Tipping question

[Overtyme]

If tips are included, and a particular service is terrible, can you have the included tip removed?

I tend to tip extra for good service and less for not so good service.

Is there any flexibility?

I ask because we have always had great service on RCI and have come to expect that it would never be any different, so we always make it a point to tip extra.

However there have been mixed reviews on consistency of food quality and service on Anthem.

My In-laws don't read the boards and so they didn't have any pre-disposition or thoughts about the service on their recently completed Oasis cruise.

They loved the ship compared to their previous Royal cruises, but said that the food quality had dropped and the service was not that great, compared to what they had experienced before on other Royal cruises.

So, it got me thinking that maybe the issue wasn't limited to Anthem, but maybe changes made higher up across the fleet.

There are definitely some great staff working for Royal, so I'm hoping that we're fortunate and this won't be an issue.

Should it be, I want to find out if there's a way to have guest services communicate that back to our waiter by decreasing their tip. I know that I have the option to increase it when they have me my check.

Can I put a negative number on the additional gratuity line?

Again, this may be a non-issue, but I'm curious what my options are.

[msmayor]

Royal Caribbean explains on their website that you have the right to reduce your automatic gratuities, so if this is what you choose to do, you may...it requires a trip to guest services.

 

What I do not think you can do reduce the gratuity to any one particular person or area. The auto-gratuities are spread across a variety of tipped areas, so if you are happy with everything BUT the dining staff and choose to reduce, your housekeeping areas will also feel the reduction.

 

The crew knows when a passenger's auto gratuity has been reduced/removed. They have a list.

Edited January 31, 2016 by msmayor

[Lionesss]

I know as frustrating as it may seem, even when some service is bad, we leave the tips on since it covers all the workers.

 

However we usually tip extra our cabin attendant and the bartenders and servers in Coastal Kitchen, as well as both concierges.

 

It is what it is.

 

Last year on Oasis, the CK bartenders and Concierges were great, they should be really happy with what we gave them.

 

Safe travels.

[Desert Cruizers]

I would tip extra where you feel it warrants it but your unable to reduce the daily tip or pre paid if you decide to pre pay. In the future I will pre pay our tips and tip extra as usual. The $$ amount is the same and it is taken care of and not added to our on board acct. Last cruise we had the lowest on board acct in as much as we pre paid the gratuities and also paid for DH's beer package.

[pjnj40]

The service on the Anthem was great for me. Waiter was excellent in service if you do classic dinning, Stateroom attendance was great.

You don't have to prepaid gratuities. I am sure you won't be removing them off your list beside it on day to day basis, not just specific area.

I remember in 2008 and 2010 it for waiter/ asst waiter and room attendance. Now with everything changing with so many different option. You can tips more if you like them. We tips our waiter so much from giving me the extra dishes for lobster tail and great service till the end.

I never got to take any tips off the gratuities because they all satisfied me.

[gerif]

The servers have nothing to do with the quality of the food. If you are getting poor service, why would you put up with it for a whole cruise when it can be corrected? The first time it happens it should be reported. Remaining silent helps no one.

[Tripper10]

You can tip as much or as little as you want. You can raise or lower the daily automatic charge or have it removed and tip cash as you see appropriate. RC had guidelines to follow if you choose to do so.

[Cruizeee]

This all reeks of slavery and bribery - why the staff aren't paid reasonably and tipping isn't abolished is beyond me. The rest of the world functions just fine without the agony and mind games associated with tipping.

[Tripper10]

This all reeks of slavery and bribery - why the staff aren't paid reasonably and tipping isn't abolished is beyond me. The rest of the world functions just fine without the agony and mind games associated with tipping.

 

100% agree

[Sitzmark]

 

The crew knows when a passenger's auto gratuity has been reduced/removed. They have a list.

 

It would be nice if statements like this would come with supporting evidence. I've read that there is a list and I've read there is no list, always written with no evidence but usually conviction. Since a list makes little sense I suspect it is a figment of someone's imagination.

 

If such a list exists, someone please produce it. With all of the cruises on all the ships that is a lot of lists, surely someone will have seen one.

[pjnj40]

It would be nice if statements like this would come with supporting evidence. I've read that there is a list and I've read there is no list, always written with no evidence but usually conviction. Since a list makes little sense I suspect it is a figment of someone's imagination.

 

If such a list exists, someone please produce it. With all of the cruises on all the ships that is a lot of lists, surely someone will have seen one.

 

I agree

The only person know is guest service with a frown face. I never done this but that what i heard

[repeater]

It would be nice if statements like this would come with supporting evidence. I've read that there is a list and I've read there is no list, always written with no evidence but usually conviction. Since a list makes little sense I suspect it is a figment of someone's imagination.

 

If such a list exists, someone please produce it. With all of the cruises on all the ships that is a lot of lists, surely someone will have seen one.

 

I can't produce one, but several waiters and stewards have confirmed they know on a daily basis who's paid tips, and who took them off. Obviously, crew has access to paperwork pax never see!

[Overtyme]

I can't produce one, but several waiters and stewards have confirmed they know on a daily basis who's paid tips, and who took them off. Obviously, crew has access to paperwork pax never see!

 

 

Makes sense. This way wait staff know if they're being shorter money that they've earned and how much they can expect on pay day.

[threeofus]

We have always tipped the suggested amount and then added when appropriate. On our last cruise our cabin steward was visibly annoyed when we handed him 30 dollars over the prepaid gratuities!! We were two people in a suite so he received a very decent tip.

This really made me mad! It seems the prepaid gratuities are a given at this point. How much do they expect?

[Retired LEO]

It would be nice if statements like this would come with supporting evidence. I've read that there is a list and I've read there is no list, always written with no evidence but usually conviction. Since a list makes little sense I suspect it is a figment of someone's imagination.

 

If such a list exists, someone please produce it. With all of the cruises on all the ships that is a lot of lists, surely someone will have seen one.

 

The stewards do have a list and there's a list posted in the galley. I've seen them both.

[msmayor]

It would be nice if statements like this would come with supporting evidence. I've read that there is a list and I've read there is no list, always written with no evidence but usually conviction. Since a list makes little sense I suspect it is a figment of someone's imagination.

 

If such a list exists, someone please produce it. With all of the cruises on all the ships that is a lot of lists, surely someone will have seen one.

 

Towards the end of the cruise (at least the last two RCL cruises I was on) 'vouchers' were distributed to us to place in an envelope and present to our stateroom steward and our dining staff. This voucher would then need to be turned in so they could 'collect' their share of the tips.

 

If no vouchers were produced for a stateroom, the stewards would know that the auto-tip was removed. And just like any other place of employment, the 'employees' would talk to each other and share who tipped automatically and who didn't.

[Sitzmark]

Towards the end of the cruise (at least the last two RCL cruises I was on) 'vouchers' were distributed to us to place in an envelope and present to our stateroom steward and our dining staff. This voucher would then need to be turned in so they could 'collect' their share of the tips.

 

If no vouchers were produced for a stateroom, the stewards would know that the auto-tip was removed. And just like any other place of employment, the 'employees' would talk to each other and share who tipped automatically and who didn't.

 

And if you don't give them the voucher the tip goes to no one? Sounds like a pretty sketchy payroll system. I'm guessing many people who leave auto-tips in place would simply discard such vouchers since they would assume they have paid.

[John&LaLa]

And if you don't give them the voucher the tip goes to no one? Sounds like a pretty sketchy payroll system. I'm guessing many people who leave auto-tips in place would simply discard such vouchers since they would assume they have paid.

 

It didn't last long

[yogimax]

The servers have nothing to do with the quality of the food. If you are getting poor service, why would you put up with it for a whole cruise when it can be corrected? The first time it happens it should be reported. Remaining silent helps no one.

 

This post says it all!

 

#1 - The quality of the food (which is subjective) has NOTHING to do with tips

 

#2 - If service is a problem, report it promptly so it can be corrected

[cb at sea]

Leave the tips as is...get the problem corrected, if there is a problem. There is no need to tip additionally in almost ALL cases...the pre-paid, or daily tips are suffiicient for normal service.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

This all reeks of slavery and bribery - why the staff aren't paid reasonably and tipping isn't abolished is beyond me. The rest of the world functions just fine without the agony and mind games associated with tipping.

 

I feel the same way when I drive in London.

 

After driving on the right side of the road in the states for 59 years it has served us all very well. Why can't I just do it when I go to London?

 

Bill

[Merion_Mom]

Towards the end of the cruise (at least the last two RCL cruises I was on) 'vouchers' were distributed to us to place in an envelope and present to our stateroom steward and our dining staff. This voucher would then need to be turned in so they could 'collect' their share of the tips.

 

If no vouchers were produced for a stateroom, the stewards would know that the auto-tip was removed. And just like any other place of employment, the 'employees' would talk to each other and share who tipped automatically and who didn't.

 

Then you haven't cruised RC in quite a while. Those vouchers are LONG gone.

 

And they never needed to turn them in to get paid. The cruise line had the records. :)

[Merion_Mom]

I feel the same way when I drive in London.

 

After driving on the right side of the road in the states for 59 years it has served us all very well. Why can't I just do it when I go to London?

 

Bill

 

I salute your analogy, Bill. ;)

[moopetguy]

#2 - If service is a problem, report it promptly so it can be corrected

 

Absolutely. Our MDR dinner service was extremely slow for the first two nights on my most recent sailing (main seating, 17:30). As in, we weren't getting dessert until around 19:45 both nights, and were one of perhaps 5 tables remaining. I assure you this wasn't because we ate slowly as a table. It was so late both nights that they obviously weren't able to reset our table on time for the second seating at 20:00. I have no idea why it was so slow.

 

On the morning of Day 3, I went to see the maitre d about the slow service. He assured me it wouldn't be a problem any more.

 

That evening after I sat down at the table in the MDR, the waiter came over to me and apologized for the slow service. I was a little taken aback that the maitre d had "thrown me under the bus", so to speak -- I don't think he should have identified to the waitstaff who had made the complaint.

 

But anyway, every subsequent night in the MDR, dinner service went smoothly and quickly. The waiter bent over backwards to make sure we were satisfied from that point forward. He even provided some special attention to us multiple times in the MDR at lunch, although we weren't seated in his assigned area on any of those occasions.

 

We gave him an extra gratuity and a WOW card in an envelope on the last evening; he earned it for sure.

[KansasK]

I can't produce one, but several waiters and stewards have confirmed they know on a daily basis who's paid tips, and who took them off. Obviously, crew has access to paperwork pax never see!

 

We pay the tips in advance of our final payment, so would be appear on the daily list since it does not show daily on our onboard account?

 

We don't pay in advance so we can remove it, but to keep the onboard account down a little more. We never failed to tip according to the guidelines before they put it on onboard accounts. We always felt the service we received merited at least the suggested amount.