New email about using drink vouchers

[ONECRUISER]

9 minutes ago, brillohead said:

And the servers get absolutely NOTHING for serving a Diamond Drink, so PLEASE tip your servers!!!

Yup, always have! Got to point last couple weeks I walked in stand at end of the Bar and hold up 2 fingers, they'd bring my Drinks right over before a word was spoken...

[meadowlander]

3 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 I have seen tips I left on the bar go into a communal cup so I am not sure cash goes directly into their pockets vs having to be put into a pool of some sort.   Maybe someone has had a direct conversation with a bartender or server and can say authoritatively how it really work. 

14 days on Oasis in October. I used my vouchers on coffee only from Cafe Promenade, and I got the majority of my beverages there. I had much OBC the first week and I was tipping via receipt, which I asked for so as to tip.

 

One barista at CP told me besides the 4 baristas at CP , tips were shared with those at Starbucks and Park Cafe totaling 11. The barista serving me received 9 cents out of my tip after divided 11 ways. After his comment, I tipped using cash. 

 

Of the 4 baristas at CP, I never saw 1 of them in my 14 days. The one who made the comment, I saw with much too much frequency. He took care of me, not the ones at the Starbucks kiosk which I never frequented. I appreciated his service & his comment and however he wanted to share the cash I gave him was fine with me.

[Ocean Boy]

I never saw this as an issue. I keep track of how many vouchers I have used by how many dollar bills I have left. I'm not so sure RCI's explanation is the actual reason for the change. I just don't see this as an enhancement. I like not dealing with receipts that I don't need.

 

[lovesthebeach2]

6 hours ago, brillohead said:

I actually had a discussion about this with bartenders on Explorer last month.

If you tip CASH, it goes to the server.  In some bars, the servers may make an agreement AMONGST THEMSELVES AT THAT BAR to pool their cash tips -- they empty out the communal cup at the end of the night and divide it between themselves.  But that's when the servers have agreed ahead of time to split tips in that bar only -- that money does not get turned in to management to go into a bigger tip pool. 

Side note: Localized cash tip pooling is a benefit for a teamwork approach to the workflow.  Nobody wants to go in the back and get ice to fill the bins, or beer bottles/cans to refill the fridges, etc., because they'll be missing out on potential cash tips by leaving the bar area.  If they're going to share in the cash anyway, then it doesn't matter if Bartender A serves a drink while Bartender B refills the cans of Coke, because they'll both benefit from the cash tip (if one happens) from serving the drink.  Keeping things refilled throughout the shift benefits the customers AND the servers, so pooling cash tips is a win-win.  

Of the 18% that gets charged automatically on a paid drink, only a few pennies of that goes to the server that rang it up, and the rest goes into the pool and divided amongst all bar staff on the ship (so yes, some of it does come back to the server that rang it up, too, and he's also getting some of it from what other people rang up).  But if you give the server cash on top of the 18%, he gets to keep ALL of that (unless all the servers are pooling their money on that shift, as agreed upon individually).  

Regarding the pooled money -- there are also bartenders that you never see.... who do you think makes your drink when you order one in the dining room?  Hint: it's not the assistant waiter who takes your order and delivers your drink.  The bartenders switch out assignments every couple of weeks, and everyone has to do their turn in the dining room, in the theater, etc.  The pooled 18% means that those bartenders who never see a passenger all week long are also getting their share of the tip money for making the drinks.

And the servers get absolutely NOTHING for serving a Diamond Drink, so PLEASE tip your servers!!!

We asked our bar server earlier this year about tips too, we wanted to know how much they get.

We were told by him that they get $.60 per each drink that they served,  regardless of how the drink was paid by us……drink package, loyalty drinks, or pay for each drink.  
 

Did a server tell you that they get absolutely NOTHING when they serve you a Diamond drink?  We always tip per drink too.

 

 

 

Edited November 4, 2022 by lovesthebeach2

[nelblu]

13 hours ago, drb116 said:

I suspect that part of the motivation might be to help servers get more tips. I would be surprised if there is not a tip line on the receipt.

 

Honestly, for me that would be welcome. I always tip cash, but hate having to carry the cash around with me all the time.

Yeah, but then you may get 28/35/? small amounts showing on your statement for a typical 7 nite cruise.   I have a different angle, maybe too many waiters are by-passing the standard # of free drinks and allowing more based on the level of tips received by certain individuals.

 

Ps.  When the # of drinks program was rolled out, waiters gave you a chit to sign.  Over time this procedure was eliminated.

[nelblu]

10 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

any idea on what 18% of $0.00 is?

Maybe 18% of the value of the drink.😁

[Joseph2017China]

First, I might add that paper is a renewable resource, and I live near many tree farms.  Paper is not an issue to print out.

 

Second this is not a tipping thread, so how did it turn into tipping?

 

Third, how did it turn into a thread how much bar servers make?

 

Fourth, the free drinks are messed up now, and if you have a soda package or the next one, how many times do they not see it, and charge a soda to a free drink?

 

My take on this, is simply, that the POs system now requires that if a free drink is charged, they can not over ride the receipt print out, and the servers are now required, to own up to the mistake at the POS.  It is making them more aware of their job, and what they need to do.  Before we complain about it, lets see if it actually works.  

 

I might add it is not our business what a person makes, how much they get in tips, or anything about their finances.  Plus, as a Diamond, I do not need to be lectured to tip, or not to tip and how much. Leave tipping out of discussions. 

[cruiseguy1016]

I'm capable of keeping track of my own vouchers, with one exception. I was on Liberty this past March. We frequented the pub every night. We got to know a couple of the bar tenders very well. We treated them very well and they treated us very well. They knew what we drank and usually started pouring it when we walked in. My drink of choice was bourbon and I usually ordered a double. One night I walked in knowing there was only one voucher left on my card. The bartender showed up with my double. He told me I only had one voucher left. I'm not sure how he managed it but, after using my one voucher to pour a double, I was then left with two vouchers. We gained vouchers on more than one occasion.

[Jimbo]

12 hours ago, cruiselvr04 said:

I’ll continue to tip cash because I doubt the bartenders in that bar will get the tip.   It will go into the big pool.  Tip goes with card when I ask for my drink.  Maybe too many don’t tip and this is a reminder?  
 

We’ve never had a problem keeping track on the app.  D and D+ shouldn’t be going to GS for this anyway but to the D concierge. 

Problem is the Concierge isn't sitting at their desks 24/7 like GS is. I want the fix done when I have the time to take care of it which may not be the time the Concierge is on duty.

[topnole]

People complaining about Royals process to give us free drinks cracks me up.   Oh my gosh.  I have to sign a receipt for my free drink. What a huge inconvenience!!!!   How will I ever lift my arm to hold a pen.  What will I ever do.  This is going to ruin my cruise.  How dare they!!!!   

 

 

[Cruising89143]

23 minutes ago, topnole said:

People complaining about Royals process to give us free drinks cracks me up.   Oh my gosh.  I have to sign a receipt for my free drink. What a huge inconvenience!!!!   How will I ever lift my arm to hold a pen.  What will I ever do.  This is going to ruin my cruise.  How dare they!!!!   

 

 

Agree. The alternative is to just take away the vouchers completely. This place would explode. LOL…… 

[birdylady]

I’ve never had a problem with this (of now that I’ve put out there, I will).  But my thought is that now they will save customer service desk (1 location) the trouble, but ADD work to EVERY station that serves drinks.   I think this will be more of an issue.  And as one person pointed out, it’s an IT system issue that needs to be fixed.

hopefully someday, Royal will get IT working (insert hysterical laughter here)

Erika

[smplybcause]

17 hours ago, JessyCruises said:

It would allow you to see if they rang it in correctly. It won’t help like in the case above where the person did not even order the drink. 

 

The question is - if they ring it incorrectly, does the waiter/bartender have the ability to fix it? Or are you still going to GS? If you order the $3 coffee and they bring you a receipt that's $0 when you wanted to pay for it - can they fix it or is it still a trip to GS?

[Mikew0805]

Odd, I have never had a problem keeping track of the drinks in my head. It's not like there is 37 of them per day... at the most it is 6.

 

It's not that hard to say.. "Please use my loyalty coupon for this drink" or "Please do not use my loyalty coupon for this drink." I have yet to have any issue with this working out on every sailing.

 

Wouldn't the guest have known the voucher was being used if they did not get a receipt for a drink they intended to pay for? Why not leave the accountability where it should be... on the guest?

 

Just my thoughts.

[molly361]

I have only had a problem once with the new system.  On the Mariner both bartenders rang up my voucher for the same drink.  It was easily fixed.  Now to decide whether to keep tipping in cash or just sign for the tips.  Thought they were heading towards paperless trying to phase out the Cruise Compass.  This seems like a step backwards

[CalTexCruiser]

Seems like a solution looking for a problem...this may reduce lines at guest services, but they still need staff to process the hundreds or thousands of paper receipts this will generate.

 

A better solution...hire a competent IT person to program the app with a link called "Drink Voucher"--then when you go to the bar, click on said link and 4 short numeric codes will pop up for a Diamond member per day.  The bartender will just enter the numeric code into their system as each drink is ordered, and the numeric code will disappear from the app when consumed.

 

If someone doesn't want to use their drink voucher, just don't present the codes.

[Tree_skier]

3 hours ago, Joseph2017China said:

Fourth, the free drinks are messed up now, and if you have a soda package or the next one, how many times do they not see it, and charge a soda to a free drink?

This is what I have done on my last two cruises.  I did not have a single soda charged to my voucher drinks.  That's not to say it hasn't happened to other people but my experience is it's not a problem. The only mistake I had was a voucher charge for beer.  I didn't want to use a voucher for lower cost drinks.  However, that was on me since I should have been more specific when I ordered and asked for the voucher not to be used. They just assumed and went a head and charged it to the vouchers.

[cruisefan0110]

This will work very good for us. We purchase the Refreshment package for our coffee/juice/soda and all. The vouchers can be used alcoholic beverages. 
 

I have seen discussions in other threads about this. They have the Refreshment package, order a coffee only to find a voucher was used. I don’t get a voucher for the package and I will mail for late night drinks. 
 

As others have said, wait to see how it plays out. 

[nelblu]

53 minutes ago, molly361 said:

I have only had a problem once with the new system.  On the Mariner both bartenders rang up my voucher for the same drink.  It was easily fixed.  Now to decide whether to keep tipping in cash or just sign for the tips.  Thought they were heading towards paperless trying to phase out the Cruise Compass.  This seems like a step backwards

You took the words right of my mouth.  However, they are still printing the daily Compass.  On recent Anthem sail, I got one every night on my bed by my cabin attendant.  My kids in a separate cabin near mine were not getting one.  They asked the same attendant and they were told "that only Paxs over 65 were getting one." 😆 I guess Royal doesn't think that we are teckie enough.  The cabin attendant was nice enough to leave them one since they asked.

 

One good thing(s) that has been eliminated is the various paper promos left in cabin whether for paintings or the various sale in the promenade,

[reallyitsmema]

25 minutes ago, cruisefan0110 said:

This will work very good for us. We purchase the Refreshment package for our coffee/juice/soda and all. The vouchers can be used alcoholic beverages. 
 

I have seen discussions in other threads about this. They have the Refreshment package, order a coffee only to find a voucher was used. I don’t get a voucher for the package and I will mail for late night drinks. 
 

As others have said, wait to see how it plays out. 

 

I have never had a voucher used for a specialty coffee, they always use my refreshment package for coffees, water, juice, etc.  I also say to use a diamond voucher when I want to use one or say I have a refreshment package when I am ordering something covered by that.  It really is not a big deal.  I am also able to remember how many vouchers I have left, if I couldn't, I think I would have a much bigger issue than a mischarged drink.

[HappyTexan44]

15 hours ago, remarcm said:

Main issue I see is when a server is not around a point of sale machine. Many times I will grab something from a guy with drinks in the WJ or pool area, they just ask for your cabin number and write it down. It is entered later when you are not around.

 

 

What was in place to stop someone from giving someone else's cabin# with that system?   

 

When I was in college, my boyfriend went on a family cruise.   He drank a lot with his sister.   The system was that you wrote your cabin number on the drink bill.  After the first day they started to sometimes write a random cabin number on the bill because they saw that there was no verification of the cabin#.   This was ... 30-ish years ago.  Their dad said that he was pleasantly surprised by the reasonableness of the drink bill.  

 

 

[taglovestocruise]

It will be interesting to see what happens in the show rooms, servers show up with 6 -8 drinks on their tray. It is hard for them to even reach out and give you your drink. 

[KelJ]

52 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

I have never had a voucher used for a specialty coffee, they always use my refreshment package for coffees, water, juice, etc.  I also say to use a diamond voucher when I want to use one or say I have a refreshment package when I am ordering something covered by that.  It really is not a big deal.  I am also able to remember how many vouchers I have left, if I couldn't, I think I would have a much bigger issue than a mischarged drink.

 

On our last two cruises, DH had coffee and soda charged against his five D+ vouchers despite the fact that he had the refreshment package, and then he got billed for cocktails because his vouchers were used up.  Part of me was like who wants to wait in that line over 15 or 30 bucks, but then I thought about how much money they'd make off of people like us if the mistakes weren't corrected.  

[bonsai3s]

2 hours ago, HappyTexan44 said:

 

 

What was in place to stop someone from giving someone else's cabin# with that system?   

 

 

 

 

Your picture will show up.

[not-enough-cruising]

2 hours ago, KelJ said:

 

On our last two cruises, DH had coffee and soda charged against his five D+ vouchers despite the fact that he had the refreshment package, and then he got billed for cocktails because his vouchers were used up.  Part of me was like who wants to wait in that line over 15 or 30 bucks, but then I thought about how much money they'd make off of people like us if the mistakes weren't corrected.  

I have had this same experience.  We are Voucher PLUS refreshment pkg people, and it seems to always get messed up-hopefully this new system alleviates that issue