Lift and Shift - Also for European Customers?

[karli_ratte]

2 hours ago, steamboats said:

Karli,

 

Gratuities did not go down... and actually with a German booking gratuities are included since October 2019.

 

steamboats

They are still separate on our booking and we decided to prepay them. We originally booked in the middle of November 2019.

[Saab4444]

3 hours ago, steamboats said:

Karli,

 

Gratuities did not go down... and actually with a German booking gratuities are included since October 2019.

 

steamboats

Only if you book a brochure rate (Katalogpreis), but not for cheaper daily online rates.

[steamboats]

10 hours ago, karli_ratte said:

They are still separate on our booking and we decided to prepay them. We originally booked in the middle of November 2019.

 

Pretty strange as they´ve changed this in October 2019... Anyway the rate didn´t go down. It´s a matter of currency exchange rate.

 

steamboats

[steamboats]

10 hours ago, Saab4444 said:

Only if you book a brochure rate (Katalogpreis), but not for cheaper daily online rates.

 

No, they simply don´t charge it anymore... They used to say it´s included in those "fixed" catalogue prices. But onboard the German bookings are not charged anymore since October. You receive an envelope by the end of the cruise and can do whatever you want.

 

steamboats

[karli_ratte]

4 minutes ago, steamboats said:

 

It´s a matter of currency exchange rate.

 

steamboats

Still works for me 😉

[Saab4444]

23 minutes ago, steamboats said:

 

No, they simply don´t charge it anymore... They used to say it´s included in those "fixed" catalogue prices. But onboard the German bookings are not charged anymore since October. You receive an envelope by the end of the cruise and can do whatever you want.

 

steamboats

Interesting, no one tells you that. Does it apply on Celebrity as well?

[Saab4444]

Another frustrating local handling of Cruise with Confidence: A big UK travel agent (the one names like the house where people in Greenland live in) just told me that Lift and Shift and flexible rebooking apply only to bookings for cruises until end of August 2020. Has anyone any suggestions or experiences with UK agents? 

[orla56]

This is the terms and conditions on the Uk site.

[Kimba_83]

3 hours ago, steamboats said:

 

No, they simply don´t charge it anymore... They used to say it´s included in those "fixed" catalogue prices. But onboard the German bookings are not charged anymore since October. You receive an envelope by the end of the cruise and can do whatever you want.

 

steamboats

Have you cruised since October to confirm that? I booked in January 2019 for fall 2020 and just shifted to 2021. My TA's website doesn't say anything about gratuities anymore. It used to be on the website but now they refer  to RCL's US website to check. 

Despite the auto gratuities we always had envelopes in our room over the past few years. 

[karli_ratte]

4 hours ago, steamboats said:

 

No, they simply don´t charge it anymore... They used to say it´s included in those "fixed" catalogue prices. But onboard the German bookings are not charged anymore since October. You receive an envelope by the end of the cruise and can do whatever you want.

 

steamboats

I've looked all over the website now, but can't find anything regarding gratuities being included. Do you have a link etc. confirming this? I'd rather not take them off my booking to find they put them back on during the cruise... 🙂

[Ourusualbeach]

2 hours ago, Saab4444 said:

Another frustrating local handling of Cruise with Confidence: A big UK travel agent (the one names like the house where people in Greenland live in) just told me that Lift and Shift and flexible rebooking apply only to bookings for cruises until end of August 2020. Has anyone any suggestions or experiences with UK agents? 

I had a US call centre rep tell me that on one if the calls.  It is just undertrained employees misinterpreting the policy.  It is all cruises booked before August 1, 2020 and could apply to cruises through April of 2021.  It can’t apply to cruises past April 2021 as there is nothing to shift them to.  

[steamboats]

8 hours ago, Saab4444 said:

Interesting, no one tells you that. Does it apply on Celebrity as well?

 

Yes it does but for German bookings only.

 

steamboats

[steamboats]

@Kimba_83 and @karli_ratte, no this was never officially published or on the website (anyway the website currently is just an automatic translation of the US website with some slight adjustments). They simply stopped in October charging the gratuity automatically to your onboard account. BTW I haven´t gotten envelopes for years anymore (but I have always prepaid). I haven´t cruised since October but I have many reliable reports by German cruisers (both RCI and X) that you´re not charged anymore. A lot of people were pretty confused as they didn´t check their account and didn´t see it until they got their final bill. This avoids any further law suits (Wettbewerbsrecht because of wrong advertising) here in Germany.

 

steamboats

[Biker19]

4 minutes ago, steamboats said:

I haven´t cruised since October but I have many reliable reports by German cruisers (both RCI and X) that you´re not charged anymore.

Did prices go up any at that time?

[steamboats]

5 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Did prices go up any at that time?

 

I didn´t check... I had my cruise booked for this year two years ago (and it was cancelled last Tuesday - Vancouver - Hawaii).

 

steamboats

[karli_ratte]

15 hours ago, steamboats said:

@Kimba_83 and @karli_ratte, no this was never officially published or on the website (anyway the website currently is just an automatic translation of the US website with some slight adjustments). They simply stopped in October charging the gratuity automatically to your onboard account. BTW I haven´t gotten envelopes for years anymore (but I have always prepaid). I haven´t cruised since October but I have many reliable reports by German cruisers (both RCI and X) that you´re not charged anymore. A lot of people were pretty confused as they didn´t check their account and didn´t see it until they got their final bill. This avoids any further law suits (Wettbewerbsrecht because of wrong advertising) here in Germany.

 

steamboats

Thank you for explaining. I wonder if that also counts for bookings directly via the Austrian RCI website (not sure if that is strictly speaking the same one as the German one). Well, only one way to find out 😉 I haven't seen an envelope in years either, but then we've mainly been on Celebrity. 

[Saab4444]

On 6/8/2020 at 5:43 PM, steamboats said:

 

Yes it does but for German bookings only.

 

steamboats

Understood. However, during the booking process they currently still ask you if you want to prepay gratuities or not. Does this mean it does not matter if you tick to pay them additionally or not because you always have gratuities included for German bookings?

[steamboats]

1 hour ago, Saab4444 said:

Understood. However, during the booking process they currently still ask you if you want to prepay gratuities or not. Does this mean it does not matter if you tick to pay them additionally or not because you always have gratuities included for German bookings?

 

You still can prepay grats but you don´t have to. And they won´t charge you onboard.... So technically they are included. Of course this does not say anything about whether the crew does get any money.

 

steamboats