Royal Caribbean gratuities help

[Bennie Boy]

Hi All,

 

Just returned from a fantastic cruise with RC with my wife and two young children. We chose not to prepay gratuities and on the final day left envelopes for many of the staff That helped us totalling many hundreds of dollars.

 

We are now home and on checking our bill (which we found as we were dragging our suitcases out the room) have found RC are charging us $13.50 per person per day gratuities and they have already started taking money out of my credit card.

 

I feel I have already paid these tips and do not want to pay twice. Have contacted them to ask the credit card gratuities to be refunded but they say I have to wait three days.

 

Has anyone else had this as I am concerned I will end up paying double tips?

 

Ben

[spookwife]

if you did not go down to guest services and remove them , you are charged regardless of whether or not you claim to pay in cash at the end. so yes you will be charged and the staff will consider the cash as an extra bonus.

 

for future reference, it is ALWAYS better to just leave them on and give a little extra to those you feel deserve it. much of the daily charge goes to people behind the scenes who make your stay more enjoyable. furthermore, if you do have them removed, any cash you give must be pooled, the staff members may not keep it. you also have to explain WHY you are removing them and the staff members will be called on the carpet about it.

[Bennie Boy]

We tried to go to guest services but only got the bill this morning and guest services was too busy. We had to go straight away as my children went straight to school.

[GTO-Girl]

Just for future reference....if you choose to remove your gratuities it can be done as soon as you board or anytime during the week. You do not have to wait until you receive the bill.

 

Personally we would never remove our gratuities because there are many, many crew members behind the scene who make our cruise so great, that would be missed if we did not leave them in place.

[papaflamingo]

So I'm guessing you were unaware that you were being charged gratuities on a daily basis? This has actually been policy for quite a few years now. If you had checked your account at anytime throughout the cruise, you would have seen these charges added. Not sure whether or not they will remove them. I am empathetic if this is the case, but it is clearly stated in bold print on the Booking Confirmation (at least the ones I get from my TA), as well as on the RCCL website. I do know how you feel though. More than once I have left a nice tip at a restaurant and not noticed that the tip had already been included.

My best suggestion is to keep pursuing it with Royal Caribbean, and if they don't refund the gratuities, then keep it in mind and next time check your account throughout the cruise. I recommend that anyway to find any mistakes. Last cruise we were charged for a Wine Tasting event that we neither signed up for nor attended. I found it midway through the cruise when I did my typical check on the account. If on the TV I check every day or so. Otherwise, I go down to GS and get a printout then look at it. Then you will know what you are being charged for.

[Havingfun2010]

That's $54 a day for 4 people, and you never noticed the large bill? Or read any of the policies they supplied you?

[molsonschooner]

That's $54 a day for 4 people, and you never noticed the large bill? Or read any of the policies they supplied you?

I would have noticed by day 2 as I am always checking my account on the tv. No surprises for me.

[cruisegirl1]

If you did not go to guest services during the cruise to remove gratuities, there is little or nothing that can be done to remove the charges. I am sorry you had this mix-up. Your travel agent should have explained the automatic gratuity process to you. And, as other have mentioned, it is good advise to NEVER wait till the last day to check the bill. Errors can occur at any time and the last place you want to be on debarkation day is guest services. We cruise often and sometimes friends taking their first cruise will ask us to give them some cruising advise. Among other suggestions we always add "check your bill at least every other day" . This is good advise for a land hotels as well.

 

Good luck,

M

[Sam Ting]

Hi All,

 

Just returned from a fantastic cruise with RC with my wife and two young children. We chose not to prepay gratuities and on the final day left envelopes for many of the staff That helped us totalling many hundreds of dollars.

 

We are now home and on checking our bill (which we found as we were dragging our suitcases out the room) have found RC are charging us $13.50 per person per day gratuities and they have already started taking money out of my credit card.

 

I feel I have already paid these tips and do not want to pay twice. Have contacted them to ask the credit card gratuities to be refunded but they say I have to wait three days.

 

Has anyone else had this as I am concerned I will end up paying double tips?

 

Ben

 

Call your credit card company and dispute the charge. Not your fault they understaff the guest services desk on disembarkation day.

 

Have a great cruise wherever the ship may take you!

[TYMAN]

Call your credit card company and dispute the charge. Not your fault they understaff the guest services desk on disembarkation day.

 

Have a great cruise wherever the ship may take you!

 

 

Got to laugh at this one. Yes, understaffed GS on disembarkation day is not his fault, but the cruiser had a few days prior to that to check his on board expenses. I guess that's GS fault too? lol!

 

To the OP: Glad you enjoyed your cruise. Good luck with this...

Edited November 6, 2017 by TYMAN

[dadofjessie]

if you did not go down to guest services and remove them , you are charged regardless of whether or not you claim to pay in cash at the end. so yes you will be charged and the staff will consider the cash as an extra bonus.

 

for future reference, it is ALWAYS better to just leave them on and give a little extra to those you feel deserve it. much of the daily charge goes to people behind the scenes who make your stay more enjoyable. furthermore, if you do have them removed, any cash you give must be pooled, the staff members may not keep it. you also have to explain WHY you are removing them and the staff members will be called on the carpet about it.

 

That is exactly what I do.

[maryjaden]

Another thing to keep in mind as I have read this on another post, if you dispute RCI charges through the credit card company, that card will be flagged by RCI and you won't be able to use it on another cruise with them. If someone has other info please feel free to correct.

[dpostman]

That is exactly what I do.

 

Same for us. We always prepay grats, and bring a few 10s and 20s for stewarts, specialty restaurant servers and MDR waiters. We also bring a good stash of ones and toos and a few fives, and spread those around as many bars as we can handle;p

:wine-glass::cocktail::tropical-drink::beer-mug::whiskey-glass:

dp

[jagsfan]

I don't know how anyone can book a cruise and avoid knowing gratuities are charged automatically.

I presume OP has never cruised before or read a cruise brochure or read the guest confirmation provided when a cruise is booked. Daily charges for gratuities are standard for all mainstream cruise lines as far as I know.

I don't see how anyone can request a charge be removed from their credit card if they received what they were contracted to receive.

 

 

 

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[gerif]

Be honest now - you obviously knew the suggested gratuity amount having declined to prepay - did you actually give cash amounts equal to the suggested amounts ($13.50 per person per day), or just what you felt like paying? Why do I believe you did not pay at least the full amount? Sorry, I'm thinking karma came into play here. Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

[Cauzneffct]

I don't know how anyone can book a cruise and avoid knowing gratuities are charged automatically.

I presume OP has never cruised before or read a cruise brochure or read the guest confirmation provided when a cruise is booked. Daily charges for gratuities are standard for all mainstream cruise lines as far as I know.

I don't see how anyone can request a charge be removed from their credit card if they received what they were contracted to receive.

 

 

 

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Except he says that they didn't prepay the grats. Hard to square familiarity with the option to prepay the grats and a lack of familiarity with the grats

 

 

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[maryjaden]

I can see a scenario where the TA asked him if he wanted to prepay and he said no, he would tip on the ship. It would then be the TA fault for not clarifying. Though I also find it hard to believe this amount was not noticed earlier.

[Biker19]

Have contacted them to ask the credit card gratuities to be refunded but they say I have to wait three days.

If this does happen, it will be the only time I have read of an after the fact grats removal.

 

Biker, who hates to think the can of worms that would open.

[Jarmo]

I think there can be confusion between 'prepaid' and 'auto', some thinking they mean the same thing. Last trip I was on, there were some first timers in our group who didn't prepay, they assumed this meant they were responsible for paying tips in cash.

[Redrobo]

We tried to go to guest services but only got the bill this morning and guest services was too busy. We had to go straight away as my children went straight to school.

 

 

Next time just use the phone to guest services.

Nobody has the right to tell you what you should or should not do about gratuities.

[Milwaukee Eight]

If this does happen, it will be the only time I have read of an after the fact grats removal.

 

Biker, who hates to think the can of worms that would open.

 

 

 

More than just worms. If they allow this, I wonder how many will use this method instead of waiting in line at GS.

 

 

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[Paulxyz2004]

Sorry, but I can‘t see how this can be missed. I just came home from a cruise as well and besides those charges coming up on your bill daily and a printed account statement being delivered mid cruise, the daily charge was mentioned several times in the cruise compass, the boarding information for the first day and also the information about departure.

You got to be very ignorant to not know about this.

 

As for disputing with your credit card, I would hope this won‘t work, as the service was delivered and it‘s not a fraudulent charge.

[grapau27]

If this does happen, it will be the only time I have read of an after the fact grats removal.

 

Biker, who hates to think the can of worms that would open.

My thoughts too.

This sounds like another thread started by a newbie trying to stir things up and sounds very dubious to me.

[grapau27]

More than just worms. If they allow this, I wonder how many will use this method instead of waiting in line at GS.

 

 

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Your right.

[Milwaukee Eight]

Next time just use the phone to guest services.

 

Nobody has the right to tell you what you should or should not do about gratuities.

 

 

 

Not a newbie by date signed up but newbie by posts. (6).

 

 

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