Who really gets the tips that I leave in personal envelopes to the my Waiter, Assistant Waiter, Head Waiter and my Stateroom Attendant Team on the Voyager of the Seas cruise ship?

First of all, I’m back from a fantastic cruise on the Voyager ship and can tell you it was an amazing vacation week for me. This ship is amazing and the staff in it is making a wonderfull service. The shows in the La Scala theatre are amazing and so much more, I can talk about it hours now. If you can afford such a trip, Go for it! This is the good part and I’m completely objective about it. Such a quality time I never ever had before.

But, here is the bad thing I don’t understand at all. As a guest I have the ability to decide to who from the staff I want to give tips in a personal envelopes on the last day. This is my way to express my appreciation to people who care about my staying on the ship, so my vacation would be excellent.

On the last dinner on the ship, I noticed a strange thing I want to discuss about with you and understand why they do that. I Personally gave envelope to my personal waiter, the waiter first put the envelope in his pocket, but then walked to his Head Waiters and transfer my envelope to him.

I’m sorry, but why is this? I gave this money to my wonderfull waiter who gave me an excellent service, so this money is for him only. I tried to ask him why, but he avoided giving me straight answer and he probably should not talk about it with anyone. He is obligated to report any tip he gets on the ship. Why?

If I understand this right, Any tips of everyone gathered together and then divided equally among all the waiters. Is it possible? So how can my waiter know how much money I gave him personally? He will never know that way.

I don’t see the good thing here. If someone is working better than another one and gets more tips, Why does he have to share his money with others? I want him to know I gave this for him and not for someone else :-/

All the way they are “offering” giving tips is looking really bad from my point of view. They suggest you do so but it is like they are forcing you to do this because otherwise you will feel very uncomfortable, although that trip is very expensive as it is. They also gave me A letter describing how much money they “advise” to give to any of those people for every day of service.

What is really going on behind the scenes? I think it’s wrong and unjust.