Will the 18% rise to 20% like Celebrity

[fred30]

22 minutes ago, nashirak said:

 

Wait, doesn't doing the first one cause the second one? 🤣

LOL!   Don't they call that Beer Bottle Glasses? 

[zdad59]

15 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Mine too. We kept looking for another Go Best promotion, for someone who decided late and wanted to join us. Guess there will not be one.

Prices with 2 perks have been more than the 4 we got.


Past Reviews post 184

 

Yep.   The Go Best thing was insane for us.   We usually go RCL in Feb with my gang but Celebrity had a deal with Aqua Class Suite, all 4 perks (premium drink pkg, pre paid tips, free internet, and $300obc)....all for $3400.   And supposedly fewer kids. 

Edited April 1, 2019 by zdad59

[HBE4]

 

I guess we can look forward to a whole bunch of tipping vs. anti-tipping threads popping up soon.

 

[gatour]

Yea.  Another tipping thread that will probably blow up.

 

It is, what it is.

[h20skibum]

Wait, you can remove tips from the drinks?🤫

[Clarea]

4 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Wait, you can remove tips from the drinks?🤫

 

I've not heard of that being possible.

[ShillyShally]

53 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Wait, you can remove tips from the drinks?🤫

Nope, can't see how that would work or be possible - it's either accept said drink and included tip or don't.

[h20skibum]

I guess my attempt at facetiousness was lost on some. Guess I need to learn more about emoticons.


Past Reviews post 184

[laslomas]

1 hour ago, HBE4 said:

 

I guess we can look forward to a whole bunch of tipping vs. anti-tipping threads popping up soon.

 

 

Sorry, not my intention with this thread. I was simply wondering if there was any prior knowledge out there on whether RCI will likely follow Celebrity on this rise as they are sort of the same company. I have a Celebrity cruise booked and an RCI one so thinking about beating a rise in gratuities. I have missed the boat, excuse the pun, with the Celebrity one.

[grandgeezer]

2 hours ago, zdad59 said:

 

Yep.   The Go Best thing was insane for us.   We usually go RCL in Feb with my gang but Celebrity had a deal with Aqua Class Suite, all 4 perks (premium drink pkg, pre paid tips, free internet, and $300obc)....all for $3400.   And supposedly fewer kids. 

Where are the Aqua Class Suites?? Never heard of them. There is an Aqua Class but it just a regular balcony with more perks such as it's own dining room.

[zdad59]

1 minute ago, grandgeezer said:

Where are the Aqua Class Suites?? Never heard of them. There is an Aqua Class but it just a regular balcony with more perks such as it's own dining room.

 

Bad use of terminology on my part I guess.    I thought they called them suites. If there’s only one type of Aqua class room, that’s what we have. 

[HBE4]

41 minutes ago, laslomas said:

 

Sorry, not my intention with this thread. I was simply wondering if there was any prior knowledge out there on whether RCI will likely follow Celebrity on this rise as they are sort of the same company. I have a Celebrity cruise booked and an RCI one so thinking about beating a rise in gratuities. I have missed the boat, excuse the pun, with the Celebrity one.

 

No problem. Your post was perfectly fine and informational.  But tipping threads will go off the rails pretty quickly.

 

Perhaps RCI is testing the 20% on Celebrity and if there is no negative feedback, expect it to be rolled out to Royal. That would be my guess.

[mek]

5 hours ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Option 1:  Give bartenders a raise and offset impact on p&l by raising fares

 

Option 2:  Increase service charge from 18% to 20% and pass money on to bartenders

 

Option 3:  Increase service charge, pass nothing on to bartenders and pocket the higher income. 

Option 4:  Drink less.   :-)

[CruisinCons]

Kind of off topic but not totally...but we were at a restaurant recently and were surprised to see on the bottom of the receipt where they tell you how much the tip would be, there was a new line.  22%.  22!  It listed 18, 20 and 22.  15% had been replaced with 22%.  We don't eat out all that often, but have never seen 22% before.  

[The Fun Researcher]

The problem I have with it going from 18% to 20% is the fact that it's a percentage.  I'm not sure if Celebrity's drink prices  skyrocketed like Royals back in 2015, but not only have drink prices way outpaced any sort of inflationary increase, now they want us to pay a higher tip percentage on those higher drink prices?

 

I can only think that this is somehow a function of the drink packages in some way, especially on Celebrity where many of the rooms had "free" premium drink packages if you booked a balcony or higher cabin. 

 

Dan

Edited April 2, 2019 by The Fun Researcher

[h20skibum]

59 minutes ago, CruisinCons said:

We don't eat out all that often, but have never seen 22% before.  

 

Not unusual.  We have seen that at some restaurants for a few years now.

[icsys]

18 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

The only justification they need is the fact that people will still pay the fee.

Unfortunately that is so true.

[parrotfeathers]

I haven't ever commented on a tipping thread before.    I'm not sure why but that extra 2 percent (20%) just doesn't sit well with me.  It's almost like they are laughing all the way to the bank since they seem confident passengers will still tip on top of the required gratuity  already included.  I tip 20% at restaurants but I don't say here's 20% and an extra dollar per drink.  (Yes I know there is some difference between a server in a restaurant and a bartender and RCL takes part of the 20%.)

Edited April 2, 2019 by parrotfeathers

[laslomas]

2 hours ago, parrotfeathers said:

I haven't ever commented on a tipping thread before.    I'm not sure why but that extra 2 percent (20%) just doesn't sit well with me.  It's almost like they are laughing all the way to the bank since they seem confident passengers will still tip on top of the required gratuity  already included.  I tip 20% at restaurants but I don't say here's 20% and an extra dollar per drink.  (Yes I know there is some difference between a server in a restaurant and a bartender and RCL takes part of the 20%.)

 

As yet this does not affect RCI but the increase has been introduced on Celebrity. Maybe they will not follow suit??

[ShillyShally]

On 4/1/2019 at 4:55 PM, h20skibum said:

I guess my attempt at facetiousness was lost on some. Guess I need to learn more about emoticons.
 

Sorry your emoticon didn't show for me when I was quoting 🙂  

[ShillyShally]

21 hours ago, CruisinCons said:

Kind of off topic but not totally...but we were at a restaurant recently and were surprised to see on the bottom of the receipt where they tell you how much the tip would be, there was a new line.  22%.  22!  It listed 18, 20 and 22.  15% had been replaced with 22%.  We don't eat out all that often, but have never seen 22% before.  

Yep we've noticed that too, bugs me a bit since I tip more than 20% for excellent service but I can do math so have no problem calculating lower if needed too 🙂  And their helpful math always includes taxes/drinks which I take into account when needed.  It totally depends on the experience but I expect they're hoping most don't want to do their own calculation and will just use a suggested value as the tip!

[Jeremiah1212]

This difference with Celebrity and Royal or NCL  is that very, very few passengers actually pay per drink or pay outright for their drink package. If the package was included as a perk, the 18% or 20% is meaningless. You don't pay a fee on top of the package in that scenario.

 

This will change a bit with their new pricing structure since the new perk combinations will only include a classic package instead of premium, so there would be a $12 per day charge ($10 + 20%) to get the premium package. It's substantially different than NCL who charges an astronomical fee even if you have a drink package included. 

[time4u2go]

21 hours ago, CruisinCons said:

Kind of off topic but not totally...but we were at a restaurant recently and were surprised to see on the bottom of the receipt where they tell you how much the tip would be, there was a new line.  22%.  22!  It listed 18, 20 and 22.  15% had been replaced with 22%.  We don't eat out all that often, but have never seen 22% before.  

I've never understood how 15% is no longer the normal tip amount.  The beauty of making it a percentage was that as prices go up, so do tips.  It was built in.

[not-enough-cruising]

10 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

I've never understood how 15% is no longer the normal tip amount.  The beauty of making it a percentage was that as prices go up, so do tips.  It was built in.

I never pay attention to the percentages and don’t need to do math. I can assess at the conclusion of the meal what the service was worth to me and that figure is what I leave. 

[The Fun Researcher]

3 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

I never pay attention to the percentages and don’t need to do math. I can assess at the conclusion of the meal what the service was worth to me and that figure is what I leave. 

 

 I thought we were talking about automatic gratuities on drinks, not meals?  If you don’t like the drink service you still can’t leave less than the automatic 18% or 20% amount. 😠

 

Dan