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Royl Genie Tipping


Groucho
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Interesting. Maybe RCL was not sure how to handle them. I just have a hard time believing a genie did nothing for one of their groups. Just the food arrangements and show seats was worth the money we paid

 

 

 

I wonder why you would book a Star class cabin if you were not going to take advantage of the Genie

 

 

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Neither should we lose sight of the fact that the crew may well prefer a system of mixed compensation (tipping and salary).

 

I agree with that just not the $1000 part of it. Genies have 3 cabins, if each cabin was tipping $1000 for the week then they are making $3000 per week or 150k per year. Probably the third highest paid person on the ship after the captain and hotel director.

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I wonder why you would book a Star class cabin if you were not going to take advantage of the Genie

 

 

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I have no dog in this fight..... but comparing some of the sailings, 2 separate grand suites often is the same price as a 2 bedroom ATS. For a traveling party of 4+ members, the included tip (not counting the genie), drink package and dinning package makes it more attractive to book a star class room. The genie is just the cherry on top (less the tipping part)

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But $2150/month for 10months a year (isn’t that roughly the contract time?) is not a lot of money...even if they make $1000/week in tips, that amounts to just $60k/year salary...

 

New college hires make more than that where I work!

 

So hopefully these highly trained butlers are making closer to $2000/week in tips that they get to keep!

 

 

 

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And for 10 months a year you are not paying for accommodation or food. Your theoretical 10 months at 1K per week in tips would also be tax free cash.

 

This is not a bad gig if you can get it; consider the overall compensation package it's really stellar. That is why it is a sought after position for a credentialed individual, not a work just for tips job. The company would be insane not to properly incent the staff handling the guests that spent the most per cabin. I am not among them, but I am not blind to the fact that plenty of people drop 25-50-100K on a cruise to have top flight rooms, services, and for multi-generational families. Believe me, they are using competent people for this.

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I have no dog in this fight..... but comparing some of the sailings, 2 separate grand suites often is the same price as a 2 bedroom ATS. For a traveling party of 4+ members, the included tip (not counting the genie), drink package and dinning package makes it more attractive to book a star class room. The genie is just the cherry on top (less the tipping part)

 

Exactly. We were taking son and his wife with us on a cruise. I had a one bdrm AQS and a Grand Suite booked when I realized I could book a two bdrm AQS for less than $100 more and get the Star Class perks included. My very good TA was able to change the bookings.

 

We're paying for the cruise but Son/Wife will contribute to the Genie tips.

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  • 1 month later...
But $2150/month for 10months a year (isn’t that roughly the contract time?) is not a lot of money...even if they make $1000/week in tips, that amounts to just $60k/year salary...

 

New college hires make more than that where I work!

 

So hopefully these highly trained butlers are making closer to $2000/week in tips that they get to keep!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

I am curious as to where you work that college hires make that kind of money?

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I'm just a retired blue collar worker. Before retiring my base salary was below $60, way below. I almost doubled my salary one year working lots of overtime, going 3 months without a day off, working nites.

And being retired. Its a heck of alot less than 60k.

I don't think their salary is bad, and yes i would tip. Just don't think i would do $100 a nite.

But then again i don't think i will be doing a star class. I've been happy with sky.

 

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  • 2 years later...

Regarding the comments saying "Well the have 3 other cabins" or "they already make $xxx per day" etc... I would ask this:  Before you tip a waiter do you really ask them first "How many other tables did you serve?" or "How much do you make?" OF COURSE NOT!  

 

Tipping is a mechanism to communicate directly to the "servant" (server)  our level of appreciation for the perceived level of quality of service they provided to us, where the range is "generally" relative to the size of the source bill and type of service provided - for areas where tipping is customary. For example:  A waiter in a restaurant should be tipped 20% with the amount going up or down based on the attention to detail/experience they provided (and no,  0% or 1 penny etc is never acceptable no matter how terrible they were - EXCEPT in a high end restaurant then yes, 0 can be acceptable as in the lower end restaurants the wait staff literally survive ONLY off their tips practically)

 

So for the Star tier of 12 days you're looking at about $22,000 for 2 people (with the current 60% promotion for the 2nd person, so yeah... ouch).

 

I think the reasonable question is, is the Genie really worth the same equation especially if they are really not doing a lot?  Ie: should a basic tip (for the room,  not let person) be $4,400?  I simply don't think so.   These rooms equate to $2,000/day roughly. Am I going to tip $400/day? Uhh... That's $50/hr and he have to be busy ONLY with me all day.  

 

I really think it depends on how much time they are spending in you and the value for that service. 

Unpack and pack my luggage

Organize reservations for shows and dinners every day

Organize a couple excursions

Setup for in room dining a few times

That's all looking like 10hr total plus maybe a couple little odds and ends here and there... it would seem to me if that's about all I'm using them for $700 is about the top... but I guess I'll track it this trip and see how much I work them.  If I meet people on the ship and have a couple events in the room... well... I'll have to tip more :)

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On Anthem our genie worked for every cent we gave him.  He went beyond by checking iFly every day to see if he could get son and husband in, bumper cars every time,  and other things we requested.  If our Anthem cruise over Thanksgiving is a go we are hoping for the same genie and might tip even more as I know what the conditions in India are.  I think we will tip most who help us more  because of their lack of work for so long.  Had a couple genies we probably over tipped but that was back when Star Class was first introduced.  Like anything else you learn something new each time.

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2 hours ago, Fsleeper said:

Unpack and pack my luggage

This is not considered a "customary" service by the Genie.  Would they do it if you asked them to ?  Maybe...probably not.

 

I wouldn't want anyone going through my "things" even if they could/would.

 

For the rest of the list of services that you mentioned, I would expect that a tip for a 7 night cruise would be $500- $700 regardless of the number of passengers in the suite.  Some tip more, some tip less.  That's generally what we tip the Genie.

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  • 8 months later...

It’s out of character for me to write a blunt response like this but…
 

I don’t get the “you are crazy” type comments here. This is all relative. If you’re paying $2,000 per night for your cruise you either are spending too much on your vacation or you can afford it.
 

Everyone needs to earn a living and this is how things are structured on most cruise lines. People rely on tips to earn their living. I’m not even going to bother commenting about those  judging where someone is from and using that as a cudgel to justify how much you tip them in your star class suite. 😳
 

On my current cruise my Genie in caring for a panoramic suite (directly under the bridge), my suite on 17, and an ATS on 9. I’ve seen him literally out of breath from running across the ship to service his guests, and my family are pretty low-maintenance guests. He will be tipped very well for his diligence and effort.  I hope this helps offset those that would not bother to tip, or tip too little. 

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my wife and i had a 2 bedroom aqua theather suite on the symphony in october, we gave our genie $700. making dinner reservations, getting us a cake for our anniversary, and getting seats for the shows were great. but the best part was disembarkation, he showed up with a porter and we went right off the ship. that was worth every penny of the tip.

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