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my time dining - compulsory gratuities ?


J_Keeble

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THIS IS NOT A DEBATE ON TIPPING !!! WE ALL HAVE OUR OWN OPINIONS ON THAT.

I would like to see whether it is true that gratuities are now compulsory with My Time Dining? This seems to be the case for my 2021 bookings. However on a booking for set dining gratuities do not seem to be compulsory. Has anyone else experienced this? 

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14 minutes ago, J_Keeble said:

For example my friend who wants to book and cruise was told if he wanted my time dining he would not be allowed to remove the gratuities.

Oh.  Well....I have never heard of them REFUSING to allow the gratuities from being removed.  Maybe it's a new policy.  If it is, I am unaware of it.

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Just now, WAAAYTOOO said:

Oh.  Well....I have never heard of them REFUSING to allow the gratuities from being removed.  Maybe it's a new policy.  If it is, I am unaware of it.

if he were to have set dining at 6/8 then he could remove them but if he wanted my time he was told he could not remove the gratuities.

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I may be misunderstanding the inquiry but I believe that if you choose My Time Dining, you HAVE to prepay gratuities. If you choose traditional dining, you can prepay gratuities OR be charged the daily gratuity rate once you get on the ship.

This was how it was presented to us by our TA and NextCruise. 
 

edit:

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/General_Info/Flyers/09015240_MyTimeDining_OA.pdf
 

“• Just pre-pay your gratuities to participate - this includes tips for your waiter, assistant waiter, head waiter and stateroom attendant“

I don’t know about removing them at a later time though?

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I feel like I heard the claim you had to prepay gratuities with MTD a couple years ago and it turned out to be out of date marketing that had somehow resurfaced.  Considering Royal's IT incompetence, perhaps the same old information has been republished somewhere yet again?  It would be very easy to then also confuse "have to prepay" with "cannot remove".

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48 minutes ago, RockerDom31 said:

I may be misunderstanding the inquiry but I believe that if you choose My Time Dining, you HAVE to prepay gratuities. If you choose traditional dining, you can prepay gratuities OR be charged the daily gratuity rate once you get on the ship.

This was how it was presented to us by our TA and NextCruise. 
 

edit:

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/General_Info/Flyers/09015240_MyTimeDining_OA.pdf
 

“• Just pre-pay your gratuities to participate - this includes tips for your waiter, assistant waiter, head waiter and stateroom attendant“

I don’t know about removing them at a later time though?

Yes, I noticed this last month when we were booking a cruise on the website. It doesn’t say you can’t refuse them later, but it did require prepaying to finish the reservation. Not sure of the reasoning or whether it applies to all sailings, but it’s definitely a thing. 

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The requirement to prepay grats if you are doing MTD went away a number of years ago.

What J_Keeble was suggesting, I think, is that his friend is considering removing ALL gratuities associated with dining. ...and was, apparently told that if you are doing MTD you are not permitted to avoid paying dining gratuities. 

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1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

The requirement to prepay grats if you are doing MTD went away a number of years ago.

What J_Keeble was suggesting, I think, is that his friend is considering removing ALL gratuities associated with dining. ...and was, apparently told that if you are doing MTD you are not permitted to avoid paying dining gratuities. 

 

3 hours ago, RockerDom31 said:

Did anyone look at the small print at the bottom and see the year of this ad? 

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Ok..seems weird.

 

First of all, why would they MAKE you pay a tip before getting on the ship? And why would they say you CANT remove(assuming you wanted to for some reason) them because you don't want to chose a time to eat?

5 hours ago, RicDalek said:

You don't have to prepay gratuities with MTD, it's just that they will be charged to the account and cannot be removed. Of course if your TA offers gratuities as a perk, then you're covered either way.

I know this isn't true from personal experience.........

 

Perhaps this was the case in 2010 when they brought out MTD?? or maybe they stuck with it in the UK, but not in the USA......for now anyways.

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Sounds like it may be a UK thing.  We have been doing MTD for years now and while we did have to pay grats up front when we did it the first time we have not had to do that for the last several cruises.  As a matter of fact, I had my TA add them in last night and paid them just so I wouldn't have to fool with it once on the ship.

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22 hours ago, J_Keeble said:

if he were to have set dining at 6/8 then he could remove them but if he wanted my time he was told he could not remove the gratuities.

Wonder if the agent your friend was taking to knew the correct answer.  We've asked the same question (not this question, but another) to several agents and got different answers...We have also seen many people comment...If your not happy with the response from a RCCL Agent...Call back for a different answer.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi - I have just booked with Cruise.co.uk tonight to sail on Anthem from Southampton in October 2020. I was told I was unable to book MTD unless I paid the gratituities upfront. Was informed this was something new that had been introduced by RC. I could book set dining and take them off but the booking could not be made for MTD without paying them before the sailing. Will chase further in the morning as didn’t want to lose the booking...

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On 1/12/2020 at 6:37 PM, Big Tule said:

MTD gratuities have to be prepaid when booking in Australia also

ALL gratuities have to be prepaid when booking in Australia.

That's because they are included in the fare for your cruise. There is no "removing" gratuities, and no "prepaying" gratuities. 

You pay your fare, and you go on your cruise. If you choose to tip crew when you are onboard because you feel it is deserved, that is entirely up to you, but "gratuities" do not exist in Australia.

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