Shorty6095

Oh Lord, I see my thread has been revived.

I haven't posted on here since we went on our cruise in March.  I gotta say, we were pretty disappointed with about 70% of our interactions with the staff on NCL Pearl.  Many seemed like they weren't motivated to work nor were they personable at all.  I understand that there are big cultural differences, so I totally get that some may be timid due to English being their 2nd language and they aren't going to be smiley and peppy like what I'd expect from an American server/bartender.  But half of the time it took 15-30 minutes to get a drink at the bar and many of the staff seemed like they didn't even want to be there.  Maybe if they were motivated by cash tips they would step up their game.... But what do I know?!?  LOL!  We were not obnoxious/drunk/disrespectful or anything towards the staff, we treated everyone we encountered with kindness, a smile and a please & thank you.  So I don't think we were the cause of poor service.

Needless to say, we didn't remove our DSC and we still cash tipped every staff member we encountered, even the ones who were slow and seemed annoyed to be working.  Our room steward was very sweet and accommodating and there were a handful of bartenders/servers that we continuously seeked out throughout the rest of the cruise because they were on top of their game and very motivated to take care of the guests.  

I realize that I may be coming off like I'm a complaining entitled American.  My point in bringing up my mediocre experience with the NCL staff is because I feel like their lack of motivation to hustle is a direct reflection of the pay and lack of tips.  But again... what do I know?!

On 3/13/2019 at 6:41 AM, myjillian said:

When I enter any room...hotel etc I pull back the linens and look for anything. 

This is good advice, and I'll add onto this.  The first thing I do when I walk into my room is leave my luggage in the hallway and immediately check the linens.  I also pull up the fitted sheet and look in the crevices/seams on the side of the mattress.  If there's no signs of bugs, THEN I'll bring my luggage in.

2 hours ago, marktwothousand said:

The pizza is good, especially late night when everything else is closed.

 

does anyone know how room service breakfast works on NCL? I have never done it, but I heard it’s free, is that true?however, is it continental breakfast only?

Read my post directly above yours.  In summary - most of the breakfast items are free.  The omlettes and french toast you'll pay a $7.95 service charge.  When you are looking at the breakfast menu and filling out your door hanger card, you will see all of the free items listed and then at the bottom it indicates that you'll be charged $7.95 for the other items.  We ordered the omlettes and tons of the free continental items.  Totally worth it.

I just was on the Pearl last week.  It seemed like it all depended on the bartender.  Some would pour into glasses and then let me pour it in my Yeti. But most others would rinse out my Yeti, put in ice and pour two shots into it.  My mixer was always red bull, which I was always charged separately for since its not included in the UBP.  So I'd always pour the can of redbull in myself, which was fine.  

I just was on the NCL Pearl last week, it was my first cruise.

We did breakfast room service every morning.  It is similar to hotel room service, where its very small portions and a limited menu.  But the nice thing was that the room service charge is a flat $7.95 fee and you can order as much as you want.  Actually, now that I think about it, I think most of the breakfast menu is complimentary continental breakfast.  But we wanted omlettes and french toast every morning (which was not complimentary), so that's why we had the $7.95 charge.  We ordered lots of other things too since portions were small--sliced fruit, yogurt, orange juice, croissants, etc.  Those items are all complimentary if you don't order omlettes or french toast.  We thought the food quality of the room service breakfasts were very good.  Sure, they were kind of bland and basic, but food was always served hot, fruit was fresh, juice was cold.  So no complaints at all with the room service breakfast.  Also, we always put in our order for the earliest possible time - 6:30am, and our food always came by 6:20am!  Not sure if our room was close to the kitchen and we we're first on their route, or if just not many people were ordering their breakfast that early...?   We never ordered lunch or dinner, so I can't comment on the quality of that.

For lunch and dinner we mostly ate at the Garden Cafe or O'Sheehans.  O'Sheehan's menu seemed extremely limited, so I preferred Garden Cafe.  Lots of variety and I personally thought the quality of the food was really good for a "buffet" style restaurant.   

Interesting.  A young man had a heart attack on the cruise I was on last week (NCL Pearl) and did not survive.  I was NOT there to witness all that went down, so I can't 100% confirm that this is fact, but I was told that they *DID* try to administer CPR/AED and they couldn't revive him.  I'm not sure how much time passed before they started CPR or AED,  as every minute is crucial.  As someone who works in patient care and is part of an on-call emergency team that does CPR/AED on a regular basis, I wish I could have been on the scene to help.  Over the intercom they said "Code Alpha on the Sports Deck", which I had no idea what that meant until later in the cruise when I heard what had happened.  I thought that "Code Blue" was the universal term for cardiac arrest/not breathing, but maybe its just a universal term across US hospitals/clinics.  Had I heard "Code Blue", I would have run up there.  Not saying that my presence would have made a difference in saving his life.  Just wish I could have helped had I known.  

2 minutes ago, Doc Kay said:

try this, I think it's the latest

ubp_drinks.pdf

Thank you so much!  I see the copyright is 2019, so I'd assume it hasn't changed already!  I'll be sailing on the Pearl next week, does this drink list apply to all NCL ships?  (Except Pride of America Hawaii cruises, which is noted in the fine print)

Does anybody have a recent updated NCL liquor list?  I have been googling and finding that the lists vary.  I'm specifically looking to see if NCL still stocks Jagermeister.  According to this thread from 2017, they don't stock Jagermeister.  I'm really hoping they do, because unfortunately that is the only hard liquor that doesn't give me a migraine.  😞 The UBP will end up being a complete waste of money.

Thank you to those who understand that my reasoning for asking about removing gratuities, that it has nothing to do with trying to save money.  It has everything to do with being skeptical of NCL taking a cut of the gratuities and not paying a livable wage.  I just assumed that the staff would prefer to be tipped directly with cash.  I'm just a first time cruiser who does not have knowledge about how everything works and I appreciate those who responded without name calling or making assumptions. 

Oh dear, I tried to contain the can of worms, but they were opened anyway...!  I appreciate all of the helpful responses.  I really feel for the workers, they definitely deserve to be paid a livable wage.  I am absolutely NOT one of those people that would remove gratuities and then not follow through on tipping, though I can see how some inconsiderate cruisers would do that.  Please do not group me in with those people.  I'm an American who has worked in the service industry and has MUCH respect and appreciation for service industry workers.  I just thought to ask about removing gratuities because we would rather put generous amounts of cash in the hands of every service industry worker that serves us on the ship.  Now that I see how little each worker gets of those gratuities, I don't think we'll be removing them and we will continue to tip generously with cash, because it sounds like they are underpaid even with the expected gratuity pay.  

3 minutes ago, ggTexasGal said:

So, what none of us have mentioned yet is this:

 

NCL has an employee recognition program in place ... HERO CARDS.  This is one of the ways those who serve guests directly benefit.  Of course, the extra cash tip(s) are much appreciated!  Anyway, Hero Cards should be in your stateroom, but if you want more, just drop by the Guest Services desk and ask if they are not sitting out in plain sight.

Thank you so much for this tip!  I will definitely be utilizing this!

1 minute ago, takeadip said:

agreed. I just have a gut feeling that NCL does not funnel ALL of the agreed"tip " money to the workers that the passengers are charged....I feel (and this is just me) that NCL takes a small % cut of all tips collected.

 

The tips per crew member is ACTUALLY pretty low if we use this example on a "Big Ship"

 

LETS USE THE BREAKAWAY...someone reading this please get out a calculator and multiply $15.00 per person X (3963 passengers) X  (7 days) avg cruise = $416,115 in total tip money charged (not including cash handed out in person) divided by the number of workers on the ship (1657 crew) comes out to $251 per crew member (that's assuming ALL crew on board are part of the "tip pool")

Yes I am aware that some cabins charge more per stateroom which would skew the numbers a little bit higher.

 

Consider most ships employment contracts are 6 months long...that's not a ton of money for how hard these crews work and the condition they work in.

 

Best,

Mark

 

I hear you as far as being skeptical about NCL keeping a small %.  Also the "gratuity" money that is added onto their checks is going to be taxed, giving them even less money.  And from the estimated calculations you just made, that is very little in tip money for a weeks worth of hard work.  I definitely do not want to cut their wages even further, especially the people behind the scenes.  That calculation definitely puts it in perspective for me and now I am rethinking removing the gratuity charges.  We will likely still tip them cash even if we keep the gratuity charges, cause they deserve better.

3 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

Good luck removing the UBP tips...

 

Just leave DSC in place, and tip extra in cash

What does DSC mean?

10 minutes ago, fabnfortysomething said:

oh brother you have opened a can of worms

 

be prepared for several hundred posts arguing whether tips /gratuities are the same and the moraility of removing them

 

basically NCL tries to make it simple by acknowledging that with freestyle cruising  you don't get same staff each night so appropriate tips at end doesn't work

just make it easy and leave DSC in place and you are sorted 

I definitely did NOT want to open a can of worms.  I had noticed in the threads about this topic that it was mostly people arguing back and forth, instead of having any actual useful information, which is why I decided to make a new post asking about this and hoping for some cut and dry information.  

I absolutely understand both sides of it.  And we would prefer to go the route of removing gratuities, if we are able to.  

I'm not sure, are you able to remove either?  When reading on this topic on this board, it didn't specify which could be removed, people we're just speaking in generalities about gratuities.  We did get the UBP, so I would be inquiring to remove those gratuities as well.  

Hello all, first time cruiser here!  We'll be on the Pearl from Mar 6-10.  I have been scouring these message boards and finding lots of information!  One thing I've seen mentioned multiple times is that we have the option to remove the gratuity charges from our credit card that we made the reservation with.  We would prefer to tip with cash.  Even if we aren't able to remove the gratuities from the credit card, we'll still tip with cash while on the ship because that is just how we are.  We are very appreciative of those in the service industry and we'd rather put cash in their hand instead of NCL deciding how to divide up gratuity. 

Anyways... is having the gratuity charges removed as simple as calling NCL?

Thank you so much for this spreadsheet!  Going on NCL Pearl in a couple weeks and your spreadsheet was the most helpful!