How are tips distribute in the main dining room?

[screenname2004]

We are just off the Harmony and had early seating in the deck 4. For our early seating, our area of the dining room is only about 1/3 full but other areas had more people. Do our waiter and assistant waiter only get tips from the tables they are responsible for or the whole dining pools their tips together and divide equally? 

[not-enough-cruising]

1 hour ago, screenname2004 said:

We are just off the Harmony and had early seating in the deck 4. For our early seating, our area of the dining room is only about 1/3 full but other areas had more people. Do our waiter and assistant waiter only get tips from the tables they are responsible for or the whole dining pools their tips together and divide equally? 

No one knows for sure, Royal keeps the auto gratuity details vague and secretive on purpose. 

[binro01]

Oh boy! I have a funny feeling where this thread will go. So I might as well start it down that slippery slope.

If you wish to control where your tips go with zero ambiguity, the only option you have is to remove the auto-gratuities and distribute your tips to your servers with cash at the time of service or at the end of the cruise if you have a server that was assigned to you throughout the course of the cruise.

Some will say to you that you are causing harm to some of the back of the house staff that sign a contract that grants them access to the pooled tips, even though they have zero interaction and provided you zero personal service.

This is where the vague and secretive auto-gratuities really shine for the cruise lines. It allows them to underpay the back of house staff via the gratuities that belong to the service personnel. I personally feel this is robbing the waiters, bartenders, and cabin stewards to enhance the bottom lines of the cruise companies.

So we as customers are left in the middle of a difficult decision, do we allow the continued robbery of the service personnel and sign on to the auto-gratuity pool, or do we shaft the lowest of the low on the cruise ship.

It's a crappy situation.

If you try to influence a change of policy, some good people who need the money get hurt. If you keep auto gratuities the waiters, cabin stewards and bartenders get hurt because their tips are passed on to non service personnel.

How you navigate this is up to you.

[davekathy]

I could care less who gets what and how much. That's between RC and their employees.  

[screenname2004]

11 minutes ago, binro01 said:

...
It's a crappy situation.

If you try to influence a change of policy, some good people who need the money get hurt. If you keep auto gratuities the waiters, cabin stewards and bartenders get hurt because their tips are passed on to non service personnel.

How you navigate this is up to you.

You have a point. To me,  the "manager" that supervise our waiter and assistant waiter doesn't deserve any tips but I assume he will get a cut from our auto gratuities. Hopefully, he doesn't get a cut on the extra cash we gave the waiter and assist waiter.

[AustinCruise]

It’s been said that if automatic gratuities are removed, then cash is supposed to be turned into the pool. 
 

Speaking of pool, can I get up early and put a towel on a pool chair to save it for after lunch?

 

And once done with the pool, can I just wear my shorts and tank top to the MDR on formal night?

 

(puts on popcorn)

[davekathy]

9 minutes ago, AustinCruise said:

It’s been said that if automatic gratuities are removed, then cash is supposed to be turned into the pool. 
 

Speaking of pool, can I get up early and put a towel on a pool chair to save it for after lunch?

 

And once done with the pool, can I just wear my shorts and tank top to the MDR on formal night?

 

(puts on popcorn)

Yes to all as long as you don't remove the auto gratuities. 

[Ptroxx]

13 minutes ago, AustinCruise said:

It’s been said that if automatic gratuities are removed, then cash is supposed to be turned into the pool. 
 

Speaking of pool, can I get up early and put a towel on a pool chair to save it for after lunch?

 

And once done with the pool, can I just wear my shorts and tank top to the MDR on formal night?

 

(puts on popcorn)

Don’t forget tipping with 2.00 bills.     Oh wait. I do this and I like it. Lol.  

[UNCFanatik]

2 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

No one knows for sure, Royal keeps the auto gratuity details vague and secretive on purpose. 

Yup… just another reason to remove auto gratuity. You can’t trust cruise lines which have been bleeding cash during pandemic shutdown to direct your auto gratuity to the proper channels and people because they already underpay staff. Auto gratuity has the potential just to be another stream of revenue for cruise lines. Think about an oasis sized ship with 4000 passengers now sailing in it. I know auto gratuity is higher for suite guests but if we just use the typical $14.50/day for 7 night cruise and multiply it by 4000, it comes to over 400k. You really trust the cruise lines to funnel all that money to a crew they already exploit?

 

remove auto gratuity right away. Don’t prepay gratuity because you are being charged for service nor rendered

 

if you feel compelled to tip then do so in cash directly to the person providing service. 
 

 

Edited December 13, 2021 by UNCFanatik

[waitingtogo]

does anyone remember the cash.. tip guide lines for steward and servers

[taglovestocruise]

1 hour ago, UNCFanatik said:

 

 

if you feel compelled to tip then do so in cash directly to the person providing service. 
 

 

If that person is a waiter or cabin steward they are required to turn the cash back into the  gratuity pool if you have removed the auto gratuity. 

[pcur]

The head waiters in the dining rooms and other eating venues work just as hard as the waiters.  You may not see them, but they are the ones that keep it all together during the dining hours.

 

If you put in a special request, it's frequently the head waiter that makes sure it's done right.  They are back in the kitchen seeing that their stations are getting what they need, and keeping things going.  

 

Sometimes new crew members come on board at any and all ports.  The head waiters train the new dining staff, and keep an eye on them to make sure they are doing OK.

 

Special occasion desserts?  Yep, they know all about it, and help make it happen.

 

I could go on, but I won't......many more things they do.

[BonTexasNY]

We will keep auto gratuities and as in the past, hand out extra cash the last day, if service was above and beyond which it often is.  I'm sure auto gratuities are pooled since there is wait staff that serves us breakfast and lunch other than our usual MDR wait staff.  If folks eat in specialty restaurants, not sure how that is handled.  I can't obsess over tips when I'm on vacation.

[cruisetorelax44]

it's my ongoing dilemma. we never eat in the main dining room. we either go to specialty restaurants or the windjammer if we want something quick. we always tip our specialty servers extra at the end of each meal. but we prepay gratuities. servers in the main dining are getting tips for service not provided, but we don't want to stiff the back of the house crew that we never see... doesn't some of the pooled tips go to laundry, maintenance, etc?

[smplybcause]

4 hours ago, binro01 said:

If you try to influence a change of policy, some good people who need the money get hurt.

 

If you actually want to influence a change in policy you need to only patronize cruise lines that include gratuities. Continuing to patronize cruise lines that have a gratuity pay structure while not paying gratuities will change nothing except the pay of the workers who made your vacation what it is. 

[LGW59]

2 hours ago, UNCFanatik said:

Yup… just another reason to remove auto gratuity. You can’t trust cruise lines which have been bleeding cash during pandemic shutdown to direct your auto gratuity to the proper channels and people because they already underpay staff. Auto gratuity has the potential just to be another stream of revenue for cruise lines. Think about an oasis sized ship with 4000 passengers now sailing in it. I know auto gratuity is higher for suite guests but if we just use the typical $14.50/day for 7 night cruise and multiply it by 4000, it comes to over 400k. You really trust the cruise lines to funnel all that money to a crew they already exploit?

 

remove auto gratuity right away. Don’t prepay gratuity because you are being charged for service nor rendered

 

if you feel compelled to tip then do so in cash directly to the person providing service. 
 

 

if you feel compelled to tip then do so in cash directly to the person providing service.  Thanks, I do feel compelled to tip in cash along with not being a cheapskate and NOT removing the pre-paid gratuities.  Just because you cannot see the behind the scenes crew, does not mean they are not providing to our enjoyment of a luxurious vacation.    

[chengkp75]

I don't engage in tip thread debates, so I will simply answer the OP's question directly, and then state how the cruise lines don't "rip off the "underpaid staff".

 

All of the money collected as DSC (I don't call it any kind of gratuity, because it isn't) is divided among all the members of the DSC pool according to formula.  Whether a waiter has two tables to serve, or 6 tables, they get the same amount.  The DSC is divided by position, not by individual effort.  This is why it is used by the cruise lines, it forces a "team effort" so that any one crew who underperforms will affect everyone.

 

As for the cruise lines holding back DSC to "rip off the crew", there is a statutory minimum wage that all seafarers must get, and if the seafarer's compensation is made up of "wage" and "DSC participation", then if the amount of DSC is not sufficient to reach the minimum wage (whether due to low capacity or removals by passengers), then the cruise line has to make up the balance.

 

I am not a fan of the DSC culture on the ships, but anyone who thinks that "changing the system" would not simply transfer the DSC amount into the cabin fare is delusional.

[not-enough-cruising]

1 hour ago, taglovestocruise said:

If that person is a waiter or cabin steward they are required to turn the cash back into the  gratuity pool if you have removed the auto gratuity. 

you don't know that

[John&LaLa]

The Chief Purser stands at the highest balcony in MDR and tosses the money in the air. The staff is assembled on lowest level and a free for all erupts.🤣🤣

 

I read that on the intranets 😇

Edited December 13, 2021 by John&LaLa

[reallyitsmema]

5 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

you don't know that

 

No one on the thread knows exactly what happens.

[John&LaLa]

1 hour ago, pcur said:

The head waiters in the dining rooms and other eating venues work just as hard as the waiters.  You may not see them, but they are the ones that keep it all together during the dining hours.

 

If you put in a special request, it's frequently the head waiter that makes sure it's done right.  They are back in the kitchen seeing that their stations are getting what they need, and keeping things going.  

 

Sometimes new crew members come on board at any and all ports.  The head waiters train the new dining staff, and keep an eye on them to make sure they are doing OK.

 

Special occasion desserts?  Yep, they know all about it, and help make it happen.

 

I could go on, but I won't......many more things they do.

 

We always tip our section head, as you said, they make the little things happen

[not-enough-cruising]

5 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

No one on the thread knows exactly what happens.

exactly my point; anyone making a claim as to the inner workings of the auto gratuity system are just posting hearsay 

[John&LaLa]

3 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

exactly my point; anyone making a claim as to the inner workings of the auto gratuity system are just posting hearsay 

 

I trust The Cheng

[barbeyg]

10 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

I read that on the intranets 😇

Then it MUST be true! 😁😂

[neverbeenhere]

Emily Litella says that ti.ts are distributed very unfairly in the main dining room…. Never Mind. 
 

 

BTW:400k /1000 workers/ 72hours a week equals an amount for which I wouldn’t work.