Interesting chatter about the Magic/Adventure

[holula]

I can imagine that might be difficult from a website perspective. Some cruises have gratuities included in the fare, while others don't? Let alone that seems wayyyyy more than Disney IT can handle (lol), I would think that would be confusing for those shopping for cruises.

Haha, fair! Maybe they could just make the pre paid gratuities not optional instead.

 

[Bad Pink Tink 2.0]

I can imagine that might be difficult from a website perspective. Some cruises have gratuities included in the fare, while others don't? Let alone that seems wayyyyy more than Disney IT can handle (lol), I would think that would be confusing for those shopping for cruises.

MSC cruises does that. I recently went on an MSC cruise in the Mediterranean. I booked through the UK website and gratuities were included in the cruise fare. People who booked on the same cruise I did though the USA website did not have gratuities and they paid per person per day during the cruise, the same as D C L does.

 

[RedHead0186]

MSC cruises does that. I recently went on an MSC cruise in the Mediterranean. I booked through the UK website and gratuities were included in the cruise fare. People who booked on the same cruise I did though the USA website did not have gratuities and they paid per person per day during the cruise, the same as D C L does.

Interesting! I'm still not sure it would work for DCL/the Adventure, but good to know how another cruise line handled that.

 

[asgur5]

They have an agreement with Singapore to stay there for some years, though.

But what happens if the ship is running at massive losses cos they cant fill it. Surely there is an out clause.

 

[asgur5]

lol

But on another note
I have also heard from two different dining teams that no one wants to go to the adventure, and that yes it is because of culture. One CM from the Philippines even told us he would be closer to home so it would be better for him but that he still did not want to go because of the culture. He said politely, “It’s just different.”

You couldn’t get me on that ship either

Culture in what way?

Singaporeans are rule followers. Overly polite. Will always stand in queues. Never complain.

Sounds like the ideal culture to deal with service wise.

 

[Flossbolna]

Interesting! I'm still not sure it would work for DCL/the Adventure, but good to know how another cruise line handled that.

Princess does it on the German market as well.

I think the way to do it is not to do it by ship but by which international website you book through.

It will be interesting what they do with the OLC ship in Japan considering that Japan is so used to no tips ever.

 

[Bad Pink Tink 2.0]

I think the way to do it is not to do it by ship but by which international website you book through.

This is exactly how its done. The websites are coded so that different countries see different versions. Disney does it with Walt Disney World website. Its IP based, the system recognizes a non US IP and automatically loads the UK version of the website.

When I click this link https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/
This is what I see, the UK version of the website.

They can do it for Walt Disney World as it is a big enough market to justify the cost of the website.

 

[RedHead0186]

Princess does it on the German market as well.

I think the way to do it is not to do it by ship but by which international website you book through.

It will be interesting what they do with the OLC ship in Japan considering that Japan is so used to no tips ever.

Yeah, I agree that DCL could do it based on which international site you book through. I can't see doing it for just one ship would work-seems like a logistical/IT nightmare plus confusing for those looking to book.

 

[jwalk03]

But what happens if the ship is running at massive losses cos they cant fill it. Surely there is an out clause.

Depends how massive the loses are vs what the cost of exiting the contract are. Just a typical cost/benefit analysis. Though I would assume any loses there might be are offset by whatever favorable terms Disney was able to secure from Singapore to guarantee the long term contract in the first place.

 

[Kwami]

Culture in what way?

Singaporeans are rule followers. Overly polite. Will always stand in queues. Never complain.

Sounds like the ideal culture to deal with service wise.

But Singapore only has a population of about 6M people. That's a very small market. More likely, the ship is usually majority non-Singaporean.

Anyway, there's no way to know what the CM meant unless the person talking to that CM has more details.

 

[Kwami]

But what happens if the ship is running at massive losses cos they cant fill it. Surely there is an out clause.

That sounds like Disney's problem. Maybe the contract is publicly available somewhere? I just know that they announced a deal for five years and that we're barely into year one.

 

[jimmymc]

With the new smaller ships being announced and the age of the Magic and Wonder, I think we have end dates for those two ships with DCL. It's possible Disney sells them to a discount cruise line, but I think most likely they are retired. Disney could hypothetically do a Queen Mary 2-style hotel at Port Canaveral, but I kind of doubt there would be demand for that.

 

[jimmymc]

Culture in what way?

Singaporeans are rule followers. Overly polite. Will always stand in queues. Never complain.

Sounds like the ideal culture to deal with service wise.

I would guess a lot of passengers are from China.

 

[jimmymc]

I can imagine that might be difficult from a website perspective. Some cruises have gratuities included in the fare, while others don't? Let alone that seems wayyyyy more than Disney IT can handle (lol), I would think that would be confusing for those shopping for cruises.

NCL includes gratuities in the price if you book from a country where tipping isn't normal, like Australia. I've noticed they also offer different travel packages, like pre-nights and flight inclusions, based on your home country.

 

[tvguy]

Culture in what way?

Singaporeans are rule followers. Overly polite. Will always stand in queues. Never complain.

Sounds like the ideal culture to deal with service wise.

I can't speak for the person you quoted but TIPPING is a cultural thing. Tipping is not the norm in Singapore or Southeast Asia and those are the communities the Adventure is drawing the majority of their passengers from. When you work in an industry where one of the major draws is tip income, that could be an issue. And even with automatic tipping, I suspect the number of people removing tips would be greater than cruises from U.S. ports.
Certainly, that is an issue to an extent on ANY cruise that draws passengers from different cultures. Talking to our server on a HAL cruise......back when HAL promoted themselves where tipping was not necessary because they paid their staff higher wages than other cruise lines.........and he said he just had to accept that there are people on board from parts of the world where tipping is not only not the norm, but an insult to the person being tipped.

 

[Scalemaster34]

Even if they included tips.... I wonder if that would make crew members happy? As we often pay way more than the suggested tip amounts for the positions that are part of the recommended tipping. But then there are others, like the poolside severs, and the upscale dinning servers or those working in the SPA?

In the end I expect most crewmembers working in TIPPING positions, end up with more than recommended tipping rates. So I could see an issue with crewmembers that are use to sailing on most the DCL ships where tipping is expected. Key might be only having new hires that aren't aware of how it's done in the rest of the fleet... Adventure might end up offering a different level of service than some have come to expect???

As for soft bookings... Trips to no where just might not appeal to some/many. Disney might have to do as most the other lines sailing for Singapore do, and actually go somewhere... Lot's of room to play with that.

 

[pjacobi]

This is exactly how its done. The websites are coded so that different countries see different versions. Disney does it with Walt Disney World website. Its IP based, the system recognizes a non US IP and automatically loads the UK version of the website.

It is possible for someone in the UK to use a VPN. The source IP will be in the US and the UK user will get the US version of the website and book US price. It might not be clear to the UK person that the US price does not include gratuities.


-Paul

 

[jimmymc]

Even if they included tips.... I wonder if that would make crew members happy? As we often pay way more than the suggested tip amounts for the positions that are part of the recommended tipping. But then there are others, like the poolside severs, and the upscale dinning servers or those working in the SPA?

In the end I expect most crewmembers working in TIPPING positions, end up with more than recommended tipping rates. So I could see an issue with crewmembers that are use to sailing on most the DCL ships where tipping is expected. Key might be only having new hires that aren't aware of how it's done in the rest of the fleet... Adventure might end up offering a different level of service than some have come to expect???

As for soft bookings... Trips to no where just might not appeal to some/many. Disney might have to do as most the other lines sailing for Singapore do, and actually go somewhere... Lot's of room to play with that.

I've heard from crew members on non-Disney ships that this is true for cruises around Australia. Even though service fees are all included in their rates, Americans tend to tip above the included gratuities and they end up with more money per day.

 

[Mags2002]

Even if they included tips.... I wonder if that would make crew members happy? As we often pay way more than the suggested tip amounts for the positions that are part of the recommended tipping. But then there are others, like the poolside severs, and the upscale dinning servers or those working in the SPA?

In the end I expect most crewmembers working in TIPPING positions, end up with more than recommended tipping rates. So I could see an issue with crewmembers that are use to sailing on most the DCL ships where tipping is expected. Key might be only having new hires that aren't aware of how it's done in the rest of the fleet... Adventure might end up offering a different level of service than some have come to expect???

As for soft bookings... Trips to no where just might not appeal to some/many. Disney might have to do as most the other lines sailing for Singapore do, and actually go somewhere... Lot's of room to play with that.

The level of service is not different in any way. All crew go through the exact same training and have the same expectations placed on them. If they want another contract anywhere on the Disney fleet, they need to perform to a certain standard, whether they are receiving tips or not.
You might tip over and above the recommended amount, but certainly not everyone does. From what I have heard, an awful lot of people on the Adventure are removing gratuities and just tipping a couple of dollars

 

[DCL58]

. From what I have heard, an awful lot of people on the Adventure are removing gratuities and just tipping a couple of dollars

Probably why cast members are requesting to transfer back to US based ships and not wanting to move to the Adventure from a US based ship. Exactly what I was told by several cast member friends on the Fantasy last week.

Culture is just too different on the Adventure.