P&O Ventura - Recent Experience with Service Charge

I have just returned from cruise on Ventura. For the first time I chose to have the service charge removed.

The process is simple. You go to guest services. Make the request. You are given a form the complete. The form allows you to choose to change or remove the service charge. It also allows you to provide feedback on quality of service and the reason for removal. I found the process to be fair and reasonable.

I did this early on in the cruise day 2 of 12 day cruise). I didn't receive a letter in my cabin. I checked my account a few days later and the service charge was removed.

I have now adopted my own policy on tipping. I will pay the cabin steward a tip at the end of the cruise (final night) which is based on a daily amount times the number of days. The amount is then adjusted depending on quality of service received.

I will only pay waiters in dinning room a tip if the service is exceptional. The service never reached even a satisfactory level so no tip was paid. I no longer view paying tips to dinning room waiters as obligatory. I should add that I only ate in the MDR a couple of times during the cruise.

The policy I adopted on this cruise and will on future cruise is for tips to be discretionary not obligatory. I will pay for good service and also for exceptional requirements.

I have just returned from cruise on Ventura. For the first time I chose to have the service charge removed.

 

 

 

The process is simple. You go to guest services. Make the request. You are given a form the complete. The form allows you to choose to change or remove the service charge. It also allows you to provide feedback on quality of service and the reason for removal. I found the process to be fair and reasonable.

 

 

 

I did this early on in the cruise day 2 of 12 day cruise). I didn't receive a letter in my cabin. I checked my account a few days later and the service charge was removed.

 

 

 

I have now adopted my own policy on tipping. I will pay the cabin steward a tip at the end of the cruise (final night) which is based on a daily amount times the number of days. The amount is then adjusted depending on quality of service received.

 

 

 

I will only pay waiters in dinning room a tip if the service is exceptional. The service never reached even a satisfactory level so no tip was paid. I no longer view paying tips to dinning room waiters as obligatory. I should add that I only ate in the MDR a couple of times during the cruise.

 

 

 

The policy I adopted on this cruise and will on future cruise is for tips to be discretionary not obligatory. I will pay for good service and also for exceptional requirements.

Seems reasonable to me!

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this process of adding tips to onboard accounts is all wrong, the Gov has banned surcharges for payments by credit card, should require a "the price you see is the price you pay" policy ... then leave it as an option to tip if so desire

this process of adding tips to onboard accounts is all wrong, the Gov has banned surcharges for payments by credit card, should require a "the price you see is the price you pay" policy ... then leave it as an option to tip if so desire

Totally agree!

On Azura - cancelled tips via form. We are going to tip our cabin steward, who has been excellent directly at end of the cruise in excess of daily amount.

I have just returned from cruise on Ventura. For the first time I chose to have the service charge removed.

 

The process is simple. You go to guest services. Make the request. You are given a form the complete. The form allows you to choose to change or remove the service charge. It also allows you to provide feedback on quality of service and the reason for removal. I found the process to be fair and reasonable.

 

I did this early on in the cruise day 2 of 12 day cruise). I didn't receive a letter in my cabin. I checked my account a few days later and the service charge was removed.

 

I have now adopted my own policy on tipping. I will pay the cabin steward a tip at the end of the cruise (final night) which is based on a daily amount times the number of days. The amount is then adjusted depending on quality of service received.

 

I will only pay waiters in dinning room a tip if the service is exceptional. The service never reached even a satisfactory level so no tip was paid. I no longer view paying tips to dinning room waiters as obligatory. I should add that I only ate in the MDR a couple of times during the cruise.

 

The policy I adopted on this cruise and will on future cruise is for tips to be discretionary not obligatory. I will pay for good service and also for exceptional requirements.

We too have just returned from Ventura ,have to say the staff and crew were all excellent ,breakfast in MDR everyday ,Dinner on 8 evenings ,so nice to be served and looked after .Sorry your experience was not the same

We deducted the tips on our cruise on Ventura recently. However we didn't do it to save money but because of the P&O policy of withholding gratuities if the member of staff concerned doesn't get good enough grades. We took lots of £5 / $5 bills and gave the waiters a tip every night as we were more than happy with the service in the MDR, The Glass House and The Beach House. We also tipped our steward a few pounds for all the little extras as we went along then a large sum at the end.

We took the auto tips off for the first time last year on Britannia for a week to see how it went. We took cash with us to the sum of how much the automatic tips should have been.

What we discovered was that, as we use freedom dining and never had the same waiter any evening, we felt guilty that we had not been able to say a thank you (as we had taken the tips off and never had any continuity in the dining room).

Same for other crew.

In the end we felt guilty that we had not said a thank you for all of them so kept them on on Ventura in August and more recently on Oceana in April.

Still think the system is wrong but felt better for this as the service on Oceana, in particular, across the board was really excellent.