The two common rationales for not prepaying are if you have a substantial amount of onboard credit that could offset your SeaPass account charges, or if you prefer to give crew members their automatic gratuity rate in cash. Why wouldnt they have the limit at $13 or do I have incorrect info? MIAMI - February 13, 2023 - Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) (the "Company") today announced that it has closed its private offering of $700 million aggregate principal amount of 7.250% . If you get free gratuities thrown in as an incentive for booking a cruise, then these will be automatically prepaid. While the name sounds fancy, gratuities are nothing more than a tip paid to the staff members for service during the cruise. Hi Rebecca. Gratuities on Royal Caribbean are obligatory, so it is a matter of when you prefer to pay them. From the passenger perspective, the gratuity amount is simple pay a set amount per person, per day, and be done. For the best price, you should always book your drinks package in advance before your cruise and not wait until you get on board the ship. Royal Caribbean Beverage Package Calculator: Instructions and Explanations . Waiting until the end of your cruise will give you a few more paydays to save up the money. 15 Ways To Use Your Royal Caribbean Onboard Credit. This happens regularly for passengers feeling generous or thankful for the staffs work during their trip. On my last Royal Caribbean cruise on Anthem of the Seas, it was a seven-night cruise from Southampton so I didnt get a drinks package. How much is the Royal Caribbean drink package? In the unlikely event that a guest onboard being charged the daily automatic tip 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. This will reduce the overall balance you have available to spend. Do we need separate soft drinks packages for the kids or can they share ours? Cruise lines rarely use the word free, instead they use included. Hello we r doing a three night cruise out of Brisbane in November. I had it on a 4-night cruise. Here are the policies for major cruise lines at the moment: When you book your cruise, the gratuity amount is usually disclosed in full for your trip, with an option to prepay the amount with your cruise fare. Cheers. Do you know the difference in the tea? Example pool vs Bamboo. Jenni. You can then compare this total with the exact price of the drinks package for your cruise (shown on your Royal Caribbean cruise planner) to easily work out whether the drinks package is worth it or not. We nearly always opt out of tips and tip whom we want directly. Theres not a time limit between drinks with Royal Caribbean, but you can only order one drink per person at a time. You can usually pay your gratuities in advance of your cruise, or choose to receive a bill on the last day of your cruise. We want the people who earned the tip to receive, not the lousy,greedy, uninvolved government! Doing this is a good way to ensure that youre served first next time! How many of each do you think you'll have a day? Be aware that when you sign the receipt there will be another line for an additional tip. The automatic tip is USD 16.00 USD, or USD 18.50 USD for suite guests, applied to each guests SeaPass account on a daily basis. Do Royal Caribbean offer drink packages on three night cruises? Select the number of nights for the cruise, from a minimum of two nights to a maximum of thirty nights. To save you the headache, Ive created a handy tool that does the maths for you. Other major cruise lines already increased their gratuities this year. The gratuity applies to individual guests of all ages . My two sons are coming on the cruise with me. Australians typically do not tip because the minimum wage in Australia is $20.33 AUD/hr ($14.56 USD/hr). Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Hi Sue. You simply pay this extra amount in full for your cruise as part of your cruise fare. Thank you in advance. Rather than guests tipping each member of staff, Royal Caribbean charges a set fee per day to reward crew members for their service. Other than that, your gratuity charges cover the housekeeping and dining staff. Wines are available to purchase by the bottle. There are several places where youll find free drinks during your Royal Caribbean cruise. Gone are the days of simply slipping a waiter some cash or leaving a couple of bills for the room steward at the end of your trip (although you can still do that if you want). Suite gratuity rate will change from $17.50 to $18.50 per day per person. There are pros and cons to paying your gratuities before or after your cruise, and its very much a personal choice. Jenni. Hi, I'm Jenni. If gratuities show on our account when we settle at cruise end, we ask for them to be removed. You may get reduced kids prices, included drinks or free gratuities. For guests that like to budget their vacations and spread out the total cost of the cruise, this is a popular choice. We offer you this handy calculator tool for determining the appropriate gratuities for the crew members that help make your Disney cruise magical. Keep in mind that Royal Caribbean generally requires that if one adult purchases the Deluxe package, that all other adults over the age of 21 traveling in the same cabin purchase the Deluxe package; this requirement may be waived if you contact Royal Caribbean, explain the other adult(s) does not consume alcohol, and request to downgrade the additional package to Refreshment. We were exploring ports almost every day. These are: Some drinks are free all the time. Good luck! *Please see all applicable Terms & Conditions for Promotions. Without your contribution, the compensation for the staff members will decrease. Typical increases are around $1 per person, per day and seem to happen about once a year. Meanwhile, cruise fares are often shown as dirt-cheap prices. Classic Soda Package. Their offerings range from classics like a mojito to daiquiri to new takes on traditional cocktails, like a New Fashioned at the Schooner . At the end of your cruise, youll receive an envelope that you can use to give extra cash tips if you wish. February 11, 2023 Randy Young Bar Menu, drink package, Royal Caribbean. So the longer the cruise, the higher the gratuities as well. The default mandatory gratuity of 18% can be adjusted to account for increases or decreases. Size of travel cots? As a way to reward our crew members for their outstanding service, tips are shared between dining,bar& culinary services staff, stateroom attendants and other hotel services teams who work behind the scenes to enhance the cruise experience. So you cant get the Royal Cribbean alcohol package for one person and the soft drink package for another. With millions of passengers sailing every year, theres inevitably going to be someone who feels they received poor service. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 20 cruises. We hope you find the gratuity to be an accurate reflection of your satisfaction and thank you for your generous recognition of our staff. Applying this charge automatically helps to streamline the recognition process for the crew members that work to enhance your cruise. Could you please tell me how I can improve it? ? My hubby-to-be is a non-drinker and he would only want the refreshment package. I was drinking a Rusty Nail on my last cruise and thats a drink small enough where the bartender poured me doubles to keep me from coming back so much. RCCL currently applies an automatic gratuity amount on your onboard account, on a daily basis. One of the benefits of a drinks package is that if you dont like a drink you dont have to drink it. Im sure intentionally just over the 12.00 limit for the ultimate drink package. So well have to pay the difference of $1 on almost every drink. If tips are not required, do their supervisors know about this up charge? Does the deluxe drink package include adding items to your mini bar? That seems pretty good to me. The good thing for passengers about automatic gratuities is that this breakdown is done automatically by the cruise line instead of having to give tips to several different staff members at the end of your cruise. After that, you can cancel it when you first embark on the ship, but no later. I am considering the deluxe drink package for us both but I am a little concerned that most fun drinks on the menus cost $13 and the limit is $12. In the formula, the values are the following. Just for comparison, by the old RCCL tipping guidelines, the Royal Caribbean suggested tips/gratuities were a total of USD 11,65 per day per passenger (respectively USD 13,90 for suite passengers) and also guests could pay onboard either in cash or via their shipboard account. If you are experiencing blank or invalid results, try refreshing your browser. Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. Royal Caribbean stipulates 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 up until the morning of their departure. Thanks bunches for this. Daily gratuities: Junior suites or below - $14.50 p.p. Whipped cream etc. For guests staying in Grand Suites and above, the fee is $18.50 per person, per day. Royal Caribbean drinks package: Is it worth it? These drinks are included in your drink package, which is great, as on MSC Cruises ships, drinks made by the MSC robotic bartender are not. These vouchers expire on the same night that they are issued. Great blog exactly the sort of information I was looking for to make in informed decision. Take your pick of 7 world-class ships sailing weeklong adventures to the top-rated shores of the western, eastern, & southern Caribbean. Sterilisers? Some people like to remove the gratuities and tip staff members individually. But RCCL wants to charge $448. What do you do about the porters at the ports. You can opt into prepaying gratuities at any time, up to 48 hours prior to your sail date. Pre-existing bookings confirmed prior to September 7th , 2022 will not be subject to the increased guidelines as long as gratuities are paid in advance of sailing. Im guessing it does not? Royal Caribbean gratuities for infants may seem high, but when you think about it, the crew members do a lot of work for each baby, perhaps even more than for an adult. The automatic daily gratuity is based on customary industry standards. 2023 Cruzely.com | Laisman Publishing, LLC. Take a look: Royal Caribbean drinks menus with prices. Having to add in gratuity costs to these advertised rates could make them less attractive to potential cruisers. Hi Carmen. Hi, I have harmony of the seas booked for next may but when I have tried to book a drinks package there is no option for this. This occurs in the Australian cruise market. In fact, there are a couple of instances where paying additional gratuity is recommended or automatic. Feb 23. On or after September 7, 2022, regardless of when the booking was created, gratuities paid while onboard are subject to the new, increased rates. Thats just one of the ways that people try to cheat. If you have the Deluxe Beverage Package, youll get a 40% discount on bottled wines priced up to $100 and a 20% discount on wines priced over $100. I have a question about the free drinks thoughcan we bring our own reusable water bottles to fill them up with the free lemonade/ice tea or are cups readily available for us to use? It was quite good to fill up and take off the ship with me. The staff isnt likely to treat you any differently or even know that you arent tipping (after all, some people still like to pay cash at the end of the cruise). Instead of one passenger paying a lot and another paying hardly anything, these set amounts ensure that everyone pays their fair share. Royal Caribbean does not require guests under the legal drinking age to buy any kind of drinks package. The advantage is that you get your payment out of the way ahead of time. The tip applies to individual guests of all ages and stateroom categories. Use the Royal Caribbean Beverage Package Calculator to determine the most cost-effective beverage package to purchase for a cruise, based on anticipated beverage consumption/habits and pricing. So the $99 per day package is free, but you are charged about $20 per day still for the drink package gratuities. Share. I'm so sorry that this post wasn't useful for you! If youd like to calculate exactly what your gratuity amount will be before you book your trip, then you can use our calculator here, many people choose to instead pay the gratuity charges automatically through their onboard account once on the ship, 39 Useful Things to Pack (17 You Wouldn't Think Of), Park & Cruise Hotels for Every Port in America, 107 Best Cruise Tips, Secrets, Tricks, and Freebies, Carnival Gratuities (Tips): Full Guide to Cost & How They Work, Explained: Duty-Free Shopping on a Cruise (Is It Worth It? 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. On certain cruises, Royal Caribbean requires that gratuities are prepaid to be able to request MyTime dining. Extremely helpful esp0ecially about tipping and what to do. Finally, if you order anything from room service, then its expected that you give a couple of bucks to the staff member that delivers the food. We have two kids. Do you know about when you'd like to sail? Royal Caribbean will be raising its automatic daily gratuity amountthat guests pay night of their cruise beginning on, Royal Caribbean offers guests the choice of prepaying gratuities for select crew members on its ships. Royal Caribbean last increased gratuities in 2018 and, before that, was in 2016. Thanks for all the great info. If thats the case and you decide you want to change the amount you are charged for tips then you can do that. They also do not include the charge for special souvenir or commemorative beverage containers. Royal Caribbean Cruises Tipping Policy. Plus, as we were sailing from the UK it was easy to bring our own wine and cans of pop on board so we didnt need to buy many drinks on the ship. Is a drink package worth it for you? Be the first to rate this post. I think these amounts are reasonable. They scan your bags. On top of what I already paid for the two unlimited packages? You can expect to pay about $15-$20 per person, per day. This may be a Kids Sail Free offer, free gratuities or buy one cruise fare get one half price. Is is possible to buy the package for less days than those of your cruise? Have our travel agency partner get you a free quote for a Royal Caribbean cruise. Hi Jose. Any frozen drinks too without the alcohol. You definitely dont need a drinks package. Use this section of the Royal Caribbean Beverage Package Calculator to enter information about anticipated beverage consumption and pricing information. ), I have just updated this post as the gratuity on Royal Caribbeans drinks packages is now 18% for 2021. That said, some cruise lines make exceptions for small kids. When you log into Royal Caribbeans cruise planner, look out for special offers like this one. Under certain circumstances, you may be able to buy the Deluxe Beverage Package for one guest and the Refreshment Package for another guest. There are two good reasons to prepay gratuities before your cruise. If you have a package, gratuities are already included in that, you wont pay any more per drink. The vast majority of passengers are charged these tips, no matter if they are young, old, have special requests, eat in the main dining room, or only hit the buffet. Kids Sail Free Guest 12 & under SAIL FREE: (select 3 night or longer sailings) Extra Instant Savings up to $650 Instant Savings: per stateroom on select sailings & categories. For example, a family of four who is taking a seven-night cruise would owe $406 for gratuities. N/n. When this opted into by the guest, then you'll pay the full gratuity amount before the cruise begins at final payment date. The previous Suite gratuity rate of $17.50 will increase to $18.50 per day per person. Let me know in the comments below. Norwegian Cruise Lines doesnt charge gratuities for kids under three. The tips are spread out between the room steward, dining staff, and others. Depending on your cruise line, you might find different language used than the word gratuities. Weve seen these charges called tips, gratuities, crew incentives, or service charges. Our goal has been to provide our readers with expansive coverage of all aspects of the Royal Caribbean experience. Again, this normally runs around 18%, but can range from 15% to 20%, depending on the cruise line. Click the button above to compare the prices of cruises from all travel agents. In this case, you can simply choose to have them lumped in with your cruise fare, paying them all at once. Dont do this. My gf is a big tea drinker and is considering the package purely for that. Additionally, an 18% gratuity is added to bills at bars, minibars, salons and spas. My husband and i are going on our first cruise later this spring and bought a deluxe package. They are often expressed as the rate for a single person (despite having to pay for double occupancy) and dont include port fees or taxes. What should I do to highlight this so as not to embarrass him on board. Lets say the drinks package costs an average of $75 per day. I hope that helps, enjoy your cruise! This information is brill thanks. I have a question Ive not seen answered. I have some tips for you here: https://www.cruisemummy.co.uk/taking-a-baby-on-a-cruise-ship/ Jenni, Many thanks, very useful. I believe so, yes. Can I put them into the fridge and save vor excursions? When you book your cruise, youll be given the opportunity to prepay the gratuities. If you dont have a credit card, then youll need to link a debit card to your onboard account, or deposit cash. Just enter your email address below and youll receive a link to it in your inbox asap. Royal Caribbeans Crown & Anchor Society awards loyalty points for every night that guests spend on-board Royal Caribbean ships. The advantage here is that you get to hold on to more of your money for longer. The number of nights affects the total cost of beverage packages. Royal Caribbean offers a choice of three all-inclusive drinks packages: Royal Caribbeans alcohol drinks package includes: Royal Caribbeans non-alcoholic drinks package includes: The Classic Soda Packages comes with a refillable souvenir cup which you can use at self-service machines across the ship. We had a short four-night cruise to Royal Caribbeans private island, Perfect Day at CocoCay, in the Bahamas. Norwegian just raised its gratuity rate to $16 from $15.50 in April. Royal Caribbean is a trademark of Royal Caribbean Group. As far as your trip, likely very little. Thank you! We use prepaid drink cards to purchase beverages. If a drink is over 12 Dollars to I have the entire price or just the difference. If youve never cruised, then there is no doubt that these questions and more might be floating through your head. Note that if you live in the UK, youll see your drink packages prices in GBP on the Cruise Planner. Prepaying gratuities before your cruise means you pay off that balance early, instead of accruing a higher balance that is owed at the end of the cruise. Passengers would then put cash in the envelope for the crew members. This section of the Royal Caribbean Beverage Package Calculator advises you of the most cost-effective beverage package given your anticipated beverage consumption and pricing inputs. Guests that booked through a travel agent can request their agent add pre-paid gratuities to the guests' booking prior to sailing. Here's how it works on Royal Caribbean: As of September 7 th, 2022, the automatic service gratuity of $16.00 USD per . Free Dining Offer FREE SPECIALTY DINING for 2: on select categories, ships and sail dates. Royal Caribbean offers a discount when you pre-book your drinks package on the cruise planner before you sail. Hi, I would Like to know something. Bottom line is that it comes down to personal preference. Whilst it was nice to be able to fill up my drink from the machine, I didnt like that I had to carry the cup everywhere with me. The calculator will add the mandatory gratuity to the package cost in its calculations. Tipping is out of control everywhere. This equates to: Obviously, if you like to drink cocktails, it will be much easier to break even than if you drink beers and soft drinks. This is extremely helpful. Its not a great idea to link a debit card to your cruise account because Royal Caribbean will place a hold on some of the money. So Im booked and considering the drinks package. As a thanks for their service, its customary to provide a tip. Whilst you could easily drink five cocktails by the pool and then a couple of glasses of wine in the evening on a sea day, how much would you drink if you were off the ship from 9 am until 6 pm most days? All rights reserved. You would think that paying a hefty daily tip would cover everyone on the ship. Ill be cruising in November on Oasis of the Seas. So do you have to buy a drink package for every day of your trip or can you buy for just 3 days of your trip. Pre-paid gratuities can be added to an individual reservation at any time outside of 48 hours of the sail date. The cruise line collects the tips and then distributes them accordingly. A daily automatic gratuity rate of$16.00 USD per person, per day for guests in Junior Suites and below, or $18.50 USD per person, per day for guests in Grand Suites and above, is applied to each guests SeaPass account on a daily basis. Theres little doubt that the extra tips can be expensive. Extra envelopes are available at guest services. Carnival made changes to its rates in May: Standard staterooms: $14.50, per person, per day (up from $13.99) Suites: $16.50 . Percentage of cruisers that remove auto gratuities who tell everyone they tip in cash "to those who serve them": 100%. You are charged a set amount (the amount varies depending on the cruise line), per person, per day. A cruise which ordinarily costs 699 might go up to 999 with drinks included. Cruise gratuities are also known as tips. Then if I pay another $5 per person each day for room clean-up, thats another $140, for a total of $280. Coca-Cola (including diet, zero, caffeine-free and many different flavours like strawberry, cherry and lime), Fanta, Sprite and Dr Pepper (and zero versions), Powerade (and zero version), Vitamin water and Hi C, Barrys root beer and creme soda (and diet versions), Minute Maid orange and lemonade (and light versions), You cannot use a Coffee Card in Royal Caribbeans Starbucks cafes, Brewed coffee is always free from the Windjammer buffet, Specialty coffee is included in both the alcohol and no alcohol drink packages, On the first formal night of the cruise, attend the, Guests who have spent more than 30 nights at sea with Royal Caribbean (Platinum members and above) can attend a, Guests who have spent more than 80 nights at sea with Royal Caribbean (Diamond members and above) get free drinks between 5 pm and 8.30 pm for. In addition to this, an 18% gratuity is automatically added to all drinks, spa and salon services. We can take on wine and sift drinks ??. Here are the others: 4 Ways That People Cheat The Royal Caribbean Drink Package. For staff members that rely on these dollars, that can be a major blow. Norwegian Cruise Line also raised their gratuities in April, when they changed their rates: In July, Disney Cruise Line increased their gratuities to$14.50 per night, per person for standard rooms and $15.50 per night, per person for suite guests. Not sure if Id risk it though!

Life Tenant Not Maintaining Property, Austin Johnson Bemidji, A Flight Instructor Demonstrates Their Coaching Ability By, Mischievous Purple Metallic Mustang, Retirement Bungalows In Burnley, Articles R