Royal Caribbean Moving To Automatic Tipping
 

I just received the following e-mail:

Dear David,

We look forward to welcoming you onboard for your upcoming Royal Caribbean International cruise vacation!

As you prepare to set sail, we wanted to notify you of a change to our gratuity policy. As of March 1, 2013, Royal Caribbean will add an automatic daily gratuity of $12.00 USD ($14.25 USD for Suite guests) to the onboard account of each guest to be shared by Dining Services Staff, Stateroom Attendants and Other Housekeeping Services Personnel that work to enhance your cruise. This gratuity replaces our previously recommended gratuity guidelines.

If you have already prepaid gratuities for your upcoming cruise, this policy change will not affect you. Accordingly, we will not apply the daily gratuity to your account while you are onboard. If you have not prepaid your gratuities, you will see the daily automatic gratuity applied to your onboard SeaPass account during your upcoming cruise.

Please contact your travel agent with any questions and thank you for choosing to cruise with us.

Sincerely,

Royal Caribbean International

We are taking our first RC cruise in April. We prepaid our gratuities when we booked the cruise. I like the prepay policy. It just seems to make it so much easier to me.

GOOD

It is about time. It really was getting old with envelopes and having to go to guest services to let them know "how" you wanted to tip.

I know a number of people will miss it but I won't be one of them.

Take care,
Mike

It just makes sense to me and makes it a lot easier. God knows the staff deserve it!
My question though is if you go to a speciality restaurant, do you additionally tip too?

We will be doing our first RCI cruise this year ,interesting to know.

Not necessary. The cover charge for the specialty dining venues includes the tip.

Tipping in Specialty Restaurant
 

That's true, but I've never been sure who actually got the included gratuity. So, I always leave a $10 bill. If we're using the BOGO coupon (at Chops), that's two very nice meals for $40. Hard to get that around here. I do the same at Portofino.

I don't have a problem with auto tipping. Makes it simple and you know your cost upfront. Regardless if u eat in dining room every night; the wait staff was depending on you to show up. The housekeeping staff are normally worth their weight and go above and beyond to keep everything tidy in your stateroom.

This policy is fine with me also. On our last cruise (December '12) RCI had already done away with the Envelops. We always prepay our gratuities so all we received was a letter from the purser stating that this is the new paperless tipping. No vouchers and no envelops. On our last night the staff knew who tipped and they thanked us. I see they modified this paperless policy too. That's fine.

I forgot to add, envelops were available for those who wanted to tip a little extra for excellent service.

I like prepaying. The less I spend ON the cruise the better. I also like to be able to tip a little more to those who do something special for us or make our cruise more enjoyable. Having been waiter at one time I know how a little extra to go a long way!

While I did enjoy handing out the envelopes I think this is a good move. It still does not prevent you from giving someone a little extra when they deserve it.

I just prepay when I book as well. Who want's to deal with the charges? Not me! :)

My DW and I have been sailing Princess since 2008 and that is the way Princess does the gratuities on their ships. We normally give additional to those staff members who have served us well.

I am used to this on my Princess sailings. I was suprised that I had to pay up front when I booked my upcoming cruise on the Explorer due to my time dining.

I'm happy they not only went paperless but upped the amount a bit. I started bringing little thank you notes a while back and use them for additional cash tips and the chance to say specifically what I appreciated.