Gratuities – Are we paying the staff’s wages?

I think we all agree that one of the things that makes a cruise holiday so special is the fantastic service you receive from the crew. There’s no denying that they work incredibly hard, facing long hours and hard graft. Many of them are away from their families for long periods of time and whilst the idea of living on a cruise ship sounds very glamorous – down in the staff quarters things are not exactly as plush as the guest accommodation.

Because of the fantastic service given I always actually enjoy rewarding the staff who have added value to my experience. I have never had anything other than great service and that’s why I am happy to tip staff. But…there is a but! I only like to tip the staff who I have come in to contact with that have made my holiday great. I do not want to reward somebody who I haven’t seen on the cruise or who has had little or no impact on my experience.

NCL have just announced their second increase in the cost of gratuities in the space of 6 months. Read about the full story here. This means that in a standard cabin, customers are expected to pay a whopping $14.45 per person per day in tips which works out at around £70 a week. The one saving grace with NCL is that they are one of the few cruise lines who allow gratuities to be removed from your account so that you can tip whoever you want to personally. There are some cruise lines that force you to pay gratuities unless there are extreme circumstances or you have had a customer service nightmare. But why is this? It almost seems like we are paying for, or at least topping up the wages of the staff, but why should we? Shouldn’t the cruise lines pay a reasonable salary to their staff so that they don’t need to rely on tips? And how do we actually know that the tips are going to the staff unless we hand it over personally. We can’t be totally be sure.

I know some people prefer to pre-pay tips as they are not sure what is deemed the right amount to tip someone and simply find it all hard work, however I find that even if I have been forced in to pre-paying gratuities I still end up tipping staff again once on board.

Click here to look at our full guide to tipping and the price with each  individual cruise line.

What do you think? Do you prefer to pre-pay or do you agree that it should be down to your own discretion? Leave a comment below.