New Gratuity Rate

[dazey]

Can I change my choice of perk to gratuity instead of onboard credit now? For a 14 day cruise it really makes sense.  Foolish of me to have chosen OBC instead of gratuity to begin with.

[Luckiestmanonearth]

I received this as well and don’t plan to prepay gratuities for a March cruise.

 

I am using perks to cover the gratuities and if I prepay, then I’m out that money now, plus I’ll have to spend my credit perk on something else during the cruise (likely on something that also went up in price)

 

So I’ll look at the big picture and suck up the extra $50 or whatever it comes to and still use my perk to cover the gratuities 

 

PS - do you really think it’s a coincidence that Celebrity offered all these perks with bookings and now announcing this gratuity increase and payment plan just before the 2020 season.  It’s brilliant

Edited December 28, 2019 by Luckiestmanonearth

[Bo1953]

3 minutes ago, dazey said:

Can I change my choice of perk to gratuity instead of onboard credit now? For a 14 day cruise it really makes sense.  Foolish of me to have chosen OBC instead of gratuity to begin with.

Not foolish, just ones perception of what they value... no worries.

 

Pending on when your sailing is, you are able to.

 

Please call your TA or X to change.

 

On seven (7) night sailings we choose OBC vs Grats as the former always covered the latter with some $ left over... and still will for the most part.

 

For longer sailings, we choose gratuities as we find that Perk more valuable than OBC.

 

bon voyage

[TeeRick]

One issue is associated with the country tipping culture of the cruise passenger.  Passengers from the USA tend to tip for everything towards 20% while others from other countries tip much less or even not at all.  No right or wrong answer based on where you live.  So it would indeed be easier and more fair to just charge a higher price per cabin with all gratuities included and just pay the crew a fair wage, period.  And not count on the passengers to supplement the wages by chance.  Then those who want to tip even more for great service could still do it freely and selectively. There would be no need to pass on gratuity increases and make all of these unpopular announcements.

[WestLakeGirl]

But then there would be unpopular announcements of increases in cruise fares.  Comes out the same.....

[Aus ATC]

16 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

One issue is associated with the country tipping culture of the cruise passenger.  Passengers from the USA tend to tip for everything towards 20% while others from other countries tip much less or even not at all.  No right or wrong answer based on where you live.  So it would indeed be easier and more fair to just charge a higher price per cabin with all gratuities included and just pay the crew a fair wage, period.  And not count on the passengers to supplement the wages by chance.  Then those who want to tip even more for great service could still do it freely and selectively. There would be no need to pass on gratuity increases and make all of these unpopular announcements.

 

Our cruise fares "down under" for Celebrity (and other cruise lines) include gratuities in the fare (not as a separate line item) - reflects our "all inclusive" pricing (and wages) model here.  The perks packages on .au bookings come with an additional $150USD per person OBC in lieu of the gratuities option.  We will choose to tip our room attendant, and some of the servers who we have developed a rapport with during a cruise, in cash at the end, to say thanks.

[Aus ATC]

13 minutes ago, WestLakeGirl said:

But then there would be unpopular announcements of increases in cruise fares.  Comes out the same.....

Probably no announcements - how would you know from one day to the next if the price has increased/changed due solely to this?  

[Moby Jones]

26 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

One issue is associated with the country tipping culture of the cruise passenger.  Passengers from the USA tend to tip for everything towards 20% while others from other countries tip much less or even not at all.  No right or wrong answer based on where you live.  So it would indeed be easier and more fair to just charge a higher price per cabin with all gratuities included and just pay the crew a fair wage, period.  And not count on the passengers to supplement the wages by chance.  Then those who want to tip even more for great service could still do it freely and selectively. There would be no need to pass on gratuity increases and make all of these unpopular announcements.

 

Agree 100%. 

I've never sailed with them but apparently the cruise line P&O allows guests to remove their gratuities via an interactive TV service. This seems like the line are making it all too easy for the pax to stiff the crew all too easily in my opinion. 

[Jossie1960]

1 hour ago, Globehoppers said:

...... Problem for Celebrity is that with "gratuities" approaching $20pp/day that added cost in becoming noticeable.  And by claiming "gratuities" are still voluntary and once onboard you can "delete" gratuities (has anyone tried that?), they maintain that myth.

 

Of course you can cancel them, join the queue at Guest Relations.  They don't even ask why with no form or signature required.  Over $800 for a 2 week cruise for our family of 4 is quite ridiculous.

Edited December 28, 2019 by Jossie1960

[TeeRick]

4 minutes ago, Aus ATC said:

 

Our cruise fares "down under" for Celebrity (and other cruise lines) include gratuities in the fare (not as a separate line item) - reflects our "all inclusive" pricing (and wages) model here.  The perks packages on .au bookings come with an additional $150USD per person OBC in lieu of the gratuities option.  We will choose to tip our room attendant, and some of the servers who we have developed a rapport with during a cruise, in cash at the end, to say thanks.

Yes I was lucky enough to cruise on Solstice two years ago out of Perth for 16 nights.  I loved our time in Aus and NZ.  I do very much understand the differences in tipping across our cultures after that trip.  Celebrity does work it into your fares so why not just do it across the board for every cruise?

[CulverCityCruisers]

2 hours ago, dazey said:

Can I change my choice of perk to gratuity instead of onboard credit now? For a 14 day cruise it really makes sense.  Foolish of me to have chosen OBC instead of gratuity to begin with.

Absolutely !!  Just contact your TA or X and request the change.  I just did for a Jan 10 2020 sailing.  NO problem

 

[CulverCityCruisers]

Another take on the increase.  Since there is no longer the $14 pp per day add on to the beverage pkg perk, they can now make up for the revenue this way!! Just a thought

[mom says]

16 minutes ago, CulverCityCruisers said:

Another take on the increase.  Since there is no longer the $14 pp per day add on to the beverage pkg perk, they can now make up for the revenue this way!! Just a thought

Um, no. This current increase goes to the crew gratuities. There is no revenue for the line.

[CulverCityCruisers]

8 minutes ago, mom says said:

Um, no. This current increase goes to the crew gratuities. There is no revenue for the line.

That's what they tell us and that's we hope for, but there are lots of questions about that, just my 2 cents

[davekathy]

5 minutes ago, CulverCityCruisers said:

That's what they tell us and that's we hope for, but there are lots of questions about that, just my 2 cents

But does it really matter? Speaking only for myself, I don't concern my self with how much any business pays it's employees. 

[ECCruise]

2 hours ago, Jossie1960 said:

 

Of course you can cancel them, join the queue at Guest Relations.  They don't even ask why with no form or signature required.  Over $800 for a 2 week cruise for our family of 4 is quite ridiculous.

Agree.  Ridiculous to stiff the crew.

[Bo1953]

42 minutes ago, CulverCityCruisers said:

Another take on the increase.  Since there is no longer the $14 pp per day add on to the beverage pkg perk, they can now make up for the revenue this way!! Just a thought

Nahhh, just think about where the money is going, beverage directly to X, gratuities directly to crew.

 

bon voyage

[Jim_Iain]

I just got through pre-paying my gratuities for our March cruise.   It is our Free Zenith cruise so even though I upgraded you could not add any perks.    It was really easy to prepay -  just a couple clicks of the mouse and put in credit card details or choose to pay with final payment.

 

 

[bikerunner]

34 minutes ago, CulverCityCruisers said:

That's what they tell us and that's we hope for, but there are lots of questions about that, just my 2 cents

I would think you would have a revolt by the crew or not so many that keep returning if this was happening. Plus with being a public company it would be caught in the books and the pr would be a disaster.  It’s a corporation yes nothing is ever clear with any of them but if they are pocketing the money it would be noticed.  

[Banjo]

Can someone please give me some help:

 

I have Reflection trans-Atlantic cruise planned for this April. Have no perks. Went to the link on the email which brought me to our cruise planner page. I see were Celebrity listed tours, restaurant reservations, internet packages, etc to purchase but no prepaying gratuities. Can someone enlighten me were it is on the page?

 

Thanks, Banjo 

[mom says]

1 hour ago, CulverCityCruisers said:

That's what they tell us and that's we hope for, but there are lots of questions about that, just my 2 cents

No, not really by anyone who has bothered to do their homework.

[ONT-CA]

What bothers us is the lines' presumptuous position of not only telling us how much to tip but to whom.

We can well imagine that the dishwasher resented the fact that the waiter got the tip or the person who vacuums the halls resented the room steward getting the tip but that falls under initiative and ambition.  As it becomes more difficult to recruit staff at the low wages, the lines' answer seems to have been increase their tips.  Sorry, your tips.  Like P&O, the (sic)"tips" should be included in the fare, period.  And as we are firm believers in actual tipping, we can get on with rewarding those who we think have well deserved it.

[PTC DAWG]

1 hour ago, ECCruise said:

Agree.  Ridiculous to stiff the crew.

Amazing that some folks seem quite proud of removing the DSC...

 

The same folks probably skipped the envelope lines the last day back in the day. 

[davekathy]

7 minutes ago, ONT-CA said:

What bothers us is the lines' presumptuous position of not only telling us how much to tip but to whom.

We can well imagine that the dishwasher resented the fact that the waiter got the tip or the person who vacuums the halls resented the room steward getting the tip but that falls under initiative and ambition.  As it becomes more difficult to recruit staff at the low wages, the lines' answer seems to have been increase their tips.  Sorry, your tips.  Like P&O, the (sic)"tips" should be included in the fare, period.  And as we are firm believers in actual tipping, we can get on with rewarding those who we think have well deserved it.

We already consider the gratuities part of the total cost of the cruise.  Separating the gratuities out from the cruise fare just gives those the option to remove the gratuities and would whine about it if they couldn't. The stateroom attendants vacuum the stateroom hallways.

[Bo1953]

2 hours ago, CulverCityCruisers said:

That's what they tell us and that's we hope for, but there are lots of questions about that, just my 2 cents

May I ask, what are the questions?

 

Are they yours or what others may have $1/day pp to say about it?

 

bon voyage