tipping question- when you don't auto tip, amt that goes to the person?

I am aware that Princess has the "auto tipping", pre-calculated tips that are charged to your account based on your cruise length.

My husband and I did not want to auto tip and had this removed for our most previous (and First!) cruise that we just got home from. We chose to tip those individuals personally who made our cruise enjoyable.

On the Princess TV, they discussed tipping and broke down where the $10 per person per day went... and said something to the extent that the $3.50 pp/day (or whatever it was) for the cabin steward actually was broken down to tip the steward's manager, and other crew, and the laundry staff, etc such that the steward himself got just 70 cents pp/day.

**If I handed the steward a tip personally, like I did on this past cruise, did 100% of the tip go directly to him or are they required to pool all tips?**

I would also enjoy hearing comments from people concerning the pooling of tips - It did not sit well with us that auto-tips would be force shared with management. We could agree with the "backup staff" getting in on the sharing (i.e. at a diner, the waitress may have to share a certain % of her tips from the night to the guys in the back/busboys, and then takes the rest home) ...But managers? And the entire linens crew? And the washing guys? And the......

We got the vibe that the whole auto-tipping/shared tips stuff was just a way for Princess to suppliment low wages.

Don't get me wrong, I support the idea of tipping! And I understand that auto-tipping programs are a way for people to not have to worry about the "hassle" of dealing with gratuities....Its just that we felt like 70 cents from $3.50 seemed a bit scarce, especially since we were so pleased with his work. And want the people who truely DO go above and beyond to be able to benefit a bit via more lucrative tips...we wanted to REWARD their hard work and efforts...

Thanks for the input,

Carrie

What we found out when we asked the Purser's Desk, on the Sun, last Fall, was that if you take the auto tips off your account, and tip on your own, the person that you tipped has to pool the amount received equal to the auto tip amount. If you leave your auto tips on your account, and tip a little extra, they get to keep all of that extra.
I think that auto tips are on there for two reasons:
1. It is easier for the cruiser......don't need cash on last night
2. It is amazing how many cruisers stiffed their waiters and cabin stewards. I don't know that it's wrong to stiff someone, as I've always learned that tips mean a reward for extra special service, but we were always dismayed that so many cruisers did not show up in the dining room (pre Personal Choice) days, on the last night of the cruise, when tips are usually handed out. In a perfect world, cruiselines would pay top wages to all employees, and all cruisers would be able to cruise, and pay top prices to cover all overhead, plus some profit, for the cruise lines. The way things are now, seems to work pretty well. Many can afford to cruise, and we can tip a bit extra for exemplary service. We just have to figure the tipping fee into our cruise budget.............
Ok, ok, soap box back in the closet............... :)

[b][font=Comic Sans MS]DesrtDrmr is correct... It is best to leave the automatic tip in place then at the end of the cruise personally tip those that you think deserve it.. [/font][/b]

Ditto to what LARGIN and DesrtDrmr said! :)

I do not believe in auto-tipping, and will have it removed as soon as I board. That being said, if the servant has to turn over his tip only up to the amount of the auto-tip, what is the difference? It's exactly the same thing as if you left the auto-tip in place. I do not believe in rewarding bad service with an "expected" tip ... that is why it is called a tip, which is exaclty why I am removing it. That being said, if someone provides excellent service, and I tip him $100 for the week ... he will have to turn over $70 to the pool and then he pockets the rest ... exactly the same scenario if I left the auto-tip n place and personally handed him the extra. Am I misunderstanding? :confused:

I was under the understanding that any amount you give the steward/waiter, etc. above the autotip amount (you must leave the autotip in place) can be kept by that person, but if you remove the autotip and pay him or her in cash they must pool the entire amount, including anything over and above the standard $3.50 per day for the steward/waiter. In that case, they benefit from the autotip being left in place and are actually financially punished when the autotip is removed even if you do tip them above the required amount.

Yes, SissaMomE, -- that appears to be the scenario -- but why not leave the auto tip in place. It also rewards the people behind the scenes that help to make your cruise pleasurable. Then give extra to those people whom you feel gave you exemplary service. Remember, too, that the officers and administrative staff do not participate in this tip pool.

Bob

[QUOTE]being said, if the servant has to turn over his tip only up to the amount of the auto-tip, what is the difference? It's exactly the same thing as if you left the auto-tip in place. I do not believe in rewarding bad service with an "expected" tip ... that is why it is called a tip, which is exaclty why I am removing it[/QUOTE] Ignoring the use of the word "servant" for now, if you get bad service, there are comment cards you can and should fill out to deal with issues like that.

No, SissasMomE, you are not misunderstanding. I leave the auto-tip on because I don't have to make the bed, clean the toilet, wash the linens, cook nor serve the meals (a real vacation besides the one from work). On every cruise I have been on I have then given extra to the steward, waiter and assistant waiter because they have been excellent. While I agree there is no difference it may be a little more difficult for the individuals you tip since they have to turn in your money and then get the difference back.

Additionally a little known fact is that prior to the auto-tip, your room steward [B]HAD[/B] to pay to have the linen and towels from [I]your[/I] cabin laundered. Along with those charges he/she also had other costs, technically out of their own pocket, they had to cover to supplement the income of people behind the scene. With auto-tip these charges have stopped as everyone now gets their fair share. I know we sometimes forget that the person giving the first line service is supported by a whole bunch of other hard working people. We have found it best to leave auto-tip in place and when called for to hand out 'extra' at the end of the cruise. It is also important that poor service is brought to the attention of the proper individules and that filling out the 'You Made A Difference' cards is the best thing you can do for those that really provide great service.

[quote name='CarrieAndBrian']
We got the vibe that the whole auto-tipping/shared tips stuff was just a way for Princess to suppliment low wages.

Carrie[/QUOTE]
I'm curious where this "vibe" came from.

The entire travel and transportation industry supplements low wages with tips. It's a reality of the industry, and is unlikely to change.

[quote name='SissasMomE']I do not believe in auto-tipping, and will have it removed as soon as I board. That being said, if the servant has to turn over his tip only up to the amount of the auto-tip, what is the difference? It's exactly the same thing as if you left the auto-tip in place. I do not believe in rewarding bad service with an "expected" tip ... that is why it is called a tip, which is exaclty why I am removing it. That being said, if someone provides excellent service, and I tip him $100 for the week ... he will have to turn over $70 to the pool and then he pockets the rest ... exactly the same scenario if I left the auto-tip n place and personally handed him the extra. Am I misunderstanding? :confused:[/QUOTE]
You are misunderstanding.. He turns over the whole envelope to be placed in the pool if you remove autotips.. all $100

[quote name='LARGIN']You are misunderstanding.. He turns over the whole envelope to be placed in the pool if you remove autotips.. all $100[/QUOTE]

Do you really believe that they hand over the extra $30 over the base $70. I do not believe these people are so dumb that they don't pocket the additional tip.

They are required to turn in everything they receive. Any additional amount is returned to the individual crew member receiving the tip if the auto-tips have been cancelled.

I understand if they don't turn everything over they can be fired.

[quote name='spongerob']They are required to turn in everything they receive.[/QUOTE]
I understand this. Do you believe they really do? I know I gave the steward an extra $40 for our two rooms on the last cruise mid trip. It went in his pocket so fast you didn't see it:) I just don't think it saw any pool;)

I believe they do. The living conditions on the ship are too close and the crew community is small enough that anyone not playing by the honor system would soon be noticed. I'm not positive about this, but believe it has been reported that one of the performance measures used is the amount of tips given for each crew member. By pocketing some spare change and not reporting it, the crew member could be cutting his own throat.

There was an excellent article on Cruise Critics a few weeks ago on this topic. Here's the link, it may answer a lot of questions. [url="http://www.cruisecritic.com/interests/intarticle.cfm?ID=56"]http://www.cruisecritic.com/interests/intarticle.cfm?ID=56[/url]

The "servant" comment kinda got my hackles up. Just because someone serves you, that doesn't make them your servant:( .

[B]Thank you, CactusRose, for the Link. It is very well-written and gives good insight into Tipping. :)

SpongeRob: You are exactly correct. It behooves every crewmember to turn in ALL of their tips because the amount of their tips is directly related to their performance reviews and, thus, their promotions and raises. ;)
The amount over the folio amount is then returned to the crewmember. :D [/B]

I do believe tipping is for good service in the real world. For me personally, I just add tipping on top of my cruise fare and consider it done. But once on board I tip anyone I want above and beyond. There are so many people behind the scenes that don't even get the regonized. I believe tipping is a personal issue, but will continue to tip as I want to. I hope the people that I give extra too get to keep it.:p

Thank you to everyone who posted on this topic. This was our 1st cruise and the information and opinions you have provided are helpful in understanding this issue.

The cruise we went on did NOT have particularly stunning post-vacation reviews from many of the cruisecritic passengers (for more info, check out the chat thread under the Sun Princess 10-13-04 under Roll Calls). We did not feel inclined to hand out tips above and beyond the "standard", to say the least...

We only ate in the main dining room 3 times, and tipped at those occasions. Mostly we ate roomservice and at the Pizzaria. (and tipped those folks accordingly). Since almost 50% of the auto tip goes to the diningroom staff, we didn't auto tip in the event that the non-traditional dining staff had seperate tip pools. We anticipated this ahead of time and, among other reasons, removed auto tipping. (Why tip for a service you don't use?).

I don't like people telling me how much to tip and when, so removing auto tipping was the best decision for us. We firmly believe in providing a "better" gratuity when service and/or that-which-is-served is excellent. And providing a "standard" gratuity when things are just "ok"...... And (*gasp*) not leaving a gratuituy when we are significantly unhappy with the service and food.

Again, thanks for sharing your comments and information. We can atleast make an informed choice about our tipping options should we take another Princess cruise.

carrie

[QUOTE]Since almost 50% of the auto tip goes to the diningroom staff, we didn't auto tip in the event that the non-traditional dining staff had seperate tip pools. We anticipated this ahead of time and, among other reasons, removed auto tipping. (Why tip for a service you don't use?).[/QUOTE] [font='Bookman Old Style']By removing the automatic tip in full, your room staff was also not tipped. If you left a personal tip for the room steward, it would have had to be pooled up to the amount of the auto tip. I don’t believe any of the dining staff have different pools – since many of the wait staff work in more than one location, it would make sense that there would be one pool.[/font]
[font='Bookman Old Style'][/font]
[font='Bookman Old Style'][/font][font='Bookman Old Style']It is unfortunate that the levels of service didn’t live up to expectations on these particular cruises…as I pointed out in another thread, I was on Sun Princess earlier in the year and thought the levels of service excellent. However, my tipping process is to figure the cost of the auto tip into my cruise fare…since I think the $10 a day to be a bargain and hardly onerous…and to tip additional as I would have before the advent of auto-tip. I can adjust the additional amount I tip as is appropriate based on the level of service I receive. Even if the service is sub-standard, $3.50 a day for a number of the staff members hardly seems unreasonable.[/font]

[quote name='CarrieAndBrian']Since almost 50% of the auto tip goes to the diningroom staff, we didn't auto tip in the event that the non-traditional dining staff had seperate tip pools. [/QUOTE]On Princess $6.50 to dining and $3.50 to room steward.

[quote name='bdjam'][font='Bookman Old Style'] Even if the service is sub-standard, $3.50 a day for a number of the staff members hardly seems unreasonable.[/font][/QUOTE]

bdjam I couldn't agree with you more!

I know Carrie felt they were doing the right thing by handling tipping the way they did it just didn't turn out that way.

[quote name='bdjam'][font=Bookman Old Style]By removing the automatic tip in full, your room staff was also not tipped. If you left a personal tip for the room steward, it would have had to be pooled up to the amount of the auto tip. I don’t believe any of the dining staff have different pools – since many of the wait staff work in more than one location, it would make sense that there would be one pool.[/font]

[font=Bookman Old Style]It is unfortunate that the levels of service didn’t live up to expectations on these particular cruises…as I pointed out in another thread, I was on Sun Princess earlier in the year and thought the levels of service excellent. However, my tipping process is to figure the cost of the auto tip into my cruise fare…since I think the $10 a day to be a bargain and hardly onerous…and to tip additional as I would have before the advent of auto-tip. I can adjust the additional amount I tip as is appropriate based on the level of service I receive. Even if the service is sub-standard, $3.50 a day for a number of the staff members hardly seems unreasonable.[/font][/QUOTE]
[b][color=darkred]Agree completely..[/color][/b]