Gratuities going up..

[RotaryMike]

2 months ago, somebody was nice enough to do us all a favor and point out the 12/15 gratuity increase - and give us the (no pun intended) TIP that we could prepay by 11/15 and save enough to by a drink by the pool!

 

let's just say, thank you steve,

 

this has gotten way off topic and dragged out, and brings to mind what has become a famous quote, "at this point, what difference does it make" !!

[RetiredNTraveling]

2 months ago, somebody was nice enough to do us all a favor and point out the 12/15 gratuity increase - and give us the (no pun intended) TIP that we could prepay by 11/15 and save enough to by a drink by the pool!

 

let's just say, thank you steve,

 

this has gotten way off topic and dragged out, and brings to mind what has become a famous quote, "at this point, what difference does it make" !!

 

I appreciated that post and as a result, we pre-paid our gratuities yesterday for our Oct 8, 2017 28 Day Hawaii, Samoa & Fr. Polynesia cruise! Didn't save a great deal but any little bit helps!

Just Mike

[Chunder Worthy]

They just continue to chip away $$$$..... This is why I have absolutely no qualms or compunctions about bringing my own alcohol on board with Cruise Caddys. Debate among yourselves [unsubscribing].

[Cuizer2]

No way to argue with a post like this:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=51303697&postcount=107

 

but... but... but... its personal choice

 

I dont deny ALL the onboard staff do an incredible job, cant be easy trying to get thousands of people fed, watered, entertained, cabins clean, tidy and presentable - I`m British I dont tip...

 

Cruisefan2012

 

That is an important point. Tipping seems to be fairly unique (not totally unique but fairly unique) to North America and totally foreign to some other cultures.

 

There are cruise lines that pay their workers a living wage and those workers do not expect a tip. In addition, not every worker in the land based service industry in the United States gets tipped. My Mom was looking into an assisted living home and they had strict rules against tipping.

[Thrak]

I believe that one of the reasons the gratuities keep increasing it simply to "make up" for all of the people who remove the gratuities. In order to maintain a certain level in the tip pool those who do pay have to pay more due to those who don't pay.

[Pierlesscruisers]

I believe that one of the reasons the gratuities keep increasing it simply to "make up" for all of the people who remove the gratuities. In order to maintain a certain level in the tip pool those who do pay have to pay more due to those who don't pay.

 

I certainly can't argue with that logic. Personally, I think they just ought to lump that gratuity amount in with the rest of the cruise cost. That would certainly eliminate the problem with the cancellations.

 

Tom

[Jaglady10]

Can we use OBC to pay gratuities? I've heard yes and no. This will be our 15th cruise but we've always pre-paid so this question never came up.

[Cuizer2]

Can we use OBC to pay gratuities? I've heard yes and no. This will be our 15th cruise but we've always pre-paid so this question never came up.

 

Yes.

[Krozulo]

I believe that one of the reasons the gratuities keep increasing it simply to "make up" for all of the people who remove the gratuities. In order to maintain a certain level in the tip pool those who do pay have to pay more due to those who don't pay.

 

The problem is that as gratuities go up, the people who removed them at the lower levels will never suddenly start paying them. But more people will get fed up and remove them, requiring more frequent increases. The best way around this would be to remove gratuities and roll the wage increase into the trip cost. Now all the cruise lines would have to do it at the same time to avoid the perception that one is significantly more than the other, but considering that there are few parent companies it should be easy to do. Sprinkle in some creative marketing and the other cruise lines would quickly fall in place.

[KruzeKrazy!]

We take a fairly pragmatic view of tipping: our total cruise cost equals travel to/from + any hotel/food pre- and/or post-cruise + cruise fare + excursions + onboard extras + tipping + miscellaneous expenses.

 

Whatever that totals then the overall vacation experience is either worth it or not worth it. If worth it and we can take the time we go. If not worth it we don't go irrespective of whether we can take the time.

 

We don't try to decipher all the behind the scenes gymnastics of how the money flows and to whom - that is the cruise line's business and between them and their constituencies (e.g. employers, contracted workers, etc.).

 

What we try to do is have a great vacation - that is our part of the equation to ensure that the total benefit received is greater than the total paid out. And so far no cruise line nor cruise experience has failed to provide more benefit to us than we paid out for it.

 

That's our story and we're sticking to it... [emoji2]

[Lucky TGO]

Here is my question:

 

Our next cruise is April 2017, we will have $1100 OBC. If we prepay gratuities is there a way that we can use our OBC for that? If not, we would be better off waiting to pay on board with OBC.

 

Does anyone have the answer to this, would sure appreciate the input.

You can't use your OBC to prepay gratuities sorry.

Tony

[joeyancho]

We take a fairly pragmatic view of tipping: our total cruise cost equals travel to/from + any hotel/food pre- and/or post-cruise + cruise fare + excursions + onboard extras + tipping + miscellaneous expenses.

 

Whatever that totals then the overall vacation experience is either worth it or not worth it. If worth it and we can take the time we go. If not worth it we don't go irrespective of whether we can take the time.

 

We don't try to decipher all the behind the scenes gymnastics of how the money flows and to whom - that is the cruise line's business and between them and their constituencies (e.g. employers, contracted workers, etc.).

 

What we try to do is have a great vacation - that is our part of the equation to ensure that the total benefit received is greater than the total paid out. And so far no cruise line nor cruise experience has failed to provide more benefit to us than we paid out for it.

 

That's our story and we're sticking to it... [emoji2]

 

Pragmatic Indeed!