Tips and Gratuities-Cruise lines -Royal Carribbean

cruisercritic

Hello Fellow Cruisers. ..as some of you may know, from the 6th March 2013 Royal Carribbean will add tips/gratuties to your seapass account.This will not be optional. ..does anyone have any thoughts or comments to make on this.

Buzby

Switch to Thomson, who's policy is to include all gratuities the the base price.

[Deleted User]

How much are Royal Caribbean adding per person / per day?

doelani

I have sales with RCL 3 times and always prepaid gratuities , if added to your sea pass is there an option to get them removed if you are not happy with the service ? I know NCL do this

vegasvisitor

We have only cruised with Thomson and Carnival. Thomson include gratuities in their pricing (of course tips at the end are still welcomed by the crew). Carnival added $10 per day each to our on board account, plus 15% to all drinks.

As tips are not included in the fare, I expect you would be tipping somehow. I'm curious how much it is, is it an unacceptable amount?

We were looking at a Royal Caribbean cruise from Rome, and it's half the price if booked through an American agency, but I don't understand why and wondered if it was to do with the tipping being included on one but not the other.

luci

Lesley, the gratuities won't be included in either the UK or US pricing as it is always an additional charge, currently $12pppd.

We were told that if we didn't pay them at time of booking, we wouldn't be able to use the Anytime Dining and would only have fixed dining times.

The likely reason the US agent was that much cheaper is that it didn't include all the fees and taxes.

I've had quotes from US agents and some are upfront and included while others try to appear cheaper by excluding them.

Mr_Wang

There was me thinking tips were discretionary and based on quality of service.

bcl999

luci wrote: »

We were told that if we didn't pay them at time of booking, we wouldn't be able to use the Anytime Dining and would only have fixed dining times.

Pre-paid gratuities have always been required when choosing Anytime Dining - that's not changed with this new policy.

DUKE

I'm not against tipping for a good service but this would definitely put me off cruising.

totallybored

DUKE wrote: »

I'm not against tipping for a good service but this would definitely put me off cruising.

This is what puts me off a cruise! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2278765/Carnival-Triumph-cruise-survivors-talk-horrific-ordeal-board-ill-fated-ship.html

[Deleted User]

DUKE wrote: »

I'm not against tipping for a good service but this would definitely put me off cruising.

Precisely.
I've been on one cruise and what struck me was how everyone expected a daily tip simply for doing their job.
I don't tip a hotel maid for cleaning my room so why should I tip a person on board for doing exactly the same thing.
Likewide, I tip a waiter if I think the service was good but if it's not I don't.
Why should a cruise waiter automatically expect a tip at the end of a cruise just for being a waiter ?
And this nonsense of being able to eat whenever you want if you're prepared to pay tips in advance is ludicrous - for the money I paid for the cruise I expect to eat anytime I want.
Here's a tip for the cruise companies worth billions of dollars who recruit from Third World countries - PAY YOUR STAFF DECENT WAGES.
I definitely wouldn't cruise again with a company who insisted on tips being added to my bill before the cruise .