I am going on my 1st cruise in Oct ont the Norwegian Dawn. I am concerned about the policy on tipping. The booklet I received said tipping is not required, however I have read many people saying they will automatically charge you $10 day to your acct. How can they do this and is this true?

It is true. But at the end, you can have it adjusted if you tipped throughout your cruise or if you felt your service was bad.

quote:

Originally posted by tigger2:
I am going on my 1st cruise in Oct ont the Norwegian Dawn. I am concerned about the policy on tipping. The booklet I received said tipping is not required, however I have read many people saying they will automatically charge you $10 day to your acct. How can they do this and is this true?

They can do it because it is part of the contract between you and the cruise line. Cruise lines generally do not pay much in salary to the service staff. Instead, these crewmembers rely on the service charge and tips for their income. Here is the official tipping policy for NCL: NCL Tipping Policy

I still do not see where in the companies policy on tipping that they state they charge an automatic/flat fee of $10 a day????

I found the info regarding standard $10 fee that is charged per person per day. So if 2 people are cruising for 7 days, that will be $140 charged to my acct. Is it necessary to give cash tips in addtion to any crew members? I am just concerned that I have enough money for anything unexpected, I will be traveling with cash not credit.. thanks

If you are planning to use room service at any time, you'll want to tip the crew member doing the delivery (around $2); you should tip porters handling your bags at the pier both at embarkation and debarkation ($1 per bag); you may or may not want to tip your excursion provider; extra tipping for anyother crew members for exceptional service is at your discretion. A 15% "service charge" is added to drinks from the bar - including sodas - and any other services (ie spa). If you are going to Mexico or other 3rd world destinations, you'll want to carry small bills - don't expect change for a $20.

Almost all the large cruise lines charge an auto-tip of $10 per day, and the few that don't recommend that you tip that much.
So either way, you'll see the same amount of cash removed from your wallet at the end of your cruise.

I prefer this to tipping everyone I come into contact with. I usually slip the room steward/ess extra at the end if they were good. And they usually are.

The best tip I was told to give is to fill out customer surveys and name names of those you praise. It gets people promoted.

NCL is a bit of a special case - the 10 USD is a non removable service fee. Take a closer look at your broshure -if things are still unclear have chat with your travel profensional.

However as has been already mentioned cruise lines have passed the cost of service on the passenger in the form of tips - these are normally the salary / wages of certain members of staff like your waiter,his assistant, cabin steward. Basically those who serve you directly everyday.

Now NCL and its freestyle concept means you don't always have the same waiter for example so to make it easier they pool the service charge and distribute accordingly.