Question for those who remove auto tips

[blondie from arizona]

No flaming please. This is a serious ? So, if you go to guest services to remove or lower the tips, is it an all or nothing proposition? A percentage? A certain $ amount? Or by department?

 

Example: Your wait staff was wonderful, but your room attendant was horrible. Can you leave the tips on for the wait staff and lower it for the room attendant? And, can you lower it by 20% or would I need to remove them completely and have enough cash to give to everyone else?

 

Thanks in advance for all the helpful information. Again, no flaming please.

[amiller2850]

The cruise lines give to each attendant you have so if you want to self adjust I suggest removing all your tips and handing cash to each person. We have done this, and beware that there is a list posted in crew quarters with the names of who has removed tips. We have seen our service quality decline when doing this. I suggest doing this the night before your cruise ends so your service doesn't decline for too long.

 

 

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[cruisenfever]

No flaming please. This is a serious ? So, if you go to guest services to remove or lower the tips, is it an all or nothing proposition? A percentage? A certain $ amount? Or by department?

 

Example: Your wait staff was wonderful, but your room attendant was horrible. Can you leave the tips on for the wait staff and lower it for the room attendant? And, can you lower it by 20% or would I need to remove them completely and have enough cash to give to everyone else?

 

Thanks in advance for all the helpful information. Again, no flaming please.

From the RCI website regarding Why would I need to modify my gratuity amounts?

[spookwife]

No flaming please. This is a serious ? So, if you go to guest services to remove or lower the tips, is it an all or nothing proposition? A percentage? A certain $ amount? Or by department?

 

Example: Your wait staff was wonderful, but your room attendant was horrible. Can you leave the tips on for the wait staff and lower it for the room attendant? And, can you lower it by 20% or would I need to remove them completely and have enough cash to give to everyone else?

 

Thanks in advance for all the helpful information. Again, no flaming please.

 

if your room attendant is horrible you DEAL WITH IT IMMEDIATELY by taking it up with housekeeping. you do not wait until the last day, having suffered through sub par service the entire time. you give them the opportunity to make it right.

 

if and ONLY if, after repeated complaints to the appropriate staff leaders the situation does not improve could you in any way justify any reduction.

 

every cruiseline does break it down for you and shows you how much goes to each person.

[BonTexasNY]

The cruise lines give to each attendant you have so if you want to self adjust I suggest removing all your tips and handing cash to each person. We have done this, and beware that there is a list posted in crew quarters with the names of who has removed tips. We have seen our service quality decline when doing this. I suggest doing this the night before your cruise ends so your service doesn't decline for too long.

 

 

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When we removed auto tips we specifically told our wait staff and cabin attendant that we would be thanking them personally at the end of the cruise. We got no decline in service.

 

Not sure why RCI would post names of those who removed tips, in the crew quarters, if according to RCI, tipping is at the sole discretion of the passenger.

 

The crew works real hard and we want to be sure our tips go exactly where they are intended to go, NOT because we want to tip less than the auto amount.

[Ourusualbeach]

if your room attendant is horrible you DEAL WITH IT IMMEDIATELY by taking it up with housekeeping. you do not wait until the last day, having suffered through sub par service the entire time. you give them the opportunity to make it right.

 

if and ONLY if, after repeated complaints to the appropriate staff leaders the situation does not improve could you in any way justify any reduction.

 

every cruiseline does break it down for you and shows you how much goes to each person.

 

I don't remember seeing a breakdown on our cruise last March but for the cruise last December on the Freedom they only gave a generic breakdown. They listed dining staff, cabin attendant and other housekeeping personel so you don't know how much goes to each person.

Edited May 17, 2015 by Ourusualbeach

[gerif]

if your room attendant is horrible you DEAL WITH IT IMMEDIATELY by taking it up with housekeeping. you do not wait until the last day, having suffered through sub par service the entire time. you give them the opportunity to make it right.

 

if and ONLY if, after repeated complaints to the appropriate staff leaders the situation does not improve could you in any way justify any reduction.

 

every cruiseline does break it down for you and shows you how much goes to each person.

 

This. We have on rare occasion received subpar service and dealt with it through a supervisor. Why ruin your cruise and tolerate poor service? Doesn't make any sense.

[Debde]

We have done this, and beware that there is a list posted in crew quarters with the names of who has removed tips.

 

 

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I'm not sold yet that this is true.:confused:

[pspercy]

I'm not sold yet that this is true.:confused:

 

I saw it on one ship, not sure if it's universal.

[amiller2850]

I'm not sold yet that this is true.:confused:

 

 

Saw it with my own eyes during a crew access tour! Never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it!

 

 

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[iheartbda]

When we removed auto tips we specifically told our wait staff and cabin attendant that we would be thanking them personally at the end of the cruise. We got no decline in service.

 

Not sure why RCI would post names of those who removed tips, in the crew quarters, if according to RCI, tipping is at the sole discretion of the passenger.

Please show me where that is noted.

[LMaxwell]

Please show me where that is noted.

Hard to find the link through Tapatalk but in the link provided by Royal to TA through their loyal to you site they definitely state guest discretion.

 

I'm curious how it works too. Last cruise we had out of this world waitstaff but poor cabin attendant. There was a day the room was only done one time and one day not even once by 8pm. We called. Could not reach him. Eventually reached housekeeping and said our room had not been touched all day and to please have it done. It got done while we were out. don't know if it was our guy or not. Didn't feel it necessary to hunt down hotel director for a federal case to be opened. Never had ice in the room which also according to RCI is available on request, thus not something I'd call special or above and beyond, which makes sense if the cabin isn't done. We had MTD so had prepaid and I don't like fiddling around with Guest services on vacation, but looking back I should have deducted from the room attendant as the service was below par for sure.

[Retired LEO]

I'm not sold yet that this is true.:confused:

 

Absolutely true. The steward has a list with him/her. I've seen it on the cart.

[BonTexasNY]

Please show me where that is noted.

 

Here you go. Taken from RCI's official website.

Q: Am I required to pay these adjusted totals?

 

A: Gratuities are at the discretion of each guest. These guidelines serve as recommendations to help guests express their gratitude for the outstanding service they experience on their cruise vacation, from members of the dining and housekeeping staff. We hope you find these suggested totals to be an accurate reflection of your satisfaction, and thank you for your generous recognition of the Royal Caribbean staff.

[TimeToFloat]

When we removed auto tips we specifically told our wait staff and cabin attendant that we would be thanking them personally at the end of the cruise. We got no decline in service.

 

Not sure why RCI would post names of those who removed tips, in the crew quarters, if according to RCI, tipping is at the sole discretion of the passenger.

 

The crew works real hard and we want to be sure our tips go exactly where they are intended to go, NOT because we want to tip less than the auto amount.

 

So, does anyone know how Royal Caribbean is trying to justify posting that information?

 

And does anyone know how much of our auto pay tips actually get to the person we intend to be tipping? For that matter, any idea what the crew has to do when they receive cash tips (pool it, report it, whatever)?

[BonTexasNY]

Hard to find the link through Tapatalk but in the link provided by Royal to TA through their loyal to you site they definitely state guest discretion.

 

I'm curious how it works too. Last cruise we had out of this world waitstaff but poor cabin attendant. There was a day the room was only done one time and one day not even once by 8pm. We called. Could not reach him. Eventually reached housekeeping and said our room had not been touched all day and to please have it done. It got done while we were out. don't know if it was our guy or not. Didn't feel it necessary to hunt down hotel director for a federal case to be opened. Never had ice in the room which also according to RCI is available on request, thus not something I'd call special or above and beyond, which makes sense if the cabin isn't done. We had MTD so had prepaid and I don't like fiddling around with Guest services on vacation, but looking back I should have deducted from the room attendant as the service was below par for sure.

 

So now I am going to admit to not tipping someone ONCE. We had a wonderful wait staff in the MDR on our last cruise on the Mariner approx. 2 years ago. We tipped them more than the suggested amount. Some time after dessert was served, and we were having a nice chat with our tablemates, my husband asked the assistant waiter a question about her country and she respectfully answered.

 

Head waiter, the guy I call Red Jacket pulled her over to the next table and royally chewed her out in anger, his voice raised to the point of SHOUTING at length that she was wasting time talking to the passengers. She looked terrified and about to cry. Nobody near us was waiting for service. MDR was emptying out. We called Red Jacket over and told him that she was the best assistant waiter we ever had in 10 cruises and that RCI was LUCKY to have her. I felt so sorry for her. She actually apologized to my husband who told her he should be apologizing to her and how happy we were with her service. Needless to say that Head Waiter got no tip from us and others at our table who didn't have their tips auto added.

 

Noted the issue on the survey form but never heard back from RCI.

BTW we never once interacted with Red Jacket and we made no special culinary requests.

[mcatmcat]

I saw it on one ship, not sure if it's universal.

 

 

I saw the paper,not the details of the paper but apparently my name was there along with others of MDR table and she mentioned that we all had out tips paid before arriving to the ship.

[Paulxyz2004]

I have seen those lists as well. I´ve seen them with the cabin attendants as well as on the Bulletin boards in the galley.

 

Not sure if there´s a Need to justify for RCI giving this information to the crew. I have no Problem at all with them knowing this information and I would go so far as in supporting it.

[sblair]

One could argue that by the crew knowing who hasn't made their tipping decisions yet, the staff might then work harder to get better tips whereas those that have the autograt may be less likely to tip further.

 

No idea what the effect is in practice but I could see the logic in this too. I have opted out of the auto-tips before and instead opted to tip (generously) the people who actually waited on us. This was on a cruise where we never ate in the MDR once so I really didn't feel obliged to be tipping 3 levels of wait staff there that never even served us water while stiffing those that actually did give us good service at the other restaurants.

[Debde]

One could argue that by the crew knowing who hasn't made their tipping decisions yet, the staff might then work harder to get better tips whereas those that have the autograt may be less likely to tip further.

.

 

Or-the list is to tell the crew that they will be visiting them for the pound of flesh they did not get in the auto tip!!!:eek:

 

sblair- I tip like you do all the time and it really works just fine for me.

[Thetrail]

So, does anyone know how Royal Caribbean is trying to justify posting that information?

 

And does anyone know how much of our auto pay tips actually get to the person we intend to be tipping? For that matter, any idea what the crew has to do when they receive cash tips (pool it, report it, whatever)?

Don't know, don't care.

[BigDaddyCVO]

I wonder if the list is updated throughout the cruise or if the list is provided prior to the sailing and not updated. We prefer not to pre-pay so we can use OBC to cover the gratuities. Oftentimes we take care of this on day 1 or 2 to get it out of the way. With that being said...like another poster, we really don't care if staff knows we pre-paid.

[Retired LEO]

It seems that cruise lines are moving in the direction that gratuities can't be removed for any reason.

[2thesea]

It seems that cruise lines are moving in the direction that gratuities can't be removed for any reason.

 

Can it imagine they can do that if tips are still voluntary and up to the passenger to decide what they want to give. Particularly when I as a passenger have agreed to nothing in writing agreeing to the amount.

[Retired LEO]

Can it imagine they can do that if tips are still voluntary and up to the passenger to decide what they want to give. Particularly when I as a passenger have agreed to nothing in writing agreeing to the amount.

 

They are now starting to call it a service charge. They could add that onto another line on the reservation and be done with it.

 

On reservations now there is a line that says taxes, fees and port expenses. They could add the amount under fees and it will be covered. Or add a new line that says service charge.

 

Does anyone know what the fees are?

 

Has anyone tried to get the fees taken off?

 

So if they call it anything other than Gratuities or Tips it may work.