I Have Been Woefully Ignorant Regarding Tips

[Ombud]

2 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Once upon a time, cruisers had about a thousand envelopes with which they had to fill with dirty money and hand to various staff members. The current method in much preferred.

 

To say it is a bonus to Princess is misleading. The money does not go to Princess. If it did, they would have to declare it as income. Gratuities have been part of cruising forever.

 

You have a choice to adjust up until the cruise is over. But really, if you are unhappy with how Princess does business, there are other cruise lines to choose, most of which do exactly the same.

Oh my!! So they only want my cash if it's clean, brand new, never used bills? Good to know

[icat2000]

8 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

The money goes first to Princess who deducts an adm fee. The money we pay as Americans supplements the fleet wide areas such as OZ and New Zealand who don't tip. The money does not go to the crew on the ship who serviced you. Onboard revenue includes shop keepers, cruise director and their staff (think revenue Bingo) and shore excursions , photo's and on and on............most everything is revenue generating

I don't think bit is correct. Australians/and Kiwis do tip. Gratituties are built into the fare that they pay in AUD. But many of us also give money above and beyond that for example cabin attendants, bar servers, waiters, people who make decent coffee, cleaners etc. So its a huge assumption you are making that Americans supplement Australians/New Zealand cruisers.

Edited July 31, 2023 by icat2000

[charliedalrymple]

2 minutes ago, icat2000 said:

I don't think bit is correct. Australians/and Kiwis do tip. Gratituties are built into the fare that they pay in AUD. But many of us also give money above and beyond that. So you Americans are not supplementary anything.

 

True on both counts. I have noted that cruise prices are higher on the Australian website.  I've tried to use the U.S. website and book there at a lower price, but I can't access it from here.

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

 

There are lines that include gratuities in their fare so you do not have to pay them yourself.

 

DON

Sure.  However not any of the North America focused main stream lines.

 

There is P&O UK and P&O Australia. which are UK and Australia focused lines where the gratuities are included in the fares.

 

Then you get into the premium price point and some of them (Oceania charges gratuities).

 

Most of the luxury lines do not but the price point is much higher.

 

One way or another one pays.

Edited August 1, 2023 by ldtr

[cruiserdf]

In the last month there was an excellent Wall Street Journal article regarding the post-COVID tipping culture.  Essentially the article pointed out that during the pandemic, many folks were more generous in their tipping practices.  As a result, many companies and employers count on this continued "generous" tipping practice to supplement "their" employee's" wages so their company costs do not "have" to increase.  They want to convince us our new tipping practices are keeping "our" prices down.  Unfortunately, I see my purchasing power continue to decrease, regardless of my tipping practices and it pretty much bleeds into my cruising costs similarly.  I think it has something more to do with making up for COVID pandemic losses, again similarly to the cruise industry