Can prepaid gratuities be removed once you're on the ship?

[UNCFanatik]

1 minute ago, Cruise5life said:

Exactly. And not every hotel has free breakfast. So you do eat out 3 times a day.  And for a family of 4  that can be atleast 75-100 a meal.  And dinner could be more.   So yes they could easily spend that much on tips.   
been to Disney lately.    Lol. 

 

Yup, and many people that go to Disney stay off property in a house. They buy foods for breakfast at Supermarket, take snacks into parks and only do quick service meals where gratuity is not a thing. And then there are those at Disney that get free Dining and have the lower tiers where it just includes snack and counter service credits. 

 

And lets say that you eat out for dinner at table service at a sit down restaurant for 4 on a land vacation not named Disney. We will go on high end here and say $20/plate max per person. 20x4=80, 20% = $16.00. A far cry from cruise of $72 for family of 4. Not every family eats at table service restaurants for every meal. 

 

 

[ONECRUISER]

22 hours ago, cruiseguy1016 said:

I won't go into all the details but one of my family members wants to remove his gratuities for our upcoming family cruise. We have all prepaid our gratuities. Can prepaid gratuities be removed on the ship? Can he remove just his and leave his cabin mate's in place?

Was sitting in Centrum right after we set sail and was Purser standing there writing names on Clipboard everyone in line just to remove Gratuities. Seen this on multiple Ships now

[UNCFanatik]

10 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Was sitting in Centrum right after we set sail and was Purser standing there writing names on Clipboard everyone in line just to remove Gratuities. Seen this on multiple Ships now

 

Yup, I think you will see more and more of this as Royal continues to raise fares

[ONECRUISER]

15 minutes ago, UNCFanatik said:

 

Yup, and many people that go to Disney stay off property in a house. They buy foods for breakfast at Supermarket, take snacks into parks and only do quick service meals where gratuity is not a thing. And then there are those at Disney that get free Dining and have the lower tiers where it just includes snack and counter service credits. 

 

And lets say that you eat out for dinner at table service at a sit down restaurant for 4 on a land vacation not named Disney. We will go on high end here and say $20/plate max per person. 20x4=80, 20% = $16.00. A far cry from cruise of $72 for family of 4. Not every family eats at table service restaurants for every meal. 

 

 

Been carrying Pop onboard Royal Ships for 30+ yrs. same with Airlines. Last time took my Family out to eat there was 13 of us and the Restaurant had mandatory Tip of 15% for Large Groups, had pay min of $70. Lot of Restaurants do that for 10 or 12, etc. We might have small snack at Parks but we'd spend week at Disney/Universal Studios and never eat meals at their Rest.

[Cruise5life]

28 minutes ago, UNCFanatik said:

 

Yup, and many people that go to Disney stay off property in a house. They buy foods for breakfast at Supermarket, take snacks into parks and only do quick service meals where gratuity is not a thing. And then there are those at Disney that get free Dining and have the lower tiers where it just includes snack and counter service credits. 

 

And lets say that you eat out for dinner at table service at a sit down restaurant for 4 on a land vacation not named Disney. We will go on high end here and say $20/plate max per person. 20x4=80, 20% = $16.00. A far cry from cruise of $72 for family of 4. Not every family eats at table service restaurants for every meal. 

 

 

Yeah and all those Disney hotels stay empty because everyone in a house.   Lol.  Ok. 
and where you eating for 20.00 a plate what about drinks and appetizers and desserts. Juices coffees milks pies ice cream. Let’s be realistic here.  

[Saab4444]

1 hour ago, Cruise5life said:

What would it cost you in tips if you were on a land vacation for 3 meals a day in a restaurant?       And that’s just for your waiter ?    
 

If I am at an all inclusive hotel with self-service buffet for all meals (which is comparable to Royal with Windjammer for at least breakfest and lunch)  a few Dollar max. but for sure not that much. If you avoid MDR for dinner in the last years due to the uninspiring new menues and use speciality dining you have to pay tip on top anyway.
 

Room service has been reduced by 50% and tips have been increased by 50%, that is simply 100% more for the same service…

[UNCFanatik]

Just now, Cruise5life said:

Yeah and all those Disney hotels stay empty because everyone in a house.   Lol.  Ok. 
and where you eating for 20.00 a plate what about drinks and appetizers and desserts. Juices coffees milks pies ice cream. Let’s be realistic here.  

 

The whole point is that not everyone that takes a land vacation will spend $18/day per person per day. 

 

And at certain times a year, disney offers free dining to entice people to stay on property and those are hotel tiered based and for lower tiers do not include table service restaurants where you would tip. They are snack and quick service credits where they will not leave gratuities. And again, even if a family of 4 is staying on property it doesnt mean that they didnt bring food with them to eat in their rooms for breakfast before heading off to the parks. 

 

Last time I went to Disney, I stayed on property at Caribbean Beach Resort with my family of four and we had free dining which were just snack credits and quick service. We brought breakfast bars and pastries to eat for breakfast and we took snacks into the park along with water bottles. We came NO WHERE close to $72/day in gratuities. Maybe you and your family does but that is not everyone else's experience on a land vacation EVEN going to Disney 

[time4u2go]

1 hour ago, UNCFanatik said:

Not every family eats at table service restaurants for every meal. 

Bingo! 

[not-enough-cruising]

2 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

Was sitting in Centrum right after we set sail and was Purser standing there writing names on Clipboard everyone in line just to remove Gratuities. Seen this on multiple Ships now

It’s a growing phenomenon, no doubt about it 

[tserface]

It would be a  lot better if they would just call it a "service  charge" like some countries do.  For example, the couple of times we have visited England almost all restaurants charged us a service fee and it was not optional.  So sure, they don't tip, they just tack on an extra charge and call it something else.  They've started doing this some places in the U.S. as well.

But, if the cruise lines would just start calling it a service charge and making it part of the cost of the cruise they could hush up a lot of these tipping threads.  Of course, that would mean they couldn't bait you in with a lower price then tack on all the extras.

 

I kind of like how Princess calls it "Crew Appreciation".  It subtle, but at least doesn't use the T or G word.

[snaefell]

5 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

No one is advocating a “no tipping” policy 

P&O have that in the UK

[not-enough-cruising]

45 minutes ago, snaefell said:

P&O have that in the UK

So does Virgin and many premium brands in the US

[not-enough-cruising]

2 hours ago, tserface said:

It would be a  lot better if they would just call it a "service  charge" like some countries do.  For example, the couple of times we have visited England almost all restaurants charged us a service fee and it was not optional.  So sure, they don't tip, they just tack on an extra charge and call it something else.  They've started doing this some places in the U.S. as well.

But, if the cruise lines would just start calling it a service charge and making it part of the cost of the cruise they could hush up a lot of these tipping threads.  Of course, that would mean they couldn't bait you in with a lower price then tack on all the extras.

 

I kind of like how Princess calls it "Crew Appreciation".  It subtle, but at least doesn't use the T or G word.

Also, including it in the fare makes it revenue and there are other financial implications for the company in that case.

[tserface]

2 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Also, including it in the fare makes it revenue and there are other financial implications for the company in that case.

 

Yeah, I understand that... but... that's their problem 🙂  At least they would be able to pay people what they deserve without intimidating the guests.

[not-enough-cruising]

7 minutes ago, tserface said:

 

Yeah, I understand that... but... that's their problem 🙂  At least they would be able to pay people what they deserve without intimidating the guests.

I agree with you on the employee compensation, in principal. However, public facing financials show none of these lines pay their crew any better than Royal (or any of the other mainstream lines), there is very little disparity in crew compensation when comparing like to like.

 

I have never felt intimidated regarding gratuities.

[Babblespeak]

Yes.  It’s a gratuity, not a mandatory fee, regardless of what many of the other people replying want you to think.  We’ve had them removed for bad service, like on our last cruise that included us never even seeing our room steward.   These employees sign onto multiple contracts, so they know the pay, and at $18/day throughout the year it’s over $50k per person per year in extra payments.  So millions in gratuities per ship.  They’ll be ok without ours when the customer facing crew represent the rest by giving us lousy service.

[stuart2468]

16 hours ago, tserface said:

For example, the couple of times we have visited England almost all restaurants charged us a service fee and it was not optional.  So sure, they don't tip, they just tack on an extra charge and call it something else. 

You have either not ventured outside of the London area, or have visited high end restaurants or with a party size greater than 8. Because outside of these stipulations, nowhere in the UK puts a non optional 'service fee' onto any bill. It simply isnt the culture here in the UK to be paying tips, and certianly wouldnt be accepted England wide, even UK wide for that matter. 

 

If a service charge is added to any bill, it should be stated on the menu, but even then it cannot be enforced. Thats not to say cheeky restaurants dont try, but as soon as they do this with me, it is removed and they are given a verbal bashing about how we are not the US and we will not be going to a compulsary tipping regime. Do not assume you gave me good service. You will wait until i confirm it with what ever monetary value i deem acceptable.

 

Now, when im abroad, i take a softer stance on this dependant upon the country I visit. But i will not hesitate to remove or deny a tip if i consider the service to have been poor.  

 

My money, my choice. And thats how we all should be.

[Ourusualbeach]

13 hours ago, Babblespeak said:

These employees sign onto multiple contracts, so they know the pay, and at $18/day throughout the year it’s over $50k per person per year in extra payments

Your math is just a bit off.  $18 a day is $6750, not over $50k

[Babblespeak]

3 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Your math is just a bit off.  $18 a day is $6750, not over $50k

You’re right.  I was massively off.  Not sure what I was thinking. 

[Ocean Boy]

On 2/28/2024 at 2:28 PM, sheezsmith said:

So all the crew that clean up after you, hallways, stairways, restrooms etc get nothing, if you can afford a cruise, you can afford to pay all of the crew a small gratuity!! 

Here we go again.....

[Engineroom Snipe]

My opinion......

 

🤐

[travelberlin]

27 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Here we go again.....

If you wait a little, some one  will tell us their children went through college because of the tips they received…

[cruiseguy1016]

25 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

If you wait a little, some one  will tell us their children went through college because of the tips they received…

 

And someone else's children couldn't go because the parents spent so much money tipping on their cruise.

[FamilyCruiserUK]

Has anyone actually answered the OP or it it just 3 pages of you must tip, no you dont, yes you do, no you dont,but you must, no i dont.......etc etc

[kruzerci]

5 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

Has anyone actually answered the OP or it it just 3 pages of you must tip, no you dont, yes you do, no you dont,but you must, no i dont.......etc etc

I did. They can be removed whether prepaid or not.