Most of the time when I get asked a question here on the podcast or on the message boards at realcom. It's usually just a straightforward answer. Sometimes I'm like, well, I'm not sure or maybe this or that. But there are a few hot button topics that I just can't help but rant about. I mean, sometimes I try to hold back, but let's be real. I feel very strongly about them. And today I picked out those three rants. The three things I think every single time I'm asked about it, I'd have, first of all, no wishy-washy answer. And second of all, I have to either hold myself back from going all out or I just say, you know what, forget it. I'm going to give you my full thoughts on this and get up my soapbox.

And so these are the three things I'll always rant about on a Royal Caribbean cruise. Number one,

gratuities should always be part of the cruise fair. So Royal Caribbean still plays this game.

And it really bothers me that gratuities are, quote, unquote, optional. They don't include it in the cruiser, unless, of course, UCL from Australia or maybe some other country that includes them there, and I applaud them for doing that. So if you're from there, save the email, I understand. What I'm really talking about is like the rest of the world in which it's not included, and that's certainly here in the U.S., and a lot of European countries as well. And the issue I have with it is a couplefold. Number one, it's silly to think that it's not compulsory because it is. I mean, you're either getting charged to automatic gratuity or you can prepay the gratuities, right? I mean, yes, you could get on board the ship, ask them to remove the gratuities and not pay them at all. Real Caribbean would tell you that's not what you're supposed to do. I mean, really, the purpose of removing the gratuities on board the ship is that you can tip in cash instead. Like, you know, some people just prefer to have cash on them. They prefer to change the amounts, but, you know, you're expected still to tip those people you're supposed to tip with the automatic gratuities. So I think it's really silly that they still play this game, like gratuities are optional.

I mean, gratuities have, by all accounts, become just part of the overall cruisification cost.

And there's a lot of debate as to how the gratuities are actually distributed to crew members.

But at the very least, I think it's quite clear that it's just a de facto part of the cost.

In the same way that cruise fees, right, the port fees that you get assessed are now part of the cost.

And for a long time, they weren't, by the way.

It took a new law in California to force Royal Caribbean to change their practice,

isn't all the cruise lines for that matter, to start including the cruise port fees in addition to the cruise fair, meaning when you want to go, you know, look at the price at least. It was always charged to you, but the difference was, it was advertised. And I think it's time that, I think it's been time for a long time, that gratuities are just a line item in the cruise fair. Like, it should be like port fees, taxes, gratuities. That's it. Don't play this game of like, it's sort of like an optional cost. And to new cruisers, they really could be surprised when they get on board the ship. Hey, what's this charge I'm getting every single day? You'd be surprised, actually, how many people have no clue that it's a thing until they get on board. then of course you have you have the automatic gratuities for, like, purchase. I'm not talking about that. I mean, that already is automatic. I have no choice for that one. When I'm talking about the gratuities for the cruise fair, like, you know, for your state room attendant and the dining room staff. And what bothers me more so about this is how much Royal Caribbean says, and I believe them on this, by the way, that they support their crew members. You know, Michael Bailey, the CEO of the company, talks so often about how proud he is of crew members. He was a former crew member himself, worked his way up through the company. And, you know, when they talk about different days that celebrate crew members and occasions, they always do that. And I believe that

they're not, this is not just lip service. I really truly believe they feel this in their

heart of hearts. So I think it means something to them. And at the end of the day, when a crew member

is stiffed on a gratuity, it really does impact them negatively financially. And, you know,

we can have a larger debate about gratuities. I just think it should be part of the cruise fair because it just de facto is part of it. It's been this way for a long time. As long as I've been cruising, gratuities have been expected as part of it. Now, back in my day, when I first started cruising, gratuities were not automatic. They were part of the envelope system in which you got an envelope in which you still get by the way, but you got those envelopes. You put the money in the envelope and then you would have to awkwardly give it to the crew member. Then that became like tickets, like you prepaid them. He still gave them a little ticket like here. I already prepaid this so you know, redeem this at your nearest gratuity store um but you know now there's automatic it's all digital there is nothing else and

for me that's that's fine i mean i love that there's no more awkward exchanges like i thought

that was one of the best things they've done but even unless you prepay your gratuities right

you tell your travel agent i would like to prepay them they're going to show up in your C-Pass account later on during the cruise. So I think they should

just keep it on, like, just make it part of the cruise fair, the same way that port fees and taxes are. Now, there's a lot of conspiracy theories as to why they don't. I think chief among them, and I think there's truth to this, they don't want to add on to the total cost of the cruise,

meaning from an advertising standpoint, they say, hey, look, we've got a cruise for, you know, $1,999, right? It just sounds better than if they have to lump on the gratuities there as part of that. I'm also not sure about this next point, but I think it might be the case that if it is a line item, then it's taxable, and that's a different, that's a different issue altogether. I don't pretend to

understand that at all, but that might be true to some extent. But then again, I mean, you can prepay them, so I'm not sure why that would be different. But I digress. The point is, I think that it's gratuitity part of the cruise fair. I think everybody should be paying gratuities.

I think if you go to, if you, nobody should ever remove gratuities from your cruise altogether as a cost savings mechanism, meaning you get on board the ship on the last day or whatever you go to guest services, ask, take the gratuities off and don't pay them because you're trying to save some money, whether you simply want to reduce your vacation cost or you spent too much in other places, whatever the case may be,

...