My Time Dining; pre-paid gratuities, policy fact and fiction only please

[NJcruisenewbie]

OP, congrats on becoming owner of the boards.

[LMaxwell]

OP, congrats on becoming owner of the boards.

 

I thought it would be nice to have one thread without the energy drainers, kill joys, and nasty people in it so as to gain better understanding. Your participation is optional; thank you for your congratulatory note.

[138east]

I will add that I've seen gratuity modification forms you can get from Guest Services. I used one last cruise for the Concierge gratuity. It was a general form that allowed you to enter the crewmember's name, position, and total gratuity amount.

 

However, I don't know if it could be used to add or subtract to prepaid gratuities. The form I saw only had the ability to specify total gratuity, not an addition or subtraction from the standard amount. This would require knowing the standard gratuity for each crewmember, which I'm not sure is published anymore.

 

I have also used the gratuity modification form to pay additional gratuities from OBC. You can tip individual people or you can group tip like "Diamond Lounge Bar Service Team" or "Concierge Lounge Bar Service Team"

[Debde]

If you haven't pre-paid, then you are correct that you can easily remove the daily gratuities. Just note, that if you remove these daily gratuities, the official policy of RCI is that your dining room servers and cabin steward must surrender the cash you personally gave them to go into the general pool. There have been conflicting reports on whether cash tips in addition to the auto-grats need to be reported, but it seems pretty clear from many reports on here and the RCI website that if you remove your auto-grats, the steward any cash tips are to be reported... whether they are then redistributed depends on who you ask and when. Either way, it does sound like your method winds up just having the same result as auto-gratuities (if it is in fact redistributed) while making it more difficult for all staff involved (and yourself for waiting in line).

 

Please show me where is says this on the RCI website??

[Robinola]

Can't stop laughing! You crack me up!

[Merion_Mom]

There is a lot of misinformation on this thread.

 

I am not going to address it. I think that doing so would violate LMaxwell's rule against arguing. ;)

 

I will state my experience.

 

The form available at Guest Services allows you to have them add gratuities to your SeaPass account, if you do not wish to use cash to tip beyond the standard gratuities, whether paid before your cruise or added to your SeaPass account daily.

 

You write the person's name and specify the amount you want to pay that person.

 

I have used it for the Concierge and Diamond Concierge, but I see no reason that it could not be used for any other worker on the ship.

[Merion_Mom]

Here is my experience. We had MTD on the Oasis last week. We had two issues with the staff. The last ending in a very rude confrontation between the maître D and my sister because we had eaten other places a couple of nights and he was upset because he had held two tables for us. (This was our first MTD dining experience and we were a bit confused about how it worked). Anyway, my sister was very upset and went to guest services to complain and to get her gratuity back for him. She was told that she had to have the whole tip reimbursed, but it was given back to her on her credit card. In the end we gave the dining room another chance and received a very sincere apology from the maître D as well as complimentary champaign. My sister ended up spending twice as much in cash tipping all of the people that served her on board extra, including the maître D lol. Long story short: yes you CAN get a full reimbursement for prepaid gratuities.

 

 

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Just for clarification's sake..............NOT ARGUING. :D

 

I believe that you mean the Headwaiter, NOT the Maitre D'.

 

The headwaiter receives a small amount per day from the standard gratuities. The Maitre D' does not.

 

So you mean that the fight was with your Headwaiter?

Edited February 28, 2014 by Merion_Mom

[JYD Hawkeye]

We have only been on one cruise, but we paid our gratuities up front with our MTD. Then, on the last night, we filled out thank you notes for everyone and gave extra. Don't know what normal extra is, guess it depends on your' finances, but we gave our waiter $40, asst. waiter $30, and our room steward $40. Never met the maitre' d. We left the ship happy , relaxed, and felt we did the best we could for the hard working staff.

[sweetpea1714]

Can anyone explain WHY the difference? Why are gratuities prepaid fir ZnTD but can be paid onboard (or prepaid) with the traditional seating?

 

I don't understand what difference it should make. They know who served me each night.

[sweetpea1714]

Sigh. For MTD that is. Stupid phone.

[Merion_Mom]

Can anyone explain WHY the difference? Why are gratuities prepaid fir ZnTD but can be paid onboard (or prepaid) with the traditional seating?

 

I don't understand what difference it should make. They know who served me each night.

 

Sigh. For MTD that is. Stupid phone.

 

On MTD, you do not necessarily have the same servers every night. It is possible on a 7 night cruise for you to have 7 different sets of servers.

 

This way, they reward all of the MTD servers equally from the "pot" of pre-paid gratuities.

 

You can then tip above those set amounts if you so wish.

 

(the point is moot now anyway, since the daily charge is added to your seapass account if you have not pre-paid. But RC doesn't seem to be able to figure out that they no longer make sense! :rolleyes:)

Edited February 28, 2014 by Merion_Mom

[cndljen]

Well I personally find this very informative so thank you. I am OCD about researching vacations before we go. Though my BF has been on cruises in the past things have definitely changed over 12+ years. And I had read about the gratuity that was automatically added. But I guess I missed the part stating it was only for MTD, we have set reservations at 830 each night in the MDR. So....though this helped some I still have some questions. So since we have reservations set we would need to do our gratuities in cash at the end of the cruise? And I read someone had an issue when their MTD table was held but they didn't inform them they weren't coming that night. If I understood that correctly. So basically if we want to eat somewhere else on one of those nights we should probably let someone know not to hold our table? I think that's a fair assessment is it not? I certainly do not want to find myself in a bad situation as I can certainly understand them not wanting a table to sit open all evening. Thanks!

[Merion_Mom]

Well I personally find this very informative so thank you. I am OCD about researching vacations before we go. Though my BF has been on cruises in the past things have definitely changed over 12+ years. And I had read about the gratuity that was automatically added. But I guess I missed the part stating it was only for MTD, we have set reservations at 830 each night in the MDR. So....though this helped some I still have some questions. So since we have reservations set we would need to do our gratuities in cash at the end of the cruise? And I read someone had an issue when their MTD table was held but they didn't inform them they weren't coming that night. If I understood that correctly. So basically if we want to eat somewhere else on one of those nights we should probably let someone know not to hold our table? I think that's a fair assessment is it not? I certainly do not want to find myself in a bad situation as I can certainly understand them not wanting a table to sit open all evening. Thanks!

 

Slight misunderstanding here.

 

Here is your clear answer:

 

You have set, traditional dining. You have not prepaid your gratuities with your cruise fare bill before sailing. Every day, $12 will be charged to each person's SeaPass account. (unless you are sailing in a full suite, GS or above). This covers all of your food servers and your cabin attendant. You do not need to pay another cent. If you believe that anyone in your service team has gone above and beyond, feel free to either hand them cash or go to Guest Services and fill out a form to have additional money charged to your SeaPass account for those people.

 

:)

[donnad08]

We were told that if we could not make our reservation that we could come at any time, we just had to wait in line for a table. We had no idea that they were holding anything for us. Like I said this was our first experience in MTD and we were misinformed. You may be right about it being the head waiter and not the maître D. All I know was that he was at a stand at the front of the restaurant. In the future if we choose to use the MTD we will let them know in advance if we won't be there.

 

 

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[mollyeilis]

Question: If you have great service and want additional charged to your account instead of cash, is this possible? If so, is it one pool or can you select a staff member or area? Is an additional amount on your account treated the same as additional cash or differently?

 

We had completely run out of cash by the end of the cruise (pretty much before the cruise, LOL), and when we decided who we wanted to give extra to, I went to guest services to ask how we could give them more. I figured they would point me to the ATM and tell me they could make change or something.

 

Instead they had a nice form for me to fill in, with specific names and the specific amount I wanted that person to have. Lovely.

 

It was charged to my account perfectly.

 

 

I thought it would be nice to have one thread without the energy drainers, kill joys, and nasty people in it so as to gain better understanding. Your participation is optional; thank you for your congratulatory note.

 

Gotta tell you that comment nearly made me NOT share my experience from February 1st of this year. People have opinions and it's OK, and you never have to take on someone's perceived negativity, etc etc. And someone you perceive to be negative isn't necessarily a "nasty" person.

 

 

Can anyone explain WHY the difference? Why are gratuities prepaid fir ZnTD but can be paid onboard (or prepaid) with the traditional seating?

 

I don't understand what difference it should make. They know who served me each night.

 

"Because". :)

[summersigh]

Copied from the RCCL FAQ's (said with no emotion showing on my face :D )

 

Gratuities

Q: Why is the gratuity automatic?

 

A: The automatic daily gratuity is based on customary industry standards. Applying this automatically helps streamline the recognition process for the crew members that work to enhance your cruise. We hope you find the gratuity to be an accurate reflection of your satisfaction and we thank you for your generous recognition of our staff. Should you have questions or wish to adjust the amount of the automatic gratuity, please visit Guest Services during your cruise. Any modifications or adjustments to your gratuities are required to be requested before you depart your cruise.

[donnad08]

Copied from the RCCL FAQ's (said with no emotion showing on my face :D )

 

 

 

Gratuities

 

Q: Why is the gratuity automatic?

 

 

 

A: The automatic daily gratuity is based on customary industry standards. Applying this automatically helps streamline the recognition process for the crew members that work to enhance your cruise. We hope you find the gratuity to be an accurate reflection of your satisfaction and we thank you for your generous recognition of our staff. Should you have questions or wish to adjust the amount of the automatic gratuity, please visit Guest Services during your cruise. Any modifications or adjustments to your gratuities are required to be requested before you depart your cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

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[Debde]

Fact-

Since I do not use MTD but there does seem to be a form involved to modify pre-paid gratuities, there is no form whatsoever to remove daily added gratuities so you may then tip in cash.

 

Dajbman22-I searched and still can not find the official policy that is on the website-can you please post a link.

[Clarea]

Fact-

Since I do not use MTD but there does seem to be a form involved to modify pre-paid gratuities, there is no form whatsoever to remove daily added gratuities so you may then tip in cash.

Dajbman22-I searched and still can not find the official policy that is on the website-can you please post a link.

I believe you only need the form if you are modifying gratuities that will be charged to your Seapass card. They will remove the daily gratuity charge upon request.

[Essexlass2]

So can I ask then what the score is if we eat in and serve ourselves every night in the buffet? Can we then (not that we would I hasten to add) ask for our pre-paid MTD gratuities to be reduced or cancelled and then tip whoever and whenever we wish? I am totally confused! :confused:

 

Being from UK, we're really not that used to tipping, different culture and won't go into the reasons or otherwise here, but I just want to understand what is and what isn't acceptable as far as RCI are concerned. We would much rather tip who we wish and when we wish instead of having to pre-pay gratuities under the MTD scheme. Help!!

[Dajbman22]

Fact-

Since I do not use MTD but there does seem to be a form involved to modify pre-paid gratuities, there is no form whatsoever to remove daily added gratuities so you may then tip in cash.

 

Dajbman22-I searched and still can not find the official policy that is on the website-can you please post a link.

 

I tried searching, and realized I was thinking to a post someone made, copying an email from RCI customer service when they asked the question about cash tipping. I can try to find the post, but with search disabled, I have no gaurantees. Since RCI customer service is not always the most reliable source on accurate policy info, take it with a grain of salt. If you want to tip in cash, go right ahead... it just may wind up in the shared pot, if that RCI email is to be believed. Chances are it comes down to the management on the ship itself as to how strict they are about reporting cash tips.

[Debde]

I tried searching, and realized I was thinking to a post someone made, copying an email from RCI customer service when they asked the question about cash tipping. I can try to find the post, but with search disabled, I have no gaurantees. Since RCI customer service is not always the most reliable source on accurate policy info, take it with a grain of salt. If you want to tip in cash, go right ahead... it just may wind up in the shared pot, if that RCI email is to be believed. Chances are it comes down to the management on the ship itself as to how strict they are about reporting cash tips.

 

Thanks-I was hoping it was on the website so some actual facts could help the OP. Posts that someone makes have often been proven to be wrong. An e-mail from a Royal employee copied and pasted here can also be doctored. On the website, clear in black and white is something to be entered in as evidence!! LOL

 

Essexlass2-suggestion:

If you already know you will eat dinner in the WJ every night and pre-paid gratuities via MTD don't sit well with you, sign up for traditional dining. On day one, release your table letting them know you are not coming to the MDR so they can give it to someone on a waitlist. Eat every night in the same section of the Windjammer and you will see the same person each night. Just like the MDR. Gratuities are added daily and easily removed to give cash.

[radioman]

When you get a quote for a cruise on the RCL web site or a travel agent and you ask for MTD is the gratuity part of the quote? Thanks

[cb at sea]

We were told that if we could not make our reservation that we could come at any time, we just had to wait in line for a table. We had no idea that they were holding anything for us. Like I said this was our first experience in MTD and we were misinformed. You may be right about it being the head waiter and not the maître D. All I know was that he was at a stand at the front of the restaurant. In the future if we choose to use the MTD we will let them know in advance if we won't be there.

 

 

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You did absolutely NOTHING wrong....you are free to dine where you want, when you want and you do NOT need to inform anyone. The head waiter was out of line.

[cb at sea]

So can I ask then what the score is if we eat in and serve ourselves every night in the buffet? Can we then (not that we would I hasten to add) ask for our pre-paid MTD gratuities to be reduced or cancelled and then tip whoever and whenever we wish? I am totally confused! :confused:

 

Being from UK, we're really not that used to tipping, different culture and won't go into the reasons or otherwise here, but I just want to understand what is and what isn't acceptable as far as RCI are concerned. We would much rather tip who we wish and when we wish instead of having to pre-pay gratuities under the MTD scheme. Help!!

 

If you are booked into MTD, leave the tips "as is"...and you don't need to worry about tipping in the WJ. Same if you choose a traditional seating time... No need to be confused! The tips to the waitstaff cover EVERYONE who serves you every meal....Pay those, and you've done your duty!!!