Pink.paper.heart

Everyone can do whatever they want with their own money. It seems so elitist to think you have the last say on how other people want to spend on gratuities. Who are YOU to police it? I am not going to be extorted for tips just to pray and ensure I will receive any service. You can even see it as me not wanting to bribe others for hope of any form of service. Service first, tips later based on services rendered.

Machines have feelings too! Don't you know, you gotta think about the 'behind the scenes' staff like the maintenance guy, the dev team who programmed the checkout kiosk, the staff that wipes down the checkout booth etc.. Edit - fyi I am being sarcastic here in case it wasn't obvious. Cheers!

Good going, nice bragging. Again, it is your money, you can do whatever you want. Let the six other folk you have noticed in this thread do whatever they want with theirs.

To put it simply, it is a common fact that USA passengers love to tip because they are used to this kinda culture. Whereas when you encounter non-USA passengers like myself, we either suck it up and allow for the auto gratuities or just remove it. Like I have said in a couple of pages back, the burden of paying other people's employees shouldn't fall on the customers. It is extremely annoying to have all these hidden $++++ upon stepping on a ship. Just add the costs to the final price instead. It's like buying a sandwich that is listed as $5 and then the cashier says, "Oh by the way it is $1 service fee, $3 tips, $2 packaging on top so the total is $11." Just put the price that as $11 then. Wth..

My apologies but what do you mean by federal minimum wage for hospitality staff? You are referring to USA yes? The wage you have quoted doesn't apply in my country (Australia). Majority of countries outside USA tip after receiving a good service. No such thing as prepaid. I have booked recently for a voyage to New Zealand in 2024 and no where on the website did it allow me to 'tick the box' for auto gratuitites. In fact, by not actually finding it on the FAQ, we would have assumed that gratuities have already been added into the final cruise price. This is further proven by another 2 couples who have booked separately from me but are also going on the same voyage.

You are also questioning whether I remove gratuities and not tip. Which that is not the case. Coming from a country that only tips when a service is rendered good, I do not understand why the burden has to be on the paying customer to 'support' the livelihoods of another company's employees. I am not someone who drinks more than 1 drink a day therefore I did not subscribe to any packages. When tip is already included automatically on each drink I buy including the speciality restaurants, I believe auto daily gratuities as excessive tipping. Again, I would like to reinterate that this does not mean that I have removed daily gratuities as I know that I am on an american ship.

You are referring to passengers who have cruised before. It is not clear that the option is even there to remove gratuities or even WHERE/HOW to go about doing so to those who are first time cruisers or haven't cruised with RCL. It is all vague and hidden to prevent customers from the choice of having it removed or not.