What are the Tipping Guidelines

[estaggs]

I just checked out the RC website to see what the guidelines are for a 7 night cruise, but couldn't find the info. Can anyone help? Thanks

[pcur]

Try this website:

http://members.aol.com/CruiseTip/

 

It's usually kept up to date, and you can calculate exactly what the tips will be for your cruise.

[madforcruising]

Waiter: $3,50

Asst.Waiter: $2,00

Headwaiter: $0,50

Cabin Attd.: $3,50 or if in a Suite $5,75

 

TPKellers cruise Tip callculator is great and up to date.

[DebbiW]

If you still want to see the recommendations on the RCCI web site, I found it at the following string:

 

All About Cruising ... New to Cruising ... Already Booked Your First Cruise?

 

Hope that helps!

[tmartin1]

Waiter: $3,50

Asst.Waiter: $2,00

Headwaiter: $0,50

Cabin Attd.: $3,50 or if in a Suite $5,75

 

.

 

I've never seen the extra 'suite' tip for the cabin attendant before. Where did you get this information? It's not in my cruise documents.

[madforcruising]

From my last two cruises staying in a GS. They had this tipping guidelines available in the Suites and it has been confirmed for other ships from other CC members.

 

You can look at this thread too:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=89951

[tmartin1]

thanks for the link!

 

I had never heard of a suite attendant before. We'll also be in a GS (in less than a week). I'm glad to know this ahead of time.

[melissa76]

Gee, that's strange! I was just in an Owner's Suite on the NOS and we used automatic tipping. It definitely was not 5.75 a day. It was the same 3.50 as I had seen on the documents!

 

Melissa :)

[melissa76]

Not to mention that my suite steward did even less than the normal steward I had on my previous cruise. I only saw him twice. We never requested anything, never got anything, not even the vouchers and questionnaire at the end. Luckily, we really didn't want or need anything, but it seems very weird based on what I've read from others about service and the fact that it was 3,000 per person.

 

Melissa :)

[TPKeller]

Hi Melissa,

 

I try to keep up with this sort of thing, and on October 13th I got an e-mail reply from RCCL about the new suite attendant tip recommendation. They confirmed that the new rate of $5.75 per person per day was in place for suites fleet wide. I have no explanation if that was not the case for you.

 

Theron

[RSGS315]

We had four in a junior suite on the Mariner 2 weeks ago, and and were charged $5.75 x 4 per day for gratuities.

[mammallama]

Here is the link for RCL's website. http://www.royalcaribbean.com/allaboutcruising/newtocruising/alreadyBookedCruise.do;jsessionid=0000P51rh2HfIeGD5J59VkO-wHB:v2mocbr0 Scroll down to Tipping, number 10.

[tmartin1]

This is the kind of stuff that really irritates me.

 

If it wasn't for Cruise Critic, I would be going on my cruise expecting to budget 3.50 per person for tips (yes, we usually tip more, but that's not the point).

 

I just received my cruise docs 2 weeks ago and they clearly state that 3.50 is the recommended amount. An increase of 2.25 per day, per person comes out to about $55.00 extra for the week.

 

Yes, I can afford it, but all I ask from RCCL is that if you change a policy, just let me know ahead of time. Is that so hard? I can imagine there will be quite a few people who will be surprised by this extra charge because they don't happen to read Cruise Critic.

 

Ok, rant over. :)

[Brad1185]

The new brochures show the new higher recommend tips. I will have to look again, but RCI was recommending at least $4 pppd for room and dining. I think it was $3 for asst waiter. Everyone was up across the board.

[TPKeller]

It looks like they haven't updated their web page to reflect the new recommendation for suites yet. This is fairly common, it seems that web pages are not very high on the list for attention sometimes.

 

Theron

[tmartin1]

The cruise docs should be the first thing they update.

 

These are supposed to contain all the information we need for our trip.

 

I don't usually get so uptight about this stuff, but I'm in the middle of the pre-trip frenzy (leaving on Friday), so my patience is wearing thin. I have a million things to do and no time to do it. (Of course, I guess it would help if I stopped reading CC and actually got a few things done!)

 

I just have to remember - 4 more days till I'm on the ship drinking foo-foo drinks. By then, I won't care how much anything costs. :) :) :)

[gerif]

I can see expecting more for the larger suites that get concierge service, etc., but really can't see it for a JR suite which is probably easier to keep up since it's not so cramped.

[melissa76]

Hi again,

 

Well, I was on the NOS in June, so I guess it still was 3.50. I think I would have been slightly annoyed with 5.75, since my cabin steward was "nowhere to be found" :). It may have been that since I was on my honeymoon, he thought we'd want privacy. Who knows! I never even met him or found out his name. And frankly, I'm not a person who want lots of help, or extras, etc. so it really didn't matter to me. But he certainly didn't deserve extra money!! And if I had been expecting the service that people here on these boards describe, I probably would have been P.O.ed. Luckily, I didn't really care!!

 

Melissa :)

[melissa76]

Oh, another thing I thought of that was kind of funny!!

 

We were married on the ship the first day, and of course, we had a cake. Well, it was brought to our cabin and we picked at it for the first day. The second day, we started thinking, YUCK, we can't eat this anymore. I mean, it wasn't refrigerated. By day 3, we were wondering if the cabin steward would remove it, but he didn't. We thought maybe he was afraid to touch it God forbid we wanted to keep it or something, since it was our wedding cake. On day 4 we finally decided to write him a note and tell him he could take the cake. It was really funny.

 

The same thing happened with the snacks we got during the afternoon. He didn't take them. So we figured that maybe it was room service's job and not his, so we started putting the plates outside on the floor! There's got to be a better system, don't you think??

 

LOL

Melissa :)