Increased Gratuity Notification Received Today

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The crews of Wind Star Cruises deserve every increased cent. I do not think $1.50pp per day extra will make a dent in our pocketbooks. The $12 fee has been that price for years, they well deserve an increase.

It certainly is a very very tiny proportion of the total cost of a Windstar cruise

I wonder why they don't just include it in the cost of the cruise, and charge a little more.

I just prepaid my gratuities on my upcoming Wind Surf cruise when I booked it.

One more thing done in advance and less to think about at the end.

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity also increased theirs last week from $13.50 to $14.50, so Windstar is just following competition but still cheaper

Got the email and my first reaction before I opened it was 'OH NO, what's happened?' Then I saw the actual subject and was relieved it was completely inconsequential. Two weeks. It's below zero in Chicago again today. :cool:

I wonder why they don't just include it in the cost of the cruise, and charge a little more.

High end cruise lines like Regent and Azamara do this. It prevents cheapskates from decreasing the amount and stiffing the crew. It recognizes the crew as professionals, not bellhops hustling for tips.

I agree that the crew deserves their tips. I like it when the tips are included or you can prepay or use OBC to pay for tips. I am booked on a Celebrity cruise in March. Got notification a few weeks ago that tips were increasing. It stated that if you prepay before embarkation, you do not pay for the increase. It was nice that Celebrity offered options. Windstar just increased without any option to prepay. I am on Windstar next week.

After nine Windstar Cruises we agree that the crew deserves lots of special consideration since all are always pleasant and helpful.

Not complaining, but these. do add up on extended cruises. Our recent 34 day cruise ended up with about $800 in these gratuities plus whatever extra we gave our two room girls as well as something for our favorite waiters.

Curious, do most people give something additional beyond the gratuities charged bu Windstar?

...Curious, do most people give something additional beyond the gratuities charged bu Windstar?

We started cruising back in 1986 with Holland America whose tipping policy at the time was "Tipping Not Required." Nonetheless the CD made it clear that tips were still expected and that we would be provided with envelopes near the end of the cruise.

That caused us and many other newbies with the basic questions of how much and who. The answer was provided by the Purser (now Customer Service) to be $3 per day for the waiter, $1.50 for the asst. waiter, $1.50 for the Maitre d' and $3 for the cabin steward. That totalled $9 per person (or $18.00 per cabin).

Our first Windstar cruise was back in 1995 when Windstar was still a HAL subsidiary and their tipping policy was the same as HAL's. Having been on HAL and Princess we were in the habit of tipping $25 to the waiter and steward per week and $15 to the asst. waiter and $10 to the Maitre d'. That was $75.00 per week or $150.00 for the two of us. That was the equivalent of about $10.15 per day.

The service on Windstar was so much more exceptional than we ever experienced on any other line we decided to go heavy on our 14 day cruise. Waiters $75.00 per, Steward $60 per, Maitre d' $30.00 and asst. waiter $40.00. That totaled $14.64 per person per day.

Now we follow the rules and agree to whatever the line wants and add a few bucks extra where appropriate. Frankly we like the new method because we could be a bit more generous with the "good guys" and not wonder if we were shortchanging the others.

The new method is better also because we no longer had an issue with how to tip the folks who served us in the Windstar open seating dining room.

That's a long way of saying that $13.50 is, IMHO, too low but gives us the opportunity to show our appreciation with those envelopes with a few extra bucks on our last day on board.

After nine Windstar Cruises we agree that the crew deserves lots of special consideration since all are always pleasant and helpful.

Not complaining, but these. do add up on extended cruises. Our recent 34 day cruise ended up with about $800 in these gratuities plus whatever extra we gave our two room girls as well as something for our favorite waiters.

True, but the crew provides the same quality service on days 21 through 34 as it does on days 1 through 14. Someone who can afford 34 days of cruising can afford 34 days of tipping.