QM2 newbies

RetSol

Rob5342 said:

Gratuities are something to be very wary of. They try and sneak them on to everything and hope you'll be too embarassed to ask for them to be taken off. Why they can't just be upfront and advertise the total price is beyond me.

The default is that QM2 charges a daily gratuity to each passenger's account to cover tips for the cabin steward etc.  You can ask for that to be stopped and people frequently do. Tipping is expected, however.

We plan that one of us will pay the "auto-gratuity" and that we will also have a pot of dollars in cash for tipping on a discretionary basis.

NoodleDoodleMan

RetSol said:

Rob5342 said:

Gratuities are something to be very wary of. They try and sneak them on to everything and hope you'll be too embarassed to ask for them to be taken off. Why they can't just be upfront and advertise the total price is beyond me.

The default is that QM2 charges a daily gratuity to each passenger's account to cover tips for the cabin steward etc.  You can ask for that to be stopped and people frequently do. Tipping is expected, however.

We plan that one of us will pay the "auto-gratuity" and that we will also have a pot of dollars in cash for tipping on a discretionary basis.

Don't know how it works on QM2 - but on Princess Cruises you can opt out of the "hotel charges" (aka gratuities) by going to customer services and having them removed - best done as soon as you can get there, they won't  remove them retrospectively.

However - any tips you give direct to cabin stewards and waiters etc. is pooled by the staff - they are not allowed to keep it for themselves.

We followed advice from one experienced fellow Princess cruiser - get an envelope from customer services and drop your tips into the gratuities box prominently on display.