A new twist on auto tips????

[highheel girl]

Just saw this post from an Aussie......
First I have seen this.
Truth or myth?

"if you cruise on any australian princess ship you dont have to pay any gratuities as its built into the fare"

[davaller]

Has been like that since last year only the Sun/Dawn and Sea Princess sail out of Australia does not apply to the Diamond whilst sailing out of Sydney of course the price of the cruises went up
David

[spunkie4]

I have always felt the gratuities should be included in the fare. I was blasted over this comment several months ago, as everyone felt the price of the cruise would increase, you would pay more taxes on the fare, etc. Well, I am going to pay an increased fare, so to speak, when I pay my tips.

We were recently on the Island Princess. On the last evening the Purser's Desk was very busy. We overheard the question "was something wrong with your service" asked many times.

Guess I have a problem with people removing their tips.

Shirley

[Pam in CA]

Originally Posted by highheel girl

Just saw this post from an Aussie......
First I have seen this.
Truth or myth?

"if you cruise on any australian princess ship you dont have to pay any gratuities as its built into the fare"

Yes, this has been the case, mostly because the crew were getting stiffed so often. This is for Princess Australia ships, not Princess ships.

There are many reasons why the tips aren't built into the fare on Princess, all of them financial. One is that it would affect the way Carnival Corp. reports profits and thus, the stock would be affected. Another is that crew would have to report the tips as income and pay more taxes, depending on what country they are from.

[ILVTX]

We paid gratuities in February on the Sea Princess, because we are Americans. I assume our fare was less than a comparable cabin for an Australian, but have no facts to support that.

[Iamcruzin]

Originally Posted by spunkie4

I have always felt the gratuities should be included in the fare. I was blasted over this comment several months ago, as everyone felt the price of the cruise would increase, you would pay more taxes on the fare, etc. Well, I am going to pay an increased fare, so to speak, when I pay my tips.

We were recently on the Island Princess. On the last evening the Purser's Desk was very busy. We overheard the question "was something wrong with your service" asked many times.

Guess I have a problem with people removing their tips.

Shirley

But at least the tip won't be taxed creating an even larger fare.

[Iamcruzin]

Originally Posted by davaller

Has been like that since last year only the Sun/Dawn and Sea Princess sail out of Australia does not apply to the Diamond whilst sailing out of Sydney of course the price of the cruises went up
David

Do you feel that the price of the cruise went up in relation to what you would have been paying if you were charged the auto tip or did it go up more?

[Eagle Eye]

Originally Posted by ILVTX

We paid gratuities in February on the Sea Princess, because we are Americans. I assume our fare was less than a comparable cabin for an Australian, but have no facts to support that.

We paid gratuities on the Dawn (we're Americans) and comparing the cruise prices in the onboard Australian brochures to the US prices, the Australians are enjoying lower cruise fares.

[windsor26]

You may be interested to know that also on the three ships mentioned in Australia there are no 15% added to the drinks etc. BUT the drinks are appreciably higher in price than on the USA ships and we do not have a happy hour There is a short power hour on some ships but no beers are included.

[cherrybear]

We always add the auto tips into the cost of the cruise and prepay that amount into our on board accounts. So we only have to think about it once.

Cherry

[Waynetor]

We did B2B on the Sea Princess out of Sydney in Dec. We paid the auto tip but the Aussies on board did not have it added to their accounts. A few of them told me about the great deal they got on the fare - much less than we paid.
The other thing different on the Sea Princess while sailing in Australia is there is no anytime dinning. Both resturants are fixed time. There is such a demand for early that if they did anytime the resturant would fill up shortly after opening and anybody showing up a bit later would have to wait until the initail crowd finished their dinner.

[caribill]

Originally Posted by Waynetor

We did B2B on the Sea Princess out of Sydney in Dec. We paid the auto tip but the Aussies on board did not have it added to their accounts. A few of them told me about the great deal they got on the fare - much less than we paid.

Interesting since on many other threads there have been complaints that Aussies always have to pay more than those who book from the USA>

[darkbeholder]

Prices quoted by AU agents have been going down for the Australian based ships and I have seen quite a few flash promo's to fill the ships which may account for the lower prices people have quoted.

I have a US VPN so I can see prices quoted on the Princess site for both and for nearly every cruise except some on the AU based ships the US prices are cheaper.