This business of auto-tipping

Yes...I agree right down the line..matter of fact, I decided to GOOGLE that very issue...in the hopes I could find some actual, verifiable facts. no such luck...what I took from the dozen or so sites and blogs I scanned was this....the "crew" gets to work in difficult conditions, up to 9 months at a time, under constant pressure to perform because theyre being watched and rated and in many instances are being "scammed" when being hired on. the mathematics are appalling. Go back in your history books to 19 and early 20th century America....that's what working on a cruise line is like for MANY. Further, its unlikely they get to keep what you leave on the table, or even put in the stewards hands. There is almost always a "sharing" arrangement, and I suspect things can get ugly below decks if its not done honestly. Nothing we happy, reasonably well off cruisers can do about it either. I did take a few words out of my description of us. If there was a way to ensure the $$ you fork over in certain circumstances actually stay with the person intended, I'll happily listen.

I like not having to go around tipping crew members. We do give extra $'s to our servers since my husband has special meal restrictions. They have to go & get his meal from the kitchen & the next day's menu, If our cabin guy goes out of his way for us, we tip him extra too.

Cultural or not if a very low wage worker benefits from tips for a living wage, I'm all for it. We truly don't know where the "tips included" actually goes. Full disclosure would be fantastic!!! (But no) Also, depending on the nationality of the crew, giving out a portion of tips to them just before they visit their "home" port goes a long way. Separate issue, I found a website a bit ago that listed the country and what the tipping norms were for that country. Many countries have tipping, only a few don't expect it, probably because they make a living wage.

(My dollars worth)

Yes...hard for Americans to realize that tipping IS a cultural thing, and when traveling abroad, its a good idea to have some idea of how such basic things as tipping are done...interesting how cruise lines with an international name manage to operate differently depending.....

This is very much a cultural thing in the USA. In Australia, even the major cruise lines (Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Carnival) include the gratuities in the cruise fare, as we don't have a culture of tipping. Restaurants and other service based businesses are already more expensive and cover the "service charge". We will always tip in a restaurant if we get excellent service, but this is not always the case.

So to answer the question, it is actually normal for us to include the "gratuity" in the cruise fare, and should be the case across all cruise lines nationally - then you will avoid those situations when passenger remove gratuities from their cruise bill because they are p*ssed off at the cruise line - they are punishing the wrong people.

Lately I'll do the prepaid gratuities to minimize my end of cruise bill; however, If we get exceptional service, we'll give the crew member a cash tip.

Thanks for all that, useful bit o trivia. And here I thought that the reason wasn't that they couldn't fill em, but that they couldn't afford to operate em given US labor laws, and so on and so forth. Wonder how the decision was made to keep ONE ship there at all..We've all been at sea looking at other ships for years...you won't see an American flag on any of em...only toy boats. and the NAVY and CG...they don't care what things cost to operate....

Actually Yankee the reason for the flagging and for a number of things is a little thing known as the Jones Act. This is why any cruise you take will always have a port of call in at least 1 foreign port. The NCL Pride of America is the only exception. It is an American made ship, flagged American and staffed by Americans. They are subject to and obligated by American labour laws which is one of the reasons why the cost is higher. At one time NCL had 3 American ships in Hawaii but could not fill them all so only the one remains.

The standard pay is low (we all agree, I think), wouldn't the crew gravitate toward the best paying cruise line and/or the one with the best benefits? So if the "tips" become part of the cost of the cruise, wouldn't that cruise line need to pass the dollars to the crew in order to keep the crew? I can imagine the cruise lines getting tired of the complaining from passengers and finding this a way to circumvent that. My positive nature wants the money to go where it should, my cynical nature wonders..... Just a bit more food for thought on the matter!

Which OGW, leads to the source of the old saw..."my worst day of retirement is still better than my best day of work.." and I sorta kinda liked my job, especially toward the end where I could get away with anything and worked harder at not working than actually working...but...as they say, "I digress".....it took us "taking up cruising" back in the day for us to realize the only ships flying American Flags belong to the Navy and CG....and why....NCL has one working Hawaii...haven't been on it...wondered what labor laws they conform to...until I checked the rates....