Shocking 60% of guests removed gratuities on NV Transatlantic

[bonsai3s]

We have been onboard the Navigator since October 26th...and still onboard...the crew and the service have been outstanding.

Yes, we tip extra to those who genuinely provide consistently great service. It has been a wonderful vacation. 

We chose to socialize with the happy passengers......and how can we go wrong with the one of best loyal ambassadors: Sunny Sun

(She is the DL Concierge on this current cruise)

Happy Sailing! 🙂

[brillohead]

2 hours ago, bonsai3s said:

We have been onboard the Navigator since October 26th...and still onboard...the crew and the service have been outstanding.

Just so you know, you're living my dream life right now!  Enjoy your cruising!

[katiel53]

On 11/29/2018 at 12:26 PM, HBE4 said:

 

Just out of curiosity, is the production staff and entertainers included in the 18% gratuity?

 

I only ask since they seem to be the source of this information. Or did they hear it from a friend of a friend that knew a guy....

I don't know one way or another, but when I asked who was included in the tip amount other than wait staff and cabin stewards, I was told it went to others in the area of those providing customer service.  I don't know what that means as it could be those in entertainment, guest services, laundry etc.  To me that means Royal Caribbean gives the money to whomever they feel they want to pay less and have us subsidize their pay.  JMO.

[Balsam12]

I find it interesting... many people here saying they prefer the Australian model where the gratuities are built in to the cost of the cruise in the first place.

 

If RCI did this in all markets, tipping would then go back to how it should be... a reward for excellent service, or for something unexpected, rather than something that is almost seem as compulsory.

 

Unfortunately, Americans have designed their own model for remuneration in the hospitality industry, and then think the rest of the world is wrong for actually paying their staff a decent wage in the first place.

[springfire]

37 minutes ago, katiel53 said:

I don't know one way or another, but when I asked who was included in the tip amount other than wait staff and cabin stewards, I was told it went to others in the area of those providing customer service.  I don't know what that means as it could be those in entertainment, guest services, laundry etc.  To me that means Royal Caribbean gives the money to whomever they feel they want to pay less and have us subsidize their pay.  JMO.

Royal Caribbean's gratuity policy is just that, they decide who gets the gratuity, not you.   Below is Royals policy

 

The gratuity applies to individual guests of all ages and stateroom categories. As a way to reward our crew members for their outstanding service, gratuities are shared among dining, bar & culinary services staff, stateroom attendants and other hotel services teams who work behind the scenes to enhance the cruise experience.

[katiel53]

10 minutes ago, springfire said:

Royal Caribbean's gratuity policy is just that, they decide who gets the gratuity, not you.   Below is Royals policy

 

The gratuity applies to individual guests of all ages and stateroom categories. As a way to reward our crew members for their outstanding service, gratuities are shared among dining, bar & culinary services staff, stateroom attendants and other hotel services teams who work behind the scenes to enhance the cruise experience.

Ok, who are the "other hotel services?" Are they guest services? Are they the hotel manager? Who are the culinary staff?  Are they the chefs?  Do the tips for the dining staff that i thought go to the waiter and assistants include the Maitre D because we no longer are expected to tip him/her?  Are the laundry employees part of the hotel staff behind the scenes? 

 

 I do tip the requested amount and tip additionally for the wait staff as we eat all dinners in specialty restaurants, but I just want to know where my money goes.

 

I know this is a Royal Caribbean site, but on the Carnival site the tips for bar drinks/Cheers package are going to  18% which is the same as Royal Caribbean.  Part of the increase states that it includes return airfare for crew as well as uniforms.  Are we paying for that too?  If so, to me, that is the part of doing business and not up to me, the cruiser to pay.

 

I guess I am worked up about  paying for things I feel should be part of doing business, not part of an extra charge for me as a passenger.  I know I am probably going to get fried on here, but I think some things should be included in the cruise fare and tips are something given voluntarily and I should know whom I am tipping.  I haven't seen anything that gives me the true info. JMO.

 

 

[twangster]

The Australian website simply takes the base fare, adds gratuity and presents the inclusive total as the cruise price.  The big difference is that if service onboard truly sucks, they can't go to guest services and have them remove the gratuity. 

 

Just like when the UK website offers the drink package 'included'.  Sure it's included... at a higher cruise price.  What if you don't drink?  

 

How is that better?

 

What's the difference?  You either pay them now or pay them later.  

 

Yes it's a marketing game so that Royal can do what the other cruise lines do... attempt to advertise the lowest price possible.  Royal can't bundle them in unless all other cruise lines bundle them in.  Otherwise it will appear that Royal has much higher prices and the new to cruise segment will never 'get' the math.   

[GUT2407]

4 minutes ago, twangster said:

The Australian website simply takes the base fare, adds gratuity and presents the inclusive total as the cruise price.  The big difference is that if service onboard truly sucks, they can't go to guest services and have them remove the gratuity. 

 

Just like when the UK website offers the drink package 'included'.  Sure it's included... at a higher cruise price.  What if you don't drink?  

 

How is that better?

 

What's the difference?  You either pay them now or pay them later.  

 

Yes it's a marketing game so that Royal can do what the other cruise lines do... attempt to advertise the lowest price possible.  Royal can't bundle them in unless all other cruise lines bundle them in.  Otherwise it will appear that Royal has much higher prices and the new to cruise segment will never 'get' the math.   

Why not a Princess bundled them in in Australia for about 15 years before Celebrity or RCCL started to. Guess which one has the larger presence in Australia?

[ldubs]

3 hours ago, Balsam12 said:

 

Unfortunately, Americans have designed their own model for remuneration in the hospitality industry, and then think the rest of the world is wrong for actually paying their staff a decent wage in the first place.

 

I don't care what other countries do and I try to follow their customs.  If I felt strongly that a custom was wrong I would not give them my business..  Unless you are an American I think it kind of presumptuous to talk about what Amercan's "think".  Our system includes incentive pay in the final take home.    

[BekkaW]

On 11/28/2018 at 10:22 PM, Ourusualbeach said:

 

I thought that it was restricted to sailings from Australia.

 

No, it doesn’t matter where the cruise is from, as long as you book it in Australia. I have recently cruised Europe and Cuba, gratuities were included in the fare for both. 

[Seadog & Sea Hag]

60%? Wow they must have really disliked the cruise 

[Banana Benders]

Its funny how when Gratuities is discussed in these threads its away a laugh. 

 

Wether you pay or get them removed that it your choice. End of story.

 

The one that I find hard to believe and you see it every day in the lounges.

The drinks served have NO gratuity (18%) added because they are free for the 3 hr happy hour. So all the waiters are just working for wages (some Pinnacles think its a privilege to serve them). 

We learnt years ago on a Trans- Pacific cruise from an 87 yo gentleman and his wife (both Pinnacles), that it doesn't matter what drink you get, you should saw respect to the waiters, by give them a tip for every drink. This gentleman drink iced water and he gave a tip of a $1 every time. We sat there with approx: 250 in the lounges and Viking bar and he said "Its sad but these people don't know what a privilege it is to be doing what we do and be served by these beautiful people. A lot have been in this trough to long and believe its a right and they are above all of us". 

You see so many D, D+ and Pinnicles who treat the barman and woman with total disrespect. Every Cruise we have been on our drinks are delivered to our sit without asking and we know everything about our waiters. Most of the upper member are more interested in one upping and the next time they can get photo's with Captain(Believe me he doesn't enjoy dining or posing with you)

 

I think people just forget how lucky we are to do what we do.

How much you tip doesn't matter, its all about respect.

[Balsam12]

4 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

 Unless you are an American I think it kind of presumptuous to talk about what Amercan's "think".  Our system includes incentive pay in the final take home.    

I didn't mention anything about what Americsns "think". I mentioned the unique model they have for remuneration in the hospitality industry.

 

Every other country in the civilised world pays their staff a reasonable wage, and then the customers tip when they feel the service is worthy of extra recognition. 

 

What I resent is the idea that people will think less of me if I simply pay the price for whatever meal or drink I buy, and don't tip the staff for simply doing their job, just because that's what the American model insists I should do.

 

I spent 20+ years in the casino industry, where most of the staff were prohibited from accepting tips. I then spent many more years behind the bar, where I did rather well out of tips, but only because I provided a level of service that made people want to give me extra reward... and because I kept the tips I earned without having to share them with the other staff.

 

Again, the American model, where the tip I give a staff member doesn't even go to that person... I'm actually tipping every staff member, even the ones that give poor service.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

  Well the problem is, that American work ethics is so low - tipping is the only way to get them to do their job.... 🙄

That is how the whole thing started... then corporations found out they can extort more money from passengers if they play the guilt game..., 👎

[mugtech]

It is the low minimum wage, to the advantage of the restaurants, which causes tipping to be required.  I know such places that only report enough tips for each employee to get to minimum wage.  Some months the total tips paid on credit cards is more than the total tips reported on the employee wages. So the workers are getting tax free earnings while the employer has lower wages and payroll tax expenses.  And who lobbied for the low minimum wages?  Certainly not the employees.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

The world would be a better place if everybody stopped tipping! 👍

[twangster]

1 hour ago, Balsam12 said:

Again, the American model, where the tip I give a staff member doesn't even go to that person... I'm actually tipping every staff member, even the ones that give poor service.

 

Cruise lines don't apply a model based on American compensation principles.   While a donut shop in America might use a shared tip jar few full service establishments pool tips in the same fashion.

 

The 'service charge' collected by cruise lines just goes into the big pot of money that crew contracts are paid from.  Some contracts include variations that included extra compensation derived from some formula based on guest headcount.  Many crew contracts do not.  

 

29 minutes ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Well the problem is, that American work ethics is so low

 

Yet there are very few Americans on any cruise ship...   if it were as simple as just studying work ethics from around the world wouldn't that be special?

 

Like most things in life, generalizations rarely tell the story properly.  I could point out that by and large the worst service I have received in a restaurant is in Canada.  As a Canadian I can say that.  However generalizations don't tell that story properly.  

 

48 minutes ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

The world would be a better place if everybody stopped tipping! 👍

 

Pay it up front or pay it later, what's the difference?  The true 'problem' occurs when someone from a region where it's bundled into the base price of a service comes to a region where it's not.   Comfortable with the ways of their home region they have a difficult time understanding and adapting to a different model.  

[Thorben-Hendrik]

5 minutes can save you about 15% or more! 👍

[Thorben-Hendrik]

5 minutes ago, twangster said:

Pay it up front or pay it later, 

Or just don't pay it at all! 😁

[twangster]

Just now, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Or just don't pay it at all! 😁

 

Perfect!  Screw the people that are making your holiday/vacation great!

 

Well done sir!

[Thorben-Hendrik]

5 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

Perfect!  Screw the people that are making your holiday/vacation great!

 

Well done sir!

I would say screw the corporation that is trying to put the burden on the passengers! 🙄

Fwiw the "people" are just part of a product.... doing their jobs! 👍

Edited December 1, 2018 by Thorben-Hendrik

[Ken at the beach]

6 hours ago, BekkaW said:

 

No, it doesn’t matter where the cruise is from, as long as you book it in Australia. I have recently cruised Europe and Cuba, gratuities were included in the fare for both. 

 

Thanks.  

I just compared 4 of our upcoming cruises and on 2 of them the prices (adjusting for exchange between CDN and AUD) are within $40 of each other.  The Aussies are getting a good deal having the grats included as I would have expected the Australian prices to be higher by just over $200 to account for the built in gratuities.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

3 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

 

Thanks.  

I just compared 4 of our upcoming cruises and on 2 of them the prices (adjusting for exchange between CDN and AUD) are within $40 of each other.  The Aussies are getting a good deal having the grats included as I would have expected the Australian prices to be higher by just over $200 to account for the built in gratuities.

Gratuities are a scam to extort extra money from passengers to save pay for corporations... by playing the guilt game!

Most people are never going to get that! 🙄

Edited December 1, 2018 by Thorben-Hendrik

[Ken at the beach]

1 minute ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Gratuities are a scam to extort extra money from passengers to save pay for corporations... by playing the guilt game!

Most people are never going to get that! 🙄

Save your rhetoric for someone who actually mag care about the ....you’re spewing.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

1 minute ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Save your rhetoric for someone who actually mag care about the ....you’re spewing.

So sorry it disturbs you 🙏!