Do you want to be informed about security? ALWAYS assume you are being filmed, with the exception of your cabin and rest rooms. Same on the streets. CCTV is utilized everywhere. Just watch a few crime shows like F.B.I. Most Wanted or Chicago P.D. If you have a cell phone, they can track it. A newer model car? G.P.S. can be followed. Facial recognition is everywhere. The safest way to protect your security is to assume you are on camera EVERYWHERE, Because you most likely are. I am not paranoid, just informed. Stay safe!
@Drue Gillis • While it's probably not a bad idea to assume you are on camera or being filmed, cameras are not yet everywhere, nor is facial recognition. Cameras and software cost so placement is a business decision. Just like when traffic cameras were first installed, not every intersection had one. The same is true for cameras today. They are installed first in crime prone areas whether that be streets or stores. As to GPS on phones, that's so old news I'm surprised you mentioned it. They used it on 9/11 to try to find victims and they're using it during the investigation and prosecution of the January 6th seditionists. Unfortunately, the USA mainland has no where near the number of cameras that countries like China, the UK, or cruise ships have. So if you think you're safe from sexual assault, robbery, or even getting lost, because someone will see you and save you, don't count on it.
It is in the passengers interest to be able to trace those you came in contact with if you test positive to a deadly disease! I have no problem with tracking a super spreader!
just on a cruise ship, I see the value in being able to go back and check what happened, if something were to happen, and I am fully aware that there are cameras everywhere. I'm more worried that there may be hidden cameras in hotel rooms, or the cabin, it's unfortunately becoming more and more common, and there I expect to be able to be private, for example with my partner, without anyone watching and in the worst case posting on the Internet
Chicago PD, Most Wanted are not representative. I am a violent crimes & homicide prosecutor. While surveillance is pervasive, it’s generally not nearly as extensive as your comment suggests. A lot of surveillance is bad quality and some of what you reference requires search warrants.
Some years ago we sailed from Southampton on a 17 day cruise to the Med. First stop Porto. Before we sailed we became aware of a large extended family causing a lot of upset with their behaviour and foul language. A few days into the cruise we mentioned to another couple that we had not seen them since the first two days. It transpired all 17 of them were thrown off in Porto.
I have watched many, many of your cruise videos, I am subscribed, and may I just say “Thank you!” I have subscribed and then unsubscribed from several cruise blogs/blogs because I was sick of the ranting. I love how you state what the video will address, and then you proceed to cover the information in an organized, mostly objective manner, with personal opinions inserted in appropriate places. How refreshing!! Well done! 👍🏻😃
I was on one cruise where someone just a few cabins up died and it was kind of interesting in a morbid way. We did hear "operation rising star", and everyone in our section of the deck was asked to stay in our cabins, or away from them, depending where we already were. I was in my cabin (and stayed there as told), so heard the commotion in the hall as the body was removed. But moments later there was so much noise I had to look out.... we had a mainly east Asian crew... they were doing a whole dragon dance through the halls like you'd see at Chinese New Year with the full on puppet dragon, lots of things to make noise. I just had to ask one about it when he stopped to ask how I knew to have a dragon dressing gown on (total coincidence)... I was told it was a ceremony to send the departed soul on their way. The interesting things you come across on ships!
@@noname-JSHow is that horrifying? People die all the time. It’s not like you get to pick and choose where when it’s your time. I’d rather be at sea than in a hospital bed or in a nursing home.
Once I was on a Carnival cruise and I lost a diamond tennis bracelet. I reported it lost and was told to go to my cabin so security could speak with me. They were given permission to go through my purse, our safe, our room. They then watched me on video - I went into a restroom with it on and came out without it on. So after searching the restroom they determined it stolen. Only then was I able to file it with our insurance for a replacement. (I no longer bring expensive jewelry on cruises)- but YES they can see your every move.
I recently sailed on Eurodam. There were various talks done by senior officers. The talk by the security officer and the talk by the environmental officer were particularly interesting. For the most part, they were very open in their answers.
The issue about auto-tips came up 3 yrs ago, when I was on board a Norwegian cruise, which by the way, I will never do again. My steward was excellent, and I had a heated argument with management about having all of my tips given to her, and not to the other members of the staff because of her exceptional work. It was not well received, but I don't care, she deserved it, and even more. On my Carnival Cruise; there were 3 incidents that took place; 1: two woman who constantly fighting throughout the entire trip, so they were put off the ship when we reached Puerto Rico, the captain had had enough of them; 2:, a man had a heart attack, and since we were close to the US board, the captain radioed for a helicopter to take him to a US based hospital. We had to stop of course, while the helicopter was overhead, so that the man could be lifted on board for hospital transport. Seeing the helicopter crew do that kind of work, was something that I had only seen done in a movie, it was very interesting 3: Three guys drank so much that they thought that they could fly (frankly, I don't know what that bar tender but in their drinks), so they decided to go overboard. The crew fished them out, and the captain had them locked up while on board for the rest of the trip. All in all a great cruise, though. Ms. B. Churchill
I think #1 advice to new cruisers should be: Be prepared for a super small stateroom. A room when on a cruise ship is not a room at a hotel. It is tiny. I've been on 14 cruises, and am still always wanting for space, regardless of the category or class of stateroom. (And also gratuities. Pay them, but the cruise lines need to make that price more obvious in the price.)
I’ve never been on a cruise before, and have always wanted to go on one. I came to this channel to learn more about it. After watching many of these videos, I now have anxiety about booking myself a cruise. I’m newly widowed in my 60s and feel that I would be taken advantage of. I appreciate your information it’s opened my eyes about things I’ve never thought of. Thank you for teaching us what you have learned.
I'm somewhat younger than you, (not quite 40) and I recently went on my very first cruise with family (it was a 2 for 1 deal, xmas 2019) and I thoroughly enjoyed it but am not sure I would want to do it again. I wasn't involved much in the booking etc, so I naturally had no clue about such small print things as surveillance. (My parents are the regular cruisers) So I would say do your research and give it a try, maybe pick a short 3-4 day cruise to start and just see how it feels.
Some lines have singles cabins, and they come with a lounge that's just for singles. I'm going with my husband this trip, but I think these singles cabins and private lounge look lovely! I'd do it in a heartbeat. Also, I'm 52 and have always been afraid! Of flying, of sailing... after the past few years, working nonstop during the pandemic.... I am determined to live a little and will be flying AND sailing this week. Take a chance! You might be pleasantly surprised!
I'm 57. You COULD be taken advantage of literally anywhere, but ARE you? Likely not. Cruises are loads of fun. You will be fine. Don't let fear or anxiety rob you of a good time. Choose a smaller ship- 2500 passengers or less- that goes to ports you are interested in and go on guided tours or shore excursions booked through the cruiseline. Stay with a group. Just use your common sense, and behave the way you would if you were alone in your home city. Some tour companies are designed specifically for singles over 45 and some of those arrange cruises, and some will "buddy you up" with another traveller if you so desire. I have a friend who is single, no kids, 68, and has been all over the world on solo trips, even to some places I would never think would be 100% safe, without anything more annoying than you'd expect. She has been pick-pocketed two times, both times over 10 yrs ago, once in Europe and once in the Caribbean. She laughs about it now. Now she has figured out how to pack and conceal necessary things and has had no further issues. Lots of help available for how to avoid problems. Go! You won't regret it! 😊🇨🇦
Disney most definitely gives you a printout of where your auto-gratuities go. They even give you envelopes to give to your staff of how much they're getting.
I am so glad that you brought up the cruise contract, passenger and cruise lines rights. Whenever I cruise in a group I always have a meeting the evening before the cruise and read the contract highlights outloud. I am always amazed by the shock and disbelief my fellow travelers have at what I read and I always have to remind them that they have already agreed to the terms. Even as a frequent cruiser I am always very careful to read the contract as terms change by line and over time.
Even though it’s a bit of a hassle, I prefer giving cash gratuities to the crew in person. That way, the people who are doing a good job get compensated correctly.
The problem is those who are behind the scenes are not then given tips if passengers just give tips in cash. Those who behind the scenes just as hard to give you a good cruise, but they would not get compensated accordingly if passengers just give cash tips to those they come into direct contact with.
@@brontewcat Absolutely. Why compensate just the waiter who gave you great service and a wonderful meal ? What about the kitchen staff directly below you slaving away in the galley ? You never see them but they keep you fed during your entire cruise. I had the opportunity to take the behind the scenes tour on a Carnival cruise back in 2016 and there are an incredible amount of people that literally work behind the scenes that you will never see. My point is the ones you do see are supported by many you don't.
People have to remember that most of these make sense. _You are on a vacation, not a fact-finding tour._ Companies don't go around stating what they pay their employees outside of the starting wage. Most companies don't advertise how they get rid of trash. If you go into a supermarket, why do you need to know how much crime takes place or how many people have died or been injured in the store that year? The cruise line is offering a vacation away from stress. Most everything can be discovered through research, though. I have been following cruise channels off and on since 2014, so I pretty much knew these now, although a refresher is always nice. I think the biggest concerns for passengers is really about gratuities. If cruise lines would be open with that information (especially informing the crew), most of the others would be a small concern. With technology advanced as it is, ships are able to filter a lot of the black water into gray water and filter most of their gray water into clean water. They can also recycle the gray water into less-essential areas, such as commodes and sinks. (And as an FYI: gray water isn't actually nasty.)
I don’t mind if they cancel ports. I could just be on the ship the entire cruise. I book cruises sometime that have the most sea days. My next trip in April has 7 days at sea out of 21. Not bad.
Some thoughts, 1. Windstar is my very, very favorite cruise line. 2. I recently did a Nile cruise with Uniworld. Our guide was super clear on who to buy from and who to avoid. He and our security detail were vigilant at keeping certain sellers from harassing us.
Interesting. I was on a Uniworld Nile cruise last October and I don't think we got any of that. I only recall them warning us against buying any kind of "historical artifact" whether real or counterfeit.
@@lindasnow1497 i wouldn't have noticed it. I was happily touring and snapping away. But once the husband pointed it out i realized what they were doing.
Carnival has passed up ports blaming weather as we watched another ship dock in bright sunshine. Crew said he does this constantly. Will never use them again!!
when I was a travel agent, I made sure I stressed the fact that the ship can cancel ports, and divert an entire cruise due to various reasons. There have been numerous Bermuda cruises that were redirected to Maritime Canada due an approaching hurricane. Passengers were not happy touring 40F degree Halifax in cargo shorts and tee shirts! Also, remember that the Captain of the ship is God. What he or she says is the law!
That would understandably make people very angry. Booking a cruise to get some sun and warmth then be taken north to Canada? Not cool at all. Guess don't cruise in hurricane season.
@@cvn6555 At least not to Bermuda! Caribbean cruises during a hurricane they can divert from a planned port to another Caribbean port. I guess Bermuda must be too far North to divert to the Caribbean.
On one of my Carnival cruises in Jamaica, I saw the crew unloaded a bunch of mattresses of the ship and carried them to a big truck. I asked an employee and he said those were old mattresses Carnival donated to charity.
Hi Gary - superb video (as always) you give such accurate and factual information. I`ve always thought that distribution of gratuities could be something the cruiselines would`nt want to tells us - we are sailing on Symphony of the Seas in February so I think we will opt out of auto grats and give the cash to the crew that service us directly. Keep up the great work and we hope you are enjoying your Antarctica cruise. Cheers Kev & Alison
@@chriswilliams6568 Giving partial gratuity to the line and direct tips to closely involve service people seems to be a viable option. We do tipping early and late in the cruise--works really well.
Pre Paid gratuities are a big plus for the cruise lines, they bolster up wages meaning the line actually pays less as a basic salary and 2, pre paid gratuities are left in the bank until needed thus gaining interest to the cruise line. It's all about profit.
Non-sequitur! Watching your b-roll of those ever-increasing-in-size ships just makes me more determined to save up for a more luxury cruise on a smaller boat. Different video! Love your channel and I appreciate all the inside info! 🚢🛥
I was interested in an Azamara cruise until I leant that even if one cancels outside of final payment date, they keep $75 p.person as a penalty, whereas with the major lines, one has no penalty usually if cancelling at that juncture. It put me off.
We went to a jewelry store in Juneau, because if you mentioned the ship name, you would get a free whale tail pendant. The high-pressure tactics they used would embarrass a car salesman. They were pushing very expensive merchandise, despite my dropping hints that we were replacing the siding on our house after getting back home. Our impatient 8-year-old son got us to move along to a shop that friends had recommended. They were no-pressure and even threw in the free whale tail that we forgot to get at the first shop. That's when we learned not to go to shops recommended on the ship.
If you got a free whale tail at the second shop, it is likely owned by the same people as the first. One company, Milano Diamond, owns 45 stores in Alaska, Caribbean and Mexico. They own multiple shops in each of Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway.
@@karlahart_AK I doubt that. We had the list of shops from the shopping director, and the second store wasn't on the list. Plus, the sales person at the second store didn't ask for the ship's name. There were four ships docked that day. So, they weren't working on the kickback scheme.
I can’t tell you enough how much I like your videos. I really don’t watch anyone else’s anymore. Some of things you mention in this video I certainly suspected, but not all of them.
Every cruise brochure I've ever looked at has had a section on changes of itinerary and ports in the fine print. Most of them tell you to read the fine print. Every convenience store and fast food restaurant has cameras. Their ads and commercials don't mention them. I have seen shows from the UK where video cameras are running on the streets and sidewalks (pavement, pathway) in shopping districts. How widespread and publicized are those cameras? Cameras on cruise ships are not that different. I agree that other items are not mentioned much by cruise lines. However cruising guide books do mention them. Read books as well as watch videos.
Not all crew are employed by the cruise line, on most lines many are subcontractors to a company that leases space. Hair and beauty, dancers, casino, shops etc.
That's correct with Marpol regs and then there is IMO for Ballast management although on cruise ships ballast tank function maybe by their fresh water, food stores and people
What do you think of cruiselines building their own and bringing guests to company owned private getaway islands, instead of bringing guests to the local communities in the Caribbeans, to let guests disperse spendings in locally owned shops and restaurants? There might be a day where they dont visit those communities anymore and basically confine the guests in a gilded cage in a way.
I prefer it that way. In fact, it is the main reason my next cruise will be with Virgin. My first cruise ever (back when I was about 13) was great, except for when we were at port in Nassau. We got lost and it felt like everyone was out to scam my mom (who had little money, we were brought along by our grandparents) at every turn. It felt desperate and predatory and we felt obscenely uncomfortable. We had no money to give them and were terrified the ship would leave without us because no one would point us in the right direction without giving them money. Thankfully we saw other passengers and followed them back to the port, but it was a scary and scarring experience I don't wish to have again. So a private beach club that you're bussed off to by the cruise line sounds FAR more relaxing and enjoyable to me. At least I won't have people trying to scam me every time I blink.
@@allisonlane1102 Most ports aren't like that, and I prefer being able to go out amongst the locals without it feeling so touristy. Why didn't you grab a taxi?
I think some travel insurance companies will pay out for missed ports. There was an announcement over the PA when our P&O ship couldn't dock in Gibraltar, due to high winds, saying something like "if you need anything signing for your insurance, please come to reception." Or words to that effect. (the ship managed to moor up but then broke a mooring line, which is extremely dangerous, so the captain took us out off the coast of N. Africa instead and it was hot and sunny, so no big loss!)
Very interesting video on what cruise lines don’t talk about. The items that affect passengers directly such responsibilities to avoid fines or being left behind are extremely important. How they handle trash and sewage while interesting, is not something I would expect them to point out. Most people don’t ask about these things when on vacation of the hotel, plane or trains. The rules for handling waste are well defined (or maybe not so much depending on the jurisdiction) and not deviated much from ship to ship. Transparency with the crews’ mandatory tips is a concern for passengers, but much more important for the crew! Secrecy leads to distrust and moral issues among the crew. You mentioned not talking about certain items due to stirring up conversations with passengers. Based on Internet warriors, I can appreciate this sentiment. They may be stirring up very uncomfortable discussions with a very small part of the public, not necessarily passengers. This only leads to poor PR and having to explain at nausea items that were well enough not brought up.
Those are some pretty bold claims saying every ship and line has cctv and facial recognition across all of those cameras. As someone who works in IT, I don’t find that too likely. I’m sure some ships, and specific cameras on a lot of ships use such technology. But that is a lot of square footage to do it everywhere. They likely do log every time you use your cruise card though, and tie that to a location
On one cruise we got very friendly with the staff at one particular bar. We mentioned that we were automatically paying gratuities that would go to the staff. They had never heard of this. Luckily we had the brochure from this very well known company. Bar tender Teddy took it and said he would raise it with management. We suggested that would probably get him fired. We do not know what happened but gave them a separate thankyou envelope on the last evening.
Questions: is it recommended to prepay gratuities? If so, should we tip on top of those gratuities? Lastly, if we do tip additionally,to whom should we tip?
Thanks for the information. People really do need to know this information. But, I never read their contract until they took my drone on princess. I read all of them now.
Wow. Just posted the following info on another of your videos. Because of what you said here about tips, I will repost it here if you don't mind. (let me know if you prefer I delete it. ) As for the daily service fee(tip charge)... Norwegian Dawn has room for 2,340 passengers and 1,032 workers to support them. Let's say that week 2,000 passengers payed $16 each per day. ($224,000/week) Now lets make believe that all 1,032 workers received some of that equally (they don't) . That means that each employee got an extra $217 of pay in their earnings that week. I've asked workers and they say they earn no where near that in "extra" pay. (tips) Now a Server gets paid $1,544 per month. Add one month's worth of tips ($940). Total should about $2,484. They don't get paid anywhere near that much. The Cruise line has been pocketing the "service charge" and spreading only a small part of it to those working the hardest. (many work 12-14 hours a day for 9 months straight with NO days off until they go home at the end of that 9 month contract). (comes out to about $4.28 per hour) I am married to a filipina who converses with onboard filipinos a lot. We now remove that service charge and hand it in cash to whomever we please. I even tip the servers at time of service. Until I see a printout of exactly what the cruiselines do with that money, I will take the worker's word as being more accurate and truthful.
What I’ve learned about security: you are always on video doing even the most embarrassing things, right up until the point that you get robbed or ripped off. Suddenly no one knows where you were or the cameras don’t work in that area.
the automatic gratuities, when I was on Holland America 2019, I heard you can opt out n pay your servers n cabin help directly so I did that (you do it at the customer service desk, they WILL try to talk you OUT Of it but just be firm but nice, you sign a form n they reverse any auto gratuities that had already been placed on your onboard account) and I saved a bundle n I know the people that did the work for me did indeed get the tips!!
Just wait until they find out how much data google has on them. I advise everyone to download their Google history at least once. I don't think people understand how much the internet is always tracking you anyway.
@@Shaya87 👏🏽 We'll save the conversation about what's captured through Alexa, their robot vacuum, their neighbor's Ring camera (or quiet as its kept, what THEIR Ring camera captures about their neighbors) for another day.
I don't understand why people are getting so upset. Its obvious that people can not behave themselves by not jumping off a ship so something has to be done. I go to a teaching hospital and they give you a badge to track you as soon as you enter the building.
Being deluged with ads detracts from my cruising. I am never going shopping onboard for anything, never going to buy mass-produced inkjet posters posing as original art, and never doing specialty dining unless it's included with the suite.
Camera and cctv everywhere. While shopping and using the self service to scan your grocery, the camera only caught half my forehead and top head. 😂. Shame there’s camera above filming my front and back poking out. 😂. Darn!
Some of these are self-evident. I mean the shops and the cruise lines have to have an agreement before the shops are allowed to set up shop on the cruise ship. Also regarding the shop talks, it’s pretty common for local shops to kick back to a cruise line for a mention. Why do people think the RU-vid influencer exists? Because some company paid some RU-vidr to mention their product. Some of these, like the crime, are bad but not that prevalent so I think the cruise lines would unnecessarily scare people off. And as far as surveillance, well that battle has been lost. Your face may as well be public property now as well as your DNA. The biggest risk I see for cruisers is not carrying cancel at all costs travel insurance.
Did...did people really think they weren't under constant surveillance, fancy cards or not? Like, those camera mounted to the walls and ceilings aren't just for show XD Yeah, about changes. If the Captain says "Yeah, we're not sailing through Hurricane Imma-Wreck-Yo-Shit just to make a stop in Port Kinda-Cool-But-Not-Worth-Your-Life." I'm just gonna be happy. If I REALLY want to see a particular place, I'll make later plans to take a trip there via plane. Now the not allowing cancellations after booking, after change in itinerary, but before the ship sails is scummy and shouldn't be allowed. That's pretty much false advertising. Yeah, I'm gonna try and avoid anything with auto-gratuities. I'm going to make sure Waiter Good-Old-Chap gets his tip and Hostess Spits-In-My-Food doesn't get any of it. I mean, releasing the poo and pee of cruise ships doesn't really affect the oceans that much. The world's oceans combined contain about 352,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons of water, or about 1,311,420,700,000,000,000 imperial tons (the version of ton used to measure ships' weight). On average, a cruise ship weighs 200,000 imperial tons and as stated 300 of them are sailing at any given time. Even if the ships all released their own weight in sewage at the same time, it would only amount to 60,000,000 imperial tons, or 0.0000000045751909% of the water in the world's oceans. That's pretty much meaningless. Plus where do we think the waste of the sea's creature goes? Magically gets transported to the sun? XD The emissions thing is tied directly to the debate over cars and other vehicles and the answer is the same. Some day, we'll all drive and ride on vehicles that release no harmful toxins into the atmosphere but that day is still a long way off. Until then, all we can do is slowly introduce new tech while continuing to rely on what's propelled man to the place it is today, fossil fuels. To help that day come faster, we need to invest more into nuclear power. Yes, it is safe. Yes, it is more efficient than any other form of power. Yes, it is the way to this pollutant free future we want.
My late step-dad was a Captain/Pilot on some of the inland US river cruises. Sometimes my mom would go along. They told me that there were fairly frequent incidences of illness and death, where they'd have to stop to have a patient or body removed. Since their crowd skewed older, she said she thought many instances were due to folks ignoring their usual dietary or drinking limitations since they were "on vacation!". Those boats no sooner finish up serving breakfast than they're setting up lavish in-between times buffets, and same with lunch and dinner. Some folks just ate non-stop because "it's included in our fare!". If they'd been on a restricted diet back home, it could be a quick System Overload. They basically got their money's worth all the way to the hospital or the morgue!
My partner was on a cruise with her two daughters. The daughters went ashore to a Channel island and my partner with a bad back condition lay on the bed in the cabin. The Indian cabin employee attempted to touch my partner and she ordered him out the cabin. When the daughters returned and were told of this they went to complain, the Channel police came on board and they took a statement. They told my partner she would have to go to the Channel isle for the court case which was not something she didn’t want to do. The culprit was never seen again and my partner and her daughter were given all sorts of treats and received half the cost of the cruise refunded. On investigation we discovered that this is a problem on cruises but the companies do all they can to cover up these cases.
I became extremely ill on a Carnival cruise many years ago. I had a sinus infection and went to the medical center. The doctor gave me antibiotics and, I found out later from my own physician, had given me the wrong dosing instructions. I was even more seriously ill by the time I reached home. I was so seriously ill I could hardly make it out of the cruise terminal to the airport. I was supposed to receive assistance but never got it. I contacted Carnival. They emailed back that they were forwarding my info to the "proper department" and that someone would be contacting me, but I never heard another word from them.
I was on a cruise once and had a little too much to drink and threw up in one of the public toilets. Much to my wife's disgust, I was banned from buying alcohol for 24 hours. Luckily it happened on our last night 😆
Thanks a lot. This was enough for me to decide I will never go on a cruise. I kind of knew something is wrong with cruise liners, but I didn't know to what extent they take advantage of being allowed to dictate their own rules. Everything you told us was in favor of the cruise liner. Crooks!
Also they get away with paying extremely low wages to their workers because they fly under the flag of countries with no labor laws, even if they serve European or American ports. It's extremely hard for employees to find a place to listen to their grievances. I prefer taking river cruises where companies have to respect the laws of the country rather than the wild west of the high seas
The, "Auto Gratuity", is one of the biggest con in cruising. Just say it is USD 15/per person/day. 2000 passengers would pay 30,000 a day. A seven night trip would be USD 210,000 for crew tips. Calling shenanigans on the crew getting this money on top of their wages.
Going further...say 3,000 crew...that would be $70/crew/cruise. But supposedly not to all crew, just the ones with passenger facing duties...so maybe half that (or 1/3). So $140-210. 26 cruises in half year tour...$1820-5460. I question it also.
Those wages that tipped crew receive are pennies. They rely on tips as their main source of income. Same as when you go to US, and the servers and bartenders make $2 an hour and rely on tips because they receive none of that $2 wage due to taxes.
@@denizalgazi The Cruise Lines should be paying the staff a proper wage Take note. the Cruise ships are not America, and are not US flagged except for one operating out of Hawaii. Regan really screwed over waiters etc and successive Governments have not changed it.
@@davidandrew1078 And then President W Bush said "Hold my beer, Ronnie" and cut mandatory national holiday pay and overtime pay bonuses for many workers. Presidents Obama and Biden have done nothing to overturn those changes or reverse the tax cuts for the wealthy. The cruise lines operate by hiring third world crew and paying third world wages. And they save more by mandatory tips. Tipping has always been part of cruising except there are some people that don't like to participate. I've been on many cruises where they queue at guest services on the last night and demand that the mandatory gratuities be removed from their onboard accounts. Disgraceful.
Gratuities are very confusing. There needs to be more transparency. I know some people like to tip only the staff they have direct contact with, but what about those who work tirelessly behind the scenes.
Do people understand that, if they have a fob or entry card at work or for their apartment, they're also being tracked? Do they not get that there are cameras in public places EVERYWHERE? Do they also not understand how just having a smart phone is like walking around with a tracking chip? Privacy is over. At least the technology can be used to be helpful. I'll be taking a cruise with my dad next year. He'll be 81. e doesn't have dementia, or anything, but he's not someone who is great when it comes ot his sense of direction. I actually LOVE the idea that the system on Princess Cruise Lines will make it so that I'll be able to find him on board the ship if he ever loses his way.
I took my mom on cruises years ago and she did have dementia. Princess is great. If she wanted to go somewhere and then never returned I just went back to our room to collect her. She just found someone told then her name and they escorted her to our cabin. They were always smiling happy to help. They said don’t worry just let her roam we will bring her back for you. She loved having her freedom. Happy sailing with your dad! 😃
Thanks Gary, I’ve been on Holland America a few times and I really dislike how they are around the gratuities. My feedback at the end of the cruise is always that they should pay their staff better and make tips opt in not automatic.
What I really dislike is when you pay your gratuities, you still have to pay your gratuity every time you order a drink, etc. That always frost my cookies.
Tipping has become an absolute rort everywhere today, and the worst places are cruise ships. It should be when YOU decide you have had exceptional service and want to give those specific staff something extra for it. It should NOT be a COMPULSORY charge added on to everything and you have no idea iif the staff even get a tiny slice of it. Its pure greed/profit by the company.
@@tipsfortravellers I have watched many of your videos, they have been a great help. Compared to others, we haven’t cruised often, just to New Zealand and up to the islands, Fiji, etc. We planned a river cruise on Viking, but couldn’t go because of Covid. We decided on cruise credits for two reasons, to help out Viking and to get an upgrade through a higher credit than we paid. With what’s going on in Europe now we are also looking at a sea cruise, probably in 2023. All the best.
...in light of people vanishing at sea on cruise ships, I served on carriers and people don't just vanish, there are two ways to leave a ship at sea, you fall overboard or are pushed overboard, thats just common sense, a few may fall off, maybe even a few commit suicide, but I believe most of these are foul play, so I would be okay with them knowing where I am aboard once I leave my cabin...
Please take up the issue of Fast Cruise Credits. Aside from the 'bribe' issue, whose money is it when in limbo. What is the position on refunds if, for any reason, one decide not to cruise again with the carrier in question.
So, auto gratuities... if we use $15 per passenger per day (the rate varies depending on cost of stateroom but let's use $15) and a 6 day cruise, with 5000 passengers, this comes to $450,000. if you figure a 'crew' of 1200, that is $375 per crew member if split evenly. IS it split evenly? i doubt it. Does all of it go to the crew/ same answer, I doubt it. We also know some crew is paid much better than others, should the non-contact crew be included in the split given that they are paid more for a less strenuous workload? Not in my book.
