HAL states that a gratuity per guest will be added on to our shipboard acct. daily. The purpose being to spread the gratuity to those working in the kitchen, etc.---not just the waiters. We have a balcony cabin and would like to have room service bring our breakfast daily to eat outside. Do we tip the person, who delivers, or assume they are sharing in the amt. deducted? I've read where any cash given must be handed over. We have not sailed on a ship with these automatic deductions and are not sure how to handle matters. Please help us do the right thing...thanks!

You have heard correctly. HAL in May this year implemented a new gratuity policy. I've posted it here and on cruisecritic before, so you could search for that. If you have your documents, you'll likely find the policy described in a 3 fold leaflet titled "you need to know'. To summarize, a $10.00 per person per day 'gratuity' is automatically charged to your onboard account. If you reduce or remove it, then your wait staff and cabin staff MUST turn in all tips received privately. And, this does happen. The crew will be questioned if you change the on board account. They may "get away" with not reporting some private tips, but the pressure to earn those pooled tips will be terrific.
I don't like this policy. I believe that the 'behind the scenes staff' such as "highly trained kitchen staff" (don't we call these chefs?) should be receiving incentives in the form of wage increases, not by sharing 30% of a mandatory gratuity charge.
To answer your question, the way to recognize good room service delivery is to leave the charge on your bill, and to hand a cash tip to the room service delivery person. I also tipped my cabin and wait people early in the cruise, and included a note explaining that I was NOT changing the automatic charge. After that, I experienced a lovely relaxed personal service from all of the crew. I did top up my tips at the end as well.
I agree that $70.00 per person (for a 7 day cruise) is very little compared to the cost of the services I enjoy. I also worked for tips, so I understand that incentive as practiced in North America. I do not believe that I should be tipping the gambling staff, the bar staff, the night cleaning crew, the laundry or the chefs'

Why can't they simply increase the ticket price $10.00 and say no tipping??

Good question!

I suspect that if they did, they would have to report more income up front. This does seem to me to be a foxy way to increase the wages of some employees (at the expense of others), without reporting revenue. After all if it is the 'gratuities' budget line, ....

I'm not an accountant.

But, after monitoring the reviews on cruisecritic, service does appear to have suffered.

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I also tipped my cabin and wait people early in the cruise, and included a note explaining that I was NOT changing the automatic charge
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This is all so strange and complicated. I wonder if HAL thought about european customers who prefer to be more descrete about tipping and where having to explain how you are tipping is considered...well...kind of vulgar. (not a put-down for the poster, but for the policy that makes the customer have go through this just to be able to fully tip whomever and however he wants.) some of us would prefer just to tip without having to make an embarrassing fuss about it.

We took the Star Princess from Bankok to Venice last year....same old policy, and we and friends spent a lot of time trying to decide the fair thing. While we resent the automatic and compulsary tip, werealize now that the policy is becoming pretty universal in big ships. Another way to nickel and dime ya, and makes it difficult to reward the best people...Incidentally, many of the staff, when we visited alone, said they would leave the ship and go to another line if it became possible. Shame on Princess...they should give folks a raise, so we don't have to spend our holiday talking about this. We are supposed to be relaxing.

"If it became possible ... ' is not likely. Other cruisers have gleaned information that indicates that the new policy also includes charges for laundry of uniforms, food, and monthly deductions to pay their fare home at the end of the contract. Used to be that if the crew member worked to the end of the contract, the fare home was paid. This, I think, would be a good incentive. The crew member gets more experienced, therefore more proficient, and the cruise line doesn't have to keep training new workers. Other cruisers have wondered if the trend to anytime dining is what is causing the change to pooling of tips. Perhaps we passengers will never know all the factors. I do know that I will leave the auto gratuity charge on my bill, and tip those with whom I have direct contact. I can't change the almost slave (or "indentured" to quote Ross Klein's book, Cruise Ship Blues) conditions, but I will try not to make matters worse.