not-enough-cruising

You just made my point. Gratuity money is going to many positions that shouldn’t be tipped positions. This is why more and more people are opting out and going the cash route. Laundry, and dishwashers aren’t tipped positions. Room Steward, waiter, assistant waiter, head waiter (in special circumstances), anyone that PERSONALLY makes my day better. That’s it, not 1800

There are NOT 1800 tipped positions on the ship. FAR FAR from it.

You aren’t doing anything wrong at all.

Another math problem. The average Oasis class sailing takes in over $750K in auto gratuities of everyone plays along. There aren’t enough people in the tip pool to to justify this amount of money; IMHO. A corporation, on the financial rebound, would find it difficult not sliding the corporate hand into the cookie jar.

Giovanni’s kitchen does; Giovanni’s table does not.

My mistake

Royal doesn’t consider 21 as an adult for the purposes of booking.

Yeah, I’m not concerned

Let’s not paint all young adults with the same broad brush.

I have NEVER been asked why I was removing the tips. Why would I care if my room steward knows? If they do their job well they will make more money on my room than they would had I left the auto debit in place.

No way is this coming; unless the government mandates it (and they won’t)

Regardless of data, I believe you are 110% correct. Any service worker worth their salt would much rather work in an environment that practices the cash tip system.

I look forward to sharing an old fashioned on board soon

Yes, for the initial card application you do; then after that you only send in the book when renewing the book and the card when renewing the card.

As I said above, I am not at all against tipping the crew. I consider myself to be generous. I, unlike you, choose not to participate in the automatic daily gratuity. No harm no foul; just different strokes for different folks.

They are not living in another country either. they are living an all expense paid life during their contract, and the money made all goes to their home country; so that is where the value should be assessed. I am not complaining about tipping. I tip very well; but I will not participate in or not respond to the narrative that the crew are living o like slaves and are poorly compensated. My response was to an individual demanding a living wage; and without a doubt the crew is being paid a very generous living wage.

And that is the way we should all behave toward one another. I appreciate you

Mafia is a fairly accurate comparison.

The minimum wage that P&O pays is EXACTLY the same as the minimum wage for the same position that Royal pays. The difference is P&O gets the money upfront to cover these costs, whereas Royal tries to guilt their customers into subsidizing this amount AFTER advertising a competitive low fare in their perspective market.

Cruise lines provide a fairly comfortable “living wage” to the crew. Most crew make 1.5-2X the average annual wage in their perspective countries on a 9 month contract. In order to better understand this system, one must stop looking at this onboard staff “economic environment” through the lens of a North American or Western European.

We never tip porters, and have never lost a piece of luggage; come to the dark side.

You were lied to.

This is true if the book and card were issued at the same time. Our passport books and cards were issued at different times and have different expiration dates (about 3 years apart). We did it this way for this exact scenario. My passport book is away for renewal as we type; but my passport card (with a July 2026 expiration) is in my safe and ready for my Allure cruise at the end of the month.

Royal does not consider 20 year olds minors. You need no additional documentation for the friends.

One is placed on domestic only assignments during passport processing.