Is tipping mandatory

[scorpluvsdolphins]

3 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

This entire thread.  No one on this thread knows how tips are allocated, unless you are the person responsible for allocating tips to the crew.

First of all the comment speculation was in a response to my post. 
2nd. When Pinnacles and D+ hand someone cash and remove auto gratuities, there is no allocating to be done by the cruise line. The person is allocating their cash, therefore knows to who it is being handed. 

[Morecruisesplz]

13 minutes ago, scorpluvsdolphins said:

Again, please specify what is speculation?

Maybe you don’t know what speculation means. 
Seeing with your own eyes Pinnacles tipping everyday this way on a cruise is an observation, not speculation. 
 

No need for rudeness. You have no idea what they are doing... you are speculating. They could be tipping on top of auto tips. Yes, you are observing something but then you are speculating about their total activity. Do not confuse what you are doing. Assuming is another word for it.

[Morecruisesplz]

11 minutes ago, scorpluvsdolphins said:

First of all the comment speculation was in a response to my post. 
2nd. When Pinnacles and D+ hand someone cash and remove auto gratuities, there is no allocating to be done by the cruise line. The person is allocating their cash, therefore knows to who it is being handed. 

This is the speculative part of which you have no actual knowledge: and remove auto gratuities

[scorpluvsdolphins]

2 minutes ago, Morecruisesplz said:

No need for rudeness. You have no idea what they are doing... you are speculating. They could be tipping on top of auto tips. Yes, you are observing something but then you are speculating about their total activity. Do not confuse what you are doing. Assuming is another word for it.

Unless you can prove they are not telling the truth, I’ll believe them and what I see when I dine with them. 
I find writing the word, speculation to my comment, rude when you have no facts to back it up. 

[scorpluvsdolphins]

2 minutes ago, Morecruisesplz said:

This is the speculative part of which you have no actual knowledge: and remove auto gratuities

I’ve been standing next to them when they tell the concierge or GS to remove their auto gratuities. 

[Morecruisesplz]

10 minutes ago, scorpluvsdolphins said:

Unless you can prove they are not telling the truth, I’ll believe them and what I see when I dine with them. 
I find writing the word, speculation to my comment, rude when you have no facts to back it up. 

Sorry, but neither do you have facts. People will tell you anything. Repeating as gospel is just silly.

[Morecruisesplz]

11 minutes ago, scorpluvsdolphins said:

I’ve been standing next to them when they tell the concierge or GS to remove their auto gratuities. 

Oh yes, the usually "I heard my hairdressers cousin say..."  Its called eavesdropping. Considered rude by most.

[tvo7]

Question.  I do not know anyone on here personally.  

 

For someone like me who is not as wealthy as 99 percent of others on this forum,  a 725 gratuity is like 1 cruise right there for 1 person.  

 

Does anyone know of anyone, who takes off auto grats and tips staff zero.  If so, did they go on multiple cruises like this without paying one cent in tips?

[PhillyFan33579]

8 minutes ago, tvo7 said:

Question.  I do not know anyone on here personally.  

 

For someone like me who is not as wealthy as 99 percent of others on this forum,  a 725 gratuity is like 1 cruise right there for 1 person.  

 

Does anyone know of anyone, who takes off auto grats and tips staff zero.  If so, did they go on multiple cruises like this without paying one cent in tips?

The “tipping debate” that happens over and over again usually concerns people who don’t cancel auto gratuities versus people who cancel auto gratuities so they can tip staff who they interact with directly. I don’t recall anyone advocating cancelling auto gratuities and not tipping anyone. I think everyone (I am sure there are exceptions) realizes how important tips are to crew members. 

[d9704011]

Just now, tvo7 said:

Question.  I do not know anyone on here personally.  

 

For someone like me who is not as wealthy as 99 percent of others on this forum,  a 725 gratuity is like 1 cruise right there for 1 person.  

 

Does anyone know of anyone, who takes off auto grats and tips staff zero.  If so, did they go on multiple cruises like this without paying one cent in tips?

That's two questions; you just forgot the interrogative on the first one.  I don't know anybody who fits the zero tip bill but imagine there are some and they probably do it more often than not.

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

I'm still not sure what point those who remove auto tips are trying to make...

 

"The company doesn't get to choose who my money goes to."  Not buying it. 

A) The company gets to decide where your cruise costs goes. 

B) You do not know if the cash you give (assuming you give cash) gets pooled or not.  Even if a room steward or waiter or other staff member tells you they're keeping all of it, you have no idea if they're telling the truth or not.

 

"The company should pay a decent wage so crew don't have to rely on tips."  Granted.  But how does withholding auto tips help?  Do you honestly think if enough people withhold auto tips that RCI will think "oh, we should raise wages."?  Why?  As long as they have people signing on, why would they need to change?

 

"The crew don't deserve the amount the auto tips require."  I disagree with that, but kind of hard to argue from either side.

[Morecruisesplz]

22 minutes ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

I'm still not sure what point those who remove auto tips are trying to make...

 

"The company doesn't get to choose who my money goes to."  Not buying it. 

A) The company gets to decide where your cruise costs goes. 

B) You do not know if the cash you give (assuming you give cash) gets pooled or not.  Even if a room steward or waiter or other staff member tells you they're keeping all of it, you have no idea if they're telling the truth or not.

 

"The company should pay a decent wage so crew don't have to rely on tips."  Granted.  But how does withholding auto tips help?  Do you honestly think if enough people withhold auto tips that RCI will think "oh, we should raise wages."?  Why?  As long as they have people signing on, why would they need to change?

 

"The crew don't deserve the amount the auto tips require."  I disagree with that, but kind of hard to argue from either side.

Must there be a point to saving money?

[not-enough-cruising]

1 hour ago, tvo7 said:

Question.  I do not know anyone on here personally.  

 

For someone like me who is not as wealthy as 99 percent of others on this forum,  a 725 gratuity is like 1 cruise right there for 1 person.  

 

Does anyone know of anyone, who takes off auto grats and tips staff zero.  If so, did they go on multiple cruises like this without paying one cent in tips?

I’ve never done this 

I don’t know anyone who has ever done this 

 

Doing this would be a really low life thing to do. 

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

1 hour ago, Morecruisesplz said:

Must there be a point to saving money?

So you don't think the crew deserves the money.  You could have said that.

[barbeyg]

Does anyone besides me remember when some of us were pining for tipping threads during the Covid shutdown?

 

What on earth were we thinking?! 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Edited December 26, 2023 by barbeyg

[Seville2Cabo]

8 hours ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

A absolutely! Give them a call before you go to bed the last night 👌

Why do you wait until the last night?  I guess either embarrassed , afraid of poor service , or afraid your toothbrush ends up, you know where. 

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

4 hours ago, Morecruisesplz said:

Must there be a point to saving money?

That's one of the three I listed.  

[gmerick]

10 hours ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

Paying cash is the expensive way of paying for anything!

Debit cards are the cheapest way (1–2% max) followed by CC (2–3% max)

Cash handling costs about 5%+ total.

 

100% correct.  Leaving a tip by charging it to your ship account, and paying for it by credit card is the least cost method to give RCI money.  

Unfortunately at that point control over that money is lost.  I see no method of guaranteeing the tip is given to a specific crew member.  I don't even see a means of requesting it be given to a specific crew member.  To me it appears any charged tip or gratuity ends up in that vast fleetwide tip pool that gets carved up to all and sundry once a month.

I wish to retain control.  I will pass it, directly, and with a handshake, to the crew member I deem deserving.  Once I give it to the crew member, what they wish to do with it is entirely on them.  Whether they send it home to family, share it with a fellow crew member, or indulge in any of the seven deadly's it is entirely up to the crew member.

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

38 minutes ago, gmerick said:

 

100% correct.  Leaving a tip by charging it to your ship account, and paying for it by credit card is the least cost method to give RCI money.  

Unfortunately at that point control over that money is lost.  I see no method of guaranteeing the tip is given to a specific crew member.  I don't even see a means of requesting it be given to a specific crew member.  To me it appears any charged tip or gratuity ends up in that vast fleetwide tip pool that gets carved up to all and sundry once a month.

I wish to retain control.  I will pass it, directly, and with a handshake, to the crew member I deem deserving.  Once I give it to the crew member, what they wish to do with it is entirely on them.  Whether they send it home to family, share it with a fellow crew member, or indulge in any of the seven deadly's it is entirely up to the crew member.

Hahahahaha.  You know part of their contract/agreement could be they share any tips given to them.  There's no way to guarantee they keep it.  As soon as you hand it over, "control over the money is lost."  You're just telling yourself "it's up to the crew member".  

[cruiseboy89130]

8 hours ago, tvo7 said:

Does anyone know of anyone, who takes off auto grats and tips staff zero.  If so, did they go on multiple cruises like this without paying one cent in tips?

Your question is  naiv - if you remove....how would staff know you removed and how would they know if you tipped in cash? Who?  How?

[cruiseboy89130]

4 hours ago, Seville2Cabo said:

Why do you wait until the last night?  I guess either embarrassed , afraid of poor service , or afraid your toothbrush ends up, you know where. 

If you call in the morning of debarkation day you have no way of checking if the processed it correctly!

You can remove any time until you leave the ship!

[time4u2go]

8 hours ago, gmerick said:

 

100% correct.  Leaving a tip by charging it to your ship account, and paying for it by credit card is the least cost method to give RCI money.  

Unfortunately at that point control over that money is lost.  I see no method of guaranteeing the tip is given to a specific crew member.  I don't even see a means of requesting it be given to a specific crew member.  To me it appears any charged tip or gratuity ends up in that vast fleetwide tip pool that gets carved up to all and sundry once a month.

I wish to retain control.  I will pass it, directly, and with a handshake, to the crew member I deem deserving.  Once I give it to the crew member, what they wish to do with it is entirely on them.  Whether they send it home to family, share it with a fellow crew member, or indulge in any of the seven deadly's it is entirely up to the crew member.

Excellent post. 

[A&L_Ont]

16 hours ago, tvo7 said:

Question.  I do not know anyone on here personally.  

 

For someone like me who is not as wealthy as 99 percent of others on this forum,  a 725 gratuity is like 1 cruise right there for 1 person.  

 

Does anyone know of anyone, who takes off auto grats and tips staff zero.  If so, did they go on multiple cruises like this without paying one cent in tips?

You can find a cruise for $725?  

 

14 hours ago, Morecruisesplz said:

Must there be a point to saving money?

Read the comment by TVO ⬆️ 

 

14 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

I’ve never done this 

I don’t know anyone who has ever done this 

 

Doing this would be a really low life thing to do. 

You said what I was thinking. All the folks here on CC who remove auto grats say they still tip.

Edited December 26, 2023 by A&L_Ont

[time4u2go]

16 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

You can find a cruise for $725?

You can do 3 complete cruises for that amount:

 

[A&L_Ont]

3 hours ago, time4u2go said:

You can do 3 complete cruises for that amount:

 

I only think of 7 days. 

Edited December 26, 2023 by A&L_Ont