Prepaid tips vs cash

[springfire]

10 minutes ago, BNBR said:

 

Having them willy nilly removed is actually NOT a choice Royal gives you from a written/policy perspective.  It's a courtesy they do on the ship.  They absolutely say to prepay or leave them on as a daily service charge.  And only in the unlikely event you are unsatisfied with the service, then you can go to guest services and adjust them.  Nowhere does it say "If you don't like tipping, just remove them" or "If you prefer to tip in cash, just remove them."  Just because people get away with it because the cruiseline is customer focused and doesn't want to argue with guests, doesn't make it right to abuse that courtesy.

So when Royal says tips are voluntary and at the discretion of each guest, I should not consider that a choice!   

 

The guidelines for tipping on board are:

 

For guests in a Grand suite or above - $17.50 per guest per day.

For guests in a Junior suite or a Stateroom - $14.50 per guest per day. 

Tips are voluntary and at the discretion of each guest. These guidelines serve as suggestions to help guests express their gratitude for the outstanding service they experience on their Royal Caribbean cruise holiday. Tips for other service personnel are at your discretion.

An 18% gratuity will automatically be added to your bar bill or wine bill when you are served and for services in the Spa or Salon.

[BNBR]

11 minutes ago, springfire said:

So when Royal says tips are voluntary and at the discretion of each guest, I should not consider that a choice!   

 

The guidelines for tipping on board are:

 

For guests in a Grand suite or above - $17.50 per guest per day.

For guests in a Junior suite or a Stateroom - $14.50 per guest per day. 

Tips are voluntary and at the discretion of each guest. These guidelines serve as suggestions to help guests express their gratitude for the outstanding service they experience on their Royal Caribbean cruise holiday. Tips for other service personnel are at your discretion.

An 18% gratuity will automatically be added to your bar bill or wine bill when you are served and for services in the Spa or Salon.

 

 

Your profile says South Florida.  Did you move to the UK and not update your profile?  Please find "voluntary" on the US site.

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/onboard-service-gratuity-expense

 

[mjkacmom]

BCL has the right idea, overseas passengers have in included in their (higher) fate so it can’t be removed. Wonder why they did that?😂

[HBE4]

1 hour ago, George C said:

Wish rccl would just embed the tips into the fare or just pay staff more .

 

I wish I could give this post a hundred likes.  Roll the the tips (aka service fee) into the base fare and pay the staff more.

 

Then let the people that want to tip more, hand out cash tips. The person receiving the cash tip gets to keep it all.

[Cruiselover0426]

1 hour ago, BNBR said:

 

That's not at all how it works.

Yes it is.  

[Cruiselover0426]

29 minutes ago, springfire said:

So when Royal says tips are voluntary and at the discretion of each guest, I should not consider that a choice!   

 

The guidelines for tipping on board are:

 

For guests in a Grand suite or above - $17.50 per guest per day.

For guests in a Junior suite or a Stateroom - $14.50 per guest per day. 

Tips are voluntary and at the discretion of each guest. These guidelines serve as suggestions to help guests express their gratitude for the outstanding service they experience on their Royal Caribbean cruise holiday. Tips for other service personnel are at your discretion.

An 18% gratuity will automatically be added to your bar bill or wine bill when you are served and for services in the Spa or Salon.

Gratuities are always optional.  You can also have that 18% removed from the bar or salon too.  You can never be forced to tip.

 

[Cruiselover0426]

1 hour ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Gratuities are optional - do what ever you want! 👍

#yourmoneyyourchoice

Yup! Spot on!

[HBE4]

11 hours ago, Brew City G said:

Hi Guys, I'm sure this has been brought up before, but I just want to be positive before I do this on my next cruise. I have heard with pre paid tips, charged to your sea pass daily, don't nessecerrly  go to who you expect them to go to. I have heard tips are pooled and distributed to employees who "grade well in surveys", even on other cruises. Don't get me wrong, we always pre pay gratuities, and throw an extra $20 in an envelope for our stateroom attendant, head waiter and asst waiter, we also give the matride $10 bucks for clearing our table and asking us to dine in one of the pay restuarants.  We also tip $1.00 on every drink we get with the drink package, so we are not cheapskates. So if I go to customer service and ask to have my gratuities taken off my account, and then, give my stateroom attendant ( for a party of 4) $6.00 x 4 = $24.00 x7 = $168.00 + $20.00 (which we normally add on ) and ect for everyone else, would I be upsetting the apple cart? 

Let me know, and thanks in advance for your replies

 

 

Honestly, it might not really matter that much. Prevailing wisdom on these boards say that the cash tips are pooled together and then distributed  among all eligible employees.  Probably using the same method as the auto-gratuities so those that "grade well in the survey" might receive more, not the person you gave the money to.  While I know that you are trying to direct the tip to the persons you want it to go to, it might be impossible to avoid that situation.

 

Personally, while I used to like handing out envelopes full of money to the stateroom attendant, waiter, etc. But the auto-gratuity is just so much more convenient.

 

In the end, it's your money that you worked for and you should spend it as you see fit. You seem to have no issues with tipping and tip well. Don't be shamed into thinking the laundry people or the guy mopping the deck are being "stiffed" out of money.  That always baffled me. When I say at a hotel, I never tip the laundry person, the grounds crew or the person handing me a slice of pizza over the counter.

 

 

[Cruiselover0426]

1 hour ago, mjkacmom said:

Do you really go to buffets on land and not tip?! Are you bussing your own table and refilling food trays? Yes the gratuity is pooled and goes towards the staffs wages. If you don’t approve of the compensation structure on mainstream cruise lines, sale other lines. If enough people remove the charge, they will just raise it, so folks like myself have to pay more thanks to folks like you

You don't have to pay more, or anything at all for that matter.  Its a personal thing and never mandatory.

[mjkacmom]

1 hour ago, Cruiselover0426 said:

If they are working behind the scenes they are receiving a salary to do so. Tipping is for services rendered. 

 A salary that comes from the service charge, same way waiters get paid from tips (dd gets $2.13 an hour and pools her tips with everyone else).

[Cruiselover0426]

3 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

 

Honestly, it might not really matter that much. Prevailing wisdom on these boards say that the cash tips are pooled together and then distributed  among all eligible employees.  Probably using the same method as the auto-gratuities so those that "grade well in the survey" might receive more, not the person you gave the money to.  While I know that you are trying to direct the tip to the persons you want it to go to, it might be impossible to avoid that situation.

 

Personally, while I used to like handing out envelopes full of money to the stateroom attendant, waiter, etc. But the auto-gratuity is just so much more convenient.

 

In the end, it's your money that you worked for and you should spend it as you see fit. You seem to have no issues with tipping and tip well. Don't be shamed into thinking the laundry people or the guy mopping the deck are being "stiffed" out of money.  That always baffled me. When I say at a hotel, I never tip the laundry person, the grounds crew or the person handing me a slice of pizza over the counter.

 

 

Agree!!!  The folks that we tip are very happy with us and we have no regrets on how we do it.

[Sam Ting]

56 minutes ago, little britain said:

TBH, People who say they pay cash tips always has confused me.

Do you walk around distributing dollar bills daily like Daddy Warbucks, or do you take a photo and a a note of the name of each and every person who serves you over the 2 week cruise; and then spend the last day of the cruise on a hunt trying and find these people and reward them? 

This is a serious honest question. How do you do it? To me it seems like hard work.

 

LB- who always leaves the auto tips in place.  

It’s really quite simple. We leave the appropriate tip on the table after each meal and give the steward his tip at the end of the cruise. 

[Cruiselover0426]

2 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

 A salary that comes from the service charge, same way waiters get paid from tips (dd gets $2.13 an hour and pools her tips with everyone else).

It is not my responsibility to see that the cruise line pays their employees a fair wage.  I tip based on services rendered not as if I'm paying a bunch of salaries.  Sorry if you don't agree. You are free to do whatever you would like and so am I.

[Cruiselover0426]

1 minute ago, Sam Ting said:

It’s really quite simple. We leave the appropriate tip on the table after each meal and give the steward his tip at the end of the cruise. 

We give our steward and servers a cash tip in an envelope at the end of the cruise.  We ate at several specialty restaurants and left cash on the table (upward of $30 each time).  We base it on what we would tip for a similar meal at home.

[springfire]

26 minutes ago, BNBR said:

 

 

Your profile says South Florida.  Did you move to the UK and not update your profile?  Please find "voluntary" on the US site.

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/onboard-service-gratuity-expense

 

10. Are all guests required to pay gratuities? Gratuities are at the discretion of each guest. Such guidelines serve as a recommendation to assist guests in expressing their gratitude for the outstanding service experienced during their cruise vacation. The daily gratuity is shared among dining, bar & culinary services staff, stateroom attendants and other hotel services teams. For guests’ convenience, Royal Caribbean automatically registers the suggested daily gratuity amount to guests’ folio accounts; though guests are free to alter the amount with the onboard Guest Services team. We hope guests find these suggested amounts to be an accurate reflection of their satisfaction and are grateful for their generous recognition of the Royal Caribbean staff.

 

This is from the letter  Royal Caribbean Gratuity Increase FAQS

17059939_PPG_Increase_FAQs.pdf

[springfire]

11 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

 

Honestly, it might not really matter that much. Prevailing wisdom on these boards say that the cash tips are pooled together and then distributed  among all eligible employees.  Probably using the same method as the auto-gratuities so those that "grade well in the survey" might receive more, not the person you gave the money to.  While I know that you are trying to direct the tip to the persons you want it to go to, it might be impossible to avoid that situation.

 

Personally, while I used to like handing out envelopes full of money to the stateroom attendant, waiter, etc. But the auto-gratuity is just so much more convenient.

 

In the end, it's your money that you worked for and you should spend it as you see fit. You seem to have no issues with tipping and tip well. Don't be shamed into thinking the laundry people or the guy mopping the deck are being "stiffed" out of money.  That always baffled me. When I say at a hotel, I never tip the laundry person, the grounds crew or the person handing me a slice of pizza over the counter.

 

 

Agreed and well said!   

[Cruiselover0426]

10 minutes ago, springfire said:

10. Are all guests required to pay gratuities? Gratuities are at the discretion of each guest. Such guidelines serve as a recommendation to assist guests in expressing their gratitude for the outstanding service experienced during their cruise vacation. The daily gratuity is shared among dining, bar & culinary services staff, stateroom attendants and other hotel services teams. For guests’ convenience, Royal Caribbean automatically registers the suggested daily gratuity amount to guests’ folio accounts; though guests are free to alter the amount with the onboard Guest Services team. We hope guests find these suggested amounts to be an accurate reflection of their satisfaction and are grateful for their generous recognition of the Royal Caribbean staff.

 

This is from the letter  Royal Caribbean Gratuity Increase FAQS

17059939_PPG_Increase_FAQs.pdf

Yup!!!!

[laslomas]

Some years ago, before the auto gratuities were thought of, we were asked to put tips into envelopes for - Cabin Steward, Assistant Steward, Waiter, and Assistant Waiter. They even provided the envelopes to assist the process. These were the people expected to receive tips from the passengers. People we saw and interacted with, and were happy to tip.

 

So when did Royal Caribbean decide to include all the backroom workers in the tipping pool?  Was it ten years ago, or fifteen? What I do know is that it must have been when they decided on the new format of the auto gratuity. Then they could pass some of it on to the workers in the background, the hotel services, as they had control of our tips. It must save the company quite a bit of money as the passengers were now contributing to the wages of the workers we did not meet face to face, that were previously paid in full by RCI. We were not expected to pay towards this wage bill in the past, so why is it now so important to help out RCI like this? They paid their hotel services and laundry staff previously without the help of the auto gratuities.

[sparks1093]

27 minutes ago, Cruiselover0426 said:

Gratuities are always optional.  You can also have that 18% removed from the bar or salon too.  You can never be forced to tip.

 

Yes, gratuities are optional but that doesn't meant they shouldn't be paid, unless the service is substandard. Tips make up most of the total salary of tipped employees (whether anyone likes that or not. And in land based establishments they are taxed on what the customer should have left so if that is below the standard amount the employee is hurt even more).

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, nelblu said:

Oh my goodness, another gratuity thread.  Biker, where are you.

Lurking, mostly.

 

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, nelblu said:

Oh my goodness, another gratuity thread.  Biker, where are you.

Lurking, mostly.

 

[not-enough-cruising]

37 minutes ago, laslomas said:

Some years ago, before the auto gratuities were thought of, we were asked to put tips into envelopes for - Cabin Steward, Assistant Steward, Waiter, and Assistant Waiter. They even provided the envelopes to assist the process. These were the people expected to receive tips from the passengers. People we saw and interacted with, and were happy to tip.

This is the way I still handle it, cancel the auto grats and hand out my envelopes (3 now since the dissolution of the assistant steward)

[mjkacmom]

3 minutes ago, Cruiselover0426 said:

It is not my responsibility to see that the cruise line pays their employees a fair wage.  I tip based on services rendered not as if I'm paying a bunch of salaries.  Sorry if you don't agree. You are free to do whatever you would like and so am I.

So when you eat at a restaurant you don’t tip the underpaidcservers?

[HBE4]

28 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Lurking, mostly.

 

 

Sadly, the OP was asking about how to tip, not whether to tip or not.

 

But most of the replies seem to be about tipping vs not-tipping.

 

 

[HBE4]

28 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

This is the way I still handle it, cancel the auto grats and hand out my envelopes (3 now since the dissolution of the assistant steward)

 

Wasn't the 4th one for the Head Waiter (Maitre 'D) so he can get his whopping .75 pp/pd?