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Gratuities to be added to sea pass account daily.

Brit-Cruiser

By Brit-Cruiser,
in Royal Caribbean International

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caddie1

caddie1

Posted
Posted
Do you have that in writing? In writing they do say you can remove them, if service is not satisfactory.

 

 

Dear Mr Jones

 

Thank you for your email.

 

I am sorry that you have not received our latest communication on our

gratuity programme. We are in the process of sending this out to guests who

have a future booking and who we have an email address for. Nevertheless I

have attached it in this email for you.

 

Just to summarise, if the gratuities are not pre paid then they will now

automatically be added to your onboard account. If you are unhappy with the

amount that has been added then it can either be increased, decreased or

removed. However this will need to be done once onboard the ship, we can

not do this in advance of the sailing.

 

If you have any further questions please let us know.

 

(See attached file: ROYAL CARIBBEAN GRATUITY PROGRAM UPDATE 14 Feb

2013.pdf)

 

 

Kind Regards

 

Holly

Guest Support Unit

Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises & Azamara Club Cruises

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beachnative

beachnative

Posted
Posted
My understanding is they pool it, they don't keep it. It goes to a worker who picks up the linen bags or some such. Some attendents don't think they should share it with other houskeeping. If you pay cash RCL is still going to get that $1 or whatever amount it is. They deduct it from the cabin attendent even if he does not get paid a tip by all. They have had a formula where they figure an average of 85% pay and 15% stiff but some weeks that could be more or less than that. The only way a cabin attendant could control the cash is if every passenger paid cash. None prepaid or none put the tips on their sign and sail. With the new policy there will be much less cash payments as the default is opt out.

 

Excellent summary.

 

Also: On those cruises where he takes in less than the 85% he has to make up the difference.

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Clarea

Clarea

Posted
Posted
So....bottom line is, there won't be any need for cash for the little envelopes anymore, right? Just want to be sure, since we sail in 33 days and I don't want to have to bring any extra cash then. :)

 

Thanks.

Correct, unless you wish to pay more than the suggested amount on the last day.

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Ocean Boy

Ocean Boy

Posted
Posted
My understanding is they pool it, they don't keep it. It goes to a worker who picks up the linen bags or some such. Some attendents don't think they should share it with other houskeeping. If you pay cash RCL is still going to get that $1 or whatever amount it is. They deduct it from the cabin attendent even if he does not get paid a tip by all. They have had a formula where they figure an average of 85% pay and 15% stiff but some weeks that could be more or less than that. The only way a cabin attendant could control the cash is if every passenger paid cash. None prepaid or none put the tips on their sign and sail. With the new policy there will be much less cash payments as the default is opt out.

 

Of course, according to one poster on this thread there is no opt out option.

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MrPete

MrPete

Posted
Posted
Please forgive the newbie question, I can't look through all 50 pages to see if this has already been asked.

 

Jr. Suite - regular tips or suite tips?

 

Thanks!

 

Regular tips. But we had a snarky attendand once would put the suite tip sheet in our JS.

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cruisenfever

cruisenfever

Posted
Posted
My understanding is they pool it, they don't keep it. It goes to a worker who picks up the linen bags or some such. Some attendents don't think they should share it with other houskeeping. If you pay cash RCL is still going to get that $1 or whatever amount it is. They deduct it from the cabin attendent even if he does not get paid a tip by all. They have had a formula where they figure an average of 85% pay and 15% stiff but some weeks that could be more or less than that. The only way a cabin attendant could control the cash is if every passenger paid cash. None prepaid or none put the tips on their sign and sail. With the new policy there will be much less cash payments as the default is opt out.

Just to clarify. RCI assumes that those that are paying in cash will provide the 100% "recommended gratuity amount". The cabin attendant gets to keep 85% of that amount and must relinquish 15%. That 15% is pooled to pay other Housekeeping staff. If he doesn't get the 100% from those cabins that are paying in cash then he/she must make up the difference out of their pocket which would normally come from those guests that extended extra.

 

With Automatic Gratuities, if all of their cabins go with the system, they are assured to receive 85% of the whatever portion is delegated to Housekeeping staff. If anyone wants to extend something over and above that is theirs to keep.

Hey Patti

 

Have you heard any talk about Royal adding yet another tier ?

That was the talk for about one day on our last cruise.

No

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Don Pedro

Don Pedro

Posted
Posted
I personally think the word : Disgusting : is a little over the top in describing MDR

& the Windjammer

 

I myself if I could afford a Suite & Specialty dining every night then

 

My choice would be to cruise on the 6 Star Ships and never have to worry about such lowly places

 

I like many things about Royal Caribbean. The service is good, their prices are reasonable, their ships rival the best on the ocean, their entertainment is excellent and they offer a good selection of dining options. I am not, however, a fan of the Windjammer or MDR. If there were a land based Windjammer or MDR here in my hometown I would not eat in either one of them.

 

I think the food and service are adequate but I personally don't like the here comes the bread, here comes the salads, here comes the entrees mentality. And, I don't enjoy spending two hours dining on cateteria quality food. I typically avoid buffets as I think they are the primary conduit of the norovirus.

 

Quality dining is an important part of my vacations and to me the Windjammer and MDR do not provide the experience I want. As long as there are other dining options I will continue to explore them.

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bigeck

bigeck

Posted
Posted
Just to clarify. RCI assumes that those that are paying in cash will provide the 100% "recommended gratuity amount". The cabin attendant gets to keep 85% of that amount and must relinquish 15%. That 15% is pooled to pay other Housekeeping staff. If he doesn't get the 100% from those cabins that are paying in cash then he/she must make up the difference out of their pocket which would normally come from those guests that extended extra.

 

With Automatic Gratuities, if all of their cabins go with the system, they are assured to receive 85% of the whatever portion is delegated to Housekeeping staff. If anyone wants to extend something over and above that is theirs to keep.

 

 

 

Clarify, it did. I just wish people on this thread would read it and understand it. It all makes sense to me.

If the basic wage went up, the quality of service would drop.

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ibyte2eat

ibyte2eat

Posted
Posted

You hit the nail on the head my friend. Why should a staff be awarded for bad lackluster service while an enthusiastic good staff not receive the profs deserved. I guess one could give an extra tip. This whole policy goes against the whole intent of tipping. Which is showing gratitude (gratuity) for service beyond mediocre service. Its not an entitlement.

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ibyte2eat

ibyte2eat

Posted
Posted

Good Post. RCCL says that this is to help make it easy for the cruisers. The cruiser can already prepay gratuities, who is RCCL trying to kid here. Personally, I enjoy the human interaction when I hand my tip envelope to the service person and give a thankyou and usually, a big hug. It completes the cruise experience.

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Maraprince

Maraprince

Posted
Posted

If you select my time dining, you are required to prepay your tips since the amount is added into your total amount due for payment of the cruise.

 

All this does is to add the correct amount based on your cabin category to all passenger accounts. Unless you received horrible service and an offer up proof of it during the voyage why they should be reduced or eliminated, the tips will be added daily to your account.

 

New day...new policy.

 

 

MARAPRINCE

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cruisenfever

cruisenfever

Posted
Posted
Good Post. RCCL says that this is to help make it easy for the cruisers. The cruiser can already prepay gratuities, who is RCCL trying to kid here. Personally, I enjoy the human interaction when I hand my tip envelope to the service person and give a thankyou and usually, a big hug. It completes the cruise experience.

We have human interaction every day with those that serve us not just the last night. :eek:

 

We've been prepaying our gratuities for 2 years because we do MTD and we've gotten more hugs than I can tell you from both waitstaff and cabin attendants.

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3dog

3dog

Posted
Posted
Of course, according to one poster on this thread there is no opt out option.

 

And others have provided information in the form of verbal and written correspondence from the line indicating that there is an opt out.

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peteukmcr

peteukmcr

Posted
Posted

Well having reviewed all the latest posts, let me just give you more proof that we do tip in the UK and that we are encouraged to do so.

 

We went for dinner before the theatre yesterday evening and when I came to pay, the wireless payment machines most servers use these days not only asked if I wanted to add a gratuity when processing my credit card, but when I selected 'Yes' then I was prompted with 4 options.

  1. 10%
  2. 15%
  3. 20%
  4. Other

 

So easy, no more calculating the amount due when choosing options 1, 2, or 3.

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