early seating time

[PhillyFan33579]

5 minutes ago, Cruise5life said:

Your post didn’t say all your sailing were in the US.    So it is relevant    
but ok.   

The OP asked about early dining time on Wonder, which is (and always has) sailed out of a US port. The dining time(s) on any current RCI ship sailing in Europe, or any other area of the world, is not relevant. 

[Cruise5life]

8 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

The OP asked about early dining time on Wonder, which is (and always has) sailed out of a US port. The dining time(s) on any current RCI ship sailing in Europe, or any other area of the world, is not relevant. 

Your half a dozen or so cruises had no distinction of where cruised from.   So.      
personally don’t see what the difference what part of the country sailing is from.    Clock still has 24hr all over the world.  lol.  

[taglovestocruise]

5 hours ago, ronaldfelder said:

it'll just be the three of us at our table. no more

You could easily be assigned to a 6 or 8 top with another party of 2 or 4.  Ships are now sailing at 110% capacity.

[pcur]

20 hours ago, Tatka said:

 

Why would this happen? Most people give envelops with tips during last night.

I'm referring to daily auto tips. They are assigned to the dining room and table you are showing in the system. It's especially important in MTD, because people table/time hop during the cruise. So, telling them you're going somewhere else to eat because of XYZ issue in their dining room, is a red flag they are losing the daily tips for that meal x the number of people in your party.

[Tatka]

Just now, pcur said:

I'm referring to daily auto tips. They are assigned to the dining room and table you are showing in the system. It's especially important in MTD, because people table/time hop during the cruise. So, telling them you're going somewhere else to eat because of XYZ issue in their dining room, is a red flag they are losing the daily tips for that meal x the number of people in your party.

 

People should not remove autotips. We are on MTD all the time and whether we attend MDR or not we always leave them in place.

 

Everything on top of it is discretionary.

[pcur]

6 minutes ago, Tatka said:

 

People should not remove autotips. We are on MTD all the time and whether we attend MDR or not we always leave them in place.

 

Everything on top of it is discretionary.

I am not talking about removing auto tips, but THE TIPS WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY TRANSFERRED TO THE RESTAURANT YOU GO TO IF YOU HAVE TO CHECK IN WITH THEM AT THE PODIUM.

 

The Windjammer is the only option where your tips are not AUTOMATICALLY switched to the new restaurant.

 

(apologies for CAPS; it was for emphasis only)

Edited August 9 by pcur

[cruiseboy89130]

On 8/8/2024 at 8:29 PM, steveru621 said:

 

If you are late for your dining time, it puts extra stress on your waitstaff.

Does it?🤔

[cruiseboy89130]

On 8/8/2024 at 9:15 PM, Tatka said:

 

As long as auto-gratuities are not removed everything above is at own discretion.

Same if it is removed!

[cruiseboy89130]

4 hours ago, pcur said:

I am not talking about removing auto tips, but THE TIPS WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY TRANSFERRED TO THE RESTAURANT YOU GO TO IF YOU HAVE TO CHECK IN WITH THEM AT THE PODIUM.

 

The Windjammer is the only option where your tips are not AUTOMATICALLY switched to the new restaurant.

 

(apologies for CAPS; it was for emphasis only)

Tips are not moved to restaurants -  they are distributed by an unknown system ship wide - actually fleetwide!

[pcur]

9 minutes ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

Tips are not moved to restaurants -  they are distributed by an unknown system ship wide - actually fleetwide!

Any restaurant on the ship where you have to give your cabin number when you arrive at the podium, receives a portion, NOT the table you are seeing on your seapass card.

[cruiseboy89130]

43 minutes ago, pcur said:

Any restaurant on the ship where you have to give your cabin number when you arrive at the podium, receives a portion, NOT the table you are seeing on your seapass card.

Let me guess: A waiter or the someone like that - told you that.....

[fla33023]

1 hour ago, pcur said:

Any restaurant on the ship where you have to give your cabin number when you arrive at the podium, receives a portion, NOT the table you are seeing on your seapass card.

If this is true, tipping and the distribution of funds is even more ridiculous than I thought. If one eats all of their meals in the Windjammer, where does the dining portion of the auto grats go?

[DallasGuy75219]

On 8/8/2024 at 2:58 PM, pcur said:

Then, when you get there for dinner the first night, if things aren't as expected, go up to the podium immediately and quietly, and tell that same staff person that you and your party will be eating elsewhere, and you might want to say you are removing your dining tips for that evening. (I didn't have to say this, because with MTD, you don't show, they don't get that evening's tips for your party. He knew that.)

 

What I did was to tell the staff member at the podium (who I had talked to that afternoon) that "since we discussed this problem this afternoon, and the problem still exists, we have decided to eat elsewhere tonight".  

If assigned seating is full, it's full; RC can't create more space and tables.  If the desirable table locations are taken, should RC boot the people assigned there to accommodate someone else?

 

This comes across as very entitled behavior, and throwing one's weight around by implicitly threatening to remove or redirect tips is not a good a look if the issue is something that the MDR staff cannot fix (because there are no more assigned tables available) vs. something they will not fix.

[gerif]

2 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

If assigned seating is full, it's full; RC can't create more space and tables.  If the desirable table locations are taken, should RC boot the people assigned there to accommodate someone else?

 

This comes across as very entitled behavior, and throwing one's weight around by implicitly threatening to remove or redirect tips is not a good a look if the issue is something that the MDR staff cannot fix (because there are no more assigned tables available) vs. something they will not fix.

Exactly. Some people are just so tacky and entitled it’s ridiculous. 

[pcur]

18 hours ago, fla33023 said:

If this is true, tipping and the distribution of funds is even more ridiculous than I thought. If one eats all of their meals in the Windjammer, where does the dining portion of the auto grats go?

I believe I posted already that the Windjammer is not what I'm referring to, but an eating venue that you have to provide your cabin number at the entrance podium. So, all complimentary venues are part of the dining tip pool.

[pcur]

2 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

If assigned seating is full, it's full; RC can't create more space and tables.  If the desirable table locations are taken, should RC boot the people assigned there to accommodate someone else?

 

This comes across as very entitled behavior, and throwing one's weight around by implicitly threatening to remove or redirect tips is not a good a look if the issue is something that the MDR staff cannot fix (because there are no more assigned tables available) vs. something they will not fix.

1.  The redirection of tips, when you are eating in a venue that records your cabin number, is done by the computerized system.

 

2. Fixed, assigned seating in the main dining room is not what I'm referring to. On every cruise, no matter what dining room, I will go in (as do hundreds of other passengers on Day 1) to check my  table, and if assigned to a large table, I will request a table for 2. This is standard procedure: it's called "customer service".

 

3. I never threatened to remove tips, if I did not eat in MTD (meaning we did not check-in our cabin numbers), see #1 above.

 

(So.....having explained this yet again, I am now convinced that using bold and underlined text is REALLY annoying, and will discontinue that....)

[fla33023]

15 minutes ago, pcur said:

I believe I posted already that the Windjammer is not what I'm referring to, but an eating venue that you have to provide your cabin number at the entrance podium. So, all complimentary venues are part of the dining tip pool.

No, I understood what you were saying. My question was about the portion of the gratuities that goes to the dining staff. If you were to only eat at the WJ, what happens to that portion of the grats? Since you never "checked in" anywhere. On our spring break cruise, my daughter and I only ate in the WJ or the pool spots. My husband did MDR dinner twice. 

Edited August 10 by fla33023

[pcur]

Just now, fla33023 said:

No, I understood what you were saying. My question was about the portion of the gratuities that goes to the dining staff. If you were to only eat at the WJ, what happens to that portion of the grats? Since you never "checked in" anywhere.

Sorry for misunderstanding. I don't know how the auto tips are sliced-and-diced. I do know the Windjammer gets a portion of them, but I don't know if the money is sliced into actual meal times.

[pcur]

23 minutes ago, gerif said:

Exactly. Some people are just so tacky and entitled it’s ridiculous. 

Just to clarify AND repeat, any re-allocation where I was involved is done by RCCL's tipping system, not me. If I had a discussion with a staff member, and was given specific instructions by them to come at a specific time for dinner at a specific table, I expect that agreement to be upheld. When it was not in MTD on Day 1, I considered the polite thing to do is to inform them we would be eating elsewhere, so the table could be released. NOTHING ELSE WAS SAID. 

 

However, the head staff in the dining rooms know that if we go elsewhere, our tips, which are not under our control, in the situation I'm talking about go with me and my friends for that evening, or the whole cruise if we choose to eat elsewhere where we give our cabin number to the entrance podium.

 

Signed,

Your not-tacky, not-entitled, and not ridiculous board friend, pcur.

[pcur]

20 hours ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

Let me guess: A waiter or the someone like that - told you that.....

Actually, it was a dining room manager that explained it to me.

[cruiseboy89130]

16 minutes ago, pcur said:

Actually, it was a dining room manager that explained it to me.

Can't trust those RCL people at all - when it comes to tipping!

[pcur]

1 hour ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

Can't trust those RCL people at all - when it comes to tipping!

Actually, I've had the opposite experience over the last half century.

[cruiseboy89130]

14 minutes ago, pcur said:

Actually, I've had the opposite experience over the last half century.

They just give you stories - nothing close to the truth!

[Tatka]

On 8/9/2024 at 4:45 PM, cruiseboy89130 said:

Same if it is removed!

 

This should not be done unless service was really bad and nothing was done to correct it.

[PhillyFan33579]

19 hours ago, pcur said:

Fixed, assigned seating in the main dining room is not what I'm referring to. On every cruise, no matter what dining room, I will go in (as do hundreds of other passengers on Day 1) to check my  table, and if assigned to a large table, I will request a table for 2. This is standard procedure: it's called "customer service".

There is nothing wrong with wanting a table for 2, but the polite thing to do is request this ahead of time by calling RCI. Waiting until the day of the cruise to request a change creates unnecessary work, when a simple call before the cruise can address your preference. Additionally, if you request a move on the ship, it is likely you will be moved to a different serving team, which screws up tipping since RCI’s computer system allocates tips based on your original table assignment. We just had this issue two weeks ago on Enchantment. A couple wanted to switch tables with us to sit next to their friends on the second night of the cruise. We initially said yes, but the head waiter for our section asked us to please not move because it would mess up both the allocation of gratuities and the survey at the end of the cruise (if we switched tables the survey would not reflect this move).