Gratuities for an infant?

It is our understanding that Carnival will still charge the $10 per person per day for our infant as well. I was told by the PVP that we could very well deduct those at the end of cruise......I am just trying to figure out if it's truly justified for a child that's only 9 mos old.

We have to bring her drinks (formula), food (baby food in jars), and they don't entertain her, or anything. I do understand that they'll bring us a high chair, etc., but is that worth $10 per day?

I'm NOT trying to sound cheap because I do give extra to our cabin steward, and we give extra to our wait staff and Maitre'd (sp?). I am just trying to justify the gratuities for an infant.

Thanks for any input!

We have never taken off the tips for our girl. I would imagine you'll see during the cruise how much the staff does take care of your child. And remember with auto-tips that you're just not tipping one person, you're tipping the support staff behind that person.

Also remember, that if your child is counted toward the quantity of persons that your crew member is taking care of, your child is taking the place of another passenger.

Makes sense!

So what exactly will they be doing for my 9 month old? (that doesn't sound very nice when I read it....but there's no "tone" behind it!)

Thanks!

It is our understanding that Carnival will still charge the $10 per person per day for our infant as well. I was told by the PVP that we could very well deduct those at the end of cruise......I am just trying to figure out if it's truly justified for a child that's only 9 mos old.

 

We have to bring her drinks (formula), food (baby food in jars), and they don't entertain her, or anything. I do understand that they'll bring us a high chair, etc., but is that worth $10 per day?

 

I'm NOT trying to sound cheap because I do give extra to our cabin steward, and we give extra to our wait staff and Maitre'd (sp?). I am just trying to justify the gratuities for an infant.

 

Thanks for any input!

DS is 20 months old. He has taken 3 cruises. We do not tip the standard weekly rate for him. When he get's older, and has an impact in the room and the dining room, then we will tip for him. Right now he uses the pak n play and has a sitter every night.

We prefer to tip as we go. We tip room service for bringing his puree'd (now regular menu) food - which typically constitutes $2 per meal for the server, and about 2 room service calls per day. The babysitter gets $10 an hour for 3 hours every night ($180 total on a 7 night trip) and we tip the person who brings the highchair to the room, etc.

When he has a bed that will get made every day, and uses towels, the room steward will get her per diem. When he is in the dining room every night the servers will get their per diem.

I dont care if anyone considers this approach "cheap". To me this seems like the fair way to go.

Even at a very early age, most of my kids would have been glad to accept a gratuity.

I figure the cabin steward has to deal with Jim's poopy diapers, and the wait staff has to work around his stroller/high chair and they usually try to entertain him by making faces and talking to him. That seems worthy of a tip to me so on the one cruise we took him on, we left the tips in place for him.

We paid the full gratuities for our 12 month old on our recent cruise. In the dining room, the waiters brought specially-prepared food for him every night (steamed veggies, fruit bowls, plain chicken). They also talked to him, made faces, etc. They brought extra napkins and cleaned up the giant mess that he made at the table every night.

In our cabin, our room was definitely messier just from having him and all of his things around - bibs, spoons, jars of baby food, toys, pack n play and certainly dirty diapers. In addition, he did use the ship's towels when we bathed him and the bathroom was messier as a result of washing his dirty dishes (I had brought a sponge and small bottle of dish soap). We would sometimes take dishes from the dining room down to our cabin and mix up his cereal in the mornings, so they had to clean up that. Also, because of his naptimes, we ordered more room service, so they had to deal with that.

Believe me, I understand not wanting to spend the extra money and feeling like you're not getting the service for the baby. But I did feel like having him with us caused extra work for the staff. It only amounted to about $75 total, so it was minor compared to the overall cost.

Also, not sure which line you are going on, but some cruise lines will provide jars of Gerber baby food and/or formula for you at no extra cost. I know Celebrity does (as that is what we sailed) and I believe RCL does too. Check with your line - it saved us from bringing 30-40 jars of food with us!

Carnival never charged us for our 11 month old on our April cruise. We thought they had - my DH onboard account showed gratuities for 2, and mine showed one. We didn't realize until after it was too late that we'd only paid gratituities for 2 total.

We did leave extra cash for our stateroom steward. Our dining room experience wasn't the best, so we didn't feel terribly guilty.

Gratuities...

Making a crib in a crowded room each day

Emptying stinking pails of diapers each day

Vacuuming up crumbs from under highchair each day

Entertaining children in high chairs at dinner

Cleaning fingerprints from glass

Picking up loose cheerios stomped into the cabin carpet

Bringing extra towels and other items like ice to keep bottles cold

Bringing the things to your table each night- like crackers and cut up food

Then cleaning up the mess on the table- spilled drinks, etc.

I do think babies use the ship and they leave more of a trail then adults do. Just my opinion.

I always tip the standard tip for my kids. And extra if we get really good service.

Gratuities...

 

Making a crib in a crowded room each day

Emptying stinking pails of diapers each day

Vacuuming up crumbs from under highchair each day

Entertaining children in high chairs at dinner

Cleaning fingerprints from glass

Picking up loose cheerios stomped into the cabin carpet

Bringing extra towels and other items like ice to keep bottles cold

Bringing the things to your table each night- like crackers and cut up food

Then cleaning up the mess on the table- spilled drinks, etc.

 

I do think babies use the ship and they leave more of a trail then adults do. Just my opinion.

 

 

 

Great post Rebecca!!

 

We always tipped more than standard for our child on a cruise (at 10, 15,18, and 2 years). They cause quite an impact, don't they!

Stewards and dining room waiters deserve it for they way they handle the extra work of a child!

 

Have a great evening!

We always gave extra tips with our boys when they cruised but this one being a baby I wasn't sure what all they'd actually be able to "do" for her. I have zero problems for tipping and I don't want or expect anyone to go above and beyond for a baby.

I just wondered how they were configured for infants on cruise!

I sort of lean towards tipping as I go since she's so young. I don't know. I've never taken a child on cruise this young before!

Thanks for all the input!

We just got off the Carnival with our 2 "infants" (5 months and 23 months). You will have to leave a tip for the infants but for us and our 4 year old, it was all an automatic tip.

Mandy

Just an interesting tidbit: on NCL you basically have to "autotip", They don't even call it tipping, they call it a service charge of $10/day.

But, for children aged:

0-2: they waive the service charge completely

3-12: they impose a 50% service charge

13 and above: they charge the full service charge.

Interesting!

Just an interesting tidbit: on NCL you basically have to "autotip", They don't even call it tipping, they call it a service charge of $10/day.

 

But, for children aged:

 

0-2: they waive the service charge completely

3-12: they impose a 50% service charge

13 and above: they charge the full service charge.

I'm surprised that they waive it for 0-2; I agree with some of the other posts about how much extra work they are for the room steward due to dirty diapers, fingerprints, etc. I don't think any dining room waiter should have to clean up big messes in the dining room; parents should be doing that or not bringing children who can't eat without creating a mess.

My daughter is NOT a messy eater. YET! (She's only going to be 9 months old when we sail.) She gets food all over her face and sometimes on the bib but other than that there will be nothing that she'll make a mess on or with in the dining room.

I do agree that the trash will be more than usual due to diapers, etc.

Didn't mean your child necessarily; referring to another post which mentioned waiters having to clean up big messes from their child. As I said, parents should be controlling the "mess factor" so that service staff is not having a lot of extra mess.

Ah, sorry! True...I have seen a LOT of parents that just don't care if their child makes a huge mess. My boys were never really messy but I always did clean up after them in restaurants, etc. Now that they're 3 and 4 - they know that if they make a mess at the table (or anywhere) they have to clean it up. A lot of parents don't see it that way.

I've never been around others that had children while on cruise. I wonder if they'll seat us with other cruisers with children.

Seating you with other families would be ideal unless you have a group with you large enough for your own table.

I can confirm for our recent June cruise that we were not charged the $10/day gratuities for our 14 month old son. However, Carnival should re-think this policy because our son did receive services. The room steward made up his crib every night and put his lovies in there and removed dirty diapers. The dining room crew took orders for him, brought him food, and cleaned up his mess of food and dishes. The lido crew had to take care of his dishes and leftover food.

If you are not charged the gratuities for an infant, you should consider tipping as you see fit for the services rendered.

infant gratuity? Have to make a comment on this as we were on a 7 night cruise with rccl in march with our family of 7 incl. a 4 month old breast-fed infant. We paid more than 20.000,- dollars for this family vacation and prepaid all gratuities in advance infant included! They charged us almost full price for the baby as well and unfortunately we did not receive any special service for the baby to justify the gratuity (or the cruise fare)at all! No baby crib (not room for it in the cabin anyhow...)no food, drink, service - nothing! We were even asked to leave some lounges as we entered with the baby asleep in her stroller! Seems Rccl has a porblem with infants on board. We had to complain so many times during and after the cruise, and felt let down big time, by rccl. Cruise any other company but them. Just one big rip off. We are from scandinavia, and taking a caribbean cruise is not an every year adventure for us. Still disappointedd and not compensated in any way after sending an official complaint to this cruise line - we want to warn anyone considering rccl for their next cruise! Sorry - just being real honest here.

We have never been charged gratuity for our infant until she reached age 2. She sailed 5 times. This surprised us on our first cruise bringing her since we were used to automatic tipping. I asked at the pursers desk and they said it was Carnival policy not to charge gratuities until age 2. We have always left extra for the room steward and dining room for her because of the work they did for us cleaning up and serving her. Give what you feel is necessary based on how much they do for your child. The older our child got, the more we tipped.

Julie

Princess did not charge for my 6 month GD, however we still tipped for her. She was never in the dining room as the 3 YO just didn't want to be there so they were tipped for the nights that my DD attended, which was twice in a 12 day cruise. They did not miss out on additional tips as another couple took their spots most evenings.

She tipped the room steward extra for they baby and the counselors for the 3 YO. We paid the full rate for the 3 YO, think we did full rate when he was 2 as well.

infant gratuity? Have to make a comment on this as we were on a 7 night cruise with rccl in march with our family of 7 incl. a 4 month old breast-fed infant. We paid more than 20.000,- dollars for this family vacation and prepaid all gratuities in advance infant included! They charged us almost full price for the baby as well and unfortunately we did not receive any special service for the baby to justify the gratuity (or the cruise fare)at all! No baby crib (not room for it in the cabin anyhow...)no food, drink, service - nothing! We were even asked to leave some lounges as we entered with the baby asleep in her stroller! Seems Rccl has a porblem with infants on board. We had to complain so many times during and after the cruise, and felt let down big time, by rccl. Cruise any other company but them. Just one big rip off. We are from scandinavia, and taking a caribbean cruise is not an every year adventure for us. Still disappointedd and not compensated in any way after sending an official complaint to this cruise line - we want to warn anyone considering rccl for their next cruise! Sorry - just being real honest here.

Sorry you didn't enjoy your cruise. I just want to point out one thing. Maybe things are done differently in Scandinavia, but in the U.S it is not customary to take children and infants into lounges. Generally any place serving alcohol and where smoking may be going on are off limits. Lounges and bars are not viewed as appropriate venues for children. Not only would you be asked to leave, but would probably get dirty looks from other patrons.

infant gratuity? Have to make a comment on this as we were on a 7 night cruise with rccl in march with our family of 7 incl. a 4 month old breast-fed infant. We paid more than 20.000,- dollars for this family vacation and prepaid all gratuities in advance infant included! They charged us almost full price for the baby as well and unfortunately we did not receive any special service for the baby to justify the gratuity (or the cruise fare)at all! No baby crib (not room for it in the cabin anyhow...)no food, drink, service - nothing! We were even asked to leave some lounges as we entered with the baby asleep in her stroller! Seems Rccl has a porblem with infants on board. We had to complain so many times during and after the cruise, and felt let down big time, by rccl. Cruise any other company but them. Just one big rip off. We are from scandinavia, and taking a caribbean cruise is not an every year adventure for us. Still disappointedd and not compensated in any way after sending an official complaint to this cruise line - we want to warn anyone considering rccl for their next cruise! Sorry - just being real honest here.

I'm sorry to hear that your vacation did not work out well on the cruise ship. I agree with the above post; our customs are different here than in Scandinavia. (You do have a wonderful country). In regards to requesting money back from the cruiseline, I have never heard of refunds due to dissatisfaction. Sometimes they will give you a small credit toward a future cruise but would you want to go on the line again if you were dissatisfied?

Hope your next vacation is wonderful!