Norwegian Cruise Lines Hikes Gratuities 25% Starting Jan 1st

[RCVirgin22]

My first cruise was with NCL, mainly due to their Solo pricing that you can't get elsewhere. I found it to be alright as it was basically just lodging in between ports, I did make the mistake of exploring the ship too early so that by the time a Sea day came along I had nothing left to do. Not into the shows/entertainment stuff so between meals and a few walks around exterior of the ship I was in cabin watching TV which there wasn't much on. 

The fact they've increased prices so much and cut back so severely pretty much makes it my one an only time on NCL. 

[cruisellama]

Just have a single rate and stop carrying gratuities as a separate line item.   This could adversely affect how some might/might not provide additional tips at the end, may end up hurting service crew in the long run.

[smokeybandit]

Carnival increasing gratuities for the 2nd time in the last 12 months.

 

https://www.cruisehive.com/carnival-cruise-line-price-increases-set-to-begin/97727

[Montemy2419]

On 12/8/2022 at 7:49 PM, Swar said:

We have stopped paying for automatic gratuities. We pay our room attendant $10-$15 /day. We tip for every drink we order, We do not do MDR. We pay 18% gratuity for specialty dining and sometimes an extra tip. On the first day of every cruise, we go to customer service and have them delete gratuities. No discussion or argument.

i think more people are starting to think like you.  We started cruising in 1988 (NCL Seaward) and you paid the cruise price and taxes.  We always tipped directly just like you are doing.  With the prices going up for gratuities and service is down to once a day then at what point do we finally say enough ?  I agree with @Swar that changes need to happen.  The cruise line never used to collect for gratuities and I think more people will be like you and removing them.  Just increase the cost of the cruise per person rate and be done with it.

[RCVirgin22]

There was an interesting article on tipping that I watched the other day, and it seems like some companies simply took advantage of people's good will during the pandemic by asking if you'd like to tip on just about everything non service related. I mean why am I tipping on a carry out that I drove to your establishment for? All you did was cook the food which is your job. Plus you've got this whole new thing where people order via apps which have you tipping prior to being serviced, which makes you think if you don't tip then how will your order arrive and will it be delivered expediently?  Because you can opt to tip in person but the driver doesn't know if you will or not. 

As for the percentage, that shouldn't be dictated by a Company. Who are you to determine how well the customer was served before the fact? I also feel 25% is way too much for anyone, it's not my fault if that person is overworked or in a potentially bad work environment. And the games Cruise Companies play to get around paying them a decent/legal wage in the first place also isn't my fault, and perhaps that should be looked into more. I'm also not confident the people directly involved with my services will be getting "my" tips, it feels like all tips are pooled and the dispersed evenly among the employees regardless of who might have worked harder or gave a more enjoyable service to passengers. They've taken the "personal" out of a thank you and made it corporate.