Gratuities On Royal Caribbean Australian Cruises

[soak01]

Can someone recently on a RCI cruise booked from Australia please confirm.

 

The RCI website says that a daily onboard gratuity charge of $14.50USD per person per day will be charged to each guests Sea Pass account on a daily basis.  However, I have read in the Australian booking conditions that the fare is inclusive of onboard service charges for stateroom and dining room staff.

 

We always give our stateroom and dining attendants something extra at the end of each cruise anyway, but just wanted to check if the daily charge as per website is still being applied to Sea Pass accounts.  Last year we did the Radiance trans-pacific and they started applying the daily charge to our Sea Pass accounts.  When I queried it at guest services, they only took it off after I pointed out that the cruise had been booked on the Australian website.

 

I have a couple more RCI cruises coming up so don't want to be stung.

[M-H-B]

Booked from Australia the cruise price is inclusive of gratuities- it has to be because of Australian law. But booked from anywhere else it appears to be get added to the account, even if departing from an Australian port.
You’d get many international cruisers corroborating if you jump into the RCI thread and ask there.


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[OzKiwiJJ]

Actually the change to bundle the gratuities in with the fare for Aussies only happened two years ago. It isn't actually required by law, but it stops people removing the gratuities. It applies to Celebrity and Azamara cruises as well.

 

Princess, P&O and Carnival also don't charge daily gratuities on cruises booked in Aus/NZ. I'm not sure about the other international cruise lines that swing through during our summer season.

[M-H-B]

12 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Actually the change to bundle the gratuities in with the fare for Aussies only happened two years ago. It isn't actually required by law, but it stops people removing the gratuities. It applies to Celebrity and Azamara cruises as well.

 

 

As of a couple of years ago any unavoidable fee has had to be included in the upfront displayed total cost in Australia. So it really depends on whether you do genuinely have the option to not pay the gratuities. If the “service fees” that hey call them here would be charged to the final account whether the customer likes it or not then in Australia it has to go into the upfront cost, otherwise it’s considered drip pricing:

https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/online-shopping/drip-pricing

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 minutes ago, M-H-B said:

 

As of a couple of years ago any unavoidable fee has had to be included in the upfront displayed total cost in Australia. So it really depends on whether you do genuinely have the option to not pay the gratuities. If the “service fees” that hey call them here would be charged to the final account whether the customer likes it or not then in Australia it has to go into the upfront cost, otherwise it’s considered drip pricing:

https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/online-shopping/drip-pricing

 

Thanks, I wasn't aware they had actually changed the law but I did notice the change when I booked my upcoming Celebrity cruise two years ago.

 

 

[Suzbluz]

our recent cruise with RCI we booked in Australia in Aussie dollars and gratuities were included in the fare. 

[The_Big_M]

3 hours ago, M-H-B said:

 

As of a couple of years ago any unavoidable fee has had to be included in the upfront displayed total cost in Australia. So it really depends on whether you do genuinely have the option to not pay the gratuities. If the “service fees” that hey call them here would be charged to the final account whether the customer likes it or not then in Australia it has to go into the upfront cost, otherwise it’s considered drip pricing:

https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/online-shopping/drip-pricing

 

 

There was no change in the law a couple of years ago. The Celebrity change was not made due to a new law.

 

That page you posted was actually created way back in 2014, and the concept of drip pricing itself has been prohibited even longer.

[Chiliburn]

Confirm daily gratuity is included in the fare.

also there’s 18% gratuity on all voluntary purchases on board.

So sometimes it cheaper to buy before the cruise on the cruise planner.

 I don’t know the reason they dropped the daily gratuity, weather it was a legal thing or they got sick of the Ozzie’s And kiwis winging.

 I’ve been arguing about this for years.

when they bought the GST in . You had to include it in the advertised price.

 The advertised price is the final price.which is great.

lm glad we don’t have the American system.

 You see a hotel room for a $150 ,you think that’s cheap.

Then you get the bill .+ Federal Tax+resort fees +state &county tax +environmental levy +water mitigation levy’s +parking +wifi.

 

Any I forgot?

[boeckli]

On 2/5/2019 at 9:12 PM, OzKiwiJJ said:

Actually the change to bundle the gratuities in with the fare for Aussies only happened two years ago. It isn't actually required by law, but it stops people removing the gratuities. It applies to Celebrity and Azamara cruises as well.

 

Princess, P&O and Carnival also don't charge daily gratuities on cruises booked in Aus/NZ. I'm not sure about the other international cruise lines that swing through during our summer season.

 

HAL does charge a daily 'hotel service charge' separately from the cruise fare - and when you book an Australian and/or NZ cruise through their website, it is not mentioned anywhere. In fact, I could not find it on their website at all ... If you Google it, a HAL page comes up with the details, but I couldn't tell from where on their website this could be  accessed.

I know they do charge it, because I had it on my Noordam cruise in November and managed to book my upcoming April cruise under a promo with pre-paid service charges.

[phoenixx]

On 2/5/2019 at 8:43 PM, soak01 said:

Can someone recently on a RCI cruise booked from Australia please confirm.

 

The RCI website says that a daily onboard gratuity charge of $14.50USD per person per day will be charged to each guests Sea Pass account on a daily basis.  However, I have read in the Australian booking conditions that the fare is inclusive of onboard service charges for stateroom and dining room staff.

 

We always give our stateroom and dining attendants something extra at the end of each cruise anyway, but just wanted to check if the daily charge as per website is still being applied to Sea Pass accounts.  Last year we did the Radiance trans-pacific and they started applying the daily charge to our Sea Pass accounts.  When I queried it at guest services, they only took it off after I pointed out that the cruise had been booked on the Australian website.

 

I have a couple more RCI cruises coming up so don't want to be stung.

I was on the same Cruise last year, Radiance Trans Pacific, booked in Oz and not charged the daily gratuity.

[nchpmn]

I booked earlier this month, and from the bottom of my invoice:

 

Service Charge for dining and stateroom attendants are included in your voyage fare. Spa & Bar services a service charge is not included. For your convenience, an 18% service charge will be added to your onboard folio for spa & bar services.

 

Which sounds like to officially corroborates what many have reported here.

[Personal Tipper]

The new Explorer Dreams cruiseship which will sail from both  Sydney and Auckland this year for our summer months (7 day Itineraries) will have a COMPULSORY tip surcharge of $20AUD per person per cabin per day. It CANNOT be removed from your personal onboard account. It can either be prepaid with your travel agent etc or automatically each day. Cruises on the Explorer Dream booked in New Zealand Tips will be charged the equivilant of $20 AUD and not $20NZD; 7 days @ $147.00NZD pp (at todays exchange rate). So my enquiries today tell me I'm better off sticking with Princess Cruises Australia, Carnival Cruises Australia and P&O Cruises Australia.

Edited February 9, 2019 by Personal Tipper
Missing letter and removal of text.

[SinbadThePorter]

On 2/6/2019 at 9:29 PM, boeckli said:

 

HAL does charge a daily 'hotel service charge' separately from the cruise fare - and when you book an Australian and/or NZ cruise through their website, it is not mentioned anywhere. In fact, I could not find it on their website at all ... If you Google it, a HAL page comes up with the details, but I couldn't tell from where on their website this could be  accessed.

I know they do charge it, because I had it on my Noordam cruise in November and managed to book my upcoming April cruise under a promo with pre-paid service charges.

 

What matters is whether the "service charge" is removable or not. As far as I know it is removable on HAL and all the other cruise lines currently operating in Australian waters that charge it.

 

If it is not removable, then it must by law be part of the advertised price.

[nnps]

Under Australian Consumer law:

 

"When prices are advertised or promoted, products and services must clearly display a ‘single price’ which is the minimum total cost that is able to be calculated. This should include:

• the price of all aspects of the final product and service
• all taxes, duties and extra fees.

It does not need to include:

• delivery charges - although the minimum delivery charge should be included separately in the advertisement
• optional charges or extras.

The single price must be at least as prominent as any other price displayed. This means you should be able to identify the total price in the advertisement just as easily as the prices for all the other aspects. For example, the price of a holiday advertised should be inclusive of all costs, including any airport taxes and charges."

 

I have just gone back to a practice I noticed with NCL some time ago and see it is still happening today. Last year I was looking at booking a cruise with NCL through a well known Australian Finder site. When I got to the final page with costs listed there was an extra option to choose to prepay gratuities/tips/prepaid service charge (names they used). A very vague "info" button showed that they were compulsory, to be paid in US Dollars and could not be removed onboard. This seems to me to be breaking Australian law and caused me to ditch that cruise. I might add that if you try to book through NCL's own site, I find the info re the "gratuities/tips/prepaid service " charges even more difficult to find. For this reason I ignore all ads for NCL no matter how attractive.

 

As an extra, my very first cruise was way back in the Baltic with NCL. Booking that was a minefield (through the NCL site). Every time I thought I had a price, I found there was even more added only to then find once on board that there were extra gratuities to be added. I was totally unaware of them until being on board. Luckily the fine print said they were optional so I had them removed but the whole experience left a sour taste.