One of the biggest surprises for me on this week-long cruise around the Red Sea on Thomson Cruises’ Celebration has been the crew. I don’t think I’ve ever cruised with such a jolly, smiling crowd. They’re brilliant at remembering names (and there are 1,200 passengers on board), helpful, efficient and friendly. You can see that some of this comes from the top; the senior officers seem to have a great relationship with the crewmembers and Jun, the maître d’ in the main dining room, is just superb. But it’s clear that this is a ‘happy’ ship — and anybody who has experienced an ‘unhappy’ ship will know how important this is.
What’s puzzling (or perhaps, the biggest clue) is that Celebration is a no-tipping ship. There’s no service charge added to the bar bill and no gratuities added to your cruise account; they’re included in the cruise price and on this line, always have been. So most of the mainly Filipino and Indonesian crew know how much they’re going to earn, although the door to topping this up is not closed, as passengers are allowed to tip extra if they want to. But this has never been forced on us and never suggested.
Rather than make money from an enforced ‘service charge’, the bar staff earn commission on the number of drinks they sell, which gives them an incentive to keep the service swift and efficient. This is built into the drinks price but alcohol is hardly expensive on board – it’s about in line with British pub prices.
What should you conclude from this? Are ships where the crew doesn’t have to tout for tips happier environments? It’s certainly less stressful and awkward for the passengers, particularly the Brits who make up Thomson’s passengers. It seems to work for the crew. I suppose somewhere down the line, the passenger is still paying as tips are built into the cruise fare, but Thomson keeps its prices competitive.
Let us know: Would you prefer the tips on your cruise to be included? Comment here.
–Sue Bryant
Read hundreds of reviews of Thomson Celebration by members.
4 Comments
March 14, 2013 at 5:23 pm
I think this is a fantastic idea and never knew Thomsons did this. Will definately consider them in the future. Tipping has for me, always been a bit of a minefield. Last year we prepaid our tips on our Celebrity cruise but still felt at the end of the cruise that we should give!!! How do we know that our prepaid amount has reached the desired people? The staff of Celebrity and Holland America who we have also cruised with, have I felt, always given their best service, and it was a pleasure to sail with both companies.
March 14, 2013 at 6:26 pm
We were on the Thomson Celebration Red Sea Magic Cruise in Feb this year. It was our first Thomson cruise and echo the view that the crew were truly outstanding. How they remain relentlessly cheerful and helpful day in and day out is beyond me. Our last cruise was with P&O and although gratuities were paid up front there was clearly an expectation from some members of the crew that they should receive additional tips. We took it literally that all gratuities had been paid and our cabin steward became decidedly grumpy when we did not tip him, refusing to speak to us as we left the ship on the final day. The crew were from Goa and I do wonder if the different nationalities played a part in the different levels of service. Like many Brits we are extremely uncomfortable with tipping and to my mind Thomson have a definite edge here when it comes to catering for the British market, and with a better crew.
March 14, 2013 at 7:55 pm
I only have experience of a few cruises but find adding a fixed sum for ‘tips’ very confusing. Cruise lines should use another term, perhaps ‘mandatory tax?’. P&O recently advertised, in a well known newspaper, cruises with the added incentive for early booking,’half price tips or free parking’ so surely this means that ‘tips’ must be mandatory.Please can all cruise lines admit to this and not try to con clients that there cruises are cheaper than they really are.
Congratulations to Thomsons for including these extra fees within their prices.
March 20, 2013 at 9:51 am
I support 100% the “tips included” line. So much so that I check before going on any cruise that the gratuities are included. I do not have a problem with giving tips for additional appreciation. I do have a problem with being virtually forced to pay out significant sums effectively as a hiden part of the ticket price.