On a slightish thread drift, the American cruise lines encounter the same problems when operating out of Southampton and other none US areas that dont have a "compulsory" tipping culture.
I tend to pay the daily tipping rate, but there is invariably a long queue of people at guest services on the first day of the cruise requesting a removal of the $13 pp per day gratuity.
That's because of the way they do it also....'for your convenience we have taken the problem away from you and added.....' By the way the rate per passenger per day alters depending on cabin grade, our gratuity charge with them last Autum would have been in excess of £500 for 2 people on a 14 day cruise.
In the small print, and hidden away, is the comment that you can amend it at any time, not true they will not backdate if you fail to remove this 'Tax' on day one. We started cruising with them, sometimes twice a year, in 2001 and back then you collected small brown envelopes and gave whomever what you wanted. We still do this today, why the head waiter gets more than the table waiter at dinner is beyond me when all they do is ponce about, the table staff work flat out now they have less of them and they are required to do 30 covers and drinks (2 staff members in a team) for 3 sittings a night.
I have walked out of restaurants that refuse to remove their cover charge before now and cancelled my booking, I always tip if the service is even half decent but in cash to the staff.
