Tipping

[bigandlil]

How exactly does the prepaid tipping work once you are on the ship?

 

Does the room steward always know that the tip has been prepaid?

 

Thanks.

[chrysalis]

Info on this page should help you....

 

http://www.loonbeam.com/PrincessFAQ/?cat=2

[Kamloops50]

How exactly does the prepaid tipping work once you are on the ship?

 

Does the room steward always know that the tip has been prepaid?

 

Thanks.

 

The staff are notified of those that cancelled their gratuities.

This could affect the service you receive. I tip extra for extra service to the room steward and dining room staff.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Kamloops50

[antsp]

Your cabin steward gets a printout the day after the cruise ends, he then finds out if any of his cabins have stiffed him/her on tips. They dont know hilst your still on board, unless your doing a b2b

[Pam in CA]

How exactly does the prepaid tipping work once you are on the ship?

 

 

 

Does the room steward always know that the tip has been prepaid?

The pre-paid "tip" is actually just a credit on your onboard folio. You are charged nightly as usual but have the credit to cover the amounts. The cabin stewards know who has removed the general "auto-tip " but since the pre-paid tip isn't actually pre-paid, they have no idea.

[Colo Cruiser]

The list for those that opt out of the auto tips is available to the crew during the cruise.

It does not come out after the cruise.

They know exactly who pays and who does not.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Colo Cruiser

[antsp]

Your cabin steward gets a printout the day after the cruise ends, he then finds out if any of his cabins have stiffed him/her on tips. They dont know whilst your still on board, unless your doing a b2b

 

This is 100 percent correct

[Colo Cruiser]

I have seen the list, its printed out during the cruise and posted in the crew area.

[antsp]

I have seen the list, its printed out during the cruise and posted in the crew area.

 

That list is from the previous cruise.

[gooch47]

I wonder how we could know which of these totally contradictory answers is correct?

[EatPrayCruise]

I wonder how we could know which of these totally contradictory answers is correct?

 

I agree, how do we know what exactly goes on. On our last two cruises (in 2013 - different ships/crews), we asked several crew (different areas of the ships) and were consistently told that the auto tip is divided between the room steward who gets half and that the staff "pool" for the main dining rooms gets the other half. Has anyone else been told that?

[jg51]

I wonder how we could know which of these totally contradictory answers is correct?

 

I agree, how do we know what exactly goes on. On our last two cruises (... different ships/crews), we asked several crew (different areas of the ships) and were consistently told that the auto tip is divided between the room steward who gets half and that the staff "pool" for the main dining rooms gets the other half. Has anyone else been told that?

 

We have read a LOT of debate on this topic here at CrCr and at other cruise-related sites on the Internet, and here is what we have concluded after much careful thought:

 

1. We will not worry about how pre-paid (or automatically deducted) gratuitities are subdivided. We will let the cruise lines, most of which have been around for 50 to 150 years, decide what is the best way to break it down. If we were a distrusting kind of person, we would shut off all pre-paid gratuities and distribute all the cash to everyone ourselves. Dear "EatPrayCruise" (whose moniker we love, although we would put "Pray" before "Eat" [!]), here is Princess's official explanation of the division of automatically charged gratuities: "This charge will be shared amongst those staff who help provide and support your cruise experience, including the wait staff, stateroom stewards, buffet stewards, galley staff, laundry staff, and others. Casino dealers and Lotus Spa personnel do not share in the Hotel and Dining charge as not all passengers utilize these services."

 

2. We will not believe the rumors about crew members knowing which guests have pre-paid, which are auto-paying, and which have shut off auto-payment. We are convinced that no one (outside of Guest Relations) has a way of knowing who has pre-paid and who is auto-paying ... and not even those in Guest Relations have a wayof known who may or may not be paying in cash as the cruise proceeds (for example, meal by meal) or at the very end of the cruise.

 

3. There was allegedly an incident, some years ago -- including an alleged e-mail that can be read on the Internet -- supposedly showing that auto-tipping info is revealed (to stewards, etc.) during a cruise. Even in that probably fictitious account, however, the cruise line supposedly followed up by assuring the public that the e-mailed revelation was not standard operating procedure and would never happen again.

 

4. We have concluded that some false rumors (myths) were started -- perhaps more than ten years ago -- by unscrupulous cruise-line employees who wanted to generate tremendous fear in the hearts of guests. We think that they wanted to make guests worry that, if they do not auto-tip, they will be mistreated by the crew. (In case you are wondering, we have always auto-tipped, but not out of fear.) At this point, it is not even necessary for those long-ago employees (or their successors) to perpetuate the myth, because so many gullible guests have believed it and openly share their beliefs and fears in these forums and elsewhere. Why does this sadden us? Read on ...

 

3. Logic alone tells us that tipping-related revelations do NOT take place during a cruise, because such revelations could lead to chaos on board. Stewards, waiters, etc., would not know whether or not they would receive cash from a non-auto-tipping guest at the end of a cruise; as a result, they could be tempted to badly mistreat such guests. Since a cruise line does not want that kind of temptation (much less mistreatment) to happen, we are convinced that the line does NOT allow anyone outside of Guest Services to know the tipping status of any guest until after the cruise has ended.

 

4. If a stateroom steward is notified, after the cruise, that one of his guests has neither prepaid nor auto-paid, then he can conclude one of the following:

(a) the guest has very limited funds and cannot afford to pay gratuities;

(b) the guest could afford to pay, but was raised by parents, or in a culture, that rejects the idea of gratuities;

© the guest was dissatisfied with the steward's service and may or may not have reported the dissatisfaction [to be determined soon];

(d) the guest intended to pay him a gratuity in cash, but forgot to do so;

(e) the guest DID pay a gratuity in cash, and it was the amount that the guest thought was fair.

 

5. We have also concluded that another belief, held and shared by some CrCr members, is yet another myth. We are referring to the belief that, if a guest gives a cash tip (during, or at the end of, a cruise) to a crew member (waiter, steward, etc.), then that crew member must turn the cash in to a supervisor -- who will return it to the crew member (if auto-tipping is turned on) or who will keep it for a shared pool (if auto-tipping is turned off). It has even been alleged that crew members that attempt secretly to keep such cash are sometimes discovered and fired. Some CrCr members have posted here that various crew members, in management positions, have revealed this practice aboard their ships.

 

Now, we do not believe that CrCr members are lying about these "revelations" by managers, but we believe that they have either misunderstood what they were told ... or they have been deceived by those managers. We can believe that a few folks in management, who think that it is improper for guests to shut off auto-tipping, could "fib" to guests about a fictitious requirement that crew must turn in cash for potential pooling. Logic tells us that the cruise line would never impose such an unfair practice on stewards/waiters, etc., because doing so would incense both the guests (who have every right to reward individual human beings as individuals) and the crew members (whose motivation to please guests would be choked off).

 

6. Flowing from all of the aforesaid ...

We have what we think is a good suggestion for any CrCr member that is against auto-tipping, but cannot seem to overcome the myth-induced fears that we mentioned above (namely that shutting off auto-tipping on Embarkation Day could result in unwanted revelations and poor service ... and/or that doing so could force one's ongoing [or end-of-cruise] cash tips to be turned in for pooling). Such a worried guest should leave the auto-tipping in place until the day before Disembarkation Day. Then he should go to Guest Relations and have the gratuities removed, in whole or in part, as he sees fit. By performing this reduction nearly at the last minute, all the guest's (unfounded, in our opinion) fears would be relieved. Such guests, if asked why they are making this change, should not explain in detail, for they can simply show Guest Relations a print-out of the Princess policy ("Discretionary Hotel and Dining Charge" found on http://www.princess.com/learn/answer/during_cruise/dining.html). The key word, "discretionary," means that it is up to the discretion of the guest to decide whether, and how much, to tip ... and the guest is not obligated by law to tip nor to explain his decision to increase, reduce, or fully remove the auto-tip amount.

 

7. In our opinion, no guest (unless almost destitute) should ever leave the crew untipped, but should always give each person his/her fair due -- either directly or by automatic tipping or a combination of both.

--------------------

 

We respectfully ask the monitors of this forum not to delete this post nor this thread. Apparently, an entire thread was deleted yesterday, perhaps due to abusive language having been used by one or more CrCr members. As a result, the reasonable, sincere hard work that some members did yesterday was lost -- vanished into thin air -- with no compensation. We have done our utmost to be logical, pleasant, and respectful of everyone in this current post, and we do not deserve to have another hour of hard work deleted. Perhaps you (monitors) can, instead of deleting this thread, "lock" it to prevent further messages from being posted, if you are worried about problems recurring ... or you can just delete specific nasty posts, instead of the whole thread?

Thank you.

.

[SwissDave]

Your cabin steward gets a printout the day after the cruise ends, he then finds out if any of his cabins have stiffed him/her on tips. They dont know whilst your still on board, unless your doing a b2b

 

This is 100 percent correct

 

Exactly, and often they do not receive it until 3 days after the cruise ends, it all depends on when the pursers desk/accountants/finance office gets round to it.

It is pointless posting a list during the cruise as that would mean all those who remove the auto charge would have done so on the first night, when in reality most people do it on the last day/night. A new list would have be created each day to keep up with the small number who decide midway through the cruise.

[Lovetocruiseprincess]

People can believe what they want about how an individual cruise line handles & distributes the tips but from what was published in the past about RCCL getting caught posting the information about "Prepaid Gratuities Removed" I tend to believe the practice is still happening on all cruise lines, Princess included. (just not so blatantly for the passengers to see).

If it really affects an individuals performance on how they treat their customers is unsure but I know how I would feel & treat one of those people if they were in my section.

[tommy]

I wonder how we could know which of these totally contradictory answers is correct?

They do not know until after the cruise.

[janecambridge]

]4. If a stateroom steward is notified, after the cruise, that one of his guests has neither prepaid nor auto-paid, then he can conclude one of the following:

(a) the guest has very limited funds and cannot afford to pay gratuities;

(b) the guest could afford to pay, but was raised by parents, or in a culture, that rejects the idea of gratuities;

© the guest was dissatisfied with the steward's service and may or may not have reported the dissatisfaction [to be determined soon];

(d) the guest intended to pay him a gratuity in cash, but forgot to do so;

(e) the guest DID pay a gratuity in cash, and it was the amount that the guest thought was fair.

 

 

We spoke to a couple who after three days of waiting nearly an hour for ATD,removed their auto tip.They had 4 questions on a slip of paper to tick their reason,2 were about their dining experience.so it isn't just stewards,culture,forgetfulness and limited funds.It goes further than that.

[Pjran]

We spoke to a couple who after three days of waiting nearly an hour for ATD,removed their auto tip.They had 4 questions on a slip of paper to tick their reason,2 were about their dining experience.so it isn't just stewards,culture,forgetfulness and limited funds.It goes further than that.

 

Could you please let me know what is ATD?

[SwissDave]

We spoke to a couple who after three days of waiting nearly an hour for ATD,removed their auto tip.They had 4 questions on a slip of paper to tick their reason,2 were about their dining experience.so it isn't just stewards,culture,forgetfulness and limited funds.It goes further than that.

 

Could you please let me know what is ATD?

 

AnyTime Dining, so no fixed time.

[Colo Cruiser]

They do not know until after the cruise.

 

That is not correct. It makes no sense to deal with the issue in the middle of the next cruise.

[Pjran]

Could you please let me know what is ATD?

 

AnyTime Dining, so no fixed time.

 

Thank you SwissDave x

[Loonbeam]

Ok, lets put this to rest once and for all.

 

I worked at Princess as a contractor. While there, I confirmed from multiple sources the standard policy that I posted on my FAQ. These are not fibs, misinformation or anything else.

 

Princess Standard Policy on non Australian Based ships is that ALL CASH TIPS RECEIVED MUST BE TURNED IN by applicable staff until the auto-tip is resolved and failure to do so is grounds for dismissal for not following policy. Period.

 

With that said, indvidual ships, based on conditions can set their own policy regarding these matters with corporate approval. This is most common in the Med where autotips are more widely removed for cultural reasons.

 

If you wish to know the policy on the ship/itinerary you are on, ask the purser. That is the only person who can give a definitive answer as changes can be department specific!

 

 

Secondly, staff are not notified if the auto-tip is removed during the cruise UNLESS it is done so early in the cruise for matters of performance, as the crew member may be given the opportunity to correct the issue. This will vary based on supervisor and issue type. After the cruise is complete, they can get a breakdown by cabin for stewards on request if they have questions about the amount. Doesn't happen often.

 

You can believe what you want, I'll go with reading the actual Princess policy manual at one point while bored waiting for data to migrate.

[cb at sea]

There is NO WAY that anyone except the worker who was handed cash would know they'd received it....I maintain cash goes in their pocket, and no one is the wiser.

[alexspepa]

There is NO WAY that anyone except the worker who was handed cash would know they'd received it....I maintain cash goes in their pocket, and no one is the wiser.

 

is that what you would do if you were in their place?...how else can you come to such a conclusion? I am seriously interested...

[ar1950]

We have read a LOT of debate on this topic here at CrCr and at other cruise-related sites on the Internet, and here is what we have concluded after much careful thought:

 

1. We will not worry about how pre-paid (or automatically deducted) gratuitities are subdivided.

.......................

7. In our opinion, no guest (unless almost destitute) should ever leave the crew untipped, but should always give each person his/her fair due --

--------------------

 

Probably the only two points in the entire post that (in my opinion only) are actually are good points.

 

We respectfully ask the monitors of this forum not to delete this post nor this thread. Apparently, an entire thread was deleted yesterday, perhaps due to abusive language having been used by one or more CrCr members. As a result, the reasonable, sincere hard work that some members did yesterday was lost -- vanished into thin air -- with no compensation. We have done our utmost to be logical, pleasant, and respectful of everyone in this current post, and we do not deserve to have another hour of hard work deleted. Perhaps you (monitors) can, instead of deleting this thread, "lock" it to prevent further messages from being posted, if you are worried about problems recurring ... or you can just delete specific nasty posts, instead of the whole thread?

Thank you.

.

 

And that would be why? I would respectfully (and as pleasantly as possible) ask why are your opinions and conjectures somehow more valuable than others' opinions?:confused:

Edited August 19, 2014 by ar1950

[Loonbeam]

Crew live in very close quarters. They will notice someone with a surplus of cash beyond the norm. Also pursers have a pretty good idea of what someone should be turning in on average.

 

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I am sure it does (someone gets a $20 turns in $10 etc), but all it takes is one supervisor seeing it and -poof-. Depending on your contract, you could have to find your own way home, and the agency that you booked through will probably not place you again, even on another line. I suspect most won't risk it.

 

There is NO WAY that anyone except the worker who was handed cash would know they'd received it....I maintain cash goes in their pocket, and no one is the wiser.