My time dining and grats

[orla56]

I just did a mock booking on our cruise on Rhapsody for next and you could opt to pay gratuities onboard.

 

[little britain]

15 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Thanks Little Britain.

Was that for a Southampton departure?

I wonder if this applies to all UK bookings departing from other ports?

No, it was for Allure TA from FLL......   

 

Just tried with a Rhapsody from Venice and I could swap to paying on board!

 

Royal IT strikes again!  

 

Edited October 19, 2019 by little britain

[grapau27]

1 minute ago, little britain said:

No, it was for Allure TA from FLL......   

 

Thanks.

That indicates to me that it is possibly for all UK bookings.

 

[Billy Baltic]

4 hours ago, BND said:

No one makes you read these threads.

 

So, you're saying you don't follow the local culture when you travel?  If that's how RCI does business, then that's how they do business.  

 

BTW, I follow a couple of UK and Irish youtubers and many of them talk about tipping at restaurants when eating out in their own country.  

If I thought it would make any difference I’d happily get into detail on your points. Unfortunately there’ll be another thread tomorrow and another and another  ... and none of them will reach any agreement because it’s a subjective topic. 
 

Happy cruising. 

[Norwich Cruiser]

FWIW

I’ve tried on the RCI UK web site and also rang directly to RCI UK for two prices on different cruises for 2020.

Allure and Rhapsody.

For those that may be interested and for future reference.

1. The UK web site will not let you book your cruise when selecting MTD without pre paying gratuities.

2. By calling RCCL directly exactly the same must pay gratuities up front if booking MTD.

3. I’ve also rang two of the better known U.K. travel agents for prices and was told by both companies that if selecting MTD you must now pay gratuities up front.

4.Traditional dining remains unaffected no need to pre pay gratuities.

5. Apparently RCCL rolled this out about two or three ago.

 

[Clarea]

4 minutes ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

 ...

5. Apparently RCCL rolled this out about two or three ago.

 

 

Apparently only for UK bookings it seems.

[grapau27]

28 minutes ago, Billy Baltic said:

If I thought it would make any difference I’d happily get into detail on your points. Unfortunately there’ll be another thread tomorrow and another and another  ... and none of them will reach any agreement because it’s a subjective topic. 
 

Happy cruising. 

This thread is different because it is about RC apparently going back to the way it was in the UK when if you wanted MTD you had to pre-pay gratuities and it affects lots of us booking in the UK.

We have always pre-paid and at times when booking we were told there was only first or second sitting available and only waitlisted for MTD but by prepaying we later were told we had MTD.

[Norwich Cruiser]

I didn’t ask but wouldn’t surprise me if it was only for U.K. bookings it was the same a few years ago then for some reason no idea as to why they stopped making it compulsory.

[grapau27]

6 minutes ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

FWIW

I’ve tried on the RCI UK web site and also rang directly to RCI UK for two prices on different cruises for 2020.

Allure and Rhapsody.

For those that may be interested and for future reference.

1. The UK web site will not let you book your cruise when selecting MTD without pre paying gratuities.

2. By calling RCCL directly exactly the same must pay gratuities up front if booking MTD.

3. I’ve also rang two of the better known U.K. travel agents for prices and was told by both companies that if selecting MTD you must now pay gratuities up front.

4.Traditional dining remains unaffected no need to pre pay gratuities.

5. Apparently RCCL rolled this out about two or three ago.

 

Thank you for your excellent update.

This doesn't surprise me because of the way MTD works and the massive queues of people I and others on here have reported at GS of people on UK sailings stopping their autogratuities.

[Norwich Cruiser]

Like you it doesn’t affect us as we pretty much always book MTD and always pre pay our gratuities similarly nearly always see queues of people removing them.

[orla56]

Norwich Cruiser it does let you book online without prepaying gratuities as my mock booking shows.

When I book  I always have the option but we always pay upfront  because the price could go up before you sale unless we have obc.

Especially this year when you don't  know what is happening with the pound against the dollar.

 

Edited October 19, 2019 by orla56

[kernow]

I believe on the other thread someone was told that this was a trial on UK bookings on certain ships. 

 

I'm another UK cruiser who has also seen the massive  queues of people on UK sailings removing gratuities so am pleased to see they are making people pay upfront. As someone who always prepays, I'd be quite happy if they also introduced it for Traditional dining too.

[little britain]

Remind me; previously when you had MTD and had to prepay tips... that was a global policy wasn’t it??  

[grapau27]

2 minutes ago, little britain said:

Remind me; previously when you had MTD and had to prepay tips... that was a global policy wasn’t it??  

Certainly in Europe.

[normannna]

1 hour ago, grapau27 said:

Thank you for your excellent update.

This doesn't surprise me because of the way MTD works and the massive queues of people I and others on here have reported at GS of people on UK sailings stopping their autogratuities.

 

Find your comments one-sided.  I've seen plenty of Americans and other non UK passengers queuing up to remove auto gratuities.  RCI should only adopt a policy like this if it applies to ALL bookings - not just those in UK.  To introduce a policy just for UK based cruisers is discriminatory and I doubt Royal would get away with it if it was a UK company.

[Clarea]

8 minutes ago, little britain said:

Remind me; previously when you had MTD and had to prepay tips... that was a global policy wasn’t it??  

 

Correct, it started when My Time DIning was introduced and ended around June 2015.

[Biker19]

18 minutes ago, kernow said:

I believe on the other thread someone was told that this was a trial on UK bookings on certain ships. 

I did some searching and it seems to be limited to Europe and Dubai sailings; you get to opt out in NA, Asia and Australia.

[grapau27]

5 minutes ago, normannna said:

 

Find your comments one-sided.  I've seen plenty of Americans and other non UK passengers queuing up to remove auto gratuities.  RCI should only adopt a policy like this if it applies to ALL bookings - not just those in UK.  To introduce a policy just for UK based cruisers is discriminatory and I doubt Royal would get away with it if it was a UK company.

A few years ago it was compulsory to prepay gratuities in the UK and worldwide for MTD.

After it stopped we were still being told this was the case for UK bookings.

I am sure there are other nationalities stopping autogratuities as well.

Edited October 19, 2019 by grapau27

[kernow]

2 minutes ago, normannna said:

 

  RCI should only adopt a policy like this if it applies to ALL bookings - not just those in UK.  To introduce a policy just for UK based cruisers is discriminatory and I doubt Royal would get away with it if it was a UK company.

They already include gratuities in the total fare in Australia so they definitely have different policies in different countries. 

[orla56]

I think you'll find you can opt out if you wish or am I just special.

[Hoopster95]

19 minutes ago, kernow said:

They already include gratuities in the total fare in Australia so they definitely have different policies in different countries. 

 

This is the way it should be for everyone all

over the world. 

 

Furthermore the actual real issue is all cruise lines lying that these are “gratuities”... They ARE staff wages. Many previous threads on tipping on this forum, with the very best rational thread being where resident captain ChengkP explained ship wages and how they work. These “gratuities” should be added to the total cruise fare up front.

 

Everyone reading these tipping threads, even those who do not understand  that they are “wages” because they only see the word “gratuities” printed on their documents, should take a step back and truly accept that they are not removing “gratuities” at all, instead they are taking away pay from the staff.

 

[orla56]

When you look at your cruise documents it says service charge and not gratuities.

It should be included in the cost so everyone pays.We got to know to someone who said they were removing them and giving them to special staff but in all honesty I don't think they did at all.

[Billy Baltic]

I wonder what is RC’s thinking behind this. Is MTD that popular?

[Biker19]

Just now, Billy Baltic said:

I wonder what is RC’s thinking behind this. Is MTD that popular?

I don’t get it either, like folks who want to remove grats won’t just choose traditional?

[Billy Baltic]

14 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

I don’t get it either, like folks who want to remove grats won’t just choose traditional?

Exactly. Or if RC are that worried about grats then just roll them into the cruise fare. If they think MTD is that popular why not make the policy global 🤔