Will Holland America Be Increasing Crew Incentive Soon?

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Royal Caribbean just announced today that November 11th they will be increasing Gratuities by $2.00 per person per day. In the past HAL would usually step up as other are doing. Royal Caribbean is making a bold jump to take regular passengers to $18.00 per person per day and Suites up to $20.50 pp per day.

 

We are excited to welcome you onboard for your upcoming Royal Caribbean sailing!

As you prepare to set sail, we wanted to notify you of an update to our daily gratuity charges. As of November 11^th, 2023, the automatic daily gratuity charge will increase from $16.00 to $18.00 per guest, per day for non-suite staterooms and from $18.50 to $20.50 per guest, per day for suites. The daily gratuity is shared among dining, bar & culinary services staff, stateroom attendants, and other hotel services teams

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Currently Princess is the same as HAL as is NCL with exception that Haven is $20.00 per person per day but stand to reason with the service you do get. This price jump seems a bit steep. .

[IAcruising]

NCL is now $25 for Haven and suites, and $20 for all others. You can assume the other lines will be catching up sooner rather than later.

 

[Dobby36]

Prepaying for these (and other  like laundry, etc) helps avoid increases, as they don’t go back and collect the difference, in my experience. When booking months or years ahead, it’s saved me a bundle in the past few years as everything seems to jump up pricewise.  Alternatively, it makes it more difficult to use a lot of OBC if you’ve prepaid everything! 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

25 minutes ago, IAcruising said:

NCL is now $25 for Haven and suites, and $20 for all others. You can assume the other lines will be catching up sooner rather than later.

 

Yes you are correct, my mistake, I had forgotten that in January this year regular staterooms went up to $20,00 per person and Haven at $25.00. I had a Haven cruise back in February that gratuities were added at the $20.00 and actually have another Haven for NCL coming up for April 2024 that also has the gratuities locked in at $20.00 since I had booked that cruise in 2022.

I got bets that HAL will change very soon.

[cruisemom42]

Remind me, what is HAL currently charging per day?

[oakridger]

12 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

Remind me, what is HAL currently charging per day?

 

[aliaschief]

In Bar Harbor today and paid $38.00 for a lobster. Who would have thought that in Maine? Inflation and demand did!

The lines have to make wages attractive enough to retain crew. We are currently on a Seabourn cruise. Price seems high but when cruising is pretty much all inclusive I’ll have to get the calculator out after and do a comparison.

Sometimes I would just like to know if the cruise deal we are given that waivers crew gratuities does Hal add the money to the crews gratuities?

Edited October 31, 2023 by aliaschief

[IAcruising]

4 minutes ago, aliaschief said:

In Bar Harbor today and paid $38.00 for a lobster.

 

In Sitka, it was $69 for a single Alaskan King Crab leg. Granted, it was the length of my arm, but still...

 

[AV8rix]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

Remind me, what is HAL currently charging per day?

In July/Aug of this year it was $16 per diem for anything under a suite.  I didn't stay in a suite so I don't know what their charge was.

Edited October 31, 2023 by AV8rix

[57redbird]

1 hour ago, AV8rix said:

In July/Aug of this year it was $16 per diem for anything under a suite.  I didn't stay in a suite so I don't know what their charge was.

See post #6.

[kazu]

Crew incentive on HAL was increased on January, 2023.  I may be wrong but it seems too early to increase it again this soon.  Increases in the Crew Incentive have not been that frequent IIRC.

[grapau27]

15 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Royal Caribbean just announced today that November 11th they will be increasing Gratuities by $2.00 per person per day. In the past HAL would usually step up as other are doing. Royal Caribbean is making a bold jump to take regular passengers to $18.00 per person per day and Suites up to $20.50 pp per day.

 

We are excited to welcome you onboard for your upcoming Royal Caribbean sailing!

As you prepare to set sail, we wanted to notify you of an update to our daily gratuity charges. As of November 11^th, 2023, the automatic daily gratuity charge will increase from $16.00 to $18.00 per guest, per day for non-suite staterooms and from $18.50 to $20.50 per guest, per day for suites. The daily gratuity is shared among dining, bar & culinary services staff, stateroom attendants, and other hotel services teams

.

Currently Princess is the same as HAL as is NCL with exception that Haven is $20.00 per person per day but stand to reason with the service you do get. This price jump seems a bit steep. .

P&O which is a Carnival brand did away with autogratuities a few years ago.

Princess and Royal Caribbean allow passengers to cancel their autogratuities at Guest services.

I believe in gratuities for crew personally but increasing gratuities then reducing services on board does not seem right.

 

[horseymike]

13 hours ago, IAcruising said:

 

In Sitka, it was $69 for a single Alaskan King Crab leg. Granted, it was the length of my arm, but still...

 

I would have taken a picture of that crab leg and gone about my business.

[Mary229]

January is generally when you will see fee increases including gratuities, drinks, internet and so on.  Watch carefully as it is announced with just a small window to prebuy at the old price. 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

7 hours ago, Mary229 said:

January is generally when you will see fee increases including gratuities, drinks, internet and so on.  Watch carefully as it is announced with just a small window to prebuy at the old price. 

I agree that I think this is going to happen and go into effect in January. But as we have seen many of the specialty restaurant pricing has gone up with no notice in recent months. HAL is not one to really let everyone know about increases. I will not be the least bit surprised that it will match pretty close to what RCL has done.

[shipshape sam]

Not that there aren't lots of challenges for cruise lines, but cruise lines must be thinking that this is one area that is great.  Need to/want to pay your front line employees more, just raise the crew appreciation rate. Get to pay the higher rate in January when sailing Royal Caribbean.

 

It does make me wonder with each raise, how many cruisers ask to have the prepaid/suggested gratuity changed/reduced?  Why not just make it a line item in the fees section and everyone pays the 'suggested'' fee.  Those who want to pay more still can and my guess is that if you take the total received by requiring the fee of all guests, there might be a case for less increases for at least one longer 'next' time.  

 

I remember a few years ago, a comment of 'I don't eat in the MDR,  I eat in the buffet area', not realizing that the MDR wait staff is working the buffet area too.

[Mary229]

From talking to crew the market is highly competitive right now and finding people who are trained and credentialed with Visas is hard.  Current employment markets swing in favor of the employee right now, just like UPS, UAW and so on it is the same for seamen.  If increased tips gives them a leg up on hiring the best of the best it is most likely worth paying for.  

[RD64]

3 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

From talking to crew the market is highly competitive right now and finding people who are trained and credentialed with Visas is hard.  Current employment markets swing in favor of the employee right now, just like UPS, UAW and so on it is the same for seamen.  If increased tips gives them a leg up on hiring the best of the best it is most likely worth paying for.  

But if HAL wants the best of the best, should they not be offering a hire base wage as an incentive?

[Mary229]

1 minute ago, RD64 said:

But if HAL wants the best of the best, should they not be offering a hire base wage as an incentive?

They may be, we are not privy to that information.  Seeing it publicly announced that tips are going up may move a lot of crew’s  heads.  Sometimes public price increases are more about marketing than cost.  

[TiogaCruiser]

11 hours ago, kazu said:

Crew incentive on HAL was increased on January, 2023.  I may be wrong but it seems too early to increase it again this soon.  Increases in the Crew Incentive have not been that frequent IIRC.

I seem to remember about 3 increases since the shut down. Or am I dreaming it?

 

 I think it was around $10/pp prior for cabins below suites.

Edited November 1, 2023 by TiogaCruiser

[Mary229]

1 minute ago, TiogaCruiser said:

I seem to remember about 3 increases since the shut down. Or am I dreaming it?

 

 I think it was around $10/pp prior for cabins below suites.

Easy enough, go to the app and check your invoice.  I will do so now 

[Mary229]

9 minutes ago, TiogaCruiser said:

I seem to remember about 3 increases since the shut down. Or am I dreaming it?

 

 I think it was around $10/pp prior for cabins below suites.

My first cruise, early 2022,  post pandemic was $15.50 for a verandah.  Unfortunately my last cruise pre pandemic was a promo with free gratuities. In 2016 it was $13.50 for an ocean view.  The other invoices were either free tips or unavailable at the moment 

[kazu]

42 minutes ago, TiogaCruiser said:

I seem to remember about 3 increases since the shut down. Or am I dreaming it?

 

 I think it was around $10/pp prior for cabins below suites.

 

Oh it was more than that.  Our HSC (as it was called then) in April 2019 was $16 pp.  We were in a suite though I believe on that cruise but a standard cabin would have been not much less.  I recall something like $15 pp but I could be wrong.

[Dismomx5]

I tried to pre-pay my crew appreciation for a cruise in February (final due later this month) today because the exchange rate is in my favour, and the website wouldn't accept my credit card. I called to have it added personally, and the customer service rep couldn't get it to go through either. I checked with my bank and they said there was no flag on the account (not surprised since I have overpaid my balance at the moment), and there was no indication that I had attempted to pay HAL - several times- on their end.

[TiogaCruiser]

51 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

Easy enough, go to the app and check your invoice.  I will do so now 

I wish it was. I can’t get into my account- error says there are multiple mariners with my mariner number. 🥴😜😏

 

But thanks for all your replies (@kazu)