liota

LOL!!!! Hicks is right! Just look at all the fat slobs on cruises these days. It used to be that people that went cruising were sophisticated , stylish people. No more! Now the people that these mega cruise lines are attracting are just interested in how many meals they can stuff in a day and how much booze they can smuggle into the ship. It's disgusting.

Y

People like X reesent tipping for service, and say they believe that if the cruise lines paid more to their help, there would be no reason to tip. It just never occurs to them that the cruise lines would increase the cost of the cruise to cover the added expense. So pay me now, or pay me later. And I would love to know what X and her family of four actually did leave as a token of their appreciation for services rendered.

x

If you would love to know so badly what tip we left i will let you figure it out. We ate only dinners in the dining room and gave 15% of the value of the dinner for the 4 of us which would be a dinner similar to a 5 star restaurant for the food only. For any drinks we ordered a 15 % tip was automatically added on. We brought our own wine aboard and were charged a $10.00 corkage fee. We ate only late breakfasts at the buffet so left no tip for that (sorry if you disagree here but as I said we had to wait in lineups to get in and for the omelots and got our own drinks and food here); finally we tipped $5.00/day for the room steward(not a big room to clean up folks and we spend very little time there). Sorry we didn't tip the purser, luggage handlers, maintence workers, repairmen, gift sales clerks, towel cleaners, carpet repairmen, etc, etc., etc... And that is all I have to say, to each his own.

x

The above amounts were all in U.S. DOLLARS!!!

jenny

WOW!!!! "X" is really a big spender. Their name probably gets fed into a database to identify them as awful customers and warn the room stewards not to spend too much time cleaning their room. What a low-life. Exhibit one why I don't cruise on those lines anymore. These are the kind of people you might have to share a table with.

Y

My sentiments exactly. How can they look at themselves in the mirror. Bet they really did leave their "tip" in Canadian $$

Paul Therault

You know xxx, you are really stiffing the staff and you shouldn't cruise. I would be embarrassed to even post here.<BR><BR>If you stayed in a hotel and asked for turn-down service you would spend more than $5.00 per day. Also in most hotels you do not get your ice-bucket replenished twice a day, fresh towels twice a day, bathroom cleaned twice a day, activity sheets and luggage tags and documents delivered, etc. etc. <BR><BR>Why don't you make a barter agreement with the steward the next time you cruise like help fold the towels. Then you would save your $5 a day.<BR><BR>Paul

x

Incredible! It's you guilt ridden big tippers that ruin it for all. I'll big there a quite a few others that would agree with me. And why were the PAGES of people on the cruise who asked to have the mandatory tipping removed from their bill?????????

Guilt ridden big tipper

You're the one whose incredible. Please advise as to your next cruise. I want to be sure I'm no where near that ship.<BR>It's people like you that ruin the cruise experience.

Art

The people who work on cruise ships work very hard, no doubt about it. They are paid next to nothing by the cruise lines, who expect the tips from passengers to make up for it. IMO, this whole problem is the fault of the cruise lines, who pass the cost of paying their employees to the passengers, some of whom don't tip, and the crew is screwed.

x

Right on; and where are American cruise staff? Most of the the cruise staff are from poorer or developing countries -phillipines, poland, mexico etc., who are desparate enough to take these low paying jobs and sacrifice their quality of life by leaving their young families for months at a time. The cruise ship owners exploit this, pay them low wages, charge high prices to consumers, reap large profits, and make us compensate the staff thru tipping. Stratagy seems to be working- cruise ships are frequently fully booked.

Y

That's the system. Until it's changed, cheapo people like x will further exploit these poor people by stiffing them out of appropriate tips, and then try to justify their mean spirited & selfish actions with self righteous protests. And what is your defense? That other people do it? I really look for the day when all cruise lines increase wages for staff. That will mean they will pass off this increase to the passenger by raising the price of the cruise, and hopefully people like X will stop cruising.

x

Well Y, you do agree with me about the cruise ship cpys. exploitation by saying "further exploit these poor people" . And by saying "I really look for the day when all cruise lines increase wages for staff". It seems you don't mind covering for them until that day comes which it never will until people refuse to pay.

Peter

"Sorry we didn't tip the purser, luggage handlers, maintence workers, repairmen, gift sales clerks, towel cleaners, carpet repairmen, etc, etc., etc... "<BR><BR>I may not have 76 cruises like Paul, but one thing I learned real early in my cruising career is you ALWAYS tip the luggage handlers. When you drop off your bags outside the terminal and a guy that looks like a fireplug on steroids takes your bags, give him at least a dollar a bag. Try a seven day cruise with a pair of shorts and a muscle shirt.

Marge

muscle shirt? mmmm.....

jenny

You know "X", if you're so offended by the big, mean cruise lines abusing their crew and keeping them basically on captivity why don't you stand on principle and not cruise on them. Sorry, it doesn't cut it to say "Oh, they should pay thsoe poor devils more but in the meantime I shouldn't tip". Tip eventhough not mandatory, is part of the industry guidelines and your protestations are phoney.

Patty

Well said, jenny.

tania

There are no Americans on American ships because they would have to pay income taxes. We met a group of Canadian musicians on the Pacific: they said that all other nationalities don't pay taxes.<BR><BR>When I first heard of auto tipping, I too was outraged. I thought it would mean dimished service as it does in certain restaurants where gratuity is added automatically. But the service couldn't have been better. Had it been poor, I would have been at the maitre d's letting him know... Failing that, a trip to the purser's office to deal with the charge.<BR><BR>If the cruise lines paid their employees better, yes, there would be a lot less tipping, but the price of your cruise ticket would increase. And perhaps this is the appropriate solution: everyone would pay their share. <BR>

pete

Tipping is never mandatory. If they included on your bill eg. $10 per day., you can go to the front office and have it adjusted. We recently did that and wiped out the whole charge, ask for envelopes and tipped people accordingly of who and how we were served: TIPS= To Insure Proper Service. Including it punishes the hard worker and rewards the lazy ones.<BR><BR>Pete

sandy

[email protected] : Unfortunately, at least on Princess, anyone who gets an individual tip must turn it in to the "tip pool" that gets divided among all service staff. It sucks. So if your guys/gals do such a great job that you want to reward them with something "extra", they CAN'T keep it and must turn it in to be "shared". So much for T.I.P.