As I understand it gratuities are not negotiable on NCL ships and those who have paid them in advance recently have gained 5% because that is the amount the pound is down against the dollar so nothing ridiculous about it. If some people want to pay in advance who are you to say it is wrong, it's what they have chosen to do. Tipping is used at the moment, as it has been for many years, if you see it is wrong how you break this system is a matter for conjecture but I have yet to have explained to me a way of getting the cruise lines to do away with it without someone, other than the cruise lines, coming off worse. Nice to see this old chestnut again. ..... Neil

Good to hear from you again Neil, (By the way, is Ida Down a joke? That's something that goes on a bed isn't it?) Just to illustrate the point I'm making, can you, or anyone else for that matter, tell me who exactly benefits from the charges NCL make? I doubt that anyone knows precisely. Anyone who dishes out money willy nilly without any clear idea of who it goes to is quite mad in my opinion.

We spoke to the staff about the gratuities, they told us that they go directly to the staff to bump up their very low wages, $600 per month. NCL do it this way so that all staff get tipped, as there is plenty behind the scenes who do not have the opportunity to get tipped. There is no employment law governing pay on most cruise ships so they pay staff what they want, NCL and RCL been two of them. I dont agree with this, I think all staff should be paid fairly but then the cost of cruises would be a lot more expensive and less attractive to customers. It is a basically a marketing tool. And if the service isnt good, you have the choice to remove it. But if you can afford to go on a cruise where you are waited on hand and foot, by staff who have no choice but to work on a ship for nine months at a time for very low pay, well, I hope people that remove gratuities realise how lucky they are in life.

Good to see that at least one person has made the effort to discover just whrere the tips go, but also good to see my opinion that no-one knows PRECISELY where and to whom the tips go. And is $600 per month really that bad when you have free board and lodging and no bills to pay?