https://finance.yahoo.com/news/onespaworld-announces-contract-norwegian-cruise-114500306.html
Came across this..don't have to read it all, unless you want to..clearly, SPAS onboard cruise ships aren't operated by the cruise lines, and its even debateable if the employees or even the managers are theirs. Continuing on, theres several companies, one named STEINER, who provides "spa services and products" to over a dozen OTHER cruise lines world wide..Interestingly, the "products" are almost always the same.I came across several articles, which leads me to believe that there are very few cruiselines, if any, who actually have much to do with those spas, other than the fact they're physically onboard. Inquiring about prices and tips to virtually anyone on board might just get you in a conversation with someone who simply doesn't know what the contractual relationship is (like Guest Services) or someone trying to generate more personal revenue for his/her employees, like the SPA MGR. I could have posted MORE links, but this post would get even more unwieldy. Like I said elsewhere, that "built in" gratuity almost everyone pays is divied up amongst hundreds and hundreds of crew, most of whom never even see a passenger. That line for "extra" simply serves to sweeten the pot, and increase what those of us who worked back of the house in casinos called the "toke rate", added to the hourly rate for qualified emplyees. The ONLY way to reward an employee whom you feel deserves "something extra" is to put CASH in their hand...From one side of the world to another, GREENBACKS are a universal language.
