[BITList] Gratuity Rates for Passengers on Cruise Ships

[michael J Feltham]

Why don’t the Cruise Companies increase the Wages ?  Why put the onus on the Passengers for paying their Crew a decent wage


Mike




Cruise giant Carnival joins list of lines raising service charge and gratuity rates

By : Gene Sloan USA TODAY

Effective Dec. 1, the company is hiking the gratuity for staff it automatically tacks onto final bills by about 8 percent to $13.99 per person, per day, for passengers staying in most cabins. Passengers in suites will pay $15.99 per person, per day – an increase of nearly 15 percent from current rates. With the increase, a family of four in a standard cabin will pay nearly $400 in automatic gratuities on a typical seven-night cruise. Carnival revealed plans for the increase Thursday in an email to passengers booked on upcoming trips. Carnival's new gratuity charge will surpass the levy at sister brand Princess Cruises ($13.50) but remain below the fees at rival brands Royal Caribbean ($14.50) and Norwegian Cruise Line ($14.50). Another sister line to Carnival, Holland America, just recently increased its fees to $14.50 for standard cabins. Carnival last raised gratuity charges in September 2016. The 8 percent hike in Carnival's gratuity is higher than the rate of inflation in the USA over the same period. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index has risen 4.6 percent since September 2016.The practice of automatically adding gratuities to passenger bills is at a crossroads in the industry. A growing number of upscale ocean lines including Azamara, Crystal, Seabourn, Regent and SeaDream have eliminated added service charges and automatic gratuities entirely, and the practice also is disappearing at some river cruise companies. River lines Uniworld, Tauck and Scenic Cruises are among those that now include gratuities for crew members in the base fare. 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20181021/c22f2447/attachment.html>