You Better Tip at Port Everglades - Or Else!

[AF-1]

Hank is correct with his answer. Suggest if this happens to anyone reading this thread; to tell the porter; ok just direct me to the union steward at the port. That should quiet things down.

[Funkat]

Wow. We have sailed out of a number of ports and never have encountered this type of behavior. It definitely needs reporting. It may fall on deaf ears, but at least you will have the satisfaction of trying to do something about it.

[Pierlesscruisers]

We boarded the Regal Princess on February 4th. We always tip the baggage porter $10 for 2 bags. We did the same this trip.

 

As we were walking towards the Princess terminal, I was a few feet ahead of my wife. All of a sudden, my wife starts calling out for me. I turn around and she is being verbally intimidated by a porter. I immediately go back and the guy starts berating me telling me "You have to tip". I tell this clown I did and he continues on telling me to identify who received the tip. I locate the guy and drag him over to talk to "The Intimidator" My guy tells "The Intimidator" I tipped him. "The Intimidator" starts yelling at the porter to turn over the tip to him. We picked up the pace and soon were safely inside the Princess terminal while the 2 porters were still jawboning at each other.

 

I don't know who oversees these guys, but you better leave a tip - or else.

 

That is when you ask to see the longshoreman in charge of the porters. Tipping is NOT a requirement, at least it isn't in Seattle and an experience such as yours needs to be reported at the first opportunity. If you are unable, for some reason to get in touch with the longshoreman's supervisor, you should report your experience to the supervisor of the pier agents who are processing you onto your ship. While they can't do anything to the longshoremen themselves, they can report your experience through their chain to the appropriate personnel. If at all possible, get the name of the person who was rude to you.

 

Tom

[Pierlesscruisers]

Porters are not employees of the Cruise Lines. They are longshoremen, union members. Those working cruise ships bid for the work because it is very lucrative, and the irony is that those with the seniority to get the jobs are the highest paid, according to chengkp75, earning in excess of $100k/yr. EM

 

That is true, the porters are not cruise line employees, and the company it should be reported to at the very minimum is the company providing the pier agents who are processing the passengers on and off the ship and it should be reported as soon as possible after the incident if at all possible. If it's reported to the cruise line, they are going to pass that info on to the company that they have hired to provide shore services. By the time the word gets back to the shore services company it would be way too late for any meaningful action to be taken.

 

Tom

[Micahs Grandad]

Welcome to the world of the International Longshoreman Union. Some of these guys make around 6 figures (with overtime) and intimidation (and worse) have been a hallmark of this labor organization forever. The cruise lines hire "gangs" which consist of a specific number of workers and supervisors. Everything they do (and the time they work) is strictly governed by their Union contract). We once had to sit on our luggage outside the NYC Cruise Port (it was a nice day) while the Longshoreman were on their lunch break. It seems that HAL had not paid extra for another gang and did not want to pay the outrageous extra cost of having the "gang" work their lunch hour. So we were told, "you are not allowed to bring your own luggage into the cruise terminal or we will go out on strike." At exactly 1pm, when their lunch hour was over, and nice labor guy walked over to me, smiles, and said, we will take your luggage now (and of course he had his hand out).

 

In fairness to the cruise industry, there is little they can do about these practices other then to pay the cost and hope for the best. We know one cruise ship Hotel Manager who told us how he often would pay-off the gang "boss" with a case of booze....which helped avoid any kind of problems, slow downs, etc. Some foreman on the West Coast ports are said to make over $200,000 a year. And yet, these guys expect tips.

 

Hank

 

Wow.

[geoherb]

We boarded the Regal last weekend. Fortunately we did not have any attitude from the porter who took our two pieces of checked luggage. I only gave him $2. I thought it was adequate considering he moved our bags about 10 feet from where we gave them to him to the container holding other pieces of luggage. If you multiplied one bag per person times $1 per bag, that's $3,600 for the dozen or so men to split for a morning's work. Add in additional tips for those they helped with disembarkation, that's a nice day's pay, especially since they probably don't declare most of their tips as income.

 

We did get attitude from a cab driver on our last cruise who did not think we paid him enough. I wish now that I had not given him any additional tip. We had shared a cab from the port to the airport due to his thinking the other folks were with us.

[compozer]

Have always had bad experiences with them. Have had them stand there with their hand open before they would touch our bags. One even asked my HD where his bags were. they were still on the curb and they guy said he would take them when he gave him a tip. In NewYork, I ran after a porter because he Didn't ask for a tip.

I am so sick of the FLL porters. I might take a picture next time and then run like hell with my luggage.

[moki'smommy]

This is making me wonder whether we can handle our bags without any assistance on our upcoming FLL trip. Guess I'll have to see how much my cruise buddies pack. I don't mind tipping, but I'm not into extortion or highway robbery.

[OCruisers]

We always tip ($10 for 4 bags) ... and have never had a problem. :)

[DrivesLikeMario]

Wow !

$10 for just 2 bags, $20 for 4 ?

Way too much !

Half of that would be more than sufficient for the short distance that they handle your luggage.

It is no wonder that they are fighting over your tips.

 

I totally agree! That is WAY too much to tip them. $1-$2 a bag is what most people tip.

[Optotronics]

I tipped them at debarkation last time as the nice fellow carted our bags all the way to our car; he deserved it, it was above and beyond his normal duty. For those taking 5 seconds to move our bags 6 feet onto the carts at embarkation, no they are just doing their job and are very well paid for what they do. Remember we are paying their 100k+/year wages indirectly with our port fees.

[Thrak]

Sadly this is far from the first time this type of behavior has been reported for the porters in that port. It's insane and should be stopped but it seems that "the powers that be" don't care at all and perhaps even encourage this type of behavior. What horrible public relations - especially for our foreign visitors. It's shameful.

[moki'smommy]

Interesting that you would mention foreign visitors. We were much impressed with the port at Dover. The service was great, and there was a LARGE sign posted that said that tipping was not permitted; they had been paid for their service. If you attempted to tip, it was declined.

[cruzsnooze]

We boarded the Regal Princess on February 4th. We always tip the baggage porter $10 for 2 bags. We did the same this trip.

 

As we were walking towards the Princess terminal, I was a few feet ahead of my wife. All of a sudden, my wife starts calling out for me. I turn around and she is being verbally intimidated by a porter. I immediately go back and the guy starts berating me telling me "You have to tip". I tell this clown I did and he continues on telling me to identify who received the tip. I locate the guy and drag him over to talk to "The Intimidator" My guy tells "The Intimidator" I tipped him. "The Intimidator" starts yelling at the porter to turn over the tip to him. We picked up the pace and soon were safely inside the Princess terminal while the 2 porters were still jawboning at each other.

 

I don't know who oversees these guys, but you better leave a tip - or else.

These are union long shore men who earn more then me & I did't tip them. I boarded the Caribbean Princess for the Panama canal cruise Feb 6 and did not tip. The porter didn't seem fazed and our luggage arrived as usual. You got a really nasty SOB. Your experience makes me glad I didn't tip, seems it's not appreciated.

[GUT2407]

Did you report it?

[triple7tahoe]

I worked at the pier in SFO for a few years as part of the shore side staff that got your room cards, pushed wheel chairs, directed folks to waiting areas and taxi stands. While I was out side it was always interesting to see the way the UNION longshoremen (persons) handled the various passengers and their luggage. A limo pulled up and there would almost be a fight to see who could "help". A group of another ethnic group not noted for tips (Not Aussies BTW :-) ) and they could hardly find someone to take their bags. More than once I turned in a porter who was trying to intimidate folks (especially foreigners) into larger tips. I will repeat what has been stated. We had signs saying tips not required. These folks do fight to get these union job and are well paid. Tip if you like-We usually give $5 for two or three bags-your bags should not suffer if you don't. That being said--I did see a whole cage full of bags fall off the forklift into San Francisco Bay. Seriously doubt the forklift driver had any idea if there had been tips exchanged :-)

[damiross]

Gee...starting to sound like an extortion racket. ...

That's redundant. Union is just another word for extortion racket.

[Clownfish Cruiser]

Good to know. Yikes!

[tom66]

Wow !

 

$10 for just 2 bags, $20 for 4 ?

 

Way too much !

 

Half of that would be more than sufficient for the short distance that they handle your luggage.

 

It is no wonder that they are fighting over your tips.

 

 

 

I agree it’s out of control but if you think that’s too much, don’t cruise out of NYC . We live on Long Island and cruise out of the city often. If you don’t give a good tip your bags will be floating next to the ship.

 

 

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[moki'smommy]

Too bad they don't just put the luggage trolleys out and let guests place their own bags on them. Yes, I get it. The union won't allow it.

 

Just an aside, HA assist services at JFK are the worst we've ever encountered. And they are one of a very few where the workers are unionized.

[CruiseVA]

Not my experience a couple of weeks ago.

 

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[Pierlesscruisers]

That's redundant. Union is just another word for extortion racket.

 

I have to disgree with you on this. While I would agree that in some instances unions may have way too much power, there are also instances where if it weren't for unions, the working man would not have any power at all and would suffer greatly. Too much power in either direction is not a good thing. An example of a good policy was when I worked for a short period of time many years ago as a P.E. Aide at an elementary school in CA. I noticed on the first check I got that there was a deduction from my check for something I didn't recognize. When I asked about it I was told that it was the proportional share of the union dues for the teacher's union that paid for the contract negotiations that had to do with salary. That made sense to me that I should be charged for that since I benefited from those negotiations.

 

 

One thing I will say is that most of the longshoremen who work at Pier 91 in Seattle are pretty nice guys. There are some who are at the other end of the scale, but not many.

 

Tom

[Thrak]

Interesting that you would mention foreign visitors. We were much impressed with the port at Dover. The service was great' date=' and there was a LARGE sign posted that said that tipping was not permitted; they had been paid for their service. If you attempted to tip, it was declined.[/quote']

 

The crazy out of hand tipping thing in the US is embarrassing. It's just one more negative thing for visitors to point at and shake their heads. When I was working I had a number of folks try to tip me or pay me for doing "extra" work for them that wasn't really part of my job. I always just told them I was already being paid to be there and the "extra" work was fine. I never accepted the payment or tip.

[WatchHill]

We've encountered similar intimidation at PE and Miami. NYC used to be tough if you arrived in a cruise bus; a longshoreman came onto the bus and said if you want your luggage on the correct cart, pay as you leave the bus and show us your luggage on the sidewalk. Otherwise, the threat was the luggage will floating down the river or headed to a distant port half way around the world. So, DH has a new tactic, I go ahead of him, and he observes with a note pad and pen in hand - he eyes the luggage supervisor and says, "IRS cash reporting compliance check" as he pretends to write down their names.

 

On our last trip leaving Southampton England, a very nice luggage handler helped removed all of our items from the car, reminded us to be sure to hand-carry documents and medication, chatted very nicely with us, too. He gave us an update on wait time in the terminal, wishing us a pleasant cruise. DH reached for his wallet and the luggage guy say, "No, this is England, not the US. We have unions here, but not like they do in the states."

 

Darcy

[Sailorgirl65]

23 Princess Cruises, most out of Port Everglades. Never had a problem. Tip $5.00 for 2 bags. Most of the time they don’t even look at the money.

 

 

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