New CA law and cruise planner

[PhillyFan33579]

23 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

I'm not saying that it's OK to remove gratuities, but I suspect that most of the people that remove them do so for reasons other than their ability to afford them.

Are you saying people remove gratuities because they don’t care if crew staff make a decent living? I can understand new cruisers not understanding the importance of gratuities, but the majority of people who post on this site are frequent cruisers who are well aware that crew members, including those behind the scenes, depend heavily on those tips. Removing gratuities on a cruise is no different than going to a restaurant and leaving a $5 tip on a $200 bill (using the example posted previously in this thread). 

[time4u2go]

32 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Are you saying people remove gratuities because they don’t care if crew staff make a decent living? I can understand new cruisers not understanding the importance of gratuities, but the majority of people who post on this site are frequent cruisers who are well aware that crew members, including those behind the scenes, depend heavily on those tips. Removing gratuities on a cruise is no different than going to a restaurant and leaving a $5 tip on a $200 bill (using the example posted previously in this thread). 

Nope, I'm not saying that at all.  You specifically mentioned affordability as the reason people remove the gratuities:

 

"In my book if you can’t afford the tip you can’t afford the restaurant and if you can’t afford the gratuities you can’t afford the cruise."

 

I'm saying that I would bet that affordability is the reason in extremely few instances, and that there are most likely other reasons people do it.

 

Edited July 16 by time4u2go

[not-enough-cruising]

3 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

Nope, I'm not saying that at all.  You specifically mentioned affordability as the reason people remove the gratuities:

 

"In my book if you can’t afford the tip you can’t afford the restaurant and if you can’t afford the gratuities you can’t afford the cruise."

 

I'm saying that I would bet that affordability is the reason in extremely few instances, and that there are other reasons people most likely do it.  

Well said, and to add to the point, removing gratuities does NOT equate "not tipping"

[sandy toes]

1 hour ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Unfortunately there are lots of people out there that don’t realize/care that a lot of workers depend on tips to survive. This website contains countless posts from people who say they always remove gratuities, therefore literally taking money out of the pockets of crew staff who depend on gratuities to survive and who work extremely hard on the ship to ensure the passengers have a great time. In my book if you can’t afford the tip you can’t afford the restaurant and if you can’t afford the gratuities you can’t afford the cruise. 

I do agree. My Dad raised me to believe that the tip was expected, deserved, and part of the cost of the event (dining out, holiday, cruise, whatever). I just sent this to my sweet granddaughter. She said she appreciates your words of kindness, but she is seeing more and more no tip or extremely poor tipper. She has to pay out the bus boys and the bar tenders each night and has actually been in the negative on a few evenings after tip outs. She works doubles in the hopes of making some money toward next semester. Another thing she has noticed is attitude. People were kinder when she started this back a few years, now she says people will tell her she is in a dead end job and doesn't deserve a tip since she isn't interested in bettering herself. She hears this A LOT. She says it is no ones business that she is a student working for money so she won't need loans. Also, she gets upset for the staff that will be waiting tables forever (some in their late 30s and some seniors in their 60s). AND, the worst, are the customers that want a free/comped meal and complain about service to get a free meal. She has been lucky and surrounding tables have said she was good, protecting her job. Other servers have been let go when they were doing their job. Yes, high end places can bring better tips over all but they also have a more intense level of entitlement attached. People can be so mean. Again, thank you.