NEW TIP POLICY - Automatic Charge & "Alternate Service" tip

[FinelyCruising]

You guys think you've got it bad, try being British at the moment :eek:

 

Not only don't we benefit from any reduction in cruise fares, as it is not passed on to us, the tips are also going to cost us more, now that sterling has weakened so much against the dollar.

 

So far I have watched the cost of our cabin come down by $400 each and the cost of tipping go up by the equivalent of $80. And we've got Gordon Brown as Prime Minister :(

 

So if you see us on board Celebrity in May, drinking nothing but water, we'd be happy to let you buy us a drink ;)

 

.............p.s and we can't get rumrunner flasks in the UK either

 

Sounds like a good approach!

 

I do hear that you are leveling off against the Euro though.:)

[woodofpine]

The posters of CC don't run their favorite cruise lines!

 

Half the line's fleet would be on the ocean bottom, the crew of the remaining half would be in total mutiny and the passengers set adrift...

 

BUT ---------

 

It would the British pax in command of the life boats, and they'd have made certain the ship's bar supplies came with them!! :D

 

On the other hand, I could live with that...;)

Hail Brittania!

[BrendaJ]

For what it's worth, Azamara has auto-tips, and we had the best service we've ever had on our Azamara cruise.

[Oceangoer2]

After a few more layoffs in my office today, none of which were slackers, I think the books will be rewritten to eliminate worry over poor performers and their feeling of not being appreciated. If they don't 'feel good' having a job, then they can go home as far as I am concerned, I just don't have the time for the high maintence folks at this point in the game. Too much real work to do. ;)

good point!

[FinelyCruising]

So here was my question:

 

Hello - With the updated changes in the gratuities methods, and I do really like the idea of the automatic arrangements, would you please let me know exactly what the Alternative Service involves and who exactly are the recipients of this portion of the gratuities. Thank you!

 

And here was my reply:

Thank you for your email.

 

The $1.25/day for "Alternative Service" is divided up amongst various Housekeeping staff, not including the stateroom attendant. This would include the stateroom attendant's assistant. He/she cleans the restrooms or brings room service but did not get gratuities in the past.

 

 

[Can'tstopcruising]

So here was my question:

 

Hello - With the updated changes in the gratuities methods, and I do really like the idea of the automatic arrangements, would you please let me know exactly what the Alternative Service involves and who exactly are the recipients of this portion of the gratuities. Thank you!

 

And here was my reply:

Thank you for your email.

 

The $1.25/day for "Alternative Service" is divided up amongst various Housekeeping staff, not including the stateroom attendant. This would include the stateroom attendant's assistant. He/she cleans the restrooms or brings room service but did not get gratuities in the past.

 

 

 

I always thought the stateroom attendant took care of the assistant. Once I gave the assistant a box of chocolates. I was surprised at how his face lit up. Now I know why.

[FinelyCruising]

You know I am losing track of what has happened over time...there used to be a Cabin Steward and an Assistant. In recent times I thought that they reduced the staff by eliminating the Assistant and then gave the Steward a bunch more cabins to care for. I do recall there was some spark on this board when that occured.

 

I think, like you, I now have more questions based on this response than I did when I started, and particulalry about the room service portion of the job description now belonging to the Assistant.

 

So....if that's so...do we now continue to tip the room service attendant if we are already tipping them pre-paid ???:D

[BurgerBits]

I think, like you, I now have more questions based on this response than I did when I started, and particulalry about the room service portion of the job description now belonging to the Assistant.

 

So....if that's so...do we now continue to tip the room service attendant if we are already tipping them pre-paid ???:D

 

Okay - after thinking long about this issue, I have decided to adopt an Eva Peron style. Fling money at all and sundry while wearing FABULOUS clothes.

 

Should make everyone happy - me, too, since I get the clothes!!

 

:D :D :D

[scapel]

I do not like to tip people who I never see, and when the tip is for "alternate service" I don't even know who they are! I think that Celebrity should include an explanation on their website.

I agree with that. I think someone should come up to me, introduce themselves and state that they are part of the alternative tip service. They should tell me what they do.

[scapel]

- Those opting to eat in the specialty restaurants pay a fee, which as I understand it, is in fact a service fee.

 

- Those opting to take dinner in the alternative restaurant in the buffet area pay a $3/pp service charge for that option.

 

- Waitstaff working the buffet area during breakfast and lunch are the same waiters and assistant waiters who work the main dining room during dinner but whose breakfast/lunch assignment is the buffet; they are tipped by guests seated in their respective sections for dinner.

 

- Room service is usually handled by housekeeping/cabin crew who should be tipped per delivery, and are also tipped by pax whose cabins they clean daily.

 

- Bar/lounge peronnel are covered by an automatic 15% service fee added to all charges.

 

Other than the Spa Cafe and Cova Cafe, that pretty much covers all dining/drinking venues on X ships so I'm hard pressed to understand exactly which service personnel are losing out and therefore need to be compensated accordingly as a result of pax who choose to eat at locations other than the main dining room. Any employees who fall under the new category of "Other Service Personnel" are likely to be salaried employees who have never depended on tips. I'm curious and baffled.

Do we still get a slip of paper to give to the attendants which represents the pre-paid tip.

When we use alternative dining or speciality dining we are tipping there, but at the same time are tipping the waiters in the dining room. I guess we are tipping our waiter for being available if we wanted him even though we didn't use him.

With these automatic tips, are we still expected to tip the Alternative dining. It used to be $2 and I guess it is now $3. Is that $3/p?

I would think that is not in the automatic tips.

The speciality used to be charged to your shipboard account, now if you make a reservation online ahead of time it goes on your credit card right away.

[BrendaJ]

The speciality used to be charged to your shipboard account, now if you make a reservation online ahead of time it goes on your credit card right away.

 

Here's a little thing I wondered about: If you booked your specialty restaurant meal online and paid for it ahead of time, and didn't order any drinks while you had the meal (fat chance in our case, but for the sake of this example we'll say we drank nothing but tap water), would the waiter still hand you a slip at the end of the meal in the hope of an extra gratuity? That would seem rather odd if you didn't need to sign a slip because there was nothing to charge you for.

 

Just wondering how that would work . . .

[Albert Ross]

Do we still get a slip of paper to give to the attendants which represents the pre-paid tip.

No - you no longer get the slips of paper and no envelopes to hand out either. Yippee (IMHO). If you want to reward with additional cash you can go to GR and get an envelope.

[Ma Bell]

Okay - after thinking long about this issue, I have decided to adopt an Eva Peron style. Fling money at all and sundry while wearing FABULOUS clothes.

 

Should make everyone happy - me, too, since I get the clothes!!

 

:D :D :D

 

I'm with you!

 

When I have to start worrying about the tips I'm staying home. I've been through good times and bad but I always know if I can afford the trip and if it's cutting it that close, I know where I should be.

[sheilauk]

The posters of CC don't run their favorite cruise lines!

 

Half the line's fleet would be on the ocean bottom, the crew of the remaining half would be in total mutiny and the passengers set adrift...

 

BUT ---------

 

It would the British pax in command of the life boats, and they'd have made certain the ship's bar supplies came with them!! :D

 

On the other hand, I could live with that...;)

Hail Brittania!

 

 

No, you,ve definately got that wrong. We Brits would still be queuing ( obviously in a very polite way, not at all like the Americans at an all you can eat buffet)at the pursers desk, asking if we could have our prepaid gratuities back for the days after the boat sunk :)

[Riksha]

When we took our Mediterranean Cruise on RCCL's Brilliance of the Seas we were required to prepay our gratuities because we chose anytime dining and did not have assigned waiters.

 

Between prepaying our tips and not having an assigned wait team in the main dining room, I was concerned that we might not get good service.

 

However, to our pleasant surprise, every waiter we had in the main dining room was either very good or excellent. In fact, on some nights the service was better than we ever had on Celebrity.

 

Even though Celebrity does not have the anytime dining option that RCCL does, there are a lot of people who eat in alternate dining venues that probably feel they don't need to tip their assigned wait team. That is probably why Celebrity has instituted this policy.

 

Glad to hear you had a good experience. I like the idea of pre-paying because it's less to pay for after :) Apologies if this is a dumb question. This is only our second cruise, and I've realized tipping on land is different from at sea. We cruised NCL the first time and they had automatic, which we did, and in addition, we tipped as we went along, similar to what we would do in a hotel. In all sincerity, if you are eating in the alternate dining room, wouldn't you tip that wait staff? Or is the tip covered in the cover charge? Why would you have to tip your assigned wait team if they were not waiting on you? Do I have to seek out and tip both?

[WisCruiser2]

My 2 cents worth -- we've done two cruises on Princess where the tips were automatically added to our account and where we did the "Anytime" dining. Both times we gave our cabin stewards extra cash. On the 1st cruise, we ended up requesting the same table & waiters each night as they were wonderful, and gave them an extra tip the last night. The 2nd time, we had different waiters each night, and felt the service was quite disappointing -- found out at the end of the cruise that we could have made it known that we could have left extra tips in cash each night (think I'd let the wait staff know that as I was seated), and wondered if that would make a difference. I believe we also could have requested to have our automatic tip adjusted for less. I know the staff prefers the cash tips so they have the money right away rather than waiting for it to be distributed. Last year on the Radiance of the Seas we opted to have the "suggested" tip added to our account, then again gave additional cash to our waiters and steward. As long as people have the option to reduce their tip for poor service, I don't have a problem with the automatic tip. It's still part of the cost of cruising (unless you plan to stiff everyone...).

[FinelyCruising]

( obviously in a very polite way, not at all like the Americans at an all you can eat buffet)

 

ooohhh...so you HAVE sailed before.:D

[scapel]

No - you no longer get the slips of paper and no envelopes to hand out either. Yippee (IMHO). If you want to reward with additional cash you can go to GR and get an envelope.

How can I be sure they get the money. Is the cruise line stiffing them and blaming it on the passengers. I guess you just ask them, and I will.

[BurgerBits]

ooohhh...so you have sailed before.:d

 

Ah! LOL LOL LOL

[jrazzkc]

I am in the middle of a cruise on the Millenium that started on January 18th and ends February 1st. We received a letter after boarding, with the identical verbage noted earlier. I talked to the front office, asking the they refund the charges added to my account, todate, because I chose to handle my tips, personally. I want to make sure the people serving my needs, infact, get the tips. They indicated it was a new policy and that it was impossible to stop the daily charge. I then asked what was the "adjustment" that they referred to? The desk indicated that I could adjust the amounts up, but I could not reduce them, and pay the tips in person. I said, then it is no longer a gratuity, it is a fee, to help them pay their personnel, and all fees that can be calculated before the trip, should be included in the listed price of the cruise. They agreed it was more like a fee.

 

I have always taken care of my tips in person, and did not see this change in policy in my contract. It almost appears that they credited the fuel surcharge, due to popular demand, and replaced that revenue with this fee.

 

I trust they will allow this to become a gratuity again, a "non-obligatory payment for exceptional service".

[KiwiAtSea]

No - you no longer get the slips of paper and no envelopes to hand out either.

 

When I paid for my up-coming cruise over a year ago, i pre-paid the gratuities via my TA, on the understanding there would be slips of paper to hand out...

 

So, now there's none, yet I've pre-paid the tips... how will this work?:confused:

 

Will =X= just do the distribution for me?

 

By the way, Burger Bits, I love your Eva Peron idea!:D

[Lsimon]

...here was my reply:

 

Thank you for your email.

 

The $1.25/day for "Alternative Service" is divided up amongst various Housekeeping staff, not including the stateroom attendant. This would include the stateroom attendant's assistant. He/she cleans the restrooms or brings room service but did not get gratuities in the past.

 

The claim that the assistant didn't get tips in the past is pure hogwash! I specifically have asked this in the past and both the assistant and the cabin steward have told me that they split the cabin attendant tip and in most cases the envelope they give me has hand written on them, or rubber stamped, the name of the assistant (in addition to the stewards name) or the words "& assistant" or something to that effect.

[Can'tstopcruising]

I am in the middle of a cruise on the Millenium that started on January 18th and ends February 1st. We received a letter after boarding, with the identical verbage noted earlier. I talked to the front office, asking the they refund the charges added to my account, todate, because I chose to handle my tips, personally. I want to make sure the people serving my needs, infact, get the tips. They indicated it was a new policy and that it was impossible to stop the daily charge. I then asked what was the "adjustment" that they referred to? The desk indicated that I could adjust the amounts up, but I could not reduce them, and pay the tips in person. I said, then it is no longer a gratuity, it is a fee, to help them pay their personnel, and all fees that can be calculated before the trip, should be included in the listed price of the cruise. They agreed it was more like a fee.

 

I have always taken care of my tips in person, and did not see this change in policy in my contract. It almost appears that they credited the fuel surcharge, due to popular demand, and replaced that revenue with this fee.

 

I trust they will allow this to become a gratuity again, a "non-obligatory payment for exceptional service".

 

I have a sneaking suspicion that the cruiseline benefits from this new arrangement.

[willysgrandma]

I am in the middle of a cruise on the Millenium that started on January 18th and ends February 1st. We received a letter after boarding, with the identical verbage noted earlier. I talked to the front office, asking the they refund the charges added to my account, todate, because I chose to handle my tips, personally. I want to make sure the people serving my needs, infact, get the tips. They indicated it was a new policy and that it was impossible to stop the daily charge. I then asked what was the "adjustment" that they referred to? The desk indicated that I could adjust the amounts up, but I could not reduce them, and pay the tips in person. I said, then it is no longer a gratuity, it is a fee, to help them pay their personnel, and all fees that can be calculated before the trip, should be included in the listed price of the cruise. They agreed it was more like a fee.

 

 

That is interesting - you can adjust up but not down. What if your service is awful?

[CathyCruises]

I can say with confidence that I have NEVER had awful service on any cruise ship I've ever been on. . .

 

Cathy