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What are these manditory tips?


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It is also funny to me that everyone is rated on what the US is tipping.

 

The US average for good service is 15% (not 18%). I realize that although the majority of those cruising are from the US, there are those cruisers from other countries. And, usually, those countries tip less, much less. Also those service providers that we are forced to tipping at above the US rate are almost always, not from the US.

 

Why are we not tipping to Royal Caribbean's country of origin? Or, at least to the country that the service provider is from?

 

And good point, DocLC, these cruise ships are not registered in the US. And are not bound by, nor do they follow US rules and regulations.

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Matt Administrator's post:

"The tips are not compulsory.  You can easily go to Guest Services and have them removed or changed.  They are simply tacked on automatically but you are under no obligation to keep them there if you do not want them there."

 

Matt, I went to Guest Services on the last 2 cruises and was told I could not remove the charges from our statement. I was told that if one or more service providers were exceptional, I could give them more. They even had a form they handed me to do just that.

I'm under the impression that if you prepay your gratuities because you have My Time Dining, those are not removable. Did you have My Time Dining?
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I wonder whether that's true. The last cruise I booked a few weeks ago, I had to pay gratuities, but I don't think it was due to My Time Dining.

According to this page:

For your convenience, prepaid gratuities are automatically added to My Time Dining reservations.


Of course, we know that RCI IT excels in keeping their information current. :)

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I would also love to know if anyone had been successful in completely removing the automatic gratuities. I guess we are old school, but we prefer to hand out cash tips every time we cruise of at least the recommended daily amount. We have always been able to remove our automatically added tips on other cruise lines but this will be our first RC and now I'm worried. Thank you!

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I have not tried it personally but have been told that if you DO NOT prepay tips you can go to Guest Services on board and ask to have the automatic daily charges stopped. They may argue with you but ultimately you should be able to stop them and pay cash at whatever amount you choose.

However, if you DO prepay tips it is apparently much more complicated since the ship accounting department did not charge you the prepaid tips the "onshore" department did, so the onboard crew doesn't have access to issue a refund, so on and so forth.

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Yes, I have successfully removed the prepaid tips (July 2015).  The reason being as I only ate in the MDR three times as the service was subpar at best.  I went to guest services and asked them to remove all of the prepaid tips.  They explained to me that I would receive the credit on the credit card used to pay for the cruise within 7 days after the cruise ended.  This did happen.  Guest services provided me with a form to fill out where I could leave tips by my desired amount to anybody I desired.  I collected business cards from all of the employees who I felt desired a gratuity and subsequently left them tips via the sheet given to me by guest services.  This amount was charged to my portfolio on the ship.

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Did I miss an announcement from RCCL? On my last cruise in April (3 months ago) there were no "mandatory" tips. They "automatically" added the recommended gratuities to my folio at the end of each day, which I appreciate, so I do not have to administrate the cash in envelopes. However if this system does not suit me, I am able to go to the guest service desk and ask them to not add gratuities to my daily bill and refund any that had already been added to my bill. If I really wanted to be an @#% I am able to ask the service desk to credit me the gratuities paid for drinks and specialty venues that are "automatically" added as well.

 

For whatever reasons and traditions tips/gratuities have been accepted by governments and consumers around the world as an acceptable method of compensation for those who work in the service industry, thus lowering minimum wages paid THROUGH the employer. But make no mistake, that at your local restaurant or on your next cruise, we pay these service workers their salary with our gratuities. So service has to be REALLY bad for me not to compensate them at recommended levels, but at least I have that ability to demonstrate my displeasure. If they were to raise the minimum pay and raise the cost of my dinner or cruise in lieu of paying gratuities, then I would loose that option. Aditionally service levels and productivity of all workers would decline dramatically.

 

I say thank you RCCL for making it easier for me to tip the staff.

Just to add fuel to the fire, in Canada at least, if someone works in the Service Area, such as a waiter etc., when they go to file their Income Tax to our version of Uncle Sam, up until three years ago (haven't worked in the tax industry since but I doubt it has changed), they were AUTOMATICALLY assessed at double whatever they legal statement of earnings were as the federal government "assumes" they earned undeclared tips equal to the amount paid in salary - nice huh?  Although the upside could be if you were really good at your job and amassed a large amount of tips, you would only have to pay the same tax as the owner's kid that really didn't want to be there and showed it with their service lol.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This last cruise we had friends cruising with us. They were appalled that they were being charged for tips. They went to Guest Services and were told that they were mandatory charges and could not be taken off their bill.

 

These were 1st time cruisers on Royal Caribbean. If we didn't have so much invested in this company, we would probably be exclusively cruising with a different company.

 

We cruise one to more times per month. We have tried to get the mandatory tips removed and could not get it done with Royal Caribbean. The other cruise lines, if they do it, will remove them immediately when asked. Our past and current experience is that Royal Caribbean will not remove the charges.

 

A lot of cruise companies are now including gratuities in their pricing. I do not know why Royal Caribbean is continuing with this policy. It is crystal clear, that the cruisers are not happy about this.

 

Being told, and demanded that you have to tip at 18%, or what ever they put the tip, at is not right. End this bad PR policy.

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Other than the premium lines, I'm not aware of any mass market cruise lines that are including gratuities in the fare. Celebrity allows you to pick prepaid gratuities, but you can opt for something else (e.g., drink package) instead. NCL often includes prepaid gratuities as part of their sales, but again you can choose something else instead and I also believe there are cabin restrictions.

 

What cruise lines are you referring to?

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