Prepaying gratuities for MTD

[Roberta]

We are scheduled for a transpacific cruise in October, our first on RC.  We are very excited about the upcoming cruise, except for one thing that is clouding my anticipation as I just don’t understand.

The only seating time available was 8pm, so our agent suggested we choose anytime dining.  In reading “fine print” I found that that option requires prepaid gratuities.  I have not experienced this on other cruise lines so this concept is new, confusing, and frankly, somewhat heavy handed and insulting.  

I just signed up for this forum and have seen some posts to the effect that pretipping is no longer required (is this true?) , but that I must sign on daily somehow now not dining “anytime” but by reservation, and pay gratuties at that time.   I am very confused, first, in just how to do that.  Further, am I tipping the dinner service waitstaff only?  Am I required to tip the suggested daily amount?   And why, if it’s anytime dining, do I have to make a dalily reservation?    

Thanks, I’m obviously a Newbie to RC...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hayley_bopp]

A couple of years ago, to get MTD you had to prepay gratuities ie pay them for entire cruise before sailing. 

However, it is my understanding they have done away with this (in the UK at least) .

The way MTD works is you can either make reservations before you cruise via the cruise planner on RC's website, make reservations day-to-day when onboard or simply turn up to the dining room at any time during the dinner service hours and wait to be seated. You don't have to pay gratuities for any of these options. 

You may still opt to prepay gratuities before sailing to help spread the cost of your cruise or wait and pay them on-board. The daily amount per person will be charged to your account each day amd you pay your bill at the end of the cruise. 

 

Hope this helps. 

[DocLC]

I'm pretty sure they did away with the requirement to prepay gratuities, too, as stated above. However, the benefit of prepaying then is that the amount is locked in so you won't be affected by a price increase later on if one occurs. In addition, there's less on your account to pay off when you leave the ship. 

[twangster]

As a frequent MTD diner, prepaid gratuity is NOT currently required.  I know it still states that it is in places but it has never been actually charged since 2016. 

Lately I've started adding prepaid gratuity but that is my choice and it requires that I tell my travel agent to do so.  She them manually adds them.  By default you are not charged prepaid gratuity.

[melski94]

On 7/1/2018 at 9:23 AM, Roberta said:

 Further, am I tipping the dinner service waitstaff only?  Am I required to tip the suggested daily amount?   

The gratuities go to the dining staff (not just the main dining room staff but staff in windjammer, etc) and your stateroom attendant and supposedly others who also work behind the scenes like in laundry.  No, you are not required to tip that amount but you really should as these people really work very hard during your cruise.  I consider it part of the cruise price and have my travel agent allow me to prepay it so I don't have a large bill at the end.

On 7/1/2018 at 9:23 AM, Roberta said:

And why, if it’s anytime dining, do I have to make a dalily reservation?    

You don't have to make a reservation but if you would like to eat around the same time every night I find it easier to make a reservation.  We prefer to make a 6:15 reservation and I like having the same wait staff and table each night as the wait staff gets to know our preferences. I find it easy to change the reservation based on our daily plans or to cancel it if we chose not to eat there. If you chose to not make a reservation and show up at a popular time, then just like a land restaurant you may have to wait until tables open.  

[Roberta]

Melski94. Thanks for your reply.  I wasn’t asking about gratuities in general, but about the (apparently no longer enforced per other respondents here) requirement that anyone using anytime dining prepay gratuities, which is apparently not the case for persons at the early or late seatings.  I didn’t understand, and still don’t, the logic that one set of diners was required to  prepay and others not, and wondered about it.

[WAAAYTOOO]

Everyone pays the gratuities.  You can either prepay them or they will be charged on a daily basis to your account and they will appear on your final onboard bill.  In the past, those who opted for My Time Dining were required to prepay their grats but that rule changed a couple of years ago. Now, everyone has the option of either prepaying their grats or paying them onboard....but everyone pays the grats unless you specifically challenge the gratuity and opt out of paying.

[JLMoran]

To answer the question about why people in MTD had to prepay while Traditional Dining didn’t, I believe the reason was because with MTD your table and wait staff varied and this meant figuring out the distribution of tips had to be generalized. Whereas Traditional dining has you at one table with one waiter and assistant waiter to receive the tips. Not sure how realistic that was since, AFAIK, tips were just pooled and split among all the dining staff regardless of plan even back then, just as they are now. But that is the reasoning I recall being cited.