Price of Speciality Dining?

[Cruise Raider]

38 minutes ago, FancyPants21 said:

At $53 instead of what it was at $39 I won't be having speciality dining at all. Another nail in the coffin for Princess IMO.

I think with 2 dinners each being included in the premier packages, they are filling the specialty restaurants to capacity, which was maybe the long term plan all along.  

Edited April 16 by Cruise Raider

[MacMadame]

18 hours ago, artvlay said:

Let me ask all of you a question. When they take my daily tip money doesn't that cover my wait staff for dinner? If I eat in the MDR, the buffet or a specialty dining venue shouldn't that be covered?

Why then am I being forced to give an additional 18%?

It's **** that you get much better service!

You are not being charged an extra 18% for service in the MDR or buffet. It's only for items not covered by your fare. i.e., Specialty dining, drinks from the bar, casual dining.

[artvlay]

16 minutes ago, MacMadame said:

You are not being charged an extra 18% for service in the MDR or buffet. It's only for items not covered by your fare. i.e., Specialty dining, drinks from the bar, casual dining.

When the automatic debited tips are taken from your account aren't they going towards the wait staff?

[MacMadame]

Crew appreciation is combined with the service charges (the 18%) and that creates a pool that is used to give the waitstaff (and others) bonuses and compensation. [According to the Princess website.] It's a big pool and money doesn't go strictly to those who served you by how much came from each source. It may not even go to staff on your ship as the pool is ship-wide.

 

So the MDR is covered by the crew appreciation and the specialty dining is covered by the service charge so you don't have to tip anyone over and above that unless you want to.

[Iamcruzin]

13 hours ago, FancyPants21 said:

Tipping extra is always optional. Now they are adding 18% I will not be adding any extra unless the service was truly exceptional.

Unless they cut up the food and feed me I can't see anything else that could be done to warrant any extra than the 18% tip. Aren't they also part of the auto gratuity pool? Plus you are paying an additional fee just to eat there and you are not using the MDR which you paid for in the fare. Where does the auto gratuity go on that night that you aren't there?

[karatemom2]

So back to the pricing issue, one wonders if they are just ,charging higher prices on the Sun, or if this is an indication of pricing changes to come on specialty dining on other Princess ships. It is rather unique for a service to be a different cost on just one specific ship, so my inclination is to believe that prices will be raised on other ships as well. Clearly the Sun was built with the new dining format in mind, and that has just been announced. So it would not surprise me to see another announcement coming out shortly related to price increases for the specialty restaurants to match what is being charged on the Sky. I would love to be wrong about that though!! 😄

[Shelly97060]

19 hours ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

I hope I don’t start anything but…. Do we still tip or does the 18% cover the tip? 🤦🏻‍♀️

The 18% is the tip 😄

[MsSoCalCruiser]

3 hours ago, Shelly97060 said:

The 18% is the tip 😄

Thank you. I wasn’t sure if it was actually going to the employees or the cruiseline. 

[MacMadame]

6 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

Unless they cut up the food and feed me I can't see anything else that could be done to warrant any extra than the 18% tip. Aren't they also part of the auto gratuity pool? Plus you are paying an additional fee just to eat there and you are not using the MDR which you paid for in the fare. Where does the auto gratuity go on that night that you aren't there?

The 18% does not go directly to your server. It goes into the gratuity pool. And the Crew Appreciation charge (which also goes into the pool) covers more than servers. It also covers your cabin steward, bartenders, and other hospitality staff.

 

42 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Thank you. I wasn’t sure if it was actually going to the employees or the cruiseline. 

It goes into the pool. The pool is used to pay part of the crew's compensation (as when Princess went to a pool system, they also raised wages) and to pay bonuses. Princess doesn't specify if these are bonuses only to high performers or bonuses that are more generally spread around. I am guessing the former.

[Iamcruzin]

23 minutes ago, MacMadame said:

The 18% does not go directly to your server. It goes into the gratuity pool. And the Crew Appreciation charge (which also goes into the pool) covers more than servers. It also covers your cabin steward, bartenders, and other hospitality staff.

 

It goes into the pool. The pool is used to pay part of the crew's compensation (as when Princess went to a pool system, they also raised wages) and to pay bonuses. Princess doesn't specify if these are bonuses only to high performers or bonuses that are more generally spread around. I am guessing the former.

So this is in addition to the daily gratuity fee that you pay when you book and they all share this as well? Sounds like double dipping from Princess. 

[memoak]

Just now, Iamcruzin said:

So this is in addition to the daily gratuity fee that you pay when you book and they all share this as well? Sounds like double dipping from Princess. 

So is the 18% per drink double dipping if you don’t have a drink package ?

[Iamcruzin]

12 minutes ago, memoak said:

So is the 18% per drink double dipping if you don’t have a drink package ?

I was under the impression that the bar staff were not part of the same pool as the room stewards and the wait staff at the meal venues. Maybe that has changed but they were always separate from the other group.

[jajsmom]

What about with Ultimate Balcony Dining?  We always tipped extra, but will there be an 18% gratuity added on to that too?  I haven't seen that anywhere yet.  We are not on a package.

[Cruise Raider]

2 hours ago, jajsmom said:

What about with Ultimate Balcony Dining?  We always tipped extra, but will there be an 18% gratuity added on to that too?  I haven't seen that anywhere yet.  We are not on a package.

I can’t speak specifically to that but the 360 experience does not incur an 18% fee on top of the $149.  
From what others have mentioned, the UBD comes out to $110 per couple. 

[MacMadame]

3 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

I was under the impression that the bar staff were not part of the same pool as the room stewards and the wait staff at the meal venues. Maybe that has changed but they were always separate from the other group.

The whole point of a fleet-wife pool is to make it fairer for all the crew so staff you don't see who help the people we do see get tips and so crew on ships with majority low-tippers don't get punished vs. crew on ships full of us tip-happy Americans. (Yes, we're crazy.) So maybe it used to be that way or maybe it's that way on other lines but it's not that way now according to Princess (and people who have talked to crew about it and reported back).

 

Is it double-dipping? I can see arguments either way. But I don't see it that way. I see service charges on stuff that I used to tip as I went. i.e., I used to give the bartender a tip for each drink ordered but now there is a service charge so I don't have to. I see crew appreciation for everything that is included. It replaces the tips we handed out to our cabin steward and our staff in the MDR at the end of the cruise. So I don't see an overlap there.

[Cruise Raider]

8 hours ago, MacMadame said:

The whole point of a fleet-wife pool is to make it fairer for all the crew so staff you don't see who help the people we do see get tips and so crew on ships with majority low-tippers don't get punished vs. crew on ships full of us tip-happy Americans. (Yes, we're crazy.) So maybe it used to be that way or maybe it's that way on other lines but it's not that way now according to Princess (and people who have talked to crew about it and reported back).

 

Is it double-dipping? I can see arguments either way. But I don't see it that way. I see service charges on stuff that I used to tip as I went. i.e., I used to give the bartender a tip for each drink ordered but now there is a service charge so I don't have to. I see crew appreciation for everything that is included. It replaces the tips we handed out to our cabin steward and our staff in the MDR at the end of the cruise. So I don't see an overlap there.

The crew is reluctant to talk about their compensation, as I was when I was working, as well.  It is nobody’s business. But, we have been told they receive a salary and they believe it is fair compensation.  The fleet wide pool for that salary started up shortly after CoVid to account for some ships being at full capacity vs those that were only at 1/4 capacity.  Sounds like they were happy with the fact that they weren’t penalized monetarily because of the Covid restrictions or reluctance of cruisers to book.  Anything above and beyond what they are given in cash tips is theirs to keep.  
It sounds to me that the 18% service charge, when collected by Princess, goes towards those salaries.  So, if you wish for your server to directly see your appreciation, you may need to tip them in person.  I’m not insinuating people need to do that, as I really think 18% is sufficient.  Some people will still tip on top of a favorite server, some won’t ..both are ok!  We usually pick one or two team members that we’ve gotten to know or has done an outstanding job that receive a little something extra. Sometimes, it is in the form of something they need at the store or picking up their tab for their lunch while in port.  
 

[Iamcruzin]

19 hours ago, MacMadame said:

The whole point of a fleet-wife pool is to make it fairer for all the crew so staff you don't see who help the people we do see get tips and so crew on ships with majority low-tippers don't get punished vs. crew on ships full of us tip-happy Americans. (Yes, we're crazy.) So maybe it used to be that way or maybe it's that way on other lines but it's not that way now according to Princess (and people who have talked to crew about it and reported back).

 

Is it double-dipping? I can see arguments either way. But I don't see it that way. I see service charges on stuff that I used to tip as I went. i.e., I used to give the bartender a tip for each drink ordered but now there is a service charge so I don't have to. I see crew appreciation for everything that is included. It replaces the tips we handed out to our cabin steward and our staff in the MDR at the end of the cruise. So I don't see an overlap there.

I am aware of how the tip pool works for the people behind the scenes as well as those who you see. They started that back when they started anytime dining around 2006. The 18% at the restaurant is new. Those people were originally part of the tip pool and if you gave them any extra in cash they got to keep that. The bartenders were never part of the tip pool and an 18% gratuity was always added to the drink order. If you tipped additional in cash they got to keep that and it didn't go into the tip pool. If now everyone is in the tip pool including the restaurant staff and the bar tenders than it doesn't seem fair that bar tenders and the restaurant staff are taking money from the tip pool as well as getting additional. That would leave less money for the dining room staff and the room stewards as well as the behind the scene staff.

Edited April 18 by Iamcruzin

[MacMadame]

4 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

If now everyone is in the tip pool including the restaurant staff and the bar tenders than it doesn't seem fair that bar tenders and the restaurant staff are taking money from the tip pool as well as getting additional.

They aren't.