Question about extra tipping envelopes

[marci22]

1 hour ago, papaflamingo said:

I'll give you some feedback. I intend this to be only my opinion and hopefully respectful. If not I apologize ahead of time. 

 The problem with not paying the recommended daily gratuity is that the crew counts on this for their pay.  It's not the wait staff in the Main Dining Room's fault or those who serve you in the Windjammer, Sorrento's, Park Cafe, etc. that you don't like the food or whatever.  Consider this.... if you don't pay the auto gratuity, then their pay is cut.  They have a certain number of tables assigned to them.  If that table goes empty and you cut the tip, you cut their pay.  These people work very hard.  I don't see why they shouldn't get paid because you choose another option.  

Fair? Not really.  But it is the contract they live with. In the grand scheme of things, you are saving maybe the cost of one drink per day per person.  The wait staff gets about $7.75 per day per person. Is it really that big of a deal to you?  It likely is to them.  

Anyway, not really telling you what to do, none of my business.  Just suggesting you consider that the staff counts on those tips for their pay.  If they haven't done anything wrong, why punish them? 

 

Their pay is cut? How do you know this, especially with many diners choosing MTD?

 

Your tips are not 'assigned' to any one server. As a matter of fact, RC makes it clear that they allocate 'tips' to 'dining services' and 'housekeeping services', among other things. 

 

Royal allows people to tip as they like, as it should be. If it wasn't working, they would change it. It is a business.

 

I wish everyone would stop trying to shame people into tipping as THEY like to tip. And that is what you are trying to do.

[Tree_skier]

Tip what you feel your service is worth.  Don't tip because its what others do or you feel sorry for your servers or you feel some sort of first world guilt.  We read this all the time... "They come from such poor countries"... "They are far away from their families blah blah blah". I am regularly far away from my family too, thats no reason for me to be paid more.  That's the gig I signed up for. Tipping is ultimate form of free enterprise/capitalism.  I give money for service rendered.

 

Based on what I have read here on CC I suspect I tip more than average. However,  I do it based on the service I receive or hope to receive not some other nebulous emotional reason.  We always leave auto grats in place or prepay tips.  I consider this the minimum amount for normal service.  If service was so profoundly poor that felt it needed to be punished I guess I might remove auto-grats but I'm more likely to speak to a manager before it escalated to that point and get the issue rectified. However that has never happened... not even close. Once, while cruising on MSC, I felt our server was, at best, ambivalent every single night.  Not rude, not overtly bad, just disinterested.  This was the only time I didn't tip extra. 

 

I tip my cabin steward the moment I meet him/her and let them know what we require and what we don't require. I tip a buck with each drink I order. I know that goes into the pool for all the bartenders. I have no idea how they divide it. Not my concern.  At the end of the cruise. I've usually found a bartender or two that have gone out of there way for me so I make sure I reward them on the last full day. I have never seen that amount go anywhere but their pocket.  My waiter and asst. waiter also get cash on the last night. On my last cruise on Adventure my asst waiter was so outstanding I tipped him substantially more than I would customarily. He was tripping over himself trying to make every night special for my family and I. There is no way he could have done more.

 

 My cabin steward gets a little more cash on the last day as well, assuming everything has gone according to script.  I don't use envelopes. I see no need for it.  Hand them cash and it always goes into their pockets.  We read here that if you remove auto-grats staff must turn their tips in, received from you, into the pool.  I specifically asked my waiter in the MDR this question after I had tipped him on the last night.  He told me he gets to keep all that we give because we had prepaid.  He clearly knew that our tips had been prepaid. The clear implication being that when there is no auto grats/prepaid grats he is expected to contribute something to the back of the house.

 

The level of angst over tipping is over the top. The number of people complaining about being shamed is ridiculous.  I'm not shamed by anything anyone else does or doesn't do.  I can only be shamed by my own behavior.  Tip if you want, don't tip if you don't want, but remember that there is a universal law of the harvest.

 

"You will reap what you sow"

 

I've been blessed in this life... I want that to continue.  

[BeachChik]

So when we last cruised Royal (2011) we had to go down to guest services and requests the tips be added to our account. Is the process now that they are automatically added, if you didn’t prepay, and we wouldn’t need to do anything? 

[Biker19]

24 minutes ago, BeachChik said:

Is the process now that they are automatically added, if you didn’t prepay, and we wouldn’t need to do anything? 

Correct.

[papaflamingo]

13 hours ago, marci22 said:

Their pay is cut? How do you know this, especially with many diners choosing MTD?

 

Your tips are not 'assigned' to any one server. As a matter of fact, RC makes it clear that they allocate 'tips' to 'dining services' and 'housekeeping services', among other things. 

 

Royal allows people to tip as they like, as it should be. If it wasn't working, they would change it. It is a business.

 

I wish everyone would stop trying to shame people into tipping as THEY like to tip. And that is what you are trying to do.

Of course their pay is cut.  If people don't tip, the money is not added to the pool or however they do it.  Regardless there is less. money for the servers.  How hard is that to figure out?  You reduce the tip money, there is less money for tips. Not really rocket science. 

And I'm not trying to shame anyone. The poster I answered asked for feedback, I gave feedback.  It wasn't in any way shaming. It was simply my opinion.  As I specifically said, "not really telling you what to do, none of my business.  Just suggesting you consider that the staff counts on those tips for their pay."   Sorry if I didn't agree with your opinion.  But that's life, isn't it.