Are you still adding cash gratuity on top of the automatic gratuities?

[NightOne]

2 hours ago, SilkySal said:

We always prepay gratuities and were not surprised about the increases. We will continue to tip in cash for those who provide us with excellent service. We usually tip in cash to those bringing our drinks and I like to tip the baristas who make my caramel macchiatos each morning. Sadly, I almost never see anyone tip them; they are usually very busy at the cafe and try to make everyone's favorite coffee quickly. Not bragging; I enjoy tipping them talking to them, and seeing them smile and wave when they see me! The special coffee warms my tummy but their smiles warm my heart! Long story short, everyone is free to tip or not to tip! Cheers!

 

Will you tip me for replying to this message?

 

Twenties and up please

[travelberlin]

3 hours ago, SilkySal said:

We always prepay gratuities and were not surprised about the increases. We will continue to tip in cash for those who provide us with excellent service. We usually tip in cash to those bringing our drinks and I like to tip the baristas who make my caramel macchiatos each morning. Sadly, I almost never see anyone tip them; they are usually very busy at the cafe and try to make everyone's favorite coffee quickly. Not bragging; I enjoy tipping them talking to them, and seeing them smile and wave when they see me! The special coffee warms my tummy but their smiles warm my heart! Long story short, everyone is free to tip or not to tip! Cheers!

I also enjoy seeing their smiles and it warms my heart because I know they are not identifying me with the dollar symbol. People are not only friendly and smiling because they have received a tip. 

[SPacificbound]

Yes, for cabin attendant and special servers.

[fizzywm]

I like tipping in cash and I'll continue to do it situationally as I always have. I'm blessed to be able to cruise and it feels good to share the blessings where I can.

[SilkySal]

15 hours ago, travelberlin said:

I also enjoy seeing their smiles and it warms my heart because I know they are not identifying me with the dollar symbol. People are not only friendly and smiling because they have received a tip. 

Not sure what you meant by saying that. We are always friendly and talk to most of the staff, with and without tipping, including Guest Services, floor/bathroom cleaners, painters, various room stewards, etc., and they always return our smiles and conversation without receiving any $$ compensation, so I apologize if my post was taken the wrong way. I don't tip for special treatment, so please don't imply that I do.

[Morecruisesplz]

3 hours ago, SilkySal said:

Not sure what you meant by saying that. We are always friendly and talk to most of the staff, with and without tipping, including Guest Services, floor/bathroom cleaners, painters, various room stewards, etc., and they always return our smiles and conversation without receiving any $$ compensation, so I apologize if my post was taken the wrong way. I don't tip for special treatment, so please don't imply that I do.

Read your post again please. It sure sounds like you tip when "sadly" others do not, so they "smile and wave" when you pass by. No implied but stated in your post.

 

[SilkySal]

8 minutes ago, Morecruisesplz said:

Read your post again please. It sure sounds like you tip when "sadly" others do not, so they "smile and wave" when you pass by. No implied but stated in your post.

 

OK, first off, I didn't respond to you but to someone else. Secondly, if you re-read my post, you will see that I attempted to apologize for any misconceptions. So, again, I am sorry. Hope that's good enough, or maybe you want more.

[The Fun Researcher]

1 hour ago, SilkySal said:

OK, first off, I didn't respond to you but to someone else. Secondly, if you re-read my post, you will see that I attempted to apologize for any misconceptions. So, again, I am sorry. Hope that's good enough, or maybe you want more.

I understood the intention of your original post. Don’t worry. Not everyone is a cynic.

[link99]

Just off Allure Monday. Paid the new rate per Day. Only extra tips I gave were for my Diamond Drinks. Just include the tips in the  cruise price already. 

[Jetdriver787]

Even the lifeboatmen on the Titanic  expected a small gratuity!

 

……and that was just the “tip” of the iceberg!

Edited November 21, 2023 by Jetdriver787
Autocorrect

[OldCaver]

On 11/5/2023 at 4:42 PM, mkmaj said:

Yes. I don't see any reason to penalize staff for Royal's crappy decisions. 

 

I always tip our room steward $20 on the first day with requests and then the amount at the end depends on service throughout the week. That end of week tip has been anywhere from $20-$150. 

 

Dinner is usually $10/night and more at the end for great service.

 

Bars, typically a buck or two a drink.

That's pretty much what we do, except we don't do MDR anymore. The Food Jammer is our preference now.  They have new hires roaming to offer to get you a drink or something between clearing tables, while they practice their English skills, and if you tip them, you really make a friend!
We don't tip additional at the bar until a waiter is friendly to us - and then we hand them a buck along with the sea pass card. This continues for the rest of the cruise. This results in somewhat stronger drinks, and also in some very lovely conversations about the waiter's home port, which to me is as nice as the stronger drinks.

[edrussell]

We will continue to tip, cash in hand to those that go above and beyond.  Tipping culture is such a polarizing subject as can be seen by this thread and almost any other tipping chat on CC.  We've yet to hit our upper limit on the auto grats to stop us from tipping select crew members.  It is 100% service dependent for us and we don't just tip because they are in the role.  Not that we ask for the moon and stars, we don't.  

[NightOne]

On 11/17/2023 at 10:50 AM, SilkySal said:

Not sure what you meant by saying that. We are always friendly and talk to most of the staff, with and without tipping, including Guest Services, floor/bathroom cleaners, painters, various room stewards, etc., and they always return our smiles and conversation without receiving any $$ compensation, so I apologize if my post was taken the wrong way. I don't tip for special treatment, so please don't imply that I do.

 

I know I did not receive my tip from you 😞 .. YET???

[SilkySal]

20 hours ago, NightOne said:

 

I know I did not receive my tip from you 😞 .. YET???

Remind me to tip you in person when we're on the same ship!😉

[JHU]

On 11/16/2023 at 7:54 PM, fizzywm said:

I like tipping in cash and I'll continue to do it situationally as I always have. I'm blessed to be able to cruise and it feels good to share the blessings where I can.

not responding specifically to your message, but:  Just returned from a B2B on another cruise line.  One of my table mates bragged about purchasing a diamond bracelet at on of our ports.  She was flashing it around at dinner. YET, on the last night, she removed the pre-paid gratuities and didn't hand the table servers cash tips.  The rest of us did provide additional tips.  

[craig01020]

On 10/31/2023 at 4:06 PM, NightOne said:

Are you still going to tip more?

Nope. I'm done.

[baldilocks]

We prepay our gratuities. We tip a dollar for each drink we are served since we are D+. We usually add another $20 to our room steward. We tip the MDR crew depending on service. We are not rich. The regular tipping and above is about all we can afford.

[karena1]

On 10/31/2023 at 4:06 PM, NightOne said:

We have always prepaid gratuities. We have also gave additional cash gratuities to our room steward and MDR waiters. We also added additional gratuities at special dining.

 

However, with the automatic daily gratuities going higher and higher it is getting hard to justify the "tips on top of the tips".

 

Anyone else feeling this way?

 

Are you still going to tip more?

always.  We prepay the tips and will still always add extra.  Just part of the cruise for us.  They work so had and deserve anything and everything extra they can get.  Would never, ever, take the prepaid tips off as I want everyone to share in those, but then we tip extra for drinks, dinner, cabin person, etc.  

 

[time4u2go]

5 hours ago, craig01020 said:

Nope. I'm done.

Same here. With the reduction in service and the increasing daily gratuities, I'm done as well.

[fizzywm]

7 hours ago, JHU said:

not responding specifically to your message, but:  Just returned from a B2B on another cruise line.  One of my table mates bragged about purchasing a diamond bracelet at on of our ports.  She was flashing it around at dinner. YET, on the last night, she removed the pre-paid gratuities and didn't hand the table servers cash tips.  The rest of us did provide additional tips.  

Shameful behavior. And I think more common than many would admit.

[sgmn]

On 11/2/2023 at 1:51 PM, LobsterStalker said:

Sad thing is , by raising grats again , upfront customer facing staff , (who I believe deserve the tip) , 

Are actually going to get way less by my estimation . With the amount of the increase ,we could estimate that the steward gets maybe an extra .50c-.60c per day .So a buck a day per cabin .

If this leads more people to stop tipping them extra , they could be hauling in maybe an avg. of $5 a day from that loss. Haven't decided to do either yet , still auto gratting and tipping extra , but Makes me feel , removing autograts , and tipping accordingly may be the better option , rather than leaving them on and not tipping extra.

...Good job RCI

 

Cheers

If raising grats twice in two years and cutting service on top of sky high prices leads to more people refusing to pay the (optional) grats, then the rises seem self defeating. There will come a tipping point (no pun intended), when the rises are unsustainable because of more and more opting out.

[sgmn]

On 11/3/2023 at 10:55 PM, marci22 said:

We consistently tipped bartenders $2-$5 cash per round and we didn't notice any better service. Maybe my service would have been horrible otherwise?

Agree, it's never made a difference to us, though we always tip for Diamond drinks (plus do the auto tips ).

We're not USA based so no tipping mentality here, though we do try to follow the 'when in Rome rules' 

Hubby still talks about when he was waiting patiently in line at a bar to be served and the barman served the guy at the back of the queue,  presumably because he tipped well (bribed).

Doesn't sit well with our sense of fairness 

Edited November 23, 2023 by sgmn

[travelberlin]

7 hours ago, sgmn said:

 

We're not USA based so no tipping mentality here, though we do try to follow the 'when in Rome rules' 

Hubby still talks about when he was waiting patiently in line at a bar to be served and the barman served the guy at the back of the queue,  presumably because he tipped well (bribed).

The “when in Rome rule” is good but the ships are international. International crew, international passengers unless you are sailing out of USA ports and ships and company register somewhere out of USA.
 

Actually I think that on the ships sailing in Europe, South America, TAs, etc, passengers do not have to behave as if they were in USA. I oppose bribing and many people do not tip but bribe and are OK with that 🤔?

[Ret MP]

20 hours ago, travelberlin said:

The “when in Rome rule” is good but the ships are international. International crew, international passengers unless you are sailing out of USA ports and ships and company register somewhere out of USA.
 

Actually I think that on the ships sailing in Europe, South America, TAs, etc, passengers do not have to behave as if they were in USA. I oppose bribing and many people do not tip but bribe and are OK with that 🤔?

I guess one person's bribe is another's reward.  On a cruise, I tell a server, if things don't go so well.  And if things don't go so well, future tips will depend on the level of service.  Same on land, if things start to go south, I tell the server what went wrong and tell him/her that "my tips start at 15% and will go up or down, it's up to you".  I don't believe in built-in tips because they reward far too many subperformers.  Having said that, I do pre-pay my cruise gratuities (currently under review, however) and then add more accordingly.  To date, I have never canceled or requested a credit for my pre-paid gratuities.  However, I have reduced my tip to a Genie (minor issue(s) and a minor reduction) which was a subperformer, in my opinion.  

[Jetdriver787]

Rumour has it….that from 01/01/24, only the first “Tip, tip, hooray!” Envelope will be provided free! Each additional envelope will carry a $5.99 (plus gratuity) fee.