Hello friends!

[ColoradoJuli]

Just had to pop over here for a minute and say hello to everyone. I do miss you! I have been so busy trying to get back in the groove of things after my cruise, catch up with work, and decide what to do about my birthday vacation that I have not had time to 'see' you all.

 

I did end up canceling my cruise in May and instead am going to Sandals in Jamacia. DH really wants to do some diving and they offer free diving everyday, plus we will get to pick up some Blue Mountain Coffee! Yum!!

 

I am curious how much of a change everyone has noticed on HAL since the new tipping policy went into place. I talked to a friend the other day and she said that HAL used to be their favorite, but things have changed so much that they are thinking that they are done with cruising and will just stick to land vacations.

 

I have wondered if talking to the room steward and waiter the first night and telling them that you do not do automatic tipping and will tip them appropriately at the end of the cruise in cash, if that would make a difference in the service. There has to be some way to solve the service issues since the automatic tipping has been put in place.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Have cruised HAL several times since the new tipping policy went into affect. We do not remove the automatic tips. If you do remove the automatic tips, the cabin steward and dining waitstaff are required to turn in anything you tip them. That money is then put into the pool and is divided among everyone. So they will actually get less than what you want them to have. They are notified the last full day of the cruise as to who has signed the form to have the automatic tips removed. On our one cruise we watched the area captain in the dining room check to see who gave personal tips. We knew of one couple who had the tips removed and he watched to see if they slipped the waitstaff anything extra.

[ColoradoJuli]

Interesting. I didn't realize that they got 'penialized'. I removed the auto tip from our NCL we just went on because I wanted to personally tip the staff. I put on my paperwork (to remove the auto tip) that I wanted to tip those who deserved it and wanted to do it personally. Guess I screwed up. Lesson learned.

[jhannah]

There has to be some way to solve the service issues since the automatic tipping has been put in place.

I don't believe this has anything to do with it. There were staffing cutbacks that were implemented long before auto-tipping was put in place. We noticed some degradation in service on our second HAL cruise due to the fact that the dining room staff had more tables to cover. I believe KK is correct that the servers get more money in the long run with auto-tip.

[HeatherInFlorida]

Juli, you didn't necessarily "screw up" on NCL. All cruiselines handle this differently. I don't know about NCL.

[shipcafe]

Interesting. I didn't realize that they got 'penialized'. I removed the auto tip from our NCL we just went on because I wanted to personally tip the staff. I put on my paperwork (to remove the auto tip) that I wanted to tip those who deserved it and wanted to do it personally. Guess I screwed up. Lesson learned.

 

My first experience with "auto tipping" was aboard Norwegian Star. It was a surprise at first seeing the daily charges but very much accustomed me to be what seems like an industry trend.

[TedC]

On Hal, if you leave the autotip on you can give extra to anyone you choose and they do not have to pool it.