Unlimited dining and MDR automatic gratuity?

[EntropyGuardian]

Only been on 5 cruises, but since the start when I saw that a % of the daily automatic gratuity was going to the three waiters in the Main Dining Room, we went every night. Might as well get what we are paying for was my thought process. It is a fun, communal experience and a good way to make friends with random tablemates.

 

If I'm ever blessed enough to be able to be on an Oasis or Quantum class ship with more than 3 specialty dining options the temptation to buy specialty dining packages goes way up for me. 

 

For people who do that and then do not patronize the MDR for the cruise, do you touch automatic gratuities at all? Why or why not?

 

Obviously folks rely on grats and honestly you should never mess with them. But how do you square paying grats to people twice for the same meals when only one group is providing you service?

 

[neverbeenhere]

Have fun with this one...

 

To the original question: We don't worry about it at all.

[taglovestocruise]

3 minutes ago, EntropyGuardian said:

Only been on 5 cruises, but since the start when I saw that a % of the daily automatic gratuity was going to the three waiters in the Main Dining Room, we went every night. Might as well get what we are paying for was my thought process. It is a fun, communal experience and a good way to make friends with random tablemates.

 

If I'm ever blessed enough to be able to be on an Oasis or Quantum class ship with more than 3 specialty dining options the temptation to buy specialty dining packages goes way up for me. 

 

For people who do that and then do not patronize the MDR for the cruise, do you touch automatic gratuities at all? Why or why not?

 

Obviously folks rely on grats and honestly you should never mess with them. But how do you square paying grats to people twice for the same meals when only one group is providing you service?

 

Always leave auto tips in place even with a 3 or 5 night package. Your auto tips also go the breakfast and lunch waiters as well as many behind the scenes workers. Even with tips included with the specialty packages we always leave a extra cash  tip to the waitstaff after the meal.

[ricka47]

I just don't worry about it. We have the UDP on our next sailing so we'll never see the MDR for dinner. In the old days you knew how much your waiter, assistant waiter, room steward, and others were getting. Now, it's just a lump sum.

 

If you think about it, you are also paying for food in the MDR that you are not getting. That's OK with me.

[EntropyGuardian]

1 minute ago, ricka47 said:

I just don't worry about it. We have the UDP on our next sailing so we'll never see the MDR for dinner. In the old days you knew how much your waiter, assistant waiter, room steward, and others were getting. Now, it's just a lump sum.

 

If you think about it, you are also paying for food in the MDR that you are not getting. That's OK with me.

 

It's been like 6 years since I sailed. I remember them breaking down your daily gratuity into room steward, waiter, assistant waiter, and head waiter with the $ for each. When I saw that is when I was like, well, I'm tipping them no matter what, might as well go get some escargot or squash soup or whatever they have.

[ricka47]

1 minute ago, EntropyGuardian said:

 

It's been like 6 years since I sailed. I remember them breaking down your daily gratuity into room steward, waiter, assistant waiter, and head waiter with the $ for each. When I saw that is when I was like, well, I'm tipping them no matter what, might as well go get some escargot or squash soup or whatever they have.

 

Yup, eat up - you're on vacation!

[Surfguyxxx]

We always get the UDP ourselves and we also leave the tips on our account.  The tips aren't all for the MDR folks but the Windjammer and other little restaurant venues throughout the ship.  They all work extremely hard and I feel they deserve it.  

[happy cruzer]

On 4/25/2022 at 1:15 PM, EntropyGuardian said:

For people who do that and then do not patronize the MDR for the cruise, do you touch automatic gratuities at all? Why or why not?

 

Obviously folks rely on grats and honestly you should never mess with them. But how do you square paying grats to people twice for the same meals when only one group is providing you service?

 

Also wondering about this.  In an ideal world, RCL when they added the UDP, they will have made a plan for the auto grats to cover this situation i.e. dinner servers in all venues get appropriatecompensation.  So that there is no need to tip extra on the UDP.  Did they?  What to do?  And yes everyone works (worked 🙂 ) hard for their money including cruisers.

[Ourusualbeach]

On 4/25/2022 at 2:20 PM, neverbeenhere said:

We don't worry about it at all.

Exactly.

[Joseph2017China]

I have never removed daily tips, and when I had the UPD, I never added an extra tip either.  All tips are part of the cruise.  I don't consider it anything else, other than the price I paid, and I prepay them, and I am finished with it when I step on the ship.  I never tip extra for drinks since I paid 18% also.  That includes all packages.  I also don't care how the company distributes it......none of my  business how a person gets paid

[rudeney]

In the "good old days", tips were in the form of cash handed to four people: your cabin steward, waiter, assistant waiter, and head waiter.  Even then, before the "specialty restaurants", there were people who never at in the MDR; they only at at the buffet.  They did not tip the wait staff because they never had designated people serving them in that capacity.  I knew people who never ate in the MDR because of this savings in tips, but also because there were dress codes for the MDR.  Now, tips are not designated by crew member, they are collected from passengers and somehow distributed to the crew.  We also don't get denied entry to the MDR for our choice of clothing.  I'd say today, most people consider the "gratuity" an added part of the cruise fare and don't worry who gets how much and if someone should or should not get it based on which services we use. 

[trey420]

I decided this cruise I probably won't tip any extra.  I don't remove auto tip either. I won't tip for drinks or the specialty dinning as they already include a tip.  If my lady pukes in the trashcan again I will tip the steward though 🤮

[robyn206]

The tips are only $14.50 or $17.50 (if in a suite) per day.  You figure 3 meals a day, some people likely more with their extra stops at Sorrento's (or whatever it's called on ships without Sorrentos) or another snack at Windjammer, getting the ice cream, the people that clean your stateroom, clean everything in all the common areas, etc, etc., etc.  So what's the dinner portion of it all worth?  A dollar or two?  I really don't think $7-$14 for the week for a supposed service that you don't think you are getting is a hill to die on.

[EntropyGuardian]

7 hours ago, robyn206 said:

The tips are only $14.50 or $17.50 (if in a suite) per day.  You figure 3 meals a day, some people likely more with their extra stops at Sorrento's (or whatever it's called on ships without Sorrentos) or another snack at Windjammer, getting the ice cream, the people that clean your stateroom, clean everything in all the common areas, etc, etc., etc.  So what's the dinner portion of it all worth?  A dollar or two?  I really don't think $7-$14 for the week for a supposed service that you don't think you are getting is a hill to die on.

 

Last time I saw the split of that $15 didn't go to anyone other than your steward and the MDR waitstaff. That doesn't go to random janitors, windjammer staff, Sorrento's staff. 

 

Your room steward you're always going to use and tip. But MDR waiters? 

 

(I understand they likely have shifts in different venues but the tip was structures specifically for MDR waiters)

[MommaBear55]

12 hours ago, Surfguyxxx said:

We always get the UDP ourselves and we also leave the tips on our account.  The tips aren't all for the MDR folks but the Windjammer and other little restaurant venues throughout the ship.  They all work extremely hard and I feel they deserve it.  

We feel the exact same way. 

[wayne_trisha]

Don't care. Always get UDP because the MDR is a fricking chaos of hurry up and wait. Sometimes I swear I am aback at basic training. People moving everywhere and if I don't drink my two glasses of water I am in big BIG trouble. 

 

Never have adjusted tips. Either give more for service we think is better or nothing extra when we are generally not happy (not mad, just not kind of uhhh) with service. Just don't care enough. Bad service gets serious focus on post cruise review.

[taglovestocruise]

4 hours ago, EntropyGuardian said:

 

Last time I saw the split of that $15 didn't go to anyone other than your steward and the MDR waitstaff. That doesn't go to random janitors, windjammer staff, Sorrento's staff. 

 

Your room steward you're always going to use and tip. But MDR waiters? 

 

(I understand they likely have shifts in different venues but the tip was structures specifically for MDR waiters)

What you saw was wrong.

Royal Caribbean gratuities breakdown

Royal Caribbean shares the gratuities between various crew members including stateroom attendants, waiters, bar staff, culinary staff and other hotel services team members. The exact breakdown of how much each staff member gets isn’t published, just like their salary isn’t published.

[neverbeenhere]

Good thing my salary isn’t published. My clients might not like it. 

[hazeleyes46]

If you utilize both the MDR and specialty restaurants do you usually tip the specialty restaurants when you are using them? Years ago I was under the impression that the tips were included and never tipped extra. Was that wrong?

[taglovestocruise]

1 minute ago, hazeleyes46 said:

If you utilize both the MDR and specialty restaurants do you usually tip the specialty restaurants when you are using them? Years ago I was under the impression that the tips were included and never tipped extra. Was that wrong?

Not wrong at all but we always tip a little extra in specialty.

[hazeleyes46]

Just now, taglovestocruise said:

Not wrong at all but we always tip a little extra in specialty.

Ok thank you. It seems we went a 2nd time since it was so good and the man at the door said something about not liking the service last time. We assume it was because we didn't tip extra. 

[Hutcha]

3 minutes ago, hazeleyes46 said:

Ok thank you. It seems we went a 2nd time since it was so good and the man at the door said something about not liking the service last time. We assume it was because we didn't tip extra. 

That was out of line.

 

I will say though that this is what happens with the tipping culture we have. It morphs from extra for above and beyond service, to become the norm, and expected. 20% is the new 15%.

[Cruising89143]

On 4/25/2022 at 11:15 AM, EntropyGuardian said:

Only been on 5 cruises, but since the start when I saw that a % of the daily automatic gratuity was going to the three waiters in the Main Dining Room, we went every night. Might as well get what we are paying for was my thought process. It is a fun, communal experience and a good way to make friends with random tablemates.

 

If I'm ever blessed enough to be able to be on an Oasis or Quantum class ship with more than 3 specialty dining options the temptation to buy specialty dining packages goes way up for me. 

 

For people who do that and then do not patronize the MDR for the cruise, do you touch automatic gratuities at all? Why or why not?

 

Obviously folks rely on grats and honestly you should never mess with them. But how do you square paying grats to people twice for the same meals when only one group is providing you service?

 

We leave the automatic gratuities as they are regardless. Example. We have been on two cruises within the last few months. On both cruises we dined all but one evening in specialty dining. We had lunch in the MDR one day on the first cruise and breakfast one morning on the last cruise. Other than that, no MDR. I leave it up to the cruise line to disperse the money as they see fit. We do take care of the wait staff in the specialty dining restaurants as we feel that they deserve it. I cannot recall ever reallocating the gratuities. We usually add to them. Now more than ever with many being out of work for so long. 

[happy cruzer]

On 4/28/2022 at 7:47 AM, Joseph2017China said:

I have never removed daily tips, and when I had the UPD, I never added an extra tip either.  All tips are part of the cruise.  I don't consider it anything else, other than the price I paid, and I prepay them, and I am finished with it when I step on the ship.  I never tip extra for drinks since I paid 18% also.  That includes all packages.  I also don't care how the company distributes it......none of my  business how a person gets paid

Yes, when you buy any item the grats are added up front.  Heck buy cans of water the grats are added.  So agree no need to add extra beyond what the cruise line adds; 18% is what they decided is good so just go with that.

[ricka47]

I do miss the days (before specialty restaurants) when tipping those who directly served you for the entire cruise was a nice part of the experience. I know that, even then, there were those who skipped the MDR the last night in order to avoid tipping. I used to wonder what those folks do in their local restaurants - do they stiff those servers as well?