Tipping Question

[Saab4444]

1 hour ago, Joseph2017China said:

Just remember.....Tips on the ship, are not based on USA customs but rather a custom of ships sailing.  They are not based on European standards, Asian standards or any other nationality standard.  Ships have a tipping cultural different than every place else you might visit, or encounter in your lifetime.  Tipping in person, only complicates things for the crew.  The amounts are not really that high, and they are spread out to all those that serve you.  When you tip in cash, the crew still will share those tips. 

 

You want to tip in person.   That's nice for you.  It's not nice for them.  Makes you feel good.  Makes them wonder all week, if they will get a tip. 

 

You can do what you want, but at the end of the day, when you hand the money over, you will not know what happens to it, because once it leaves your hand, it is no longer our business to know.  So save the employees the hassle and just tip extra when you want to.

There are a lot of ships where tipping is not required or somehow mandatory and the crew is as happy, friendly and efficient...

[OCruisers]

17 hours ago, EaganCruiser said:

does anyone know what the tipping standard is for the cabin steward...waiter and bus person / asst, waiter...per day for each...and do we need to go to guest relations and tell them not to ad it to our sea pass acct...that we will be paying them cash at the end of the cruise...thank you in adavnce

 

17 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

Standard tip is $14.50 per person per day.  You can call or visit Guest Services to stop the automatic gratuity charges.

 

Happily, Bob (Clarea) answered your question with all you wanted to know.  

Enjoy your cruise!  

 

 

[ggtjr]

Does the room steward know if a person has prepaid their grats?

[cb at sea]

That $14.50 pp pd is divided between your cabin attendant, and the wait staff for all meals.  It takes all the guesswork out of it for you.  Some of the tips are "shared" with those who help those folks....just like in a restaurant, your server shares their tips with the host/hostess, bartenders, and bus people.

[Clarea]

45 minutes ago, ggtjr said:

Does the room steward know if a person has prepaid their grats?

 

I'm not sure if they know if gratuities have been prepaid or are being automatically paid, but they do know if automatic gratuities have been discontinued.

[OCruisers]

25 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

I'm not sure if they know if gratuities have been prepaid or are being automatically paid, but they do know if automatic gratuities have been discontinued.

 

Yes, they sure  do.

Our cabin steward on Oasis thanked us twice for keeping ours on.  

 

[BigHouseFootball]

Head to guest services and ask them to remove auto gratuities. Then tip as you want. Until the cruise line forces passengers to tip it is ultimately each person’s decision. 

[AnnaNicole]

I didn't feel like the intention of the OP was to cheat any one out of tips.   It is possible the OP does not want to have a balance on his/her credit card for later payment.    If that is the case, you can always leave the tips on your account and apply cash (instead of credit card) as payment of your shipboard account.

 

I like tips added to the account because I never liked the whole tip thing at the end of the cruise.   It always felt a little awkward.  

Edited March 19, 2019 by AnnaNicole

[springfire]

When you leave your $14.50 per person/per day gratuity, you really are just giving your money to Royal and they will decide what they will do with your money.  The Royal Caribbean policy on gratuity states 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.

Royal will not give us a breakdown of how much they give to our stateroom attendant or to our dining room team.  The only good thing about the Royal gratuity policy is that they give us choices on how we can tip.  You can prepay your tips or have daily charge added to your account or just tip in cash.  We always tip in cash at the end of the cruise, this works best for us.   Tip the way that works best for you.  

[brillohead]

Maybe Bob/clarea can answer this, or one of the other moderators.

How come if anyone even MENTIONS the new program The Key in a new thread, it gets almost instantly folded into the huge old thread about The Key... but we have a gazillion new threads each month on:
 

• tipping
• smoking
• should I get the alcohol package / is it worth it to get the alcohol package
• what is the best cabin / ship / itinerary
• MDR, MTD, specialty dining
• Crown and Anchor snobs / Pinnacles / Diamond-Plus / Diamond
• Suite Lounge vs Concierge Lounge vs Diamond Lounge

Why not have ONE thread for each of these topics, and then move all newly-created threads into the age-old original threads?

 

[brillohead]

20 hours ago, EaganCruiser said:

does anyone know what the tipping standard is for the cabin steward...waiter and bus person / asst, waiter...per day for each...and do we need to go to guest relations and tell them not to ad it to our sea pass acct...that we will be paying them cash at the end of the cruise...thank you in adavnce

The tipping standard is to allow the charge to accrue to your on-board account (or prepay as part of your cruise fare) so that everyone gets the allotted amount.

What you're asking about is DIVERTING from the tipping standard.

 

[not-enough-cruising]

15 minutes ago, brillohead said:

The tipping standard is to allow the charge to accrue to your on-board account (or prepay as part of your cruise fare) so that everyone gets the allotted amount.

What you're asking about is DIVERTING from the tipping standard.

 

It can’t be the “standard” AND “optional” at the same time; impossible. 

[K9Sixtwo]

On my coming cruise I intend to take one of the prepaid tipping off and leave the other on.. That way I can reward service as i see fit, not as the cruise line sees fit.

As a question it was said earlier that the cabin steward "knows" when auto tip is taken off, how would they "know" and who would tell them, if they do "know" this raises a massive ethical question in why would they be told? 

 

And on a lighter not in the days of cruising lore first class passengers would tear a banknote in half at the start of the voyage and on completion of the voyage, and satisfaction, they would hand the other half of the bank note over  

[brillohead]

4 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

It can’t be the “standard” AND “optional” at the same time; impossible. 

Those words aren't mutually exclusive.  The educational standard in the USA is to graduate from a K-12 school, however it is still optional.  Some people home-school their kids, some kids graduate early, some drop out, some earn a GED, etc.

Merriam-Webster defines "standard" in this context as:  something established by authority, custom, or general consent as a model or example

By and large, the custom for the vast majority of RCI passengers is to pay the Daily Service Charge either in advance, or as a daily charge to their on-board account.  

[Hanzo]

Warning: my 2 cents incoming!

 

Why would you want to have to worry that everyone that would have gotten tips if you left auto gratuity on actually got tipped? You're liable to miss someone. Leave auto on and if someone goes above and beyond give them extra. Seems pretty plain and simple. We're already spending thousands on a cruise, what's a few more bucks? Let's be honest, a lot of people turn them off and then tip substantially less, maybe not you fine folks, but don't pretend that's not happening.

[brillohead]

5 minutes ago, K9Sixtwo said:

As a question it was said earlier that the cabin steward "knows" when auto tip is taken off, how would they "know" and who would tell them, if they do "know" this raises a massive ethical question in why would they be told? 

Why is it a massive ethical question?

If the auto-grats are removed, they are expected to turn in any cash they receive so it can be pooled and shared with others.  

If the auto-grats are kept in place, they can keep any additional tips they receive in cash.

So they need to know who is paying the standard charge and who isn't, so they know which cash needs to be turned in and shared, and which cash they can keep.  

In your case, because you are removing half of the auto-grats, any cash you give them will have to be pooled, because the assumption will be that the cash is taking the place of the auto-grats you removed.  If you would rather have the cash stay in the hands of the person you're giving it to, you would need to keep the auto-grats in place for both passengers.  

 

[katiel53]

5 minutes ago, brillohead said:

Why is it a massive ethical question?

If the auto-grats are removed, they are expected to turn in any cash they receive so it can be pooled and shared with others.  


 

I asked on the Royal Caribbean chat if someone removed tips and tipped in cash to the wait staff and cabin steward, as examples, do they have to turn those tips into a pool?  The answer from Gwen was NO.

 

She  works for Royal Caribbean so I would hope she knows more than we do.  Perhaps if you don't believe me, you can chat with Gwen or someone on the site we can't mention on here.

[K9Sixtwo]

4 minutes ago, brillohead said:

Why is it a massive ethical question?

 

It raises the question of why are they told, is it to do a better job on a room? or conversely a worse job because they are not auto tipping? Does it create a feeling of annoyance that the people are not auto tipping? 

How do the "tips" get distributed? is there a breakdown of who gets what?
I've sailed before, one Bar was superb, the waitress was chatty, smiling and pleasant, efficient service personified, the barman made a mean drink and i appreciated it, I tipped well... Another bar the service was slow, impersonal and tardy, no interaction and no spirit, plenty of chat to the barman however who was equally laid back, i didn't tip.. same ship different bars..
With me tipping individually I rewarded good service, with auto tipping everyone gets a tip, even for poor service.. 

Now that strikes me as wrong.   

[Clarea]

5 minutes ago, katiel53 said:

I asked on the Royal Caribbean chat if someone removed tips and tipped in cash to the wait staff and cabin steward, as examples, do they have to turn those tips into a pool?  The answer from Gwen was NO.

 

She  works for Royal Caribbean so I would hope she knows more than we do.  Perhaps if you don't believe me, you can chat with Gwen or someone on the site we can't mention on here.

 

This is not the complete answer to the question.  While a crewmember may not have to physically turn in their cash tips, the same result is effected by the cruise line assessing the crewmember the standard tips, and removing those amounts from their paycheck.

[not-enough-cruising]

22 minutes ago, brillohead said:

If the auto-grats are removed, they are expected to turn in any cash they receive so it can be pooled and shared with others.  

If the auto-grats are kept in place, they can keep any additional tips they receive in cash.

So they need to know who is paying the standard charge and who isn't, so they know which cash needs to be turned in and shared, and which cash they can keep.  


 

Sorry, but no one really knows how the system

works, so this is opinion and not fact

[not-enough-cruising]

28 minutes ago, brillohead said:

Those words aren't mutually exclusive.  The educational standard in the USA is to graduate from a K-12 school, however it is still optional.  Some people home-school their kids, some kids graduate early, some drop out, some earn a GED, etc.

Merriam-Webster defines "standard" in this context as:  something established by authority, custom, or general consent as a model or example

By and large, the custom for the vast majority of RCI passengers is to pay the Daily Service Charge either in advance, or as a daily charge to their on-board account.  

I stand corrected on my definition of the terms. Doesn’t change my opinion. 

[gerif]

20 minutes ago, K9Sixtwo said:

It raises the question of why are they told, is it to do a better job on a room? or conversely a worse job because they are not auto tipping? Does it create a feeling of annoyance that the people are not auto tipping? 

How do the "tips" get distributed? is there a breakdown of who gets what?
I've sailed before, one Bar was superb, the waitress was chatty, smiling and pleasant, efficient service personified, the barman made a mean drink and i appreciated it, I tipped well... Another bar the service was slow, impersonal and tardy, no interaction and no spirit, plenty of chat to the barman however who was equally laid back, i didn't tip.. same ship different bars..
With me tipping individually I rewarded good service, with auto tipping everyone gets a tip, even for poor service.. 

Now that strikes me as wrong.   

Bar staff is not covered by autograts so your entire post is moot. 

[time4u2go]

25 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

This is not the complete answer to the question.  While a crewmember may not have to physically turn in their cash tips, the same result is effected by the cruise line assessing the crewmember the standard tips, and removing those amounts from their paycheck.

I'm curious how the cruise line knows how much this amount would be.  I could see many people on the last night of their cruise handing their steward or waiter cash.  Does the steward/waiter have to empty their pockets somewhere to have that money counted?  If splitting cash tips is only the case for when the passenger has removed the auto-gratuities, how would the steward/waiter separate out cash they received from passengers that removed the auto-grats versus those that didn't?  Would they even know who has and who hasn't?

Edited March 19, 2019 by time4u2go

[springfire]

4 minutes ago, gerif said:

Bar staff is not covered by autograts so your entire post is moot. 

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.

 

I guess your post is moot!

[lovescats5]

So does the genie have to add his tip to the pool or does he get part of the auto tip pool?  Does RCI assume he will get a tip and remove him from the auto grat tip pool?  If the genie does not get a tip and is not part of the pool then is he paid a regular salary?  And if he is on salary and gets a tip do they give him less of a paycheck?  Just curious!