Gratuities

I am embarrassed to ask but what are the standard gratuities per day for suites and Aqua class? Thanks

$14/pp/pd for Aqua; $17/pp/pd for Suites.

Happy sailing!

Source: http://www.celebritycruises.com/frequently-asked-questions#faq551

Q: How are gratuities handled onboard?

A: For your convenience, we automatically add gratuities for your restaurant and stateroom services to your onboard SeaPass® account on a daily basis in the following amounts, which may be adjusted at your discretion:

• $12.95 per person, per day in standard staterooms

• $13.45 per person, per day in Concierge Class and AquaClass® staterooms

• $16.45 per person, per day in Suite Class

** Please note that beginning June 14, 2016 for all sailings beginning on or after July 1, 2016, that gratuities will increase to the following:

•$13.50 per person, per day in standard staterooms

• $14.00 per person, per day in Concierge Class and AquaClass®staterooms

• $17.00 per person, per day in Suite Class

We are in a sky suite for the first time on a 12 night med cruise. We have a butler.

Is a tip equivalent to our cabin steward reasonable? This is on top of our automatic tips. How do others "rank" butlers among servers, assistant servers, stewards, and bar tenders?

We are in a sky suite for the first time on a 12 night med cruise. We have a butler.

 

Is a tip equivalent to our cabin steward reasonable? This is on top of our automatic tips. How do others "rank" butlers among servers, assistant servers, stewards, and bar tenders?

You pay an extra automatic gratuity for your butler as part of the scale charges. If you think he/she is worth extra then that is your choice

We are in a sky suite for the first time on a 12 night med cruise. We have a butler.

 

Is a tip equivalent to our cabin steward reasonable? This is on top of our automatic tips. How do others "rank" butlers among servers, assistant servers, stewards, and bar tenders?

Your butler is already getting at least $3 per person per day from your automatic tips, which are higher for people in suites.

So if you feel the services of your butler are worth more than $6 per day for two of you, that is entirely up to you.

We tip the butler extra when we request some additional service that would not be provided otherwise, such as delivering room service orders, serving us a meal out on the balcony, or providing extra food or beverages for guests.

We understand that they have recently eliminated the position of assistant stateroom attendant, but that was the person we always tipped extra for doing a good job, since that was the one who got stuck with doing the hard, unpleasant dirty work, (such as cleaning other people's bathrooms), and who probably got paid the least.

So that will now probably become an additional tip for our regular stateroom attendant.

We are in a sky suite for the first time on a 12 night med cruise. We have a butler.

 

Is a tip equivalent to our cabin steward reasonable? This is on top of our automatic tips. How do others "rank" butlers among servers, assistant servers, stewards, and bar tenders?

The only way I am able to work out how much additional gratuity we wish to leave each individual is to use the standard gratuities as a benchmark. Towards the end of the cruise, we sit down and ask each other: "Joe Bloggs, how many times the standard gratuity do we think his service merits?" We then come up with a multiplier. We do this for each person and it is easy to say how we feel in those terms.

Of course, we round up or down to a sensible round figure.

We tend to make use of a butler's services more than the cabin steward, although we tip them both extra. We get breakfast delivered to the cabin most mornings (by the butler) but we don't tip every day. This is what we do on a 14 night cruise typically: on day 3 morning we will give the butler $20, as he's bringing breakfast. We will give $20 about every third day "just because" and we will tip on the spot about $40 if we ask him to set up a little cocktail party for us. We always have special requests on the afternoon tea service -- we like to have alternating days of shrimp and smoked salmon, raw veggies and hummus, and cheese with grapes and crackers. Since that's different than what's typically offered on the tea cart we figure that in since he has to get it special.

I was sick once on the last two days of a cruise and stayed in the cabin and the butler was so sweet, didn't bother me, but came with hot chicken soup and even brought extra fluffy pillows and a soft blanket.

On the last evening we usually tip our final extra. He probably will get about $150 total extra (that includes all the $20 tips previously) maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less -- on 14 nights.

It's probably about half that for the room steward. With a butler sometimes we never even see the steward but we do see and appreciate the work he does.

We also tip the concierge at Michael's Club although that is discretionary. Last cruise it was Sara on Eclipse and she was brand new to the job and was going overboard to make it special for all of us. I can't imagine anyone doing a better job, but we'll see - it was our only experience so far in Michael's.

Claudia-- thanks for the specifics. Your approach sounds quite reasonable. It also sounds like you make "good use" of your butler.

A question for those who provide significant extra tips. What do you consider the norm for a job like a room steward or butler? What then do you consider over and above the norm?

They are only doing the job that they are employed to do - looking after the Customers who have paid a lot of money for the cruise experience.

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I am embarrassed to ask but what are the standard gratuities per day for suites and Aqua class? Thanks

Daily gratuities are:

$13.50 per person per day in standard staterooms

$14.00 per person per day in Concierge Class and AquaClass staterooms

$17.00 per person per day in Suite Class

Daily gratuities are:

$13.50 per person per day in standard staterooms

$14.00 per person per day in Concierge Class and AquaClass staterooms

$17.00 per person per day in Suite Class

Celebrity Cruises

Many thanks for the confirmations.

In the past, Celebrity published a breakdown of the standard gratuities between different categories. We found this useful for determining the amount of additional gratuities to give.

Is it possible for you to post a breakdown, please?

They are only doing the job that they are employed to do - looking after the Customers who have paid a lot of money for the cruise experience.

 

 

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Good example of the cultural differences. Most of us in the U.S. do not view people who serve us as just servants and/or employees. It is kind of hard to explain.

How do you provide extra tips when dining in Blu? Some cruises we have had the same table and waiter, so no problem. Other cruises we have a different table and waiter almost every night. The same question would also apply to Select Dining.

When we dined in Luminae on one cruise we had different wait staff all the time. We gave an envelope to the maître d and asked him to distribute it among the staff. The times we had select dining we either had the same staff or ate in Blu or specialties most of the time, always with different staff.