Can anyone tell me what the tipping policy is on Royal C? I've done Carnival and didn't care for the way they automatically deducted money for tips at cruise end. Does RC do the same, or can I tip as I see fit? Thanks.

You can do it either way. <BR><BR>They're Bi-tippial at RCCL.

They provide envelopes to leave money in at the end of your voyage, with tipping "guidelines". Or, you may put their pre-determined amounts on your credit card.

If you don't tip them they lose your luggage, forget to bring things to your room, and their service sucks.

Hi Norcci,<BR><BR>Crew members do not "get even" if you do not tip. Mainly because they do not know if you tip them until the end of the cruise or if it is pre-pay, long after you have gone home.<BR><BR>Just returned from dinner at a rather upscale restaurant. The bill came to $246.27. But, below that figure was the figure $290.60. I questioned the amount and was told that if a party is over five diners they add an 18% tip. They stated that our server should have mentioned this (which he didn't) and it was printed in the menu (which no one saw). Now THIS is a rip-off.<BR><BR>An associate, who offered to pay the tip, quickly put the money back in her pocketbook.<BR><BR>Paul

I'm not sure what Paul's point is about the land-based restaurant. Anyway, no worker on the ship will know if you will tip until after you have left the ship. Unless of course you give them cash in an envelope on the last day. Even then they can't manage to lose your luggage because they will not get that envelope until 8 am at the earliest on the day of departure, when your luggage has already begun to be unloaded.

I don't know where Paul lives, but many restaurants automatically add the tip onto the bill for larger parties. I don't find it so outrageous. Too many people in groups throw in the amount for their meal while conveniently forgetting about the tip.

Just returned from RCCI trip. You will be asked to give $24.50 per person to both your room steward and waiter plus $14 per person for the assistant waiter. Tipping the Head Waiter is discretionary. 15% will be added to all drink charges, including soft drinks. This is for a 7 day cruise. You will be advised on an almost daily basis that you can put these tips on your room charges to be paid by credit card along with all your other charges. This gives no flexability for amending the amount for either good or bad service. The other method is to use the envelopes left in your cabin on the last day of the cruise and hand them to your steward, waiter etc. personally. We once pre-paid our tips at the rate of $19 per person per day only to discover that the cruise line had changed its policy and had reduced the amount to $12. They were quite unable to amend our charges however and in fact tried to charge us the $12 per person per day as well. I must say that this was not RCCI.

When we went on very short RCCL cruise, they offered "helpful" suggestions in many media on how, when and how much to tip - printed in daily cruise newsletter, on closed-circuit TV channel in room, on little pamphlet placed in room.