Tipping Changes ???

[Reno NV Couple]

As so we can budget for our Alaska 7 day cruise this summer. How much should I budget for to cover this new "auto tip" program? Does anyone know about how much this will cost us?

I wish they would roll these "tips" into the cruise price since I agree the HAL employee's do a great job and deserve competive wages and then I could still tip my steward, etc. Thanks.

[Tatka]

Autotip is $10 pp per day. It's charged to your account.

And I believe you CAN still tip your steward and waiter extra.

[Orcrone]

Autotip is $10 pp per day. It's charged to your account.

And I believe you still tip your steward and waiter extra.Your cabin steward and DR stewards receive a portion of the auto-tip (I believe each receives $3.00 per day out of the $10.00).

You of course have the option of tipping above and beyond, but it is not necessary.

[Krazy Kruizers]

It is $10 per day per person.

The cabin steward and dining room steward each get $3 dollars out of the $10. The other $4 is divided many others.

The bar staff spilt the 15% gratuity that is added onto all bar bills - this includes coke, water, etc. They do not take part in $10 bit.

Be advised - if you decide to remove the auto tip and tip on your own, the crew are informed of who has the removed the auto tip and they are supposed to turn in to the front office any tip that is given by those passengers. The tip money is them split among all crew members.

[Kami's pal]

I wonder what would happen if all of us who dislike being forced to pay the wages of the behind the scenes crew (butcher, baker, laundry, tailor, stevedore) would all remove the auto tip, then tip whomever we wished with a note explaining that we understand that the recipient would be required to turn in the tip, but we preferred to recognize their services personally. The note could be printed at home, so all we'd have to do is address the envelopes.

This gives back to the crew the control. They could turn in all or part or none of the gratuities.

[dakrewser]

I wonder what would happen if all of us who dislike being forced to pay the wages of the behind the scenes crew (butcher, baker, laundry, tailor, stevedore) would all remove the auto tip, then tip whomever we wished with a note explaining that we understand that the recipient would be required to turn in the tip, but we preferred to recognize their services personally. The note could be printed at home, so all we'd have to do is address the envelopes.

This gives back to the crew the control. They could turn in all or part or none of the gratuities.

No it doesn't. We don't set the terms of their employment.

-dave

[Krazy Kruizers]

Written letters from won't work.

Even though you may get poort service on a particular ship and want to remove those tips and then tip on your own with a "letter" - won't help.

Some of the crew may never say anything but others will be honest and turn in those tips and get very little from it.

The cabin steward won't have anyone "looking" over his shoulder to se who is honest. But in the dining room - that could be a different story.

If the area captain has also been notified of which passengers have the auto tip removed and he watches the waitstaff to see if they pocket money from those particular passengers and doesn't turn it into the front office, then they could be in trouble and possibly fired. We did notice on our last cruise that the are captains were watching the dining room staff more closely than they had on the other days of our cruise.

[Slinkiecat]

I hope everyone just leaves the automatic charge on their S & S card, and then adds personal tips to those who deserve it, tipping at the time of service for room service and extras like salon. We don't cruise to save money. We do it to have a very nice vacation and expect to pay those who serve us so well. The good crew members are not going to stay in those jobs if the customers (passengers as well as cruise line) don't pay them well for working hard. If tips are part of their pay, then we owe them for a job well done.

Slinkie

[Krazy Kruizers]

We were among the first to experience the new automatic tipping last May and we chose to leave it on and we did tip extra to those whom we felt deserved it.

And we did the same on our last cruise in Oct/Nov.

And we will do the same on all our up-coming cruises.

[reportergirl]

Hi. I'm a reporter with a national newspaper writing a story on tipping changes. Will anyone agree to a quick interview on your thoughts on the auto tip? My email address is nicole.harris@wsj.com. Can be reached at 404-865-4384. Thanks, Nicole

[anngie]

I hope that the room service stewards are allowed to keep their whole tips.
They sure are appreciative of them. I wondered how the tips are split when alcohol is ordered from room service. Do the room service stewards get the tip or does it go to the bar service? The 15% did not seem like enough so we did tip extra for the bucket of beers. It was a much better deal than ordering it in the bars.

[DaveOKC]

After last week's cruise - my first with auto tipping, I had a few thoughts on the subject:
1. The waiters were excellent and deserved an extra tip. They seemed to really appreciate it also.
2. If you are in a suite, I really think you should leave an extra tip for the cabin stewart. He has a lot more cleaning to do on these cabins and he certainly provides extra services such as handling the laundry everyday, removing the extra room service trays, keeping the balcony clean and straightened and delivering more notes and mail than the normal cabins get.
3. If you use the Neptune Lounge staff you should tip them as well.

In talking with other passengers, they seemed to think the $10 per person per day tip was plenty and were not inclined to give any extra tips. This was even true of the suite passengers, who again I think should tip a bit more.

For the record, I am normally not a big tipper, but the staff on the Holland ships do such a great job that I truely feel they earn it.

DaveOKC

[KAKcruiser]

This is exactly what I was afraid would happen with the auto tip. We start talking about extra for above and beyond. A tip is for above and beyond. We are being coerced to pay $10 a day whether it is above and beyond or not. We were three people on a 10 day cruise recently. We paid $300 among the three of us. I think that is quite enough for above and beyond. I am only sorry that I could not distribute it the way I wanted.

[Opinions]

I wonder what would happen if all of us who dislike being forced to pay the wages of the behind the scenes crew (butcher, baker, laundry, tailor, stevedore) would all remove the auto tip, .

Who do you expect to pay the wages of the crew if not the passengers?..You pay it either through the cruise fare or voluntary or involuntary extra charges...The cruise line and the crew have agreed on this method...I have no problem paying their wages by whatever way they prefer.

[crusinggranny]

Is the $10 per day for the longer cruises also? Like over twenty or twenty-five?
If so, for two people it would be over $500., Right? Guess I had better start saving up for that extra. The only good thing is that you know ahead of time what you will be paying out.
The thing I do not like is not being able to give to the ones I want unless, I want or feel that I can pay more.

[maril]

We've never done it but some have told us to purchase the $20 phone cards and give to who you want to give to, They don't have to turn those in as well as any other gift you may purchase for them.
Perhaps we will do that next time for a few selected persons. what do you all think? this would be in add. to the $ already charged to our account.
maril

[Krazy Kruizers]

If you order alcohol for your cabin, the 15% gratuity that is added onto the bill does not go to your room steward. It goes to whomever bar server the information was sent to to fill the order.

We always do tip our concierge(s) - some ships have 2 of them.

We always tip our cabin steward extra - although on our last cruise, he was not the best we have had. Yes, he did his job, cleaned the bathroom, changed towels, refilled the ice bucket, etc. But not once in 21 days did he ever clean anything on the verandah - not the windows - not the raling. Never whiped down the chairs or table - nothing.

We also tipped our dining room steward extra but not the assistant on our last cruise. We saw the assistant only a few times out of 21 days - and all he do was pour water. We have no idea where he was. Our waiter took the orders, went after the food, cleaned off tables - he did all the work with aid from the area captain and wine steward who helped him a lot of by refilling water glasses and taking away dirty dishes.

[Krazy Kruizers]

maril - you have to be careful what phone cards you give (if you do decide to do this on future cruises) because some of the International cards don't work for all parts of the world. We have never done this.

[Krazy Kruizers]

cruisinggranny

Yes, that $10 per day person is for all cruises no matter how long they are.

The auto tip for our 21 day cruise for 2 people was $420. Plus we tipped extra where we felt we needed to.