Tipping

[time2cruise1]

Two points RCCL has been collecting tips with final payment if you select there form of freestyle dining, my time since they started it.

 

NCL does add the service charge daily not in bulk near the end.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone - Jim

[jdvmd]

It's been that way with Royal Caribbean as well as Celebrity for some time now. Years. You have to prepay the gratuities if you want My Time Dining or Celebrity Select Dining.

[SissasMomE]

I think that is the going rate at most Nike factories that make the $250 sneakers.

 

I've no doubt about the sweat shops .... poor people. I feel for them.

[SissasMomE]

I think that is the going rate at most Nike factories that make the $250 sneakers.

 

and iphones!!

[Love my butler]

That was mean, and I take it back. No way I believe ANYONE is making $.17 an hour though.

 

I think that is the going rate at most Nike factories that make the $250 sneakers.

[johnql]

In addition, I wouldn't mind if they also forced folks who wanted to remove or reduce the DSC to do it on a daily basis. If there are no problems on day 1, day 2, etc. the full DSC is charged to the account on those days. If someone is having an issue on a certain day - say day 4 - they can go down and reduce or remove the amount for that day only. They can't touch past days that have already been charged to their account, and they can't touch future days because they can't predict future problems with service, etc.

I think this is a brilliant idea! I hope NCL (which has been known to read this forum) considers this and implements it.

[KJE Atlanta]

In addition, I wouldn't mind if they also forced folks who wanted to remove or reduce the DSC to do it on a daily basis. If there are no problems on day 1, day 2, etc. the full DSC is charged to the account on those days. If someone is having an issue on a certain day - say day 4 - they can go down and reduce or remove the amount for that day only. They can't touch past days that have already been charged to their account, and they can't touch future days because they can't predict future problems with service, etc.

 

I love this idea. It's brilliant. :)

 

I've also thought it would be fun (and a good deed) to go down to guest services and take pictures of everyone lining up to remove their DSCs on the last night. Then, we could post the pictures to a website (something like (and I'm making this website up and trying to be a little funny at the same time).... stingycruisers dot com?) by ship and sail date - so the staff, crew, and fellow cruisers can see who is removing the charges. Memories last a long time.

[njhorseman]

Two points RCCL has been collecting tips with final payment if you select there form of freestyle dining, my time since they started it.

 

NCL does add the service charge daily not in bulk near the end.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone - Jim

 

It's been that way with Royal Caribbean as well as Celebrity for some time now. Years. You have to prepay the gratuities if you want My Time Dining or Celebrity Select Dining.

 

There's no mention in the Royal Caribbean FAQs about prepayment of gratuities being required for My Time dining under the new automatic gratuity program. If you think about it, there's no longer a need for them to be prepaid, just as NCL doesn't require prepayment of gratuities even though every passenger's dining program is Freestyle.

[time2cruise1]

There's no mention in the Royal Caribbean FAQs about prepayment of gratuities being required for My Time dining under the new automatic gratuity program. If you think about it, there's no longer a need for them to be prepaid, just as NCL doesn't require prepayment of gratuities even though every passenger's dining program is Freestyle.

I am no going to take the time to search their website but 2 my time cruises and the tips were automatically added to the booking and required to be paid at final.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone - Jim

[jdvmd]

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/experience/html.do?exCode=700

[njhorseman]

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/experience/html.do?exCode=700

 

Interesting...I couldn't find that when I searched, and as I said there is nothing about requiring prepayment in the entire section of FAQs they've devoted to the new automatic gratuities.

 

It's good to see that NCL isn't the only cruise line with inconsistencies on its web site. ;)

[njhorseman]

That was mean, and I take it back. No way I believe ANYONE is making $.17 an hour though.

 

I suggest you read this Cruise Critic Q&A with Brian David Bruns, an American who worked as a Carnival Cruise Lines waiter. He's author of the book "Cruise Confidential:A Hit Below The Waterline", which details his experiences in that job. In the Cruise Critic Q&A session Bruns is asked about his pay, among many other things. Here's a link to the full Cruise Critic article, and his answer to the salary question. Note he says Carnival paid him only about $60 per month and that 95% of what the crew earns comes from tips:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=1059

 

CC: Can you talk a little about what a crewmember earns and how tips play into it?

BDB: Tipping is serious stuff. It represents well over 95% of what the crew makes. Carnival gave me something around $60 a month or so when it was all said and done. "Salary" also included the cabin you share, plenty of food and two crew parties a month. There was also an unfulfilled promise of medical care, but I knew several waiters who either got sick or had some sort of chronic condition who were immediately sent home indefinitely without pay. A few women who became pregnant while working onboard were immediately sent home without pay, as well. I don't remember the exact amount, but it was less than $80 for sure.

 

Tips were everything. Auto-tips were a Godsend, because anyone who thinks he/she tips enough voluntarily is usually wrong. The auto-tips were figured by how many guests are assigned to your dinner section. If you had a small section, say only 18, you were constrained by that number. The biggest sections were 22 or 24, which are a whopper of a section. But there is a lot more money to be had for that extra strain during dinner. Thus, even if the guests don't go to dinner, you get those auto-tips. They are automatically split between you and your assistant waiter for the cruise. Since you work breakfast, lunch, midnight buffet, and room service without any specific pay, those tips are well earned even if the guest opts out of the dining room constantly (by going to the supper club, for example, or eating in port).

 

I am not aware of Carnival ever taking a slice of this particular pie. And the timeclocks the waiters use nowadays? You don't get paid by the hour, they are just there to prove that they are not slaves.

[Quincella]

Perhaps 1000s of post on this subject. The best and simplest guidelines I have seen and use are $10 a day pp for the butler and $5 a day pp for the concierge as a base. This can be adjusted down or up depending on how much you use them. In the end it s up to you and what you feel is right.

 

Except I ended up tipping the concierge considerably more than the butler, because she (they...the two female concierges) did considerably more for us than did our butler.

 

I also didn't tip as much as recommended above here. They just didn't provide enough additional service for us to warrant $40 per day for us, and that applies to the butler or the concierge. And in case you're wondering, I'm not a scrooge tipper.

 

Our room steward, however, did receive extra above the DSC. That room (2 bedroom suite in the Haven) was huge, and it was always impeccable. Plus, most times when we did call the butler for something he sent the room steward to do it.

[time2cruise1]

Except I ended up tipping the concierge considerably more than the butler, because she (they...the two female concierges) did considerably more for us than did our butler.

 

I also didn't tip as much as recommended above here. They just didn't provide enough additional service for us to warrant $40 per day for us, and that applies to the butler or the concierge. And in case you're wondering, I'm not a scrooge tipper.

 

Our room steward, however, did receive extra above the DSC. That room (2 bedroom suite in the Haven) was huge, and it was always impeccable. Plus, most times when we did call the butler for something he sent the room steward to do it.

 

I have on several cruises tipped the concierge more then the butler. One cruise the butler only got $25 He deserved nothing but I could not do that. As it turns out that butler was let go by NCL 2 weeks later.

 

As I said there is not set recommended amount. We all have to decide what we are comfortable with.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone - Jim

[NLH Arizona]

I suggest you read this Cruise Critic Q&A with Brian David Bruns, an American who worked as a Carnival Cruise Lines waiter. He's author of the book "Cruise Confidential:A Hit Below The Waterline", which details his experiences in that job. In the Cruise Critic Q&A session Bruns is asked about his pay, among many other things. Here's a link to the full Cruise Critic article, and his answer to the salary question. Note he says Carnival paid him only about $60 per month and that 95% of what the crew earns comes from tips:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=1059

 

CC: Can you talk a little about what a crewmember earns and how tips play into it?

BDB: Tipping is serious stuff. It represents well over 95% of what the crew makes. Carnival gave me something around $60 a month or so when it was all said and done. "Salary" also included the cabin you share, plenty of food and two crew parties a month. There was also an unfulfilled promise of medical care, but I knew several waiters who either got sick or had some sort of chronic condition who were immediately sent home indefinitely without pay. A few women who became pregnant while working onboard were immediately sent home without pay, as well. I don't remember the exact amount, but it was less than $80 for sure.

 

Tips were everything. Auto-tips were a Godsend, because anyone who thinks he/she tips enough voluntarily is usually wrong. The auto-tips were figured by how many guests are assigned to your dinner section. If you had a small section, say only 18, you were constrained by that number. The biggest sections were 22 or 24, which are a whopper of a section. But there is a lot more money to be had for that extra strain during dinner. Thus, even if the guests don't go to dinner, you get those auto-tips. They are automatically split between you and your assistant waiter for the cruise. Since you work breakfast, lunch, midnight buffet, and room service without any specific pay, those tips are well earned even if the guest opts out of the dining room constantly (by going to the supper club, for example, or eating in port).

 

I am not aware of Carnival ever taking a slice of this particular pie. And the timeclocks the waiters use nowadays? You don't get paid by the hour, they are just there to prove that they are not slaves.

I've got to say, I get really tired of someone who makes a living off tips saying this (see red comment above). I've heard it over and over again from servers on land restaurants, that feel that they are entitled to 25 or 30 percent no matter how well they do their job, not 15 to 20 percent that most people give (I'm a 20% and more tipper), because that is how they make their living. Maybe the person who wrote this comment needs to get another job where they don't live off tips, because if they have this type of attitude with their customers no wonder they don't get "what they felt" was enough tips.

[njhorseman]

I've got to say, I get really tired of someone who makes a living off tips saying this (see red comment above). I've heard it over and over again from servers on land restaurants, that feel that they are entitled to 25 or 30 percent no matter how well they do their job, not 15 to 20 percent that most people give (I'm a 20% and more tipper), because that is how they make their living. Maybe the person who wrote this comment needs to get another job where they don't live off tips, because if they have this type of attitude with their customers no wonder they don't get "what they felt" was enough tips.

 

You've misinterpreted the statement. The person who said that was talking about passengers who insist on tipping in cash on cruise ships rather than keeping the auto tip or service charge in place. He's saying those passengers end up shortchanging the crewmembers relative to what they would have received from the auto tip. It had nothing to do with how much anyone tips in a restaurant on land.

 

You see it repeatedly here in the lame excuses and rationale given by many who are trying to justify why they want to delete the service charge and tip in cash instead. In all too many cases it's obvious all they are really doing is being cheap and trying to decrease the amount of money they pay out in tips/service charges.

[Charles4515]

There's no mention in the Royal Caribbean FAQs about prepayment of gratuities being required for My Time dining under the new automatic gratuity program. If you think about it, there's no longer a need for them to be prepaid, just as NCL doesn't require prepayment of gratuities even though every passenger's dining program is Freestyle.

 

I agree but never the less on the other RCI brand, Celebrity, which already had the automatic gratuities for a while, for Select Dining, (open seating) they require prepayment of gratuities. From what we understand that will continue to be the case with MTD on Royal Caribbean.

 

In any case I am glad that Royal Caribbean is now doing the automatic gratuities like the rest of the mainstream cruise industry.

[mypleasure]

I was talking to a server on the Spirit last week. The previous (first) evening we had seen a couple giving her a very hard time. She said that she does her best but nothing was right for them that night. I said I expected them to remove the DSC at the end of the cruise. She agreed and siad she too felt it likely and that she was sad because it was the crew wages that would be hit.

 

Two nights later the same couple sat near us in Le Bistro and whilst we had an amazing evening with first class food and top notch service the maitre 'd seemed to be spending a lot of time with them. More complaining.

 

Last night of the cruise there was a long line at the front desk. Guess who I saw there? I expect that they spent all cruise complaining about nothing of great reason to justify removing the DSC, but the thing is, was their complaint with the product or the actual service. I mean was the food bad (product) or was it really the service or just a way to justify what they were going to do? I know the server I talked to has 10 years experience and is top rated by management on the ship so it can't have been a service issue,we took 2 new friends to dinner in her section and they asked for her every night after that as she was so good.

 

Some people are just going to do it anyway no matter how good their service is.

[NLH Arizona]

You've misinterpreted the statement. The person who said that was talking about passengers who insist on tipping in cash on cruise ships rather than keeping the auto tip or service charge in place. He's saying those passengers end up shortchanging the crewmembers relative to what they would have received from the auto tip. It had nothing to do with how much anyone tips in a restaurant on land.

 

You see it repeatedly here in the lame excuses and rationale given by many who are trying to justify why they want to delete the service charge and tip in cash instead. In all too many cases it's obvious all they are really doing is being cheap and trying to decrease the amount of money they pay out in tips/service charges.

I did not misinterpret the statement. He said: because anyone who thinks he/she tips enough voluntarily is usually wrong (operative word was voluntarily, meaning not a DSC). I know what he was talking about (he was talking about tips) and I still think that it might have been "his" attitude that caused his "smaller than he liked" tips. In conversation with tablemates on cruise lines that allow cash tipping, I've never heard of any of them that give excuses to get out of the tips. You are judging people based on what you believe their motives to be. Maybe you should just site the true examples of those that you know for certain tip less than the DSC, when they choose to tip with cash. I'm guessing that someone is following them around and watching them tip, because otherwise no one would know what they tip.

 

I know it has nothing to do with tipping in land based restaurants, but the scenario is the same - some will always say people don't tip them enough and that they are entitled to more.

[NLH Arizona]

Last night of the cruise there was a long line at the front desk. Guess who I saw there? I expect that they spent all cruise complaining about nothing of great reason to justify removing the DSC, but the thing is, was their complaint with the product or the actual service. I mean was the food bad (product) or was it really the service or just a way to justify what they were going to do? I know the server I talked to has 10 years experience and is top rated by management on the ship so it can't have been a service issue,we took 2 new friends to dinner in her section and they asked for her every night after that as she was so good.

 

Some people are just going to do it anyway no matter how good their service is.

How do you know they were removing their DSC, because they were in line at Guest Relations? On my first and only (so far) NCL cruise, I went to Guest Relations the last night, because I wanted to pay my bill in cash (I won in the casino) instead of my Visa. I guess that you would assume I went to take off the DSC because I was in that line, at which case you would have been sorely wrong.

[sfgnts324]

Lets talk hypothetical here. Lets say everybody stopped tipping. Not a dollar/euro. The cruise lines would have to start paying their employees what they actually deserve. If that happened, the extra dollars/euros we do give will go directly to that employee.

 

I've often thought about this when I used to work as a Server in a restaurant and making minimum wage. The restaurant was making out like bandits! They paid us peanuts while the customers were actually giving us our pay! If we stopped tipping all together, the cruise lines would have to pay their employees.

 

I know the next argument will be: "Yeah, but now they will raise their rates". Sure, they may, but if that happens, less people will cruise and they will find the right supply/demand point and have to stay there.

[Charles4515]

Lets talk hypothetical here. Lets say everybody stopped tipping. Not a dollar/euro. The cruise lines would have to start paying their employees what they actually deserve. If that happened, the extra dollars/euros we do give will go directly to that employee.

 

I've often thought about this when I used to work as a Server in a restaurant and making minimum wage. The restaurant was making out like bandits! They paid us peanuts while the customers were actually giving us our pay! If we stopped tipping all together, the cruise lines would have to pay their employees.

 

I know the next argument will be: "Yeah, but now they will raise their rates". Sure, they may, but if that happens, less people will cruise and they will find the right supply/demand point and have to stay there.

 

But everyone won't. A change of the current system will have to come by other means.

[SissasMomE]

I suggest you read this Cruise Critic Q&A with Brian David Bruns, an American who worked as a Carnival Cruise Lines waiter. He's author of the book "Cruise Confidential:A Hit Below The Waterline", which details his experiences in that job. In the Cruise Critic Q&A session Bruns is asked about his pay, among many other things. Here's a link to the full Cruise Critic article, and his answer to the salary question. Note he says Carnival paid him only about $60 per month and that 95% of what the crew earns comes from tips:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=1059

 

CC: Can you talk a little about what a crewmember earns and how tips play into it?

BDB: Tipping is serious stuff. It represents well over 95% of what the crew makes. Carnival gave me something around $60 a month or so when it was all said and done. "Salary" also included the cabin you share, plenty of food and two crew parties a month. There was also an unfulfilled promise of medical care, but I knew several waiters who either got sick or had some sort of chronic condition who were immediately sent home indefinitely without pay. A few women who became pregnant while working onboard were immediately sent home without pay, as well. I don't remember the exact amount, but it was less than $80 for sure.

 

Tips were everything. Auto-tips were a Godsend, because anyone who thinks he/she tips enough voluntarily is usually wrong. The auto-tips were figured by how many guests are assigned to your dinner section. If you had a small section, say only 18, you were constrained by that number. The biggest sections were 22 or 24, which are a whopper of a section. But there is a lot more money to be had for that extra strain during dinner. Thus, even if the guests don't go to dinner, you get those auto-tips. They are automatically split between you and your assistant waiter for the cruise. Since you work breakfast, lunch, midnight buffet, and room service without any specific pay, those tips are well earned even if the guest opts out of the dining room constantly (by going to the supper club, for example, or eating in port).

 

I am not aware of Carnival ever taking a slice of this particular pie. And the timeclocks the waiters use nowadays? You don't get paid by the hour, they are just there to prove that they are not slaves.

 

That's a real shame, and it's even more of a shame that they can't unionize and get better wages, medical care, etc. On one hand, they have no overhead - no rent, no food bills, etc., on the other hand, it would be pretty hard to save money to buy a house just on tips alone. I am always leary of the stories from crew members who state how little they make. If they were making $60k a year, would they really tell you? Regardless, if you were eating out 3 meals a day, you'd tip way more than $12, so I don't see why anyone would want to remove it.

[SissasMomE]

Lets talk hypothetical here. Lets say everybody stopped tipping. Not a dollar/euro. The cruise lines would have to start paying their employees what they actually deserve. If that happened, the extra dollars/euros we do give will go directly to that employee.

 

I've often thought about this when I used to work as a Server in a restaurant and making minimum wage. The restaurant was making out like bandits! They paid us peanuts while the customers were actually giving us our pay! If we stopped tipping all together, the cruise lines would have to pay their employees.

 

I know the next argument will be: "Yeah, but now they will raise their rates". Sure, they may, but if that happens, less people will cruise and they will find the right supply/demand point and have to stay there.

 

I understand your point, but I don't think I could not give a tip to someone who has basically served me in one form or another all week. Not for the price of a NCL cruise. If you have ever been to Sandals, you know how much of a price difference it is for a week in Sandals at their cheapest resort, in the cheapest room - compared to say an owner's suite on NCL. Sandals employees are not allowed to accept tips ... see my point? If you haven't been to Sandals, just price it out for a week and you will see what I mean.

[SissasMomE]

Also, I worked as a waitress in a cafe for breakfast and lunch - weekends only - while in college, and I made pretty darn good money. Just saying - it's not always a bad job. Well, not when you're young.