Any staff not paid a salary?

[KashasMom]

Someone on another group posted that they had a conversation with a concierge host who told them that they do not get salaries. They work for tips only. Of course, others jumped in and said that they talked to the restaurant staff and stateroom hosts and they don't get paid either. I don't believe there is anyone on board who does not get a salary, no matter how much it is. So, what's the deal? Are they just trying to get "bigger" tips?

Also - are the concierge hosts tips pooled?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Someone on another group posted that they had a conversation with a concierge host who told them that they do not get salaries. They work for tips only. Of course, others jumped in and said that they talked to the restaurant staff and stateroom hosts and they don't get paid either. I don't believe there is anyone on board who does not get a salary, no matter how much it is. So, what's the deal? Are they just trying to get "bigger" tips?

Everyone onboard gets some sort of salary. Some also get room & board. What's the "other group" that's saying some don't get salaries? Are they talking about DCL? Or some other cruise line?

It sounds like a "they'll tip us more, if we give them this story" ploy.

 

[Sykes]

This dives in a bit industry-wide (not DCL-specific): https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=261

A quote of note: “For customer-facing positions, gratuities usually come into play. "Gratuities make up most of the compensation for crew in the housekeeping and food and beverage departments," says Collins. The base wage is usually low -- sometimes as little as $2 a day -- but income from tips can represent as much as 95 percent of the take-home total.”

My understanding is that Disney tends to pay better and offer better working conditions than the industry average, but I wouldn’t expect it to be THAT different.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Also - are the concierge hosts tips pooled?

On DCL, the tips are not pooled. On other lines they are, to be shared by behind the scenes crew members also.

 

[tvguy]

This dives in a bit industry-wide (not DCL-specific): https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=261

A quote of note: “For customer-facing positions, gratuities usually come into play. "Gratuities make up most of the compensation for crew in the housekeeping and food and beverage departments," says Collins. The base wage is usually low -- sometimes as little as $2 a day -- but income from tips can represent as much as 95 percent of the take-home total.”

My understanding is that Disney tends to pay better and offer better working conditions than the industry average, but I wouldn’t expect it to be THAT different.

I have had more than one crew member tell me that tips are by far the biggest percentage of their compensation. But they all added that the base salary was a tad more than they would make at home. Plus they get room, board and medical and roundtrip air fare when they get hired on.

 

[Marc D]

On DCL, the tips are not pooled. On other lines they are, to be shared by behind the scenes crew members also.

The Concierge hosts tips are pooled. We specifically asked them. Also, the printed ticket we got for their tip was labelled ‘Concierge hosts’ (or something similar) and not with one of their names, unlike the tip tickets for the stateroom host, or dining team members.

 

[KashasMom]

On DCL, the tips are not pooled. On other lines they are, to be shared by behind the scenes crew members also.

I was wondering if I gave 3 envelopes to the concierge hosts do they have to pool them and split them equally? We tipped equally but if they're sharing then it's easier to give 1 envelope.

The group is a Disney concierge group on that other site. The admin is a travel agent.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

The Concierge hosts tips are pooled. We specifically asked them. Also, the printed ticket we got for their tip was labelled ‘Concierge hosts’ (or something similar) and not with one of their names, unlike the tip tickets for the stateroom host, or dining team members.

Good to know.

 

[KashasMom]

I have had more than one crew member tell me that tips are by far the biggest percentage of their compensation. But they all added that the base salary was a tad more than they would make at home. Plus they get room, board and medical and roundtrip air fare when they get hired on.

Yes, that's a big point about making more than the would "at home". Of course, they work extremely hard but the opportunity itself is also more than they'd have at home.

 

[anricat]

The paid airfare is a big one. I remember speaking to a server once and she said she used to work for another line, but she prefers DCL and one of those reasons is that DCL pays for airfare for all crew coming to and from the ship to start/end their contract. That's a big hunk of money right there.

I asked our server on our cruise last month if he was able to find work during the shutdown and he said he worked on his father's farm in Indonesia. He said he was glad spend time with his family, but he said the work was awful and backbreaking and he really didn't make any money doing it. He said he was so glad to be back on board working. (We always tip over and above, but we tipped extra last cruise - basically thinking of it like hazard pay.)