Tips are back down to $14.50 for my 8/28 cruise

[flamingos]

So, when the kerfuffle started last week, I checked my next two cruises that I have e-docs for.  The August 21 cruise had the $14.50/day, and the August 28 cruise was $16/day.

 

After a head's up from another group site for the same itinerary, I just checked again, and lo and behold, my August 28 cruise is now

 

Gratuities A $14.50 per guest, per day gratuity will be automatically added to each guest’s SeaPass® account on a daily basis to be shared among dining, bar & culinary services staff, stateroom attendants and other hotel services teams

 

So it was either a clerical error, or the blowback was so extreme that they reversed course.  

[goldfish65]

14 hours ago, flamingos said:

 

 

So it was either a clerical error, or the blowback was so extreme that they reversed course.  

Maybe someone at Royal did it for their own entertainment to see the reaction 🤣

[smokeybandit]

My guess is that it's coming soon but accidentally got put into the eDocs too soon

[rudeney]

4 minutes ago, goldfish65 said:

Maybe someone at Royal did it for their own entertainment to see the reaction 🤣

 

[Surfguyxxx]

34 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

My guess is that it's coming soon but accidentally got put into the eDocs too soon

Yep; I think so too.  

[HicksRA]

It was a premature evacuation…

[little britain]

Just got my eDocs for Anthem out if Southampton- it still mentions $14.50/17.50 but it also mentions about the 18% tip being added to beverages (incorrect as this does not apply to Southampton sailings) - so who knows! 🤷‍♀️ 

[cruisegirl1]

3 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

My guess is that it's coming soon but accidentally got put into the eDocs too soon

Sounds about right.  Ever hear of Emerald  C&A category?

 

M

[AltarEgo]

I just checked my eDocs for a 8/28/22 and the gratuities  are still $16.00 a day. But I'll be paying the $14.50 that was the quoted rate when I booked the cruise.

[lovelife]

Just checked mine for 8/28 and they are now back down to 14.50.....   My 9/4 sailing is also 14.50..... in the docs received today. 😵

[njkruzer]

I had called C&A and was told the edocs were wrong and they would note my reservation but I still wanted something writing.  So I wrote to mbayley@rcci.com and got a response today confirming the lower gratuities.  Said no increase. They reiterated no increase since 2018.   They will issue new docs. 

[Biker19]

How about this for a conspiracy theory: RCI needs the money so bad, they scared a bunch of folks into pre-paying the grats - folks with OBC, which normally would have gone to grats, will now spend that on other things on board.

Edited August 6, 2022 by Biker19

[AltarEgo]

3 hours ago, Biker19 said:

How about this for a conspiracy theory: RCI needs the money so bad, they scared a bunch of folks into pre-paying the grats - folks with OBC, which normally would have gone to grats, will now spend that on other things on board.

As far as conspiracy theories go, this one is much too believable.