Do room stewards know that you prepaid gratiuties?

[rudeney]

28 minutes ago, DDF2821 said:

Rudeney, 

 You will notice that this document only tells you the breakdown of the “gratuity charges”, not the disbursement of the said charges.

 

Read the fine print on the website. Be on the lookout for the word “fleetwide”

 

I see no such fine print:

 

The automatic service gratuity is $14.50 USD per person, per day for guests in Junior Suites and below, or $17.50 USD per person, per day for guests in Grand Suites and above, applied to each guest’s SeaPass account on a daily basis. The gratuity applies to individual guests of all ages and stateroom categories. As a way to reward our crew members for their outstanding service, gratuities are shared among dining, bar & culinary services staff, stateroom attendants and other hotel services teams who work behind the scenes to enhance the cruise experience.

[brillohead]

10 minutes ago, Scotico said:

So I have family coming here from S. America who are not accustomed  to leaving tips (if they did it's a few dollars for the waiter and that's it).  It is frowned upon where they are from.  It is 4 of them and they are looking at shelling out $500 in tips.  I informed them of this.  They let me know that they will only give what they think they deserve and that's it (Will be a lot less that $500).  Can they just remove all automatic gratuities at the beginning of the cruise or must they go every day to remove the daily gratuities?

They can do it all in one trip, but IMO they are horrible people for doing so.

They should tell their room attendant that they don't want any room cleaning, no fresh towels or bed linens all week.

They should also bring their own food and eat in their room.  No buffet, no dining room.

[Scotico]

2 minutes ago, brillohead said:

They can do it all in one trip, but IMO they are horrible people for doing so.

They should tell their room attendant that they don't want any room cleaning, no fresh towels or bed linens all week.

They should also bring their own food and eat in their room.  No buffet, no dining room.

Yea right. They will be doing everything and nothing will stop them from  dining in the dining room or having their room cleaned. I warned them that this is how things are done with sailing out of the US.

[DirtyDawg]

28 minutes ago, rudeney said:

 

I see no such fine print:

 

The automatic service gratuity is $14.50 USD per person, per day for guests in Junior Suites and below, or $17.50 USD per person, per day for guests in Grand Suites and above, applied to each guest’s SeaPass account on a daily basis. The gratuity applies to individual guests of all ages and stateroom categories. As a way to reward our crew members for their outstanding service, gratuities are shared among dining, bar & culinary services staff, stateroom attendants and other hotel services teams who work behind the scenes to enhance the cruise experience.

I think @DDF2821 was referring to Princess Cruise Lines practices not Royal Caribbean's. 

 

[brillohead]

35 minutes ago, Scotico said:

Yea right. They will be doing everything and nothing will stop them from  dining in the dining room or having their room cleaned. I warned them that this is how things are done with sailing out of the US.

Just ask them to consider it part of the cruise cost and prepay it.

Let them know that this is how the crew get their paycheck -- it's EXPECTED, not "extra".

 

[DDF2821]

Just now, DirtyDawg said:

I think @DDF2821 was referring to Princess Cruise Lines practices not Royal Caribbean's. 

 

I can’t speak to each individual cruise line. But, I think they all do it about the same. I would ask before I would cough up my money voluntarily as a “service fee” and hope that it gets to those that deserve it!
 

If you notice in the attached quote from a cruise critic article concerning Holland America they deduct credit card fees as well as paying some “bonuses” before dispersing funds fleetwide.

 

Holland America Line further explains that, "All of the Crew Appreciation and Service Charge payments made by all guests on all ships in our fleet are pooled, net of credit card transaction fees. The pooled funds are distributed throughout the year in the form of compensation, including bonuses, to crewmembers fleetwide who interact directly with guests and/or behind the scenes throughout every cruise, including those in the Bar, Dining, Entertainment, Housekeeping, Guest Services, Galley and Onboard Revenue areas."

[rudeney]

55 minutes ago, Scotico said:

So I have family coming here from S. America who are not accustomed  to leaving tips (if they did it's a few dollars for the waiter and that's it).  It is frowned upon where they are from.  It is 4 of them and they are looking at shelling out $500 in tips.  I informed them of this.  They let me know that they will only give what they think they deserve and that's it (Will be a lot less that $500).  Can they just remove all automatic gratuities at the beginning of the cruise or must they go every day to remove the daily gratuities?

 

You may need to help them understand that different countries have different customs.  Visitors are expected to follow the customs of the country they are in; the country is not expected to bend to the visitor's customs.  RCCL is a USA-based company and thus follows the customs of the USA, including the expectation to tip the crew.  

[rudeney]

4 minutes ago, DDF2821 said:

I can’t speak to each individual cruise line. But, I think they all do it about the same. I would ask before I would cough up my money voluntarily as a “service fee” and hope that it gets to those that deserve it!
 

If you notice in the attached quote from a cruise critic article concerning Holland America they deduct credit card fees as well as paying some “bonuses” before dispersing funds fleetwide.

 

Holland America Line further explains that, "All of the Crew Appreciation and Service Charge payments made by all guests on all ships in our fleet are pooled, net of credit card transaction fees. The pooled funds are distributed throughout the year in the form of compensation, including bonuses, to crewmembers fleetwide who interact directly with guests and/or behind the scenes throughout every cruise, including those in the Bar, Dining, Entertainment, Housekeeping, Guest Services, Galley and Onboard Revenue areas."

 

I still see nothing like that relate to RCCL. 

[DirtyDawg]

6 minutes ago, DDF2821 said:

I can’t speak to each individual cruise line. But, I think they all do it about the same. I would ask before I would cough up my money voluntarily as a “service fee” and hope that it gets to those that deserve it!
 

If you notice in the attached quote from a cruise critic article concerning Holland America they deduct credit card fees as well as paying some “bonuses” before dispersing funds fleetwide.

 

Holland America Line further explains that, "All of the Crew Appreciation and Service Charge payments made by all guests on all ships in our fleet are pooled, net of credit card transaction fees. The pooled funds are distributed throughout the year in the form of compensation, including bonuses, to crewmembers fleetwide who interact directly with guests and/or behind the scenes throughout every cruise, including those in the Bar, Dining, Entertainment, Housekeeping, Guest Services, Galley and Onboard Revenue areas."

Frankly, I don't care what Carnival Corp.'s various cruise line brands do with their 'service fees'. I don't sail with them. That would be like me caring why Jeep makes such bad cars when I never would buy a Jeep in a million years!

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by DirtyDawg

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, DDF2821 said:

What is “Crew Appreciation”?
A crew appreciation is a daily amount added to your onboard account, which is shared among the many members of our crew in hotel, dining and entertainment throughout the fleet who help make your cruise experience special. 

 

This is from a major cruise line’s website

So now the entertainers are in on it too? Might be easier to list who is not getting their hands in the pot.

[DDF2821]

4 minutes ago, DirtyDawg said:

Frankly, I don't care what Carnival Corp.'s various cruise line brands do with their 'service fees'. I don't sail with them. That would be like me caring why Jeep makes such bad cars when I never would buy one anyways. 

You do what you want! I prefer not to cruise in a shopping mall.

Edited August 23, 2022 by DDF2821

[livingonthebeach]

4 minutes ago, rudeney said:

 

You may need to help them understand that different countries have different customs.  Visitors are expected to follow the customs of the country they are in; the country is not expected to bend to the visitor's customs.  RCCL is a USA-based company and thus follows the customs of the USA, including the expectation to tip the crew.  

While RCG’s headquarters are in Miami, they are not a US company. They are incorporated in Liberia and most of the ships fly the flags of the Bahamas.

[DirtyDawg]

8 minutes ago, DDF2821 said:

You do what you want! I prefer not to cruise in a shopping mall.

So you prefer to sail in a Jeep?😊

[Tree_skier]

1 minute ago, DirtyDawg said:

So you prefer to sail in a Jeep?😊

Oh Dawg... you kill me.

 

You're not bad for a Leafs fan.

[the penguins]

16 minutes ago, rudeney said:

 

I still see nothing like that relate to RCCL. 

That's because we RCCI don't use this system. Each ship is a cost center in its own right and each cruise is accounted for separately. 

[rudeney]

2 minutes ago, livingonthebeach said:

While RCG’s headquarters are in Miami, they are not a US company. They are incorporated in Liberia and most of the ships fly the flags of the Bahamas.

 

Regardless, they operate out of the USA and when sailing into/out of the USA, they follow USA customs, such as enforcing the drinking age of 21 even though they don't have to do that when at sea or visiting other countries.  The same with no-smoking rules on the ship.  In some other countries, people smoke freely everywhere (like we used to do 30 years ago in the USA) but the ships follow US-based customs on that.  Another this is that even though they may be incorporated outside the US, the crew has to have US work visas, so effectively, they are treated as a USA-based company.

 

 

[rudeney]

2 minutes ago, the penguins said:

That's because we RCCI don't use this system. Each ship is a cost center in its own right and each cruise is accounted for separately. 

 

That makes sense to me.

[DirtyDawg]

15 minutes ago, rudeney said:

 

Regardless, they operate out of the USA and when sailing into/out of the USA, they follow USA customs, such as enforcing the drinking age of 21 even though they don't have to do that when at sea or visiting other countries.  The same with no-smoking rules on the ship.  In some other countries, people smoke freely everywhere (like we used to do 30 years ago in the USA) but the ships follow US-based customs on that.  Another this is that even though they may be incorporated outside the US, the crew has to have US work visas, so effectively, they are treated as a USA-based company.

 

 

True, except for U.S. corporate income tax. They prefer to be 'foreigners'  for that one. 😉

 

They're like me. I'm a Toronto Maple Leafs fan from October to March then I have to switch to being a foreigner and a Tampa Bay Lightning fan for the playoffs. It saves on the anguish year after year after year ... (right @Tree_skier) Royal just saves the anguish of paying U.S. Corporate Income tax year after year after year .. 😁

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by DirtyDawg

[livingonthebeach]

9 minutes ago, rudeney said:

 

Regardless, they operate out of the USA and when sailing into/out of the USA, they follow USA customs, such as enforcing the drinking age of 21 even though they don't have to do that when at sea or visiting other countries.  The same with no-smoking rules on the ship.  In some other countries, people smoke freely everywhere (like we used to do 30 years ago in the USA) but the ships follow US-based customs on that.  Another this is that even though they may be incorporated outside the US, the crew has to have US work visas, so effectively, they are treated as a USA-based company.

 

 

They cater to their clientele and when sailing out of the US they do what Americans prefer for obvious reasons but they are not treated as  a US based company - ask the IRS. 
 

When sailing out of Japan on Celebrity (a RCG) company, they expected gratuities even though it is considered rude to tip in Japan. So much when in Rome….

[the penguins]

1 hour ago, rudeney said:

 

How did you get that information?  The only thing I've ever seen that seems to be any sort of official information from RCCL is a photo of a document supposedly obtained by a cruiser who asked.  I have no idea if this is factual or not, but it seems to appear whenever people start arguing about tipping on forums.  This would seem to indicate that the auto-added gratuities are in fact distributed to specific crew members:

 

It's genuine as I have said repeatedly you can collect a copy from Guest Relations. RCCI do not try to hide or confuse the issue. For some reason the anti autograts group don't want to accept it. 

 

[Tree_skier]

34 minutes ago, DirtyDawg said:

 

They're like me. I'm a Toronto Maple Leafs fan from October to March then I have to switch to being a foreigner and a Tampa Bay Lightning fan for the playoffs. It saves on the anguish year after year after year ... (right @Tree_skier) Royal just saves the anguish of paying U.S. Corporate Income tax year after year after year .. 😁

 

I'm Canucks fan... I know all about anguish.  

[rudeney]

15 minutes ago, the penguins said:

It's genuine as I have said repeatedly you can collect a copy from Guest Relations. RCCI do not try to hide or confuse the issue. For some reason the anti autograts group don't want to accept it. 

 

 

It's good know that document is real - I wasn't suggesting it wasn't just that it wasn't mine so I can't attest to its validity. 

 

I just don't get the whole aversion to paying the gratuities.  I guess for people who book a super-cheap inside cabin and the grats are nearly the cost of the cruise fare, they might feel like they are being ripped-off, but having cruised since the days of handing out envelopes of cash and  the last night, I just consider part of the price.  I don't care if it's auto added, included, or what.  It is what it is.  

 

[Bird82]

Just now, rudeney said:

 

It's good know that document is real - I wasn't suggesting it wasn't just that it wasn't mine so I can't attest to its validity. 

 

I just don't get the whole aversion to paying the gratuities.  I guess for people who book a super-cheap inside cabin and the grats are nearly the cost of the cruise fare, they might feel like they are being ripped-off, but having cruised since the days of handing out envelopes of cash and  the last night, I just consider part of the price.  I don't care if it's auto added, included, or what.  It is what it is.  

 

I think they should just stop calling it gratuity or tip and just call it a resort fee or just do away with it and add it into the price of the cruise and that would be it. When it is automatically charged to you before you have finished receiving the service it is not under any definition a gratuity like they call it. 

[rudeney]

23 minutes ago, Bird82 said:

I think they should just stop calling it gratuity or tip and just call it a resort fee or just do away with it and add it into the price of the cruise and that would be it. When it is automatically charged to you before you have finished receiving the service it is not under any definition a gratuity like they call it. 

 

I'd be good with that.  But I'm also good paying it as a gratuity.  Like I said, it is what it is.  

[S.A.M.J.R.]

So ask yourselves this... what difference does it matter whether your room attendant (or waiters) know if you've removed auto tips?  

 

If your answer to that is "none", why not just tell your attendant/waiter face to face you've removed the auto tips?