Up next in 10
I looks at the controversial subject of cruise gratuities and look at how cruise gratuities and tipping while cruising has changed and how I have changed and adapted what I do regards tipping crew on a cruise
The Issues I Have With Cruise Gratuities Right Now
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0:00
on my last cruise at queen mary 2
0:01
crossing i admit i was nervous about
0:04
disembarkation
0:05
not because the two was ending but i was
0:08
really apprehensive about a potentially
0:10
uncomfortable encounter with my cabin
0:12
steward him loitering and wondering if i
0:15
was going to give him a tip and me
0:17
feeling guilty because
0:18
i wasn't gratuities on a cruise have
0:21
gotten more complicated recently i want
0:23
to talk about that what it means and why
0:27
i wasn't leaving a tip welcome aboard
0:29
i'm gary bembridge and i'm hoping you
0:31
will join the gratuities debate as i
0:34
know you will have strong views about
0:36
what i'm about to say the first big
0:39
issue i wrestle with is what exactly are
0:42
gratuities on a cruise these days every
0:45
single dictionary definition says
0:47
there's something given voluntarily
0:50
to thank someone for good service two
0:53
key aspects voluntary and good service
0:56
suggesting people actually going above
0:59
and beyond their duty
1:01
lines are giving up any pretense that
1:04
gratuities are either voluntary or for
1:06
added good service when i first started
1:08
cruising gratuities were just that we
1:12
all gave cash tips directly to crew we
1:15
felt had done an amazing job
1:17
we all assumed crew in every single
1:19
department were getting a fair wage and
1:22
those tips were a bonus for
1:24
passenger-facing crew
1:26
now the lions eventually argued when
1:28
auto gratuities were introduced that it
1:30
was much fairer
1:32
way to go because a pool of money would
1:34
then be split and cascaded to all
1:36
departments contributing to my
1:38
experience and that everybody who had
1:41
made my trip would benefit however if
1:43
that was the intention that soon changed
1:47
gratuities became in my view anyway a
1:50
tool the cruise lines used to achieve
1:52
lower fares to entice us to book funded
1:55
by paying crew lower base wages they
1:58
then use those auto added gratuities to
2:01
claw money back to bolster crew pay back
2:03
to what it should have been in the first
2:05
place let's be clear
2:06
cruise lines expect us to pay more for
2:09
our crews than their advertised fare
2:11
suggests they expect us to pay the fare
2:14
plus gratuities and they need us to do
2:16
that for crew to get wages at least at
2:19
the going industry rate to ensure we
2:21
paid up lines also added them onto our
2:24
bills but now i see three trends
2:27
beginning to merge to enforce this as i
2:29
think resistance is starting to grow to
2:31
auto gratuities first of all lions auto
2:34
adding gratuities are starting to cloud
2:36
the narrative by giving them alternative
2:39
names
2:40
for example
2:41
princess on my recent alaska cruise
2:44
called them
2:45
daily crew appreciation holland america
2:48
called them crew appreciation and
2:51
service charges on my scandinavian
2:53
cruise while on qnad queen mary 2
2:55
transatlantic it was just called a
2:58
service charge maybe they're renaming
3:01
them to cloud that they are actually
3:03
ramping up the cost of gratuities at the
3:05
same time which is possible
3:08
most lines now have gratuities at
3:10
between 14
3:11
and 20 dollars per person per day based
3:14
on carbon grade which also applies by
3:16
the way to children sharing a parent's
3:18
cabin
3:20
that adds between two hundred dollars
3:22
and three hundred dollars for a couple
3:24
for a seven day cruise so between four
3:26
hundred dollars to six hundred dollars
3:27
for a family of four and that's
3:30
constantly increasing
3:32
all the time now as cost grows
3:34
passengers are noticing the scale of
3:36
these charges and are starting to push
3:38
back much more on those charges that's
3:40
why i believe i'm seeing more lines
3:43
trying to obscure the size of them by
3:45
offering optional fare upgrades that
3:47
bundle gratuities with wi-fi drinks
3:50
packages especially dining or excursion
3:52
credits for example
3:54
fares like princess plus princess
3:56
premier winstar all in fairs many lions
3:59
have them celebrity by the way went a
4:02
step further and changed their face to
4:04
always included as the only fare they
4:06
were offering and they increased their
4:08
fares upwards accordingly the third
4:10
change was many value and premium lines
4:12
mostly uk based by the way bit the
4:14
bullet and have joined ultra luxury
4:16
lines like seabourn silversea and region
4:18
seven seas and they've increased their
4:20
fares to include gratuities in the base
4:23
fair instead these include lines like
4:25
virgin voyages azamara saga pinot
4:28
cruises uk and marella who operate out
4:30
of the uk the effect of all of these
4:32
changes is that cruise passengers
4:35
including me are now paying a rate for a
4:37
cruise that covers gratuities no matter
4:40
what line or what fair combination we're
4:42
cruising on nowadays well it is possible
4:45
on almost all lines except i think only
4:47
for norwegian cruise line at the time of
4:48
recording to remove auto gratuities when
4:51
you're on board
4:52
few passengers actually seem to do that
4:55
i did a survey on my channel
4:57
of over 4 000 cruisers and only 10
5:00
percent who responded said they actually
5:02
remove water gratuities now i never
5:04
remove those gratuities because i feel
5:06
if i do the crew are going to subsidize
5:08
my trip by getting lower wages
5:11
so is the fact that i'm now paying those
5:13
auto gratuities or gratuities bundled in
5:15
the fair the reason i did not tip
5:17
anything to the cabin steward i
5:18
mentioned earlier
5:20
it's not the case it's more complicated
5:22
and as i said earlier it's getting more
5:24
so
5:24
knowing that i have paid gratuities does
5:27
give me though a dilemma around what the
5:30
right thing to do is
5:32
particularly for crew i have really
5:33
close interactions with like my cabin
5:35
steward butler vermin suite and if i'm
5:39
doing fix dining the waiting staff that
5:41
deal with me every single day
5:43
possibly as i started cruising in the
5:45
days before auto added gratuities and i
5:48
am used to handing out envelopes of cash
5:50
at the end of the cruise i really feel
5:52
guilty if i'm still not doing that in
5:56
that poll i mentioned i did on my
5:57
channel 50 of cruise passengers say they
5:59
pay cash tips to select crew members on
6:02
top of auto gratuities or when they're
6:04
on lines where gratuities are already
6:07
included in the fair
6:08
i am as you now know one of those but
6:10
recently i decided to stop
6:13
double tipping as a habit as it can
6:15
really mount up and fares and costs of
6:17
cruising at the same time are ramping up
6:19
now i'm trying to get myself used to and
6:22
to follow these
6:23
five key principles which may help you
6:27
first i budget on the basis that i will
6:29
pay a cruise fare that always includes
6:31
base gratuities for the crew so that
6:33
could be their auto added
6:35
included in some bundle like princess
6:37
premiere or within an all-inclusive fair
6:40
like say on azamara or seabourn or
6:42
silversea
6:43
i know that this will be in a pot it
6:45
will be shared to all those people i
6:46
deal with those i deal with often
6:48
infrequently and those people behind the
6:50
scenes now i do often increase those
6:53
auto gratuities if throughout the cruise
6:56
the service and the experience has been
6:58
really high so again everybody benefits
7:01
now this was the case for example on my
7:03
oceania marina panama cruise earlier
7:05
this year where right across the board
7:07
the service was great and i felt i'd
7:08
like everybody to benefit now i
7:11
especially do this if i have on-board
7:13
credit that i do not use up or i find
7:15
myself slipping to that habit of looking
7:18
for ways to spend it i instead use those
7:21
onboard credits to increase auto added
7:23
gratuities though before i do i always
7:26
check if it actually can be used for
7:29
gratuities now i was about to do that on
7:31
my recent azamara quest cruise because i
7:33
had a lot of onboard credit it was given
7:35
to me as a fair price match
7:38
but
7:39
azamara rules do not allow
7:42
ombud credit to be used for extra
7:43
gratuity so i could have ended up with
7:44
an unspent on board credit and a lofty
7:47
extra bill the other downside of upping
7:49
auto gratuities is the people you
7:51
interact with often who may hope or
7:53
expect an added tip will not know that
7:56
you've actually done that and so this
7:57
leads me on to my second key principle i
8:01
always take cash with me they're not of
8:04
the scale in the days before auto added
8:06
and this is the typical that i've come
8:08
into regular contact with that go above
8:10
and beyond in some way and have made my
8:12
cruise truly special by the way when it
8:15
comes to paying cash tips i pay in
8:17
either us dollars or the official
8:19
currency on the ship which in most cases
8:21
is us dollars but if i were say on a
8:23
piano ship or a saga ship out of the uk
8:26
where the official currency was the
8:27
pound sterling that is what i would pay
8:30
let me give you an example of how this
8:31
has played out which is where that cabin
8:34
steward i mentioned earlier comes back
8:37
on my recent cunard queen mary 2
8:39
transatlantic
8:40
the waiters in the queen's school
8:42
restaurant were fantastic we had the
8:44
same waiters allocated for breakfast
8:46
lunch and for dinner they learned our
8:49
quirks they preempted everything we
8:52
needed from things like oat milk on the
8:53
table for breakfast to spinaches and
8:56
extra with my meal every night and they
8:58
even preemptively requested a non-dairy
9:01
baked alaska alternative for my part it
9:03
wasn't on the menu but they knew they
9:04
didn't have dairy and so they ordered it
9:06
they joked with us they elevated the
9:08
experience we gave all of them extra
9:11
tips
9:12
on the other hand we had a butt liner
9:13
cabin studio they provided a perfectly
9:15
fine service it was pretty much as
9:17
expected we had to chase up a couple of
9:19
things there were a number of errors
9:21
they didn't really elevate or make the
9:22
trip
9:23
that special so i actually felt that the
9:26
normal water added gratuities were
9:28
perfectly fine however
9:30
on my oceano trip the month before would
9:33
actually also be by the way upgraded
9:35
into suite which is very nice
9:36
the butler and the cabin student were
9:38
super attentive they learned all my
9:40
quirks what i liked what i didn't like
9:42
and without asking for example they
9:44
tweaked the evening canapes by observing
9:46
what i ate and left they knew i didn't
9:48
drink alcohol caffeine and sugary drinks
9:51
so they hunted for options and they even
9:53
brought a non-alcoholic sparkling wine
9:56
to replace the champagne got left on
9:58
embarkation the butler even offered to
10:01
lend me his own personal multi-usb
10:04
charger
10:05
to use because he saw i had lots of
10:06
camera equipment and devices to charge
10:09
so i tipped both of those people
10:11
generously but i didn't tip the waiters
10:13
because again that was a perfectly fine
10:16
and normal service another example was
10:19
by my partner who spends hours every day
10:21
on a cruise plane blackjack interax gets
10:23
to know the dealers who make his cruise
10:25
really well they joke with him they
10:27
laugh at them and so on so he always
10:30
tips the dealers at the end of playing
10:31
so i do tip on top of auto gratuities if
10:34
i genuinely see added service but i
10:37
still find it really stressful because
10:39
old habit dies hard and i just feel like
10:43
it's really hard to really wrestle with
10:44
which brings me on to my principle
10:47
number three i do call out and name
10:50
everyone that's given great service in
10:51
the post cruise survey
10:54
this crew and managers keep telling me
10:56
is key for staff to get recognition
10:58
bonuses sometimes and definitely
11:00
promotion so even if i've not
11:03
tipped individuals it can help the
11:05
crinos me now to make sure by the way i
11:07
don't forget anyone i take photos of
11:09
their name badges so i can get their
11:11
name and position right now this was a
11:13
tip that a crew member once gave me when
11:15
stressing how important calling people
11:18
out in that post-cruise survey is
11:21
so who do i never tip this brings me on
11:24
to my principle number four i never tip
11:27
when i'm buying drinks because the
11:29
gratuity often as much as 18
11:32
is added on automatically so i leave the
11:34
section to add even more tip blank
11:37
gratuities are also added onto the price
11:39
of any drinks packages too by the way
11:42
the same is true in the spa the salon or
11:46
if you're going to the hairdressers if
11:48
i'm having especially coffees or buying
11:50
ice cream or gelato again i don't give a
11:52
tip either it's auto added or there's
11:54
none expected if crew members handle
11:57
special requests like fixing things like
11:58
a broken toilet or conditioning or i've
12:01
messed up my safe and i need someone to
12:03
come and fix it i don't tip those people
12:06
i also never tip senior crew including
12:08
the captain the cruise director head
12:10
chef maitre d
12:12
guest services or excursion team because
12:14
what i learned over time is they're
12:15
usually actually well paid and in some
12:17
cases it's actually not considered
12:19
appropriate
12:20
that also applies to the entertainment
12:22
team who run events the performers or
12:24
the guest artists or any people playing
12:27
live music around the ship now some of
12:28
my friends disagree with me they like to
12:31
say the pianist in the piano bar to get
12:33
their requests they believe could have
12:35
higher up in the priority i also don't
12:37
normally tip when i go to specialty
12:39
dining because the extra charge should
12:42
cover that and actually the waiters are
12:43
included in that gratuities pool already
12:46
so what are your thoughts on gratuities
12:48
and have you changed or are you thinking
12:50
of changing what you do i'd love to hear
12:53
in the comments what you're currently
12:55
thinking and so while you consider that
12:57
take a look at this video where i look
12:59
at seven things that smart cruisers do
13:02
starting with one thing that i found
13:04
makes the biggest difference of all
13:07
see you over there
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