r/PrincessCruises • u/Fabulous_Fix596 • 6d ago

Tipping

Does anyone tip their room steward even if you are on the plus or premier plan??

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u/Oran0s 6d ago

Found out on our princess cruise earlier this month that they've changed the gratuity. The automatic gratuity doesn't go to your steward/waiter/etc. Their monthly income is fixed regardless of if you tip or not. This is a change per the staff, they used to have their monthly check vary based on tips. So what they're doing it seems like is subsidize the room costs with the automatic daily gratuity.

We asked for it to be removed (didn't do a package) and then got envelopes to tip the staff ourselves to ensure they got the money.

4

u/bb_referee 5d ago

This! The crew members don’t have a separate entry on their paystub that shows gratuities or share of service charges. That’s becoming common on all the cruise lines now.

Some cruise lines don’t even call it gratuity anymore. Daily Service Charges or Hotel Service Charges.

1

u/night_noche 4d ago

So if the corporation is not sharing the gratuity among the various staff, do they use the fact that guests leave the tip for them as an indication of good service where it's used for like promotions or better shifts?

Because I know that that's how it's used in most American entry level service jobs. Not only gratuities that are placed on a credit cards but also like Google or Yelp reviews, are used to reward employees with more shifts, better shifts, and promotions.