the penguins

sounds great if you know how to contact the Mods I would be more than happy.

anywhere on the ship if your drink is included in your package there are no extra grats. If your drink is over the limit you pay the difference plus 20% gratuity on the difference. your example was an extra $7 so plus 20% = $8.40.

I have no idea what a sticky is but I would be delighted if there was a way of making the details readily available.

I am sorry you think that. I was hoping to achieve the opposite. On recent threads in answer to new cruisers questions people have replied that; nobody knows the answer, tips are shared, etc etc.. none of which are correct. My Post doesn't need a response it's just factual information that people can keep for future reference.

As this question continues to be raised on numerous threads in various different ways please find below the current daily charges and how the money is allocated. The list is and always has been available on request at Guest Relations on every ship. Should you choose to reduce the level (we would never do it) the reduction is split pro rata across the whole e.g.. you can't just reduce the cabin stewards element. Dining is the waiter/assistant waiter. House keeping is the cabin steward Other hotel services include the laundry staff and cleaners. Somelliers, bar and Al Bacio are are not included as they get 20%grats from every sale Hope this clarifies the issue.

It depends on the bar. If you consider Canada Dry as good it's nearly always available in the bar in the Casino. Al Bacio has Royal a much cheaper brand. We get a couple of unopened bottles during Elite Happy Hour every day

a pleasure - it's available on request at Guest Relations on every ship.

great that everyone was able to help. The attached that shows how the auto tips are distributed. 20% added to all drinks and spa treatments. It's better to register a credit card to cover all the above as otherwise X will require a hefty cash deposit. Make sure you sign for your credit card company to do the conversion not X and use a card with no currency conversion costs - we use Nationwide Have a great cruise.

Due to increased mobility and pain issues land touring is now almost impossible for us. However by booking private guides it's still possible to escape to areas which are often practically "tourist free" or to visit popular attractions at less busy times. Toursbylocals is always our starting point as we deal direct with the guides which makes customising a tour relatively simple.

your proposal was to double all Captain Club benefits and didn't specify any levels. As only Elite and above get gelato, laundry and internet minutes your suggestion must be targeted at them.

double laundry? Elite+ gets 2 bags each what would be the value of 8 bags per couple especially as each bag takes around 2 days to process and the last bag has to be in 3 days before the cruise ends.

All the suggestions so far will appeal to some and not others or would be complicated or impossible to implement. My vote goes to additional OBC at a set per person per day rate with 50% of it as refundable.

where is your evidence that the "extra amount goes into a bonus pool" X's breakdown clearly shows how the money is allocated. When passenger numbers are low the tips are less, when numbers are high for example Christmas and Holiday season tips are more. The basic pay remains the same for the duration of a crew members contract. Each cruise is a cost centre with no money carrying over to the next. Princess operate a system where tips are collected across the fleet and then divided amongst the staff X does not. X also has a welfare type scheme that supports the crew in other ways and one of the main sources of income for that is the money X gets from recycling things like glass and plastic. All the money raised (again on a ship by ship basis) goes to a fund that is administered by a crew committee. We have been privileged to attend a crew party where prizes (including flight tickets and apple i pods) paid for out of the fund were won. Finally to be totally clear. Tipping over and above the auto grats is a personal choice. To remove the auto grats will result in some crew members taking home less pay. If you reduce auto grats the totals listed are simply reduced by the same proportion so everyone loses - you can't for example reduce the room stewards amount and keep everything else the same. If you don't like the system you are free to choose another cruise line but please don't penalise the crew.

Hi I know this thread has strayed a little from your original request but hopefully my Post 36 has answered your question by showing where your $18 goes.

Hi Ruth, Sorry no. The upgrade didn't change any electrical outlets except in Suites

I think that kind of makes my point about Virgin. I haven't seen the email that started this but my bet is it doesn't mention X by name and it will not have been targeted at X's passengers but at every "past cruisers' email it can lay its hands on. At least the so called "nickel and dimimg " means you get to choose what extras you want. I believe Virgin also promotes no drinks packages but includes a "bar tab " of $'s which seems the same thing to me. When Virgin bought a rail franchise in the UK it made claims about revolutionising train travel with all sorts of things included. The result? It lost money and handed back its franchise. Virgin Media promotes the fastest Internet in the UK and attacks pretty much all it's competitors. Very little mention of the fact that it's only available in areas with Virgin cables. Virgin Atlantic, its much vaunted airline, failed to survive on it's own and is now part of Delta. Virgin's "dabble " into the low cost airline business also ended in failure. Virgin's space tourist business has also been "mothballed" My bet? Virgin Cruises will find it needs much more money than it has and will be taken over by one of the big brands leaving Branson with his usual large profit.

virgin are famous/infamous for this sort of thing in the UK with every business they own. The reality often proves to be very different.

who has 12 ships certainly not Virgin and the ones they do have are way bigger than 1000 passengers

wow. 1) I believe we all know that the cruise gets a basic wage. 2) the auto tips are additional. 3) X does not keep any of the tip money it is all distributed to the crew that are part of the auto grats system as per the schedule posted. 4) it's impossible to individually tip all the people covered by auto grats - for example the laundry staff or the restroom cleaners. 5) if you don't think these tips are important to the crew if you have Select Dining watch what happens when when you arrive at the table. The Crew member escorting you from the Check In Desk has a "slip of paper" which serves two functions: 1 to get you to the correct table, 2 as a receipt for the waiter to confirm the tips due. If the waiter isn't handed the slip just watch how quickly they go back to the check in desk to get a copy as it's the only way they can check they have received the correct tips. 6} Another duty for the Check in Staff is to make sure that guests are spread fairly around the tables so each table team gets as close as possible to an equal share of that nights tips. During the restart when passenger numbers were low this "balancing" was even more important and one way they achieved it was to give waiters whole days off so the waiters working had full tables.

The U.K. doesn’t require tips to be included only port fees and taxes. 80% of X’s passengers are American/Canadian so it’s hardly surprising that it’s prices are presented in a way that is common in those countries and in the same way as it’s major competitors. Personally I would like to see just one price including port fees, taxes and tips. On the other hand if you have lots of OBC (including the Shareholder benefits) having the tips added daily onboard makes it easier to use those credits to pay the tips.

Totally irrelevant as the tips are distributed per person to the appropriate crew as detailed in my earlier posts. Big benefit to X is that the tips are collected in advance and distributed after the cruise so a very positive addition to their cash flow. Each cruise is a cost centre in it’s own right unlike Princess which distributes the cash across the fleet.

Now I have managed to attach the sheet to 3 messages - oh well better than not attaching it at all.

Sorry have had problems attaching the sheet - hopefully this time it's worked. Not the best quality

Silversea competes with the likes of Regent all of which includes the grats. X's main competitors all have the "grats" as additional. The only result of the Australian policy is that you pay more as X rounds up all the prices on items such as drinks, spa treatments etc to include the grats. The UK/Europe has similar rules regarding pricing in that anything that must be paid e.g. Port fees, taxes etc must be included. Grats are a grey area as in theory they are not compulsary as you will see in the attached X says you can "increase" them.

I got to a scanner quicker than I thought - attached is the sheet - sorry it hasn't scanned to well.