nu_cruzer1

Why does anyone need to explain why they want to know how the gratuities are broken down? If a thread about gratuities doesn't interest you, of if you're not able to respond to the OPs question, ignore the thread. 🤔

Oh, I know ...... lol.

On land based restaurants, I give my waiter the tip. The waiter knows how or whether the tips will be divided up. If management came to my table and told me to give them my tip so they can give it to the waiter, I would have questions/concerns about that.

I'm curious as to the breakdown. The gratuities are an additional cost that is charged to all of us, separate and apart from the cruise fare. If gratuities are supposed to go to the crew on my behalf, then I want to know that they make it to them. I would feel scammed if I found out that very little or none of the gratuities that I paid made it to the crew. Just because Royal takes it upon themselves to "streamline the recognition process for their crew" rather than have us do it directly doesn't mean that we don't need to know how that money is being allocated. There should be more transparency in the gratuity process and that would shut down future threads on this topic. Royal can put an end to these gratuities threads very easily.

Royal should allow people to cancel their cruises without penalty if they make changes to the itinerary after final payment. They effectively have changed the contract I have with them to go to the designated ports that I originally booked for. It’s like booking a flight to Paris only to be told that our flight will be going to Alabama and I have to be ok with it because the contract states that the airline can make changes to the itinerary. Oh, and it’s non refundable because that too is in the contract.

They had one table on Anthem (Dec 2022) and one on Oasis (May 2022). Also love Let it Ride and was happy to have it on both ships as they don't have it at the Niagara Falls casinos here in Ontario anymore.

Still waiting for remaining $630. Was told that it was processed on Dec 29 and will take another 10 days. However, the refund amount is short $45 and I will now need to track that down separately. Ugh.

Just got off of Anthem two days ago. For our sailing, the only show that reservations were available for was Spectra. There was no ability to book reservations for the other shows either before the sailing or onboard. It was first come. As for the complementary ifly and North Star sessions, these were bookable at 7pm each night for the following day. Roller skating also required a reservation but not bumper cars.

On one credit card, I cancelled 3 excursions: 2 on Nov 18 and 1 on Nov 21. The refund for the cancellation on Nov 21 posted this morning, still nothing from the ones cancelled on Nov 18. On another credit card, I cancelled 1 excursion on Nov 18 and 1 on Nov 20. No refund as of this morning for either of these. 🤔

Nope, you’re definitely not. Too bad I didn’t keep the description. They really should update the description to include this very important piece of information.

Funny you mention this because I did the transportation only option this past May on Oasis and it did NOT mention that admission was included. I assumed, based on the price, that admission was included (since $84 seemed steep for transportation only). I happened to be correct but for sure, it didn't mention anything about admission being included.

"..all that time I collected singles & fives and stock piled." What does one do for a living to be able to stockpile singles and fives? Asking for a friend 😏!

Those purchasing specialty dining packages are getting their dinners at a discounted price so I can see why tipping extra might make sense in these cases. The 18% per person gratuity added onto the cost of specialty dining if purchased in advance is at the higher end of a standard tip amount on land. I do feel "guilted" into adding an extra (cash) tip to separately acknowledge the actual waiter who is serving me but this is no different than adding an extra tip for the MDR staff, room attendant or bartender (if you have the drink package). Tips (aka gratuities) are collected by RCI for all of these services in advance and this fact is sometimes buried because it's collected in advance. Nobody should feel badly for not tipping extra, it's not as though you're not tipping at all.

I paid US$84pp for my cruise in May. This excursion included the shuttle to/from KSC and admission, and you were left to explore on your own. It was not the guided tour as that was not offered for our sailing.

The tour ended at 5pm, however, they announced that people can start boarding around 4:45pm and that the bus would depart once it was full. I was on the first bus back; it started boarding around 4:40 and I was back on the ship around 5:15. There were 6 buses on our tour, I think. You didn't need to board the same bus that you went with. Boarding for the return was simply based on your position in the return line. The line to return was pretty long so you may want to consider this if your goal is to get the first bus back to the port, for dinner as an example. One note, KSC closes at 5pm now so that's why the excursion ended at 5. If the KSC hours expand in the future, the departure time may likely be different.