Who's kidding Who... When your cruise director stands before you giving his talk prior to disembarking, and tells you tipping is not required on HAL but the crew earn 95% of their income from tips, you know tey are working for your tips and be prepared to tip. Our family policy is to tip each bar order, we tip our waiters and bus staff,tip the assistant maitre d, and tip the Lido staff, that have gone out of their way to service us. The Pinnacle staff go way beyond normal service. and get tipped accordingly. HAL should either change their policy and make it less confusing for new cruisers.
Posts: 5 | Location: Trumbull CT USA | Registered: September 26, 2003
HAL has already announced that the policy is being changed. They are going to add tips to the passengers' onboard accounts like many other cruise lines do.
Our family has sailed on HAL many times and we loved it. The no tipping policy is exactly that. They do not harrass you for tips....nice break. But we do tip personally. The service on HAL is wonderful and you will want to tip. Thats different than RCCL, CCL and some of the other lines where its so obvious that they are only after you tip.
On CCL, u can go to pursers desk at beginning of trip and ask to have tips removed and request envelopes to put tips in. the 15% on drinks can not be removed according to them. my bill had $140 taken off.
<Daneen>
Posted
In my opinion, we always had great service and I think these employees deserve every bit of the "recommended tip" that they automatically put on your sail and sign card. Do you get fresh sheets at home every night? Our Dining Staff had our next entree waiting and at the table as we took our last bite of the previous one. Please don;t take this away from the people who are making their living to send home to their families. They are on the ships for 6 plus months before the are with families. We just don't know how lucky we are, so stop and think about those who have to make their living as such. We felt the automatic tipping was great and felt they earned every cent of it.
We have cruised for many years, I am of the opinion that if the crew knows that they are on automatic gratuities the service level is less.We have experienced this every single time we have been on the automatic gratuity ships. I believe the very best service is when they have to give good service and work for thier pay. With automatic gratuities there is no incentive. In the future I will tip as it is EARNED. Tom Stanton p.s. On many occasions I have gone above and beyond for excellent service, probably would not have done so if it had been automatic.
Posts: 493 | Location: cape coral fl usa | Registered: December 11, 2003
