Tipping

[UNCFanatik]

13 hours ago, Sam Ting said:

We also refuse to donate to some slush fund the company uses to pay its employees.  They are purposely vague on where it even goes.  We remove the autocrats and tip as we go.  Never a problem, in fact, service seems to get better after a day or two, kinda like tipping the bartender I guess….

 

Exactly. How does anyone REALLY know if the auto-gratuities are all filtered down to the proper crew members especially in times where the Cruise Lines are bleeding cash from the shutdowns 

[Sam Ting]

13 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

Except that if you removed auto grats, those tips are turned in and go into the same tip pool as the auto grats.

 

Leave on the auto grats, and then tip extra, the person keeps them.

 

Do you also tip your cabin steward?  There are other workers beyond the dining rooms that get a portion of the tips.

You have no way of knowing that.  How would that even work?  What are they supposed to keep a log of who gave them money throughout the trip and then compare it with some spreadsheet at the end of cruise to see if they opted out of the auto gratuities? 

[SRF]

Multiple crew have stated this.

 

Believe or don't believe.

 

Just keep justifying your actions to yourself.

[UNCFanatik]

5 minutes ago, SRF said:

Multiple crew have stated this.

 

Believe or don't believe.

 

Just keep justifying your actions to yourself.

 

As you keep virtue signaling from being conditioned to the problematic tipping culture of the US

[SRF]

Problematic or not, it is the norm in the US, and it the cultural norm on board RCI ships.

 

Do you not tip when you go out to eat in the US?

[UNCFanatik]

If you truly believe that Tipping should be based on level of service provided then its logically inconsistent to the concept of mandatory gratuities like to see at the bars on Royal. How is it worth 18% of the cost of a beer for the bartender just to hand a beer to me. Or even a bottled water to me? 

[UNCFanatik]

Just now, SRF said:

Problematic or not, it is the norm in the US, and it the cultural norm on board RCI ships.

 

Do you not tip when you go out to eat in the US?

 

I dont go to restaurants in the US that would automatically charge me a gratuity before service is even provided. And its not the norm in MOST restaurants in the US to just tack an 18% gratuity onto your bill that you cant remove unless its a special circumstance like a large party. 

 

Again, if a bartender just hands me a beer in the US, there is NO WAY I am giving him an 18% tip for just doing that. 

[Hutcha]

4 minutes ago, UNCFanatik said:

How is it worth 18% of the cost of a beer for the bartender just to hand a beer to me. Or even a bottled water to me? 

Post of the week from you. Seen it like 10 times.

 

I, and most people I know, will tip a dollar if getting a bottle of beer. On a $6 bottle, 18% is 1.08.

Don't like it? Ask the bartender to take the tip off, or better yet, don't cruise.

 

6 minutes ago, SRF said:

Do you not tip when you go out to eat in the US?

 

This is the 2nd most frequent post to you, and you haven't answered it yet.

I'll add on to it. You seem like, if you do tip, you're a 15% type of person. If you go to Outback and have a steak and a couple of drinks you're in for like $50. $7.50 tip. If you go to Ruth's Chris (fancy steakhouse) that will run you $125. Is it ok to just tip $7.50 because that server didn't do any more than the Outback server did?

[Hutcha]

12 hours ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

Didn't another thread concerning tipping that you were very prolific on just get shut down a couple of days ago?  

These and deck chair threads always get shut down. Don't know why, they're cruise related. If that's what people want to talk about, let them talk!

[cruisetorelax44]

1 hour ago, Sam Ting said:

You have no way of knowing that.  How would that even work?  What are they supposed to keep a log of who gave them money throughout the trip and then compare it with some spreadsheet at the end of cruise to see if they opted out of the auto gratuities? 

i said this same thing. cash in a pocket of a person actually serving you is better than what the company might be giving out to each person. $14.50 a day x 7 days a week is $101.50 per person. At capacity, an oasis class ship would have 6,320. That's more than $640,000 collected, not including suites. Divide that by a maximum of 2,100 staff and you get $305. Even if everyone was equally tipped through that, do you really think Royal is giving each worker $305 per week worth of tips? If individual bars and restaurants decide to pool their cash tips and split it among themselves, that's fine. But i no longer trust auto tips going to who they should be. Cash is king, and nothing anyone can say will convince me otherwise.

[PTC DAWG]

For some reason, Royal and Carnival seem to have the most threads defending removal of auto grats.  

 

I too have seen pictures of the lists of the passengers that remove autograts.  The staff knows.  As others have said, guard your toothbrushes.  🙂

[Hutcha]

1 hour ago, SRF said:

Do you not tip when you go out to eat in the US?

 

1 hour ago, UNCFanatik said:

 

I dont go to restaurants in the US that would automatically charge me a gratuity before service is even provided. And its not the norm in MOST restaurants in the US to just tack an 18% gratuity onto your bill that you cant remove unless its a special circumstance like a large party. 

 

Again, if a bartender just hands me a beer in the US, there is NO WAY I am giving him an 18% tip for just doing that. 

I'm sorry, I did read it. That's what prompted my reply. Where do you answer the question of whether or not you tip?

 

1 hour ago, UNCFanatik said:

Again, if a bartender just hands me a beer in the US, there is NO WAY I am giving him an 18% tip for just doing that. 

So, you order a beer at a US bar. Total is $6.75. You toss $7.00 on the counter and call it a day?

 

47 minutes ago, UNCFanatik said:

So, you believe that Outback and Ruth's Chris have the same caliber of servers?

Didn't say same caliber, said they provide the same service. Bringing you a meal and two drinks. Do you tip the Ruth's server $18.75 when you only tipped the Outback server $7.50. Call the level of service consistent with what you would expect for a "minimal tip" at both places.

[Hutcha]

20 minutes ago, cruisetorelax44 said:

i said this same thing. cash in a pocket of a person actually serving you is better than what the company might be giving out to each person. $14.50 a day x 7 days a week is $101.50 per person. At capacity, an oasis class ship would have 6,320. That's more than $640,000 collected, not including suites. Divide that by a maximum of 2,100 staff and you get $305. Even if everyone was equally tipped through that, do you really think Royal is giving each worker $305 per week worth of tips? If individual bars and restaurants decide to pool their cash tips and split it among themselves, that's fine. But i no longer trust auto tips going to who they should be. Cash is king, and nothing anyone can say will convince me otherwise.

You're talking about publicly traded companies engaging in illegal activities. They have to account for every penny going in and out. If they take in $640K, tax free, and do not pass it onto the employees they face serious fines and run the risk of being delisted from the stock exchanges. The officers of the company can be sent to prison for fraud. My wife is the officer of a traded company, she's constantly afraid of something getting by her that will land her in trouble. I've seen the hoops that accounting departments have to jump through to account for an accidental million dollar accounting mistake. An intentional one comes with dire consequences.

[UNCFanatik]

36 minutes ago, cruisetorelax44 said:

i said this same thing. cash in a pocket of a person actually serving you is better than what the company might be giving out to each person. $14.50 a day x 7 days a week is $101.50 per person. At capacity, an oasis class ship would have 6,320. That's more than $640,000 collected, not including suites. Divide that by a maximum of 2,100 staff and you get $305. Even if everyone was equally tipped through that, do you really think Royal is giving each worker $305 per week worth of tips? If individual bars and restaurants decide to pool their cash tips and split it among themselves, that's fine. But i no longer trust auto tips going to who they should be. Cash is king, and nothing anyone can say will convince me otherwise.

 

Exactly, you cant trust a company that is cash strapped and already has shady hiring practices to think that all the auto-gratuity monies flows to the proper crew members. 

[UNCFanatik]

1 minute ago, Hutcha said:

You're talking about publicly traded companies engaging in illegal activities. They have to account for every penny going in and out. If they take in $640K, tax free, and do not pass it onto the employees they face serious fines and run the risk of being delisted from the stock exchanges. The officers of the company can be sent to prison for fraud. My wife is the officer of a traded company, she's constantly afraid of something getting by her that will land her in trouble. I've seen the hoops that accounting departments have to jump through to account for an accidental million dollar accounting mistake. An intentional one comes with dire consequences.

 

yeah, cause no publicly traded company has ever engaged in "creative accounting" and all the publicly traded companies are beyond reproach when it comes to their accounting practices...yeah..ok... 

 

Since you are the smartest man in the room, I am sure you have seen the Enron doc named the Smartest Guys in the Room

[UNCFanatik]

31 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

For some reason, Royal and Carnival seem to have the most threads defending removal of auto grats.  

 

I too have seen pictures of the lists of the passengers that remove autograts.  The staff knows.  As others have said, guard your toothbrushes.  🙂

 

So if you tip well but are a jerk to your room steward, shouldnt you also guard your toothbrushes?

 

And why does it seem you condone that sort of behavior from the crew members.

 

 

[Ourusualbeach]

14 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Have you purchased recently?   It was automatically added on our sailing last week and has been added on for future sailings thru cruise planner. 

It depends on the ship.  Those ships that are part of the new cruise planner add the gratuities.  Those ships still under the old cruise planner system don't.

[Sam Ting]

8 minutes ago, Hutcha said:

You're talking about publicly traded companies engaging in illegal activities. They have to account for every penny going in and out. If they take in $640K, tax free, and do not pass it onto the employees they face serious fines and run the risk of being delisted from the stock exchanges. The officers of the company can be sent to prison for fraud. My wife is the officer of a traded company, she's constantly afraid of something getting by her that will land her in trouble. I've seen the hoops that accounting departments have to jump through to account for an accidental million dollar accounting mistake. An intentional one comes with dire consequences.

There must be a reason they are so vague about where the money goes and make it discretionary.

[Captain Billy Bob]

All inclusive with no tipping would resolve some of these problems. We vacation at all inclusive resorts and the no tipping policy makes for a much more relaxing vacation. The whole gratuities as part of the employee compensation package is outdated. So is the drink and dining package.

[UNCFanatik]

6 minutes ago, Captain Billy Bob said:

All inclusive with no tipping would resolve some of these problems. We vacation at all inclusive resorts and the no tipping policy makes for a much more relaxing vacation. The whole gratuities as part of the employee compensation package is outdated. So is the drink and dining package.

 

These same tipping debates happen with All-Inclusives. Some people who like to virtue signal, still think you should tip at an All-Inclusive Resort that markets and advertises as being All-Inclusive including the Tips. What happens is that the same people claiming moral superiority on this thread or any Tipping thread, still tip at All-Inclusives creating more issues among the staff and guests. 

 

[Rogueperson]

I'm not chiming in for or against, as this is a thorny issue.  This recent decision in Florida might throw more controversy into fray.

 

   https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/11-circ-says-salt-bae-steakhouses-service-fee-wasnt-tip-2022-03-18/

 

TLDR version, Court ruled that salt bae's restaurant's 18% "service charge" was NOT voluntary, and therefore did not count as a gratuity.  Because of that, the restaurant could roll that into server's actual wages and not pay them extra as a gratuity.

The term voluntary means a lot legally and we will never know exactly what happens behind the scenes.  And whether or not its voluntary, may dictate how the money is used.

 

[Cigar King]

4 hours ago, cruisetorelax44 said:

$75 to the steward first a 6 night cruise, $10 per meal, for 12 meals on a 6 night cruise, plus other tips throughout in case, FROM EACH OF US. On top the 18% added when we bought UDP. Please explain how that makes me cheap.

You are cheap because you are leaving out the other members of the staff, who are doing stuff for you, behind the scenes.  

[Sunshine3601]

23 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

It depends on the ship.  Those ships that are part of the new cruise planner add the gratuities.  Those ships still under the old cruise planner system don't.

We just returned from a b2b on Anthem.  We found it odd that first week used the new cruise planner system but our 2nd week was still the old cruise planner.    Maybe had to do with when we booked the sailings?   We had 2nd week booked since early 2021 and added the first week fall 2021.

[Cigar King]

2 hours ago, UNCFanatik said:

ok with Cruise Lines not paying a living wage. 

I don't recall seeing anyone saying they are OK with the lines not paying a living wage.  I know I never have.  That being said, I would own it if I did.  Unlike the cheapskates who continue to come up with creative reasons to justify their behavior.  

 

[cruisetorelax44]

and are you positive they're actually getting the money you're tipping? i mean, realistically, it would be cheaper for me to just pay the auto grats and then not do anything else extra at all... and then i would be super cheap...