Argh, tipping.

[jannandjohn]

 

Allowing one bad experience to turn you off cruising for life is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I started here with my input into the tipping question, and I still believe that OZ cruises get a raw deal with service compared to overseas where the staff know they will get extras from most..

fact that MANY on the ship was also sick..not Noro.(standing room only in sick bay...)..was enough for me to lose my nose if need be...

I am still very ill after 4 weeks,(have a Super bug as described by 2 docs)

we both went to a Doc in Perth, as we were worried we could not fly back to Brisbane with the lack of being able to breathe ...100 bucks each, and twice to a doc again here at home, and again today..

the doc in Perth said she is always busy when a big ship comes in and will never cruise for that reason) this is the main reason we don't want to do another cruise..ever...

the dining dramas just added to it...severely added to it...we spent the last week in our cabin..and it was brekky lunch and dinner..food no different to dining room..crap..

and yes, the Maitre de at night told our Canadian friends they were having problems.

we had a friend from the UK who was bitterly disappointed in the food offerings

but as I said, you have no idea what we went thru...and I will not explain myself any further for you to judge me...there will always be someone like YOU to try to twist what we say here.( saw your sig, not much there to go by for cruises..)

Edited March 17, 2016 by jannandjohn

[Cabansail]

I have only been on one cruise. It was in Australian waters. We pre-paid tips as part of the fare. Had no problem with service but we are not demanding and actually do not enjoy it when people try too much to get a tip. I did hear one person say she was going to have the auto gratuities removed from her account to save money. I saw it as part of the fare.

 

I am unlikely to cruise again either. Nothing to do with the staff or us having restrictions due to Norovirus. The thing that put me off was being in the company of too many drunks. It seems that getting legless every day is part of the cruising lifestyle. Then again if I came across another bargain I may go.

[MicCanberra]

it was their 40 th cruise without a hitch. but their first Aus waters cruise

 

I am sorry you and the Canadians were treated badly but it still sounds like bad service and nothing to do with tipping being pre paid or nationality of the passenger as first claimed.

[Tigerlily75]

it was their 40 th cruise without a hitch. but their first Aus waters cruise

 

Don't people prepay gratuities on overseas cruises too? Whether prior to the cruise or automatically charged while on board? I'm not understanding the difference between our waters and overseas waters when everyone is paying gratuities regardless of where they are, unless they choose to go have them removed.

 

I would think you'd get better service if you've paid your tips over someone who hasn't - and might not at all.

 

You obviously got bad service, but it doesn't make sense that it was because you paid your tips.

[Adidas4fun]

So a normal tipping thread, lots of heat and very little light.

 

It saddens me to see Aussies attacking their compratiots over this issue.

 

Tipping is a flawed system that does not produce the claimed benefits and instead incentivises discriminatory behaviours by both customers and servers.

[jannandjohn]

Don't people prepay gratuities on overseas cruises too? Whether prior to the cruise or automatically charged while on board? I'm not understanding the difference between our waters and overseas waters when everyone is paying gratuities regardless of where they are, unless they choose to go have them removed.

 

I would think you'd get better service if you've paid your tips over someone who hasn't - and might not at all.

 

You obviously got bad service, but it doesn't make sense that it was because you paid your tips.

My last input, as nobody seems to see what I meant..

On overseas cruises we have not prepaid, but have the amount added daily, our room attendants also know we have not prepaid, and the restaurant servers know too.

My thought is that when it has been prepaid( in Aus waters for this one) those same people know that no matter how they serve its been already paid and they get their cut regardless.

When not prepaid you do have the option to remove those tips( we have NEVER EVER DONE THAT and we always give extra to those we see or deal with daily)

You cannot get a refund if you have prepaid. No matter how they have treatd you.

Thats my thought, and I am entitled to my opinion regardless of those here who think they are the only ones with any tippng knowledge.

Edited March 17, 2016 by jannandjohn

[Tigerlily75]

My last input, as nobody seems to see what I meant..

On overseas cruises we have not prepaid, but have the amount added daily, our room attendants also know we have not prepaid, and the restaurant servers know too.

My thought is that when it has been prepaid( in Aus waters for this one) those same people know that no matter how they serve its been already paid and they get their cut regardless.

When not prepaid you do have the option to remove those tips( we have NEVER EVER DONE THAT and we always give extra to those we see or deal with daily)

You cannot get a refund if you have prepaid. No matter how they have treatd you.

Thats my thought, and I am entitled to my opinion regardless of those here who think they are the only ones with any tippng knowledge.

 

That does make more sense, I was truly confused, thanks.

[SeaDays4Us]

[quote name=

You cannot get a refund if you have prepaid. No matter how they have treatd you.

Thats my thought, and I am entitled to my opinion regardless of those here who think they are the only ones with any tippng knowledge.[/quote]

 

 

Hi Jann

We met on the Quantum.

I get what your saying. We don't like prepaying, for us gratuities is a reward for good service. How do you know you are going to get good service, before you even embark.

We prepaid on the Voyager, Freo to Singapore last year. We had done the same cruise the previous year and had our gratuities added to our account daily...No problems.

We experienced bad and rude service last year, so went to the desk and asked for our prepaid tips to be refunded. Not a problem. They refunded it back on the last day of the cruise to our travel agent. We gave out cash gratuities. So, yes you can get pre paid refunded, on Royal Caribbean anyway.

We are doing a overseas Celebrity cruise in May and used prepaid tips as one of our perks, so hopefully we get great service.😊

Jo

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[GUT2407]

I have only been on one cruise. It was in Australian waters. We pre-paid tips as part of the fare. Had no problem with service but we are not demanding and actually do not enjoy it when people try too much to get a tip. I did hear one person say she was going to have the auto gratuities removed from her account to save money. I saw it as part of the fare.

 

I am unlikely to cruise again either. Nothing to do with the staff or us having restrictions due to Norovirus. The thing that put me off was being in the company of too many drunks. It seems that getting legless every day is part of the cruising lifestyle. Then again if I came across another bargain I may go.

 

 

You may then have taken the wrong cruise, line, length time or a combination of all three, in all my cruises (not that many really but about 150 days in total across a few lines) I have only ever seen a handful of people who were "legless" and believe me I've seen legless. Most of those were on one shortish P&O cruise.

[OzKiwiJJ]

.and I will not explain myself any further for you to judge me...there will always be someone like YOU to try to twist what we say here.( saw your sig, not much there to go by for cruises..)

 

I did not judge you and I did not try to twist what you said, I merely tried to make sense of your somewhat confusing post that was obviously incorrect even to someone of my limited cruising experience. And I may have just recently started cruising but I have been travelling internationally for many, many years so have plenty of experience as to what constitutes good and bad service.

[MicCanberra]

Don't people prepay gratuities on overseas cruises too? Whether prior to the cruise or automatically charged while on board? I'm not understanding the difference between our waters and overseas waters when everyone is paying gratuities regardless of where they are, unless they choose to go have them removed.

 

I would think you'd get better service if you've paid your tips over someone who hasn't - and might not at all.

 

You obviously got bad service, but it doesn't make sense that it was because you paid your tips.

 

Agreed.

 

Additionally the rationale that it is because they are 'Select' dining makes no difference.

On the Solstice they have two different levels for Select and Traditional seatings. I believe the two lines that were referred to, were actually all select diners but some had reservations while the others did not.

 

 

If the service is bad the tips (whether pre paid or pas as you go) can and will be removed by visiting the guest services and letting them know. Why someone would want to punish all the staff (that get a share of the auto tips) for the bad service of a few is beyond me but whatever floats their boat, it is their money.

Edited March 17, 2016 by MicCanberra

[jannandjohn]

[OzKiwiJJ]

My last input, as nobody seems to see what I meant..

On overseas cruises we have not prepaid, but have the amount added daily, our room attendants also know we have not prepaid, and the restaurant servers know too.

My thought is that when it has been prepaid( in Aus waters for this one) those same people know that no matter how they serve its been already paid and they get their cut regardless.

When not prepaid you do have the option to remove those tips( we have NEVER EVER DONE THAT and we always give extra to those we see or deal with daily)

You cannot get a refund if you have prepaid. No matter how they have treatd you.

Thats my thought, and I am entitled to my opinion regardless of those here who think they are the only ones with any tippng knowledge.

 

I really don't think prepayment of tips is going to affect service to some people but not to others, after all some people who have prepaid their tips will also tip extra at the end of the cruise to those that give good service. Yes, even Australians. ;)

 

I really think you were just unlucky on your Solstice cruise to have been in a situation where the overall service of one of the dining rooms was not up to the standard expected. It would be interesting to know what time you dined, whether it was the same each night or whether it varied, and whether the times coincided with peak dining times, or just after the peak. I got the impression you had different waiters each night - did they all give poor service?

[clairebearinaus]

clairebearinaus

 

its not worth losing sleep over. We have cruised on 'Australian' ships and overseas and while it is somehting we arent used to in our daily life it was easily picked up along the way. No one will think badly of you if you dont give any additional tips or if you tip less than the people in the cabin next door.

Relax and enjoy your trip :)

 

BTW, do I 'know' you from some different chat boards?

 

It's possible, I'm on a parenting forum as well, there are a few who cross over both from what I've seen! Want to give me a hint? I'm known as a bit of a feral on the other board, and I'm old, if that helps ;)

 

Thanks for the reassurance about tipping.

[Newby58]

I have to admit to not reading ALL the posts on this thread, however, wanted to add my experience. We prepaid our tips for a 10 night cruise. We had MTD with the same waiter and assistant waiter who were wonderful and gave us anything we asked for, which wasn't more than maybe an extra entree. Our stateroom attendant was also good and supplied us with ice twice a day which was important to us. The dining room staff asked for extra tips knowing that we had prepaid. Said they rely on us for income. Gave them both USD$50. The stateroom attendant said he would get some of the prepaid tips. Gave him USD$50 too. Although he didn't ask. Like you OP I wasn't sure what to do. I gave all tips personally with a "thank you". I know I didn't have to do any of it, however, it felt right. To top the subject off, I chatted with a few Aussies on our cruise who withdrew all tips and paid nothing. They just didn't think it necessary after paying X amount for their cruise. Go figure.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I have to admit to not reading ALL the posts on this thread, however, wanted to add my experience. We prepaid our tips for a 10 night cruise. We had MTD with the same waiter and assistant waiter who were wonderful and gave us anything we asked for, which wasn't more than maybe an extra entree. Our stateroom attendant was also good and supplied us with ice twice a day which was important to us. The dining room staff asked for extra tips knowing that we had prepaid. Said they rely on us for income. Gave them both USD$50. The stateroom attendant said he would get some of the prepaid tips. Gave him USD$50 too. Although he didn't ask. Like you OP I wasn't sure what to do. I gave all tips personally with a "thank you". I know I didn't have to do any of it, however, it felt right. To top the subject off, I chatted with a few Aussies on our cruise who withdrew all tips and paid nothing. They just didn't think it necessary after paying X amount for their cruise. Go figure.

 

I'd think twice about tipping extra to anyone that asked for extra tips knowing I'd prepaid, no matter how good their service was. That would really annoy me. :eek: Note we have tipped extra on all our cruises so far and I always allow for that extra tipping in my budget for a cruise. To me it's just part of the cost of cruising although I do prefer it to be part of the fare like with the Australian-based cruise ships -somehow it feels easier that way, and that's probably why we prepay our grats when we cruise on a USD ship.

 

Sadly there are some TA who advise their clients to remove the tips, and also some people who just don't understand how the fixed gratuities work. It's a shame. :(

[jannandjohn]

. We prepaid our tips. The dining room staff asked for extra tips knowing that we had prepaid. Said they rely on us for income. Gave them both USD$50. The stateroom attendant said he would get some of the prepaid tips. Gave him USD$50 too.

I rest my case..... :rolleyes:

Being asked for tips is definitely not in the manual..

even discussing the tipping with passengers would not be allowed.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I rest my case..... :rolleyes:

Being asked for tips is definitely not in the manual..

even discussing the tipping with passengers would not be allowed.

 

On the RCI cruise we did the MDR staff were touting for high scores on the feedback surveys, to the point of annoyance, but no-one actually asked for tips. The head waiter for our section actually came to our table and gave us a long spiel on how only 10 out of 10 was acceptable, DH had steam coming out of his ears after that! :eek: Unfortunately the survey only allowed the MDR to be rated as a whole, not specifically for dinner, and the service at breakfast and lunch had been quite bad. Our dinner wait team were wonderful and I did make that very clear in the comments at the end of the survey. However that, along with a few other things, have put put RCI at the bottom of our list of cruise lines we'd continue cruising on.

[The_Big_M]

I rest my case..... :rolleyes:

Being asked for tips is definitely not in the manual..

even discussing the tipping with passengers would not be allowed.

 

So, they're people too.

 

Bringing alcohol onboard some lines at times is not allowed either. People still do it.

[The_Big_M]

I've not prepaid my tips on some cruises, and still had bad service.

 

So much for that theory, eh.

[MicCanberra]

It seems that some staff will provide bad service whether tips are prepaid, not paid or paid as you go. Luckily I haven't had too many of those staff members on my cruises.:D

[OzKiwiJJ]

Unless you get one person or team who constantly gives poor service (in which case a quiet word to a supervisor might help), bad service is often a result of understaffing, poor processes, and/or poor management.

 

We've experienced consistent bad service on a ship twice:

Celebrity Solstice MDR breakfast, and that was definitely a poor process / poor management issue. It was so bad, in a disorganised way, it was funny.

Rhapsody of the Seas MDR breakfast and lunch, which seemed to be an understaffing issue - each waiter just had too many tables to cope with efficiently.

 

So far on Princess we've had good to great service - breakfast, lunch, dinner, in the bars and in the Sanctuary.

[kazbar]

It's possible, I'm on a parenting forum as well, there are a few who cross over both from what I've seen! Want to give me a hint? I'm known as a bit of a feral on the other board, and I'm old, if that helps ;)

 

Thanks for the reassurance about tipping.

 

hint: ebay :)

[NSWP]

I don't normally get involved in tipping threads, tipping is a personal thing in my opinion. But the demands are not only on the ships however...

 

Reading LA Port information on Princess site (have been there before and will be there in Oct/Nov.) Princess Cruise Lines Quote: 'Porters are not employees of Princess and tipping is customary.' I was also told that by fellow pax in years past, if you don't want your baggage damaged or ending up in LA Harbour tip the Porters at San Pedro - LA World Cruise Centre - $5. So when in Rome etc.

 

MicCanberra, do you have any popcorn left old son?

Edited March 17, 2016 by NSWP

[ozscot01]

We prepaid our grats on our recent RCI and I can honestly say the service was excellent throughout. Whether the staff knew we had prepaid, I don't know. I do think it insulting to suggest that staff will only give good service if they think there is more to come. These people work horrendous hours and in our experience do so with an attitude that would put many of us to shame.

I did tip extra, not because I had to but because I wanted to. Our cabin steward looked after us exceptionally well, considering one of our cabins was the domain of two 16 yr old girls he earned every cent!

We had MTD and were lucky enough to have the same table each night, so also tipped our waiter and asst. waiter.

Now I don't actually know the designation of the angel who stood post outside the dining room, and allocated us our table each night, but she got an envelope too. Not only for the short waits, greeting us by name and generally being a sweetheart, but also because she ran interference on other passengers when our teens chose to eat in the MDR at our usual reserved table without us one night. She politely saw off those who suggested to them that the Cafe was still open and they should not be taking up a table themselves!

The choice to tip or not is yours, do what makes you comfortable, and don't allow the issue of tipping to spoil your trip[emoji4]