Tipping with OBC

[land lover]

dupe

[land lover]

Be forewarned that not ALL ships will hand you any unused OBC back in cash, especially if you have a credit card on file.

 

After doing a b2b on Serenade and disembarking on 4/24, we ran into this problem.

 

 

When you have enough OBC...you can have a cash account and do not have to give them a card or cash at the DOC, they will let you use your OBC as collateral.

I have done this twice....then the last night I go down and cash out...often I am using a rewards card and don't want refunds to go back on my card.

 

But..I agree each ship handles situations differently, and my cruises were on NOTS and MOTS.

[land lover]

and here is another tidbit......you book and prepay for all your excursions, wine package, spa appts. specialty restuarants prior to sailing you cancel a few items on the ship...this money goes back to your sea pass and will be credited to your credit card.

 

But wait,...I have 1000. non refundable OBC...and I prepaid 800. for excursions..etc. Shouldn't I be able to use my OBC for that? After all they suggest using your OBC for these items, what will they do?

[madforcruising]

(Remember only 25% of the tip goes to Dining staff; the rest goes to cabin crew).

 

 

Steve

 

:confused::confused::confused:

 

What odd numbers are you using?

 

RCI´s suggested tipping guideline and mandatory figures for MTD:

 

3.50 waiter

2.00 assistand waiter

0.75 headwaiter

3.50 cabin attendant or 5.75 suite attendant

 

This comes to 9.75 / person / day total or 12.00 if staying in a suite.

 

According to my calculation this comes down to 64.1% of the tips going to the Dining Room Staff when staying in a regular cabin and 52.08% when staying in a Suite.

 

How do you come up with the 25% / 75% split ???

 

:confused::confused::confused:

[katiel53]

I wanted to mention another way that RCI does MTD tipping. We were part of a group and had MTD on Freedom last week. We booked originally with RCI and our invoice showed we had to pre-pay our tips. When we switched to a TA and were put into her group, we were told we did NOT have to pre-pay tips as groups could have a combo of MTD and regular. We had a good sized OBC for this cruise too.

 

When we got onboard, we got the form to fill out for tips as we usually do. We filled out the form, but before it could be processed, we looked at our account on the TV in the cabin and it showed that the tips were automatically added. My sister didn't fill out her form and hers were automatically added also. This worked well for us as they were then taken from our OBC.

 

I do think it is discriminatory to have to pay tips in advance or in our case have them automatically added to the SeaPass. (Even though I would have chosen to have them added, it's different when the cruise line does it on it's own.) I know why it is done as many people have different servers nightly in MTD, but they have the same stewards all week. I am wondering if this auto billing is going to lead to tips being changed to a service charge/auto tip and that everyone will be billed in advance or when they first get onboard as other lines do. I would prefer it be a service charge as that is really what it is.

[SteveinPhilly]

..I was like you and wanted to use my OBC for tips and so did not want prepay gratuties...however the last 2 cruises MTD was packed and by paying with my sea pass account they could not seat us till the second night...not worth it.....

 

 

So you went with fixed time dining?

 

Steve

[land lover]

 

 

So you went with fixed time dining?

 

Steve

 

 

Only the first night.....we went to the table that was assigned on our SP.

Then the next evening they were able to fit us in.

 

It really depends how full MTD is on your sailing...since it has become more popular in the last few months you risk the chance of not getting it at all.

 

So you could have a sailing where you walk up to the MD and he can fit you in the first evening and have you sign the paper work to prepay tips like happen to us our first two times or maybe you'll encounter like us on our last cruise they are over booked so needed the first evening to get organized, in fact he did not have us sign the prepaid tip slip until Thurs. they were just so busy.

 

By having everyone prepay it cuts out this paper work process....you really have to experience it to understand.

 

After sailing 4 times last year on the same ship and using MTD, I think I can talk from experience....

 

 

But in 2 weeks I M on the Xpedition so don't have to worry about gratuities at all:D

 

Enjoy our cruise.

[land lover]

I wanted to mention another way that RCI does MTD tipping. We were part of a group and had MTD on Freedom last week. We booked originally with RCI and our invoice showed we had to pre-pay our tips. When we switched to a TA and were put into her group, we were told we did NOT have to pre-pay tips as groups could have a combo of MTD and regular. We had a good sized OBC for this cruise too.

 

When we got onboard, we got the form to fill out for tips as we usually do. We filled out the form, but before it could be processed, we looked at our account on the TV in the cabin and it showed that the tips were automatically added. My sister didn't fill out her form and hers were automatically added also. This worked well for us as they were then taken from our OBC.

 

I do think it is discriminatory to have to pay tips in advance or in our case have them automatically added to the SeaPass. (Even though I would have chosen to have them added, it's different when the cruise line does it on it's own.) I know why it is done as many people have different servers nightly in MTD, but they have the same stewards all week. I am wondering if this auto billing is going to lead to tips being changed to a service charge/auto tip and that everyone will be billed in advance or when they first get onboard as other lines do. I would prefer it be a service charge as that is really what it is.

 

 

Other lines have been tacking the tips on to your sea pass card for 4 or 5 years.....you have to go to the pursers desk to remove them. RCI is behind the curve, I have no problem with them joining...if fact I probably tip less because of auto tipping, their loss.

[cruisenfever]

Be forewarned that not ALL ships will hand you any unused OBC back in cash, especially if you have a credit card on file.

 

After doing a b2b on Serenade and disembarking on 4/24, we ran into this problem.

What happened? Did they put the credit on your credit card?

Yes, it did appear on our next statement and we lost points from the credit as it was identified as RCI.:(