Cancelling Standard Tips

We've only eaten in the MDR once this cruise, having paid tips via the supplements already charged. I would take them off but if they have to hand them back what's the point?

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But we do not know exactly how the money is shared. So all of this is speculation.

 

 

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No we don't . We only know what P&O tell us. Any imagined speculation is caused by P&O and their efforts to cloak the whole thing in a bit of mystery.

But we do not know exactly how the money is shared. So all of this is speculation.

 

 

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There should be no speculation,P&O used to recommend what we put in our envelopes on the last night so basically they need to just come out and say.

All tips are given to crew in the following as a percentage of your tips.

I have always paid the auto gratuity but am beginning to have doubts about whether this is the right thing to do. I strongly object to paying more to cover for those who remove them and I strongly object to them being based on performance questionnaires. The problem is, I am not sure whether they are charged and allocated in this way. Some say they are and some say they aren’t - who knows?

 

As I see it, the only way this can be sorted out is for Carnival / P&O to be completely transparent about the systems they use and make it public to all those who are paying what amounts to a huge sum of money every cruise. If they are not prepared to do that, including gratuities in with the basic price as a standard charge regardless of select, early saver and saver fares, appears to be their only fair option.

 

Many of us who use this board are shareholders in the company. Maybe this can be used as some sort of leverage to persuade the company to be more honest and open with us. However, I guess that on this issue they would treat both shareholders and passengers with equal contempt by maintaining a deafening silence as at present.

Great post with every point being very relevant.

I think it is more Celebrity than P&O that you should be angry with. The tipping policy is company wide, apart from P&O Australia, and corporately they would not want one of their major brands to step out of line. Unless over 75% of P&O cruisers stop paying the autotips, I cannot see Carnival allowing P&O to deviate from corporate procedure.

Not sure where Celebrity fit into this? Carnival? or did I miss something earlier?

Anyway if you mean Carnival and tipping policy company wide I am not sure that is correct see this from a Carnival company's literature.

"To simplify the tipping process for our guests, a discretionary gratuity is applied automatically to your shipboard account on a daily basis. This gratuity will be shared amongst those staff who help provide and support your cruise experience, including all waitstaff, stateroom stewards, buffet stewards, and housekeeping staff across the fleet."

That was posted in another forum as it came as a shock to the poster.

I have always paid the auto gratuity but am beginning to have doubts about whether this is the right thing to do. I strongly object to paying more to cover for those who remove them and I strongly object to them being based on performance questionnaires. The problem is, I am not sure whether they are charged and allocated in this way. Some say they are and some say they aren’t - who knows?

 

As I see it, the only way this can be sorted out is for Carnival / P&O to be completely transparent about the systems they use and make it public to all those who are paying what amounts to a huge sum of money every cruise. If they are not prepared to do that, including gratuities in with the basic price as a standard charge regardless of select, early saver and saver fares, appears to be their only fair option.

 

Many of us who use this board are shareholders in the company. Maybe this can be used as some sort of leverage to persuade the company to be more honest and open with us. However, I guess that on this issue they would treat both shareholders and passengers with equal contempt by maintaining a deafening silence as at present.

Very good post. That's just about how I feel. I'm not a shareholder but I don't think there is a hope in hell that P&O would take any notice whatsoever.

I think the term "across the fleet" in the context here is that monies are distributed as described to staff on your ship as "your cruise experience" is mentioned. This policy is consistent on all the ships.

Regards John

Sorry, did mean to say Carnival right at the start. Having said that, Celebrity too tend to have a fleet wide auto tip policy.

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It is on their website for all to see so how can that be undisclosed.

You as an experienced cruiser knows to look as you might expect to pay a service charge.

For someone who has never cruised before and is used to (honest) hotels where the cost of the room meals and service would appear during the booking or on their final bill would not expect to pay anything more.

The first a new cruiser would become aware of this undisclosed charge is when they got their cabin bill at the end of the cruise!

I am also appalled that P&O can get away with using money given by passengers, whether auto or cash for bonuses based on THEIR decisions to who is the most deserving. Absolute fraud and mishandling of their passengers money. How do they get away with it?

They get away with it because of the social embarrassment of not paying.

It is obviously outrageous and deeply unpleasant.for P&O behave in this way, but according to many here "it's tradition". Well so was sending children up chimneys.

My son is 12 two months before we travel, why on earth should a 12 year old pay auto tips?

My son is 12 two months before we travel, why on earth should a 12 year old pay auto tips?

Because he is getting services by people who work on the ship?

Because he is getting services by people who work on the ship?

Do 11 year olds receive a different service?

So, my 99 night cruise in January will cost me an extra £1118 in auto gratuities and I am not sure that I can trust P&O to distribute this fairly amongst the crew. Has anyone ever counted exactly how much one ship rakes in every week on auto gratuities. The amount is eye watering and yet we cannot find out from P&O, Carnival , whoever, what they do with all of this money. Just imagine if a lot of the staff do not reach the "excellent" mark. They would not get their share . Do you think P&O would donate the excess to Charity? No, I doubt it more like pay a bonus to their executives. Last year the UK Government investigated tipping in the service industries and I am sure they put a stop to big companies STEALING the tips/gratuities from their staff. Some of the comments on here seem to presume that people who remove auto tips are some sort of second class cruiser or a cheap skate. What I choose to do is my business but my conscience would NOT allow me to hand over that amount of money without trying to ascertain if the staff do actually receive it. Maybe I should take my cheque book and write a cheque for the cabin steward or get their bank details and so a quick transfer?? Shareholders please do a bit of agitating to get P&O to set up a transparent system

So, my 99 night cruise in January will cost me an extra £1118 in auto gratuities and I am not sure that I can trust P&O to distribute this fairly amongst the crew. Has anyone ever counted exactly how much one ship rakes in every week on auto gratuities. The amount is eye watering and yet we cannot find out from P&O, Carnival , whoever, what they do with all of this money. Just imagine if a lot of the staff do not reach the "excellent" mark. They would not get their share . Do you think P&O would donate the excess to Charity? No, I doubt it more like pay a bonus to their executives. Last year the UK Government investigated tipping in the service industries and I am sure they put a stop to big companies STEALING the tips/gratuities from their staff. Some of the comments on here seem to presume that people who remove auto tips are some sort of second class cruiser or a cheap skate. What I choose to do is my business but my conscience would NOT allow me to hand over that amount of money without trying to ascertain if the staff do actually receive it. Maybe I should take my cheque book and write a cheque for the cabin steward or get their bank details and so a quick transfer?? Shareholders please do a bit of agitating to get P&O to set up a transparent system

Or alternatively, cancel auto gratuities and tip with cash directly then you know where your money has gone.

BTW I know its a long cruise but handing over that amount in tips is daunting.

Or alternatively, cancel auto gratuities and tip with cash directly then you know where your money has gone.

BTW I know its a long cruise but handing over that amount in tips is daunting.

But as has been posted if a passenger stopped their tips the crew has to put that money into the tipping pool so defeats the objective.

Or alternatively, cancel auto gratuities and tip with cash directly then you know where your money has gone.

BTW I know its a long cruise but handing over that amount in tips is daunting.

Very daunting! Did think about asking for discount!!!

Very daunting! Did think about asking for discount!!!

Worth asking or even ask for a few free specialty restaurants meals.

Very daunting! Did think about asking for discount!!!

We've done 105nights kept the auto-tips on and still gave extra to our waiters, cabin steward, butler and others. I really do get a little tired of these threads with people continually finding reasons why they shouldn't pay gratuities. Either pay up or stop cruising.

So, my 99 night cruise in January will cost me an extra £1118 in auto gratuities

I suppose the question might be -would you have been happy to pay ~£1200 more for your cruise? if P&O marketed the cruise with Gratuities included.

It would obviously work out the same for you but would you have had second thoughts on booking it.

When I look at Thomson A!&Grats I subtract those calculated at other lines rates from the price asked and compare that with similar cruises. Have to say I much prefer it all to be included and that way you dont have to worry whether the staff are stiffed or not as it is totally out of your control (some will say as it is with P&O)

One can then give real tips to anyone who provides you with an extra service in the knowledge that it will not be taken off them and maybe allocated to someone else on another ship.

There is an article here on tipping but as usual there is no date on it. Surprisingly no comments either.

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/articles.cfm?ID=261

We've done 105nights kept the auto-tips on and still gave extra to our waiters, cabin steward, butler and others. I really do get a little tired of these threads with people continually finding reasons why they shouldn't pay gratuities. Either pay up or stop cruising.

The Blue Peter badge is in the post, as for gratuities there are two choices either pay the tips or cancel them, cancelling them doesn't give you any less right to go cruising despite what some would have you believe.

Just to throw a spanner in the works, on a world cruise on 99 nights ( rounded up for convenience) each cabin would pay £12.00 per day. Times that by a rough estimate of 1000 cabins, you have tips paid of £1,200,000. Do you REALLY think that gets split between the waiters, cabin stewards and buffet staff? Food for thought or what?

Just to throw a spanner in the works, on a world cruise on 99 nights ( rounded up for convenience) each cabin would pay £12.00 per day. Times that by a rough estimate of 1000 cabins, you have tips paid of £1,200,000. Do you REALLY think that gets split between the waiters, cabin stewards and buffet staff? Food for thought or what?

Definitely a lot of money, around £4.2 million a year based on 1000 cabins.

The calculation regarding the world cruise is a bit of a red herring. The amount generated would be the same if there were a number of individual cruises that in total amounted to 99 days. I do not see why the crew should receive less in tips because they are working on one long cruise, as compared to 6 or 7 14 day cruises. They still do the same amount of work .

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Just to add, that £1.2mil does seem a lot over 99 days, but if you then break that down to a weekly figure, and then split the figure by the number of crew in the tip pool, the actual sum per person is only around £400 per week (back of a fag packet calculation). This does not seem excessive to me, given the hours worked.

However, I would still prefer to see the tips incorporated in the fare, so the the 99 day cruise was £1200 more expensive.

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We've done 105nights kept the auto-tips on and still gave extra to our waiters, cabin steward, butler and others. I really do get a little tired of these threads with people continually finding reasons why they shouldn't pay gratuities. Either pay up or stop cruising.

That is your choice - don't assume that everyone who cancels the autotip doesn't tip or want to tip.

We want to be sure that the staff that serve us get their reward depending on the level of service they offer, with autotip this depends on their customer satisfaction results. What happens to the money if they don't get a high enough rating.

We tip by envelope because we want the be sure that the staff serving us actually get the money, but now we cannot even be sure that they can keep it because they may have to hand to over to a kitty.

So P&O need to provide some transparency on this - as it stands there is no way to ensure that the staff serving us are guaranteed to get the money.