Playing devils advocate here I say why should we pay the crew more? Will their service level increase? My guess is no. They are not employees of the passengers, they are employees of the cruise lines. If cruise lines are nervous about losing long time employees to another line then increase their hourly wage. If you pass it on to the passenger in the form of higher fares so be it. There are choices out there for all of us. Ok, yes you can remove some or all of someones tips if their service is poor. I for one dont want to be on a list for all employees to see that I removed tips. Then the service level will really go down. Double edge sword. Does the staff generally warrant more money? Probably. But let the customer decide to add to their tips based on service rendered. Of course all lines will soon follow. Employees will want to jump ship to another cruise line if they know the pay is better. Dig deeper folks, its a reality of cruising these days.