For the Record - RCCL does refund Gratuities

[clean1owner]

2 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

There seems to be conflicting stories as to whether they keep it or have to share it.  Both sides swear that they are correct. 

  

 

And since they have ALL spent several years working on RCCL cruise ships, they certainly know best!

[proggieus]

my point is-

 

If you know there are people who are working very hard to make your cruise great that depend on auto gratuities as part of their compensation package, how can you in any kind of good faith go ahead and cancel the gratuities.

 

If you want to tip your room steward $100.00 extra, Great, go ahead, why does that mean you need to cancel the auto grats.

 

 

[clean1owner]

1 minute ago, proggieus said:

my point is-

 

If you know there are people who are working very hard to make your cruise great that depend on auto gratuities as part of their compensation package, how can you in any kind of good faith go ahead and cancel the gratuities.

 

If you want to tip your room steward $100.00 extra, Great, go ahead, why does that mean you need to cancel the auto grats.

 

 

 

 

How do you know they are all getting their share of the auto tips?

 

[PopeyeDaSailor]

But according to some that $100 extra is supposed to be turned into a pool by your room steward which means he may only end up seeing $10 extra.  I'm willing to bet that most people handed cash don't turn all of it into the "pool".

 

To me if you leave auto grats on (which I do) then I'm not giving out any more money for a cruise I already spent thousands on.

Edited January 30, 2019 by PopeyeDaSailor

[proggieus]

7 minutes ago, clean1owner said:

 

 

How do you know they are all getting their share of the auto tips?

 

 they have a greater then 0 chance of getting their share of the auto gratuities paid.

 

they have a 0 precent chance of getting the auto gratuities removed.

Edited January 30, 2019 by proggieus
Reworded it to make more sense

[proggieus]

3 minutes ago, PopeyeDaSailor said:

But according to some that $100 extra is supposed to be turned into a pool by your room steward which means he may only end up seeing $10 extra.  I'm willing to bet that most people handed cash don't turn all of it into the "pool".

 

To me if you leave auto grats on (which I do) then I'm not giving out any more money for a cruise I already spent thousands on.

 Thats better then removing them and then giving it all to one or two people,

 

at least everybody who played a part in your vacation get some of of the money

[CruiszBug]

1 hour ago, taglovestocruise said:

You are so wrong.  They must turn the tips into the pool. Only when you have prepaid tips and then tip extra do they get to keep them. so sad..

O

They do? I asked our room steward if they would prefer to get cash or put the tip on our account (to use a credit card or OBC) and they have always answered "cash". I don't think they are turning it in.

[proggieus]

14 minutes ago, PopeyeDaSailor said:

 

 

Let's not forget that they also are given a place to sleep and food which is part of their salary and compensation.  Is it a great job, probably not but let's not pretend if they don't' get a tip that Maria's kids aren't going to eat.

 

 

they are certainly going to eat less.

 

[GUT2407]

27 minutes ago, MandyMooToo said:

I have a question out of curiosity after reading these comments. Let me preface it by saying that we DO prepay tips and tip extra to bartenders and room stewards so...I read someone say if you give cash they have to turn it in and it goes into a pool. Is this true if the cash is over and above the prepaid tips? And if so how is it split up once it goes into the pool? I always assumed (and I know what assuming gets you🤦🏼‍♀️) that the extra cash we have stayed with that person if we prepaid the regular tips. 

Some will say yes, other will say no.

[proggieus]

10 minutes ago, CruiszBug said:

They do? I asked our room steward if they would prefer to get cash or put the tip on our account (to use a credit card or OBC) and they have always answered "cash". I don't think they are turning it in.

 I would assume they are supposed to turn it into the pool.

 

 i would also assume that most do not, its much more logical to keep the $100 thats in your hand then to assume that everybody else is going to turn in their tips and your cut will be equal or more then the $100 you turned in.

[clean1owner]

2 minutes ago, proggieus said:

 I would assume they are supposed to turn it into the pool.

 

 i would also assume that most do not, its much more logical to keep the $100 thats in your hand then to assume that everybody else is going to turn in their tips and your cut will be equal or more then the $100 you turned in.

 

 

You do a lot of assuming. You have any facts to support your bashing anyone who doesn't cow tow down to your opinions?

[proggieus]

3 minutes ago, clean1owner said:

 

 

You do a lot of assuming. You have any facts to support your bashing anyone who doesn't cow tow down to your opinions?

got any facts disproving my assumptions?

 

And they dont have to cow tow, I will just judge them accordingly.

Edited January 30, 2019 by proggieus

[clean1owner]

25 minutes ago, proggieus said:

 they have a greater then 0 chance of getting their share of the auto gratuities paid.

 

they have a 0 precent chance of getting the auto gratuities removed.

 

 

So you have absolutely no idea whether the dishwshers, laundry workers, glass and rail cleaners, etc, etc, etc get any of the auto tips. Yet you are more than happy to blindly turn your money over to a corporation that keeps these indentured servants in bondage.

[clean1owner]

1 minute ago, proggieus said:

got any facts disproving my assumptions?

 

 

Yes. 

 

FACT If I tip the waitstaff in cash at then end of a cruise, they got it.

 

FACT  If I tip the Cabin Steward in cash at the end of a cruise, they got it.

 

FACT Anyone else I tip with cash at the end of a cruise, they got it.

 

 

[proggieus]

1 minute ago, clean1owner said:

 

 

So you have absolutely no idea whether the dishwshers, laundry workers, glass and rail cleaners, etc, etc, etc get any of the auto tips. Yet you are more than happy to blindly turn your money over to a corporation that keeps these indentured servants in bondage.

i would be willing to bet that out of the THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of people that have held those jobs over the years somebody, somewhere would have made a post or wrote an article somewhere that the company was taking in tips that were publicly earmarked for those positions and were not getting paid.

[proggieus]

1 minute ago, clean1owner said:

 

 

Yes. 

 

FACT If I tip the waitstaff in cash at then end of a cruise, they got it.

 

FACT  If I tip the Cabin Steward in cash at the end of a cruise, they got it.

 

FACT Anyone else I tip with cash at the end of a cruise, they got it.

 

 

FACT If you remove auto gratuities then multiple people who depend on gratuities as part of their compensation package received less pay for the week then if you had left them on.

 

[PopeyeDaSailor]

17 minutes ago, proggieus said:

 

From https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=261

For customer-facing positions, gratuities usually come into play. "Gratuities make up most of the compensation for crew in the housekeeping and food and beverage departments," says Collins. The base wage is usually low -- sometimes as little as $2 a day -- but income from tips can represent as much as 95 percent of the take-home total.

 

 Did you read the whole article?  It clearly says in your quote, "CUSTOMER-FACING POSITIONS".  Which means people come in contact with them and can tip them if they choose to with cash.  The rest of the article also mentions a lot more that you conveniently left out.  Like this closing passage:

 

" To be sure, most crew positions are not glamorous, and their salaries are not high. Most crew members work 10 to 12 hours a day, and as many as seven full days a week. But cruise jobs come with several noteworthy benefits: Room and board is fully covered while sailing and, once an initial contract is completed, round trip airfare is picked up by the cruise line. This allows for crew members to build up savings, or to send funds back home while at sea. Some learn valuable skills while working at sea -- skills they can take with them to develop a business or service at home. Crew members receive medical treatment for work-related illness or injuries while aboard, and the cruise line will provide transfer to a land-based hospital or home, if necessary. "

[Snowbird_in_training]

In my humble opinion, threads like this can be entertaining, but sure are ridiculous.

 

You will have someone claim to remove prepaid gratuities to the scorn of others.  Of course, who knows if it’s even remotely true.

 

Then, you’ll see many posters discuss their very generous cash tips on top of the prepaid gratuities.  If even 10% of the ship is handing a bartender an extra $25. Per week as is often stated here, wow the crew is doing okay.   Once again, who knows what’s true.  

 

The crew on the ships we all pay to vacation on work very hard to keep us happy.  Appreciate that in whatever way floats your own boat.  

[PopeyeDaSailor]

One closing point for me ...

 

Auto gratuities on some cruise ships have increased over 20% in past three years, way more than the rate of inflation. It is doubtful that the people sharing these gratuities are getting such increases every year. Where is the rest of the money going?  It's going to the share holders of the cruise lines.

 

Does that mean you shouldn't tip.  Absolutely not, but to me, the industry employees need to take this fight to the cruise lines.  If someone is truly getting paid $2/day that's sad but I highly doubt it. 

 

My approach is pay the auto grats and leave it at that.  Essentially it adds another $700-$1000 to my cruise cost so be it.  If I use a lounge or bar a lot on the trip I will probably tip them as well.  But I'm not going to tip my wait staff if I'm paying auto grats.

 

Very good article on the subject here.

 

If I order a drink and they automatically add on 18% there is no way in hell I'm giving that bar staff anything else.  So a $14 dollar drink becomes a $16.52 drink!  Who tips $2.52 cents for every drink?

 

 

Edited January 30, 2019 by PopeyeDaSailor

[springfire]

2 hours ago, proggieus said:

 

 

FACT If you remove auto gratuities then multiple people who depend on gratuities as part of their compensation package received less pay for the week then if you had left them on.

 

You might not like it but Royal does give cruisers the option to remove auto gratuities!  

[Merion_Mom]

4 hours ago, dlwolf72 said:

If people are so upset with the poor employees let them lobby to have the cruse ships registered in the USA and maybe they will get paid better and not used as faceless servents.

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic. 

[ONECRUISER]

2 hours ago, PopeyeDaSailor said:

One closing point for me ...

 

Auto gratuities on some cruise ships have increased over 20% in past three years, way more than the rate of inflation. It is doubtful that the people sharing these gratuities are getting such increases every year. Where is the rest of the money going?  It's going to the share holders of the cruise lines.

 

Does that mean you shouldn't tip.  Absolutely not, but to me, the industry employees need to take this fight to the cruise lines.  If someone is truly getting paid $2/day that's sad but I highly doubt it. 

 

My approach is pay the auto grats and leave it at that.  Essentially it adds another $700-$1000 to my cruise cost so be it.  If I use a lounge or bar a lot on the trip I will probably tip them as well.  But I'm not going to tip my wait staff if I'm paying auto grats.

 

Very good article on the subject here.

 

If I order a drink and they automatically add on 18% there is no way in hell I'm giving that bar staff anything else.  So a $14 dollar drink becomes a $16.52 drink!  Who tips $2.52 cents for every drink?

 

 

I often Tip 20%. Even lot of Bar/Restaurants I go to require up to 18% mandatory with my "Large Group" Family. But at Bars I Managed in early 1980's a drink was $3-4 and very common to leave $1 for each drink, 25-33%. Many Restaurants pool Tips, first knew about that happening 45yrs ago...

Edited January 30, 2019 by ONECRUISER

[ONECRUISER]

10 hours ago, PopeyeDaSailor said:

Yeah, a Big Can of Worms...

[ONECRUISER]

4 hours ago, dlwolf72 said:

If people are so upset with the poor employees let them lobby to have the cruse ships registered in the USA and maybe they will get paid better and not used as faceless servents.

Do that and most wouldn't cruise anymore. Back before Cruise ships made all their money on extras was very expensive to Cruise. In 1988 a 7nite cruise was $3800 in a Deck 2 tiny Port Hole 122sq ft Cabin. Was $10,000+ for a Full Suite that didn't even have a Balcony. This all in 1988 Dollars, Pay all the employees on a ship $40K-100K plus annual like a shore job in USA makes and see what a 7nite Cruise costs then...

[PopeyeDaSailor]

7 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

I often Tip 20%. Even lot of Bar/Restaurants I go to require up to 18% mandatory with my "Large Group" Family. But at Bars I Managed in early 1980's a drink was $3-4 and very common to leave $1 for each drink, 25-33%. Many Restaurants pool Tips, first knew about that happening 45yrs ago...

 

I always tip 20% when I go out for a meal but never 20% per drink.  Back in the 90's after I turned 21 there is no way I could afford that either. 😉