The Great Debate
There is probably no topic more discussed and debated among new and seasoned cruisers than tipping: how to tip, when to tip, how much to tip, whom to tip — and perhaps even why you need to tip at all. Yes, tipping etiquette and varying cruise line policies on the practice can be confusing. Worse still, gratuities that you haven’t anticipated can quickly eat into your cruise vacation budget.
Before the introduction of service charges and prepaid gratuities, passengers would show their appreciation for individual crew members – your waiter in the main restaurant, your favorite bar tender that remembered your drink order or even your cabin steward who had gone out of their way to deliver exceptional service and enhance your holiday experience. Now, tips and gratuities seem to be unrelated to levels of service for some people. If gratuities are not prepaid before you travel, the majority of cruise lines will add an additional service charge to your on board account, based on a standard rate this is charged per person per day, and these tips are then pooled between all crew members even the staff you don’t see but still serve you such as laundry and sou chefs.
With this in mind do you agree with having to pay a set amount in gratuities no matter what levels of service you receive? Do you feel that this system is the correct way to reward those that have been of service to you during your cruise?
On the other hand, many luxury and boutique cruise lines (like Azamara, Crystal, Seabourn and Silversea, among others) have no-tipping policies in place. In these cases, the staff service fees are built directly into the all-inclusive fares.
Marella choose to offer an all inclusive package, inclusive of gratuities and have become a popular choice for those wanting to take the hassle out of cruising and avoid paying for hidden extras.
Plus P&O has recently removed gratuities from sailings from May this year, Do you think this is where tipping is moving to? Do you think this will change service levels provided on board?
Tipping is certainly a hot topic for discussion and I’d be interested to know your thoughts…
18 Comments on “The Great Debate”
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I have been in the travel industry for 12 years now and a lot of this time I have been specialising in Cruise. It is just a brilliant job and industry, no two days are the same, no two customers are the same and this is what I love. There…
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tips should not be imposed it should be for good service at your discretion
Couldn’t agree more
Why should we top up staff wages because the cruise liners do not pay their staff a living wage. I’ve been on many cruises with different companies, but never pay gratuities, we give our cabin person something if they have done their job well. To the cruise liners.
Pay your staff proper wages and don’t expect the passengers to do it. It’s wrong and unfair.
And very cheeky.!!
The fact that in your own article you alternate between the term ‘tip’ and ‘service charge’ when referring to the same thing shows the confusion on this matter. The plain fact is tipping as far as the cruise lines are concerned has very little to do with levels of service but is simply a way of getting you to pay the employees ‘ wages rather than include them in the fare. As long as you and others in the industry continue to peddle the myth that tipping is a way of showing appreciation for a job well done there will continue to be confusion and resentment concerning this topic.
If a cabin stewart manages every day to clean our cabin while we are out for breakest he deserves a “exceptional” from me with a nice tip !
What’s he supposed to do,its his job
I agree why should we be force to tip? Because the cruise industry is too cheap to pay them a normal salary? No wonder they keep building those slave ships. Because people agree to pay it, ridiculous. And no I’m not cheap. If anything the cruise industry is cheap.
But isn’t that his job?
If it is a ‘Charge’ it is misuser of the English language to call it a ‘tip’ or ‘gratuity’. It should be stated as such. There are lots of people in jobs that do not attract ‘tips’, i was in one myself. If charges are to be imposed, what incentive is there to provide good service. I prefer to ‘tip’ based on merit and my own judgment of reward for good service!
Well stated I have been a barber all my life ,I like to think people tipped for for good service which was my priority . Phill Gobeil.
I work in the hospitality industry, I would gladly like to receive a tip for every guest I serve but this is the real world, it doesn’t happen. Yes sometimes I get a tip, if the customer feels I was very attentive, or felt I gave them wonderful service, but by no means should I expect a guest to pay regardless, of the they receive. I get paid to do my job, and I do it to the best of my capabilities, if a guest feels I have given them worthy service And give me a tip I take the tip they give me and feel very humbled that they feel I gave them great service. I sail on cruise ships and I’m not a fan on gratuities been charged daily, I unusually have them taken off at lest one of us, to charge £15 per day per person is a joke. The companies should not make up there employees wages but the use of gratuities. Pay them a reasonable wage for the job they do, and if the guest feels they received, exceptional service off that member of staff they usually tip them(I know I do).
I always give a tip to my room attendant also my waiter and assistant waiter over and above the gratuities we have prepaid most cruise companies are American and that is the way they do it. They pay cheap and expect the paying customers to make up there wages with a big tips 15% is the normal I think cruising is very good value for what you get.
This subject just rolls on and on – I firmly believe you should tip when you receive good service otherwise, those who make and effort and those who do not are treated the same (no incentive). If tips are included, can we request a discount when we are unhappy with any service ?
Good answer.
On the question of tips. All cruise lines should price their cruises at a level which guarantees that all personnel/crew are adequately paid. Compulsory are descetional tips hides the fact that the crew are badly paid to begin with.
Personally I prefer to tip when I want.
I like my holidays to be “all inclusive” with no extras during the cruise.
I go for lines that have reasonable cost gratuities and drinks packages.
So far I’ve found NCL and MSC to be best value/quality package.
I understand that there are others in the background that do not have a chance to give a good service and receive a tip/gratuity. These are the ones that should have a substantial wage to go with that position, this being their incentive. As to the front of house then tips/gratuity should be given. Don’t forget their are a lot of cruisers who take advantage and make them work far more than they should by being totally lazy and saying I want my monies worth. I would like to see them work on the amount of cabins allotted to each person. It might help them to understand a bit better.
Tipping is typically an American invention utilised to supplement the meagre wages of restaurant staff who may only receive $3per hour. The greedy profit-driven cruise industry garnishes the majority of their workers from impoverished countries and offer their new recruits a choice to work long hours long contracts before they are able to see their families in the Phillipines or Mauritius or wherever if they have saved enough over a period of eight months to even return. The foreign staff inherently receive low wages because of the home registry of the cruise shipping lines (such as Liberia, or Nassau, or Caymans) which allows them to get away with only offering $2- $3 per hour. The desperate recruits have no choice but to acquiesce to terms of contract in hopes that their infectious smiles and gift of the gab with passengers will make up the deficit in their wage packets.
I say, sorry? The cruise lines own the employees and therefore should pay their employees a decent wage for their untiring smiles and hard graft, and not expect the unsuspecting cruise traveller to be burdened with the guilt of handing over their hard-earned cash (as tips/gratuities)to the tune of $16 -$20 pp per day to make up the deficit in the cruise lines staff wages. This is nothing short of extortion and plays into the psyche of the cruise passenger in a negative manner – as if the poor bilge workers and those ‘coolies’ stoking the engines never see the light of day and never get tipped. The cruise lines don’t even flinch when you see your bill on your stateroom TV set rising exponentially on a daily basis all to tip their universal ships company. They expect you to conform and sometimes give you dirty looks when you take your beef to the customer service desk onboard.
I don’t agree with forced tipping. But I do tip. But only the to the deserving ones and only to those who are visible to me (room service and waiter). Yet I have encountered many a stateroom attendant who are aptly gifted at giving you the spiel that they have 5 mouths to feed back in Botswana and they haven’t seen their loved ones for 8 years because of the company’s contractual agreement. Beware of the highly rehearsed ‘poor mouth’ rhetoric from the experienced long termers. I prefer someone who does a great job and keeps their rhetoric to the pleasantries (like weather).
Tipping is a purely personal thing (for rendering above and beyond the call of duty). I was a nurse, no one ever tipped me. Cruise lines need to move with the times and start paying their staff a fair wage according to their job description and stop putting out the ‘begging bowl’ for tips. They all can buy private islands in the Caribbean to convert to day paradise trips, so they can well afford it!