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Should you pay cruise gratuities (or tips as some call them)? One of the most argued about and controversial charges and topics in cruising are the gratuity charges by cruise lines. In this video I look at six things about gratuities and tipping that every cruiser needs to know to make up their mind and also I suggest when you should or should not consider paying gratuities. I look at what they are, how cruise lines use them, the levels, how cruise lines take or charge for them and what they really mean for the crew and the real costs of your cruise vacation.
#cruisetips #cruisegratuities #cruisetipping
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0:00
when should and shouldn't you pay crews
0:02
gratuities one of the most controversial
0:05
and hottest topics in the world of
0:07
cruising hi I'm Gary Bembridge and this
0:09
is another of my tips for travelers in
0:12
this edition I'm an explorer six things
0:14
that you need to know about cruise
0:15
gratuities and very importantly whether
0:17
you should ocean Palin first of all what
0:21
is a gratuity well a gratuity is
0:22
supposed to be and its original
0:24
definition is it's a tip or a bonus that
0:26
you give to somebody if they've gone
0:28
above the norm if they've given you
0:30
exceptional service however increasing
0:33
it's become something very different and
0:35
it's actually become the norm which is
0:37
why so many people are getting upset
0:39
about it but it's supposed to be a bonus
0:42
or a tip that you give someone for
0:43
exceptional service now when it comes to
0:45
gratuities there's three broad
0:47
approaches that cruise lines take the
0:50
first of those is the gratuities are
0:52
included within the price of a cruise
0:55
now that tends to be more common on the
0:57
very upmarket cruise line so the
0:58
ultra-luxury lines will often include
1:00
the gratuity and they will say that
1:03
gratuities are not expected by any of
1:05
the crew it has become increasingly
1:07
common that more mainstream cruise lines
1:09
are starting to include them so cruise
1:11
lines for example that appear no cruises
1:13
in the UK and mirela cruises also in the
1:16
UK have started to include gratuities
1:18
within the overall fare the second and
1:21
more common approach is that their auto
1:23
added or you're asked to pay for them in
1:25
advance so when you book your cruise
1:26
you're given the option of paying for
1:29
gratuities in advance or once you're
1:31
onboard their auto added on to your bill
1:33
and in some cases it's very difficult to
1:36
remove them you can of course go up to
1:38
the desk and ask to either increase or
1:40
decrease the amount of gratuities but
1:43
they are pushed through by the cruise
1:44
line but either getting you to pay them
1:46
upfront when you pay your final balance
1:48
or by just simply adding them on to your
1:51
onboard account and of course taking the
1:53
money off your credit card at the end of
1:55
the cruise this can sometimes cause a
1:57
lot of discussion because there is a lot
1:59
of stories and rumors going around that
2:00
actually there are lists put up and
2:02
telling the crew if certain cabins or
2:04
people have asked for gratuities to be
2:06
removed I don't know any evidence of
2:09
this although there are various
2:10
anecdotal stories the
2:12
approach which used to be more common on
2:14
cruise lines and is largely gone
2:15
although you do see it quite a lot of
2:17
river cruising is you're offered or
2:19
encouraged to just decide if you want to
2:21
add them yourself so you can either hand
2:23
them over has cash to individual members
2:25
of the crew or sometimes there'll be a
2:27
box where you can go and put an envelope
2:29
in we're tips gratuities are pooled
2:32
certainly when I started cruising that
2:34
the last one was much more common you
2:36
were given the land below sand some
2:37
guidelines by the cruise line you put
2:39
cash in and you'd give it to each of the
2:40
members of the crew that you wanted but
2:42
increasingly the second approach where
2:44
cruise lines encourage or force you to
2:47
pay gratuities is much more common it
2:50
can add a lot of money on to the price
2:52
of your cruise so most cruise lines will
2:55
send a gratuity between 12 dollars and
2:58
20 dollars at the time of recording per
3:00
person or per day and that also applies
3:02
to children so if you're a couple you
3:04
can add between 150 and 300 dollars for
3:08
a seven-day cruise so that's around
3:10
about 150 pounds up to 250 pounds and
3:13
about the same in euros so if you're
3:15
traveling as a family with two adults
3:17
and two kids you could be talking many
3:19
hundreds of dollars many hundreds of
3:21
pounds and many hundreds of euros added
3:23
on to the cost of your holiday and
3:25
pretty much constantly cruise lines are
3:27
increasing the amount that they
3:29
recommend gratuities should be so why
3:31
has the topic of gratuities become quite
3:34
so controversial
3:35
well on a painless is a lot around how
3:38
crew members are recruited and page so
3:40
glue to tees have become a fundamental
3:42
part of a cruise wages so cruise lines
3:46
are registered in ports of convenience
3:48
which mean that they do not have to
3:50
follow the labor laws or places like the
3:52
US or the UK all countries in Europe
3:55
so they register them in places where
3:56
they're able to follow much more relaxed
3:59
and less strict labor laws so there's no
4:01
things like minimum wages so the view is
4:03
what cruise lines then do is they then
4:04
go out and recruit a lot of people from
4:07
the Far East so places like the
4:09
Philippines Indonesia India and they
4:12
will pay them at a much lower rate they
4:14
then use gratuities to top up and give
4:17
the crew members a much more balanced or
4:20
fair wage all the cruise lines are doing
4:23
is using gratuities as a way in
4:25
and giving the crew members a better
4:28
wage there's a lot of concern and
4:30
discussion around whether the gratuities
4:32
that you actually pay in through Auto
4:34
gratuities or prepaid actually get to
4:36
the crew members and how much the cruise
4:38
lines actually keep for their own
4:39
profits or used to supplement much more
4:42
senior crew or senior managers bonuses
4:44
so the real concern that actually the
4:46
gratuities are not getting to the people
4:48
that actually do the work and that
4:50
you're interfacing with on a day to day
4:51
basis in reality gratuities are
4:53
increasingly in my view becoming attacks
4:55
because all that the cruise lines are
4:58
really doing is giving you a fare which
5:00
looks much lower but once you actually
5:02
go on the cruise they auto add gratuity
5:04
so effectively adding attacks of course
5:06
you can take it off but all they're
5:08
really doing is hiding the fact that
5:09
your cruise is actually costing you much
5:12
more money than you think it's going to
5:13
cost so instead of paying the crew a
5:16
higher wage they're basically using
5:18
gratuities as a way of making the fare
5:20
look lower but still making you coughing
5:22
up and paying much more money than the
5:25
fare appears to be in practice the
5:27
gratuities are used to pay the crew a
5:31
better wage and it's not really for
5:33
improved service so when should you not
5:36
pay gratuities now here are the reasons
5:38
that I see most people who go cruising
5:40
argue all the times that you shouldn't
5:42
pay the first of those people argue when
5:44
you cannot afford it so it's an extra
5:46
cost on your cruise which you can't
5:48
afford now of course many people would
5:49
argue against that because they argue in
5:51
reality by doing that you're not giving
5:53
the crew a fair wage so by removing
5:56
gratuities not paying them you're
5:57
actually getting the crew to subsidize
5:59
the cost of your fare so a lot of people
6:01
then argue against that of course you
6:03
also shouldn't pay gratuities if it is
6:05
bundled into the face there's no need to
6:07
pay an extra two t because that's really
6:09
covered of course you may decide you
6:11
want to because someone's giving you
6:12
phenomenal and really extra service so
6:14
genuinely returns to what a gratuity was
6:17
supposed to be which is an extra tip
6:19
above the person's salary for doing an
6:22
exceptional job you shouldn't pay them
6:24
when you're buying something like drinks
6:27
or using the spa because gratuities are
6:30
Auto added on the bills so often on a
6:32
cruise line when you buy a drink you'll
6:34
find that a gratuity is added after
6:37
to about 18% and the same applies in
6:40
many sparse so you shouldn't then pay an
6:42
additional gratuity on top of that
6:43
because effectively you've got like a
6:45
sales tax or tax already added also you
6:48
shouldn't really pay go to tea as many
6:49
people argue to things like if you put
6:52
your kids in the kids club per Tilley if
6:53
you're Auto pay maturities don't give an
6:55
extra tip to the kids club if someone
6:57
comes and fixes your room for example
6:59
you got a problem in your room and they
7:00
come and deal with that you don't give a
7:02
tip for that so any of those kind of
7:04
services that are provided you would
7:06
normally expect to be covered don't pay
7:08
an extra gratuity particularly your auto
7:10
paying or to ities into a central part
7:12
because you effectively then paying
7:14
double gratuities so when should you pay
7:17
the gratuity well of course part of a
7:19
discussion around whether you believe
7:21
that
7:22
gratuity in practice is part of your
7:24
overall fare so actually by paying the
7:26
auto gratuity or the pre paying the
7:28
gratuity all you're doing is making sure
7:30
that the crew members who deal with you
7:31
are getting a fair wage a better wage
7:33
than they would if you don't pay the
7:35
gratuity because actually they expect
7:37
that gratuity is so effectively you see
7:39
it as part of your overall fare secondly
7:42
of course if you generally have
7:43
individuals that you see as providing
7:46
phenomenal service so someone's gone way
7:48
beyond what you would normally and
7:50
reasonably expect and you really want to
7:52
acknowledge that because they've done
7:53
something
7:53
absolutely amazing and you may want to
7:55
give them some extra dollars to
7:57
recognize that another reason for paying
7:59
into the gratuities through that central
8:01
process is nowadays we tend not to eat
8:05
in the same restaurants so increasingly
8:06
with many different dining venues
8:09
speciality dining we don't have the same
8:11
server all the time so actually by
8:13
paying the gratuities paying to the
8:15
central party making sure that all of
8:16
those people that have served you across
8:17
your week or two week crews are actually
8:19
getting some kind of recognition of the
8:22
services they provided the other reason
8:24
for paying gratuities particularly
8:25
paying them individually is for people
8:27
that are not going to get part of that
8:29
bigger part so for example people who
8:31
work in the casino don't get a share of
8:33
those over gratuities people running the
8:35
tours and the bus drivers are not going
8:37
to get a share of those gratuities
8:38
unless you're one of the ultra-luxury
8:40
lines where they do build that into the
8:42
overall fare also people like porters at
8:45
the port I know help you with your bags
8:47
or carrying a bags those kind of people
8:49
are not going to get part of the overall
8:51
gratuity pot some people also see it
8:54
really important is giving a gratuity to
8:56
the maitre d if you have a lousy table
8:57
and you want to move to a much better
8:59
table and gratuity is often a way that
9:02
people see helping to make sure you get
9:04
a better table and certainly that's
9:06
something we have done in the past
9:07
gratuities are always going to be a
9:10
controversial part of cruising
9:12
particularly nowadays where they are
9:14
Auto added and the cruise line Thomas
9:16
enforces you to do it they've almost
9:17
added it as a tax so the whole issue of
9:20
gratuities is kind of a really bizarre
9:23
one in my view because it's not really a
9:25
gratuity it is a service charge it's an
9:27
additional charge it's really part of
9:29
your fare because if the cruise line is
9:30
kind of making you pay them it's not
9:32
really a recognition of service above
9:35
the norm one of the things of course
9:37
that we do as consumers when we go out
9:39
looking for cruisers is you're often
9:40
looking for great fares and it gives as
9:42
long as the cruise line knows that and
9:44
they know that actually by under
9:46
pitching effectively the fare by a
9:48
couple of hundred dollars couple hundred
9:50
pounds couple hundred euros because
9:52
they're going to catch that up Englisher
9:54
cheese they're going to keep doing it
9:55
because they know that often when you're
9:57
looking for a cruise we look at the fare
9:59
and we forget a lot of those extra costs
10:01
they're gonna add on particularly
10:02
gratuities unlike on land where people
10:06
have resort fees which is another kind
10:08
of tax but they do at least bundle in
10:09
extra things what you need to bear in
10:11
mind with gratuities on a cruise line
10:13
you're probably not going to get service
10:15
above and beyond because it's just
10:17
become part of the normal fare
10:19
gratuities are a very hot topic and I
10:22
would love to hear what you think about
10:23
gratuities do you auto pay them
10:25
do you take it off and pay people in
10:27
cash what is your view about gratuities
10:29
and how do you think cruise lines should
10:31
handle it and please watch many more of
10:33
my tips for Tablas to help you get
10:36
travel inspiration advice and tips on
10:38
how to make much more of your precious
10:40
travel time and money
10:42
[Music]
10:46
[Applause]
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