I think this has put me off cruises. Fancy doing that. The worlds full of scams of some sort or another.:(
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I think this has put me off cruises. Fancy doing that. The worlds full of scams of some sort or another.:(
[QUOTE=Captain Kong;87891]This from Cunards web site, on Tips...........
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On Board Staff Tips During your cruise, you will experience excellent service from many members of our crew in a variety of locations. In addition, many more crew behind the scenes support those who serve you directly. For your convenience, a Hotel and Dining charge will be automatically added to your shipboard account on a daily basis.
The Hotel and Dining charge will be shared amongst those staff that helped provide and support your luxury cruise experience, including the restaurant staff, stateroom stewards and accommodations staff, buffet stewards and others. Casino and Spa personnel do not share this charge, as not all guests utilise these services.
The amount charged varies by stateroom category. Naturally, you are free to tip any member of crew over and above these amounts at your discretion.
As the onboard personnel who are directly involved in you having a luxury cruise experience . Sort of , like the engine room guys or the deck guys , who are all responsible for the lights in your cabin , the ice in your drinks , the fact you get to the port the next day , do they get anything from this tips trenche . I bet those mechanics and boilermen get nothing , That's it No glass slipper for Cinders Yet again !!!!
Thats right Rob, Deck and Engine staff do not get any kind of Tip, Only Hotel staff.
Bar Tenders and Someiliers, wine waiters get 15% of what you drink.
I take my whisky with me and have a tot or two in the cabin and do not pay towards them.
Cheers
Brian
That is why Union Castle engineers drove Morris Minors , The Barman drove a Jaguar , I think the Chief Purser had a Chauffer to take him home to his Estate in teh Home Counties ,
And of course the Chief steward had a Rolls.
But in response to John, here in Oz tips are somthing that very rarely occur, it is not part of ouy pysce, that is why Princess had to remove the gratuities from all cruises out of Oz. But they did get a small win. Prior to the abolition of them 15% was added to all bar bills. This is now gone but all drinks are up by 5%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All this makes me glad that I am not one bit intersted in going on a cruise as I do not think I would survive it. As John says here in Oz tipping is not really done and as far as I can recall it never happened while growing up in the UK. So have a question to those that venture onto those monolithes that they jokingly call cruise ships. Is it still the same where everything is cheaper once you cross the three mile line and no tax's or duty is paid anymore. From what I can deduct from posts it is dearer than ashore now. I can understand a lot on this site in favour of tipping as most are from catering and used to get tips. Still glad I was from the deck crew and we only got what we worked for without having to suck up to people you would not urinate on in the hope that they would throw us a crumb or two. If they are not getting paid enough then get another job.
Whilst I have no experience of sailing in passenger ships in the professional capacity I can relate to enjoying a twelve day round trip on the ‘Hurtigruten’ some years ago and understand that there is a waiting list to join the catering department, almost wholly woman, and all enjoying good salaries. Tipping was not expected and the lady who looked after our table hinted that she enjoyed a bottle of wine of an evening.
As for what goes on in these cruise ships, which the thread alludes to.
Where is the ITF in all this? Surely the Filipinos are on a contract governed by AMOSUP T&Cs. I think on looking closer you will find someone, somewhere is doing very nicely.
Up until the mid 90s the ITF and their affiliates were regular visitors to FOC vessels checking on salaries and quickly disappearing when a ‘Blue Card’ was produced. Surely, a Blue Card is still required.
Give this time and some scandal will be exposed., whether it be from the seamen’s union end in Manila or whatever nationality the crew in question are from or the ITF themselves.
Bill
out of interest I checked the ITF Website and the last wage scale i can see there is 2008 , with overtime a minumum wage of $545 ends up as $956.66 . I expect that is reasonable by Philipine standards but actually don't know . I wonder , having seen one of these Reality TV shows as part of series a year or so ago , if the Cruise companies have a get out by taking the Catering crew on on a Self-Employed basis . I am not sure how " Legal " that is , but the show I saw the barman worked for a minimum of something like bed and board only and made his wages out of tips . The only way around that in the UK would be to have the guy as a self employed entity , with the bed and board as a retainer . If that is the case , and I hope it is not then I feel it is immoral as well as unethical , but possiby legal . This would remove him from te ITF agreements , and when an ITF inspector turns up , if they still do , then the "crew" of deck , engineering and back room catering are in the agreement and teh others flung to teh four winds . Note I am only speculating as to how the Cruise companies get away with slavery in these modern times , but also in hope that someone may know .
Hi shipmates the only passenger ship I have been on in the last few years was the spirit of bilboe a ferry The crew on deck and officers are all brits then??? but everyone else is an agency unskilled worker on very low pay, the bars+ staff are open if you have any money to buy drinks, shift work 24x7 The fist night I was told if they say or do anything wrong they will not work on any ship again ? And be put off the next port with no pay? the Agency pays them into shore bank account with no overtime pay The drinks are very expensive not shipboard prices' ? one arm bandits every where, near bars, Good show dancers singer and much more {brits} The casino had all chinese workers dont know anything about them? but it seemed everyone, was asking for money for charity and wildlife save the dolphin e,t.c
Excuse me,madam, the captain has invited you to come and dine at his table.
Certainly not! I didnt pay all that money for this cruise to end up sitting with the crew! :th_thth5952deef: