Do room stewards know that you prepaid gratiuties?

[Morecruisesplz]

2 hours ago, SilkySal said:

OK, really? I can't believe you asked me that question and what difference would it make? In my opinion, he looked very upset. Remember, that is my opinion. He was grumbling to himself and tossing some linens around (not like a football throw), so I politely asked him if he was all right or just having a bad day, when he proceeded to tell me about the guests' messy rooms and leaving him no tips. Geez! Hope this is plain enough, not that it matters! Cheers friends!

Just curious what would make you engage a cabin steward who you do not know. At least you were polite when questioning him.

[PhillyFan33579]

1 hour ago, not-enough-cruising said:

They are misleading you; I am sorry to say. 

They are not misleading me at all. On several cruises cabin stewards have showed me their list of assigned cabins/passengers. The list clearly identifies cabins that have pre-paid gratuities. 

[not-enough-cruising]

14 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

They are not misleading me at all. On several cruises cabin stewards have showed me their list of assigned cabins/passengers. The list clearly identifies cabins that have pre-paid gratuities. 

sorry, no.

No one here believes that a room steward showed you such a list.

 

Regardless, my reply to the misleading post was that your "friend" told you that they were only paid $25 per week; perhaps I quoted the wrong post.

Edited August 22, 2022 by not-enough-cruising

[brillohead]

1 hour ago, fredmdcruisers said:

Back in the 1980s.

This is 2022, gf.

But what of what I said wasn't accurate?  

[brillohead]

19 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

sorry, no.

No one here believes that a room steward showed you such a list.

 

Regardless, my reply to the misleading post was that your "friend" told you that they were only paid $25 per week; perhaps I quoted the wrong post.

I believe that @chengkp75 has discussed this issue in the past.  

While the guaranteed minimum for seafarers may be $1100/month (or whatever number), that does NOT mean that the staff all make $1100/month PLUS all gratuities.  It means that if their base pay (which may be quite small) plus their assigned gratuities doesn't total $1100/month, then Royal has to make up the difference that month.  

[Coralc]

15 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

All I can say is that it was done for the cabin attendants.

It was posted on a bulletin board in the crew area. Someone snapped a photo of it on the All Access tour. So, I assume they could all see it. 

[not-enough-cruising]

1 minute ago, brillohead said:

I believe that @chengkp75 has discussed this issue in the past.  

While the guaranteed minimum for seafarers may be $1100/month (or whatever number), that does NOT mean that the staff all make $1100/month PLUS all gratuities.  It means that if their base pay (which may be quite small) plus their assigned gratuities doesn't total $1100/month, then Royal has to make up the difference that month.  

It is still guaranteed minimum salary, no matter how you slice it

[PhillyFan33579]

32 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

sorry, no.

No one here believes that a room steward showed you such a list.

 

Regardless, my reply to the misleading post was that your "friend" told you that they were only paid $25 per week; perhaps I quoted the wrong post.

I never posted that a cabin steward made $25 a week. If you made the effort to become friends ands maintain friendships with cabin stewards, bartenders, MDR servers, etc., you would be surprised by how much infomercial they share with you. Of course it helps when you sail on the same ship for several months a year.  

[not-enough-cruising]

4 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I never posted that a cabin steward made $25 a week. If you made the effort to become friends ands maintain friendships with cabin stewards, bartenders, MDR servers, etc., you would be surprised by how much infomercial they share with you. Of course it helps when you sail on the same ship for several months a year.  

No I am not that fortunate to spend that much consecutive time on a ship, and frankly have absolutely no desire to get that personal with any of the crew.

 

Sorry if I mis-quoted you on the $25 post, my bad.

[ReneeFLL]

50 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

They are not misleading me at all. On several cruises cabin stewards have showed me their list of assigned cabins/passengers. The list clearly identifies cabins that have pre-paid gratuities. 

You must have asked to see if there was a list, otherwise why would they just come out and show it to you?

 

1 minute ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I never posted that a cabin steward made $25 a week. If you made the effort to become friends ands maintain friendships with cabin stewards, bartenders, MDR servers, etc., you would be surprised by how much infomercial they share with you. Of course it helps when you sail on the same ship for several months a year.  

I have friends that I have known for many, many years and I would never dream of asking what their income is. Why would you ask a cruise employee who you don’t know that well? I doubt they would just bring it up without being asked. If they did, that would be very tacky and that they are just looking for more tips.

[PhillyFan33579]

3 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

You must have asked to see if there was a list, otherwise why would they just come out and show it to you?

 

I have friends that I have known for many, many years and I would never dream of asking what their income is. Why would you ask a cruise employee who you don’t know that well? I doubt they would just bring it up without being asked. If they did, that would be very tacky and that they are just looking for more tips.

I am not talking about people I don’t l know,  I am taliking about crew members I have become good friends with over the years to the point I will frequently meet them for lunch when they are in port  in Florida and I often pick them up at airports and drive them to their hotel when they are starting another contract. They are the ones who usually bring up the topic of gratuities and mention how they lose money when passengers assigned to them cancel gratuities. 

[brillohead]

33 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

It is still guaranteed minimum salary, no matter how you slice it

Yes, it's a guaranteed minimum salary... however, it's one thing if they expect to make $1100 plus a typical amount in gratuities, but then a bunch of people remove their gratuities and don't tip in cash, so they end up ONLY making $1100/month. 

And IIRC, that $1100/month is for 70 hours per week.  Would YOU want to work 70 hours a week for less than $4/hour when your expectation is that you would be earning more than that?   

[the penguins]

7 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

That is pretty obvious. 

Yes. There are 2 groups of passengers on this and almost every other thread on tips/gratuities.

Those who accept that removing the auto grats reduces the "take home" pay of some members of the crew and those that don't.

Wether you like the system or not is a different argument.

Wether the tips should be included in the basic fare or not is a different argument.

Wether tips should be called grats, tips, Crew Appreciation or any other phrase you like is irrelevant.

Until Royal and every other major main line cruise company changes their policy on pricing this is the reality.

Removing auto tips only affects members of the crew. If you are happy with that fine. We are not, will never remove autograts as they are part of the basic cruise cost and we tip extra.

[the penguins]

13 hours ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

We stopped all gratuities a few years ago - did not change anything about the service.

Gratuities are just a money grab from the cruise line - total waste of money!

Nobody has any clue how it works - so we just don't support that legend and save our money!

Are you saying you don't tip at all or that you just tip the people you want?

 

[livingonthebeach]

6 hours ago, brillohead said:

Yes, it's a guaranteed minimum salary... however, it's one thing if they expect to make $1100 plus a typical amount in gratuities, but then a bunch of people remove their gratuities and don't tip in cash, so they end up ONLY making $1100/month. 

And IIRC, that $1100/month is for 70 hours per week.  Would YOU want to work 70 hours a week for less than $4/hour when your expectation is that you would be earning more than that?   

 

How do the unreported cash tips weigh into the equation?  Say a crew member got $2,000 in cash that month but only reported $200 or zero, RCI would have to make up the difference of the $1,100 gap - netting the crew member way more than $1,100. That's why some prefer you remove the auto grats and tip generously in cash. 

[not-enough-cruising]

7 hours ago, brillohead said:

And IIRC, that $1100/month is for 70 hours per week.  Would YOU want to work 70 hours a week for less than $4/hour when your expectation is that you would be earning more than that?   

Would I work 70 hours a week to make triple the potential annual salary in my home

country in 9 months? 

Unequivocally YES  

[not-enough-cruising]

7 hours ago, brillohead said:

Yes, it's a guaranteed minimum salary... however, it's one thing if they expect to make $1100 plus a typical amount in gratuities, but then a bunch of people remove their gratuities and don't tip in cash, so they end up ONLY making $1100/month. 
 

We have all had employment contracts that have a guaranteed salary component and a bonus component. 

One should never EXPECT the bonus. 
 

If you aren’t good with the guarantee then you shouldn’t sign the contract. 

[cruiseboy89130]

9 hours ago, brillohead said:

It means that if their base pay (which may be quite small) plus their assigned gratuities doesn't total $1100/month, then Royal has to make up the difference that month.  

Exactly! That is why your autograts - save Royal a lot of money - because now they can pay less of THEIR money to their staff and use yours instead!

[PhillyFan33579]

1 hour ago, not-enough-cruising said:

We have all had employment contracts that have a guaranteed salary component and a bonus component. 

One should never EXPECT the bonus. 
 

If you aren’t good with the guarantee then you shouldn’t sign the contract. 

A lot of former crew members are doing exactly that, not signing another contract for financial reasons. It’s one of the biggest reasons a lot of RCI ships are currently understaffed (this problem isn’t limited to RCI). One of my favorite bartenders contract recently ended and he said the biggest reason he won’t sign another contract is because he is not making close to the money he was making pre-COVID. But that is a little off topic since gratuities for drinks can’t be removed, although I am sure there are exceptions out there for extenuating circumstances. 

[PhillyFan33579]

29 minutes ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

Exactly! That is why your autograts - save Royal a lot of money - because now they can pay less of THEIR money to their staff and use yours instead!

The cruise industry is very similar to the restaurant industry in the US in that tips, gratuities or whatever you want to call them are paid directly to the employee and therefore is not considered taxable income for the company. This is a huge financial benefit to the company. 

[rudeney]

41 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

A lot of former crew members are doing exactly that, not signing another contract for financial reasons. It’s one of the biggest reasons a lot of RCI ships are currently understaffed (this problem isn’t limited to RCI). One of my favorite bartenders contract recently ended and he said the biggest reason he won’t sign another contract is because he is not making close to the money he was making pre-COVID. But that is a little off topic since gratuities for drinks can’t be removed, although I am sure there are exceptions out there for extenuating circumstances. 

 

Not counting things like CAS vouchers, bartenders are getting an automatic 18% gratuity on every drink served to a "cash" customer and splitting the 18% gratuities added on drink packages.  On top of that, there are always some people who tip extra.  The only way they would be making less money is if there are fewer drinks being served.  I know that up until this summer, ships were sailing at reduced capacity, but there was also reduced staff and always reports of bartenders being busy and passengers having to wait on drinks.  Except for maybe a few very empty cruises right after the restart, I just don't see how a bartender could be earning less.  In fact, with skyrocketing prices for beverage packages, I'd think they'd be making more than ever.

 

 

37 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

The cruise industry is very similar to the restaurant industry in the US in that tips, gratuities or whatever you want to call them are paid directly to the employee and therefore is not considered taxable income for the company. This is a huge financial benefit to the company. 

 

In terms of corporate taxable income, it makes no difference if RCCL adds on gratuities and passes them through to the crew or if they increase prices and just pay the crew more because labor costs are fully deductible.  However, there are some taxes and costs that would be affected for land-based businesses (so I am not sure if this applies to cruise ships).  Those include things like unemployment insurance, worker's compensation insurance, and the employer's portion of Social Security contributions.  There are also some other state and local fees and taxes that can be avoided by paying employees with pass-through tips as opposed to wage, but again, I don't know if those apply to cruise ships with foreign citizen employees. 

[SilkySal]

11 hours ago, fredmdcruisers said:

Just curious what would make you engage a cabin steward who you do not know. At least you were polite when questioning him.

We always converse with many of the crew, so I guess we're just friendly people. We speak and/or smile to all of them in the hallways going to and from our cabin, and they always reciprocate. We enjoy hearing about their homelands and often look at pictures of their family. Try it sometime.😉

[rudeney]

1 hour ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

Exactly! That is why your autograts - save Royal a lot of money - because now they can pay less of THEIR money to their staff and use yours instead!

 

It saves RCCL nothing.  They still have to guarantee the contract minimum wages for the crew, which is rumored to be $1100/mo.  If they didn't meet that with added gratuities, then they would raise cruise fares to cover it.  Customers are always going to bear the cost of paying the crew (and fuel, and food, and maintenance and taxes...)

[robmtx]

On 8/21/2022 at 7:43 AM, DirtyDawg said:

In addition to the fax service fee, the DAE also covers the Y2K upgrade fee, and the DOS legacy system fee. Maybe some day it will include a shareholder dividend fee. 😁😉

 

I was at UPS Store on Saturday and someone spent $64 to fax a booklet of paper to some place!!! Fax Service Fee!

[DirtyDawg]

18 minutes ago, rudeney said:

 

It saves RCCL nothing.  They still have to guarantee the contract minimum wages for the crew, which is rumored to be $1100/mo.  If they didn't meet that with added gratuities, then they would raise cruise fares to cover it.  Customers are always going to bear the cost of paying the crew (and fuel, and food, and maintenance and taxes...)

We are talking cruise lines here. They don't pay much taxes even in good times. But RCL pays lots of interest to the banks and bondholders!