A Royal Caribbean guest sparked a debate on TikTok after telling other cruise passengers to stop paying the cruise line’s automatic gratuities and tip workers directly in cash instead.
“Stop Paying Gratuity,” TikTok creator Melissa (@grayrosehome) wrote in the text overlay of her video, which got over 272,300 views.
What’s Wrong With Royal Caribbean’s Daily Gratuities?
“This is gonna blow your mind,” Melissa says. “It made me sick to my stomach.”
She explains that Royal Caribbean passengers can either prepay gratuities before the cruise or have them charged daily once they’re onboard.
“When I get on the ship, the first thing that I do is remove those gratuities,” she says. “Here is why.”
Melissa says she believes those automatic gratuities do not work the way many passengers think they do.
“Those gratuities supplement income,” she says.
According to Melissa, she recently spoke at length with a Royal Caribbean employee during a cruise. She says the worker told her he had signed a seven-month contract with the cruise line.
“Royal Caribbean says this is exactly what you’re going to get paid every month for the next seven months,” she explains.
She argues that automatic gratuities help Royal Caribbean meet that contracted amount, rather than acting as extra money on top of the worker’s pay.
“Based on how many people tip, like either whether you pay it ahead of time or you add it at the end, Royal Caribbean pays the difference,” she says.
Melissa says the worker they spoke to was a restaurant waiter who made $1,300 per month. At first, her husband assumed that meant per week.
“That’s a month,” she says. “Thirteen hundred dollars a month.”
She also says the employee works seven days a week, with one day off per month.
“One day off per month?” she says. “That’s terrible.”
Do Cash Tips Make More Sense?
Melissa makes it clear that she is not arguing passengers should stop tipping workers. Her point is the opposite. She says she would rather remove the automatic gratuity and give the money directly to employees in cash.
“When we go, we always tip cash,” she says.
On the cruise she was describing, Melissa says her family gave the waiter a $100 cash tip.
“He was so thankful,” she says. “He literally said, ‘You have made my week.'”
According to Melissa, the problem is that many passengers assume prepaid gratuities mean they have already taken care of the staff.
“A lot of people don’t cash tip because they think, oh well, we already paid our gratuities ahead of time,” she says.
She says the same applies to gratuities added to dining or drink packages. Royal Caribbean charges an 18% gratuity on those packages, but Melissa argues that passengers should not assume that means a specific worker is getting a bonus.
“That’s not a bonus for those people,” she says. “That’s just less Royal Caribbean has to pay.”
For her family of five, Melissa estimates they paid around $2,000 in gratuities.
“They don’t get that,” she says. “Royal Caribbean is basically using your $2,000 to help pay out employee contracts.”
Melissa says she would rather split that money among the people actually serving her family during the trip.
“I would rather take those $2,000 and in the 7 days split it amongst every server and give it to them cash,” she says.
That includes servers, room stewards, bartenders, and even employees she passes in the hallway.
“If you want to pass by someone in the hallway and just hand them$5 or $10, do that,” she says. “Use your money that way.”
Her Take Is Divisive
Melissa knows many people will disagree with her approach.
“Most of you are gonna hate me for what I’m about to say,” she says.
That is because removing gratuities on cruises is a touchy subject. Many passengers view it as stiffing workers, especially because the automatic charge is meant to be distributed among several service departments, including people passengers may not directly see.
Melissa, however, argues that direct cash tipping is better for the workers she personally interacts with.
“Tip those people in cash, please,” she says. “They get to keep every cash tip that they get.”
She thinks the cruise crew’s schedule is grueling. “To work them seven days a week for seven months, with one day off a month…ugh,” she concludes.
Is This True?
The answer is not completely clear.
Some cruise lines have publicized how they distribute gratuities among staff, but they don’t always clearly say whether that money is extra pay on top of a crew member’s contract or whether it helps make up the amount the worker was already promised.
According to Royal Caribbean, the company charges a daily gratuity of $21 for suite guests and $18.50 for all other guests. The cruise line says the gratuities are pooled and “applied toward the compensation of onboard crew members,” including dining, bar, culinary, stateroom, hotel services, and other crew members.
Guests can change this amount “by visiting the Guest Relations desk onboard at any time prior to the morning of disembarkation,” the company states.
From what workers report online, entry-level workers make somewhere around $1,200 to $2,200 per month, while room, board, and food are usually covered. However, many workers discussing their pay do not separate base salary from gratuity pay, which leaves some room for confusion.
There is also some legal history that supports Melissa’s concern. In one lawsuit against Royal Caribbean, a worker’s employment agreement said her “monthly guaranteed pay” was “inclusive of all gratuities provided by passengers.”
BroBible has reached out to Royal Caribbean via email for comment and to find out more about how they distribute gratuity.
@grayrosehome Stop paying gratuity when you cruise!! This might be a hot topic and lots of cruisers will hate me saying that but please watch this whole (long) video. #cruisegratuities #cruisetok #cruisetipsandtricks #royalcarribean
Commenters Were Split
In the comments section, viewers were divided on whether Melissa’s approach actually helps workers.
Some said they prefer to keep the automatic gratuities and still give extra cash to employees who go above and beyond.
“Last cruise, we prepaid, then tipped extra cash,” one commenter wrote. “We’re doing the same for this one coming up.”
Others argued that removing gratuities can hurt workers passengers never see.
“There are 100s of people behind the scenes on the boat that make your cruise happen that you can’t tip directly,” another said.
However, one viewer who claimed to have worked for Royal Caribbean backed up Melissa’s point.
“I worked for Royal Caribbean for 8 years,” they wrote. “This is 100% true. I would always pay cash directly if you can.”
Another commenter said the better move is to leave the automatic gratuity in place and tip extra in cash.
“If people remove their tips, Royal pays all of the employee salary… which means higher cost to cruise as a consumer,” they wrote. “The better way, is fully pay gratuity and then tip cash extra. People are so cheap sometimes.”
BroBible has reached out to Melissa via email for comment.