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Another Genie Gratuity Question…..


tonyfsu21

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Is it true that a genie can bump another guest off of a sold out excursion?

If so then they are certainty worth that amount of tip I hear bantered around.

I do know the suite concierge could not get us on a sold out excursion.

Money is power, power is money, that's Capitalism, like it or not that's the way it is.

What did we say back in my youth, money talks, BS walks 

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17 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

And we like to keep small bills in a drawer near the door (easy access) for all the food deliveries that come.  There are a whole lot of them!

Did your bill have a tip line? We're on Ovation and there's a tip line so we add the tip there. Seems they don't want to handle money? They also bring the food on a cart and stand behind it and let you take the food. Social distancing I'm guessing. 

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I whole heartedly dislike a pressure situation involving tipping and it’s an automatic red flag for me personally. In many of the islands it’s literally nonstop discussion of tipping, everyone is reminding you to tip. I get it, there’s all walks of life coming off the ships and many different cultures to contend with so the locals have to reemphasize to an uncomfortable degree. This causes me personally to hold back a little and not necessarily be so generous. Onboard the ship, the envelopes are ok but IMHO what’s not ok is the maitre d accepting tips. I personally think in this elevated position they should be adequately compensated by salary and leaving the tips for the service staff. I just don’t see the added value there and quite frankly don’t really even know what they do?? Coordinate the dining staff? Do we tip the captain for driving the ship or the hotel director for the stateroom attendant staff? Maybe indirectly as part of a tip pooling system but I don’t see the point in direct tip compensation of any department head. Just a tip rant while I’m thinking about it. 

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2 hours ago, 12thman said:

Did your bill have a tip line? We're on Ovation and there's a tip line so we add the tip there. Seems they don't want to handle money? They also bring the food on a cart and stand behind it and let you take the food. Social distancing I'm guessing. 

When you sail star, almost all food is included so when the Genie sends food to your cabin (and that happens a lot, sometimes even when not requested), there is no bill that comes with it. 

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2 hours ago, tonyfsu21 said:

I whole heartedly dislike a pressure situation involving tipping and it’s an automatic red flag for me personally. In many of the islands it’s literally nonstop discussion of tipping, everyone is reminding you to tip. I get it, there’s all walks of life coming off the ships and many different cultures to contend with so the locals have to reemphasize to an uncomfortable degree. This causes me personally to hold back a little and not necessarily be so generous. Onboard the ship, the envelopes are ok but IMHO what’s not ok is the maitre d accepting tips. I personally think in this elevated position they should be adequately compensated by salary and leaving the tips for the service staff. I just don’t see the added value there and quite frankly don’t really even know what they do?? Coordinate the dining staff? Do we tip the captain for driving the ship or the hotel director for the stateroom attendant staff? Maybe indirectly as part of a tip pooling system but I don’t see the point in direct tip compensation of any department head. Just a tip rant while I’m thinking about it. 

We were on the Oasis several years ago and there were 9 of us (kids and grands).  We were suppose to be at one big table; however, they had us at two different tables not even close together.  The Maitre'd was able to move a few table around a little and got a (white looked like) piece of plywood and made a big table for us.  We did tip him directly for helping with this.  I am sure that they have done other stuff like that to help others that no one know about. 

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5 hours ago, CruiseGus said:

Is it true that a genie can bump another guest off of a sold out excursion?

I have never heard of this and I absolutely believe that a Genie canNOT affect any other cruiser directly, with a very very few exceptions.  The only situation that comes to mind was on one of our very first SC cruises.  We had Reyno as our Genie.  He had reserved seats in the Aqua Theater for us and when we got there, someone was sitting in one of our reserved seats.  I won't retell the whole story but in the end, security had to get involved and the man moved (reluctantly).  Other than something like this, I can't imagine that a Genie could negatively impact anyone else's cruise in any [direct] way.  More likely would be that the Genie would slide you into an otherwise ALMOST sold out excursion or make arrangements for an additional excursion....but kick someone else out ?  Nope.

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@tonyfsu21 I agree with your little rant as I felt this way the entire time in Egypt......and in places like Starbucks. In Egypt there are people in the bathroom holding the toilet paper rolls just to get tips. This is not like a bathroom attendant in fancy places, this is literally someone holding hostage a basic need for tips. I also think if you have to ask for a tip, you don't deserve one. My first time to the Bahamas many years ago I was reminded more than 3 times to tip before I had any services render, I planned to and I did, but not nearly as much as I would have had they just focused on the service.

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9 hours ago, CruiseGus said:

Is it true that a genie can bump another guest off of a sold out excursion?

 

3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

More likely would be that the Genie would slide you into an otherwise ALMOST sold out excursion or make arrangements for an additional excursion....but kick someone else out ?  Nope.

I'm with @WAAAYTOOO on this one.  Highly doubt a Genie would kick someone out of an excursion that they previously booked, and I would feel awful if they did that.  Anyway, there have been a few stories (not often) from other SC cruisers that Genies have been able to secure them spot on sold out excursions.  Genie magic?  Do they hold back some spots for Star?  Who knows, but I have heard a few stories of this happening.

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19 minutes ago, LogicallyLazy said:

As someone from a country where tipping isn't the norm, it gives me a little anxiety whenever I'm tipping. Am I tipping too much, or worse, too little? I feel like the staff are in the back scowling because we short changed them.

Are there still signs in airports. No tipping. The only way to hail a taxi is to show $bills before they would stop. Mind you I am going back a few years.

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2 hours ago, Allancy said:

Are there still signs in airports. No tipping. The only way to hail a taxi is to show $bills before they would stop. Mind you I am going back a few years.

I personally have never seen a no tipping sign here. Tipping itself is getting slightly more common with ride hailing and food delivery apps becoming the norm. Whenever its raining (which is quite often) we tend to tip them just for the slight inconvenience it causes them, but of course it's not expected. And yeah, with ride hailing apps, flagging a taxi down is now a thing of the past lol

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On 8/26/2021 at 10:54 AM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

 

I'm with @WAAAYTOOO on this one.  Highly doubt a Genie would kick someone out of an excursion that they previously booked, and I would feel awful if they did that.  Anyway, there have been a few stories (not often) from other SC cruisers that Genies have been able to secure them spot on sold out excursions.  Genie magic?  Do they hold back some spots for Star?  Who knows, but I have heard a few stories of this happening.

Not a cruising situation but last month at a huge casino I attempted to pay for 2 rooms for myself and some friends that flew in from out of town.  I was straight up told that they had rooms but I couldn't have one.   Another one of my friends that has gambled ALOT of money there was comped 2 suites.......He with the checkbook usually gets their way, my checkbook wasn't big enough.  ?  

Point is its common for rooms or spots to be held back for people that spend more money.  Wouldn't surprise me at all if RCCL did the exact same thing. 

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  • 3 months later...

Someone asked what the Genie did.   Here was my experience the one time we had a Genie.  

 

1) Met us curbside with a bellman who immediately took our luggage to our room. 

2) The genie walked us right on the ship immediately and we went directly to our room where the genie then gave us an overview of the services that they offered and got to know us.  

3) A member of our party had a very unique food allergy and once we had explained it to the genie, we never had to explain it to any other crew member and every single food they were served acknowledged the allergy by the server so that person had a sense of being taken care of

4) Genie met with us each day to understand our desires for the day and to pave the way for us if you will.    (IE we would like breakfast today in the room and here is what we would like....   And yes the moment the Genie learned how much two of us liked Starbucks coffee, our breakfast magically came with a starbucks order also.  

5) They escorted us into shows and got whatever drinks and snacks we wanted...   

6) They arranged our dinners at the restaurants for the place and time we wanted

7) Literally when we wanted to book our next cruise they had a person come to us to do that

8. Each day there were just little tokens or a call from the genie checking in.   By little tokens I mean like a thank you note or a card wishing us a great day and letting us know of the arrangements they had made. 

9) We literally could have called them to ask for anything.  (There were some hours where we couldn't call but honestly they were not large)  

 

Our genie had 3 groups that they were responsible for but literally it never felt like we were competing with one of their other responsibilities (we of course are pretty easy going (ie NOT demanding)  We also were traveling with 2 young children (3 & 1) and the genie made them feel so special,  they literally loved her and were excited to see her each day.

I am positive that I am forgetting things because we haven't cruised in 2 years but when a person says the service was worth the tip, I wanted to be sure you had an idea of what they did for us.   I would do it again in a heartbeat!   The service was above and beyond anything that I have ever experienced on any of my previous Royal Cruises and we all know how attentive the staff are so it really is hard to explain how they anticipate needs before you even think to ask just by getting to know you on that first day.    

 

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  • 3 months later...
58 minutes ago, Steve Johnson said:

We have tipped our genie from $700. our first time and a $1000 the second trip and now on our third trip with him and 4 is in the room $1500.  He is great and we have cruise history with him. 

That is a great point.  I never really considered what we would do if we had a repeat Genie, especially one that we really like.

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