Norwegian Cruise line now will not accept pre-paid gratuities being removed on-board

I read an article today saying that Norwegian cruise line will now no longer be allowing passengers to remove or change their daily service charges (that is if they haven’t already paid them upfront).

The charge is spread out between passenger facing and behind the scenes crew. Norwegian cruise line say that now passengers can instead apply for a refund via guest services once they have returned from their cruise if they feel that the service they received was not satisfactory.

Although many will be against this change I personally think it is a good idea.  I am personally more than happy to accept the service charge policy knowing that if there was an issue I could potentially contest it later. I respect peoples individual opinions on the matter but I personally think that often British cruisers like to take the law into their own hands as it were by deciding who they want to and not tip and by what amount. This is an American cruise company after all, not a British one. I can understand that some passengers do things their own way and still tip to the correct level but then there will be lots who hardly tip at all, if anything, I personally so not agree with this at all.

I personally think it would be far easier for everyone if the cruise lines just incorporated the service charge into the price of the cruise and said that it was all included. Some cruise lines do this already and seems to work perfectly well for them.