New (to me) wrinkle in shipboard tipping

We just got home from another Oceania cruise (Insignia Barcelona to Lisbon).
Oceania automatically charges you room for the gratuity that is shared by
all. However, in the disembarkation briefing the Cruise Director announced
that if there was someone who you felt provided exceptional care or
whatever, it was perfectly all right to hand them money in an envelope and
they did not have to share that with the gratuity pool.
BTW, almost half the passengers were repeat Oceania cruisers. The ship had
639 passengers (max 640).
Paul Johnson

In article , Paul Johnson
wrote:

We just got home from another Oceania cruise (Insignia Barcelona to Lisbon).
Oceania automatically charges you room for the gratuity that is shared by
all. However, in the disembarkation briefing the Cruise Director announced
that if there was someone who you felt provided exceptional care or
whatever, it was perfectly all right to hand them money in an envelope and
they did not have to share that with the gratuity pool.

Princess does the same. If you do the auto charge then tips are pooled.
If you give an additional amount then the recipient does not have to
pool it. If you opt out of the auto tips though, the recipient has to
turn in all gratuities received to the pool.

--
Charles

Hell, my cow and me don't never tip...no one rembers you...senior fised
income
"Paul Johnson" wrote in message
...
We just got home from another Oceania cruise (Insignia Barcelona to
Lisbon). Oceania automatically charges you room for the gratuity that is
shared by all. However, in the disembarkation briefing the Cruise
Director announced that if there was someone who you felt provided
exceptional care or whatever, it was perfectly all right to hand them
money in an envelope and they did not have to share that with the gratuity
pool.
BTW, almost half the passengers were repeat Oceania cruisers. The ship
had 639 passengers (max 640).
Paul Johnson

On Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:06:25 -0500, "Paul Johnson"
wrote:

However, in the disembarkation briefing the Cruise Director announced
that if there was someone who you felt provided exceptional care or
whatever, it was perfectly all right to hand them money in an envelope and
they did not have to share that with the gratuity pool.

Hi Paul,

This is SOP for many cruise lines now that collect the gratuity on
your ship charge billing.

Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com
--

From:
(Paul*Johnson)
We just got home from another Oceania
cruise (Insignia Barcelona to Lisbon).
Oceania automatically charges you room
for the gratuity that is shared by all.
However, in the disembarkation briefing
the Cruise Director announced that if
there was someone who you felt provided
exceptional care or whatever, it was
perfectly all right to hand them money
in an envelope and they did not have to
share that with the gratuity pool. BTW,
almost half the passengers were repeat
Oceania cruisers. The ship had 639
passengers (max 640).
Paul Johnson
---

As past passengers on Rennaisance. Oceania and Azamara , I would be
interested in hearing your opinion about the Insignia. We have a trip on
the Regatta booked for February and on the Tahitian (Ocean) Princess
booked for July. I love this class of ship. Tell us more.

~~DORIS~~
**________*/*/___/*/___/*/_________
*\::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::/
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RCCL Grandeur 12-8-22, 2008

Oceania Regatta 2-25-2009

Tahitian Princess 6-25-2009

http://community.webtv.net/DorisIs/AROUNDTHEHORN

"Charles" wrote in message
d...
Princess does the same. If you do the auto charge then tips are pooled.
If you give an additional amount then the recipient does not have to
pool it. If you opt out of the auto tips though, the recipient has to
turn in all gratuities received to the pool.

--
Charles
We have heard the same thing. BUT, if you are personal choice dining, how
does a waiter know you opted out? We traveled recently with a couple who
had "supposedly" terrible service from their room steward. So they opted
out. Then they gave tips directly to the waiter and assistant. But being
personal choice, they would have no way of knowing who they were, let alone
if they opted out. And no, they never ordered any drinks, so their card was
never presented.

--
Greg

On Fri, 28 Nov 2008 03:24:31 GMT, "Gregory C. Read"
wrote:

"Charles" wrote in message
id...
Princess does the same. If you do the auto charge then tips are pooled.
If you give an additional amount then the recipient does not have to
pool it. If you opt out of the auto tips though, the recipient has to
turn in all gratuities received to the pool.

--
Charles
We have heard the same thing. BUT, if you are personal choice dining, how
does a waiter know you opted out? We traveled recently with a couple who
had "supposedly" terrible service from their room steward. So they opted
out. Then they gave tips directly to the waiter and assistant. But being
personal choice, they would have no way of knowing who they were, let alone
if they opted out. And no, they never ordered any drinks, so their card was
never presented.

And even if the waiters did know who gave them the tips, it would be a
big administrative burden to enter all the tips into the system,
figure out who opted out and who didn't, and redistribute the money
appropriately.

I suppose that's what computers are for - but there would be no way
for the workers to know that the cruise line wasn't just pocketing the
money.

In article , Gregory C. Read
wrote:

We have heard the same thing. BUT, if you are personal choice dining, how
does a waiter know you opted out? We traveled recently with a couple who
had "supposedly" terrible service from their room steward. So they opted
out. Then they gave tips directly to the waiter and assistant. But being
personal choice, they would have no way of knowing who they were, let alone
if they opted out. And no, they never ordered any drinks, so their card was
never presented.

They know who has opted out.

Also "social" pressure and fear of being fired makes it likely that all
money tipped will be turned into the pool. If they don't know who you
are it is going to go into the pool.

--
Charles

In article , Jack Hamilton
wrote:

And even if the waiters did know who gave them the tips, it would be a
big administrative burden to enter all the tips into the system,
figure out who opted out and who didn't, and redistribute the money
appropriately.

If they could not figure it out it would go into the pool. Most likely
they will find out your cabin number if you leave a tip. And they know
who opted in and who did not. The pursers office keeps a record of
that.

I suppose that's what computers are for - but there would be no way
for the workers to know that the cruise line wasn't just pocketing the
money.

The workers would figure that out real fast.

--
Charles

On Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:17:30 -0500, Charles
wrote:

In article , Jack Hamilton
wrote:

And even if the waiters did know who gave them the tips, it would be a
big administrative burden to enter all the tips into the system,
figure out who opted out and who didn't, and redistribute the money
appropriately.

If they could not figure it out it would go into the pool. Most likely
they will find out your cabin number if you leave a tip. And they know
who opted in and who did not. The pursers office keeps a record of
that.

I suppose that's what computers are for - but there would be no way
for the workers to know that the cruise line wasn't just pocketing the
money.

The workers would figure that out real fast.

I wonder how workers on NCL know that their pooled tips are being
allocated correctly - some of the tips go to employees based on other
ships or on land, so it would probably be very difficult for a third
party to figure out the total amount distributed. Princess workers
would have a similar problem - they would have to know the total
amount collected, and the rules for distributing it, to detect whether
anything was siphoned out.

If the cruise line kept 50% of the proceeds, they'd be caught - but
half a percent? I doubt it.