% of guests who remove gratuities

[Cheesepleese]

Hi, when we make our final payment, we get our TA include the gratuities so we don't have to think about them on the cruise as we are happily gaining weight sampling all the delicious food! :))

[kruzerci]

50 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

It is a tipping debate question you raised.  You state you overheard a number of requests on your last cruise.  Then you say to keep the debate focused on why this shouldn't be done.  You try to sugar coat initially with what percentage of gratuities are removed.  That is really not your business or mine.  The employees salaries are between the employee and their employer.  

Except we pay it… was just asking out of curiosity, don’t know why this ruffles your feathers so much. Feel free to move along 🙂

[molly361]

2 hours ago, Husky1987 said:

Percentage of cruisers that remove auto gratuities:  10%

 

Percentage of cruisers that remove auto gratuities who tell everyone they tip in cash "to those who serve them":  100%

 

Percentage of cruisers that remove auto gratuities who tell everyone they tip in cash "to those who serve them", then actually do tip in cash to those who serve them:  10%

Kind of like those who always tip for their Diamond and above vouchers- just off the Indy and I guess all those folks tip at the end because more times than not when the bartender asked if they want to use a voucher and the person says yes no money changed hands when they got their drinks😇

[hotsauce126]

3 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

How wrong you are. When auto grats are removed the waitstaff and room stewards turn that amount you give them into the ships tip pool. Curious as how you get your cash to all the behind the scenes works who share in the tip pool. 

I always just leave the automatic tips but the real question is why do cruise lines think employees who don’t directly interact with guests are tipped positions 

[DallasGuy75219]

 

4 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Actually,  the PVSA specifically allows cruises to nowhere. It is CBP's requirements for work visas for the crew.

✅️ CTNs with foreign crew would require a 'higher class' work visa (more expensive and possibly taking longer to approve) than most foreign crew have/need for cruises that make a foreign port stop.  The expense and hassle isn't worth it for the cruise lines as the number of CTNs were negligible before CBP had its positioned affirmed in court and started enforcing the higher class visa requirement.

Edited February 25, 2023 by DallasGuy75219

[DallasGuy75219]

20 minutes ago, hotsauce126 said:

but the real question is why do cruise lines think employees who don’t directly interact with guests are tipped positions 

To make passengers pay most of their compensation.

[BennyandBo]

2 hours ago, lazygal said:

My husband had in depth conversations with the head waiter every night and on the last night we asked how many people removed their tips and he responded with an overwhelming  "over 1000 people this cruise".  It was an Oasis class ship in Sept. and chances are still more were at guest services that night to do the same. Plus the  nagging persistence to score everyone a ten on the after cruise survey.  If they don't get tens, they don't get their full share of the tip.  Our waiters have told us that if there is a problem with the food on the survey that also screws their tip.  So the surveys are meaningless and I get so tired of the panicked speeches every cruise to score them with 10's.  BUT, the cruise question that asks if anyone discussed the survey with you, answer no.  All of this information has come from staff on numerous cruises.

OK, so an Oasis class with let's say 6000 passengers. If 1000 removed that would 16.6%. Way more than 10%. And a hell of a lot more than all the 3% estaments people are randomly coming up with. 

[BirdTravels]

5 hours ago, kruzerci said:

Not a tipping debate thread. But curious to know if anybody had ever heard an approximation of what percentage of guests remove the automatic gratuities on Royal sailings. I overheard a number of requests on the last day of our most recent sailing. Please keep the debate and thoughts on why this should not be done out- that topic has been beat to death. 

While you tip your steward cash, their record is also blemished by a "dissatisfied and unhappy customer"

[rolloman]

3 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

While you tip your steward cash, their record is also blemished by a "dissatisfied and unhappy customer"

Please supply information to validate your statement. 

[shipgeeks]

When we began cruising, there were no auto-gratuities. All meals were taken in the MDR, with the same waitstaff at each.  We were "encouraged" to give cash tips to cabin steward, waiter, assistant waiter, and head waiter, with guidelines given for each. We always spent an entire afternoon counting out the cash and writing thank you notes.

One of the most common reasons I read here for not allowing auto-grats is "I frequently eat in the WJ, and no one serves me there".  (Me: Someone cleaned up the table you are sitting at, brought you drinks, took your dirty dishes away, carved your roast for you.....just leave the tips in place.)

IMO, it would be great if tips were included in the base fare, but I understand that all the mainstream lines would have to do this at the same time, in order to compete in the price world.

[Morecruisesplz]

4 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

How wrong you are. When auto grats are removed the waitstaff and room stewards turn that amount you give them into the ships tip pool. Curious as how you get your cash to all the behind the scenes works who share in the tip pool. 

No one turns in cash tips. You are dreaming. Royal should pay behind the scenes staff.

[scooby1]

In the UK tips are considered very differently and certainly not a default. If you get good food and service then yes you might tip. But if the service / food isn't then you pay the bill and that is that. Which is why we have always removed gratuities and we DO pay for good service and ask for envelopes to put it in. For me what is the incentive to make this a special holiday / meal / banter etc. if you think you are going to get a tip regardless of effort, doesn't seem right. 

 

Some cruise lines don't ask for tips they are included, P&O based out of the UK don't, this is straight off the website at the bottom. 

 

Great service comes as standard 

Tipping isn't needed on our ships so you can relax knowing good service and good times are all part and parcel of your P&O Cruises holiday.

[Morecruisesplz]

4 hours ago, GTO-Girl said:

I get envelopes from Guest Services but it is only to tip extra to those who I have had great service from….my gratuities are pre-paid before boarding.

 

My only hope is that those who remove their tips do so at the beginning of the cruise rather than wait until the last day so that the crew will know it was not because of something they did wrong!!

When you pass them a cash tip that way above minimum pre-paid tips, they know they did good. Plus you give them highest rating on survey.

[kruzerci]

1 hour ago, molly361 said:

Kind of like those who always tip for their Diamond and above vouchers- just off the Indy and I guess all those folks tip at the end because more times than not when the bartender asked if they want to use a voucher and the person says yes no money changed hands when they got their drinks😇

 

Well, technically, the bartenders are supposed to be giving receipts now since the receipts now show how many drinks vouchers you have used. So they may have been planning on it but didn't get a receipt 😄. 

 

But yes, to your point, people are a lot more generous behind their keyboards than they with the tip envelope when nobody is watching. 

[Mapleleafforever]

6 hours ago, soremekun said:

I would think it's a low number.  Perhaps 3-5%.

I was thinking the opposite. Not super high but I would wager that it's higher than we suspect. If they ever start building gratuities in to the cruise fare we'll know it was high. 

 

I could be wrong......has happened before many many times. 

[Mapleleafforever]

6 hours ago, soremekun said:

Semi off-topic.

Features Royal Caribbean offers in other countries but not in U.S. but I would love to see here:

 

-included gratuities

-cruises to nowhere

-smoke-free casinos (I don't gamble but pass through for convenience)

YES

YES

and YES!!

[Mapleleafforever]

2 hours ago, rolloman said:

With respect to cruising and assuming you actually cruise... when it comes to gratuities, it very much so is your "business". In essence, the cruise lines are putting the onus on the passengers. Sorry for you Viktor and Sanjid...the evil passenger removed the tips...nothing we can do...better luck next time, maybe you need to work on your panhandle technique. Personally, the game is getting old. Pay the crew what they should be paid and raise the price of the cruise if necessary. Quit trying to hide the cost of cruising by using the passengers as pawns. Just my two cents.

Very well said. I agree. 

[feeloftheocean]

3 hours ago, rolloman said:

With respect to cruising and assuming you actually cruise... when it comes to gratuities, it very much so is your "business". In essence, the cruise lines are putting the onus on the passengers. Sorry for you Viktor and Sanjid...the evil passenger removed the tips...nothing we can do...better luck next time, maybe you need to work on your panhandle technique. Personally, the game is getting old. Pay the crew what they should be paid and raise the price of the cruise if necessary. Quit trying to hide the cost of cruising by using the passengers as pawns. Just my two cents.

Well said. Also, they already raised the price of the cruises. The nickel and diming is just so annoying.

[DallasGuy75219]

2 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

IMO, it would be great if tips were included in the base fare, but I understand that all the mainstream lines would have to do this at the same time, in order to compete in the price world.

And that's the problem.  The mass market lines will continue to have pax subsidize the compensation of most of the ship until they all have a "gratuities included" policy.  And that will never voluntarily happen because the lines that don't change will have a price advantage.

 

Best case scenario is a cruise line tries to make gratuities mandatory but not include them in the advertised base fare and let it go to court as a deceptive advertising practice.

[Empehi]

On my most recent cruise I was in line at Guest Services and the person in front of me was in line to remove his gratuities. After he left I ask the Guest Services person how many people do this and was told usually between 10% to 15%. I think it is time for the cruise lines to include this cost in the cruise fare. I assume the reason they do not do this is because this would be an additional cost for the cruise line thus decreasing profit ..... 

 

e

[BennyandBo]

5 minutes ago, Empehi said:

On my most recent cruise I was in line at Guest Services and the person in front of me was in line to remove his gratuities. After he left I ask the Guest Services person how many people do this and was told usually between 10% to 15%. I think it is time for the cruise lines to include this cost in the cruise fare. I assume the reason they do not do this is because this would be an additional cost for the cruise line thus decreasing profit ..... 

 

e

Second example of 15% to 16% posted here today. Much higher than many thought. I hold out hope that many of them put out some cash. It's human nature. Tell people "this is how much your gonna tip each day" and people want to do the opposite. I do think with raised auto gratuity rates and service cuts (food, cleaning, etc) you will see this percentage increase well beyond 15% per cruise.

[topnole]

3 hours ago, BennyandBo said:

OK, so an Oasis class with let's say 6000 passengers. If 1000 removed that would 16.6%. Way more than 10%. And a hell of a lot more than all the 3% estaments people are randomly coming up with. 

If it was full of a lot of folks not from the US, that isn’t exactly a surprising number.  But who knows how accurate any of these numbers are that are being discussed.  

[topnole]

53 minutes ago, Empehi said:

On my most recent cruise I was in line at Guest Services and the person in front of me was in line to remove his gratuities. After he left I ask the Guest Services person how many people do this and was told usually between 10% to 15%. I think it is time for the cruise lines to include this cost in the cruise fare. I assume the reason they do not do this is because this would be an additional cost for the cruise line thus decreasing profit ..... 

 

e

I’m not sure your math/accounting on that is right.  If they bake it in the price of the cruise, it’s an adding revenue which then fully covers the associated compensation expense.  So zero impact on profit all other things equal.  

[John&LaLa]

5 hours ago, gavvy said:

Makes me chuckle the last tipping thread was closed yesterday and today we have a new one!

 

Tip/ don't tip it's your choice as long as you are aware of the consequences to staff then everyone is happy.  It's nobody's business but yours.

 

off to get popcorn

 

Weekend is open season 

 

Heads roll Monday afternoon

[BND]

Honestly, people need to let this topic go.  Tip, don't tip, but quit bragging one way or another.  Either you're cheap and try to justify or you're virtue signaling by talking about how much you tip.  Who talks about how much they tip at restaurants, hair dressers, etc?  No one I know.