Dinner and Tipping

I just booked my first cruise. My question is: what if they didn't ask about dinner times (early or late) and are the tipping costs included in your reservation or do you tip each person seperatley that you come across?

Laura~1st time cruiser*

Laura, you need to contact your TA about dinner seating. Tipping varies by cruiseline. Princess automatically puts the tips on your shipboard account. Most of the lines don't do that but on RCI you can have it put on your account.

Sheila

Til the Regal to Alaska

Grandeur of the Seas 5/04

Regal Princess 11/03

Summit 10/02

Enchantment of the Seas 09/01

Laura

Since you are cruising on NCL there are no assigned seating times. NCL's Freestyle allows you to go to any dining room any time during their posted dinner hours. Your choices will be the Seven Seas dining room or the Four Seasons. Seating for us has never been a problem. However, at peak dining time (6:30-7:30) you may encounter a wait. Also, people looking for a table for two or large groups seem to encounter more problems with seating delays as they sometimes have to wait for an appropriately sized table to open up.

As far as tipping, the base amount will be added to your shipboard account. If you wish to adjust the amount of the tip, it can be done at the purser's office or you can give cash directly to your steward. The dining room tips are pooled since you probably won't have the same wait staff each evening. Something to remember is that cabin stewards and wait staff are dependant on tips for their income. Their daily wages are extremely low. If you receive truly poor service you can have tips reduced. We have only had one cruise where the cabin service was so poor that we didn't tip extra. However, we have never gone below the base reccommended amount.

What is general consensus for an amount to tip a very helpful Head Waiter ?

What is general consensus for an amount to tip a very helpful Head Waiter ?

This is a 13 year old thread.

What is general consensus for an amount to tip a very helpful Head Waiter ?

With almost 3,500 posts, I would assume you have enough cruising experience to know what amount of tipping is right for you and that a "consensus" does not exist.

With almost 3,500 posts, I would assume you have enough cruising experience to know what amount of tipping is right for you and that a "consensus" does not exist.

On my last cruise for the first time ever I had wonderful personalized service from a Head Waiter and I think I may have tipped too little .I would like opinions .

This is a 13 year old thread.

I could not find a more recent thread to ask the question on .

I could not find a more recent thread to ask the question on .

Hi there

Whatever you gave would be fine, that is the idea of a tip. You could also mention the person in your cruise survey. Your headwaiter was just trying to do a good job.

hope this helps

p.s. I presume this was in addition to the cruise lines recommended gratuities

...... Tipping varies by cruiseline. Princess automatically puts the tips on your shipboard account. Most of the lines don't do that but on RCI you can have it put on your account.....

I believe that most mainstream lines DO automatically add the amount to your on board account, at least those with American influences such as Royal Caribbean (RCI), Carnival, NCL, Princess, Celebrity, Disney, and Holland America, and several European influenced lines such as MSC and Costa. It is mostly the luxury lines who don't since it is already included in the very high fares you pay to cruise on those lines. RCI adds it automatically as their policy for all but a few regions where it is included in the base fare due to the propensity of many local customers trying to remove them for one reason or another.

What is general consensus for an amount to tip a very helpful Head Waiter ?

I don't know about generally but for me it depends on how helpful and how often they were helpful. Lets us start with the fact that my auto tips are already included so anything I give is extra, $10-$20

I believe that most mainstream lines DO automatically add the amount to your on board account, at least those with American influences such as Royal Caribbean (RCI), Carnival, NCL, Princess, Celebrity, Disney, and Holland America, and several European influenced lines such as MSC and Costa. It is mostly the luxury lines who don't since it is already included in the very high fares you pay to cruise on those lines. RCI adds it automatically as their policy for all but a few regions where it is included in the base fare due to the propensity of many local customers trying to remove them for one reason or another.

Agreed, but then that response was 13 years ago.

Agreed, but then that response was 13 years ago.

Dang it! Got caught again with not noticing the dates on old posts!! I wish the Cruise Critic powers that be would flag posts that are a year or so old so those of us who never check the dates would be warned not to make ourselves look so "airheady". :D;):(

Dang it! Got caught again with not noticing the dates on old posts!! I wish the Cruise Critic powers that be would flag posts that are a year or so old so those of us who never check the dates would be warned not to make ourselves look so "airheady". :D;):(

Yes, I think some posts are still useful and others would be better off archived or at least closed.

deleted as repetitious

I could not find a more recent thread to ask the question on .

It would have been better to start a new thread than to liven a 13 year old thread. It has some inaccurate info because of changes.

It would have been better to start a new thread than to liven a 13 year old thread. It has some inaccurate info because of changes.

Agreed, somethings can change with in a year, over 13 years it is almost impossible to have not changed.:D

It's amazing that Cruise Critic can't come up with a way to lock posts from new replies automatically after a period of inactivity. This thread is one of the oldest I've seen revived.

It's amazing that Cruise Critic can't come up with a way to lock posts from new replies automatically after a period of inactivity. This thread is one of the oldest I've seen revived.

Agreed, I think most threads/subjects are out of date within a two year period of inactivity, etc, except for maybe the port of call section. :D