Do room stewards know that you prepaid gratiuties?

[SilkySal]

8 minutes ago, BecciBoo said:

daily gratuity went from 14.50 to $16.00 PP Per day and suite guests went from $17.50 to 18.50. 

 

We got the email about rising Grats so we called and added the Grats onto all our invoices...so all of them got the old grat rate not the new one.  So if you have cruises booked without the grats included,  you can add paid grats now and get the lower amount on your future cruise.  This included one we have in 2023 too! Just as long as you add them on before Sept. 7th.

Yep, already added all of mine through February, 2024!! Cheers!!

[kirtihk]

15 hours ago, Spif Barwunkel said:

Interesting. Your relatives must be an exception. By culture, Germans are the best tippers in the world followed by Americans, quite a few percentage points behind. You always cover for them, I'm sure.

When we were in Germany 2 times, I didn't observe any tips being paid by any one at any places.  So, I don't know where "Germans are the best tippers" information comes from.  I forgot to mention in my first post that the restaurant management didn't let them to leave without paying the entire tip including $50 portion for a wine tip (they threatened to call the police as if the couple refused to pay the actual bill).

[rudeney]

45 minutes ago, ALKID said:

The company is not ncorporated in the US.  The ships are not flagged in the US.  Most employees are not from the US.  Why would one think it is necessary to follow US customs.  Seems like just the opposite.

 

For all practical purposes, RCCL operates as a US company and conforms to US customs like tipping.  The crew have to get US work visas, and the official onboard currency in US dollars.  

[vjmatty]

On 8/22/2022 at 5:56 PM, yogimax said:

ha!  I graduated from Stuyvesant in 1962 which means we attended JHS 10 at the same time.  Played intramural softball and basketball at JHS 10.

 

μιλας ελληνικα?

[vjmatty]

47 minutes ago, rudeney said:

 

For all practical purposes, RCCL operates as a US company and conforms to US customs like tipping.  The crew have to get US work visas, and the official onboard currency in US dollars.  

 

I think it is less about US customs and more about passing as many expenses to the consumer as possible.  Which is itself a US custom, so maybe you're right 😉

 

[yogimax]

36 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

 

μιλας ελληνικα?

Καλημέρα!  Studied it but don't speak it.

[vjmatty]

1 minute ago, yogimax said:

Καλημέρα!  Studied it but don't speak it.

 

Studying it is much harder... hats off to you.

 

I used to make monthly trips to Titon's but then they started shipping though their website so I don't come down as much.  Miss visiting the neighborhood.

[vjmatty]

On 8/23/2022 at 10:43 AM, brillohead said:

That's from PRINCESS.

This forum is for ROYAL CARIBBEAN.

 

No, Princess calls them "Crew Incentives"...not sure where this blurb came from.

[RedIguana]

On 8/22/2022 at 8:42 AM, PhillyFan33579 said:

The cruise industry is very similar to the restaurant industry in the US in that tips, gratuities or whatever you want to call them are paid directly to the employee and therefore is not considered taxable income for the company. This is a huge financial benefit to the company. 

To the best of my knowledge, wages are tax deductions for US companies, so not taxable income either. But the employer is not responsible for the roughly 7.5% SS/Medicare (F.I.C.A.) on tips, the employee is (for a roughly 15% total vs 7.5% on wages).

[the penguins]

1 hour ago, ALKID said:

The company is not ncorporated in the US.  The ships are not flagged in the US.  Most employees are not from the US.  Why would one think it is necessary to follow US customs.  Seems like just the opposite.

The much simpler answer is that Royal simply operates basically the same system as all its major competitors. With 80% of the passengers comming from the US/Canada why would they do anything else?

The same logic is noticeable throughout the ship: iced water on the tables, ice in the cabins, quizzes especially sports questions nearly all US sports, American bacon etc. I am not complaining and it makes great commercial sense.

[the penguins]

22 hours ago, HBE4 said:

I just realize that the last hockey game I went to, I only tipped the person(s) serving me food & drinks! It never occurred to me to tip the person that scans my ticket, the usher that pointed me in the direction of my seat,  the security guard keeping unruly fans in check, the players, coaches and trainers and all the other little, behind the scenes people - like the guy that mops the locker room - that make the game so enjoyable. 

 

Am I a bad person?

 

🤣🤣🤣 - mandatory laughing faces to show I'm joking. Or am I? 😄

Possibly not. It depends on the terms of your ticket. When you book anything you accept the terms or you don't book. You can't pick and choose. Clearly in your example tipping wasn't part of the deal - so no you weren't.

With a cruise tipping is part of the deal. If you think otherwise I suggest you read Royals terms in full and not paraphrase them to what you want. The terms clearly state you can reduce the tips if the service falls below an acceptable standard ( I am paraphrasing). Clearly this means you can't just remove all the tips without waiting to see if the standard is met. I would suggest Royal doesn't question this on the ship because the vast majority do not remove or reduce the tips. However the fact remains that you nor anyone else has the automatic right to remove the tips.

You book Royal you are accepting their conditions.

[not-enough-cruising]

22 minutes ago, the penguins said:

Possibly not. It depends on the terms of your ticket. When you book anything you accept the terms or you don't book. You can't pick and choose. Clearly in your example tipping wasn't part of the deal - so no you weren't.

With a cruise tipping is part of the deal. If you think otherwise I suggest you read Royals terms in full and not paraphrase them to what you want. The terms clearly state you can reduce the tips if the service falls below an acceptable standard ( I am paraphrasing). Clearly this means you can't just remove all the tips without waiting to see if the standard is met. I would suggest Royal doesn't question this on the ship because the vast majority do not remove or reduce the tips. However the fact remains that you nor anyone else has the automatic right to remove the tips.

You book Royal you are accepting their conditions.

I do however, have the right to tip in the manner I see fit. 

[goldfish65]

10 hours ago, crazyank said:

Simply not true.  Germans are definitely not the best tippers in the world.

Having been a restaurant server in the USA since 1978, I can tell you that Germans have gotten much, MUCH better, I'd say over the past 20 years. Not the best tippers in the world, that's true. But decent. No longer do we groan when a party of Germans sits down in our section. And they are usually very nice and don't make things difficult. 

Edited August 24, 2022 by goldfish65

[DrProfessor]

9 hours ago, DirtyDawg said:

There was a survey done in around 2013 that found that 69% of Germans surveyed said they always tipped while on vacation, compared with 57 percent of Americans (other countries surveyed ranked lower). Germans were the highest out of the countries surveyed. Many media reporting this concluded therefore that Germans were the best tippers in the world. That would only be true, if for example, the Germans and the Americans both tipped the same amount. But of course there would be a big difference in the interpretation of this data if the 69% of Germans only tipped 10% vs. the 57% of Americans if they tipped 20%. The expected tip from the Americans would be far greater than from the Germans.  But it looks like that question wasn't asked or analysed.

 

Of course, the Germans, whose country ranks better in teaching math vs. America might have figured out that all they had to do to claim they were the best tippers was to address only one side of the equation. Heck, those American media outlets will buy it because they're clueless about probabilities and expected values. 😉 

 

This is an interesting part of the hidden data here.  This survey report is also misleading in that it hides the true numbers behind percentages.  Germany's current population is around 83 million people.  If we take 69% of that as "tippers", that is roughly 57 million.  The American population is round 330 million and 57% of that is roughly 188 million.  Even if you account for the fact that those numbers include children, there are still way more American tippers (more that 3 times as many) than German tippers on vacation.  This, in addition to the point you bring up about the amount of tip pretty much makes any such study useless.

 

Beside that, 84.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot (I just made that up myself so I know it is accurate). 🙂 

[rudeney]

So here's another thought I had on this...many of us keep saying we'd just prefer to have the gratuities added to the cost of the cruise.  Let's say they did that, and cruise fares went up by about $125 - $150 a week per person.  Besides all the suppositions about how that might make some people not consider a cruise because the cheap come-on prices would be higher, or whether or not it would be a tax disadvantage for RCCL or the crew, it would also do something else.  It prevents customers from seeing the gratuities paid to the crew and some might end up tipping more.  Of course that's not a bad thing for the crew, and many of us tip on top of the added gratuities anyhow, but it could create a pendulum effect where we go back to paying cash tips to crew on the last night like we did years ago.  Now all we've accomplished is higher cruise fares and we'd still be tipping on top of that.

 

Like I said, that was just a thought.  I think keeping the gratuities in front of the customer as they are is not a bad thing.  Some people will pay that as their tips and that will be all, some will tip more for the usually excellent service they get from the crew, and others will refuse this and have the gratuities removed.  

[Morecruisesplz]

1 hour ago, the penguins said:

Possibly not. It depends on the terms of your ticket. When you book anything you accept the terms or you don't book. You can't pick and choose. Clearly in your example tipping wasn't part of the deal - so no you weren't.

With a cruise tipping is part of the deal. If you think otherwise I suggest you read Royals terms in full and not paraphrase them to what you want. The terms clearly state you can reduce the tips if the service falls below an acceptable standard ( I am paraphrasing). Clearly this means you can't just remove all the tips without waiting to see if the standard is met. I would suggest Royal doesn't question this on the ship because the vast majority do not remove or reduce the tips. However the fact remains that you nor anyone else has the automatic right to remove the tips.

You book Royal you are accepting their conditions.

Have you not seen the line at guest services of all those removing tips?

[Seville2Cabo]

1 hour ago, RedIguana said:

To the best of my knowledge, wages are tax deductions for US companies, so not taxable income either. But the employer is not responsible for the roughly 7.5% SS/Medicare (F.I.C.A.) on tips, the employee is (for a roughly 15% total vs 7.5% on wages).

Plus RC does not have to pay 10% commission on the higher cruise fare.

[DirtyDawg]

31 minutes ago, RCFirstTimer said:

 

This is an interesting part of the hidden data here.  This survey report is also misleading in that it hides the true numbers behind percentages.  Germany's current population is around 83 million people.  If we take 69% of that as "tippers", that is roughly 57 million.  The American population is round 330 million and 57% of that is roughly 188 million.  Even if you account for the fact that those numbers include children, there are still way more American tippers (more that 3 times as many) than German tippers on vacation.  This, in addition to the point you bring up about the amount of tip pretty much makes any such study useless.

 

Beside that, 84.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot (I just made that up myself so I know it is accurate). 🙂 

So China is the best tipping nation then. There's 1.4 billion of them! If just 20% tip they win by a mile. 🏃‍♂️ over the U.S., followed closely by India .

 

. 

Edited August 24, 2022 by DirtyDawg

[DrProfessor]

4 minutes ago, DirtyDawg said:

So China is the best tipping nation then. There's 1.4 billion of them! If just 20% tip they win by a mile. 🏃‍♂️

 

. 

 

Good point - and yet another that makes any such study useless.

[rudeney]

1 minute ago, RCFirstTimer said:

 

Good point - and yet another that makes any such study useless.

 

73.6% of all statistics are made up. 

[Morecruisesplz]

7 minutes ago, RCFirstTimer said:

 

Good point - and yet another that makes any such study useless.

So if there are enough Chinese on your cruise they make up for those who removed tips?

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, fredmdcruisers said:

Have you not seen the line at guest services of all those removing tips?

I have no clue what the folks visiting guest services are doing and I couldn't care any less.

[Ocean Boy]

Why is it that people here who are so quick to call others cheap don't seem to have any issue with those who jump to lock in present gratuity rates when they hear there will be an increase?  It is only an extra $1.50 a day. Why deprive the hard working crew that little extra? I mean if you can't afford an extra $1.50 a day maybe you can't affort to cruise?

 

Lol, some of the judgemental comments, with their inconsistencies, around here are like reading the Sunday comics.

[yogimax]

1 hour ago, fredmdcruisers said:

Have you not seen the line at guest services of all those removing tips?

I doubt you know why folks are on line at Guest Services.  While at the counter, I have never heard anyone next to me ask to remove tips.

[ALKID]

5 hours ago, rudeney said:

 

For all practical purposes, RCCL operates as a US company and conforms to US customs like tipping.  The crew have to get US work visas, and the official onboard currency in US dollars.  

They are not a us company.  the only us custom they want to comply with is the tips.  Taxes, worker protections, worker wages not at all.