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Be sure to join my email list for my best cruise tips and handpicked deals each week. So, if you do have any issues, you should head to Guest Services as early in your cruise as you can, so that things can be put right for you before it affects the rest of your cruise. This slip of paper below, shows how the gratuities are broken down between the various crew members.
You SHOULD know what gratuities cover
So, don’t pay the gratuities in advance and wait for the onboard credit to be applied. So, if you don’t have a credit card, then you should prepay your gratuities to avoid running out of money in your bank account or having to carry a lot of cash. You can usually pay your gratuities in advance of your cruise, or choose to receive a bill on the last day of your cruise.
Make A Short Trip Feel Long
If you are adjusting a gratuity charge downward, expect to be asked about the reasons behind the adjustment. The guest relations staff will want to know if you've experienced particular service issues. Before that, in 2015 RCI upped its gratuities from US$12 to USD 12,95 (standard cabins) and from US$14,25 to US$15,95 (suites). While you can purchase packages once onboard, the cost may be significantly higher than what you could have booked ahead of time. Plus, because you can cancel add-ons for a full refund up to 48 hours before your sailing, you have flexibility in case you change your mind on these purchases later on. In 2022, for example, I booked the cheapest Alaska cruise I could find on Radiance of the Seas.
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Are Gratuities Included In Off-Ship Excursions Organized By Royal Caribbean Cruises?
Instead, consider a hotel near the airport so you can simply land and head straight to bed. For those arriving earlier in the day, though, it’s worth it to find a hotel downtown for easy access to tourist sites. Hopefully, if you have an Alaska cruise booked this summer, you’ve already booked your airfare to and from the cruise port. If you have not done so yet, we recommend booking flights as soon as possible. Search for shore excursions on websites like GetYourGuide.com and ShoreExcursionsGroup.com, and compare them to what you see on Royal Caribbean’s Cruise Planner. If prices are lower, or if there’s availability on a tour that’s sold out on the Cruise Planner, there’s no harm in booking through a third party.
And the only thing that’s consistent is that there are a lot of arguments about what the right amount should be. So if you want your Royal Genie to be recognised for their service, then you’ll need to pay extra. Firstly, it’s important to be clear that tipping a Royal Genie is completely at your discretion – you are not officially expected to, nor is there an official recommended tip amount. Elizabeth graduated from New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute with her M.A. Growing up, she had the privilege of traveling frequently with her family and fell in love with cruising after sailing on the Oasis of the Seas her freshman year of high school. She wanted to pursue a career that highlighted her passion for travel and strengths as a writer.
GOING TO PERFECT DAY AT COCOCAY?
If you manage to get time off, whether paid or unpaid, you can make your trip happen. If you're traveling with a partner, however, or with school-age children, you'll need to do more preparation. You can also choose to take a cruise if you only have a long weekend or holiday weekend available. There are many cruises (especially to the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Coast of Mexico) that last three or four days. Whether over a holiday weekend, such as Memorial Day or Labor Day, or because of a "summer Friday," this can be plenty of time to get away. While it is at your own discretion, every post I’ve seen on the topic of Royal Genie tipping in cruise forums says that people leave some form of tip for their Royal Genie.
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Some jobs may also let you work on a company holiday and use that time off on another date that fits better into your vacation plans. We’ve tapped the experts who know cruising best, from crew members and captains to the heads of entertainment and dining. They come from nearly every corner of the world and have experienced every ship and hundreds of destinations. They also have the insider tips to match, so that you can make the most of everything that’ll be at your fingertips. Royal Genies won’t get a share of the gratuities that are included as part of your fare, so it’s definitely worth leaving them something as a thank you.
In addition to this, an 18% gratuity is automatically added to all drinks, spa and salon services. Stick to automated tipping, which can be prepaid upfront before your sailing or applied to your cruise account as a daily or cumulative fee. If you feel that this automated service charge should be adjusted -- either increased or decreased -- you should make the request with guest services toward the end of the cruise. As such, on nearly all big-ship lines -- like Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian -- crewmembers are dependent upon the generosity of travelers for a good portion of their income. The cruise lines' rationale for this compensation model -- whether or not you agree with it -- is that tips help incentivize higher service standards. And, of course, the cruise companies are all too happy to keep their cruises' prices down by passing off salary costs as added gratuities tacked on to your bill.
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AND AWARD-WINNING SHIPS
If you booked with Royal Caribbean directly, your best bet is to call or access your account online to prepay gratuities. To ensure a smooth boarding day, we issue baggage tags and instructions electronically ahead of your sailing through The Royal Guest eDocs. They are ship- specific and include your sailing date, stateroom and deck number. To expedite your check-in at the port, we recommend securing your luggage tags before you leave your house. If you have misplaced your tags, Royal Caribbean Porters at the pier have additional generic tags available for your convenience.
Certain onboard purchases are subject to an 18% gratuity on top of the listed price, including beverages, mini bar items, and spa and salon purchases. It’s customary to tip your shore excursion tour leader, driver, and guides, so don’t forget to bring cash with you in port. Most passengers tip their guides between $5-10, but there is no right or wrong amount to tip on a shore excursion.
Gratuities are a hot topic among those who love to cruise, especially on mainstream lines like Royal Caribbean where they are automatically charged to your account but aren’t included in the cruise fare. Therefore, for a 7-night cruise, you will pay $126 per person for gratuities in a standard cabin and $143.50 per person in a suite. It’s important to account for gratuities when budgeting for a Royal Caribbean cruise. When sailing with a family of four on a 7-night cruise, gratuities can add nearly $500 on top of your cruise fare.
It’s using the old figures from before the price increase, but you get the idea. Gratuities on Royal Caribbean cruises play a crucial role in supplementing the income of the crew. Such feedback is valued and can positively impact the crew member’s career and recognition on board. But rest assured that you’ve already tipped appropriately through the automatic gratuities. Lines that now cover gratuities in their fares include Azamara, Ponant, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours, Seabourn, SeaDream Yacht Club, Silversea Cruises and Virgin Voyages.
Tipping beyond that is certainly not expected, but it’s always appreciated if you do. Prior to this, the $16.00 daily rate for standard cabins was broken up by $3.55 going to your cabin steward, $5.95 going to dining staff, and $6.50 to other hotel-related services. If you get some free onboard credit as an incentive when you book your cruise, then you can use this to pay your gratuities.
Keep in mind that there are some services provided by non-cruise staffers for which tips should also be paid out of pocket -- this extends to port-side baggage handlers or shore excursion tour operators. If you leave the service charge on your room bill, you are not expected to leave additional cruise tips for your room attendant or waiters. That said, if you want to, you can often adjust the charges (either up or down) while you're on board by visiting the guest relations desk.
Learn more about Linken’s one-of-a-kind role and many of the dining experiences his team has dreamt up here. Remember that this is a cruise line salary, which means there are certain expenses the Royal Genies don’t have to worry about – namely accommodation and food. They’re included for free and so the $25,000 will stretch a lot further than it would if it was a salary on land. While the figure is not officially published, it’s believed that a Royal Genie on Royal Caribbean earns around $2,500 per month before tips. Their contracts tend to last for five months, with a month’s break, giving Genies an annual salary of $25,000 if they work two contracts. A lot of people specifically say that they base their tips on how much they’ve used the Royal Genie.
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