Is Dynamic Dining the end of using OBC for gratuities?

[John&LaLa]

Maddening not to get consistent information from the cruise line.

 

Just moved March Oasis to April. Dining says open seating prepaid required

 

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[RoamingRetirees]

Maddening not to get consistent information from the cruise line.

 

Death, taxes, and Royal inconsistency! ;)

[Chelsea1]

I really don't understand the concept of tipping in advance of receiving any service. Flexible Dining charge or Anytime surcharge, OK, but not a gratuity. We tip exactly the same gratuity - daily for MTD, at end of cruise for set dining, regardless of the prepaid service charge, unless the service does not merit it (which has never happened)

[nextcruiseis]

When we made final payment for Dec 1st sailing, we were informed by Royal that the gratuities had to be prepaid due to DD.

[kassimer1]

I really don't understand the concept of tipping in advance of receiving any service. Flexible Dining charge or Anytime surcharge, OK, but not a gratuity. We tip exactly the same gratuity - daily for MTD, at end of cruise for set dining, regardless of the prepaid service charge, unless the service does not merit it (which has never happened)

 

I agree with you, royal really has to look up the definition of gratuituy

gra·tu·ity noun \grə-ˈtü-ə-tē, -ˈtyü-\

: an amount of money given to a person (such as a waiter or waitress) who has performed a service

 

the key here is has performed not will perform or might possible perform . they should call it a service fee.

to pay 3 months ahead for service that could be horrible it totally redicules. And yes one cruise we did have horrible service,

[Merion_Mom]

I believe it was Merion Mom that posted a while back that she was booked on Quantum but was NOT charged prepaid gratuities.

 

That is correct.

 

They are NOT charging for gratuities with final payment.

 

:)

[Merion_Mom]

When we made final payment for Dec 1st sailing, we were informed by Royal that the gratuities had to be prepaid due to DD.

 

I cannot understand why you would be treated one way and I another.

 

Are you in North America? Sometimes RC treats non-North Americans differently.

[RoamingRetirees]

I cannot understand why you would be treated one way and I another.

 

Are you in North America? Sometimes RC treats non-North Americans differently.

 

I am from North America and booked while on Allure in June. We were told gratuities must be prepaid for our Quantum cruise in May. Fortunately, when I got home I transferred the booking to our TA and they agreed to pay them for us in lieu of OBC.

[krisko]

I'm booked on Anthem, I'm getting obc through the TA, and there's no mention of having to prepay gratuities.

[nextcruiseis]

I cannot understand why you would be treated one way and I another.

 

Are you in North America? Sometimes RC treats non-North Americans differently.

 

 

Yes, in USA but I am not at all surprised that people have received different responses. We booked on Day 1 while on another cruise (before DD) and were not prepaying at that time. At the time of final payment, the customer rep said that we had to prepay gratuities. This did not cause me any undue anxiety although I would much have preferred to use OBC. I received the same information from the Resolutions Dept where I was transferred because the initial customer rep also insisted that cruise our deposit had only been a total of $10 (yes, ten dollars)! At that rate, I wanted to reserve my next 10 cruises. :)

[Cruising.Lovers]

This is one of many reasons I'm not too loyal to RCI, as a gold working on platinum on NCL I know what I'm getting and eat when I want, NCL lead this charge with freestyle cruising and everyone else is following suit, I'm at the point of canceling my booking on quantum of the sea because it is so over rated and over priced, what a joke!

[DonnaK]

I am already past final payment for my Quantum cruise, and did NOT have to prepay gratuities.

[roe2ship]

I'd be curious if you are able to remove the prepaid gratuties.

 

When we booked both the Quantum and Anthem, gratuities were added to our invoices. When I found out that others did not have to pre-pay gratuties, I called and had them removed. Now we can use our OBC to pay the gratuities.

So the inconsistency continues....:D

 

I had to call Royal regarding entertainment and while I was on the phone I figure I would ask about the option to remove the tips off my invoices. The representative said "Dynamic Dining requires pre-paid tips as it is being treated just like MTD". Who knows, when final payment comes around in January that may change. Doesn't matter to me anyway whether I pay them at final payment or have them charged daily.

[fishtaco]

Perhaps the inconsistency in information given out comes about because not all ships will be able to fully change to a DD system but will be able to change to a fully MTD system with DD style menus :confused:

 

If drydock cannot provide separate dinning venues or enough separate venues for a full DD experience or "vision" then the traditional dinning rooms will be used for MTD only with no fixed seating and thus require pre paid grats:confused:

 

P&O AU changed to 100% MTD over night,well as each ship started a new cruise,so staff were trained up for it "on the go".

 

It also isnt hard for RCI to target individual cruisers for pre paid grats only.

If a cruiser has removed auto grats in favour of cash tips it would have been documented and both reps and website can flag this info.

 

I foolishly removed my auto grats to pay cash last RCI cruise:mad: and then could not secure traditional seating with a booking for an almost empty ship over a year ahead!

[RoamingRetirees]

Perhaps the inconsistency in information given out comes about because not all ships will be able to fully change to a DD system but will be able to change to a fully MTD system with DD style menus :confused:

 

If drydock cannot provide separate dinning venues or enough separate venues for a full DD experience or "vision" then the traditional dinning rooms will be used for MTD only with no fixed seating and thus require pre paid grats:confused:

 

P&O AU changed to 100% MTD over night,well as each ship started a new cruise,so staff were trained up for it "on the go".

 

It also isnt hard for RCI to target individual cruisers for pre paid grats only.

If a cruiser has removed auto grats in favour of cash tips it would have been documented and both reps and website can flag this info.

 

I foolishly removed my auto grats to pay cash last RCI cruise:mad: and then could not secure traditional seating with a booking for an almost empty ship over a year ahead!

 

We have always left our gratuities on auto pay, so that can't be why we were told we had to prepay gratuities on Quantum. I thought it was because DD is similar to MTD, where you don't have the same table/waiter every night. However, others have not had to prepay, so it still goes back to RCI's consistent inconsistency!

[Folk Singer]

Maybe I missed it, but I was not sure it's been established yet that Dynamic Dining will require prepaid gratuities.

 

 

Will have to wait and see. Thanks Bob:p

[MrsPete]

Several opinions:

 

I suspect it won't be too long 'til prepayment is required for ALL gratuities.

 

If you're going to multiple places to eat, prepayment will be more convenient.

 

I personally don't understand why some people have a problem with prepayment. You're going to pay it anyway, the chances of bad services are pretty small, and you're not going to earn more than a dollar or two if the money's in your savings account -- why not just prepay and remove one small chore from your vacation?

[FLACRUISER99]

Several opinions:

 

 

 

I suspect it won't be too long 'til prepayment is required for ALL gratuities.

 

 

 

If you're going to multiple places to eat, prepayment will be more convenient.

 

 

 

I personally don't understand why some people have a problem with prepayment. You're going to pay it anyway, the chances of bad services are pretty small, and you're not going to earn more than a dollar or two if the money's in your savings account -- why not just prepay and remove one small chore from your vacation?

 

 

I like to keep my money in my pocket. Why does RCI have the money before I cruise as they are going too get it anyway?

 

 

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[RoamingRetirees]

Several opinions:

 

I suspect it won't be too long 'til prepayment is required for ALL gratuities.

 

If you're going to multiple places to eat, prepayment will be more convenient.

 

I personally don't understand why some people have a problem with prepayment. You're going to pay it anyway, the chances of bad services are pretty small, and you're not going to earn more than a dollar or two if the money's in your savings account -- why not just prepay and remove one small chore from your vacation?

 

We almost always have OBC and use it to pay the gratuities. I'm not worried about bad service or earning "a dollar or two." That "one small chore" really isn't a chore, since they automatically add it to your Sea Pass account--it does not require any effort. We just prefer to use our OBC to pay for it. What is wrong with that?

[SherriZ366]

Perhaps the inconsistency in information given out comes about because not all ships will be able to fully change to a DD system but will be able to change to a fully MTD system with DD style menus :confused:

 

If drydock cannot provide separate dinning venues or enough separate venues for a full DD experience or "vision" then the traditional dinning rooms will be used for MTD only with no fixed seating and thus require pre paid grats:confused:

 

Interesting point about the converted ships not being able to offer the full range of DD choices that purpose built ships like QU and AN will.

[SherriZ366]

We almost always have OBC and use it to pay the gratuities. I'm not worried about bad service or earning "a dollar or two." That "one small chore" really isn't a chore, since they automatically add it to your Sea Pass account--it does not require any effort. We just prefer to use our OBC to pay for it. What is wrong with that?

We like to do the same thing and on our FR 2-22-2015 & 5-17-2015 cruises, we have a lot of OBC because they cancelled our original cruises -- one for drydock and one for a full ship charter.

[LMaxwell]

Several opinions:

 

I suspect it won't be too long 'til prepayment is required for ALL gratuities.

 

If you're going to multiple places to eat, prepayment will be more convenient.

 

I personally don't understand why some people have a problem with prepayment. You're going to pay it anyway, the chances of bad services are pretty small, and you're not going to earn more than a dollar or two if the money's in your savings account -- why not just prepay and remove one small chore from your vacation?

 

The question is whether OBC can be used for this or not. It appears that IF they do treat DD like MTD that is basically going to be the end of using OBC for gratuities.

[Biker19]

The question is whether OBC can be used for this or not. It appears that IF they do treat DD like MTD that is basically going to be the end of using OBC for gratuities.

 

Which would mean that a year from now, when 5 (Q, An, Al, Oa, Fr) of RCI's newest ships are DD (more than 1/4 of their fleet in terms of volume) those OBC $s could change RCI's costs dramatically. Those OBC dollars cost RCI much less if used for anything other than gratuities ($10 spent on a drink costs them $1, $10 spent on gratuities costs them $10). If you were an RCI bean counter what would you do?

[Folk Singer]

Interesting point about the converted ships not being able to offer the full range of DD choices that purpose built ships like QU and AN will.

 

 

 

It will be worthy of note to see exactly what will happen, in regard to the DD.

[Folk Singer]

The question is whether OBC can be used for this or not. It appears that IF they do treat DD like MTD that is basically going to be the end of using OBC for gratuities.

 

 

It really does seem to be pointing that way. :(:(