Alaska Cruise Tour - Tipping

Doing a cruise tour this summer in Alaska for 3 days.

What's your experiences with who/how many people should be tipped?

Bus driver?

Tour director?

Hotel stays?

Thanks!

Hey fellow 6/22 Radiance cruiser.

There's a thread in the Alaska forum about tipping but it deals more with excursions... https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2633419&highlight=tipping

We asked our travel consultant about tipping although we were specifically asking about more expensive tours like flight-seeing or helicopter/glacier landing and she said 5-10%. For the bus driver taking us in/out of Denali since we're spending two nights at a lodge in the back (6-hour ride including stops) she suggested $5-10.

I know that doesn't directly address your questions but figured I'd share what I could since no one has responded.

See ya in the roll call (and possibly on board).

You should always leave a tip for your hotel housekeeper...$5-10 per night is fine.

Excursions...if it's simply transportation, then tip at your discretion. If there is a guide who really enhances your tour, tip what you feel that is worth. We don't tip for simply a bus ride with no info or interaction....I mean, you PAID to ride a bus! We do tip if the guide is informative and fun and helpful.

I found this from my 2013 live blog. Suggested amounts were printed on the daily itinerary they handed out. That was one thing I hadn’t thought of in advance. The suggested amounts were per person per day.

We had a 6 night so for both of us together our tips would have been $30 for the driver and $42 for the tour director. I think we gave $50 & $60 or more. The driver handles all that luggage for you all week. Loads, unloads & delivers to your room so it was well deserved.

Also on the train it was suggested to tip daily as it may be someone different each day. The suggestion was $1 per person as you left the train.

You have the same bus driver and tour director all week so you just tip them the final evening.

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On our Alaska land cruise (Princess excursion) our tour guide who stayed with us for the entire 7 days handled tipping the bus driver. We tipped her (the tour guide) $10 each per day. All the included meals and hotels already had a tip included. Any excursions or meal we reserved ourself we tipped accordingly. Bring lots of $1 and $5 bills so you are prepared

You should always leave a tip for your hotel housekeeper...$5-10 per night is fine.

 

$10 per night! :eek::eek:

Thank you.. . Especially Cindy. That's exactly what I needed to know.

And blueridgemama... Totally get what you're saying about $1s and $5s. I don't tend to like to carry cash so I want to be well prepared. Want to have envelopes ready for certain things!

Thanks all!

$10 per night! :eek::eek:

I would say no more than $5 per night is very acceptable!

Thank you.. . Especially Cindy. That's exactly what I needed to know.

 

 

 

And blueridgemama... Totally get what you're saying about $1s and $5s. I don't tend to like to carry cash so I want to be well prepared. Want to have envelopes ready for certain things!

 

 

 

Thanks all!

I meant to say “train host” who will be the narrator for your train ride telling you history and pointing out things to see. They may be different each day so the tour director suggested tipping them as you leave the train.

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