Rise in Tips ?

[balf]

We always leave tips on. On our last cruise by chance I was walking through the reception area to find a queue snaking all round the atrium and beyond. I could see an officer handing out forms so asked someone what they were for, he said 'removal of tips'. If hundreds removed them b4 the increase, I can't see how anyone will gain by increasing them as it wil just encourage even more to stop them.

 

Include them in cruise price as an add on is the only way to ensure equal pay for all.

 

Agree with you on this. I've seen the same many times, and not just on a P&O cruise.

 

It's funny though that the vast majority of posters here (those who expressed an opinion as the pollsters say) declare that they always leave the tips in place.

 

Maybe here we are not typical.

 

David.

[balf]

Now with auto tips I am still happy to hand over a little personal thank you card to individual staff and of course no one else knows the contents of the envelope and I hope that the sentiment is appreciated.

 

I would suggest disapointed would be more likely.

 

David.

[newbieafloat]

I would suggest disapointed would be more likely.

 

David.

 

Could be worse, could be the Tommy Cooper trick - handing over an envelope and saying have a drink on me, then getting out of the way before they open it and find a tea bag inside :D

[balf]

Could be worse, could be the Tommy Cooper trick - handing over an envelope and saying have a drink on me, then getting out of the way before they open it and find a tea bag inside :D

 

Yes it could be worse, I once saw a guy "tipping" his room steward, saying "I hope you like jelly babies"

 

David.

[louthebowler]

I wish there could be a poll somewhere so people could state whether they would prefer tips to be included in fare, and then hopefully if enough people voted, maybe cruiselines would take note. unfortunately not all cruisers use these forums so don't know where it could be done.

so many people make assumptions about others regarding tipping that I would love tipping to be included in fare. one example is something I have read on many of the threads, and that is how people think others that don't want to tip steer clear of the main dining room on the final night, well I cant speak for others , but, we always try to do freedom, mytime or whatever name is given to dining when and where you want, as we feel our cruise is first and foremost a holiday so like to eat that way too. by doing freedom dining we pay autogratuity up front and then don't have to worry as the tips would get to everyone it was supposed to. on a typical 14 night cruise we would probably only be in the main dining room 7 times and probably not on final night, but certainly don't like to think people are giving us 'looks' for eating elsewhere.

[Ehg]

Sorry this is wrong. The tips are not taken away with a poor score. They cannot be.

 

The score is all to do with the Bonus. The bonus and the tip are separate.

 

 

It's difficult to know what to believe. We did that (removed auto-tip) as we were told (by a number of staff) that it is better for them to receive a tip personally. I can't imagine they would do that if they then had to hand it in, and how would P&O know they'd had a tip anyway? It may be a bonus thing as you say, in which case the tip given to them personally must be more that the auto-tip or they wouldn't mention it. We were led to believe that unless they got "excellent" from all their cabins they suffered financially. I don't mind what others do, we just wanted to make sure the tips we gave reached the people we wanted them to reach. It was implied that if the questionnaires did not give the required ratings that perhaps P&O kept the tips.....? I have no idea if this is true or not, and I'm sure that it does P&O no harm for passengers to believe they need to give scores of "excellent" on feedback forms as they will no doubt use these as marketing tools, but once again it comes down to us wanting those who gave us good service to get the tips we believed they deserved.

[daiB]

It's difficult to know what to believe. We did that (removed auto-tip) as we were told (by a number of staff) that it is better for them to receive a tip personally. I can't imagine they would do that if they then had to hand it in, and how would P&O know they'd had a tip anyway? It may be a bonus thing as you say, in which case the tip given to them personally must be more that the auto-tip or they wouldn't mention it. We were led to believe that unless they got "excellent" from all their cabins they suffered financially. I don't mind what others do, we just wanted to make sure the tips we gave reached the people we wanted them to reach. It was implied that if the questionnaires did not give the required ratings that perhaps P&O kept the tips.....? I have no idea if this is true or not, and I'm sure that it does P&O no harm for passengers to believe they need to give scores of "excellent" on feedback forms as they will no doubt use these as marketing tools, but once again it comes down to us wanting those who gave us good service to get the tips we believed they deserved.

 

 

P&O make it quite clear on their website that 100% of the tips paid via Auto Tipping go to your cabin steward, your MDR table waiters the head waiter, a very small % and you butler if you have one. It is on the website, very clear. Can you imagine the uproar if they did not give it to those people. The questionnaire is important as the bonus scheme is based on the results.

[wilson2579]

Yes it could be worse, I once saw a guy "tipping" his room steward, saying "I hope you like jelly babies"

 

David.

 

Neighbours to us on the Ventura gave the cabin steward £3 for a 12 night cruise.:eek:

[PORT ROYAL]

Neighbours to us on the Ventura gave the cabin steward £3 for a 12 night cruise.:eek:

 

At least a tightwad igave something ;)

[kevinyork]

Some 'friends' of ours shared a table for 8 where all of them agreed to remove their tips and give the waiters £50 between 8 of them for their 2 week cruise. Cabin stewards got nothing. Until tips become part of the cruise price then things like this will keep happening. Unfortunately it will take one cruise line to take the plunge and advertise 'no extra tips' but I suppose they are scared of taking that leap. At least P&O would have the benefit of having the lowest tips so low overall prices.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[solostar]

We have cruised with "Thomsons" and the tips are already included, and we tipped whoever we wanted to, and that is exactly what we will do with P&O.

[BalkanCruiser]

Some 'friends' of ours shared a table for 8 where all of them agreed to remove their tips and give the waiters £50 between 8 of them for their 2 week cruise. Cabin stewards got nothing. Until tips become part of the cruise price then things like this will keep happening. Unfortunately it will take one cruise line to take the plunge and advertise 'no extra tips' but I suppose they are scared of taking that leap. At least P&O would have the benefit of having the lowest tips so low overall prices.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Several cruise lines already do this.

[Scriv]

I thought about this yesterday when we went out for Mothers Day as in most nice restaurants in our area, there was 12.5 % 'Discretionary Service'.

 

So if you have a 3 course meal costing you around £33, you pay £5. So £5 per person for one meal.

 

So surely the auto tip of £5 per day which also covers the cabin steward cannot be described as an unreasonable charge.

Edited March 16, 2015 by Scriv

[PORT ROYAL]

I thought about this yesterday when we went out for Mothers Day as in most nice restaurants in our area, there was 12.5 % 'Discretionary Service'.

 

So if you have a 3 course meal costing you around £33, you pay £5. So £5 per person for one meal.

 

So surely the auto tip of £5 per day which also covers the cabin steward cannot be described as an unreasonable charge.

 

Agreed. However, to the tightwads it is not the value

of the charge, just they have no wish to pay or give anything :eek:

[dgs1956]

P&O make it quite clear on their website that 100% of the tips paid via Auto Tipping go to your cabin steward, your MDR table waiters the head waiter, a very small % and you butler if you have one. It is on the website, very clear. Can you imagine the uproar if they did not give it to those people. The questionnaire is important as the bonus scheme is based on the results.

 

You would think that was simple enough yet there are almost 300 posts on this thread and it crops up time an time again. We leave auto tips on and normally give the Cabin Steward a bit extra. Last cruise we gave the bar waiter in the atrium area a tip as we spend a lot of time dancing there. We don't feel the need to do any of that. We lived in Spain and nobody tips there. I know Americans supposedly tip more than Brits. One of my friend tips 15% regardless of service because he thinks its the done thing and another doesn't like tipping at all. We are probably somewhere in the middle. Surely adults must be able to make their own minds up what they want to do.

[daiB]

You would think that was simple enough yet there are almost 300 posts on this thread and it crops up time an time again. We leave auto tips on and normally give the Cabin Steward a bit extra. Last cruise we gave the bar waiter in the atrium area a tip as we spend a lot of time dancing there. We don't feel the need to do any of that. We lived in Spain and nobody tips there. I know Americans supposedly tip more than Brits. One of my friend tips 15% regardless of service because he thinks its the done thing and another doesn't like tipping at all. We are probably somewhere in the middle. Surely adults must be able to make their own minds up what they want to do.

 

 

We have always given a little extra as we felt the tips had not gone up for such a long time. We may decide that they have now caught up at £5 per head per day. Or not as the case may be. When it first started we vowed we would not do auto tips. That did not last and as the money goes to the people we would tip anyway stopping them was a pointless gesture. We tend to use the same bar pre dinner and they get an envelope.

[dgs1956]

We have always given a little extra as we felt the tips had not gone up for such a long time. We may decide that they have now caught up at £5 per head per day. Or not as the case may be. When it first started we vowed we would not do auto tips. That did not last and as the money goes to the people we would tip anyway stopping them was a pointless gesture. We tend to use the same bar pre dinner and they get an envelope.

 

Personally I think you are spot on there.

[newbieafloat]

I thought about this yesterday when we went out for Mothers Day as in most nice restaurants in our area, there was 12.5 % 'Discretionary Service'.

 

So if you have a 3 course meal costing you around £33, you pay £5. So £5 per person for one meal.

 

So surely the auto tip of £5 per day which also covers the cabin steward cannot be described as an unreasonable charge.

 

Agreed! For the evening meal alone, I would expect to be tipping in this region for a "bought" meal. It's harder to put a value on the stewards (particularly for me as I haven't cruised yet :p) but the overall suggested rate doesn't seem bad at all.

 

As I sail before the increase, I have already budgeted for the suggested tips at £3.95/day. I've decided what level of expense (on board spend) I'd be happy to pay for the fortnight, deducted tips, divvied the rest into a budget of X for port days and Y for sea days. I can now manage my expenditure whilst giving a fair reward to those who (hopefully) will be working hard to make my first cruise a very special and enjoyable holiday.

[Big Stevie]

I thought about this yesterday when we went out for Mothers Day as in most nice restaurants in our area, there was 12.5 % 'Discretionary Service'.

 

So if you have a 3 course meal costing you around £33, you pay £5. So £5 per person for one meal.

 

So surely the auto tip of £5 per day which also covers the cabin steward cannot be described as an unreasonable charge.

 

But unlike the waiters on your cruise, the waiter in your local restaurant isn't getting his accommodation and meals provided is he.

[newbieafloat]

But unlike the waiters on your cruise, the waiter in your local restaurant isn't getting his accommodation and meals provided is he.

 

No, he's getting a full wage instead :D

[Scriv]

But unlike the waiters on your cruise, the waiter in your local restaurant isn't getting his accommodation and meals provided is he.

 

But he or she goes home to his family at the end of the day or evening instead of every six or nine months.

Edited March 16, 2015 by Scriv

[cruisefan2012]

He/she made that choice...

[gadabout60]

He/she made that choice...

 

Yes but many of them do it because of poor opportunities in their own country and to educate their children.

They also work many more hours than waiters in our local restaurants

[Dryce]

So surely the auto tip of £5 per day which also covers the cabin steward cannot be described as an unreasonable charge.

 

It depends. For many it's a trivial sum.

 

But we've sat at tables where there are couples who are grumpy that they couldn't book a mini-suite and had to settle with a balcony cabin because of availability - and others who have saved hard from a pension to share an inside cabin and are sticking with water in the MDR and not taking excursions and counting every penny.

[terrierjohn]

It depends. For many it's a trivial sum.

 

But we've sat at tables where there are couples who are grumpy that they couldn't book a mini-suite and had to settle with a balcony cabin because of availability - and others who have saved hard from a pension to share an inside cabin and are sticking with water in the MDR and not taking excursions and counting every penny.

I would not want to deny anyone the opportunity to take a cruise holiday, but if the cost of gratuities on P&O at £5pppd would be sufficient to break their bank then I believe they may be over extending themselves and should consider a cheaper holiday.

It probably would be far better if the cruise lines added it to the invoice price, however I believe this would more than double the current level of auto tips levied (see my post #90 on this thread) but I accept it would be fairer.

However this would likely create major problems for the hotel management if the current system of paying bar waiters a commission on drinks sold was maintained but stewards and MDR waiters were only paid a flat sum.

Perhaps those passengers who regularly chat to hotel staff could ask their steward/MDR waiter what they think of this idea next time they cruise.