cruise lines have a service charge besides the price for the cruise alone.  At least in the US

[RudiRatlos]

45 minutes ago, doones2 said:

The service charge is the tip, no after what you call it.

That's the american point of view, based on the idea that tips are a significant part (or even the whole) of the service staff's income.

This is not how it works in europe, and as MSC is a european cruise line, service staff is payed from a mandatory, fixed service charge (that may or may not be included in the cruise fare) and not from individual tips at guest's discretion.

 

So there actually is a difference between a service charge and a tip:

When paying a bill in europe (be it a hotel, restaurant, taxi, cruise, whatever) you generally can assume that you are already paying for the service staff with this bill (in some countries a service charge may be shown seperately on the bill, in other countries it is just included in the total). Unlike tipping in the US, any additional tip here is a bonus that you may or may not give as you like - but you don't have to feel obligated to.

 

btw, the german word for "tip" is "Trinkgeld", which literally means "money to be spent for a drink", and that is what tips actually are considered in europe - just some extra money for the staff (besides the wages).

 

 

[RudiRatlos]

1 hour ago, doones2 said:

All cruise lines have a service charge besides the price for the cruise alone.  At least in the US

Outside the US there are countries where it is illegal to have any fees, charges or taxes besides the advertised price, so in these countries the service charge is included, which of course leads to a higher advertised price.

[insidecabin]

5 hours ago, RudiRatlos said:

Outside the US there are countries where it is illegal to have any fees, charges or taxes besides the advertised price, so in these countries the service charge is included, which of course leads to a higher advertised price.

For cruise lines,  in the UK the common practice is either included in fare or discretionary (discretion often hiden the small print).

The later is more common with main US  lines some UK operations do the same.

 

There are exceptions where the fare does not include a compulsory service fee the most notable is Costa.

When that is done the service charge must be prominent with Costa it is on every page you look at.

[RudiRatlos]

2 hours ago, insidecabin said:

There are exceptions where the fare does not include a compulsory service fee the most notable is Costa.

When that is done the service charge must be prominent with Costa it is on every page you look at.

That's not too different from germany/EU: if something is mandatory to pay, it has to be clearly indicated from the very first sight.

 

MSC, as many other cruiselines, used to have a non-mandatory service charge with german bookings some years ago (which had not to be advertised), but they changed to a mandatory one (maybe because too many guests considered it just a "tip" - the german sort of tip I explained above - and didn't pay?).

[FOXYDEBBY]

On 2/18/2023 at 7:37 AM, MandyMooToo said:

I fully understand MSC is a European cruise line. I do not plan to run around dropping tips everywhere behind me. I asked about tips specifically for the drink package because, European or not, they do say on the website that tips are added to the drink package. Our drink package is part of the cruise fare in YC so I didn’t know if tips were “included” in that or if I should tip per drink since we didn’t pay for the package. I also saw on the website that grats are added per drink without the package so my question remained. In my initial post I mentioned paying the daily service charge and tipping the butler/concierge/anyone who does extra. I do think that’s appropriate on any line, if someone goes above and beyond. I obviously will not be insulting anyone. 

Wow. Some of the responses. We had booked the YC last September for the first time. My husband and I have both worked in the service industry and know how tips work. While the amt is nice, sometimes it’s the gratitude and appreciation that counts. When we were in the bar in Top Sail, we would tip a few dollars every couple drinks. That’s just who we are. They are working to make us happy and it’s how we show our thanks. I have heard that Americans can be rude and/or obnoxious at times and would like to show that not everyone is like that. It’s definitely a personal option. But I say, enjoy your trip and if you want to pull out an extra dollar or two for a thank you, it would be appreciated, but certainly not expected. 

[Nunagoras]

On 2/18/2023 at 12:41 PM, MandyMooToo said:

I feel like no one really read my question or comments. I read the website. I understand the tipping guidelines and do not plan to tip as we would on RCCL. My question was referring to the drink package and the grats that the website says are to be paid with the package, which we are getting “free” and the per drink gratuities the website says are added without the package. Since ours is not being paid for individually I didn’t know if I should tip per drink or what. I only planned to add the drinks tips and tip the butler/concierge/any staff that goes above and beyond, nothing extravagant. 

Tips for the drinks package are INCLUDED on your base deal for the items included at said package. For items excluded you pay final price plus tips. You need to do nothing on top of that. You can to do some extra tipping to someone you feel to deserve it, but once MSC discourages tipping, please do it in a very discrete way. Hope to have clarified things out. Have a nice day!...

[perakcruiser]

15 hours ago, doones2 said:

All cruise lines have a service charge besides the price for the cruise alone.  At least in the US

As said many times before, it is not about the cruise lines, it is about the market. Certainly US lines also have to follow local law and cannot add fees and taxes and service charges to the price. So on a MSC cruise out of Miami there are the Brits, who just paid the price for the cruise without any additions, there are the Germans who paid for the cruise the cruise price and the (mandatory) service charge of 84 Euro per person. And the Americans who paid for the cruise plus a load of extra fees and taxes plus the service charge (if they want). 

The same thing happens on a RCCL cruise in Europe. I paid the fare, sailed with them and did not pay any additional taxes, fees, gratuities, service charges whatever. But if I sail with them in Malaysia Singapore and book locally they flood the zone with funny fees and their advertisement is just a ridiculous amount of **** fees. Because sadly local law does not protect the customer. In the end this is the story about the service charge and all the other stuff.