Suggested Gratuities set to increase

[GEORGET]

Just off the Brilliance and there were D+ saying that the tips were high and were noticable by there absence on the last day in the Concierge lounge, the only night they missed.

Cannot think why, maybe they were going to Chops. First time i have seen a tip box in the Concierge lounge and it had one dollars bills in it.

 

Before you say anything i always go for MTD as I like the free drinks in the lounge and I tip well.

 

I would like the basic tips/gratuites/service charge to be included in the price.

 

Also the 15% drink charge to be added to the upfront price. Just as they have already done on the IOS.

 

The reason is this

 

A Cruise advertised on RCCL( 7 days) at $499 has $123.96 Taxes added equal to $622 96.

Grats are optional at the moment at $68.25

This increases the base price by 11%

 

It would be a lot less of a percentage is you were in a more expensive cabin.

(ie $1000 base plus tips = 6.83% price increase)

 

Upside

 

In this case the staff recieve the minimum from each passenger.

Price you see is the price you pay.

You can tip more if you want.

If all cruise lines did this it would be easier to compare the hotel costs.

Those that dont tip or are new to cruising will not be shocked by the extra bill on board or need to queue to have it removed.

 

The only downside i can see is

 

That i will not be able to book MTD as it would be full.

Those that say they always tip more will just have to give less extra.

Those that do not will have paid more than before.

The MDR will still be full on the last night.

 

If you have bad service do what you would at a home based hotel, complain or never use again.

 

 

I must be lucky as i have been on cruises where the tips are included or compulary and never had bad service. The same goes for all the other cruises as well, could it be because i always pay the charge upfront.

 

There is only one thing i disagree with RCCL and that is when children are sharing a cabin aged two+ and are charged the same grats as adults. bit OTT.

[rjsams]

That's just it, though. If they want to give them a raise, give them a raise and pass it on to us in the price of the cruise.

 

I think the reason they are doing it this way, is because people book cruises based upon the advertised fare. If the fare goes up, fewer passengers book the cruise, and the staff is out on tips anyway. Or worse, the cruise line has to lay off staff!

 

Hopefully enough people take the increase to heart and recognize the wonderful service that RCCL staff provides. I know I was treated wonderfully!!

[TheMiz]

Correct; $2 bills are not accepted in many places outside the U.S. and are looked at suspiciously. While the staff appreciates all cash tips, $2 do often create some difficulties for them in terms of putting the money to use. It is much better to give staff two $1 bills than one $2 bill.

 

 

I have never been told by anyone that there were problems.

As for tipping $2 outside the U.S I don't I tip based on the departing city.

Actually I shouldn't say I don't use $2 bills outside the states I have used them

in Mexico for over 15 years but but those visits are not a cruise.

 

I rather head out with 50 - $2 bills than 100 - $1's

[EVALUATOR]

Just off the Brilliance and there were D+ saying that the tips were high and were noticable by there absence on the last day in the Concierge lounge, the only night they missed.

Cannot think why, maybe they were going to Chops. First time i have seen a tip box in the Concierge lounge and it had one dollars bills in it.

 

 

But on a recent cruise, the Concierge actually knocked on our cabin door one morning and handed us an empty envelope with "Concierge" printed on the front of it. :eek:

 

Then they wished us a good morning, and went on to their way.

[tulsacubfan]

Sorry about that. Sometimes, when I type, my brain is way ahead of my fingers.

 

Obviously (upon rereading this) mine is too....a few missing letters in my post!

[uncas17]

The tipping policy is a "suggestion". If I can afford to take a cruise, then I am certainly able to provide a suitable gratuity for service. Those folks work hard, have long days (and nights) and provide a wonderful cruise experience. If one wants to "cheap out", so be it. I don't have a lot of funds, but work in retirement to be able to travel. We tip barbers, hotel staff, etc., why not a fair piece of pay for ship's personnel? I've been on over 20 cruises and almost always found they earn their gratuities.

[r.haywood]

And I'm betting more than a few pax lower those guidelines because they have probably overspent elsewhere and don't have the $$ for tips at the end of their cruise. So they invent reasons to lower the gratuities.:(

just come back from cruise on voyager of the seas paid tips up front befor i left this way felt it was part of the price doing this gave me the advantage of my time dining which was great as we were allways able to fit in two of the shows per night forget the tips how about the price they charge for the toures now thats worth moaning about we took our own personaly selected guides on four of the islands for less than half that charged by the ship these were fully insured took only four persons visited more places and with people who live there and know thier history you should have seen the faces on passengers who had booked the ships toure when they heard of all the places we were taken compared to them the driver even droped us off at the beach at the end of the toure and returned at a time we had agreed to take us back to the ship thanks to all these :)drivers who gave us good service and made us feel so special

[Ishouldbecruising]

I am happy to pay gratuities and usually go by the guidelines of RCI. However, surely RCI should be increasing their base pay in line with inflation and not increasing the tips? I do not believe that tips should be added to the cost of the actual cruise as this could result in the level of service declining and from my experience, service is better on American ships. If you prefer the American lines as we do, you should tip accordingly.

[Gonzo70]

I am happy to pay gratuities and usually go by the guidelines of RCI. However, surely RCI should be increasing their base pay in line with inflation and not increasing the tips?

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

The gratuities are almost 100% of the waiters and room stewards pay. They only receive a token salary (about $50 per month); all the rest of their income is from the gratuities.

[househunter]

I am happy to pay gratuities and usually go by the guidelines of RCI. However, surely RCI should be increasing their base pay in line with inflation and not increasing the tips? I do not believe that tips should be added to the cost of the actual cruise as this could result in the level of service declining and from my experience, service is better on American ships. If you prefer the American lines as we do, you should tip accordingly.

 

Even if they were wo increase their base pay, where do you think the money would come from? The passenger in the cruise fare. It really doesn't matter if there is a lower fare and then we tip or if the whole thing is the cruise fare- we pay for it anyway. I just don't get all these complaints about tipping. Just because people don't like the model of business that cruiseships and many other industries set up their business practices doesn't mean it is a wrong model of business- just different.

 

In countries where tipping is not the norm, the customer is still paying the waiters salary- in the price of the meal!

[Bonsallblonde]

I just returned from a NCL cruise where the suggested gratuities were $12 per day (window cabin). I agree with those who feel that the money should go to the hard working staff (not corporate). Does anyone know if the money really gets to the staff?

I also tip housekeeping extra depending on quality of service.

 

Bonsallblonde

[wombat2]

We have always been dumbfounded with the tipping in non brit cultures.....it is so third worldish but the reality is it happens. Lets get real, Americans call it tipping but it is highway robbery extortion that is encouraged in your culture. If compulsory tipping was stopped and decent wages were paid in USA perhaps there would not be such rampant poverty......look at countries that do not tip and travel to those countries, you would be amazed at the standard of living in comparison. The lowest wage in Australia for an adult is about $16 per hour and that includes the hospitality industry and all the staff at Maccas. You guys have to change your whole living structure. Anyway after saying that, on our last cruise with RC we chose My Time Dining and prepaid our gratuities and mentally included that as our fare. We were still happy with our fare cost. We also tipped extra to our wait staff and cabin steward (quite heavily too) as they were phenomonal.

 

Hey guys, visit England, visit Australia, visit New Zealand, there are heaps of countries in the world that do not use extortion, bully boy, third world grab for money tactics.

[grand isle joe]

We have always been dumbfounded with the tipping in non brit cultures.....it is so third worldish but the reality is it happens. Lets get real, Americans call it tipping but it is highway robbery extortion that is encouraged in your culture. If compulsory tipping was stopped and decent wages were paid in USA perhaps there would not be such rampant poverty......look at countries that do not tip and travel to those countries, you would be amazed at the standard of living in comparison. The lowest wage in Australia for an adult is about $16 per hour and that includes the hospitality industry and all the staff at Maccas. You guys have to change your whole living structure. Anyway after saying that, on our last cruise with RC we chose My Time Dining and prepaid our gratuities and mentally included that as our fare. We were still happy with our fare cost. We also tipped extra to our wait staff and cabin steward (quite heavily too) as they were phenomonal.

 

Hey guys, visit England, visit Australia, visit New Zealand, there are heaps of countries in the world that do not use extortion, bully boy, third world grab for money tactics.

 

Hmmmm......another compliment from another country that may be speaking Japanese if not for the culture that promotes "highway robbery" to pull its' butt out of the fire. Cheers mate. And think of us on V.J. day.

 

P.S.

[Ocean Boy]

We have always been dumbfounded with the tipping in non brit cultures.....it is so third worldish but the reality is it happens. Lets get real, Americans call it tipping but it is highway robbery extortion that is encouraged in your culture. If compulsory tipping was stopped and decent wages were paid in USA perhaps there would not be such rampant poverty......look at countries that do not tip and travel to those countries, you would be amazed at the standard of living in comparison. The lowest wage in Australia for an adult is about $16 per hour and that includes the hospitality industry and all the staff at Maccas. You guys have to change your whole living structure. Anyway after saying that, on our last cruise with RC we chose My Time Dining and prepaid our gratuities and mentally included that as our fare. We were still happy with our fare cost. We also tipped extra to our wait staff and cabin steward (quite heavily too) as they were phenomonal.

 

Hey guys, visit England, visit Australia, visit New Zealand, there are heaps of countries in the world that do not use extortion, bully boy, third world grab for money tactics.

Considering the hoops that somesome has to jump through in order to immigrate to Australia and take part in your high standards of living we hardly need for you to pass judgement on our living structure here in the U.S.

[grand isle joe]

Considering the hoops that somesome has to jump through in order to immigrate to Australia and take part in your high standards of living we hardly need for you to pass judgement on our living structure here in the U.S.

 

History does tell us the stories of the British Empire ridding herself of all those "pesky" criminals (some even highway robbers) and sailing the lot to where? An island far far away.

[bplazo]

We have always been dumbfounded with the tipping in non brit cultures.....it is so third worldish but the reality is it happens. Lets get real, Americans call it tipping but it is highway robbery extortion that is encouraged in your culture. If compulsory tipping was stopped and decent wages were paid in USA perhaps there would not be such rampant poverty......look at countries that do not tip and travel to those countries, you would be amazed at the standard of living in comparison. The lowest wage in Australia for an adult is about $16 per hour and that includes the hospitality industry and all the staff at Maccas. You guys have to change your whole living structure. Anyway after saying that, on our last cruise with RC we chose My Time Dining and prepaid our gratuities and mentally included that as our fare. We were still happy with our fare cost. We also tipped extra to our wait staff and cabin steward (quite heavily too) as they were phenomonal.

 

Hey guys, visit England, visit Australia, visit New Zealand, there are heaps of countries in the world that do not use extortion, bully boy, third world grab for money tactics.

 

No thanks, I will stay right where I am at! I happen to like it here.

[Ocean Boy]

History does tell us the stories of the British Empire ridding herself of all those "pesky" criminals (some even highway robbers) and sailing the lot to where? An island far far away.

 

The British knew how to do a good house cleaning.

[TheMiz]

The British knew how to do a good house cleaning.

 

 

I remember being told stories from a "Beefeater" at the Tower Of London about

TIPS , as we know The Tower was the last thing many seen before going to Tower Hill or the boat right to down under.

 

But he used the term "reward" then said it would be called a "Tip" in the states but he said

in the case of the story he was telling us about someone trying to escape it was also known as a bribe. A wife of someone famous entered the tower at night and paid off a guard they dressed the husband as a woman and escaped , I believe a servent was left behind in the cell.

 

LOL now I am going to have to work on remembering the story more.

[millwright2007]

I have always prepaid my gratuities. No more. I will give at least 15% to all and to some I will give more, as we have done on past cruises.

 

RCL ,if they loose my business ,it will not be for the increase in the suggested gratuities. It will be for not giving their employees a raise for 13 years and trying to do so on the backs of the cruisers.

 

Pay them a decent wage and we(me and my wife) will gladly pay the extra for the cruise(we pay one way or another anyway). At least if their pay is raised then they will have a stable income and not have to rely on gratuities as much.

:)

[millwright2007]

Having reread the cruise critic article I think we have got it wrong.

 

The tipping policy has not changed in 13 years.

 

It did not say that the employees hadn't reccieved a pay raise in 13 years.:)

[Gonzo70]

Having reread the cruise critic article I think we have got it wrong.

 

The tipping policy has not changed in 13 years.

 

It did not say that the employees hadn't reccieved a pay raise in 13 years.:)

 

The gratuities ARE the staff's wages. They only earn $50 a month in salary (waiters and room stewards). The model of RCI (and most of the mass market cruise lines) is to only give the workers a token (i.e. minimal) salary and have them paid via the gratuity system. I do not get why there seems to be so many people who want them to change the system so that they are paid in the form of salary instead of via gratuities. We as passengers would pay more for the staff to receive the same amount of money (as there would be added administrative costs as well as commissions to travel agencies). I cannot fathom why someone would choose a cruise line based on whether the service personnel are compensated via salaries or gratuities. How on Earth does it make any difference to us passengers (aside from saving us some money that would otherwise go to the administrative costs and commissions)?

[Kugel]

I believe everyone is entitled to their opinions and sometimes these boards get heated when they should be informative.

 

Come on people! These people do work most of us would not do for any amount let alone tips that have not increased in 13 years. It is a GUIDELINE. RCCL is not trying to screw anyone! For heavens sake, wake up. If you are so cheap that a couple of bucks a day is going to make a difference on your cruise, maybe your bar bill is over the top! No one has a problem spending big bucks on a fancy drink but mention giving a good worker an extra $2.00 a day and people just have to complain.

 

For those of you that think you need to protest to make a statement to RCCL you are so wrong. The only ones that will suffer are the men and women who wait on you hand and foot while you are cruising.

 

If you don't want to pay the difference on MTD, then don't do MTD.

 

With the exception of our last head waiter who made us stand for 45 minutes in the dining room to sort out a problem he created, we never received service that was so bad we had to give less.

 

Big deal these men and women are getting a small increase. We don't know what RCCL does for their salary or their raises. I do know that after the disaster in Haiti the company told all their employees with family there that they could go and help out and their jobs would be waiting for them and financially assisted some of them.

 

THIS IS IN MY OPINION ONLY. So please do not get hostile or take offense as it was not meant that way. Just my opinion.

[mets550]

First of all, this thread is (for the most part) an informed discussion as to the virtues of the tipping system and what RCCL is doing. I think most of us are trying to have a legitimate discussion on the topic, so people who are admonishing others for making a big deal about this need to realize that this board is perhaps the only place where we can have a real discussion, and a difference in opinions (even if it gets heated) is just a good debate.

 

That being said, you can't fault RCCL for not giving their employees a raise. Just like any business, their loyalty is to their investors (stockholders), and if they can get the same quality crewmembers for less money, then they are doing exactly what they are ethically obligated to do. Any business that pays or gives more than is necessary under the circumstances is doing a disservice to those who are funding it--and that is arguably just as unethical--at least in a capitalist system. You can argue that a capitalist system works to the detriment of many and should be replaced, but the bottom line is that any business is in business to make money, and if RCCL thinks that the best way to serve their investors is to raise the recommended level of gratuities, there is nothing wrong with that.

[rubrrick]

I believe everyone is entitled to their opinions and sometimes these boards get heated when they should be informative.

 

Come on people! These people do work most of us would not do for any amount let alone tips that have not increased in 13 years. It is a GUIDELINE. RCCL is not trying to screw anyone! For heavens sake, wake up. If you are so cheap that a couple of bucks a day is going to make a difference on your cruise, maybe your bar bill is over the top! No one has a problem spending big bucks on a fancy drink but mention giving a good worker an extra $2.00 a day and people just have to complain.

 

For those of you that think you need to protest to make a statement to RCCL you are so wrong. The only ones that will suffer are the men and women who wait on you hand and foot while you are cruising.

 

If you don't want to pay the difference on MTD, then don't do MTD.

 

With the exception of our last head waiter who made us stand for 45 minutes in the dining room to sort out a problem he created, we never received service that was so bad we had to give less.

 

Big deal these men and women are getting a small increase. We don't know what RCCL does for their salary or their raises. I do know that after the disaster in Haiti the company told all their employees with family there that they could go and help out and their jobs would be waiting for them and financially assisted some of them.

 

THIS IS IN MY OPINION ONLY. So please do not get hostile or take offense as it was not meant that way. Just my opinion.

 

 

Thank you..........I think that your OPINION is well put.

 

We do "MTD" to make sure that the waiters and all wait staff are paid.

 

We use the Windjammer for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The people that serve us in the WJ, are the same that rotate in the dining room.

 

The WJ staff are not given a gratuity. Only the Main Dining room staff receive gratuities. Fortunately, they are shared.

 

Everyone has their level of what they should pay the staff. It's very sad to me, that some don't understand that their gratuities are the staff's pay, and why should they think that.......especially if they are just cruising once in a while.

 

Thanks for bringing up a very subjective subject!!;)

 

Rick

[l61beck]

I already paid gratuities for my end of January cruise. Will I have to pay more?:cool: