The Fun Researcher

I agree that the percentage may increase, particularly due to the once a day room service.

I think this thread has somehow, believe it or not, been more civil than others like it in the past, hence it has stayed around.

@Longford”However, there are ways to circumvent the policy ... which I will not discuss here. 😁 ” Such a tease

Has anyone had this communication pushed to them? We sail on 18 days.

Exactly. My wife, son and I have connecting cabins for our upcoming Anthem cruise this month with mine being solo so I could double the points to get us to Diamond. I’m paying for two but now I can’t bring my two bottles on? We were planning on 4. With the alcohol prices on Royal each bottle is worth bringing. I want to see how this is going to get enforced over the next few weeks.

Well... it's also money that is expected to be distributed to tipped employees on the ship. Compensation packages are based on employees receiving these gratuities if service levels meet expectations. Again, if auto grats are removed, I just hope that cash is distributed at least to the same level of auto-grats, if service was met.

Sounds like a good opportunity to try Nachi Cocum. We've never done PB, but have always enjoyed NC.

Source? Love DVC. I'm fond of the Poly quiet pool myself. Not so much the Boardwalk main pool, although I LOVE the location of the Boardwalk Villas

Who was it that said if they don't get 10's they don't get their full share of gratuities? One person in this whole thread, but we are somehow latching onto it as gospel?

Very different things. Gratuities on a cruise ship are for an expected level of service and are a fixed amount daily. If I get that level of service, the folks on the ship get exactly what is suggested, and expected. In our case, in addition they also get whatever extra we decide to give the room steward, wait staff and bar staff in extra cash. If I somehow had a really bad experience that clearly was the fault of a certain tipped employee, I would ask to remove their gratuity if we couldn't resolve the issue otherwise. Those that remove tips and pay in cash, how do you determine what is appropriate? I'm guessing by some out of date formula? Perhaps your whims that day? If your expectations were met does the amount you hand out at least equal that of what the auto grats would have been? The pay structure for workers on a cruise ship are setup based on the auto gratuity structure since the majority use that method. It is significantly different than a simple restaurant since there are many more roles on a cruise ship that are impacted by gratuities, at least according to those that seem "to know". Who knows really, so much hearsay and secrets regarding this topic that who knows what the correct answer is. However, I prefer to let Royal handle it since they are the one setting up the compensation for their workers, and the workers took the job knowing those expectations.

Same

Interesting, I've never had anyone to my right or left requesting them removed as far as I could tell. I'm not at guest services very often to be fair.

True. It just got me thinking out loud I guess. 🙂

I'm o.k. with the automatic waters versus having to call and select your beverage choice

There is a far higher percentage than I thought who remove auto-gratuities. I would have guessed low single digits. I see some rationale on both sides but lean far in favor of just leaving them (or prepaying). I can't get onboard with those that remove them and then don't distribute them manually regardless. I'll just assume they distribute them manually unless service is bad. Manually doing it still smacks of the mindset that these folks somehow think they know better than Royal how to distribute gratuities. So be it. To make cross shopping easier I would like to see gratuities rolled into the price for all cruise lines in North America. (like the airlines were forced to do with all the taxes and fees years ago. Still provide the option to remove them onboard if warranted.

Understandable when you're paying roughly double the price. We have multiple sets of friends that, after multiple Disney cruises, swore them off because the value just isn't there for them. Once their kids tried Royal Caribbean and NCL they never looked back. Disney is a great cruise line but you're paying for it (and I particularly don't like their ship layouts)

Thanks for the reply. Yeah as I said, the extended version is sold out online already. I was wondering if they opened up more extended offerings once onboard. Sounds like it’s only the short ones though. That’s what you’re saying right?

We've done the escape room on the Navigator and loved it. Haven't done the one on Oasis so can't compare, but the one on the Nav. is well done IMO. Dan

See you there. Just don't take my spot! LOL. Looks like all the extended sessions are sold out. (not sure if I want the extended version anyway) Do they open more of these once onboard?

Thanks for the tip!

Agreed. I’ve never had a problem with Sorrento’s. My only gripe is that it gets repetitive about halfway through a weeklong cruise. It’s one of the reason I love Playmakers on some of the ships so that I can get some nice pub food late at night other than pizza or finger sandwiches

Sorry, deleting duplicate post.

I'm going in with an open mind. I'm very much looking forward to trying a new class of ship. I'm sure there will be things that we like or dislike when compared to other Royal ships, or even X or NCL. We very much go with the flow, mainly. However, we've cruised Royal quite a bit so hopefully we'll have a good reference point for what we're used to for things like service, food quality, ship cleanliness... etc.. We sail March 19th so I'm guessing any feedback I could provide would be too late for your sailing anyway. I'm expecting to have an awesome time. I knew going in that this is the worst itinerary that we've ever done (only really looking forward to Coco Cay) but it was a relatively inexpensive cruise for us since we're driving, and the cruise also gets us to Diamond level which is exciting. Like you said, we've never had a bad cruise and I wouldn't expect any different from Royal. They are a solid cruise line all around IMO.

I get what you're saying but I have only so many days (and vacation days) in this lifetime. If I had to spend a meaningful (which is subjective to each person) amount of time at all the cruise destinations we've been to, I wouldn't have enough time (and possibly funds) to do so. Cruising can give you a high level, or the opposite, myopic, view of your destination but in many cases that's enough for me. We're just looking to have fun, learn and explore. The ship provides an amazing way to do so by providing excellent lodging, meals, and entertainment along the way. Our favorite type of excursion are the full day island tours. It gives us a good enough overview. When I hear a particular island or port I can picture it fairly well in my minds eye from first hand experience. That's good enough for me in many cases. There are places that I wouldn't use a cruise for like you mentioned. Rome, Venice, etc... are examples, but even so it still sounds like a blast to cruise the Mediterranean.

...Because I wasn't meaning to offend, however I think many the negatives are over nitpicky things, so that' what I stated. Just stating my opinion. How else would I say it? That's what this board is about right? Stating opinions, giving facts, sharing information. When I give my review I'm happy to hear if someone disagrees with me, thinks I'm nit-picking, or differs in opinion.