Royal Caribbean gratuities

Hello

 

I have booked our first cruise for next year, me, my bf and our 2 young children. I didn’t select to pre pay the gratuities and being British I find paying for a service I’ve not yet experienced, a bit weird. I have read that the staff rely on these payments and I understand there are many workers working behind the scenes so to speak who will rely more so on this money.

 

Can you opt out of these payments with Royal Caribbean and pay those people who provide great service individually? It is pretty expensive, our son will be two and his cost is the same as us. So for 4 of us for 11 nights, it’s a lot. Can I just pay for the adults? Also we don’t drink alcohol so I’d rather more went to the staff that make our stay great and not ones we will not meet/ did not do anything for our family.

 

We are a working class family, this is a real treat, so I’m not being tight, just realistic. Thank you in advance for any advice xx

Edited July 21, 2018 by AutumnDaze
Misleading

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

One thing to remember is that the crew still have to clean up after your children and serve them -- in the cabin -- in the dining room, etc.

You will get more answers if you ask your question on the RCI at the link below:

 

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=83

Hello

 

Thank you, I will do that.

 

I think for families it should be per cabin, x 4 is really pricey. It’s about £50 extra a day. I’d never tip anyone that amount. I know there is a lot of staff but in the cabin I will tidy after my kids and the maid will be paid by us anyway as it’s the same cabin and the same for any that serve us. It’s as a family, like in a restaurant. My son will remain by my side and my daughter is extremely shy, but if she does try and use a children’s club, I would of course tip them.

It took a lot of convincing to get my bf to agree to a cruise and with a added bill of approx £550 at the end, he wouldn’t be impressed.

 

Quite a hard decision really 🤔 I don’t want people going without but I think the companies should pay the low earners more. The staff higher up get very generous wages so I hope none goes to them🤔

 

Thank you xx

I'm afraid you will find this a very contentious subject! Our American cousins are used to a 'tipping culture' and see this very differently from many Brits.

 

We booked our first cruise via an online agency and the added tips came as something of a shock! We have since learned to view them as part of the price and 'suck it up'. Yes, I would prefer the crew to be paid a decent wage and our fares increased to cover this, but it is just not the culture of many cruiselines. I say 'many', not all, as NCL often (always?) have an all-inclusive price and I believe there are no added gratuities on TUI cruises.

 

You will find that your children do make more work for the crew - they need to make up the extra beds, the bedding and towels need to be washed etc. Dining room stewards will go out of their way to ensure your little ones are kept happy and that they find something they can eat. I expect there will also be some added clearing up around your children's dining seats too as it is the rare child who makes no mess!

 

Tipping only the people you have interacted with means that those behind the scenes go unappreciated. Mind you, there is a lot of controversy about whether crew are allowed to keep cash tips, it is often said that they have to turn these into the tip pool anyway and are only allowed to keep anything over and above the basic rate.

 

When push comes to shove, you should do what you think is right - but you should don protective suiting if you are of a sensitive nature as you are likely to be 'flamed' by many people who have a different viewpoint form yours!

Better put your tin hat on, you're in for a rough ride.

 

Since you have chosen not to pre-pay (that's OK, like you say it's a bit strange to Brits), the grammatically-incorrect "gratuities" will be debited to your on-board account. That debit is known as "auto-tip" or similar.

 

You can remove auto-tip by visiting the purser's office guest-relations on-board but whether you should is another matter.

And it's a bit pointless to do that and pay individuals because if you do so, those who receive tips from you are obliged to hand them over to go into the money-pool along with the pre-paid grats and the auto-tips. The money pool is divided amongst most of the hotel-side crew - laundry staff, kitchen staff, etc as well as cabin attendants & waiting staff.

Along with their keep, members of the hotel-side crew get miserably-low wages - I doubt anyone knows the actual figure but I've heard figures as low as $50 per month bandied around, and their real income is from so-called tips.

Broadly the same applies to servers in restaurants etc in the US, where "tips" are expected rather than hoped-for and the average is 15% to 20% of a bill. Cruise lines take it a stage further and apply that logic to backroom staff.

It's the American way, effectively expecting passengers to pay wages on top of their fare thereby making the cruise fares seem better value.

Most Brits don't like the system, ditto quite a lot of Americans. We'd prefer that the crew were paid decent living wages, topped up by grammatically-correct tips for those who go the extra mile.

But the system is what it is - and bucking that system hurts the crew, not the cruise lines.

When I figure the affordability of a cruise I always factor in auto-tip along with the other out-of-pocket expenses of a cruise, and that usually tilts me toward UK cruise lines.

 

But your second paragraph show an ulterior motive. :(

By tipping individually you're actually looking to pay less.

Paying the same for kids seems kinda alien. For instance, on a bus they take up a seat, same as an adult, but usually travel at a reduced fare. And in plenty of restaurants on both sides of the Pond "kids eat free".

No such concession on most ships - and most kids create as much work for the crew, often they create more.

 

BTW, if you don't drink your auto-tip doesn't pay the bar staff. They're not in the general tips pool - a service charge (I think its still 15% on RCI) is added to each drink ordered.

 

Expect to be flamed on this thread by some Americans who can't get their heads around the fact that things are done differently in other countries, so you may have to keep your tin hat on for a while :D.

But, even tho your cruise might be in the Mediterranean or somewhere else thousands of miles from America, it's a US ship so US culture applies.

 

I suggest you go with the flow rather than stiffing the crew, who even with those "tips" earn far less than you.

 

JB :)

Biting my tongue, as "silence is golden"

The gratuities are a part of your fare, salary for the staff. If they just paid the staff, your out front costs would just be higher. We cruise with our 5 kids, we know when booking that this charge will be added (like resort fees or services charges at some hotels and resorts). We budget for it (maybe just taking a 7 day cruise).

Hello

 

Thank you, I will do that.

 

I think for families it should be per cabin, x 4 is really pricey. It’s about £50 extra a day. I’d never tip anyone that amount. I know there is a lot of staff but in the cabin I will tidy after my kids and the maid will be paid by us anyway as it’s the same cabin and the same for any that serve us. It’s as a family, like in a restaurant. My son will remain by my side and my daughter is extremely shy, but if she does try and use a children’s club, I would of course tip them.

It took a lot of convincing to get my bf to agree to a cruise and with a added bill of approx £550 at the end, he wouldn’t be impressed.

 

Quite a hard decision really 🤔 I don’t want people going without but I think the companies should pay the low earners more. The staff higher up get very generous wages so I hope none goes to them🤔

 

Thank you xx

 

I have already responded to your post in the Royal section. but: $50S is not going to one person. it is going to at minimum 3 people directly( Waiter, assistant waiter and Cabin steward) the kids club staff are not covered by the daily charge. are you also going to vacuum the crumbs every day? replace their towels with fresh ones? provide their meals? you will find especially the wait staff will go far above and beyond. we are talking their favorite pre dinner snack being Brought out to the table immediately. they might even cut up their meals leaving you free to enjoy your dinner in peace.

 

your BF needs to accept that this is the standard operating procedure for American based cruise lines and if he doesn't want a huge bill at the end he should prepay.

 

Officers do not share in the tipping pool.

Hi

 

Welcome to cruise critic.

 

Oh, look another tipping thread.

 

It's your money and you can do as you like.

 

You understand the situation, the gratuities that are normally collected are expected by the crew that receive them. If you choose to withhold the amounts recommended you are taking money out of their pocket. (those that are trying to make your trip memorable) Whatever your rational, it is meaningless, because it is only self serving. If you are coming to a website like this to find if others do things as you are contemplating, the answer is yes. That doesn't make it right. Suggesting that it is the companies fault that you are considering cheating the crew is pretty lame.

 

If you can't afford the cruise, then you should consider saving up a little longer, or taking a slightly less expensive trip.

 

 

 

Expect to be flamed on this thread by some Americans who can't get their heads around the fact that things are done differently in other countries, so you may have to keep your tin hat on for a while :D.

But, even tho your cruise might be in the Mediterranean or somewhere else thousands of miles from America, it's a US ship so US culture applies.

 

I suggest you go with the flow rather than stiffing the crew, who even with those "tips" earn far less than you.

 

JB :)

 

as some one who has lived in Japan( tipping there is a downright insult) and have spent a great deal of time in OZ( tipping is not the norm) I did my research and adjusted my actions and thought process accordingly. it was amazing to me to find out you can walk into a department store( or the Perth Equivalent) and bargain with the sales associate on the price off a new electric kettle. or Bring your own bottle to a restaurant and not pay a corkage fee.

 

but I subscribe to the "When in Rome" principal. regardless of whether or not I approve( it was VERY hard for me to justify spending $50 up front on a mediocre steak dinner at the Outback in Yokohama or $30 on a small basket of fish n chips at a Fremantle Pub) yet I did so because that was how things are done over there.

When in Rome...and all that! Tipping on cruises is traditional. If you do the gratuities as suggested, all who serve you get what they're supposed to get. And, they don't get the tips until the cruise is over, so if there is someone you don't feel is deserving, you can go to customer service and adjust those tips.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. You have picked a very touchy subject and will find many posters will be quite blunt with you. A search of the boards will reveal numerous threads on this subject. Anything specific to Royal Caribbean is better asked on the RC board.

 

John Bull in post #5 pretty much explained the system to you. If it helps think of it as a service charge that is applied to all passengers, including babies and children.

 

You do not have to prepay. RC bills to your cabin account each day if not prepaid and you can settle your bill at the end of the cruise.

 

If there is a problem with any service you can speak to the employee's supervisor.

 

The service charge/gratuities cover all eating locations, your cabin, and behind the scenes staff. Drinks, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic, that you pay for (not the ones included in your fare) have a separate 18% gratuity.

 

Your children still have beds to be made, towels used, dishes, etc. Most people agree that kids are more work than adults.

 

Please do the correct thing and pay the suggested gratuities.

 

Can you opt out of these payments with Royal Caribbean and pay those people who provide great service individually?

 

 

AutumnDaze,

 

The answer is YES. Just remember to tip cash (Discreetly) to the various employees (Prior) to removing the auto tips at guest services on the (last day/evening) of your cruise.

 

Once that cash tip is received, it will go into the employee's pocket like lightening & will stay there like glue. It will not be turned into a tip pool. The various employees that you discreetly gave a cash tip to will not be tracked down & forced to empty their pockets or have their crew cabin searched.

 

 

 

:cool:

Please do the correct thing and pay the suggested gratuities.

This. There are myriad things about the cruise you may wish were done differently but it's a big ship that we have to share. They cannot offer separate cruise ships for each passenger. As explained above, this is the way crew get compensated - all of those who contribute to the service you receive, not just those you see. "Tipping out" is very common and will be imposed on crew even if you try to bypass the regular system. Bypassing the system just prompts the cruise line to put your service staff under scrutiny.

 

 

This message may have been drafted using voice recognition. Please forgive any typos.

Don't consider them to be gratuities, consider them service charges. It doesn't lessen the pain of paying, but it better explains what they are and how they are distributed.

AutumnDaze,

 

The answer is YES. Just remember to tip cash (Discreetly) to the various employees (Prior) to removing the auto tips at guest services on the (last day/evening) of your cruise.

 

Once that cash tip is received, it will go into the employee's pocket like lightening & will stay there like glue. It will not be turned into a tip pool. The various employees that you discreetly gave a cash tip to will not be tracked down & forced to empty their pockets or have their crew cabin searched.

 

Such bad advice!

 

You are telling the OP to be complicit in stealing funds from people who deserve it. By advising to tip "discreetly" and to remove gratuities on the last day, you are cheating people and in very underhanded ways.

 

The crew, if they are honest and decent (and who wants to be served by dishonest cheaters?!?!?), will always turn in all cash tips to be pooled in case the auto gratuities are removed. They could lose their job immediately if they are caught stealing (and that is what it is), or not given another contract when the current one ends. This in essence blackballs that employee since word will get out and no cruise line will want to hire them.

 

The way the collection of cash gratuity works is that all cash tips are turned in, no matter if the auto gratuities have already been removed or not. Only until the accounting department has reconciled all passenger accounts AFTER the cruise will they know who has removed the gratuities. This is done for the exact reason you advise doing - in case people remove them on the last day. If gratuities are left in place, the full cash tip will be deposited in the staff member's account. If they have been removed, those cash tips will be deposited into the pool to be distributed appropriately.

 

Removing gratuities and giving cash tips to only those you want is a complete waste of time (unless you enjoy having dishonest people serving you, that is).

 

 

And another note: some people insist that the staff should be "paid a fair wage" (whatever that is - a fair wage in their home country? in your home country" in the country the ship is registered? or maybe the country the corporate offices are in?). Yes, that probably be an easier system. But it isn't necessarily a "better" system. Fares would have to be raised to cover that "fair wage". Then according to the OP, they probably wouldn't even be contemplating a cruise because it would be too expensive right at the beginning. Because they are a "working class" family, those higher fares might have eliminated that cruise for consideration, taking away a treat they are now looking forward to.

Edited July 21, 2018 by sloopsailor

Removing gratuities and giving cash tips to only those you want is a complete waste of time (unless you enjoy having dishonest people serving you, that is).

That's a very interesting observation, but very much on-the-nose: Either the stateroom attendant will turn the cash gratuity in to the fund, as they've committed to do, or you're rewarding dishonesty in someone with access to your belongings.

Hello

 

Thank you, I will do that.

 

I think for families it should be per cabin, x 4 is really pricey. It’s about £50 extra a day. I’d never tip anyone that amount. I know there is a lot of staff but in the cabin I will tidy after my kids and the maid will be paid by us anyway as it’s the same cabin and the same for any that serve us. It’s as a family, like in a restaurant. My son will remain by my side and my daughter is extremely shy, but if she does try and use a children’s club, I would of course tip them.

It took a lot of convincing to get my bf to agree to a cruise and with a added bill of approx £550 at the end, he wouldn’t be impressed.

 

Quite a hard decision really 🤔 I don’t want people going without but I think the companies should pay the low earners more. The staff higher up get very generous wages so I hope none goes to them🤔

 

Thank you xx

 

Thinking that the wage structure should be different doesn't make it so. If you don't pay the auto-grats, which you knew about when you booked the cruise, you are being extremely unfair to the crew, who are just as much working class as you are. Really more so, since you can afford to cruise and they can't.

AutumnDaze,

 

The answer is YES. Just remember to tip cash (Discreetly) to the various employees (Prior) to removing the auto tips at guest services on the (last day/evening) of your cruise.

 

Once that cash tip is received, it will go into the employee's pocket like lightening & will stay there like glue. It will not be turned into a tip pool. The various employees that you discreetly gave a cash tip to will not be tracked down & forced to empty their pockets or have their crew cabin searched.

 

 

 

:cool:

 

This is why tip threads get contentious, because people like you spout absolute BS in an attempt to justify your own bad actions and convince others to do likewise.

OP chose to book a cruise on an American based ship and then complains that their gratuity system is American style. And then asks how to cheat the system (and the people who will be serving her (and her entire family). If the gratuities will cause an undue financial hardship she should have confined her cruising to one of the British or European cruiselines that include the gratuities in their base price.

 

There are plenty of working class families that manage to happily cruise, so no sympathy here on that score.

...... being British I find paying for a service I’ve not yet experienced, a bit weird.

 

You do realize - or maybe you don't - that by making a deposit on a future cruise and then paying in full months in advance is "paying for a service I've not yet experienced". You don't find that weird, so why do you find paying the gratuities in advance weird? If you reserved shore excursions through the cruise line, again you are paying for a service in advance.

 

We are a working class family, this is a real treat, so I’m not being tight, just realistic. Thank you in advance for any advice xx

 

I hope you have a delightful cruise. Being your first cruise it must be exciting for you.

 

But, you are indeed being "tight" and not "realistic". Being realistic is considering all the costs, including port fees, taxes, and yes, gratuities, as part of the expense for your cruise experience. Trying to duck from your responsibility to pay the crew what they are expecting is in no way "realistic". You are on a ship that has certain policies and systems in place. When you booked the cruise you accepted these. The only honorable thing to do is to pay those gratuities in full unless you are one of the rare people who experience bad service. And even then, the realistic thing to do is to talk to that person's supervisor and get any issue resolved immediately, rather than endure that issue for the entire cruise and then remove the gratuities at the end of the cruise as punishment.

I know from non tipping societies, the word gratuity feels foreign. But, what if this cruise had an added service charge of $500, plus port taxes, etc., would you still take the cruise?

 

I personally wish they would just add them in to the price of the cruise as a service charge, and then people could choose if they could afford it or not.

Hello

 

I have booked our first cruise for next year, me, my bf and our 2 young children. I didn’t select to pre pay the gratuities and being British I find paying for a service I’ve not yet experienced, a bit weird. I have read that the staff rely on these payments and I understand there are many workers working behind the scenes so to speak who will rely more so on this money.

 

Can you opt out of these payments with Royal Caribbean and pay those people who provide great service individually? It is pretty expensive, our son will be two and his cost is the same as us. So for 4 of us for 11 nights, it’s a lot. Can I just pay for the adults? Also we don’t drink alcohol so I’d rather more went to the staff that make our stay great and not ones we will not meet/ did not do anything for our family.

 

We are a working class family, this is a real treat, so I’m not being tight, just realistic. Thank you in advance for any advice xx

If you are looking to save money by not paying the automatic gratuities (which looks like your intent based off your post), then by all means remove the automatic gratuities, but keep in mind that there are many, many crew members who have an impact on your cruise that you do not see or interact with. Also my advice if you don't pay them, go to Guest Services on your first day on the ship and ask them to remove the automatic gratuities, so that they will see that you have no intention to pay them.

I know from non tipping societies, the word gratuity feels foreign. But, what if this cruise had an added service charge of $500, plus port taxes, etc., would you still take the cruise?

And answer that question in the context of comparing it to another cruise line, that doesn't present the service charge in that manner, but relies on the current system of burying the gratuities in the fine print? Which cruise line is the typical customer more likely to reward with their business?

 

The takeaway from that is that a cruise line that make that change unilaterally is committing suicide. It has to be the whole industry or nothing. And the easiest way a whole industry can do something (legally) is if it is imposed by way of regulation. If Richard Fain, Geoffrey Martin and Frank Del Rio got together over coffee and decided that all three corporations would make that change all at once, they'd be guilty of collusion.

I just wanted to highlight that many Brits booking their first cruise (whether its a US line or not) get a shock on gratuities as it's not our culture. Most booking options for us are US lines even if we do not realise at the time.I booked my first Carnival cruise and I was shocked and confused and if I am completely honest I didn't handle it too well. I picked up a stalker on here that is obsessed with my virgin cruiser ponderings 5 years later bizarrely.

 

When the rest of the non US world questions the cruise tip, it is not one being cheap it's just we are not used to it and in some cases didn't budget for it. Many people dislike an extra charge of course and in many countries the price you pay is the price you see so some may see the gratuity as 'dishonest'. Like buying your £800 sofa then getting to the till and them putting another £50 on...it's not a nice surprise. Then theres also the fact that tipping culture for many in these parts is 'who you see' so tipping behind the scenes staff may also seem odd. Many Europeans are especially baffled by the 'If the service is bad tip around 10%' now to us that would be not tipping at all...it's little things like that.

 

As I have said on these boards I don't like the system but I have accepted it as part of the cruise package/cost these days with the exception being last year when NCL added them in as package and this year when I am sailing Aussie.

 

I completely agree with not paying a service charge before you get the service. If the service for the product was bad you then have a choice to remove/reduce. I do however agree with the posters about the child issue...they make as much mess and work as everyone else.