How much do you tip?

If the service is good we tip double the suggested if we eat in the MDR each night. We reduce the extra somewhat for each night we eat elsewhere. Concierge gets $20-50, they've never done anything that we felt deserved more than that for us. Servers in alternate restaurants get 20% of what a similar meal would cost on land, so anything from $20 to $80. On ships with daily service charges that are split among all, we give additional cash to the 4-6 people who have made our trip special--anything from $20 to $150 per person. We don't usually tip the bartender extra but do give a cash tip at the end of the cruise if one has been particularly attentive. Spa staff get 20%, porters get $2-5 per bag depending on size.

We keep the auto on. We tip as follows:

Main room steward $25-$50 depending on the service.

Asst. room steward $25-50 depending on the service.

MDR waiter $25+

Asst. waiter $25+

On one cruise the asst. waiter in training was better then the head waiter and his asst. so not only did we give him an extra $25 but we also made a point of pointing him out to the matre d and informing them what a fine outstanding job he was doing.

In the buffet area for breakfast and lunch, we try and eat in the same area everyday. We will tip an extra $10-$20 to this person (if we are given service such as asking us if we'd like a beverage etc. all week long) Or anyone for that matter that we feel made our vacation a pleasant experience.

Tour guides $20-$100 depending how good they were.

We actually had a taxi driver tell me I gave him too much money. When I told him that was his tip, he was speechless and had tears in his eyes. I just about start crying myself at his reaction. To this day it brings a tear to my eyes thinking about it.

We don't use bar service

We don't use room service.

We are every day people (DH and I), that work 6-7 days a week. We know and understand how hard they work and don't have a problem giving back. We just wish we could give more.

Ours is for a 7 day cruise. It's adjusted for longer or b2b cruises.

I just leave the auto tip on and give my room steward an extra $10-$20 at the end of the cruise. Because we do anytime dining, we dont have set wait staff so difficult to tip extra to wait staff, although I wish there was a way to do this because they work so hard and I consider the autotip more of a wage than a tip. Anyone have a suggestion as to how to tip your random wait staff more?

I just leave the auto tip on and give my room steward an extra $10-$20 at the end of the cruise. Because we do anytime dining, we dont have set wait staff so difficult to tip extra to wait staff, although I wish there was a way to do this because they work so hard and I consider the autotip more of a wage than a tip. Anyone have a suggestion as to how to tip your random wait staff more?

The only two ways I can think of 1) leave a tip after every meal or 2) make a note of the server's name and add it to your sail and sign account.

Does anyone tip differently if they have a Butler in the Suites on the ships?

What is it you always order 'off menu"? How come? Just curious. :D

 

Sounds like you tip nicely and I'm sure it is appreciated. Thank you for indicating how many days your cruises usually are. If someone tips $20 for a seven day cruise, it is quite different than if they tip the same for a sixteen day cruise. :)

 

For health and cultural reasons, we eat fish and vegetables which are prepared without sauces in a simple manner, i.e., pan fried. We ask what fish is available on board, we don't eat seafood or shell fish. We try the fish available til we find what we think is the best, i.e., taste fresh. Obviously all fish is frozen on board, some tastes better than others fixed without sauces. Then we special order what we like best.

Does anyone tip differently if they have a Butler in the Suites on the ships?

Butlers usually aren't included in the daily tip so people generally tip if they use the butler's services and at a level equal to the service provided.

I am so delighted to read that so many of you tip extra.

On our last cruise we calculated auto tip (-10% deniers) for the entire crew and we estimated that that would probably make their entire wages.

I feel sorry for the people working very hard in the galleys and laundries, but I also feel that a personal "thank you" to the people who served me directly is adequate.

As for the cabin stewards and MDR waiters I observe how extremely hard they work - 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, 6 to 9 months in a row.

Others, like officers, barkeepers and store personnel don't seem to have jobs as stressful, so I tip the former two.

Most of them come from very poor countries, they are away from their families for a long time, only being able to support them with these almost inhumane jobs.

So, if a lot of us rich cruisers (you know what I mean) give extra tips maybe some of them can open small businesses in their countries with their savings and be with their families all the time.

And somebody else from a poor country can take their place ...

At our last dinner we couldn't find the assistant waiter, so we asked our main waitor if we just could leave the envelope at the reception.

He replied that they never pass it on, so we will always find the people we want to express our appreciation to and hand over the tips in person.

I frequently cruise solo and feel a little bad for the room steward because he's not getting auto tips from two people. I am very neat so they don't have to do a great deal of work in my room but I try to give at least $20 extra on a 5 day cruise or $30 extra on a seven day cruise.

You are a person of good character, because you have empathy for the person who has to tidy and clean your stateroom rather than think "I have paid a lot for this, so I can leave a mess as much as I want".

These people have very, very tight schedules, cruising business is highly optimized after all, so any person who thinks and acts like Jana60 makes these people's life a little bit better.

As I've passed open doors to some cabins I have wondered what type of a barn some people must live in to leave their cabin such a mess. I prefer my cabin to look pretty much unoccupied with everything put away. It's how I live at home as well. I've seen cabins with clothes strewn about, suitcases left open in the middle of the floor with stuff piling out of them (mid cruise--not in the process of being packed or unpacked, it was obvious their owners were living out of them) bedding strewn around the floor (not by the housekeeper changing sheets, this was strewn around all over the place) the list goes on. I'm sure many of you have seen the same horrors.

I just leave the auto tip on and give my room steward an extra $10-$20 at the end of the cruise. Because we do anytime dining, we dont have set wait staff so difficult to tip extra to wait staff, although I wish there was a way to do this because they work so hard and I consider the autotip more of a wage than a tip. Anyone have a suggestion as to how to tip your random wait staff more?

The only two ways I can think of 1) leave a tip after every meal or 2) make a note of the server's name and add it to your sail and sign account.

I have my doubts if they really get this extra money "extra" if you add it to your bill, so I think your suggestion no 1 is the best idea.

On our last freestyle cruise, we tried to remember the waiter's name and approached him during the final breakfast service.

As I've passed open doors to some cabins I have wondered what type of a barn some people must live in to leave their cabin such a mess. I prefer my cabin to look pretty much unoccupied with everything put away. It's how I live at home as well. I've seen cabins with clothes strewn about, suitcases left open in the middle of the floor with stuff piling out of them (mid cruise--not in the process of being packed or unpacked, it was obvious their owners were living out of them) bedding strewn around the floor (not by the housekeeper changing sheets, this was strewn around all over the place) the list goes on. I'm sure many of you have seen the same horrors.

Yep! in the cabin my three teenage sons occupied!:eek: I didn't tip our cabin steward extra for our cabin but he got a big tip, or as I like to call it, DANGER PAY, for our boys' cabin.:D

As for tipping extra for other crew, generally we just leave the auto-tips on and that's it unless someone performs exceptionally well.

We leave the auto tip on (always) and I bring a roll of ones about 40 or 50 and give them out to the waitstaff mostly.

OK lets' remember this is a tipping thread. I agree with sloopsailer, as long as the messy types tip their steward properly for the exceptional work to clean up the mess, I could care less how they kept their cabin and everyone else should too.

 

ducklite, when I read your last post, above, I was speechless.:eek: (And that doesn't happen very often.) Just WOW.:(

All I can say is that it's unbelievable that people think it's OK to treat their cabin steward so poorly--regardless of how much they tip them.

I don't consider the "auto tip"/service charge/ etc. to be an actual tip. To me, it is just like the "resort fee/service charge" I find at land hotels. To that end, I will always add a gratuity that I feel is appropriate at each service. For room stewards, I automatically put $5 out for them every day, with the possibility of an extra gratuity at the end for exceptional service. Being in hospitality, I know that housekeepers are given a certain number of rooms that they must get clean to standards within a small time frame. If the rooms are just a "normal" dirty, they can get the rooms done in time. If they encounter a few rooms that look like bombs went off inside of them, those rooms take away from the cleaning time of the other rooms. If it takes longer than the given time to clean their quota, usually there is a punitive action taken. Management doesn't take into account how the rooms will be - they just give out the raw quota of rooms. I've seen that in all the hotels I've worked in…

Servers and bartenders will get a tip of 15-25% over and above, depending on the level of service I receive. Estheticians and massage therapists will get %20. If I use a concierge for a service, I will tip them anywhere from $5-20 for that, depending on the complexity of my request.

I don't consider the "auto tip"/service charge/ etc. to be an actual tip. To me, it is just like the "resort fee/service charge" I find at land hotels. To that end, I will always add a gratuity that I feel is appropriate at each service. For room stewards, I automatically put $5 out for them every day, with the possibility of an extra gratuity at the end for exceptional service. Being in hospitality, I know that housekeepers are given a certain number of rooms that they must get clean to standards within a small time frame. If the rooms are just a "normal" dirty, they can get the rooms done in time. If they encounter a few rooms that look like bombs went off inside of them, those rooms take away from the cleaning time of the other rooms. If it takes longer than the given time to clean their quota, usually there is a punitive action taken. Management doesn't take into account how the rooms will be - they just give out the raw quota of rooms. I've seen that in all the hotels I've worked in…

Servers and bartenders will get a tip of 15-25% over and above, depending on the level of service I receive. Estheticians and massage therapists will get %20. If I use a concierge for a service, I will tip them anywhere from $5-20 for that, depending on the complexity of my request.

For the stewards, do you tip the asst. if they have one? Only asking because last cruise our asst. was very visible. If that's the case, should it be on top of what you normally tip the steward? Or should one allocate what they would normally tip on a daily basis between the two. Or, just give it to the head steward and assume he/she will split?

We ended up tipping the asst. on top of what we normally give the head steward.

For the stewards, do you tip the asst. if they have one? Only asking because last cruise our asst. was very visible. If that's the case, should it be on top of what you normally tip the steward? Or should one allocate what they would normally tip on a daily basis between the two. Or, just give it to the head steward and assume he/she will split?

 

We ended up tipping the asst. on top of what we normally give the head steward.

How we handle this varies. We always tip both, how much depends on what they do and their level of experience/level of service. Most of the time, the lead steward is the more experienced so we tip that person more. We don't have a predetermined amount that we tip on a daily basis, so we let our gut be our judge on how much for either. We always leave the auto tip on.

We always leave the auto tip on.

Definitely! There are so many behind the scenes individuals who work their tail ends off....

My problem last cruise was we were able to upgrade to a suite with a butler for not much, so we jumped on it. We're not butler type people so we didn't use him much - he brought breakfast one day and our preordered evening appetizers were always in the room ....but that's it. We ended up tipping him the same as our room steward...but I didn't have a clue. The set gratuity for suites was higher to compensate for the butler, so what we tipped was on top of that.

We're back in a normal cabin next week. It's concierge class (love those upgrade offers) but unless we use him I can't see the need for tipping him. Correct?

Definitely! There are so many behind the scenes individuals who work their tail ends off....

 

 

 

My problem last cruise was we were able to upgrade to a suite with a butler for not much, so we jumped on it. We're not butler type people so we didn't use him much - he brought breakfast one day and our preordered evening appetizers were always in the room ....but that's it. We ended up tipping him the same as our room steward...but I didn't have a clue. The set gratuity for suites was higher to compensate for the butler, so what we tipped was on top of that.

 

 

 

We're back in a normal cabin next week. It's concierge class (love those upgrade offers) but unless we use him I can't see the need for tipping him. Correct?

Just leave the auto-tip on! You don't need to do anything additional...

Enjoy!

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I think tipping has gotten out of hand . Since auto gratuities have started service has declined and I found myself tipping for service that would have been normal years ago . Now I just leave the auto gratuities in place and only tip extra if they go above & beyond.