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No more open bar in the Diamond Lounge

beachump

By beachump,
in Royal Caribbean International

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xxHadleyxx

xxHadleyxx

Posted
Posted
52 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

What is a livable wage?  Here in New York minimum wage is $15 dollars an hour for non food service work. Waiters make below that hourly wage and rely on tips. Even at $15 an hour you couldn't sustain yourself unless you were living at home with your parents or had government assistance.  On the other hand that $15 may go a long way in another state or a third world country with lower taxes and lower cost of living.  We don't have a federal minimum wage. The wage varies state to state.  Every time I read posts like this I wonder to myself if I should leave the states and take a job as a waiter in one of countries that pays so well.

 

 

We have a waiter who lives/owns in our building.  Single guy in his 30s.  Bought a two bedroom condo on the gruond floor with a yard  in a pretty nice area.  One of the penthouses, 3 bedrooms, is owned by a teacher in her early 30s.  This is a new building only went up 4 and a half years ago. 

I guess I would say living wages is enough to have a reasonable standard of living if working full time without having to rely on your parents to add support (and we find dining out to cost us more in the US than in Germany, go figure).  

The point is, it is reasonable and understandable that people from cultures where jobs like waitstaff are paid well enough to own a condo and live on one's own don't necesarily grasp that waitstaff in other cultures truly rely on tips just to be able to eat and might therefore not tip accordingly....especially if the cost of the food is higher than the patrons encounter at home, why would they assume that is not passed on to the employee?

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xxHadleyxx

xxHadleyxx

Posted
Posted
48 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

Uh oh...the happy hour thread has morphed.  Cruising must be back.

and into tipping, which is so weird because whether it is free drinks in the lounge or free drinks out of the lounge, shouldn't really change how much you tip at all. 

I guess perhaps it makes it harder to do a large tip at the end as there are more waiters you might get drinks from over the cruise, but really it is just an ODD pivot.  I got suckered in, but it is odd nonetheless

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

John&LaLa

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Yorkshire-Pudding said:

With all due respect, I feel you are mischaracterising the Brits. We do tip here but not were we perceived someone is just doing the job they are paid to do and nothing extra.

 

For example, if I buy a coffee in Starbucks would I tip no. I just see that as a single interaction nothing special. If I go to a restaurant and have a meal requiring the server to make repeated trips to serve me over a 90 minute meal, of course we would tip. Also we tip typically about 10%.  

 

People in the UK service sector ❤  American tourists because they will receive tips for things which most other nations would not tip for. Just because we do not do things in the same way that Americans do, does not make us mean.

 

As for Royal adding tips into ex UK sailings. Well you have the clash of two cultures. Crew for whom, tips are an important part of their renumeration and British guests who have a very different cultural  approach. 

 

I didn't mean to paint Brits in a mean picture. I thought I made a fairly accurate statement. 

 

As in your Starbucks example, bar drinks are a fairly low impact transaction. 

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Yorkshire-Pudding

Yorkshire-Pudding

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

I didn't mean to paint Brits in a mean picture. I thought I made a fairly accurate statement. 

 

As in your Starbucks example, bar drinks are a fairly low impact transaction. 

I was not suggesting you thought we were mean per sey, although I am from a part of England which is renown for not parting with their money. It's almost sport amongst Yorkshire folks about how tight fisted we can be. 

 

The problem as I see it is Royal operates globally but seems to struggle with differing customs and practice amongst its international guests and the losers are the dedicated crew who may not always appreciate that tipping means different things to different geographies. On my last ex UK cruise, some crew mentioned others did not want to be deployed on UK sailings because they would not make enough in tips.

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Yorkshire-Pudding

Yorkshire-Pudding

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Why is there an arbitrary age included?

It is age based by law so for

 

Apprentice  - $5.96 (£4.30)

Under 18 - $6.41 (£4.62)

18 to 20 - $9.10 (£6.56)

21 to 22 - $11.59 (£8.36)

 

Employers can of course pay more but not less. So if a teenager has a job delivery newspapers, they must be paid at least $6.41 per hour. There are substantial fines should an employer fail to do so.

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Cigar King

Cigar King

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, MJDMV said:

the latter remains a temporary loss of benefit which if you like benefits

Is it really?  Prior to the change there were unlimited drinks in the lounge and 3 free drinks available anywhere during happy hour.  Now it's 4/5/6 free drinks anytime,  That's more, unless during happy hour, one drank the three free drinks and went to the lounge for at least 2 more.

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Iamcruzin

Iamcruzin

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Yorkshire-Pudding said:

It's the National Living Wage. It works in some parts of the country but those areas that are in commuting distance of London,  it is impossible because the cost of living is prohibitively high.

Same here. I'm an hour commute from Manhattan.

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barbeyg

barbeyg

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Yorkshire-Pudding said:

It is age based by law so for

 

Apprentice  - $5.96 (£4.30)

Under 18 - $6.41 (£4.62)

18 to 20 - $9.10 (£6.56)

21 to 22 - $11.59 (£8.36)

 

Interesting.  I learn something new every day here....even buried in a morphed 'open bar' thread.  👍

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fenton04

fenton04

Posted
Posted (edited)

What in the world.  We just got off the Serenade of the Seas Alaska cruise.  I read the first thread and went to the last thread.  What happened?  I was going to comment on the new diamond drink policy but at this point I don't 'think it will matter.

Edited by fenton04
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fenton04

fenton04

Posted
Posted
23 hours ago, Biker19 said:

There's no difference - the voucher will cover virtually all drinks (including the $14 ones). The prices vary slightly between ships (and in some markets the grats are included).

That what my point was going to be.  We just got off the Serenade of the Seas Alaska cruise, and gratuities were not included.  Kind of a heads up to future Serenade of the Seas diamond cruisers.

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fenton04

fenton04

Posted
Posted (edited)
15 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

Does it cover the Covid Cocktail?

 

You know: Merlot, Rum, Negroni and Absinthe

 

Tastes like ship, but really does the job.

we went to the south of France and if you want it done right.  Have a spoon with a sugar cube in it. Slowly pour the Absinthe and Absinthe only over the sugar cube into the glass.  Drink it straight and you will feel the curative  powers!  Vincent Van  Gogh, Ernest Hemingway, Edouard Manet is pretty much of a testament to the benefits of Absinthe.😇

Edited by fenton04
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mareed

mareed

Posted
Posted

Back to the Diamond and higher drink vouchers topic.  🙂 

 

Do your voucher credits carry over, or do you have to use your allotment each day or lose them?  In case that wasn't clear...  As a Diamond on my next cruise, can I use none on day 1, and then use 8 on day 2?  

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molly361

molly361

Posted
Posted
Just now, mareed said:

Back to the Diamond and higher drink vouchers topic.  🙂 

 

Do your voucher credits carry over, or do you have to use your allotment each day or lose them?  In case that wasn't clear...  As a Diamond on my next cruise, can I use none on day 1, and then use 8 on day 2?  

Use them or lose them.  They don't carryover to the next day

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xxHadleyxx

xxHadleyxx

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, mareed said:

Back to the Diamond and higher drink vouchers topic.  🙂 

 

Do your voucher credits carry over, or do you have to use your allotment each day or lose them?  In case that wasn't clear...  As a Diamond on my next cruise, can I use none on day 1, and then use 8 on day 2?  

You have to use them each day or lose them

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