Star Class Tipping

[Chuck586]

A recent conversation I had with someone on a Facebook page brought a question to my mind about tipping.

The conversation on that "other" site went something like this:  There was a question about the amounts that people were tipping while star class passengers.  I asked the question: What does everyone tip to their room attendants for example?  The answers I received were several hundred dollars to each attendant.  I asked if they were including the amount of their room that was already allocated to the tips and they responded that they suppose the attendants were just getting extra.  This leads me to my question.

As I understand it, the gratuities that are recommended as policy by Royal are already included in the cost of my cabin.  So, for the room attendants in my cabin there is already the $7.50 per person per day amount allocated to that attendant out of the amount that I paid for my room.  If I have 4 people in my room then I have already paid $210.00 towards the tip that my room steward would receive.  Anything I would elect to tip would be above and beyond that if they provided exemplary service.  Based on my reading of what others are posting there are people that are tipping hundreds of dollars above and beyond the standard policy.

It is also my understanding that the same thing is true for waiters and bartenders.  For example, if I order a $10.00 (just to keep the math simple) drink poolside, a tip of 18% is added to that drink automatically out of whatever amount of my room cost is allocated toward tips.  In other words the bartender is already getting a $1.80 tip when he gives me my drink.  I am reading in other posts that people carry around $2.00 bills to tip waiters at the bar.  This is above the amount already allocated towards the tips.

Now I am no cheapskate but it seems to me that a $3.80 tip for a $10.00 drink ($1.80 automatic tip + $2.00 = 3.80) is a bit excessive.  

Am I looking at this correctly or is this a problem with the transparency related to the star class included gratuities and how those are paid out to the waiters, bartenders and cabin stewards?  I don't want to short anyone their tips if I am looking at this wrong.

Of course, nothing I said above applies to the genie.  I understand their tip is not included in the "complementary gratuities."

Thanks all! 

 

 

[AshleyDillo]

The tip pool for the drink packages is not a set percentage per drink. It's more of a tally system so they can figure out the overall tip pool percentage allocated to each server which would be based on number of drinks they rang in relative to the total number of drinks rang in. 

The per day room gratuities that are inckuded in Star Class don't directly have anything to do with the drink and dining packages.

[fa-li]

I haven't done star class yet, but for crew bringing me drinks I always tip extra.  I find it gets me treated like a princess every time the server sees me, and I figure if a few dollars is that appreciated, why wouldn't I give it?

Likewise, by the end of a cruise, we have tipped our cabin steward at least a hundred.  $20 to say hello, $10 if I make a special request, $20 halfway through the cruise to say thanks for such a great job so far.  And a bigger tip at the end.  Like with the drinks, I've found this leads to extreme attentiveness and anticipation of my wishes.  

Now, I'm sure whatever I spend in tips doesn't come close to the difference between sky and star class cruise fares, so maybe if I was spending more I'd expect to have to tip less?  Nah, probably not.  

[Gisser]

I always make sure I have $5 bills on me and I will frequently tip bar/pool waiters and sometimes bartenders $5 when they have been serving me for a while as an added thank you. I also always tip my stateroom attendant $20 on the first day and $20 on the last day in addition to the gratuities I get charged for by Royal.