NCL Service Charge - Can this be changed? waved?

[Hunter2]

You can ask to have the service charge removed from your bill and they will but will probably want to know why. You can also tip extra on an individual basis. NCL divides the service charge eventually amongst the service areas and everyone gets the same as apose to Carnival, etc some people will tip their room stewards more than other , etc. NCL divides it eventually which can be good or bad. If you have a person who does a great job they will get the same tip as someone who may not.

[rsinj]

These fees are no longer considered "tips". They are service charges which are imposed for rendering services. A number of posters have called them autotips, but that is incorrect. In fact the correct term for a tip is a gratuity, meaning that it is given in thanks.

 

If you are giving gratuities they could be removed, service charges are a different matter and it is highly unlikely that you can have them removed.

 

OH MY GOD!!!! Stop it - you are too funny!

 

Well, since "these fees" are no longer considered tips, I trust that you are leaving the recommended tips according to the industry standard $10 to $12 per day/person split among your room steward and dining room staff. If you are not tipping (and only paying this mandatory service charge which is no longer considered a tip), then you my friend are a cheapskate. Simple as that.

 

Howard

[Toyz711]

even the travel channel's program "cruising dos and don'ts" was talking about auto-tipping and how all the cruiselines are going to them. how much better they work for everyone, crew and passengers.

[newmexicoNita]

even the travel channel's program "cruising dos and don'ts" was talking about auto-tipping and how all the cruiselines are going to them. how much better they work for everyone, crew and passengers.

i only got to watch a few minutes of the program last night as DH wanted to see the debate. How was it? Worth watching next time it is on? I don't mean the debate, I mean the "dos and don'ts" of cruising.

 

Nita

[Toyz711]

i know what you meant, yes, it was interesting. didn't learn anything that anyone who has been on a cruise shouldn't already know...but even the hubby enjoyed it. but i thought for a newbie it was very informed. talked about the dining (seating), dining (food), embarking, disembarking (including the new "express"), talked about putting the luggage out the night before and to keep anything needed the next day...if i was in the business, might be good to tape it and show it to the more dense newbies. i was just surprised when they brought up the auto-tipping, about how it's added to your cabin's bill, how easy it is for the passengers (and why it's easier) and how ALL the cruiselines are going that way.

they didn't talk down to the viewer, just informed. just happened to talk about disney more then the other lines.

[wheresthewater]

Does anyone else pre-reward? Three years ago when our daughter was 15, I (hopefully stealthfully) slipped our cabin steward $40 as we met him when embarking. I stated I didn't know when the teen-age sloth would arise for the day and depart the cabin, but I would gratefully appreciate it if the cabin could be cleaned by 1 p.m. (Yes, eventually hunger would drive her from the cabin.) I would also appreciate knowing if he encountered any problems from her inviting more than two other teens to our cabin when we weren't there. Even mothers with the proverbial eyes in the back of our heads need assistance when on a cruise ship. The very next day, her first day of "sleeping in," when he checked if she had vacated the cabin and found her still in a darked room at 10 a.m., he enquired if she would like some juice, fruit, or toast to be brought to the cabin for her breakfast. She LOVED him!! She agreed to toast, milk, and juice every morning and therefore was out of the cabin by 9:30, thanking him for being so understanding that she hated to appear for breakfast when she was still groggy. She did everything she could to simplify his work in the mini-suite, arranging things every night so that nothing was on the floor, towels weren't strewn around the cabin or balcony, trash was in the receptacles. Perhaps he would have been just as gracious without the forewarning or gratuity, but I was so grateful to his correct reading of her, I would gladly have paid twice as much. (Unfortunately, by the end of the cruise, I only had $23 left, but he got that as well.) I thoroughly support inclusive tipping, but the steward who can psych out a teen and help her start the day happy is worth his weight in gold.

 

When we go aboard the Jewel in March with an 18-year-old, my expectations of her are somewhat higher than three years ago, but I am considering the same gesture as our last cruise.

[zqvol]

deleted

[GrannyMouse]

Last year we were on the Majesty and had to miss a port due to a medical emergency. The cruise director asked during the meeting prior to disembarking that the passengers please not remove the service charge. He said there were rumors this was being done due to missing the port and he said it was not fair to the crew. I can only assume from this that the fee can be removed.

[Thrifty]

It was suggested above that everyone; cruise employees, the cruise lines and the customers should be pleased by the mandatory service charge.

Those of us who were not lucky enough to be in the civil service, unions or to have academic tenure, can understand the desire of employees to be free of the tyranny of customer satisfaction and can also understand the desire of the cruise lines to have the loyalty of the employees directed entirely to the cruise line rather than partly to the customers. The employees will now be able to fulfill a security function as well as a service one. If a cabin steward should happen to notice that a customer has been wiping the dust off his dress shoes with a towel instead of a tissue or sneaking something back to his cabin that should have been left in the dining room, he can endear himself to the hotel manager by snitching without risking the loss of a large tip.

But the only reason I can think of for the customer to want the obvious convenience of autotipping to be mandatory rather than optional is because he is generous enough to want the employee to be free of the tyranny of customer service. Surely some of us are that generous and some of us aren't.

The NCL brochure for 2008-9 describes the service charge as "fixed." Some contributors to this discussion seem to think it's mandatory and some that it isn't. Maybe it's mandatory for timid customers, but not for anyone prepared to make a scene.

I go on cruises for the itineraries, not for the gracious service which I nevertheless enjoy. But I think a substantial number of cruise customers do go primarily for the gracious service and I think the cruise lines would have done well to poll their customers before making this decision. Now they've made the decision and they will soon begin to learn whether or not any of their customers have chosen to "vote with their feet."

If they had just made tipping mandatory with no deductions short of a bankruptcy filing, but had allowed any customers who wished it a little say in the distribution of the tips, no one would have had cause for complaint except "freeriders" and the less enthusiastic employees and the rest of us have no particular reason to be sympathetic to either of those groups. And most important of all, it would not have had the negative effect on the cruise experience, which I believe the current policy will.

[sjbdtz]

It was suggested above that everyone; cruise employees, the cruise lines and the customers should be pleased by the mandatory service charge.

Those of us who were not lucky enough to be in the civil service, unions or to have academic tenure, can understand the desire of employees to be free of the tyranny of customer satisfaction and can also understand the desire of the cruise lines to have the loyalty of the employees directed entirely to the cruise line rather than partly to the customers. The employees will now be able to fulfill a security function as well as a service one. If a cabin steward should happen to notice that a customer has been wiping the dust off his dress shoes with a towel instead of a tissue or sneaking something back to his cabin that should have been left in the dining room, he can endear himself to the hotel manager by snitching without risking the loss of a large tip.

But the only reason I can think of for the customer to want the obvious convenience of autotipping to be mandatory rather than optional is because he is generous enough to want the employee to be free of the tyranny of customer service. Surely some of us are that generous and some of us aren't.

The NCL brochure for 2008-9 describes the service charge as "fixed." Some contributors to this discussion seem to think it's mandatory and some that it isn't. Maybe it's mandatory for timid customers, but not for anyone prepared to make a scene.

I go on cruises for the itineraries, not for the gracious service which I nevertheless enjoy. But I think a substantial number of cruise customers do go primarily for the gracious service and I think the cruise lines would have done well to poll their customers before making this decision. Now they've made the decision and they will soon begin to learn whether or not any of their customers have chosen to "vote with their feet."

If they had just made tipping mandatory with no deductions short of a bankruptcy filing, but had allowed any customers who wished it a little say in the distribution of the tips, no one would have had cause for complaint except "freeriders" and the less enthusiastic employees and the rest of us have no particular reason to be sympathetic to either of those groups. And most important of all, it would not have had the negative effect on the cruise experience, which I believe the current policy will.

 

 

By all means, vote with your feet. If you don't like it then don't cruise. But don't take it out on the poor workers. THEY didn't do anything wrong, and don't have any say in the matter. It's the job they're offered.

 

Now on the one hand you say that the auto-charge relieves the worker from the burden of customer service, but in the next breath you say that you've "nevertheless" enjoyed the "gracious service".

 

It would appear that you don't even believe your own fluff.

 

The service charge is a very smart way to do 3 things:

 

1 - Pay the workers a reasonable wage (base pay + near-guaranteed gratuity supplement = reasonable wage)

 

2 - Keep cruise prices low.

 

3- Relieve the customer from concerning themselves with providing gratuities to all who went over & above in order to make the cruise enjoyable....since the "tips" are included in the service charge. That said, nobody will think you're a moron if you elect to offer an additional gratuity.

 

 

As for those who ask...do you tip your lawyer, do you tip the captain.... well of course not, nor do I tip the counter-person at McDonalds, even though they have to be courteous, efficient, handle both the money and the order-processing and the packaging & "shipping".

 

There are certain industries (including the service aspects of most mainstream cruises) where tipping IS a component of the worker's paypacket, and stiffing them simply shows a lack of understanding of the way things are in different cultures, or worse...a lack of manners.

[Toyz711]

with the vast population of the world, most of whom have never cruised (out of 12 in-laws...8 have never cruised, 3 have cruised once, 1 has cruised twice)....do you really think there aren't 100s or 1000s of folks more then willing to make up for you "walking" away from cruising. for most of these, the only memory of the "pass the envelope" game will be an old movie. since they have no cruise experience, auto-tipping or service charges will be normal.

my doctor just did his 1st cruise with his family, he did auto-tipping...didin't know any difference, didn't care.

to quit cruising over a service charge works as well as holding your breathe...your mom didn't fall for it then and the cruiseline isn't going to now. (they have 50 people on the wait-list waiting for you to cancel)

[cruisePRN]

 

I think using your greenbacks as a weapon to try to "teach" the staff to give "better service" is demeaning and patronizing. .

 

I'm not anybodys teacher, I tip for service and don't for poor service, that's how tips work. it's nieve to think otherwise. I thought the room stewart and the dining service of my recent POH were horrable and chose not to "reward' this kind of service. I have cruised in excess of 30 times and this is the first time i removed all the tips. Once i removed a waiters tip but not the other personel. That's a darn good track record for me and for the usual good service.

[mbisson]

I'm not anybodys teacher,

 

No argument there! ;)

[HurricaneSally]

No argument there! ;)

 

And thank goodness for that, lol.

[katiel53]

I guess I have had my fill of people like you who feel they are entitled to whatever. I have traveled to Europe many, many times, and somehow, I have seen on the menu, after I found out about it and tipped over the total, that there is a service charge added to the check. Why is it different for NCL to add those charges than it is for those to add a service charge to the check, in small print, so those of us who don't look at every line on the menu, would know about it.

 

There are other cruise lines that may/may not bill service charges. RCI is the line I sail on most times and I do believe that people coming from Europe have to prepay for tips. Geez, why do you think that's the case?

 

I am not sure it's done in all cases, but from what I have read that's the way it's done. I don't think NCL will miss you as a passenger, nor will most cruiselines that sail from the USA. Perhaps in Europe they will welcome you with open arms. Too many times just because people could cruise, they did, and stiffed everyone.

 

If I have misunderstood you, I am sorry. From what you have posted, you don't want to tip, even though the service might be "mediocre" according to you. I would hate to see what hoops a waiter/assistant/head has to go through to get a tip from you. JMO based on what you have posted.

[rsinj]

then and the cruiseline isn't going to now. (they have 50 people on the wait-list waiting for you to cancel)

 

Really? Is that why they drop the price frantically once the final payments are in or have to make upsell phone calls? Yeah - 50 people on the waitlist - you think many people here are going to fall for that?

 

Howard

[ATLJFL]

Wow are you people rough! I never said I wouldn't tip anything... please understand.... I want to control who I give what to. And yeah, yeah... I don't want another barrage of all those workers in the back who I wouldn't see.

 

As another passanger said... some people are better than others... and I don't necessarily want an even distribution of my service charge.

 

As for those who are "seen" and those who are not... I've spoken to enough crew to know that if you are a good worker... one gets promoted to the "seen" crew... who I will meet personally and be able to tip personally. Sorry... it doesn't sound fair... but that's life folks... there are the little people in the back... and if you work hard enough, you'll get promoted.

 

As for the crew having to hand in their cash tips... come on now, that may be ship policy, etc. etc... but we all know they don't. Have any of you really spoken to the crew one on one... in private? They don't.

 

Sorry if I sound rude or cheap to you all... but I still like to do these things in person, and give to whom I want to give.

 

Concerning discerning remarks about my desire... how do you know what I tip.. or how much... or can comment that I'm cheap and scold me for wanting to remove this?

 

Have you travelled with Europeans? Tipping is something that North America has elevated... for what purpose? to show off that one is rich?

 

Let's all get back to basics folks... if someone does something out of the ordinary and I get good service, I will tip. If things are mediocre.. I won't.

 

Getting back to basics ~ I'm with you on this one. It is not about being cheap. Actually I am one of those very generous tippers.

 

But lest we forget, the term "TIPS" stands for To Insure Prompt Service. A TIP is a thank you or reward from a customer to the server for good service. It is NOT an entitlement for simply being a staff member who may or may not offer service of any kind good or bad.

 

If NCL wishes to have their passengers be the ones who actually pay the salary of their staff by adding a "service charge" to the guest's bill, then perhaps it should sinply be added into the cost of the cruise rather than an add on. Personally I believe that since NCL hires their staff, they are the ones that are responsible for paying their staff a salary. Tips are an option of the passenger to reward and thank their servers for good service.

 

I like the days when envelopes were left in cabinsd and we could present our servers with their tips at the end of the cruise. The service was far more personable then as were the tips. It was never a question of the amount as the majority of us were very generous to those who served us well.

 

With this new service charge, many servers have no incentive to give good service. Last week on the Star I was actually told by a waitress at Endless Summer that they seated less people and denied reservations to guests because it was "too much work" to seat more even when tables were available. :cool:

[ohioNCLcruiser]

I would like to know if any of the people who removed the autotips called NCL before they agreed to the "terms and conditions" for the cruise that they had to have accepted in the booking and said they do not agree to these terms and conditions or if they agreed to them, then changed their mind and disagreed to them on the ship.

[ohioNCLcruiser]

Last week on the Star I was actually told by a waitress at Endless Summer that they seated less people and denied reservations to guests because it was "too much work" to seat more even when tables were available. :cool:

 

They do that in restaurants on land also. A great waiter can still only handle so many tables. Its better for a restaurant that has 20 tables to only seat 10 if they only have 2 waiters working.

[rsinj]

I would like to know if any of the people who removed the autotips called NCL before they agreed to the "terms and conditions" for the cruise that they had to have accepted in the booking and said they do not agree to these terms and conditions or if they agreed to them, then changed their mind and disagreed to them on the ship.

 

Ok James - you've now posted the same thing more than one time on this thread, I think we get your point.

 

Do you read the pages of terms and conditions associated with every merchant you purchase things from on the internet? Read the terms and conditions or terms of carriage for every airline flight you take? Read the terms and conditions associated with every credit card you own?

 

Howard

[yoj13]

I have only cruised RCI a couple of times, but I can assure you, coming from Europe, you don't pre pay tips or at least you didn't in my case.

[sjbdtz]

If NCL wishes to have their passengers be the ones who actually pay the salary of their staff by adding a "service charge" to the guest's bill, then perhaps it should sinply be added into the cost of the cruise rather than an add on.

 

 

I can only IMAGINE how happy you'd be if the TIPS were included in the cruisefare...and you had NO option to remove them!!!!!!! :eek:

 

 

The cruiselines HAVE in fact added the gratuities to the cruisefare, in $10/per day / per person increments.

 

They've separated it out, so that those who, like you, are generous tippers can in fact see that the tipping has been taken care of, and you can consider yourself to have been generous to ALL who made your vacation wonderful, without fretting about whether you missed anyone.

 

It's the same darned thing as adding it into the cruisefare, except that it's visible...so that you don't wonder whether you have to tip additional.

[andreamarc]

Just curious, in the USA we call not tipping "stiffing" someone, and it is frowned upon, even if you get mediocre service. Mediocre service requires maybe 10 percent, good to excellent, I tip 20-30 percent and of course the bigger the bill, I opt for a reduced percentage, ie 20 percent. At breakfast, since it's ridiculously cheap, say 7.00, I may tip 50 percent. To me the person is working just as hard at breakfast, and the bill will be low. Very hard to generalize about tipping, other than it is very tacky in the USA not to do it!

You know the expression "when in Rome, do what the Romans do", that works everywhere. In USA, tip. :eek:

So, what is the theory of not tipping in Europe, unless exceptional service. Boy, they must have loved me in Europe (or thought I was a sucker!!)

[ohioNCLcruiser]

Ok James - you've now posted the same thing more than one time on this thread, I think we get your point.

 

Do you read the pages of terms and conditions associated with every merchant you purchase things from on the internet? Read the terms and conditions or terms of carriage for every airline flight you take? Read the terms and conditions associated with every credit card you own?

 

Howard

 

If its signing up for a gmail account or something then no I don't but if its something about me having to pay money then yeah I do read it.

[cruisePRN]

 

If I have misunderstood you, I am sorry. From what you have posted, you don't want to tip, even though the service might be "mediocre" according to you. I would hate to see what hoops a waiter/assistant/head has to go through to get a tip from you. JMO based on what you have posted.

 

I think you have misunderstood. In over 30 cruises only once (on POH) have i not tipped. I am usually a RCL or X or Princess cruiser and have never once with held a penny from my tips on these lines. POH had such non existant / poor service it didn't warent a tip. I won't be sailing on NCL again anyway because the ships are to gaudy and the staff (american) are not what i like for crusing. We all have different tastes and freestyle wasn't for me with the excessive waits and poor service. The night we ate in Le Bistro the service was great and we left a tip there.