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Tipping question

Overtyme

By Overtyme,
in Royal Caribbean International

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GUT2407

GUT2407

Posted
Posted
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?

 

Well for as long as people keep insisting on tipping over and above it is going to lead to expectations of more by the staff.

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John&LaLa "Live from...." Rare

John&LaLa

Posted
Posted
I wasn't trying to suggest that they invented this. I'm suggesting that a hybrid approach which they have chosen to implement is creating this issue.

They used to just deliver envelopes.

My guess is that the issue with this system is that staff in specialty restaurants are not compensated by the envelope system.

My suggestion is that their tips should be built-in as a portion of the additional charge for that restaurant.

 

As I recall, when specialty dining first came out, the fee was the service charge/tip.

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GUT2407

GUT2407

Posted
Posted
Sort of -- in the basic booking total, the port fees and taxes are included while the gratuities are not, but in the advertised per-pax, double-occupancy fare, they are not included. This is what I was referring to.

 

An example for Adventure 7-night Southern Caribbean:

 

"From $749.00 CAD* Valid for 16 Apr 2016 Sailing

was $999.00 CAD* You Save an Average of $250.00 CAD per person

+ Taxes, fees and port expenses $85.00 CAD*"

 

So the $749 CAD pp does not include the port fees and taxes.

 

Depends on where in the world you are.

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John&LaLa "Live from...." Rare

John&LaLa

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Are you saying the entire fee was the service charge, or the fee included the service charge?

 

I believe the first time I dined specialty was Carnival in in late 90's or early 2000. Pretty sure they advertised the fee as a service charge for the staff. It was an awesome meal.

 

I'm not totally sure, but doesn't Royal insinuate that the dining fee includes the gratuity? I mean adding 18% to $30 is just silly

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Clarea

Clarea

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Posted
I believe the first time I dined specialty was Carnival in in late 90's or early 2000. Pretty sure they advertised the fee as a service charge for the staff. It was an awesome meal.

 

I'm not totally sure, but doesn't Royal insinuate that the dining fee includes the gratuity? I mean adding 18% to $30 is just silly

I've not seen Royal's latest marketing BS, but my recollection is that the fee for specialty restaurants was supposed to include the gratuity.

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tserface

tserface

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Posted

I'm just going by what others, smarter than me, have said. What I've heard is that gratuities are not taxable income to the staff, but if they were paid "wages" it would be. I'm not really sure if that's true or not.

 

Tom

 

How would it raise the taxes?

 

Bill

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Clarea

Clarea

Posted
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They've always charged us for gratuities with final payment when we do My Time dining. I thought they did that for everyone.

 

Tom

If you have any bookings with prepaid gratuities, you can call whoever booked your cruise now and have them removed.

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tserface

tserface

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Posted

It doesn't matter to me. I end up paying it anyway. I just checked and we have a "Gratuities" line on our May Anthem cruise, but not on our Explorer cruise later this year. Maybe this is something they changed since we booked last year for this May's cruise.

 

We pay for gratuities anyway and it's not a lot of $$$ so paying it a couple of months ahead of time is not a big deal.

 

In a way this kind of makes me sad. I think gratuities for My Time dining are a more difficult animal and prepaying them helped ensure that the staff would get paid at least the base. I guess in this case making it a service charge makes more sense.

 

Tom

 

If you have any bookings with prepaid gratuities, you can call whoever booked your cruise now and have them removed.
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tserface

tserface

Posted
Posted

BTW, it still says this on RCI's website on the My Time dining page. I know, their website is not always totally up to date (I think that's a fair way to put it):

 

Gratuities

 

For your convenience, prepaid gratuities are automatically added to My Time Dining reservations. Some guests choose to recognize particularly exceptional service with an additional cash gratuity on the last night of their cruise.

 

 

Tom

 

If you have any bookings with prepaid gratuities, you can call whoever booked your cruise now and have them removed.
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Clarea

Clarea

Posted
Posted
... In a way this kind of makes me sad. I think gratuities for My Time dining are a more difficult animal and prepaying them helped ensure that the staff would get paid at least the base. I guess in this case making it a service charge makes more sense.

 

Tom

All guests are still charged automatic gratuities.

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Sitzmark

Sitzmark

Posted
Posted (edited)

In a way this kind of makes me sad. I think gratuities for My Time dining are a more difficult animal and prepaying them helped ensure that the staff would get paid at least the base. I guess in this case making it a service charge makes more sense.

 

Tom

 

How is it difficult? it still goes to your daily account, except now you could use obc to pay it.

Edited by Sitzmark
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mr walker Holiday Sharing Rare

mr walker

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Posted
All this talk about "lists". What difference does it make if they have a list of those on auto-tipping or not ? :confused:

 

 

Just be careful using your toothbrush if you have removed auto-grats - your steward KNOWS!! :D

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GUT2407

GUT2407

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That would suggest extortion and I believe if the steward is capable of that he deserves to be fired on the spot.

 

100% agree but read it all the time on CC.

 

Watch your toothbrush

Expect your bag to go for a swim, get lost

Your burger will get spat on

 

Etc

Etc

Etc

 

If you don't tip.

 

Has America really sank that low.

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Retired LEO

Retired LEO

Posted
Posted
100% agree but read it all the time on CC.

 

Watch your toothbrush

Expect your bag to go for a swim, get lost

Your burger will get spat on

 

Etc

Etc

Etc

 

If you don't tip.

 

Has America really sank that low.

 

As far as food being tampered with it's a common occurrence in land based restaurants. I suppose it could happen on cruise ships under the right circumstance.

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