Gratuities [eeeek]

[not-enough-cruising]

3 minutes ago, Mapleleafforever said:

I agree with everything you just wrote here. 

Thank You

[boltnut55]

On 9/4/2023 at 3:48 AM, nelblu said:

I tip the porter at check-in time due to my concern that my bags will not make it to our cabin.  Mind you these guys make a hell of a livable wage.

I'm in San Francisco, and the minimum wage is $18.07/hour.  I'm guessing a porter who belongs to a union would make several times that.  On one trip, I gave our luggage to the porter and tipped for our bags, and our friends (and other random people) piled on, and he was like, "this is all the tips?"  I'm like... he knows which bags are mine!  I'm a reluctant tipper but will make sure I tip to ensure my bags make it too😂

[FamilyCruiserUK]

It seems to me from all i have read that the tips/gratuity culture has shifted from being given for service above and beyond to being given as a bribe to ensure your bags make it on the ship, you get served quickly at the bar, your drink/food is made correctly and not messed with. Etc etc. 

Untill the Graturites are enforced its a person personal preference if they pay of not for reasons only know to them. And its no-one elses business. 

[yogimax]

4 hours ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

 

 

And its no-one elses business. 

But what if it does affect me?  RCCL has budgeted a certain amount to expect to collect for automatic tips.  If that amount is not reached, they will have to make it up by raising the automatic tips for everyone else, namely those who pay them.  Indeed, that is exactly what is happening.

[Ourusualbeach]

12 minutes ago, yogimax said:

But what if it does affect me?  RCCL has budgeted a certain amount to expect to collect for automatic tips.  If that amount is not reached, they will have to make it up by raising the automatic tips for everyone else, namely those who pay them.  Indeed, that is exactly what is happening.

People have been removing automatic gratuities since they were first introduced.  There is absolutely no evidence to say that more or less people are removing gratuities compared to last year or several years ago and there is nothing to prove that any of the increases in gratuities are in any way tied to an increase in people removing gratuities

[not-enough-cruising]

24 minutes ago, yogimax said:

But what if it does affect me?  RCCL has budgeted a certain amount to expect to collect for automatic tips.  If that amount is not reached, they will have to make it up by raising the automatic tips for everyone else, namely those who pay them.  Indeed, that is exactly what is happening.

That is NOT what is happening; for someone that accused me of “broad generalizations” earlier, I must suggest you look in the mirror. 

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, yogimax said:

But what if it does affect me?  RCCL has budgeted a certain amount to expect to collect for automatic tips.  If that amount is not reached, they will have to make it up by raising the automatic tips for everyone else, namely those who pay them.  Indeed, that is exactly what is happening.

Are they raising cruise fares for the same reason?

[FamilyCruiserUK]

1 hour ago, yogimax said:

But what if it does affect me?  RCCL has budgeted a certain amount to expect to collect for automatic tips.  If that amount is not reached, they will have to make it up by raising the automatic tips for everyone else, namely those who pay them.  Indeed, that is exactly what is happening.

Graturities should not count in any budget unless they are enforced. As they are optional you cannot assume all will pay or run any kind of business on what ifs.....

I would probably be right in saying royal cruises out of the US will receive a higher ammount of Graturites then cruises out of the rest of the world. So do they budget for that who knows......like a lot of statements on here, a lot of hearsay with no evidence to back it up. 

[Mikew0805]

22 hours ago, yogimax said:

That would be you and a couple of other people on this board.  Unproven generalizations like "Very few believe that they are" are not very helpful to the discussion.

I also believe that Royal Caribbean is distributing the gratuities to the staff as they have described. I generally do not get caught up in "conspiracy theories."

 

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

People have been removing automatic gratuities since they were first introduced.  There is absolutely no evidence to say that more or less people are removing gratuities compared to last year or several years ago and there is nothing to prove that any of the increases in gratuities are in any way tied to an increase in people removing gratuities

Oh but you forget about the people that spend their cruises camped out by Guest Services listening to everyone's business. They have told us time after time that most of the people in those lines are removing gratuities.... so it must be true.

[Mikew0805]

6 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Oh but you forget about the people that spend their cruises camped out by Guest Services listening to everyone's business. They have told us time after time that most of the people in those lines are removing gratuities.... so it must be true.

I have spent so much time in GS line on every single cruise (because of the way I add money from the casino) and I have never once heard anyone removing gratuities. I am not saying it does not happen, but at the rate everyone says on this board, I would have thought I would have heard it at least once by now.

[Ocean Boy]

2 hours ago, yogimax said:

But what if it does affect me?  RCCL has budgeted a certain amount to expect to collect for automatic tips.  If that amount is not reached, they will have to make it up by raising the automatic tips for everyone else, namely those who pay them.  Indeed, that is exactly what is happening.

Gratuities go up for one reason and that it because RCI knows that they can get away with it. And that is all the more reason to move all these " behind the scenes" workers into the pool who were never there before. That leaves much more of the sky rocketing cruise fares for Miami to do what they want with.

 

Don't take it personally Yogi. We are all affected one way or another.

[FamilyCruiserUK]

7 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Oh but you forget about the people that spend their cruises camped out by Guest Services listening to everyone's business. They have told us time after time that most of the people in those lines are removing gratuities.... so it must be true.

TBF, on our last royal cruise, we were at GS waiting to get my mothers room card sorted/reactivated and a member of staff was queue busting. He had a clip board a few pages long and was writing down room numbers of those stopping the auto grats. So it does happen. 

[Ocean Boy]

21 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

TBF, on our last royal cruise, we were at GS waiting to get my mothers room card sorted/reactivated and a member of staff was queue busting. He had a clip board a few pages long and was writing down room numbers of those stopping the auto grats. So it does happen. 

I am curious, where did that cruise depart from?

[FamilyCruiserUK]

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

I am curious, where did that cruise depart from?

Miami, feb 23 oasis of the seas. 

 

[Roybthered]

On 9/10/2023 at 12:50 AM, boltnut55 said:

I'm in San Francisco, and the minimum wage is $18.07/hour.  I'm guessing a porter who belongs to a union would make several times that.  On one trip, I gave our luggage to the porter and tipped for our bags, and our friends (and other random people) piled on, and he was like, "this is all the tips?"  I'm like... he knows which bags are mine!  I'm a reluctant tipper but will make sure I tip to ensure my bags make it too😂

So the Norm is that he is getting a decent wage to do a job but still expects tips (of whatever size) to do that said job? Or he might not provide the service that he is paid well to do?

You keep hearing (typed) people on here going on about tips making up a crap or non existent wage so tips should be forthcoming no matter what but the above blows that concept out the water (so to speak).

Tipping is a personal thing and in many cultures it is not the norm but some on here seem to think everyone should do as they do! People should do as they want (its their money) and should not feel pressured into giving or not giving tips either auto or extra.  Its a very emotive subject and there will never be a right answer.

[HappyTexan44]

4 hours ago, Roybthered said:

You keep hearing (typed) people on here going on about tips making up a crap or non existent wage so tips should be forthcoming no matter what but the above blows that concept out the water (so to speak).

 

There is definitely different viewpoints on why people should tip even within the tipping = good camp.  

 

These are the options as far as I can tell.  

1. Leads to better service, and tipping is for good service.  
2. Make up for low pay, i.e. hotel room cleaners
3. Bribery to keep a bad thing from happening, i.e. union dock workers at cruise ports.  

 

Me, I'm in #1, and I strongly object to #2 and #3.  In fact, I'll happily spend $20/bag to avoid $1/bag for #3

 

[miaandmum]

Quick poll - all opinions welcome.  We don’t use the main dining room, never have in the 13 odd cruises on RCI (daughter has eating issues and prefers anonymity of Sorento’s/Windjammer etc.  We have always pre paid gratuities but am thinking of getting them removed on our next cruise and tip as we go.  Why.. because $5 pp per day goes to the wait staff in the dining room - which remember we never use.  Would prefer to give it directly to staff who make a difference to us personally from now on.  Surely this is a valid reason to remove gratuities and tip as we go? 

[not-enough-cruising]

7 minutes ago, miaandmum said:

Quick poll - all opinions welcome.  We don’t use the main dining room, never have in the 13 odd cruises on RCI (daughter has eating issues and prefers anonymity of Sorento’s/Windjammer etc.  We have always pre paid gratuities but am thinking of getting them removed on our next cruise and tip as we go.  Why.. because $5 pp per day goes to the wait staff in the dining room - which remember we never use.  Would prefer to give it directly to staff who make a difference to us personally from now on.  Surely this is a valid reason to remove gratuities and tip as we go? 

Remove them, don’t give it a second thought.

[ReneeFLL]

Just now, HappyTexan44 said:

 

There is definitely different viewpoints on why people should tip even within the tipping = good camp.  

 

These are the options as far as I can tell.  

1. Leads to better service, and tipping is for good service.  
2. Make up for low pay, i.e. hotel room cleaners
3. Bribery to keep a bad thing from happening, i.e. union dock workers at cruise ports.  

 

Me, I'm in #1, and I strongly object to #2 and #3.  In fact, I'll happily spend $20/bag to avoid $1/bag for #3

 

That’s the problem with #3. Someone says they didn’t tip the porter and something happened to their bag. I don’t doubt that something happened to their bag, but I highly doubt that it was because of a tip. How many people don’t tip the porters and nothing happens to their bags? If a porter was to mess with someone’s bag because of no tips can you imagine how much time they would be spending doing it and missing out on other potential tips?
 

There are probably some porters that make a comment like “that’s it” (referring to a tip) hoping to get more. They know that they’re trying to intimidate people and unfortunately it sometimes works. People allow themselves to be messed with too easily. Don’t let yourself be one of theme. We have yet to have anything happen to our bags. If you want to tip, that’s fine, but don’t do it because you are afraid something will happen.

 

Edited September 11, 2023 by ReneeFLL

[boltnut55]

5 hours ago, Roybthered said:

So the Norm is that he is getting a decent wage to do a job but still expects tips (of whatever size) to do that said job? Or he might not provide the service that he is paid well to do?

You keep hearing (typed) people on here going on about tips making up a crap or non existent wage so tips should be forthcoming no matter what but the above blows that concept out the water (so to speak).

Yes, it's kind of come down to that.   I don't tip on takeout for food for drinks, but I have friends who do.  They say they feel bad.  These people are making more than them!  I also tell them that it sets up an entitlement attitude that because they'll think that if some tip, then all should tip.  And some people are tipping 20-25% because "you old people used to tip 10%-15%, but now it's 30 years later."  I'm like "y'all need to understand math!"  It's proportional.  That dinner used to cost $4, and now it cost $40!

 

5 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

There are probably some porters that make a comment like “that’s it” (referring to a tip) hoping to get more. They know that they are trying to intimidate people and unfortunately it sometimes works. People allow themselves to be messed with too easily. Don’t let yourself be one of theme. We have yet to have anything happen to our bags. If you want to tip, that’s fine, but don’t do it because you are afraid something will happen.

 

I agree that I don't think they will take the time to mess w/people who don't tip because they won't remember after a few minutes and also waste of time.  I tip primarily because our bags are heavy, but it's maybe something like $5 for 3 bags.

 

[boltnut55]

29 minutes ago, miaandmum said:

  Why.. because $5 pp per day goes to the wait staff in the dining room - which remember we never use.  Would prefer to give it directly to staff who make a difference to us personally from now on.  Surely this is a valid reason to remove gratuities and tip as we go? 

 

I've removed tips once because we had bad service at the MDR and wanted to give tips specifically to the waitstaff they ended up assigning us to instead.  We ended up taking the same amount and giving it to the steward, asst steward, asst waiter, waiter, and maitre'd, so it wasn't to save money but didn't want it to go to the general pot.  What we weren't sure of is whether they actually had to return those tips to share w/others, but we heard about that way after we got off the ship.  This was maybe 20 years ago, so I don't think they shared tips with back operations people at the time.

 

I don't do it anymore because I've noticed that the waitstaff in the MDR also help out in the buffet (on the ships I've been on), so it's kind of the same thing.  I know you're not getting the same service at the buffet (they sometimes walk by our stacked plates, we have to get our own refills).

Edited September 11, 2023 by boltnut55

[vswan]

On my last cruise with my grandson, we approached the luggage porter area where partially full luggage carts were sitting. I had the tip in my hand, but not visible. When we got close (first in line) the porter never acknowledged us and very obviously ignored us in favor of a larger group approaching. They must have looked like better tippers - maybe more luggage? We loaded our bags on one of the carts and walked away.

[ReneeFLL]

Just now, boltnut55 said:

…I agree that I don't think they will take the time to mess w/people who don't tip because they won't remember after a few minutes and also waste of time.  I tip primarily because our bags are heavy, but it's maybe something like $5 for 3 bags.

I don’t care if you tip them or not, that’s up to you. Here are some of my thoughts and questions why others tip for certain jobs. Porters signed up for the job knowing there would be heavy bags involved. They make a decent living without tips. Waiters and waitresses don’t make a decent living without tips because of the crappy way they are paid.
 

Flight attendants make a decent living without tips, but perform about the same (ok there is more, but I won’t get into that) job as the restaurant servers and they also sometimes lift heavy bags. You don’t tip your FA, but you tip the porters. Why is that? Imo, tipping has gotten out of hand. First we tipped people whose incomes relied on tips to make it a decent living. Now we are tipping so many others. Why? Food for thought.

 

Edited September 11, 2023 by ReneeFLL

[Ret MP]

On 9/8/2023 at 2:15 PM, PompeySailor said:

I see what you did there

My post was removed 10ths ago

Quoting that needs a certain level of skill

Do you know Liam Neeson 😎

Not personally!