tillymint

We are sailing with RCL Anthem of the Seas in May and are confused as to who and how do you pay gratuities as they now have 18 different restaurants. This will be our 10th cruise with RCL so we know the procedure and in the past have paid in advance. We usually do set dining same time, table and people and as I am dairy free would choose my meal for the following day to give the chef time to prepare something. We will not be booking any restaurants in advance of sailing as I need to check the menus first. I am thinking we maybe spending more time in the buffet less stress for me. So my question is who exactly gets the gratuities apart from the cabin steward and it looks as though if you don't pay in advance it will be automatically be added to your account before leaving.

Dayenu

It's the best to pay auto-gratuities as the personnel must turn the required amount in the money pool. Only what you give above it (and only if you wish) they are allowed to keep.

Cabin steward, waiters, cooks, laundry employees - they all share the tips.

It's not like a restaurant on land where you add tips to the payments. You don't do it on a cruise.

mlgb

They now have special restaurants where there is either a booking fee or a la carte pricing. But I think your tips get included on a per person charge, other than for extra drinks where they add 18%.

I'm sure there is someone on CruiseCritic that has been on Anthem and can say exactly how it works.

BTW I would try to make the reservations in advance. If you wait chances are you won't have any choice at all. Better to reserve and then try to change if you have a problem.

I understand Dynamic Dining is a not popular and they said on our Legend cruise that they are delaying more ships taking it on until it is refined.

NoFlyZone

Just got off the Allure of the Seas on Sunday and it seems like almost everything is common across all ships in their fleet.

They automatically will charge $12 a day to each person for tips which covers cabin steward, F&B, others. (Something like $18 a day for those in suites.)

For everything that you purchase on board (drinks, trinkets, etc.) you get a receipt like a credit card receipt and can add an optional tip on to that. This is where you would write in the recommended 18% tip for drinks for example. If on a prepaid beverage plan the receipt comes out as $0 but since that plan already charges you the 18% just draw a line through the tip line unless you actually want to pay an additional tip.

At the end of the trip envelopes are left in your cabin so you can give additional $ to whoever you wish.

The Anytime Dining (aka Dynamic?) was extremely popular on our sailing and they were turning people away at the door. The entry procedure does need to be improved, however.

The restaurants will know the next day's menu at least a day in advance so should be able to go day by day for selection. Just ask a waiter for the menu.

mlgb

Possibly they were turning people away at the door because they hadn't made reservations?

On the Legend they shove you into MyTime Dining (which is different, I know), the fixed dining times get taken up well in advance for people with the ability to make their reservations online ahead of time. Not all cabin/passenger tiers qualify for that.

We had a terrible waiter the first night in the Main Dining Room after a 20 minute wait to be seated (with reservations). Only after the Norovirus struck and they put lamb on the menu did I venture back into the dining room. Improved the seating availability for the 5:30 pm times and a much, much better waiter.

NoFlyZone

>Possibly they were turning people away at the door because they hadn't made reservations?

Exactly what happened. The first night we didn't know we had to make reservations in addition to having the anytime dining on our cards. Some crew person offered us 50% off the cover charge to go to one of the specialty restaurants, which we gladly did.

After that we reserved, for later in the evening, and never had a problem although others were still being turned away. I don't know if they oversold the plan or whether people just turned up at bad times. But not well managed in the aggregate.

Cathinjoetown

Look at all bills carefully before adding a tip. On Cunard and Celebrity, 18.5% is added to all drinks orders, alcoholic or non, in all restaurants also for all services in the spa. Of course you can add an optional tip if you wish, but imo, 18.5% is generous in most cases.

doug_stallings

Neither Anthem nor Quantum have any set dining times. It's all "Dynamic Dining" where you are on your own to make reservations throughout the cruise. Some restaurants charge extra, some do not. But the gratuities on these ships (just like on NCL) are added per day and aren't broken down by function. That's done behind the scenes.