Tips

[cmaleblanc]

We've accepted that gratuities, pre-paid, daily, or included, are part of our final payment to take a cruise. We prefer to use the pre-paid or included just for simplicity so we know the budget and aren't getting a surprise at the end of a cruise. But, in turn, we also expect a level of service for that. Based on how Celebrity is pricing gratuities, for things like the drink package, we assume this to be 20%. Considering 15% is a "normal" tip, we expect a service that is measurable by our standard of 20%. If we have staff (like our room attendant on our last cruise) that are amazing we will pad that with a little extra...at the end! of the cruise. 

 

The company is responsible for paying the crew, I'm not. We would never remove the gratuities on our cruise, as it impacts the crew, but we shouldn't be expected to pay more either. 

[crazyank]

3 hours ago, NekoChef said:

 My guess is that during the collective bargaining agreement negotiations, Celebrity/RCCL wanted to reduce the salary component on their financial books and thus increase their margins but wasn't opposed to the salary being asked.

a guess is exactly what this is.

 

3 hours ago, NekoChef said:

add the "daily gratuities" automatically with a time-consuming process to eliminate them, they could count on the salary they wanted.

there is no time-consuming process to remove the daily gratuities.  5 minutes at Guest services is all it takes

[Pinboy]

22 minutes ago, crazyank said:

 

there is no time-consuming process to remove the daily gratuities.  5 minutes at Guest services is all it takes

That’s what you think!

The line on the last night at GR is long, like “real” long with @#$&@# removing gratuities— the first night is not as long because the #$&#$ know that their Room Attendant will be notified.

For those of you that remove gratuities, just think of the $$ you saved and whether it was worth “stiffing “ Staff that bust their butt for you to have a good time.

 

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, cmaleblanc said:

We've accepted that gratuities, pre-paid, daily, or included, are part of our final payment to take a cruise. We prefer to use the pre-paid or included just for simplicity so we know the budget and aren't getting a surprise at the end of a cruise. But, in turn, we also expect a level of service for that. Based on how Celebrity is pricing gratuities, for things like the drink package, we assume this to be 20%. Considering 15% is a "normal" tip, we expect a service that is measurable by our standard of 20%. If we have staff (like our room attendant on our last cruise) that are amazing we will pad that with a little extra...at the end! of the cruise. 

 

The company is responsible for paying the crew, I'm not. We would never remove the gratuities on our cruise, as it impacts the crew, but we shouldn't be expected to pay more either. 

100% agree and no one expects you to pay more. X's tips on drinks is 20%.

[PTC DAWG]

50 minutes ago, crazyank said:

 

there is no time-consuming process to remove the daily gratuities.  5 minutes at Guest services is all it takes

Spoken like someone who knows..

[gold1953]

2 minutes ago, the penguins said:

100% agree and no one expects you to pay more. X's tips on drinks is 20%.

We seldom pay more than the auto grats. We have friends who are zenith and they never pay more. I will say that neither of us are demanding in any way. We tidy our cabins to make the job easier as well. I have seen awful messes that look like dorm room disasters  when glancing though open doorways. I feel sorry for the room stewards

[dlh015]

2 minutes ago, gold1953 said:

I have seen awful messes that look like dorm room disasters  when glancing though open doorways.

Yeah, it's none of my business but wow...some folks really let their hair down...and everything else it would seem...

 

I'm sure the room stewards have quite a few stories they 'tell around the campfire' below decks...

[Liao]

17 minutes ago, Pinboy said:

That’s what you think!

The line on the last night at GR is long, like “real” long with @#$&@# removing gratuities— the first night is not as long because the #$&#$ know that their Room Attendant will be notified.

For those of you that remove gratuities, just think of the $$ you saved and whether it was worth “stiffing “ Staff that bust their butt for you to have a good time.

 

I've yet to do this, but your posts make it sound like "must see GR"...I intend to get a nice galss of Perrier w/lime, and relax in the lobby on the last night of my next cruise.

 

P.S. I meant to watch the line not remove the grats!

[the penguins]

4 hours ago, NekoChef said:

 

With respect to the crew, I believe that the daily gratuities are already viewed as a salary (#70).

 

The issue is that "daily gratuities" is likely deliberately misnamed.  My guess is that during the collective bargaining agreement negotiations, Celebrity/RCCL wanted to reduce the salary component on their financial books and thus increase their margins but wasn't opposed to the salary being asked. "Daily Gratuities" were the compromise to make everyone happy.

 

This was win-win because:

Celebrity – By having "daily gratuities" advertised as an "optional" component they could reduce their salary line on their financial books.

Crew – By having Celebrity/RCCL add the "daily gratuities" automatically with a time-consuming process to eliminate them, they could count on the salary they wanted.

 

The problem is that this doesn't work anymore as the cost of cruising has jumped dramatically and cruisers are looking for ways to save.

 

 

All X's major competitors use an almost identical system and have tips at roughly the same rates. The way tips are split varies for example Princess pools tips across the whole fleet whereas with X each ship and indeed each cruise is a cost centre in it's own right.

X is open about how the tips are split and you can get a copy at Guest Relations and I also attached a copy to my Post 22.

 

[prmssk]

5 hours ago, NekoChef said:

 

With respect to the crew, I believe that the daily gratuities are already viewed as a salary (#70).

 

The issue is that "daily gratuities" is likely deliberately misnamed.  My guess is that during the collective bargaining agreement negotiations, Celebrity/RCCL wanted to reduce the salary component on their financial books and thus increase their margins but wasn't opposed to the salary being asked. "Daily Gratuities" were the compromise to make everyone happy.

 

This was win-win because:

Celebrity – By having "daily gratuities" advertised as an "optional" component they could reduce their salary line on their financial books.

Crew – By having Celebrity/RCCL add the "daily gratuities" automatically with a time-consuming process to eliminate them, they could count on the salary they wanted.

 

The problem is that this doesn't work anymore as the cost of cruising has jumped dramatically and cruisers are looking for ways to save.

 

 

No, I don't think it is deliberately misnamed.  Celebrity tried including the tips in every fare.  It didn't last long....  

 

The reality is that your average consumer is shopping around based on base fares, not the all-in price.  So as long as all the other cruise lines offer base fares without the daily gratuities, I expect Celebrity will keep their base fare and daily gratuities separate to stay competitive.

 

Celebrity is just structuring fares in a way that gets people to book and then using that fare structure to pay employees a total compensation package that attracts the employees they need.  

[manmachine]

7 hours ago, NekoChef said:

 

With respect to the crew, I believe that the daily gratuities are already viewed as a salary (#70).

 

The issue is that "daily gratuities" is likely deliberately misnamed.  My guess is that during the collective bargaining agreement negotiations, Celebrity/RCCL wanted to reduce the salary component on their financial books and thus increase their margins but wasn't opposed to the salary being asked. "Daily Gratuities" were the compromise to make everyone happy.

 

This was win-win because:

Celebrity – By having "daily gratuities" advertised as an "optional" component they could reduce their salary line on their financial books.

Crew – By having Celebrity/RCCL add the "daily gratuities" automatically with a time-consuming process to eliminate them, they could count on the salary they wanted.

 

The problem is that this doesn't work anymore as the cost of cruising has jumped dramatically and cruisers are looking for ways to save.

 

 

Afraid we’ll have to agree to agree 👍 

[crazyank]

9 hours ago, Pinboy said:

That’s what you think!

The line on the last night at GR is long, like “real” long with @#$&@# removing gratuities— the first night is not as long because the #$&#$ know that their Room Attendant will be notified.

For those of you that remove gratuities, just think of the $$ you saved and whether it was worth “stiffing “ Staff that bust their butt for you to have a good time.

 

ROFL! 

[Pinboy]

7 hours ago, crazyank said:

ROFL! 

ROLF ??
Good for you!

I’ll bet you remove the tips on the last night instead of the first.
Question: When you remove your gratuities do you make eye contact with the GR staff person or just mumble “ The service wasn’t up to our standards”.
 

 

[TheMichael]

Once again, a tipping thread is such an interesting insight into people's attitudes toward others.

[kirtihk]

On 2/29/2024 at 8:47 PM, cruisestitch said:

I just don’t see how it is possible to tip only the people that you deal with directly. Say you go to the oceanview for breakfast.  Someone makes an omelette for you. Someone toasts your English muffin. Someone clears the table.  How do you tip them?  Say you go to Mast Grill for lunch.  How do you tip that staff?  Say you plan to tip your dining room waiter in person.  But he falls ill and someone substitutes for him for three nights.  Then your waiter returns and you never see his substitute again.  What do you do then?

What did we do 15 years ago about your statement?  Nothing.

[kirtihk]

On 3/1/2024 at 4:15 PM, prmssk said:

And?

 

The compensation model with gratuities established by the cruise line fairly closely matches tipping expectations in the United States.  When I travel, I try to learn the tipping culture of where I visit (in this case the cruise ship) to match expectations in that place. 
 

If cruise lines ever change their compensation structure to more closely match different tipping standards such as those of parts of Europe where there isn’t much of a tipping culture, I will adjust what I do when I cruise. 

People around the globe are simply annoyed by not transparency.  They prefer to pay what they actually see in one number.  To me it's similar in a way to our tax (out of control) system with thousands of pages to read and hundreds of forms and schedules.  I have no idea how might like it whatsoever.

[D C]

On 3/6/2024 at 4:40 PM, crazyank said:

a guess is exactly what this is.

 

there is no time-consuming process to remove the daily gratuities.  5 minutes at Guest services is all it takes

So what would you do if gratuities were baked into the cruise price?

[Mariettte]

In Australia/NZ, tips are baked into the cruise price, so the base price one sees includes the tips. But so they are for all cruise lines (and every other service). When comparison shopping for cruises from here, the playing field is level, as far as tips go anyway.

 

I am happy to have them as part of the price I see as I wouldn't remove them anyway. If they are part of the negotiated remuneration package then I don't understand why they are optional.

[crazyank]

15 hours ago, Pinboy said:

ROLF ??
Good for you!

I’ll bet you remove the tips on the last night instead of the first.
Question: When you remove your gratuities do you make eye contact with the GR staff person or just mumble “ The service wasn’t up to our standards”.
 

 

and again,  ROFL!

[the penguins]

11 hours ago, kirtihk said:

People around the globe are simply annoyed by not transparency.  They prefer to pay what they actually see in one number.  To me it's similar in a way to our tax (out of control) system with thousands of pages to read and hundreds of forms and schedules.  I have no idea how might like it whatsoever.

Many will agree with you but from X's view point 80% of it's passengers are still from the US/Canada and in the US adding tips/sales tax is an accepted way of life.

Book on the UK/Europe sites and X includes port fees and taxes in the base price as it's illegal not to.

In Australia/NZ Celebrity includes tips but you pay a price for this as all onboard costs rounded up.

 

 

[d9704011]

3 hours ago, the penguins said:

the US/Canada and in the US adding tips/sales tax is an accepted way of life.

Book on the UK/Europe sites and X includes port fees and taxes in the base price as it's illegal not to.

Hold on a bit here; don't put tips/gratuities in same bin as taxes.  In Canada, federal and provincial sales taxes (or a blended/harmonized sales tax) are added on for pretty much all goods and services sold.  They are predictable and 100% transparent.  In the UK, you typically have prices that include the VAT; about 100% opaque.  We used to have something like that in Canada with the Federal Sales Tax but it was changed about 40 years ago in favour of the Goods and Services Tax, which was calculated and displayed separately.

 

Admittedly, it can get a little more complicated than one tax:  hotel rooms may be advertised at $200 per night but they might be subject to sales tax and other special money grabs by other parties with the authority to do so.  They'll all be clearly listed/identified and the consumer can choose whether to purchase.

 

 

As for tips and the like, they are not shown or payable on any purchase except as an approved add-on or more like a service charge for certain activities (such as 15% for large groups in a restaurant).

[Pinboy]

7 hours ago, crazyank said:

and again,  ROFL!

Thanks- I didn’t realize it was that funny-Appreciate it

LOL— you and I would have a great time sharing cruise stories !!!

Your sense of humour reminds me of my late MIL.

Ya shoulda been there the time—etc etc

Now, stop removing tips— You will feel better.

 

[PTC DAWG]

19 hours ago, kirtihk said:

What did we do 15 years ago about your statement?  Nothing.

Many people didn’t show up the last night for the envelopes line..yes plural.

 

Staff pooled the tips for different areas back in the day too..it is not rocket science..people have been trying to find a way out of it for years..apparently they are still alive and well based on this thread. 

[kirtihk]

25 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

Many people didn’t show up the last night for the envelopes line..yes plural.

 

Staff pooled the tips for different areas back in the day too..it is not rocket science..people have been trying to find a way out of it for years..apparently they are still alive and well based on this thread. 

which (again) brings a clear solution for a cruise lines - make a one (total) amount (not a cruise fair, port charges, taxes, gratuities, drink package, refundable deposit fee ...).  And then (similar to Regent or Oceania) display items (with prices) that might be credited (for example, if you don't want a drink package, it would a discount from that total cruise price).  So, you see an all-inclusive price and make your decision whether you want it or not.  At the same time if all cruise lines do it this way, one can make a true comparison between multiple cruise lines (or even within the same cruise line between different ships, sail dates, and so on) prorated per day (that's what I always try to accomplish, anyhow, but first, I have to add those numbers, for Celebrity, for example, and then divide by a number of sailing days and then compare with Regent price also divided by their itinerary's number of sailing days).  I just looked at 10-day March 2026 Celebrity Ascent Caribbean, Retreat Magic Carpet Sky Suite, and as you know, I had to add all those number (refundable deposit fee, drink package/wi-fi, tax) and came up with $620 pp per day.  For a similar price, it's so much better to get Regent's (or Seabourn or Silversea) even the least expensive cabin type (I saw one number (price) and divided by 10 - that's it).

[RichYak]

14 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

a clear solution for a cruise lines - make a one (total) amount (not a cruise fair, port charges, taxes, gratuities, drink package, refundable deposit fee

So advertise the highest possible price on the top line? You clearly didn't take Marketing 101.