Shareholder Benefit

[Lionkingrichard]

With the 10's of thousands of cruise line employee's who lost their jobs over the last 2 years none have posted that cruise lines are stealing their tips!

 

Maybe their Countries don't have internet?

 

Maybe they think the Cruise lines will find them?

 

Maybe the Countries they live in will lock them up?

 

Over the last 10 years I have seen lots of people come up with some reason not to pay $15 per day in tips(back then it was $10-12).

[julig22]

33 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

That's the approach I always have taken.  It certainly is more convenient just to pay a reasonable amount to NCl for gratuities and let them divide it among staff and crew.  It wasn't until I started reading the comments on Cruise Critic, this thread as well as several previous ones on tipping, that I got to thinking about asking NCL to delete the Daily Service Charge from my account and let me make up for it by tipping in cash.  There are at least two problems with that approach.  For one, there are a lot of behind-the-scenes workers who deserve to be tipped.  Passengers normally would never see those crew members, so they would only receive a tip if your waiter, bartender, etc., were to share their tips with them.  The second issue is having to carry a wad of bills.  The Daily Service Charges for a typical week-long cruise for two persons comes to about $250.  Carrying enough ones, fives, and tens to cover that much, or perhaps a little more, would make for a bulging wallet or money clip.

I tip my room steward in cash, assuming that it will go in his/her pocket, not split.  I put a tip on the charge slip for specialty meals because I assume that will be split among those who prepared and served my meal - that involves multiple people.  Don't drink, so no tips to the bartender😊

[RocketMan275]

1 hour ago, The Traveling Man said:

That's the approach I always have taken.  It certainly is more convenient just to pay a reasonable amount to NCl for gratuities and let them divide it among staff and crew.  It wasn't until I started reading the comments on Cruise Critic, this thread as well as several previous ones on tipping, that I got to thinking about asking NCL to delete the Daily Service Charge from my account and let me make up for it by tipping in cash.  There are at least two problems with that approach.  For one, there are a lot of behind-the-scenes workers who deserve to be tipped.  Passengers normally would never see those crew members, so they would only receive a tip if your waiter, bartender, etc., were to share their tips with them.  The second issue is having to carry a wad of bills.  The Daily Service Charges for a typical week-long cruise for two persons comes to about $250.  Carrying enough ones, fives, and tens to cover that much, or perhaps a little more, would make for a bulging wallet or money clip.

There is a possible third problem with the approach of removing the gratuities and tipping directly.  I know of at lease one cruise line that posts lists of those who remove the gratuities.  A crew member must review this list and turn over to his/her supervisor any gratuities given directly.  The reported punishment for failing to follow his policy is dismissal.   

 

Supposedly, this list is posted on the debarkation day after all passengers have left the ship to ensure the completeness of this list.  I cannot personally attest to this list but there are CC posters who claim to have seen these lists.

 

The existence of this list is irrelevant to me since we do not remove gratuities and give additional tips too.

[Barbique00]

Back on topic...I sent my shareholder request 2/3/22 and received confirmation and credit 2/8/22.

 

Happy Cruising everyone!

 

[aubreyc1988]

I have one last thing to say on the tipping matter, and only because it took me so long to get to this conclusion myself. 

 

If the cruise line chooses to be dishonest and pocket any/all of the tips themselves instead of appropriately handing them out to the crew, that's on the cruise line and not the passengers who leave their auto gratuity in place. (this also goes for other companies as well when I leave a tip not in cash) 

 

I can't be an investigator and spend hours/weeks/years trying to figure out if there is something shady going on here, and I assume most people don't have that time either.

 

My advice: keep your auto tips in place, tip extra if you want, then stop thinking about it. We all can only do our best with the information that is given to us.

Edited February 15, 2022 by aubreyc1988

[brigand13]

THank you to all the folks who've reported about their experience in getting the shareholder OBC benefit added to a reservation.  I'm  a terrible procrastinator and probably would have left things until quite close to my cruise, but this has prompted me to get my act together and send in the form for my cruise this fall.   🙂 

 

Heck, the main reason I bought the stock was for the OBC benefit.  It's turned out to be a pretty good investment as well, but it would be a shame to leave free money on the table because I didn't ask for it soon enough.  

[aubreyc1988]

FYI, 

 

sent on 10th got on 18th

 

The cruise before this one took 4 days