Service charge

[jenny wren]

that is all rather complicated! My thinking is ...... I pay the cruise line for my complete holiday ...which includes providing me with a bed to sleep in and my meals....I expect the cruise line to pay the staff that provide those facilities a fair wage (out of the money that I have paid them)....if I receive a good service from the staff that provide those services I am quite happy to reward them with a little extra!

 

The argument is surely with the cruise companies who should all be paying their staff a decent wage so that they don't have to depend on tips. It would appear that companies like Thomson, who include tips in the fare, do pay their staff a decent wage... and their staff are some of the hardest working, happiest and most polite that we have come across.

[Brian Raine]

genni EU equals an unlevel playing field to we Brits so I will not do a diatribe over that.As jenny wren states we pay over the odds for our cruises from the UK irrespective of the port of embarkation or itinaray.We do not get , as in the USA, "State" rates as I have seen advertised, nor serving or ex military rates.One of the reasons Carnival is now putting extra vessels into europe is the extra profit it can earn here. I DO give gratuities to the cabin/waiting staff as I see fit.

commonsense 2 complains he was lied too in Harrods London so no tip was left, did he get the superior service otherwise? I would not go into Harrods , for different reasons though.

As for the "wages" debate, being cynical, if the crews did not benefit from the job , I am sure they would leave very quickly.

A quick calculation Costa Marina crew 383 remove 10% for officers etc passengers 1000.

1000 x 12 x 27 divide 383 equates to 939 euros per crew member, any comment.???.plus all found. I think we could talk around this subject until the cows(fat or otherwise) come home.

As an aside can someone explain about NCL policy of flagging vessels under the US flag, is there a rush of US citizens to crew their vessels, I doubt it, hence the cafuffle over foreign flags sailing within "US" waters.

[Brian Raine]

genni EU equals an unlevel playing field to we Brits so I will not do a diatribe over that.As jenny wren states we pay over the odds for our cruises from the UK irrespective of the port of embarkation or itinaray.We do not get , as in the USA, "State" rates as I have seen advertised, nor serving or ex military rates.One of the reasons Carnival is now putting extra vessels into europe is the extra profit it can earn here. I DO give gratuities to the cabin/waiting staff as I see fit.

 

commonsense 2 complains he was lied too in Harrods London so no tip was left, did he get the superior service otherwise?does that not happen in the US. I would not go into Harrods , for different reasons though.

As for the "wages" debate, being cynical, if the crews did not benefit from the job , I am sure they would leave very quickly.

A quick calculation Costa Marina crew 383 remove 10% for officers etc passengers 1000.

1000 x 12 x 27 divide 383 equates to 939 euros per crew member, any comment.???.plus all found. Should you take the equation further and apply it to the waiters/cabin stewards only , as indicated in the T&Cs the figure PP rockets.Our cabin steward had 23 cabins x 12 x 27 equates to 3312 euros, not bad, providing of course that COSTA distribute the largesse this way.

I think we could talk around this subject until the cows(fat or otherwise) come home.

As an aside can someone explain about NCL policy of flagging vessels under the US flag, is there a rush of US citizens to crew their vessels, I doubt it, hence the cafuffle over foreign flags sailing within "US" waters.

[Brian Raine]

WHOOPS revised figures too late to edite.

 

A quick calculation Costa Marina crew 383 remove 10% for officers etc passengers 800.

800 x 9 x 27 divide 345 equates to 564 euros per crew member, any comment.???.plus all found. Should you take the equation further and apply it to the waiters/cabin stewards only , as indicated in the T&Cs the figure PP rockets.Our cabin steward had 23 cabins x 9 x 27 equates to 5589 euros, not bad, providing of course that COSTA distribute the largesse this way

[jones721]

Brian,

Next time you plan a cruise, check out the price from UK tour operators and then go online and check out US TAs. I always check them both and book whichever one is cheaper. There were problems booking Royal Caribbean and at one stage Princess as UK citizens but I don't know if this is the case. It is quite easy to do.

In fact, last time when we sailed Costa (two back-to-back cruises at Christmas 2006) I booked one cabin through Thomas Cook (children were only £89 per cruise in the UK but almost full fare in the US at that time) and then my mum ended up coming with us so I booked her single cabin through an online TA in the US.

The US tickets arrived safely to my home address and much earlier than the UK ones and there were no problems whatsoever. Also, with the US TA, if the price of the cruise had gone down, it was easy to get a refund. But because it was a single cabin, then of course they sold very quickly and this didn't apply.

I don't know if I am allowed to post the name of the TAs that we have booked with in the US on this board??

Tracey

[kaphkoe]

WHOOPS revised figures too late to edite.

 

A quick calculation Costa Marina crew 383 remove 10% for officers etc passengers 800.

800 x 9 x 27 divide 345 equates to 564 euros per crew member, any comment.???.plus all found. Should you take the equation further and apply it to the waiters/cabin stewards only , as indicated in the T&Cs the figure PP rockets.Our cabin steward had 23 cabins x 9 x 27 equates to 5589 euros, not bad, providing of course that COSTA distribute the largesse this way

 

 

@ Brian Raine

No offense, but I am having difficulties following your calculation:

If there are 800 passengers @ € 4,50 per day that would total € 97.200

for 27 days. If you divide by 345 this would make roughly € 282 per person.

Now, in my opinion this will not be divided by so many people - let's just say 50% of the HOTEL staff (probably +/- 300) = 150 people (because Photographers, Beauty Salon, Casino work on their own commissions) this would equal roughly € 650,- for 9/10 of a month. Now if you add the basic (let's assume a max. of € 150 per month) that would sum up to a total of € 870 for a month's work - WITHOUT a day off (and definitely no vacation pay, pension scheme or other fringe benefits)!

 

Or in other numbers: € 870 equals 30% of the cheapest per_person_inside_double_cabin_brochure_rate for this cruise (no Airfare).

 

 

@ jenny wren

you are perfectly right, there are cruise lines that include tips in their cabin brochure rate like Thomson or others. But there are many which don't. I guess it's the old 'do as the romans do' game.

 

 

@ all

enjoy your hard earned vacation and don't forget the hardworking people who make your cruise the cruise to remember.

[Brian Raine]

WHOOPS I was having a bad calculator day, at my age I can claim age related incompetance.