Auto gratuity = less than stellar service?

[33tekfan]

This isn't a question about whether or not you tip and whether it is via cash or prepaid or auto gratuity added to your account daily. It IS a question about people's opinions of whether or not service has diminished since the placement of auto gratuities.

 

For me and my family, we felt, sadly, that service was not up to the standard we have come to expect from RCI. On our last cruise, we felt the service was just ok. It wasn't awful, but it certainly wasn't the great service we've experienced in the past. We have not sailed on the same ship twice yet, so I am looking forward to our next cruise when we return to a ship we've already sailed on. That might give me more insight...maybe it's not the auto-grats, maybe it's just the particular ship we last sailed on. Who knows? I'm just curious to know if anyone else feels that service has been affected.

[AZAficionado]

I haven't experienced any change overall. It seems about the same to me. Which is to say that the service does vary greatly even on one ship during the same sailing. For example, I've always gotten great service at the Champagne Bar. I've always gotten less than stellar service at Johnny Rockets. And the service at Viking Crown has varied based on the other options on board. On Vision, pre-refit, it was excellent and busy. On Freedom, so-so. And Allure, where it was regularly empty, not-so-hot. My speculation is that assignments are probably not random and the senior or better crew members get the choice locations (where there is more traffic and hence more tips). But I'm just guessing.

[Clarea]

We've not noticed any change in the level of service.

[cruisingsince94]

We have not noticed a difference on any of ours. We find that service might be a little slower on certain cruises but we have never had a bad steward, dining room server, etc.

[kruzerci]

I think everything has gone downhill but I don't know whether it has to do with the implementation of auto-gratuities or the staff cutbacks. The dining room servers are running around and rushing to take orders, same with cabin attendants. I think they all have more passengers to attend to than in prior years and the implemented auto tip policy motivates them to do the bare minimum, so that nobody removes the gratuity that they already know is coming.

 

The current tipping policy makes me angry anyways. I have no problem giving the staff the recommended amounts or more, but don't call it a gratuity if it is required to be paid. It is a glorified service charge. They need to call it a service charge and for those of us that choose to provide additional, the additional can be called a "tip" or "gratuity." But that's another topic :eek:.

[Fat Paul]

The one sailing that we did MTD (pre paid gratuities) the service was generally on par with past cruises. Our waiter in in the main dinning room was exceptional.

[Langley Cruisers]

On our recent B2B on Serenade our cabin steward was exceptional, our best ever. She worked quietly and efficiently. In reading some of the reports in other threads here about less than stellar cabin attendants, we certainly appreciated her service.

 

Overall no, no decline in service due to the auto-grat.

.

[Familygoboston]

Have not seen a difference, as a matter of fact some of the worst service we've had was long before auto gratuities or pre paid MTD. Can't say why but I think the person waiting on you takes pride in their work or not, and getting "tips" isn't going to change the attitude of people. Any one can have a bad day, or sometimes you get a dud who is truly uninterested or untrainable, but overall, I've found most folks wish to do a decent job and a little positive reinforcement verbally, or better yet to their boss, goes a long way. :D

[FLACRUISER99]

I feel the service has improved. A lot!

[sleepless]

We always pre-pay our tips. We have never been unhappy with any service received. Are stateroom attendants have always done an excellent job of serving us. We have always been happy with the dining rooms staff (traditional dining, early seating), and have always seen (nightly) the head waiter (the one most people say is non-existent). We have always been pleased with the attention from the servers in the bars/lounges.

 

My personal opinion is that tipping should be a mandatory service charge that can not be removed for any reason.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

We have seen no service downturn since the auto-billed gratuities policy went into effect.

 

If anything, the service we've experienced has been the same or in some cases even better.

[cb at sea]

The folks serving you do NOT get the tips until YOU'VE LEFT THE SHIP...it goes on their next paycheck. THEY are not getting tipped in advance.

 

They will strive to please you, whether you do the pre-pay, or auto-pay or cash at the end of the cruise....

[Scotty G]

we've not noticed any change in the level of service.

 

ditto !!!!!

[996turbos]

We just returned last week from FOS and we agreed the service was noticeable down this trip. Dinning room wait staff was horrid. No drink orders were taken. The 2nd server poured water and left. Only 1/2 way thru the meal did I get his attention long enough to order ice tea. We dinned at Chops and Portofino several times the rest of the cruise. When at Portofino I remarked how much I liked the shrimp cocktail at Chops. I was told to "eat at Chops to get that". It was not a polite no but a very harsh no. Outside the stateroom my wife was peeking at a room attendant's cart for soap(our normal room steward was off due to a hand injury for a day). From down the hall the next steward over yelled very loud to get away from the cart. In truth he said what I had already told my wife:o. There was no effort at a polite warning or an offer to get what we wanted. I was told to see my steward if we wanted soap. Generally the 10 foot rule was ignored.

 

I mention these examples of how service was perceived by us on this trip. Was it due to auto tipping? Maybe. However there may also be some behind the scenes tension we know nothing about. But there were also some outstanding examples of great customer service. Mary Torres in Johnny Rockets was great both time we went there. The bar staff at the Solarium was outstanding particularly Sofronio Velarde. Our room attendant Jasmine was good the first to the last day despite leaving to return home after our cruise. Our previous 10 cruises have been great so this is probably just a bump in the road.

[NYGirl1002]

Personally I feel that either good or bad service has nothing to do with auto-gratuity. I believe it's just the attitude of the worker. Just like land based jobs, you get some good and some bad.

[leaveitallbehind]

No change or decrease in service in our experience.

[fishywood]

I understand that auto-tipping is relatively new to RC. But this topic has been roundly debated ever since Princess became the first line with auto-tipping way back in 2001. I happened to be on one of their very first sailings with it and the service was fine and has remained fine. You would certainly think that the industry in general would have figured it out by now if there was a performance disincentive. But there isn't--there are actually two big reasons why service levels have been maintained or improved:

 

1. A new metric in deciding whether or not to renew a crew member's contract: what percentage of their passengers have requested to alter or remove the tip amount;

2. Peer pressure amongst the behind the scenes members of the housekeeping and dining staff--as well as the My Time Dining servers--to provide service that dissuades any passenger from adjusting the tips, as when one crew member slacks off, their entire department suffers.

[mr walker]

As we see from a small sample, opinions are divided. I have seen similar results in the past to similar questions.

 

As you can never prove the hypothesis one way or another, as it is not a testable theory in that you cannot replicate the situation exactly, with and without 'auto-grats', it can only ever be subjective & not scientific.

 

Moving from a scientific stance to a personal opinion, my take is that many of the people who think service has suffered are those who are not happy with 'auto-grats' and hence their experience is influenced by this thinking.

 

We have always pre-paid and have always had great service, but our experience is limited to downunder and just 5 cruises on 3 RC ships and only over last 3 years.

 

Happy cruising.

[BopRN]

Our Dining Room service has remained excellent, but since they have done the auto-tipping, we have noticed our room stewards don't seem to go above and beyond as they used to. For some reason, it seems the MDR is a better run section.

[Merion_Mom]

It IS a question about people's opinions of whether or not service has diminished since the placement of auto gratuities.

 

 

No.

[LMaxwell]

Our Dining Room service has remained excellent, but since they have done the auto-tipping, we have noticed our room stewards don't seem to go above and beyond as they used to. For some reason, it seems the MDR is a better run section.

 

Funny how two different people can have different perspectives. I've yet not to be wowed by a stateroom steward or stewardess; each has surprised or delighted in some way, all earning extra cash. I find MDR staff to vary greatly although I suspect it is not the servers themselves but what management and shoreside decision making has done to the service level.

 

Maybe in a way the auto-gratuity has paved the way for staffing changes. It's hardly any secret that MDR servers have to do more with less and that stateroom attendants have more rooms to service (not to mention rooms are growing larger) than ever before.

 

I think these cruiselines do not really set their staff up to succeed by way of short staffing. I think many of the staff give it a great effort though. I think slippages in service show through cracks in the veneer. Interesting question. As noted above, there is no real scientific way to replicate two situations though and really have a definitive yes or no answer; it's just not possible to say yes or no because so much is subjective.

[Emperor9]

Here is what you do folks, take the auto gratuity off ,however mention to the staff you deal with everyday you will be taking care of them later. Then you can decide how much to tip out not Royal.

[hairymelon]

Personally I feel that either good or bad service has nothing to do with auto-gratuity. I believe it's just the attitude of the worker. Just like land based jobs, you get some good and some bad.

 

Completely agree with this comment and exactly what I was going to say. We are just off Indy and I have to say I was less than impressed with my cabin attendant but think that was purely down to the person not the tips etc. Our dining room staff and all other crew seemed to be exceptional. As with all things, you get some good and some not so good.

[MaryL31]

999turbos-If you were on the 05/18 sailing of FOS, what deck were you on? We were on deck 8 and had our usual MTD dining reservation almost every night. Service was wonderful in both areas, and throughout the week, with the exception of one Windjammer employee who did her job, but clearly did not want to be there. Things have changed a bit with the process of tipping since our last cruise, however. They used to leave a "note" you could include in your envelope to tell the staff that you have pre-tipped. No more. I was told by Guest Services that the tips are shared among the staff, and they do not know who has pre-tipped and who has not.

[MaryL31]

Hmmm...just gave my above statement some more thought. Clearly, dining staff in the Main Dining Room know you have pre-tipped if you are doing My Time Dining. But I don't know that there would be a way for cabin stewards to know whether or not you have pre-tipped.