how do "no tipping required/allowed" cruises really work?
 

how do "no tipping required/allowed" cruises really work? :confused:
do the employees actually get paid more by the company?

Our very first cruise was on Holland America, back when they were "no tipping required". We were young and naive travelers and not a lot of info available on the net in the mid 90's. All cruise long, they talked about no tipping required, and wouldn't even make suggestions to how much to tip to anyone. "You don't have to, we pay our staff good, but whatever you wish to give as a token of your appreciation will be thankfully received" blah blah. So we thought the 25 or 30 bucks we gave our cabin steward and dining room waiter was really going above and beyond lol. Of course, a year or so later, I discover cruising websites like Cruise Critic and such, and realize that we vastly underpaid based on the accepted norms.

Are there even "no tipping allowed" cruises?

I don't know about no tipping allowed but several of the luxury lines advertise and tout "no tipping required or expected". For the most part on those lines it's true and I actually think most crew don't expect tips. They certainly don't hang around toward the end of the cruise with that kind of doe eyed look of expectation hoping you're going to hand out cash. In 2012 we boarded the Silver Wind in Barcelona and were greeted later in the day by one of the bar supervisors. Turned out she remembered us from a few years before on Holland America's Oosterdam when she was a bartender. We talked off and on over the next week plus and the subject of why she'd left Holland America and gone to Silversea came up. She said two things lured her away and that was higher pay for shorter contracts. In several subsequent cruises on Silversea I have heard the higher pay, shorter contracts, and overall better working conditions repeated a number of times. Could be PR and they're just singing the appropriate "company song" but I believe it to be generally true.

They are truly "no tipping" and at least on Seabourn, staff are discouraged from accepting tips from customers. The ship's maintain a "staff fund" and if passengers do want to tip, they can contribute to that. The staff purser and captain can then use the money for special treats for the entire crew (parties, etc.)

When I've had staff who have gone above and beyond, I've treated them to drinks if we run into them in town, brought them back treats from port (a lot of the young mostly European staff are also foodies themselves), or left good feedback on my mid-cruise and end surveys. The cruise line also recognized them with treats like shore excursions.

What about on cruise lines that levy the mandatory daily gratuity charges? Is it expected that you tip the staff separately in addition to those charges? RCCL, for example.

In the past year I have been on two so-called luxury cruise lines - Seabourn and Silversea - and didn't tip anyone. It is not expected or necessary and if you lurk on the SB and SS boards on Cruise Critic you will find that people who do tip are regarded with some disdain. Of course, being European/British we seldom tip anyone and rather resent the degrading North American tipping culture.

Princess charges a daily "gratuity" rate and passengers are not expect to tip directly. I have tipped individuals for service over and above and not had anyone turn me down.

I have a cousin who emigrated from the US to Sweden after she married a Swedish woman. She's been living just half an hour away from Stockholm for almost 12 years. She said she was quite surprised how many Swedish people tipped at restaurants.(sometimes even directly to the chef, which I find amusing)

For the most part, those charges aren't mandatory, although I think they are too easily removed by passengers as well. I think the passenger who wants them removed from their account should have a demonstrable reason for doing so, and not the typical "I prefer the personal aspect of giving the tip", which usually means they aren't going to. I think this should be a mandatory fee personally, if not outright built right into the price of the cruise.

Anyway, on the mainstream cruiselines, you aren't expected to tip over and above what the automatic charge is. Although room service generally expects a tip, and we also have tipped the staff at the kids club.

Last year we did a river cruise with gratuities included. We did not tip on the ship in addition to what was "included". We did tip guides & drivers on land as they were specifically NOT included with our cruise fare. In November, we'll be on Azamara in Asia. That line also includes gratuities with your fare and I do not anticipate we'll tip on the ship in addition to that....

I went to one of those "ask the captain and staff questions" sessions on one cruise and I asked about tipping and why the cruise line doesn't just pay the staff a fair wage? I queried the registry of the cruise ship in x country yet the main offices are in Florida (U.S.) wouldn't that mean that US Wage Law was in play with minimums, etc.? Well, the crew who gave me the mic was excited to hear the answer but as expected the Captain said he couldnt talk about salary issues. I followed up with "you are expecting guests to cover your wage costs" so it's important to us to know why. He refused and took another question. The luxury ships will discourage tipping but the mass market ships look at guests to pay via tips or "mandatory charges".

I'm certainly no expert, but the ships, in the most simplistic terms, are individual corporations. Based the Norwegian model, it would take an act of Congress to allow, say, Carnival, to register it's ships in the US anyway, since one requirement for that is substantial, if not total, US construction of the ship. The Pride of America was mostly built in Mississippi and completed in Germany, while the Pride of Hawaii was built in Germany with parts from Mississippi (and this ship was since been foreign flagged and re-named the Norwegian Jade).

For sure the cruise lines hate talking about wages, flags of convenience and stuff like that.

There are indeed cruise lines that add an on board charge to cover gratuities or tips. For instance, Holland America adds a daily per person charge called the Hotel Service Charge (HSC). In the sense that this is automatically added to ever account I suppose it could be considered mandatory but, as pointed out, a passenger can have the charge removed so it's not absolutely mandatory. The downside on Holland America is that if a passenger removes or decreases the standard HSC then the wait staff is alerted and are told to turn in any cash tips received from said passengers. Needless to say there's a lot of debate and discussion about how well that works or doesn't work but those are at least HAL's rules. Now if a passenger leaves the HSC intact then the passenger
can, strictly at their own discretion, tip individual staff additional amounts which the staff member is allowed to keep.

Usually yes, because they tend to be the higher end and luxury cruises - and they have higher standards for their crew and so pay a premium wage (and generally treat them better with respect to time and benefits).

Yes, there really is no tipping expected, and (after 2 such cruises) have never felt that anyone looked as if they were expecting me to give them any cash. It is SO different than on other lines, where I found staff to be overly solicitous and almost oily in the way they tried to ensure I would remember who they were. On my last cruise, I did want to give something extra to my table's chief waiter, who I thought was extraordinary, so I went to the service desk where I could direct some of my on-board account to be forwarded to her as a tip.

I was on the Azamara Quest recently. They are a no tipping line i really had to hunt down my steward and his assistant to hand them some extra. They seemed surprised but took it. We weren't high maintenance but did cause a little more work. The staff was across the board really good and attentive.

I have also been on Windstar that adds a daily fee. I just factor the different amounts into the totals for comparing prices.