I took an Alaskan cruise on Holland America lines a few years ago. The tipping was inclusive and was $15 a day per person if I recall. I talked with a few of the amenity staff (food, drink and accommodations). All were from the Philippines, and signed on for 11 month contracts of seven days a week, eight to sixteen hour days depending what was going on that day. After that, they would head home for 2 to 3 months before signing on for another contract. I tipped more to those who I encountered regularly. I was going to say ‘got to know better’, but that’s not really accurate. Everyone was friendly and happy to talk about their experiences, but they also were very careful to maintain a somewhat formal distance. While use of my first name alone would have caused minor discomfort, by the end of my trip, I was regularly referred to as “Mr. Michael”.
My friend who has enjoyed several cruises mentioned that an excellent bit of advice he once received from a veteran cruiser was to leave a “pre-tip” of about 20 quid (or maybe dollars, can’t remember ) on the FIRST day, for your cabin steward. He says he has always had impeccable cabin service since doing this.
$55 per day plus $2 to $3 per drink? Yowza.
Johnny, there are many YouTube videos about working on cruise ship, how they get [del]screwed[/del] paid, and what type of life it is. You can easily find them searching the YouTube site.
IIRC, they deduct tips from the money they make, so it’s not like they get rich. Check the videos for actual answers. I think they also said they registered the ships in foreign nations to avoid some of the wage laws. It’s been a while since I saw those though.
[Hijack] I would question the Alaska cruise since you live in Bellingham or some such in the PNW. I did it with my extended family 2.5 years ago and it was kinda disappointing. It looks like the PNW but greener and wetter for the most part. Obviously, the glaciers and ice bergs are different but the rest didn’t seem all that different from my 'hood. If you are from Houston or some other place that’s a lot different, you’d probably be more impressed.
Someone did suggest that if you do the cruise up through the in land sea, go one way. You can take a train to Denali and a few days of sightseeing and fly back the other way. You basically have 2 days at sea at the start and end of the trip, which is a long time. [/hijack]
Cruise ships are foreign flag for many reasons. Much lower standards of inspection and safety. Taxes, labor laws, and wage standards.
All ships have to obey the same international safety rules and all ships can be inspected by the local authorities in any port .
Wages and working conditions are a different matter but there are collective agreements for Philippino seafarers.
You weren’t really at an all-inclusive resort if some people were paying for their own food and drinks. You had an all-inclusive option at a regular resort. Big difference.
I’ve been to real all-inclusive resorts more than a half-dozen times, and never tipped anyone except perhaps at the end of the stay. At a real all-inclusive, you don’t even carry any money around, as there is no need to pay for anything. At the last all-inclusive we visited, there was a strict rule against tipping. Several staffers told us they were not allowed to accept tips and would get in trouble if they did so. They told us to just note their names in the end-of-stay review form and they would be rewarded by the employer. We had absolutely great service all throughout our stay.
As for cruise and all-inclusive salaries, it’s interesting to see complaints about how employees are getting “screwed” or are underpaid. Yes, they work long hours and make low wages compared to the US or Canada. But they are making good money for their location (if a land-based resort in the Caribbean) or their home country (cruises). In many cases, they make multiples of what they might earn at other jobs where they live.
My niece works on cruise ships - she’s basically a salesperson for jewelry. She matches passengers with jewelry stores on shore and gets a commission. She doesn’t work for the cruise lines, they subcontract this out to her company who assigns her to ships/cruises.
The money isn’t bad but it’s a lot of legwork and the majority of her pay is commission. Some cruises/ships are better than others since they get different clientele. She also acts as a trainer for new hires so her pay is a little more guaranteed than others. It’s a good first job out of college, she’s making and banking money, seeing interesting places and meeting a lot of people. But she working, not vacationing, so when they are in port she doesn’t see much. Her accommodations are a bit above what a busboy on the ship would get, but they are pretty basic.
I have been on three cruises, all with “American” lines. My niece works as an entertainer and spends about six to nine months at sea every year. She enjoys it very much, although conditions vary between ships and cruise lines.
The employees know, because they are given a list. There is a suspicion that cabin staff will work harder when the tip is not automatic, but I have compared notes with others and none of us could fault the eagerness of those hard working members of staff to do their best to meet the needs of the passengers. If there is any difference, I suspect that it has more to do with how the passenger relates to them - courtesy and recognition; ie learning their names goes a long way - than the prospect of a tip at the end.
Added to this is the different attitudes around the world to the whole principle of tipping: Americans are at one extreme, while Australians are at the other. Australians see it as demeaning to both parties.
The crew do work long hours, but they are stuck on the ship and there is not a lot else for them to do anyway. As said above, their remuneration is bad compared to an equivalent job in the USA, but good compared to their home country. Bear in mind that their food and accommodation (mostly in shared cabins) is included.
But the inspections of a foreign flag ship are generally limited to international safety rules.
Though is resent years the US Coast Guard has inspected tankers. And though they can not keep them from entering a US port before inspection they can keep them from sailing out with cargo if they determine they are unsafe by US standards. And if they are unsafe by international standards they can keep them from sailing.
As to cruise ships I believe (admitting an assumption) they hold them to a higher standard because they are leaving a US port with US citizens.
I used to cruise frequently and I’ve read several books written by people who worked on the ships.
Really, the answer is…it depends.
Most people employed on ships are contract workers. Contract lengths seem to range from 1 month to 1 year and everything regarding job duties, time off and accommodations is spelled out in the contract.
The lower level workers – food servers, laundry workers, etc tend to have longer term contracts and long work hours. Accommodations are similar to college dorm rooms - most of them are double occupancy and 2 rooms share a bath.
Officers and higher level employees have shorter contracts -averaging 3 to 6 months and better digs, a high level officer like the captain or hotel services director may have the equivalent of a one bedroom apartment, the cruise director may have a single occupancy room with a workspace and sometimes entertainers, doctors and other more valued personnel manage to negotiate a contract that gives them a passenger cabin. It’s all in the contract.
As someone noted, entertainers sometimes have extra duties (hosting tours, running trivia contests) this is *usually spelled out in their contract. The entertainer that works in the library probably has a contract that calls for her to perform x number of shows a week, attend rehearsals as needed and to work x number of y hour shifts in the ship’s library. I had a friend that worked on 30 day contracts as a bridge (the card game) expert and she had to run a certain number of tournaments of a certain length as well as give a 2 hour beginner class per 7 day sailing. She may not have been paid, I think she was working for a free trip
Some departments, such as the spa, art galleries and boutiques are run in their entirety by outside companies and they hire their own employees (usually in the same contract model)…art gallery directors work solely on commission and if they offer up free champagne at an event, they pay for it. *On one ship I was on the art director hired an entertainer as his auction assistant out of pocket.
There aren’t a lot of Americans working on cruise ships - even entertainers, cruise directors and high level officers tend to be British, Canadian, Australian or Italian. On the cruises I’ve been on maybe 10% of the entertainers were American, Americans in other positions are rare. The one exception is Youth Services who often pick up extra workers based in the port city on a voyage to voyage basis. This is because their staff requirements vary wildly from sailing to sailing – one sailing may have 15 children under age 16 while the next week’s sailing may have 700 children under 16.
Many if not most ship employees come from families and even villages where everyone “works on the ships”, it’s a way of life for them. I attended an ice sculpture demo once and they threw out some interesting trivia - virtually everyone that works on cruise ships as an ice sculptor comes from the same small town in the Philippines - my google-fu tells me it is Paete, Laguna. They also do the fancy vegetable carving.
The workers have their own bar and lounge, with much cheaper drinks. And despite the long hours their life isn’t all work, they blow of a lot of steam after hours and there is a lot of romantic intrigue among the younger workers.
There is a guy named Brian David Bruns whose written a few books about working on ships, he was at one time the only American to have a waiter contract with Carnival - a job he took to be close to his Eastern European girlfriend who worked on the ships. He later quit with Carnival to work for the subcontractor that ran the art gallery concessions. They are very interesting reads.
I highly recommend the Alaska Marine Highway ferries. It’s a very different experience, but depending on what you’re looking for, it could be a great alternative.
I couldn’t disagree more. I was born and raised in Washington and found the differences between Washington and Alaska to be very different. Plus just the experience of the cruise was 75% of the reason for going. I took some computer classes, my wife and I learned ballroom dancing and despite our best efforts, we did not put on any weight from all the great food. Plus in my case, where could we get away for a week on a great vacation that was only a half hour drive from home.
Did you do this? I heard it’s great but completely different from a cruise. Curious to hear more.
racer72 - YMMV. Happy you enjoyed it. My takeaway was not all that different than areas around Bellevue. The 2 days at sea at the beginning and almost 2 days (afternoon in Victoria) on the way back were detractors. Plus my youngest daughter didn’t like being on the ship at all.
I flew up to Alaska (limited vacation time), but then I took the ferries from city to city. I really loved it.
The ferries themselves were not unlike WA state or BC ferries - but the trips were longer and everything was adjusted accordingly. Instead of taking a quick nap at their seat like on a shorter ferry, people would stake out a place in a chair or group of chairs or on the floor, and go to sleep. It would be their camping spot for the ride.
It is my understanding that the ferries go places that the cruise ships might not go to because the cities are too small or the harbors are too shallow. You’re also on your own schedule, you can stay later and longer in a place than a cruise might allow and/or leave when you want to as well.
I would love to take the Bellingham-Ketchikan route someday.