Gratuities

[MISTER 67]

21 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I always tip extra in cash

We usually on the last night give our waiters 20 each and also the cabin steward.

To tell the truth if the automatic gratuities keep rising much higher, we might cut out the extra cash.

[MISTER 67]

4 hours ago, hcat said:

When grat was much lower, we used to leave extra cash, but then  maitre d said add to bill so restaurant gets  credit for good service..

 

Now this required grat is  up to  20% . We will not leave extra unless something very special is done!  

 

Tipping in general is getting out of control

Agree, on land and at sea.

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, markeb said:

 

They already have. That's how this works in almost every establishment in the world. And the employees agreed to the process when they accepted employment. 

 

And them may be the employees themselves, who are probably tipping out others if they're not mandatorily or voluntarily pooling. The ship isn't a mom and pop restaurant where one person does everything for you. Your really good waiter appears really good partially because he or she is taking care of those that take care of him or her...

I respect the process (whatever it may be) for the standard gratuities. But if I can give my waiter a little more control of my extra gratuity and all it takes is an envelope and a pen, I'll happily do it.

[markeb]

1 minute ago, RichYak said:

I respect the process (whatever it may be) for the standard gratuities. But if I can give my waiter a little more control of my extra gratuity and all it takes is an envelope and a pen, I'll happily do it.

 

Roger that. It sometimes feels like people want to be sure that only their waiter is getting the extra. They probably have more control over a direct cash tip, but they're probably not keeping it all either. 

[paulh84]

So it's safe to say that no one truly knows. We've all heard varying interpretations. 

 

The times we've left a sizable tip to a bartender or waiter I'm not sure if they are just awkward or quickly scoop it up so no one sees it but it seems to make them a little uncomfortable at first. If I'm tipping a favorite bartender $50 cash I'll typically wrap the larger bill in a $1 bill then hand it off. If another employees sees and they are supposed to be pooling I will let them sort it out. 

[mayleeman]

Even if someone receiving  an extra tip for good service has to pool it, the most important point of tipping should be to let someone know their hard work is appreciated. They might be in a job that pools, they might not, but it is the system they have chosen to be in. They might blow it on a third set of ear buds, they might send it home, they might just give it to a down-on-their-luck crewmate.

 

None of those possible destinations for the tip should cause a passenger to withhold giving an extra tip--you are depriving someone of knowing they made your trip better, and you are indirectly undermining another goal...to encourage that hard worker to keep doing it.

[Jim_Iain]

5 hours ago, LB_NJ said:

We usually leave a small cash tip to the waiter and a separate cash tip to his helper in the MDR. Not big money but just to acknowledge the usually excellent service we get.

 

Do you know if they get to keep it or if it is distributed?

They have to turn it into the pool.     I gave our waiter a tip in an envelope and said this is for just you - I don't want you putting it in the pool.   He thanked me and said unfortunately I have to put it in the pool.

He did say her really appreciated the Mid-Cruise Attention to Detail compliment I had left about him.   He said each complement ears him extra time off the ship, free internet minutes and vouchers for the ships store.   He said he was also called up by the hotel Director and my compliment was read at the morning meeting.     He said it also really helps his career growth.

 

 

Edited January 18 by Jim_Iain

[markeb]

20 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

He did say her really appreciated the Mid-Cruise Attention to Detail compliment I had left about him.   He said each complement ears him extra time off the ship, free internet minutes and vouchers for the ships store.   He said he was also called up by the hotel Director and my compliment was read at the morning meeting.     He said it also really helps his career growth

 

That's something I forget. Didn't they used to put "attaboy cards" into your welcome aboard packet? Or am I thinking Royal. I know I've done them in the past.

 

Everything's in the app, but I don't remember a way to do an attaboy in the app!

[Lastdance]

I always wait until I have a good idea about who I am going to tip, then ask how tipping works for them.  Amazingly, I receive a variety of answers.  When I tip with OBC, I have been told to always list specific names with the amounts.  I had an awesome cabin attendant one time; he received an envelope with his name on it with the cash, as he told me that the entire tip would be his and his alone.  I have tipped others the exact same way, not to mention writing notes and filling out information on those crew member who have been outstanding.  Even though this takes a lot of time, I feel that these individuals are worth it!

Edited January 18 by Lastdance

[the penguins]

18 hours ago, Cruisenewbie20181 said:

If I already prepaid gratuities why is an additional gratuity added to specialty dining cost? Is the extra gratuity shared just amongst the staff in the specialty restaurant? Who shares the prepaid gratuity of $18.00 per day?

no mystery and you can collect the details form Guest Relations.

the current split is as follows:

Dining and Culinary staff:

All cabins except suites: $10.81

Suites:$11.60

Housekeeping services (room attendants)

Regular cabins: $5.19

Aqua/Concierge: $5.69

Suites: $5.31

Suite Service: $4.09

Other hotel services (e.g. laundry staff, cleaners) 

All cabins including suites: $2.00

All prices per person per day

Bar staff and Somelliers are not included.

When I can get to a scanner I will try and attach the sheet actually issued.

 

[the penguins]

21 minutes ago, the penguins said:

no mystery and you can collect the details form Guest Relations.

the current split is as follows:

Dining and Culinary staff:

All cabins except suites: $10.81

Suites:$11.60

Housekeeping services (room attendants)

Regular cabins: $5.19

Aqua/Concierge: $5.69

Suites: $5.31

Suite Service: $4.09

Other hotel services (e.g. laundry staff, cleaners) 

All cabins including suites: $2.00

All prices per person per day

Bar staff and Somelliers are not included.

When I can get to a scanner I will try and attach the sheet actually issued.

 

I got to a scanner quicker than I thought - attached is the sheet - sorry it hasn't scanned to well.

[Bullswood]

Why does RCL’s Silversea include gratuities in cruise price? Does this ensure better service than pseudo- discretionary as that seems very counter-intuitive. I remember Carnival ceo Micky Ariston being asked to explain

US tipping culture on UK tv some years ago and explaining that it ensured an “ exceptional service”. BS of course as it’s simply to move service expense from a fixed cost to a variable cost, so no customers=no staff costs.

 

I’m from Australia so it makes no difference to us as all RCL group cruises booked from here have to do likewise under our “price you see is the price at which you can buy” rules. 

 

Edited January 19 by Bullswood

[the penguins]

7 minutes ago, Bullswood said:

Why does RCL’s Silversea include gratuities in cruise price? Does this ensure better service than pseudo- discretionary as that seems very counter-intuitive.

I’m from Australia so it makes no difference to us as all RCL group cruises booked from here have to do likewise under our “price you see is the price at which you can buy” rules. 

 

Silversea competes with the likes of Regent all of which includes the grats.

X's main competitors all have the "grats" as additional.

The only result of the Australian policy is that you pay more as X rounds up all the prices on items such as drinks, spa treatments etc to include the grats. The UK/Europe has similar rules regarding pricing in that anything that must be paid e.g. Port fees, taxes etc must be included. Grats are a grey area as in theory they are not compulsary as you will see in the attached X says you can "increase" them.

 

[the penguins]

1 hour ago, the penguins said:

no mystery and you can collect the details form Guest Relations.

the current split is as follows:

Dining and Culinary staff:

All cabins except suites: $10.81

Suites:$11.60

Housekeeping services (room attendants)

Regular cabins: $5.19

Aqua/Concierge: $5.69

Suites: $5.31

Suite Service: $4.09

Other hotel services (e.g. laundry staff, cleaners) 

All cabins including suites: $2.00

All prices per person per day

Bar staff and Somelliers are not included.

When I can get to a scanner I will try and attach the sheet actually issued.

 

Sorry have had problems attaching the sheet - hopefully this time it's worked. Not the best quality

[the penguins]

Now I have managed to attach the sheet to 3 messages - oh well better than not attaching it at all. 

[Bullswood]

16 minutes ago, the penguins said:

Silversea competes with the likes of Regent all of which includes the grats.

X's main competitors all have the "grats" as additional.

The only result of the Australian policy is that you pay more as X rounds up all the prices on items such as drinks, spa treatments etc to include the grats. The UK/Europe has similar rules regarding pricing in that anything that must be paid e.g. Port fees, taxes etc must be included. Grats are a grey area as in theory they are not compulsary as you will see in the attached X says you can "increase" them.

 

Yes I appreciate that but I’m happy to avoid this endless debate and the add-ons, and know that staff are being paid. Do Aussies, UK and EU get worse sevice because it’s non-discretionary? As above, why is Silversea different?

[Gordoncruickshank]

13 hours ago, marieps said:

We were told extra cash is pooled, but I'm now mot sure if it's pooled intra-venue or inter-venue.  I would hope Luminae $$ stays in Luminae, but I'm unsure.  

When Luminae opened on the Eclipse the Maitre kept a record of all tips received in the restaurant including those which were added from onboard credit which was shown to all the staff members so that they knew who had left extra tips. 

 

I usually try and use some of the OBC for the Restaurant and I make a point of telling the Maitre that I have done so so that they can be sure that the tips reach the restaurant.

[hcat]

thank you, very helpful list..we are.cruising on the 28th,  so timely.

 

We decided we will bring cash for any extra tips b/c we don't have alot of OBC, but not all services will need extea grats.

 

Seems Specialty dining,  the spa/ salon (and product purchases there),  and the drink package are at  higher percentages than the daily grat amts;  so not planning on extra  grats there.

 

Otherwise, we give extra to indiv drink servers as we go, as well as Sommelier, if helpful.

 

We will be in AQ Class & will likely give extra  cash at end of  the cruise for our room attendant, if they do a good job. There are no longer asst attendants and no daily canapes from what we recall, but we request ice refill 2x/ day.

 

We will have breakfast in BLU most days,  and dinner in BLU only 3 or 4 nights.  We usually give Cash to  BLU Maitre D at cruise end for the "team".

 

Glad our booking has grats incl..but seeing this chart has helped for anticipating some extras  .

[daybrake]

13 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

He did say her really appreciated the Mid-Cruise Attention to Detail compliment I had left about him.   He said each complement ears him extra time off the ship, free internet minutes and vouchers for the ships store.   He said he was also called up by the hotel Director and my compliment was read at the morning meeting.     He said it also really helps his career growth.

 

@Jim_Iain  We just completed our first Celebrity Cruise on the Equinox and had absolutely outstanding service from our main dining room server and his assistant, as well as our cabin steward.  We were fortunate to have the main dining room server every night of our cruise.  We took tip envelopes and paper with us on the cruise and wrote each person a note thanking them and complimenting them for their outstanding service.  Do these individual notes also get shared at the morning meeting to earn them extra benefits?  We did also compliment them on the post-cruise survey.    We never saw any place to leave a Mid-Cruise Attention to Detail compliment.  Where should we look for this on our next cruise?  

 

[MISTER 67]

Story on the news this morning on how people are starting to revolt with tipping getting out of hand, I for one despise it when in a restaurant you receive the check and there are suggested tips at the bottom of the check, the other day we had one that had 20%, 30% and 35% and each suggestion included the tax which is plain wrong. Just about everywhere you go now you will see tip jars for things you never thought of tipping for before. I also don’t like it when the server asks do you want change back if you leave more than the what the tab is.

Edited January 19 by MISTER 67

[MartiniBarhooked]

Interesting video on YouTube this morning it had to deal with pre-paid gratuities.   A ship like Celebrity Ascent with a sold out ship for a 7 day cruise collects $410,000.  Icon of the Seas 7 day cruise almost $960,000 in gratuities.

[RichYak]

3 hours ago, Bullswood said:

why is Silversea different?

Silversea is an all inclusive luxury line. Celebrity and RCL are not.

 

5 minutes ago, MartiniBarhooked said:

Interesting video on YouTube this morning it had to deal with pre-paid gratuities.   A ship like Celebrity Ascent with a sold out ship for a 7 day cruise collects $410,000.  Icon of the Seas 7 day cruise almost $960,000 in gratuities.

Sorry, I guess I'm missing what the "interesting" part is. The bigger ship with more staff collects more gratuities than the smaller ship with less staff. Seems fairly obvious to me.

[Bullswood]

48 minutes ago, RichYak said:

 

 

48 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Silversea is an all inclusive luxury line. Celebrity and RCL are not.

 

 

But does any half-moral customer believe that the lower brand Celebrity & RCL fixed/ auto billed gratuities are really discretionary when they’re well known to be fundamental to getting US employed service staff in all sectors (except airlines for some reason) up to a decent living wage. Obviously the Aussie authorities don’t think so if they require inclusion in the basic advertised  price.

Reading CC the only genuinely discretionary bit is whether to tip on top of the gratuities, which IMHO is fine to reward exceptional service whether on Silversea,Celebrity or RCL.

Edited January 19 by Bullswood

[the penguins]

35 minutes ago, MartiniBarhooked said:

Interesting video on YouTube this morning it had to deal with pre-paid gratuities.   A ship like Celebrity Ascent with a sold out ship for a 7 day cruise collects $410,000.  Icon of the Seas 7 day cruise almost $960,000 in gratuities.

Totally irrelevant as the tips are distributed per person to the appropriate crew as detailed in my earlier posts.

Big benefit to X is that the tips are collected in advance and distributed after the cruise so a very positive addition to their cash flow.

Each cruise is a cost centre in it’s own right unlike Princess which distributes the cash across the fleet.

[the penguins]

3 minutes ago, Bullswood said:

 

But does any half-moral customer believe that the lower brand Celebrity & RCL gratuities are really discretionary when they’re well known to be fundamental to getting US employed service staff in all sectors (except airlines for some reason) up to a decent living wage. Obviously the Aussie, UK & EU authorities don’t think so if they require inclusion in the basic advertised  price.

Reading CC the only genuinely discretionary bit is whether to tip on top of the gratuities, which IMHO is fine to reward exceptional service whether on Silversea,Celebrity or RCL.

The U.K. doesn’t require tips to be included only port fees and taxes. 80% of X’s passengers are American/Canadian so it’s hardly surprising that it’s prices are presented in a way that is common in those countries and in the same way as it’s major competitors.

Personally I would like to see just one price including port fees, taxes and tips. On the other hand   if you have lots of OBC (including the Shareholder benefits) having the tips added daily onboard makes it easier to use those credits to pay the tips.