CelebrationFlCruiser

No, it's about a very, very successful industry that keeps providing top-notch service. They do what they have to do. Sometimes we need to point out, or at least voice our concerns. My point is, why are they playing these games, and why even get involved in some practices, when they know it is irritating to those cruisers that are loyal. Just because the other cruise lines do it, is not a valid answer.

Get your calculator out and you do the figures. Now these ships carry thousands of people per cruise. And the room occupancy is being reported at 104%+. So, Take the number of cruisers, people (every man, woman and child) and then X the new, raised gratuity fee = the cruise ship's take. What ever you call it, it amounts to a great deal of money. And keep in mind, their ships are filled to capasity, and they do this, week, after week, after week. I personally think, that all this is, a way for the cruise line to add a charge on your bill and by having the stateroom charge separate, make it appear that you are paying less. And saying that we, the cruisers, were not giving enough to those providing the service, they make a manditory charge for everyone. They also separate the drink, photo, spa, casino, and ancillary expences from the stateroom charge. I would venture to say that, when everyone figures out that they are already paying gratuities, that most, to all, tipping ceases to exist. If everyone is made to tip the same amount to those that get tips, it no longer becomes a tip.

FloatMe, yes, and considering they don't have to pay for food and lodging, that's a lot of money. I don't care what country your from. Also, being that these ships are not registered in the US, no taxes. The person that I touched on in a post, "non-certifed scuba diving on one of Royal Caribbean islands". She said that after 3 years she figured she was making $50K per year. And she was able to put most of it in the Bank because her living expenses were almost non-existent. Not to say that some of the workers are making much less than the US minimum wage, they are.. I have been told, that many can make the average salary in their country in a few months while on-board a cruise ship. At least that is the company line, when they are pressed to pay higher salaries. And the higher ups, and adminstration jobs are paid extremely well.

Cruise Passenger Demographic Statistics Data Average age of a cruise passenger 50 + Average household earnings $109,000 Percent of passengers who are college graduates 86 % Percent who are married and work full time 62 % Percent of people age 25+ with earnings of $40,000+ who have taken a cruise 44.6 % Percent of the total US population who have taken a cruise 19.9 % Average spent per person per week on their cruise $1,770 Average spent per person per week on a non-cruise vacation $1,200 Source: Source: American Association of Port Authorities, Florida-Caribbean Cruise AssociationResearch Date: March 3rd, 2015 _____________ This pretty much sums us up, as cruisers. I wonder if the weekly cruise price includes all ship spending (ie: drinks, photos, excursions, spa, casino, ect.)? I don't think that it does.

Great idea Btowens65 That idea needs to be marketed. Maybe even Royal Caribbean might want to buy into that. Very innovative and resourceful

The English as a second language thing sometimes doesn't work out well. Like during the announcements at the the mandatory lifeboat drill. And the periodic overhead speaker announcements from the Captain. We can hardly understand them. "I think the six to nine month contracts and the pay that is gratuity dependent in most positions discourages many from the U.S. and Canada for taking on positions other than those mentioned above. " On the contrary, the free food, free housing, free medical services, and lack of places to spend your money, makes working on cruise ships and cruise ship islands very appealing. And let"s not forget cruising to exotic ports of call and if you do your job well, you can transfer to anyother ship in the fleet. We keep seeing the same crew on the new and bigger ships. They all seem to want to be on the newer, bigger ships. Just like us. I know a person that teaches non-certifed scuba diving on one of Royal Caribbean islands. They do very well, the bank most, if not all, the salary and when the cruise ships are gone, get to live on a "somewhat" deserted island alone with about 15 others. If I wasn't married with grown up kids, with kids, and about 30-40 years younger, I might go for it. Sounds FUN.

Why is it you rarely or never see an American cleaning your room or serving in the dining room, or painting the ship? Is it that they don’t hire Americans? Why is it that in certain areas of the Ship, the workers seem to be from specific countries. But there are exceptions. Like in the shops, casino, taking photos, musicians, entertainers, or in the high end restaurants. Possibly those areas that are farmed out to other companies that are more likely to have more Americans on staff? Am I the only one that has noticed this? Two cruises ago on Royal Caribbean our stateroom attendant was great however, he spoke very little English. We ended up just pointing at things. It actually worked quite well. Does anyone have any insight into this intriguing dilemma?

I appreciate all the posts, and I mean all. We all don't need to agree on everything and if everyone would agree, something would be terribly wrong. Keep in mind we all enjoy cruising and enjoy the BEST in service, and with the BEST cruise line. Although, we cruise mostly on Royal Caribbean, we do cruise on other lines. They all have their issues but on the whole, I think the Royal Caribbean product is the best for us. I do think that Royal Caribbean can do better and should strive for that. And, not be bogged down with these things that create a not so good memory. These are vacations for most/ FUN times and one bad memory or experience can leave a lasting, long-term impression. Studies have shown that it takes a lot of positive things to happen to overcome one negative thing. There are too many other companies that go to the same ports with similar Itineraries and offer a similar product. Royal Caribbean, stand out, be the BEST that we know you can be. Make us all proud and want to be loyal, returning customers. And if you disagree with this or anything, please feel free, to post about it. Thank you, to all that have taken the time and effort to post here.

I get it DocLC, moderator, staff member, "Ultimately, if one disagree with the fee, he/she can vote with his or her feet by picking a cruise line that doesn't charge the fee--good luck finding one unless you're going upmarket--stop cruising, or write to Royal Caribbean." That's great. Quit complaining or leave. I have always chosen the ships we cruise on by cruise lines, ports, and what they charge. I may choose at one point to go to another line for one reason or another. But not because, I bring up a point of contention and then told to go elsewhere. Not a good response. By the way, Royal Caribbean is not an American company and is bound by maritime law. This is totally different from what we are used to. If they don't like something about a worker, they just let them off at the next port. They are not bound by workers compensation, or normal workplace statutes. And they have not produced any studies, documentation or anything to substantiate this new fee. I am a loyal Royal Caribbean, regular cruiser. I was at the top of the tier system of Royal Caribbean until the shake-up and added tiers. I then like many were dropped to a lower level. We continue to support Royal Caribbean and if I think they have a program or policy that I think is unfair or not favorable I will speak up. Just because I don't like something doesn't mean I don't like the whole thing. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater (or however that goes) or Don't shoot the messenger. I am still a Royal Caribbean supporter and advocate. I just want them to do better and I know they can. They are a top, if not the top, cruising company. They need to be leading the pack. These things are items that we should not be, or have to be dealt with. Just be a Great company and keep offering Great service. Stop with this kind of stuff that breeds issues.

Not only has Royal Caribbean made everyone pay tips, they upped the percentage, to what they think everyone should give. Has Royal Caribbean ever produced a study showing the habits of tipping on any Royal Caribbean ship? Has Royal Caribbean ever stated how much of the manditory tipping actually goes to the staff? And keep in mind, this manditory tipping is attached to every man, woman and child (no matter the ages). My children and now grand-children do not tip. But cruise on Royal Caribbean and now they do. Every day (the day you leave port, the days you are off the ship, the days you don't use the service, and the day you return to port). The tipping is tiered. The standard rooms are at one percentage and the suites are on another. Same service but if you are paying more for a room, you pay more tips. You can not remove the amount of the tips that Royal Carribean has decided you should pay their workers. Royal Caribbean will not allow you to remove the charges, but they say you can change the amounts by favoring one worker over another. How does this work. Will they show us that more monies go to different workers? The company line, we are doing it because other cruise lines are doing it, is not a good reason to do anything. My children always use that, Billy's doing it, so now I am doing it. Didn't work then, doesn't work now. To admonish everyone and justifing it by saying, some of you are not tipping or tipping enough, shame on you. No, shame on everyone, we are now going to make you tip, and what we think you should tip, no matter what. That is bad parenting and, bad policy for a cruise line that should stand ahead of the pack. This seems to be a major point of contention among the cruising population and seems to be discussed on every Royal Caribbean cruise we go on.

Royal Caribbean is now offering special deals......... They first add charges for: tips, beverages, and then...... They offer to take them away as incentives to book a cruise. What is this called? They were not charges before and now they are making it an incentive to book, to take them away. Then they raise the prices on a select number of cruises, then offer on-board credit. What does this sound like? Royal Caribbean should be giving Royal, over the top, offers and service. WOW us, We are still loyal Royal Caribbean cruisers, but this is getting annoying. This is a first rate, number 1 company. Why are they participating in this type of PR? Create a charge and then offer it as a incentive to take it away or offer a FREE item that used to be free.

Thank you, Matt, for your thoughts. This seems to be what the cruise lines say that do this. Royal Caribbean needs to be the industry leader, not follower. They, to stay ahead of the pack, should be offering things beyond the industry standard. And when evaluating tips, rarely do those getting the tips report everything. This is an issue that has been as long as there have been servers. So they track tips, and because some are not tipping as they think they should, everyone now is made to make up the difference? Punish everyone for the lack of some. Not a good policy. Tips are just that, tips. They are not salary, and are not given by everyone, and not at the same %. Some do not decerve tips and some deserve a high % tip. That is what makes them special and demand better than normal service. We, before the manditory tipping thing, would tip a lot. And we got, what we thought, was better, over the top, service. When they become manditory (no choice and raised %) they are no longer tips. I also bet, with the manditory tipping, the tipping dropped off to almost nothing (except those that don't realize that they are alreading tipping).

Matt, thank you for pointing that out. There are exceptions to everything and I too, have been given a can at a bar, but I just thought that they either didn't have fountain drink capabilites or ? I did order a soda from one of the wandering wait staff in the wind jammer lounge and the brought me a can and a bill. I showed them my sea card and was told that they couldn't take it off my bill until I signed the bill. After going to guest services to check if it was taken off, found out that I was billed twice, after 20 minutes of explaining the charge was taken off. This was over an hour of waiting in line and explaining, I then realized, I was there to have FUN. Not to stand in line and check if a drink was billed or not. It was way, not worth it. I won't be doing that again. When I was working, a value was put on my time (by the minute). If the value was below what my time was worth, it was either not done, or someone else was assigned to do it. Now I find myself chasing things that are not worth it. As a rule, once I notice it, I vow not to do it again. The majority of the time when you are on a soda package, you either are served or you get your own, machine mixed drink (syrup and water).

Gratuity; [gruh-too-i-tee, -tyoo-] Word Origin noun, plural gratuities. 1. a gift of money, over and above payment due for service, as to a waiter or bellhop; tip. 2. something given without claim or demand. dictionary.com There are also some labor code issues in California, and I’m sure in other States: Labor Code Section 351 prohibits employers and their agents from sharing in or keeping any portion of a gratuity left for or given to one or more employees by a patron. Furthermore it is illegal for employers to make wage deductions from gratuities, or from using gratuities as direct or indirect credits against an employee’s wages. The law further states that gratuities are the sole property of the employee or employees to whom they are given. "Gratuity" is defined in the Labor Code as a tip, gratuity, or money that has been paid or given to or left for an employee by a patron of a business over and above the actual amount due for services rendered or for goods, food, drink, articles sold or served to patrons. I don’t know how Royal Caribbean Ltd is addressing the accounting of this mandatory fee to each and every person that boards their ships. But then again, they are not an American corporation. The corporation is in Liberia and based in Miami. I do not know the implications of that, nor care to. Another thing. Now they are offering free gratuities on select cruises. isn't that an oxymoron? How can they give you something free, when it is a free choice to begin with? These are not gratuities. This is not a gratuity, it is a fee. And if it is given out as a tiered amount to the service providers (asto position, time on the job, salary,ect.) and not an equal amount to everyone, is it not, a fee for salary? If you multiply the number of rooms and then the number of people in that room and times it by the mandatory “gratuity chargeâ€, we are paying the service staff's salary. This is a significant charge. Are we shown where that money goes? I would venture to guess that the trickle down effect to the actual service providers is miniscule. But, back to the mis-labeling of an added fee as a gratuity. A mandatory fee, or as Royal Caribbean labels it, gratuity, if not given to reward above and beyond regular service, the service provider is not motivated to provide over the top service if they get the same pay regardless. The "not so good" people and paid exactly the same as the "outstanding" people. But, now, Royal Caribbean encourages you to tip more if you see a great person. We pay a “gratuityâ€, then Royal Caribbean encourages us to double tip. Does that make any sense? Also what about the port intensive stops when most of the ships cruisers are gone all day and the charge for the whole day of disembarkation and the whole day of disembarking? So may questions? These charges are each and every day times each and every person, doesn’t matter if you are there or not, or if you are able to use them or not. I regress. The charge for the cruise, unless you are in a high end Suite, can be 50% or less than the total cost of the cruise. Royal Caribbean tries to make more on, not in rank order, the Drinks, Photos, Excursions, and now you can add to that list, Mandatory Gratuities. Some feel this is deceptive pricing and feel blind-sided when they get home to find out they paid double or more, than they actually thought. Doesn’t feel good. I still feel that Royal Caribbean and all their cruise lines offer the best bang-for-our-buck, but these issues are troubling. Why is Royal Caribbean getting involved in these practices that are causing a lot of cruisers (first timers and long devoted ones) grief? Only management can answer these questions. In the mean time, we all are just wanting to have FUN and not have to think about these things. But when issues keep bubbling to the top, they need corporate attention. Or at least a much different approach. Even the best of companies, in the best of times, need to differentate themselves from everyone else and get ahead of the pack. Royal Caribbean does that with cruise destinations and ports offered. Go beyond what is expected. WOW us.

I would like to weigh in on this subject. First, we are not medium or heavy drinkers, so the high end packages are cost prohibitive for us. But the soft drinks and water is. It appears that the soda packages are more of a bait and switch operation. If you pay for a coke brand item, they serve it to you in a can. If you have the package it is a self-serve machine. The price cost difference between a can and self serve or soda fountain drink is very, very significant. The cost is probably less than 25 cents for the machine type as apposed to the can. The last cruise we went on, routinely the machines were down or out of ice. And I noticed that everytime I got a drink from the machine it had a slight taste of another drink. Also I noticed I didn't feel that great, everytime I had one. I stopped and did not have that feeling again. So, after buying the package, we ended up buying the individual drinks to get the cans. Vey cost effective on our part, not. We were religious soda and water package buyers. But now we are just water package cruisers and we buy what ever we want beyond that. We also like that the water is delivered, in bulk, in your room. This kind of stops getting water at dinner or when you are out, but we still like it because we do not want to lug a bunch of water around. At 8lbs a gal, it's quite heavy. Again you are offered something, and when you add it up ????? Nothing is FREE, you always end up paying for it.

They hide them so well that it is hard to tell if they even gave them to you. I called on an upcoming cruise when I couldn't find what they said we got. The quote was "it was absorbed into the total package and you will not be able to see it". If you look at the new advertizing PR, they are offering half of the 2nd cruiser with free upgraded staterooms and free gratutities (manditory fee), or free on-board credit, or free ??? This is only on specific ships and of course we already booked on one them, and guess what, if we take the new promos, we loose our other perks. What a deal. We have been cruising with Royal Caribbean for decades and have never, never been upgraded to anything.

Thank you all, for the GREAT information and comments

Since we have never gotten an award (I have heard there are crystal awards and the like) or pin on our quest to Diamond Plus and beyond, someone sent me a picture of a Diamond Plus pin. So at least I'll have a picture of what one looks like. We are hitting Diamond Plus on our next cruise, we are doing a back-to-back-to-back to get to that level. We'll see if we don't get that pin either :)

Below is the link to the videos from The Alaska Cruise Handbook by Joe Upton on what to look for on the Alaskan cruise. That cruise is one of the BEST of all the cruises. And I do not like cold weather, ha. http://www.alaskacruisehandbook.com/videopage.html

It appears that the 3-4 most appreciated enticements offered are the paid gratuities, drink packages, and some sort of internet package, and/or on-board credit. It also appears that Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited is testing the market with these items on their Celebrity Cruise ships. As it turns out, Celebrity is currently testing an all inclusive, with the stateroom pricing, packages (drink package, internet, and gratuities; and/or on-board-credit). This started July 6th. If you don't want the services you can opt out and they then offer $150 pp in on-board-credit. The 3 items that cruisers have issues with are (in not paticular order or importance) manditory gratuities, internet charges, and drink packages. This appoach deals with those customer concerns and issues. I would venture to say that these items are the ones that cause RCC LTD the most grief. Currently thier pricing is in line or less than other cruise lines offering similar or like ports and days at sea. As everyone knows though, nothing is for free. You end up always paying for what is touted as a freebe :( But if it works, hopefully they will extend this offer to all of RCC LTD's cruise lines. And possibly if this promotion is a huge success, make this a standard for all the new suite perk/benefit program. Royal Caribbean is a first rate company and should not be bogged down with billing for item after item on top of the cruise charge. Cruise companies have in the past made the same, or now, more money with selling drinks, photos, and making gratuities (tipping) manditory. You book the inexpensive cruise and then when you get off the ship your bill is a shock. And, if you would have just gone for an inclusive cruise it is either less expensive or will less grief than the bill shock at the end. There will always be the people out there looking for the least expensive cruises (I'm in that catagory), but then there are those looking for cruises that are all inclusive and the most cost effective (I'm in that catagory too). This should not be turned into the same issue that the airlines have gotten themselves in. The guy sitting next to you, getting the same or better services, paid half what you did. They need to standarize thier billing practices. On cruise ships we have often sat next to people that paid thousands mor for the same catagory room. But again, people tend to gravitate to deals and discounts. I like all inclusivity, and I also like the ability to pick and choose. Let's hope the new roll-out programs allow both.

As it turns out, Royal Caribbean is currently testing an all inclusive, with the stateroom pricing, package (drink package, internet, and gratuities) pricing with one of the other cruise companies in the system, Celebrity. This started July 6th. If you don't want the services you can opt out and they then offer $150 pp in on-board-credit. The 3 items that cruisers have issues with are (in not paticular order or importance) manditory gratuities, internet charges, and drink packages. This appoach deals with those customer concerns and issues. What does everyone think about this?

Sorry, my bad :)

"lowest level of benefits (let's say Gold/Diamond/Platinum)." Diamond level should get the lowest level of benefits? Don't agree with that. For the most part I agree with your statements, but what should happen then, is the lower percentages at the upper end of the bell curve (Diamond, Diamond Plus, and Pinnacle) getting the lion's share of the perks and benefits. Is this happening? Doesn't look like it on the seapass cards. We just went on a cruise that the only benefit that we were aware of, that we got, was the internet discount, and I had to go to guest services 2 times to get that done. I am not doing that again (standing in line, waiting forever and then have to keep requesting that I be given the discount). I never got the discount applied, they had to credit me the amount on my bill to get it done. All the other benefits or perks we left on the ship because either we were unaware of them or they were not applied on our bill, or did not use because we thought we would be billed full price anyway. We normally do not complain or go to any lengths to get benefits. We normally just go home, and if we do not feel good about it, start looking at other cruise lines. Also the amount of points it takes to reach the upper limits of the loyalty levels, is not in line with the other levels (175 and then a jump to 700). In order for this to be a true, normal, bell curve, the amounts at each end should be close to equal. There should be the same or not significantly different percentages between the Gold level and the Pinnacle level. I don't know this for a fact, but I would say the majority of people in Royal Caribbean's loyalty program are at the Gold, Platinum, and Emerald levels (by a huge percentage). With many, many more at the lower 2 levels. I think that what is being said here is that people that cruise primarily with one cruise line want to be recognized, and should not have to ask for things that the company states should be given, and that they are appreciated with perks, benefits and discounts that are different and in-line with the level that they have achieved. Is that not the purpose, and should be, goal, of a loyalty rewards program. It looks like Royal Caribbean is taking a look at their loyalty program and now putting more effort in the suite programs. They are heavily advertizing that they have more and better suites than any other cruise line and they are rewarding the suite cruisers like they used to reward the loyalty cruisers. And actually if you want the feel of what the old benefits and perks of the tiered loyalty program used to feel like, book a suite. Suite cruisers are now treated the same or better than Diamond Plus and Pinnacle level cruisers. And, it is less expensive overall, to just book a suite. You don't need to go through the effort and huge expense to obtain 175-700 points to get an extra pull on a selected slot machine to maybe get a key chain or a t-shirt.

After looking at all the perks loaded on the seapass cards, did anyone notice that there is very little difference between the levels? Our last cruise we did not get the perk for any drink discounts, or any specialty coffee discounts, we paid full price. I had to go to guest services 2 times to get the internet discounts and they could not get their computers to acknowledge that we were at the Diamond level so they just credited us the difference. So, this is not as automatic as they tell you. You need to ask and even then they either don't know the discounts and perks or they do not want to give them to you. Make sure you are at least getting what they tell you, you should get. We are Diamond level (one cruise away from Diamond Plus) and spend thousands everytime we cruise and have to go to guest services (usually at least 2 times) to get the perks. And, the perks amount to what, $10-$20 total. What a deal. Spend $2-4,000 and get $10-$20 back. Wow, if someone wants to give me $2-4,000, I'll give you back $1,000. Just kidding.

Here's a better depiction of a bell curve Too much information, JUST BOOK A SUITE and feel the difference