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I emailed the executive office with questions about auto-gratuity dispersement.

budmeister

By budmeister,
in Royal Caribbean International

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not-enough-cruising

not-enough-cruising

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Even though you may never go to the Dining Room the entire cruise your Tip still goes to the  the wait staff that was assigned to your table.

The reason they still get your tips because think of it this way. What would happen if during the entire cruise the waitstaff was assigned tables in the Dining Room that no one ever ate in the Dining Room the entire cruise?

Would that mean that wait staff crew wouldn't get paid for the entire week just because no one ever showed up at their tables?

That wouldn't be far to them no pay for the week. That is why they still get your tips whether you show up or not.

Using that logic, Royal should refund me the MDR food costs for every night I eat dinner in specialty dining.

 

The wait staff gets their guarantee, if I don’t show up to my table they have less work to do, less work, less money. 

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iscruisingdunzo Great Review Rare

iscruisingdunzo

Posted
Posted

Wow. It is always so nice to see the extreme generosity 🤪 from the great people of cruise critic world. I am going to sleep better tonight knowing that all you fine people also pre-pay your gratuities at the restaurants you dine at weekly and are also sure to tip the fine people you do not see such as the cleaners, dishwashers, office managers, cooks, and dish dryers. Well done. 

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Jimbo

Jimbo

Posted
Posted
32 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Using that logic, Royal should refund me the MDR food costs for every night I eat dinner in specialty dining.

 

The wait staff gets their guarantee, if I don’t show up to my table they have less work to do, less work, less money. 

Not quite,because you are still eating their food somewhere...You don't go to the pay restaurants for breakfast lunch and dinner do you?

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bonsai3s

bonsai3s

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Even though you may never go to the Dining Room the entire cruise your Tip still goes to the  the wait staff that was assigned to your table.

The reason they still get your tips because think of it this way. What would happen if during the entire cruise the waitstaff was assigned tables in the Dining Room that no one ever ate in the Dining Room the entire cruise?

Would that mean that wait staff crew wouldn't get paid for the entire week just because no one ever showed up at their tables?

That wouldn't be far to them no pay for the week. That is why they still get your tips whether you show up or not.

They have a salary.

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The Fun Researcher

The Fun Researcher

Posted
Posted

Very nice to see, in writing, that 100% of gratuities goes to the crew.

 

Regardless, and I've said it before, I'm not o.k. with a category of "other hotel services" on that gratuity list.  Roll that into the cruise cost and only have two categories, Stateroom Attendant and Dining Room.  At least we interact with those crew members and they provide service directly to us. 

 

That change alone would drop the auto grats to around $12 per person per day.  Yes, you would pay more in the base cruise fare to make up the difference, but I think that's a better way of handling that category.  Royal is abusing the purpose of gratuities IMO.  My $0.02. 

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PhillyFan33579

PhillyFan33579

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, not-enough-cruising said:

No, but I should get a credit for the food at dinner (as I stated above) 


In the past prices for speciality restaurants were lower because you were getting a credit for what you would have “spent” in the MDR. I think this logic still applies for most lunches in speciality restaurants, but tough to say a discount is being applied for dinners in speciality restaurants with current prices. 

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Another_Critic

Another_Critic

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, PhillyFan33579 said:


In the past prices for speciality restaurants were lower because you were getting a credit for what you would have “spent” in the MDR. I think this logic still applies for most lunches in speciality restaurants, but tough to say a discount is being applied for dinners in speciality restaurants with current prices. 

 

People continue to pay for specialty, so there is no incentive for Royal to include a "base" meal subsidy in the specialty price.

 

I blame the higher prices on the people that pay the higher prices.

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PhillyFan33579

PhillyFan33579

Posted
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5 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

 

People continue to pay for specialty, so there is no incentive for Royal to include a "base" meal subsidy in the specialty price.

 

I blame the higher prices on the people that pay the higher prices.


Definitely agree with your comment. I think it is crazy what people are paying these days for anything cruise related, and especially Icon related. I don’t have an issue with RCI, I would keep increasing prices too as long as people keeping spending the way they are doing these days. Fortunately I am retired and can still find fairly good deals (with the exception of Icon) since I can cruise any time. 

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budmeister Great Review Rare

budmeister

Posted
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Posted
17 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Even though you may never go to the Dining Room the entire cruise your Tip still goes to the  the wait staff that was assigned to your table.

The reason they still get your tips because think of it this way. What would happen if during the entire cruise the waitstaff was assigned tables in the Dining Room that no one ever ate in the Dining Room the entire cruise?

Would that mean that wait staff crew wouldn't get paid for the entire week just because no one ever showed up at their tables?

That wouldn't be far to them no pay for the week. That is why they still get your tips whether you show up or not.

Glad to "hear" this. I like to think I have made their jobs a bit easier without hurting their pay. Same as when I tell the cabin attendant just towels and garbage please. 

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Jimbo

Jimbo

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, PhillyFan33579 said:


Definitely agree with your comment. I think it is crazy what people are paying these days for anything cruise related, and especially Icon related. I don’t have an issue with RCI, I would keep increasing prices too as long as people keeping spending the way they are doing these days. Fortunately I am retired and can still find fairly good deals (with the exception of Icon) since I can cruise any time. 

Do you cruise other lines too?

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budmeister Great Review Rare

budmeister

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Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, iscruisingdunzo said:

Wow. It is always so nice to see the extreme generosity 🤪 from the great people of cruise critic world. I am going to sleep better tonight knowing that all you fine people also pre-pay your gratuities at the restaurants you dine at weekly and are also sure to tip the fine people you do not see such as the cleaners, dishwashers, office managers, cooks, and dish dryers. Well done. 

Well, I sleep better at night knowing I am helping to supplement their extremely low salaries. Take out office managers, and many of the rest make less than 1000.00 a month. Yes, RC should pay them better, but we would not have our nice cruises without them.

 

https://shiplife.org/salaries/

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S.A.M.J.R.

S.A.M.J.R.

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, The Fun Researcher said:

Very nice to see, in writing, that 100% of gratuities goes to the crew.

 

Regardless, and I've said it before, I'm not o.k. with a category of "other hotel services" on that gratuity list.  Roll that into the cruise cost and only have two categories, Stateroom Attendant and Dining Room.  At least we interact with those crew members and they provide service directly to us. 

 

That change alone would drop the auto grats to around $12 per person per day.  Yes, you would pay more in the base cruise fare to make up the difference, but I think that's a better way of handling that category.  Royal is abusing the purpose of gratuities IMO.  My $0.02. 

I don't disagree with what you're saying, but why not just factor the auto-grats as part of the fare?  

Let's say your room is $1000pp for the week.  Now add in auto-grats.  That's an additional $126 if I did my math right.  

 

What difference does it make whether they say "take your base fare and add auto-grats" or "we've included gratuities in the base fare"?  Either way, you're paying $1126.  

 

Or, remove the auto grats, hand the room steward $50, head waiter $40, and assistant waiter $36.  

 

I think too many people are caught up in "it's called a TIP!"  Realistically, what difference does it make?  "But if I don't get good service, I don't want to encourage them"  What are you going to do if the Flowrider attendants are rude?  What if the CD isn't entertaining? 

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jean87510 Great Review Rare

jean87510

Posted
Posted
17 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Even though you may never go to the Dining Room the entire cruise your Tip still goes to the  the wait staff that was assigned to your table.

The reason they still get your tips because think of it this way. What would happen if during the entire cruise the waitstaff was assigned tables in the Dining Room that no one ever ate in the Dining Room the entire cruise?

Would that mean that wait staff crew wouldn't get paid for the entire week just because no one ever showed up at their tables?

That wouldn't be far to them no pay for the week. That is why they still get your tips whether you show up or not.

Are you saying the staff only gets paid via tips?  Can you verify this?

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Another_Critic

Another_Critic

Posted
Posted
39 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Vision is on the GGG flier almost every week and relative to the rest of the fleet has some of the lowest PPPD prices.

I haven't seen any real bargains lately for sailings that I'm interested in or don't conflict with other bookings.  And some of the bargains are good for double occupancy, but not for solo (DP340).  Plus, they've dropped Coco Cay on many of the 8-night sailings.  Hopefully there are some future deals I can partake in.

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