Removing pre paid gratuities while on the ship

[Qextor]

On 4/20/2024 at 3:26 PM, jean87510 said:

An hourly wage is a salary, isn't it? Or am I missing something?  I had an hourly wage which I referred to as my salary.

A salary is earning, for example, $40000 per year.  It doesn't matter whether you work 40 or 60 hours a week, you still only get that 40K.  An hourly wage is based on how many hours you work.  More hours, more pay.  

[not-enough-cruising]

4 hours ago, uvadover said:

 

So the dishwasher is covered by your cruise fare, but not the guy who carries the plate to your table?  You seem to know everything, so are you privy to a compensation approach whereby the waiter is more reliant on tips than those in the kitchen?

Absolutely not. 
“Reliance” on tips is not something I judge. 
 

My fare covers a basic level of service. When someone goes above that level, then THEY get a little something extra. 
 

The next time the dishwasher makes a plate “extra clean” I’ll walk to the galley and give him a few bucks. 

[A&L_Ont]

28 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

The next time the dishwasher makes a plate “extra clean” I’ll walk to the galley and give him a few bucks. 

Does licking it after washing count?😋😂

[LEMJMcC]

Related question.

 

Can the pre-paid gratuities for Spa treatments be removed or refunded?  I think I know the answer, but am curious to see if anyone had any success in removing or at least reducing these so-called "tips".

[Vibe]

8 hours ago, DennysDad said:

They agree to this arrangement. We don't. I was not there promising this to people who signed a work contract. That is there problem, not mine.

The people who sign the work contracts are from a poor part of the world and have to agree to what the cruise line dictates or be unemployed. 
 

I do not agree with the cruise lines method of tip distribution and how they pay the back of the house workers, but it is what it is. It’s just not worth obsessing about it.
 

All of us here are able to afford a cruise vacation, that is a luxury in life. Holding back a few dollars a day and taking away money from someone that is not as fortunate as we are is just awful and mean. 😢  

 

 

Edited April 22 by Vibe

[bjlbbk]

On 4/18/2024 at 3:10 AM, Vampiress88 said:

I know people hate a tipping thread and this isn’t that exactly. But I needed to ask, as I’ve asked Royal Caribbean chat directly but sometimes don’t trust what people say. 
 

Ok so because I don’t want to eat at 5.30 Or 8.30 as that’s too early and too late for us then I was told that I have to pay gratuities upfront. That’s fine I’ve done that. 
 

But what I am slightly worried about is what if I don’t get that level of service. 
Normally if we are somewhere that I don’t get good service then I reduce the tip at the end. 
 

So what I’m asking is that if I don’t get the correct service, am I still within my rights to go to reception and ask them to reduce the gratuity or is it because I have already physically paid for them then it’s already a done deal kind of thing? 
 

Hopefully this won’t happen but I have been on quite a few cruises and the service doesn’t always warrant tips. 

We are just off Oasis and we were able to get our prepaid gratuities credited back to us. This was the first time we had ever tried. I’m not sure if we just got lucky but it was actually very easy and it was not an issue at all. We assumed we would have to accept the credit as on board credit since we had paid in advance but they actually gave us the option to have it refunded to our credit card had we preferred. In the end we chose to take it as onboard credit as we still wanted to use the funds towards tips… we just wanted to reallocate some of it. Guest Services provided a form for us to fill out and specify how much and to whom we wanted gratuities paid. We still followed the suggested tip amount paid to our room steward and hotel services but we adjusted dining services since we had the unlimited dining package and had also paid gratuities on that. We always tip extra to those who serve us direct and wanted the flexibility to do so even more. Attached is a copy of the suggested gratuity guidelines they gave us. Hope this helps!

[not-enough-cruising]

1 hour ago, LEMJMcC said:

Related question.

 

Can the pre-paid gratuities for Spa treatments be removed or refunded?  I think I know the answer, but am curious to see if anyone had any success in removing or at least reducing these so-called "tips".

No, much like the 18% added to drinks, this one is non negotiable 

[FamilyCruiserUK]

2 hours ago, Vibe said:

The people who sign the work contracts are from a poor part of the world and have to agree to what the cruise line dictates or be unemployed. 
 

I do not agree with the cruise lines method of tip distribution and how they pay the back of the house workers, but it is what it is. It’s just not worth obsessing about it.
 

All of us here are able to afford a cruise vacation, that is a luxury in life. Holding back a few dollars a day and taking away money from someone that is not as fortunate as we are is just awful and mean. 😢  

 

 

Topping up the wages of staff via a graturite, for a multi billion USD company is surely supporting the company in paying a crap wage to their employees....🤔🤷 In effect your suporting royals business model of paying low wages and not a fair wage to start with. 

[Vibe]

Just now, FamilyCruiserUK said:

Topping up the wages of staff via a graturite, for a multi billion USD company is surely supporting the company in paying a crap wage to their employees....🤔🤷 In effect your suporting royals business model of paying low wages and not a fair wage to start with. 

I agree, but it’s not going to change in the US market. Removing tip’s punishes the crew member not the company.

[The Sunset Glow]

On 4/21/2024 at 6:21 AM, not-enough-cruising said:

No, gratuities have increased for 2 reasons.

1. People keep paying them, so why not squeeze them a little more

2. The cruise-line is constantly increasing the pool of employees on salary assistance, ie. "other hotel services"

 

On 4/21/2024 at 7:29 AM, not-enough-cruising said:

Precisely 

I quit participating in the scam years ago, have never looked back, and never regretted my decision. 

 

Exactly this! We paid the auto grats when it first statred years ago and the "other hotel services" was around $1 then (I think I remember the first one being $0.90). We stopped auto grats when the "other" category went over $3-$4 but the other positions barely went up back then. We saw the writing on the wall in that RC had found a sneeky way to supplement salary positions by using money from the tip pool. "Other hotel services" is now around $6.50.

 

When auto grats were $14.50 per day Dining staff was about $6.25 and "other" was $4.70. Now at $18 per day Dining staff is about $6.95 (11% increase) and "other" is about $6.50 (40% increase). You don't have to be a genious to see what RC is doing here and I won't partake in it. Our $18 pp/pd (and more) will still be given out to the staff that serves us but it will be transacted from us to the staff directly.

[not-enough-cruising]

1 hour ago, The Sunset Glow said:

 

 

Exactly this! We paid the auto grats when it first statred years ago and the "other hotel services" was around $1 then (I think I remember the first one being $0.90). We stopped auto grats when the "other" category went over $3-$4 but the other positions barely went up back then. We saw the writing on the wall in that RC had found a sneeky way to supplement salary positions by using money from the tip pool. "Other hotel services" is now around $6.50.

 

When auto grats were $14.50 per day Dining staff was about $6.25 and "other" was $4.70. Now at $18 per day Dining staff is about $6.95 (11% increase) and "other" is about $6.50 (40% increase). You don't have to be a genious to see what RC is doing here and I won't partake in it. Our $18 pp/pd (and more) will still be given out to the staff that serves us but it will be transacted from us to the staff directly.

Well said thank you for that analysis

[crazyank]

7 hours ago, Vibe said:

All of us here are able to afford a cruise vacation, that is a luxury in life. Holding back a few dollars a day and taking away money from someone that is not as fortunate as we are is just awful and mean. 😢  

You are entitled to your opinion

[Vampiress88]

20 hours ago, bjlbbk said:

We are just off Oasis and we were able to get our prepaid gratuities credited back to us. This was the first time we had ever tried. I’m not sure if we just got lucky but it was actually very easy and it was not an issue at all. We assumed we would have to accept the credit as on board credit since we had paid in advance but they actually gave us the option to have it refunded to our credit card had we preferred. In the end we chose to take it as onboard credit as we still wanted to use the funds towards tips… we just wanted to reallocate some of it. Guest Services provided a form for us to fill out and specify how much and to whom we wanted gratuities paid. We still followed the suggested tip amount paid to our room steward and hotel services but we adjusted dining services since we had the unlimited dining package and had also paid gratuities on that. We always tip extra to those who serve us direct and wanted the flexibility to do so even more. Attached is a copy of the suggested gratuity guidelines they gave us. Hope this helps!

When did you ask for the gratuity to be credited back? The first day? 
My question is more to do with if it will affect my dining. Since it says that I have to prepay to get the my time dining. 
 

Anyway if I get bad service and they don’t credit my gratuity back then it will just be a complaint. 
 

This is why I should just stick with the cruise line I know. Least I know what I’m getting then. 

[bjlbbk]

1 hour ago, Vampiress88 said:

When did you ask for the gratuity to be credited back? The first day? 
My question is more to do with if it will affect my dining. Since it says that I have to prepay to get the my time dining. 
 

Anyway if I get bad service and they don’t credit my gratuity back then it will just be a complaint. 
 

This is why I should just stick with the cruise line I know. Least I know what I’m getting then. 

We didn’t ask until day six actually. We realized we weren’t eating anywhere but specialty dining at that point so wanted to apply our dining gratuities towards the servers and venues we had actually been using. Waiting to do this later in the cruise did not seem to be a problem at all. Guest services was very accommodating and the process was pretty easy. 

[Vampiress88]

2 minutes ago, bjlbbk said:

We didn’t ask until day six actually. We realized we weren’t eating anywhere but specialty dining at that point so wanted to apply our dining gratuities towards the servers and venues we had actually been using. Waiting to do this later in the cruise did not seem to be a problem at all. Guest services was very accommodating and the process was pretty easy. 

that’s all I’ve got told. 
I’ll just see how things go and hope for best. 
glad to know it can be done though. Sets my mind at rest 

 

Gratuity is optional based on service- i am prepaying due to being passed around to different staff for dinner which i understand, but if i have bad service are you saying that i am not within my rights to remove them and have them refunded?
Andrew: I am sorry to hear that you feel this way, in this case, if you believe that you received not the proper service, you can modify the daily gratuity amount onboard, but I cannot guarantee these will be refunded 100% as these are required for my time dining.