Princess Cruises has announced that they are the latest cruise line to raise daily gratuities in 2016.
Princess stated that the reason for the rise in prices was to ensure that the guest service on board remains among the best in the cruise industry. Starting on all voyages departing on or after December 15, 2016, daily gratuities will be as follows:
- $13.50 USD per guest per day for regular staterooms (interior, oceanview and balcony) – an increase of $0.55.
- $14.50 USD per guest per day for mini-suites (including Club Class) – an increase of $0.55.
- $15.50 USD per guest per day for suites – an increase of $1.55.
All passengers who currently have cruises booked can prepay their daily gratuities at the current amount up until midnight on November 15, 2016. Daily gratuities are automatically charged to each passengers on board account and are split between their room stewards, servers for meals, and a few behind the scenes employees who make cruises so enjoyable.
Princess Cruises is not the first cruise line to raise gratuities in 2016. Earlier this year, Carnival Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, and Royal Caribbean have raised gratuities by similar amounts.
May we please ask Princess cruises to kindly have a heart and consider giving us the bar department fix salaries we all deserve. Because personally I always felt bad seeing my fellow bar staff fighting for every dollar we may or may not sell to every passengers on board.. please hear us out.. have a heart.. we are all working hard to be able to properly provide for our own families. Please help us..thank you!
Good! Their crew are worth it plus more! It’s an absolute disgrace that some people take their tips off at Reception 🙁 If you cannot afford to tip, save up for the next cruise or stay home! Unconscionable! Some crew are from the other side of the world and work 14-16 days for 6-9 months at a time, and people that earn far more than they do have the audacity NOT to want to “pay it forward!” Shameful!!!
Roll on 2017 my Regal Princess <3
Interesting, considering that the word gratuity comes from the French “gratuit”, meaning “free.” In other words something freely given (not imposed) to another person. Maybe, instead of shouting about low wages and the worth of the crew (and they are generally wonderful), we should all be lobbying for them to receive a decent wage and the true cost of a cruise to be reflected in the fares. Then everyone would know where they stand.
Many times in the past we have “doubled up” by paying the imposed gratuities and then giving our cabin and waitstaff something direct. Latterly we attempted to have one of us pay the gratuities and the other giving direct tips. Some of us save hard to get a really good holiday (the only one of the year) and after travel and parking do not have a fortune to give away. Each to his/her own. There is no shame in that, the shame lies with the cruise companies who don’t pay their staff properly.
Disgraceful? Your choice of this word is debatable. Perhaps Deplorable would be more suitable! We prefer to pay for good services rendered and prefer to pay those persons directly. Would you “tip” someone who gave poor service?
We are travelling in December family of 12 and no way we will be paying that amount of money We believe to give gratuities to the people that serves us dining room cabin steward and ang other.
All the people that clean up after the dirty dozen should be tipped! Even if you eat at the buffet. Servers work there to keep it nice for you, fresh and clean, plus they take your drink order. AND don’t even think about removing tips for children. Frankly, the lines should charge double-service charge for them as they are the biggest offenders…If you are bringing children and sign them up to the Kids Club on board make sure you tip the minders that look after your children (a few bucks per day) Let me guess, you lot are going to remove the charges from ALL 12 shipboard accounts and “TIP” the individuals directly…Yeah, right, pull the other one, mate! There’s NO chance you’re going to do the right and decent thing. You may not be aware that the Princess Line is very classy with superior service and amenities. If ALL of you are going to behave like a bunch of loutish Chavs, do us all a favor and STAY HOME! Sounds like you are out of your depth! If you cannot afford to cruise, DON’T!!!
How dare Princess do this. I am Elite with Princess and do most cruises from Australia where I get to choose who gets my tips and I am very generous. Princess say they are doing this to keep up the high standard , well there should be a high standard anyway because these employees have a job and that should be the high standard. I have spoken to many crew over my 40 years of cruising with my wife and there are a lot that either are in the service part or entertainment part of the ship that are part of making our cruise better and they do not get any part of the gratuity that Princess have collected . Is it another way that Princess can drag in more money as well as the way the prices have risen over the last few years. Business in general must keep in mind that you can’t rip people of when you have a successful time in your business life as one day and believe me it will come business will not be as lucrative and then they start to cry like a baby and beg for new customers when they only had to look after the ones they already had. .