Automatic daily tips on cruise ship bill?

Hello, I am going on 5 day cruise with Royal Caribbean om Sept 30th. Royal automatic charge you 14.00 per day for tips. Has anyone told guest service not to put it on bill and pay cash tips as you go? Just wondering thank you, Golfcaddy1

 

I did Norwegian and you couldn't opt out, it was 20% or something. I dunno. I've blocked out some parts of that cruise for various reasons. I was never able to get in with the right crowd on the cruise ship to crack the code. So, I'll be watching this thread. I would love to do another cruise, but, I gotta have a strategy.

I know when we did an all inclusive in Cuba we were told by co-workers and friends who go to Cuba a lot to bring gifts. Yeah tip as you would, but, bring gifts. I didn't fully understand what they were getting at. Now I understand.

 

Golf, if you want to delve into this issue and you have a couple hours, go over to Cruise Critic. This topic gets quite lively and there are several threads of it.

 

Thank you for info VegasGroove. I will go to that site but also monitor the VMB replies. GOLFCADDY1

 

on Norwegian I heard you can go to guest services and get it refunded BUT I don't think they make it easy.... We pay the service charge and still tip the room steward and the bartender (not for every drink but here and there)

 

If you give cash tips, you will not reach everyone who benefits from the automatic gratuities. They get spread out to people you might not directly interact with like kitchen staff. Many cruise ship workers are paid low wages and supporting family in other countries. They often work 6-10 months in a row, nearly ever day.

Make no mistake, I’m not saying I agree with gratuities, tipping culture in general, or consumers subsidizing a business’s insufficient wages. However, if you choose to take a cruise pony up the auto gratuities and feel free to tip cash in person for exceptional service (ie great stateroom attendant, attentive waitstaff etc).

 

I have no information on the OP's question regarding Royal Caribbean. But the idea that the NCL crew members get a share of the "automatic gratuities" is a myth fostered by NCL. A cousin of my wife is from the Philippines and works on an NCL ship as a stateroom attendant. She told us that they get only the exact salary they contracted for and they never get any share of these automatic gratuities. The "automatic gratuities" simply go into the bottom line of NCL. I guess at one level, it is possible that the "automatic gratuities" can be used to pay the crew's fixed contractual wages but that would be simply a revenue allocation made by NCL internally. Either way the non-officer crew get only their contractual wages regardless of any gratuities collected by NCL.

I am not saying that the standard wages are not acceptable. For people living in lesser developed areas, such ship board jobs, while difficult, can be attractive. But it is certainly NOT like Vegas casinos where there is actually a mechanism for the dealers to share and allocate the tips you leave, including any "automatic gratuities."

Moreover NCL does not make it easy to opt out of the "automatic" gratuities. You must pay the "gratuities" before you leave the ship and if you want to claw some back you must obtain a specific written form on board, then after the cruise submit a request in writing explaining why a specific service issue you had justifies clawing back the tips. Frankly, it is a lot of work and I never had any service issues which I could say justified anything. So my wife and I have taken five NCL cruises as CET Seven Stars promotions and have never tried to claw back the automatic tips and have also left substantial cash tips for hardworking crew.

 

Yeah, I didn't tip for that reason. I was like well whatever, it's on my bill. They might have thought I was a jerk for that reason. I figured I could take note of staff and give good feedback on them. Events of the last stop of the cruise kinda made that slip my mind.

I will try again to crack the code on cruising before I book another one. Might not be Norwegian.

 

I have heard that. Honestly, if I don't go on NCL again, it'll be because of all the side bs I read about. The food is good, rooms are nice, ships are gorgeous, service is good, ports of call are lovely...etc. But, it seems like cruiselines can be shady af. Like put the mafia days in Vegas to shame shady. Like, not the kind of shady I'm OK with.

 

NCL is known to be an outlier here. They intentionally make it difficult to find information about tips and make it difficult to remove them. Speaking from experience with close friends, lines like RCL and Carnival definitely share and allocate the tips. They are much more transparent.

Here are a couple reference articles for people in this thread that are interested.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=298

https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article191863039.html

 

@GOLFCADDY1

This is from Royal’s website in the Q & A section:

What is Royal Caribbean's service gratuities (tips) price and policy?

The automatic service gratuity is $14.50 USD per person, per day for guests in Junior Suites and below, or $17.50 USD per person, per day for guests in Grand Suites and above, applied to each guest’s SeaPass account on a daily basis. The gratuity applies to individual guests of all ages and stateroom categories. As a way to reward our crew members for their outstanding service, gratuities are shared among dining, bar & culinary services staff, stateroom attendants and other hotel services teams who work behind the scenes to enhance the cruise experience.

In the unlikely event that a guest onboard being charged the daily automatic gratuity does not receive satisfactory service, the guest may request to modify the daily amount at their discretion by visiting Guest Services onboard and will be able to do so until the morning of their departure. Guests who have pre-paid their gratuity will not see a daily charge during their cruise.

The automatic daily gratuity is based on customary industry standards. Applying this charge automatically helps streamline the recognition process for the crew members that work to enhance your cruise. We hope you find the gratuity to be an accurate reflection of your satisfaction and thank you for your generous recognition of our staff.

A 18% gratuity is automatically added to all beverages, mini bar items, and spa & salon purchases.

Guests can pre-pay gratuities by calling 866-562-7625 or logging into www.royalcaribbean.com before* their sailing. For guests booked through travel advisors, their advisor may add pre-paid gratuities to the guests' booking prior to sailing*. If gratuities are not prepaid prior to sailing, they will be automatically added to the guests’ folios once onboard.

*Pre-paid gratuities can be added to an individual reservation at any time outside of 48 hours of the sail date.

...........................................................


I sail RCI fairly often. I find that paying the daily gratuity is easier than trying to tip everyone you encounter that you consider worthy of a tip (if you are a tipper) in addition to it covering folks behind the scenes that you may never see but contribute to your enjoyment of the cruise. Some cruisers just don't want to tip at all either through daily gratuity or personal tipping.
I give an extra tip to my room steward as he/she is in my cabin twice a day or more and does extra little things that I appreciate plus I tip my dinner server since I request the same table every evening unless specialty dining.
Personal tipping is a choice, not a requirement.

I would prefer more cruise lines just roll the gratuities into the cost of the cruise, but they choose this method. I also think cruise lines do pass these gratuities to selected staff-as they state. Because I have read stories to the contrary, I have been bold enough to ask some room stewards if those gratuities are passed on to them and have been told yes, but coded differently from wages. This is just what I have been told.

Speak to Guest Relations if you choose to do it differently. They will work with you.

Enjoy your cruise! (We are sailing on RCI’s Harmony of the Seas in September, the largest cruise ship in the world, at the moment, lol!!)

 

Thanks to all who responded to my questions on tips. My cruise to Havana was cancelled but the new port will be Nassau. Oh well maybe the USA state department will allow Americans to Cuba in the future. I was looking forward to the classic cars on the island of Cuba. This will be my first cruise so I can still take it off my bucket list. GOLFCADDY1

 

I am sorry you are missing Cuba - we went there last month and it was fascinating.... however, if you were booked with NCL you got a great offer! My neighbors were scheduled to go to Cuba next week on NCL - they are so happy with the offer they received.

 

Been on a few NCL cruises, last summer I successfully had the auto gratuities taken off the bill. I do have to stress that I tip everyone in cash so not like I was looking to stiff someone. I pay big bucks to take a cruise, shouldn't be my responsibility to pay extra money for the towel washers or the guy that cuts the limes in the back of the house cause the cruise line doesn't wan't to pay them a higher salary.

I went to the front desk the last night of the cruise and they had a form for me to fill out. It said did you encounter a problem I wrote no I tip everyone that serves me on a cruise in cash. Restaurant server, tip them in cash. Bartender cash tips. Room attendant, generous tip when we get on the ship and last night of the cruise another generous tip. Spa attendant gets cash tip. Wrote the same thing on all 3 questions and they took the $400 something dollars off the bill.

Took all of 5 mins.