Gratuities to be added to sea pass account daily.

[orville99]

Just wanted to pass this along. I just spoke to a rep at RCCL and asked if now w/the new gratuity policy those selecting MTD wouldn't have to prepay gratuities. She put me on hold & went up the chain and told me those selecting MTD would still have to prepay. Her explanation was that those tips get divided up differently. I still don't understand why MTDiners should have to prepay, but it is what it is.

 

 

While they may "pool" the MTD service gratuities because you may not have the same service team each night, they do not divide the total amount you pay per day any differently, so I have no clue why they would use this as the logic behind maintaining two systems for payment

[heatherb1958]

Hi.

 

Actually..... I was wondering the exact opposite.

 

MTD means you are NOT eating in the MDR. You are quite likely to eat anywhere else..... hmmmmm....

 

They use a formula to calculate the numbers each ship can accommodate for My Time Dining regardless whether the guest uses My time or not. As I said pre- paying and selecting MTD secures your place. When you book a cruise if MTD is full you have to wait 'til you board to see if you can get on MTD.

 

It was explained to me by a Maitre D , I wish now I had taken more notice :D. The older ships can guarantee a seat in the Main dining room for every guest onboard either on first or second seating, they can calculate how many crew are required for MTD by the list of guests who opted and pre-paid.

Oasis and Allure are the largest ships but have the smallest capacity in the MDR because the theory is a lot of guests will use the speciality restaurants and RCI were expecting MTD to take off so they didn't need to guarantee a seat for every guest onboard at a traditional dining time . I think that was the gist. :)

[molly361]

My understanding is that each ship can only accommodate so many guests per sailing on MTD . The only way they can ever know the numbers before hand is if they know the numbers who have selected MTD and pre-paid.

Pre-paying secures your place in MTD.

 

They would still have the number of MTD before hand whether the tips are prepaid or not.

[bigeck]

Could we start a thread for the excuses people will come up with to have some gratuities removed from there sea pass account.

 

Alex

[shaggyofwv]

Don;t let the door hit you in the butt on your way out:D

 

 

I got a door for your "butt".

[bigeck]

I got a door for your "butt".

 

Why would you take your buisiness elsewhere. Just because you are getting charged daily ???. Dont think you have an arguement

 

Bye.

[RealDeal]

They would still have the number of MTD before hand whether the tips are prepaid or not.

 

Agree. Still don't see the logic of prepaying. I could understand if they didn't have automatic tipping. Whether the people prepay or not, there are still only a certain number of spaces for each type of dining.

[P&OMAN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merion_Mom

And I hope that they institute a special, separate line for such people, so that the rest of us can get on with our legitimate business with the kind people at Guest Services.

 

 

Why......What purpose would this serve.

[cruisenfever]

Just got this email from RCI Marketing as we are going on a cruise which departs on March 25......

 

Dear Patricia,

 

We look forward to welcoming you onboard for your upcoming Royal Caribbean International cruise vacation!

 

As you prepare to set sail, we wanted to notify you of a change to our gratuity policy. As of March 1, 2013, Royal Caribbean will add an automatic daily gratuity of $12.00 USD ($14.25 USD for Suite guests) to the onboard account of each guest to be shared by Dining Services Staff, Stateroom Attendants and Other Housekeeping Services Personnel that work to enhance your cruise. This gratuity replaces our previously recommended gratuity guidelines.

 

If you have already prepaid gratuities for your upcoming cruise, this policy change will not affect you. Accordingly, we will not apply the daily gratuity to your account while you are onboard. If you have not prepaid your gratuities, you will see the daily automatic gratuity applied to your onboard SeaPass® account during your upcoming cruise.

 

Please contact your travel agent with any questions and thank you for choosing to cruise with us.

 

Sincerely,

 

Royal Caribbean International

[BND]

I also just got the email as we are sailing in 4 weeks. Not an issue for us as we always prepay, but the email seems to be rolling out to everyone now.

[Raptor2010]

Just got this email from RCI Marketing as we are going on a cruise which departs on March 25......

 

Dear Patricia,

 

We look forward to welcoming you onboard for your upcoming Royal Caribbean International cruise vacation!

 

As you prepare to set sail, we wanted to notify you of a change to our gratuity policy. As of March 1, 2013, Royal Caribbean will add an automatic daily gratuity of $12.00 USD ($14.25 USD for Suite guests) to the onboard account of each guest to be shared by Dining Services Staff, Stateroom Attendants and Other Housekeeping Services Personnel that work to enhance your cruise. This gratuity replaces our previously recommended gratuity guidelines.

 

If you have already prepaid gratuities for your upcoming cruise, this policy change will not affect you. Accordingly, we will not apply the daily gratuity to your account while you are onboard. If you have not prepaid your gratuities, you will see the daily automatic gratuity applied to your onboard SeaPass® account during your upcoming cruise.

 

Please contact your travel agent with any questions and thank you for choosing to cruise with us.

 

Sincerely,

 

Royal Caribbean International

 

We just received our email also. We set sail on March 16th. :p

[Beth C]

Got the email for one of my 5 cabins booked... Was hoping it wasn't coming to North American cruises... I prefer to actually hand it over - a good excuse to properly thank them for a job well done :)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CruisinDawn]

Well looks like Royal has a new policy. I cruise before the 1st but will be on a sailing that ends the 3rd. I had already prepaid so guess it doesn't affect me but sure some will be shocked! Here is an email I just got from Royal.

 

Am I wrong in thinking the gratuities went down?

 

Dear Dawna,

 

We look forward to welcoming you onboard for your upcoming Royal Caribbean International cruise vacation!

 

As you prepare to set sail, we wanted to notify you of a change to our gratuity policy. As of March 1, 2013, Royal Caribbean will add an automatic daily gratuity of $12.00 USD ($14.25 USD for Suite guests) to the onboard account of each guest to be shared by Dining Services Staff, Stateroom Attendants and Other Housekeeping Services Personnel that work to enhance your cruise. This gratuity replaces our previously recommended gratuity guidelines.

 

If you have already prepaid gratuities for your upcoming cruise, this policy change will not affect you. Accordingly, we will not apply the daily gratuity to your account while you are onboard. If you have not prepaid your gratuities, you will see the daily automatic gratuity applied to your onboard SeaPass® account during your upcoming cruise.

 

Please contact your travel agent with any questions and thank you for choosing to cruise with us.

 

Sincerely,

 

Royal Caribbean International

 

 

BonVoyage

Dawna

[Clarea]

Well looks like Royal has a new policy. I cruise before the 1st but will be on a sailing that ends the 3rd. I had already prepaid so guess it doesn't affect me but sure some will be shocked! Here is an email I just got from Royal.

 

Am I wrong in thinking the gratuities went down?

 

Dear Dawna,

 

We look forward to welcoming you onboard for your upcoming Royal Caribbean International cruise vacation!

 

As you prepare to set sail, we wanted to notify you of a change to our gratuity policy. As of March 1, 2013, Royal Caribbean will add an automatic daily gratuity of $12.00 USD ($14.25 USD for Suite guests) to the onboard account of each guest to be shared by Dining Services Staff, Stateroom Attendants and Other Housekeeping Services Personnel that work to enhance your cruise. This gratuity replaces our previously recommended gratuity guidelines.

 

If you have already prepaid gratuities for your upcoming cruise, this policy change will not affect you. Accordingly, we will not apply the daily gratuity to your account while you are onboard. If you have not prepaid your gratuities, you will see the daily automatic gratuity applied to your onboard SeaPass® account during your upcoming cruise.

 

Please contact your travel agent with any questions and thank you for choosing to cruise with us.

 

Sincerely,

 

Royal Caribbean International

 

 

BonVoyage

Dawna

Many threads on the subject. Gratuities will go up $0.35 per person per day on March 1.

[CruisinDawn]

Didn't realize this was already on the boards sorry about that. Been busy packing for my cruise instead of online :D

 

BonVoyage

Dawna

[ticktoneer]

No, they went up. There's a long thread on here about this that's interesting

 

:-)

[Clarea]

Didn't realize this was already on the boards sorry about that. Been busy packing for my cruise instead of online :D

 

BonVoyage

Dawna

No big deal, there have probably been 5 more threads started on the subject since yours!:rolleyes::eek:

 

The important thing is that you're going on a cruise so Bon Voyage!:)

[Candleonwater]

I'm sure this has already been said, but I am STEAMED!

 

I don't think they should be changing policy on cruises that it is too late to cancel.

 

I always tip the recommended amount, and extra if I feel the service deserves it. BUT I don't like a corporation telling me how much I MUST pay.

[edjny]

I'm sure this has already been said, but I am STEAMED!

 

I don't think they should be changing policy on cruises that it is too late to cancel.

 

I always tip the recommended amount, and extra if I feel the service deserves it. BUT I don't like a corporation telling me how much I MUST pay.

 

Are you going to make a big deal about $1.40 a day? If it makes that much impact on your budget, skip ONE DRINK during the cruise and you will be covered.

[Daycare Provider]

I set sail on the Adventure March 8th and just received the wonderful:mad: e-mail..We are in California so the e-mail is now sent to everyone in the U.S. as well.

 

We tried doing pre-paid once before but noticed our service was sub-par. The following cruise we told our attendants we would be paying at the end of the week. We stated take care of us and we take care of you. Our service was AWSOME!

 

I did send an e-mail asking how we can avoid the charges. Hopefully I receive something back.

 

Angela

 

[auntiedodo]

We got the email too, adds almost $900 to our b2b Panama Canal cruise, actually will cost us less as we tend to over tip for excellent service! Feel sorry for the room stewards who will probably get stiffed when they don't get their generous envelope each week. Has to be done, though. Too many foreigners don't tip at all and the staff works for free. Just came back from Adventure out of PR. The woman room steward was in tears. Had a block of cabins of Europeans, nobody tipped at all.

[JoePatNYCT]

While I'm pleased that hard working crew members will be fairly compensated and not get stiffed by some passengers, the truth is it's NOT a "tip" if it's mandatory. It is a daily service charge.

 

A tip should always be voluntary and given for special service.

 

I'll withhold judgement for now on what effect this will have on the quality of service.

[EthelnElmer]

Just got this E-mail.... amazing they waited until we are under 30 days, 29 days today! Hah...

I think they are called Gratuitys for a reason and should not be automatic & set amounts.... I will adjust according to service provided and if (Any) cruise line feels the need to make them mandatory then I will find someone else to cruise with... if they need to supplement thier payroll then they should increase prices and quit trying to hide it! Cruise personel work hard for thier incomes & should be appreciated & respected by thier employers enough to show it through payroll and not through the generocity of the patrons. just sayin!

[Lyndonn]

I have just had an email from RCI stating that from1st March, gratuities will increase to $13 per day (up from $12.65). They also say they will now be automatically added to sea pass accounts on a daily basis.

I just received the email today from RCI and I live in California. We're cruising on the Vision this April. We always select My Time Dining, so we're used to pre-paying our gratuities and if the service given is above satisfactory...then we give a little more.

 

I guess the staff has been complaining about those people who leave little or nothing, resulting in RCI taking this action. Yes, a person can adjust their on-board gratuity charges by complaining to Passenger Services...however, their complaint may be subjective to opinion.

[Candleonwater]

You don't get it at all. Has nothing to do with budgets... My complaint has nothing to do with the slight increase, but rather the fact, as others have said, they've taken it from being a "tip" to a "service charge".

 

 

 

Are you going to make a big deal about $1.40 a day? If it makes that much impact on your budget, skip ONE DRINK during the cruise and you will be covered.