Gratuities

[time4u2go]

9 hours ago, fdthird said:

Who cares.  Reason for this post is ???

They wanted to know if it was normal for people to not tip.

[time4u2go]

...

Edited July 6, 2019 by time4u2go

[Thorben-Hendrik]

12 hours ago, Dundee12 said:

On board at moment and topic of dreaded gratuities was brought up at our dining table - of all the people we have spoken to they don’t pay them? Is this the norm?Now at $43.50 a day x 9 nights are we the only ones lol??

 

Great savings! 👍

15 minutes at guest service can save you.... 😉

[Thorben-Hendrik]

12 hours ago, gerif said:

who would be so mean as to deprive the hard working staff of part of their pay.

No worries RCI guarantees gratuities to their staff! 👍

[Thorben-Hendrik]

12 hours ago, GTO-Girl said:

I hope those that choose not to pay tips have the decency to remove them on the first day so that the staff will not have worked their butts off all week to please them only to have the tips removed the last day. 

Staff service is part of the cruise fare! 👍

[Thorben-Hendrik]

10 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

it's between employer and employee. 

Totally! 👍

[Milwaukee Eight]

8 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

That would be called my “cruise fare”

Maybe it should be but that’s not the way it works. 

[not-enough-cruising]

15 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Maybe it should be but that’s not the way it works. 

Not my problem; it is reasonable to expect clean linens, dishes and silverware as part of "standard" service.  There is no gratuity expectation for "standard" service.

[not-enough-cruising]

13 hours ago, GTO-Girl said:

I hope those that choose not to pay tips have the decency to remove them on the first day so that the staff will not have worked their butts off all week to please them only to have the tips removed the last day.

 

 

I remove mine early (usually day 2), and have never experienced any degradation in service due to it; actually quite the opposite, human nature naturally tries to do their best when the size of the award at the end of the rainbow is dictated by performance.

[Ocean Boy]

12 hours ago, DancerMama25 said:

 

So, how do you get the tips to the people that wash your towels and sheets?   Or the people that wash the dishes and roll the silverware?

How did they get taken care of before auto gratuities were invented? Is every position aboard the ship a tipped position? What ever happened to payroll?

[cb at sea]

The tips are added to your account daily...many folks have no idea if they are paying them, or not.  It's amazing how many vacation without a clue.

[KmomChicago]

IF we can afford to cruise then we can afford auto-grats.  We work for a living and we know what it's like.  I am not rich by American standards but I am rich by the standards of most of the cruise ship crew, who are away from home for months at a time, working long hours to serve others.  Regardless of the cruise line's business model or practices, simple empathy with the crew is enough reason for me to just pay the recommended cost per day.

 

IF we can't afford the cruise, including port fees and auto-gratuities, then we can't afford the cruise. We would rather save $$ by staying in a cheaper stateroom category, skipping upgraded meal/restaurant options, pretending we don't see the photo gallery as we walk past, or by sharing our internet plan.  

 

I get that for many cultures, gratuities as an add-on are irritating and somewhat senseless - if they are just going to add it on anyway automatically, why not figure it into the fare?  However we just consider it the same as the port fees - just add it, included it as a mandatory expense of the cruise, and let it go.

 

Doing auto-grat is not only about our generosity (HA!) but also convenience.  I am so old and was so lucky in my young adult days to have cruised when there were envelopes and cash at the end of the cruise. It was awkward and really a pain.  We do occasionally hand someone an extra piece of green anyway and often leave a few bucks in the cabin for the stateroom steward if we liked them.  Last several cruises we have mostly eaten dinner in the buffet but still feel whomever is in the pool deserves their cut of our prepaid pie.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

1 minute ago, cb at sea said:

The tips are added to your account daily...many folks have no idea if they are paying them, or not.  It's amazing how many vacation without a clue.

Just like most folks have no clue about how staff are paid...salary or gratuity...those who play "Ebenezer Scrooge" on the gratuity front claim to know how monies are distributed...but actually don't know the facts.

 

That philosophy is only used by a few folks to erroneously justify (to themselves) being cheap and not paying for something that most folks have no issue with paying for a range of quality staff services rendered.

[Dundee12]

1 hour ago, time4u2go said:

They wanted to know if it was normal for people to not tip.

Exactly it was a simple question. I’m sorry if I offended anyone or pissed them off just don’t reply to my question if you are.

 

[Ocean Boy]

9 minutes ago, Dundee12 said:

Exactly it was a simple question. I’m sorry if I offended anyone or pissed them off just don’t reply to my question if you are.

 

Around here the subject of tipping and the word "simple" just do not go together. For some people the word "tip" is equivalent to the scent of blood to a shark.

[JoeFan]

12 hours ago, DancerMama25 said:

 

So, how do you get the tips to the people that wash your towels and sheets?   Or the people that wash the dishes and roll the silverware?

 

Do you tip the people who wash your towels and sheets when you go to a hotel? Do you tip the landscaper who mows the grass at a hotel? Do you tip the lifeguards at the pool at a hotel? 

 

What makes these a tipped position at sea? Is there some maritime law I am not aware of, or is it the cruise lines not paying their employees?

[grapau27]

14 hours ago, Dundee12 said:

On board at moment and topic of dreaded gratuities was brought up at our dining table - of all the people we have spoken to they don’t pay them? Is this the norm?Now at $43.50 a day x 9 nights are we the only ones lol??

 

What ship?

Are you sailing from Southampton?.

When we sailed on Independence out of Southampton in May we saw lots of people at GS stopping tips which I personally found disgusting and felt sorry for the crew who will lose out financially.

P&O,MSC, Marella and NCL have already included tips into fares from Southampton because of the vast numbers who are against being told how much to tip.

[grapau27]

13 hours ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Not the norm 

Unfortunately Rory it is the norm from Southampton and why

P&O,Marella,MSC and NCL now include gratuities in the fare.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

What ever happened to payroll? 

It was enhanced due to passenger demand... 🙄 😜

[grapau27]

12 hours ago, DancerMama25 said:

 

Exactly.  That was my point.

 

 

 

They add up the tips per day per person and when they realise the cost I have heard the phrase many times.

HOW MUCH!!

Then the tips are stopped at GS with a we will pay tips to who we want.

The result is little or no tips given.

[grapau27]

12 hours ago, fdthird said:

This topic is such BS.  Why do folks bring it up?

Because it is a topic everyone talks about.

[Wordell1]

I have a neighbor who went on a Carnival cruise last year - his family's first.  He told me that he found out from a friend on the cruise that he could go to guest services and remove the tips and proudly told me how much cheaper it made the cruise.

 

I pre pay mine and then tip above and beyond as appropriate.  

[pcur]

12 hours ago, fdthird said:

This topic is such BS.  Why do folks bring it up?

 

I, for one, like to keep these threads going because I'm hoping eventually RCCL will wake up and build the tips into the price of the cruise, so it's mandatory.  

 

I've never been on an RCCL cruise in over 40 years where I didn't want to tip the staff.  It's part of the cost.  I'll look for obc to pay for some of the tips, and I'll account for my TA giving me cash cards to offset the expense after the cruise, but the ship's staff always get their tips from us.

[pcur]

47 minutes ago, JoeFan said:

 

Do you tip the people who wash your towels and sheets when you go to a hotel? Do you tip the landscaper who mows the grass at a hotel? Do you tip the lifeguards at the pool at a hotel? 

 

What makes these a tipped position at sea? Is there some maritime law I am not aware of, or is it the cruise lines not paying their employees?

 

Sarcasm aside, and in my mind, tips should go to the crew members that perform a service that DIRECTLY benefits me.  If I touch it, and someone made it possible for me to have it on the ship, then I do like that fact that they are being paid to do that.  This applies to non-salaried crew members.

 

I just wish they would make the tips mandatory, so we can all argue about something else!!  😉

[Billy Baltic]

2 hours ago, time4u2go said:

They wanted to know if it was normal for people to not tip.

 

But all they’ll get is a polarised debate on the rights and wrongs of tipping. If they want a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers then have a poll. Otherwise get out the popcorn and wait for the fireworks.