Has anyone openly not paid required tips at end of cruise?

[ImmortalxKiss]

We've always tipped.. but I don't think we've ever tipped over the suggested amount. We've always felt everyone was awesome ..never had any problems, I guess we just felt the suggestion was enough. I think it's awesome that some of you are willing to do more, I know working in the hospitality industry it has to be much appreciated!

[Catrin]

We have always kept our tip on.

One cruise we tipped a bar waiter who we loved in the Piano Bar each night. One cruise we tipped our room steward an extra $20. He was awesome.

 

Catrin

[travelgarn]

I actually used to work with a woman who encouraged me to go on my first cruise (now hooked, of course). Anyway, after I had been on cruise #3, we were chatting as a group in our break room & was talking about cruising. The subject of tips came up, and I say that after my first cruise, I started pre-paying my tips & have ALWAYS tipped extra at the end of my cruise for those who went above & beyond. SOOOO, she says, "Oh, the first day I always go and remove the tips for one of us!" :eek: (Her & her DH sail together) Her rationale is that is should be $10 PER ROOM. She & I argued for the longest. My explanations of more people, more mess; waiters are waiting on more than one person; this is how these men & women make a living! And to make matters worse, she was explaining that this is a way to make cruising economical!!! AND when a bunch of us co-workers went on a cruise together, I noticed that she acted very authoritative to the wait staff - like they were beneath her...I was very ill!

I personally PRE-PAY my tips, as I feel it is a part of my cruise fare. I also tip extra (accordingly) at the end of our cruise...along with a verbal thank you to my room stewards & wait staff. I usually wish I could give more!!!

 

DJ

[travelgarn]

OH...and to make matters worse, she's PLATINUM!

 

DJ

[travelgarn]

We are going on our first cruise on July 31st. We prepaid our tips and plan to just leave them as is.

 

But now we are feeling like cheapskates after reading this and other threads where people are talking about tipping an extra $50 to the steward, waiter and asst waiter. One guy said he always tips the steward $100 at the beginning of the cruise!!

 

Are we in the norm if we just leave the prepaid tips on and don't tip the steward and waiters extra at the beginning or end of our cruise?

 

Will they already know that we paid our tips in advance?

 

I usually tip extra...but sure can't tip like that. I feel that there is nothing wrong with prepaying tips & not tipping extra at the beginning/end.

 

And, I'm not sure if they know you have prepaid your tips.

 

DJ

[ladyd11933]

We are going on our first cruise on July 31st. We prepaid our tips and plan to just leave them as is.

 

But now we are feeling like cheapskates after reading this and other threads where people are talking about tipping an extra $50 to the steward, waiter and asst waiter. One guy said he always tips the steward $100 at the beginning of the cruise!!

 

Are we in the norm if we just leave the prepaid tips on and don't tip the steward and waiters extra at the beginning or end of our cruise?

 

Will they already know that we paid our tips in advance?

 

Yes, they will know that you have paid them in advance. Some people may tip extra but you are not a cheapskate if you do not. You are paying Carnivals recommended amount. I have given an extra $20 at the end of the cruise before for an excellent room steward who I felt extra but unless they have done something above and beyond then I don't think it is necessary.

[Megnolia]

I have always given an extra cash tip to my stewards and waiters at the end of the cruise, and never thought of removing tips.

 

However on one cruise, I noticed that I had been charged double for tips on my S&S account (hubby was charged separately on his account). So I went to the purser's desk to remove the extra charge, and they treated me like I was removing all tips. I showed her the two charges, a couple hours apart, and she asked for a reason why I was removing tips. I tried to explain that I wasn't removing them, that I just wanted to take off the extra charge, but I had to sign off and everything! I felt so guilty!

[lannie180]

I never cruised with Carnival but man times with RCCL and Celebrity. I never paid my tip in advanced. I like to tip at the end. I want to make sure I get the service I wxpect. I always tipped fully except once. The waiter did not deserve it. I always made sure to write my table # on the envelop so the waiter and his assistant will know. I always bring with me $20.00 of $1.00 new bills to tip different people if I think they deserve it at the moment. Those people do GET paid by the cruise company even if they try to say that they don't and they are their to do their job regardless but I fell that because of them our cruise is great so I do tip them and never disappoint them except once.

[Missiowa]

I think it would be interesting to know, and I think this is what the OP meant by the thread,

 

Have you ever gone on a cruise, and at the end of the trip realized

"Crap, we are out of money" or "Crap, our credit card is messed up and we can't get any money for the trip home" so they go to the desk and have to reduce the tips to make ends meet on the way home, for things like the parking lot at their home airport, baggage fees for the flight home, or things like that.

 

Things happen, and sometimes things go wrong.

 

I meant exactly what I said. They are adding $ 10 per person, per day to the end or beginning if prepaid for gratituties. I am wondering if anyone actually admits they reverse these and not pay them.

[QTPieRye]

We have prepaid our tips for our next cruise...... which we have never done before, but since we've never removed them from our S&S account, I thought we'd give it a try. I will be very curious to see if there is any difference in the service that we receive during the week.............

 

Our TA insists on not pre-paying because you cannot adjust them if you are unhappy about something~ not sure if this is true or not.

 

My only concern is, like another poster mentioned, the solicitation for tips in the dining room.... if we have prepaid our gratuities, we may or may not tip extra, depending on the service we receive. If we choose not to tip extra, I hope that the waiter knows we didn't stiff him, but that we prepaid our tips.

[jessemon]

I did left absolutely no tip after our second cruise.

 

First cruise, I gave an extra tip. The service was incredible! :D

 

Second cruise, the service was beyond shocking and unacceptable. Normally we would reduce the tip if the service isn't that great, but for this cruise... OH MY!!! Nobody on the cruise deserve a penny for the way our group was treated!! I will not go into details but we did filed a complaint with Carnival and got partially reimbursed. :mad:

 

My wife and I are willing to give Carnival another chance, so we're booked on this upcoming November cruise. We got extra tip ready! :)

I have to ask two things...

What in the world did your whole group do to the wonderful staff that they would treat all in your group poorly???? I see though that you won't mention it so it was probably a way to not only beat the service staff out of their tips but also to stiff Carnival on a credit for another cruise....:rolleyes:

Second, let us all know how you avoid tipping all staff, waiters, cabin stewards and so on on your next cruise so we all can do the same thing and get a credit for our next cruise...:D

[Sailingstagediva]

first cruise in 1983, no one warned us (we were kids) that we needed to tip. We did not have credit cards. Paid cash for everything. We did not budget for tips and only had about half the amount. How embarrassing! We had a couple bottles of wine purchased at ports. We tipped the best we could with an explanation that the amount had nothing to do with the amazing job they did and apologized. We left the room steward the wine with an apology! To this day I feel bad!

 

Re: Tipping MD. Am I wrong in assuming this is someone who paid their dues as wait staff, got promoted to MD to manage staff. If he/she is a poor manager, I can see not tipping. If things are going smoothly for you, why are you not tipping? If you do not see this employee, perhaps there are fires being put out elsewhere. Thoughts? :confused:

[arush5268d]

My cabin steward on my Hawaiian cruise got 3 pennies. It was with Norwegian and the tips were automatic so we left 3 cents on the nightstand as a protest.

 

 

Wow. You should be ashamed of yourself.

[mdvlprof]

Once I didn't tip maitre'd because I never saw him. He didn't even stop by just to say hello and introduce himself.. Don't tip waiter the full amount for DS [just DS] since he can't eat regular food.

[arush5268d]

Once I didn't tip maitre'd because I never saw him. He didn't even stop by just to say hello and introduce himself.. Don't tip waiter the full amount for DS [just DS] since he can't eat regular food.

 

 

There's no need to tip him unless you feel the need to or he did something for you. He is well paid by Carnival.

[cruisenanny]

first cruise in 1983, no one warned us (we were kids) that we needed to tip. We did not have credit cards. Paid cash for everything. We did not budget for tips and only had about half the amount. How embarrassing! We had a couple bottles of wine purchased at ports. We tipped the best we could with an explanation that the amount had nothing to do with the amazing job they did and apologized. We left the room steward the wine with an apology! To this day I feel bad!

 

Re: Tipping MD. Am I wrong in assuming this is someone who paid their dues as wait staff, got promoted to MD to manage staff. If he/she is a poor manager, I can see not tipping. If things are going smoothly for you, why are you not tipping? If you do not see this employee, perhaps there are fires being put out elsewhere. Thoughts? :confused:

 

To me it would be like going to a restaurant & tipping the manager, while it's certainly not unheard of, it't not the norm. He/she would probably have to go out of their way somehow to get tipped, such as arranging special seating or food for you, or just making your visit extra pleasant in some way. Hubby & I have over 40 years combined in the restaurant business & I feel very comfortable with my standards for his/her tip:)

[dwayneb236]

We are going on our first cruise on July 31st. We prepaid our tips and plan to just leave them as is.

 

But now we are feeling like cheapskates after reading this and other threads where people are talking about tipping an extra $50 to the steward, waiter and asst waiter. One guy said he always tips the steward $100 at the beginning of the cruise!!

 

Are we in the norm if we just leave the prepaid tips on and don't tip the steward and waiters extra at the beginning or end of our cruise?

 

Will they already know that we paid our tips in advance?

 

My wife and I will usually give the room steward, waiter and his assistant an extra $20 each on top of the already paid tips. We've always been very pleased with the service. Can't see giving an extra $100, but it's nice someone is able to do that. I'm sure they appreciate it. But they also seem to appreciate any little bit they get. So far in my experience, they are good people. Give extra if you can, but if you can't, don't sweat it. You've done what you could.

[pyroguy]

 

don't know if I agree. When you go to a restaurant, do you specifically tip the restaurant manager?

 

<edit>...sorry I guess someone already posted this...</edit>

[pyroguy]

He asked if you have ever REMOVED or NOT payed the tips. Why are most of you saying you have payed the tips or giving a reason to leave a tip?

 

...because tipping is a HOT topic. and because this is a discussion board, not a FAQ.

[serene56]

I have always given an extra cash tip to my stewards and waiters at the end of the cruise, and never thought of removing tips.

 

However on one cruise, I noticed that I had been charged double for tips on my S&S account (hubby was charged separately on his account). So I went to the purser's desk to remove the extra charge, and they treated me like I was removing all tips. I showed her the two charges, a couple hours apart, and she asked for a reason why I was removing tips. I tried to explain that I wasn't removing them, that I just wanted to take off the extra charge, but I had to sign off and everything! I felt so guilty!

 

 

Was your account the main holder of the cabin?

 

When we cruise I set everything up- we share charging privileges. On the print out how it works--

he will have his tips on his page-- and on my page to show me the entire cabins spending. (it was not charged double)

[catbaba20]

We have prepaid our tips for our next cruise...... which we have never done before, but since we've never removed them from our S&S account, I thought we'd give it a try. I will be very curious to see if there is any difference in the service that we receive during the week.............

 

Our TA insists on not pre-paying because you cannot adjust them if you are unhappy about something~ not sure if this is true or not.

 

My only concern is, like another poster mentioned, the solicitation for tips in the dining room.... if we have prepaid our gratuities, we may or may not tip extra, depending on the service we receive. If we choose not to tip extra, I hope that the waiter knows we didn't stiff him, but that we prepaid our tips.

 

 

Going on my first carnival cruise in a few weeks. I cruised rcl before and they ðelivered envelopes and little pieces of paper saying that u prepaid ur tips to out in each envelope for the last nite. We did tip extra to our waiter and asst Waite and the cabin steward but it was nice to have an envelope to give everyone that we had prepaid. Do carnival not do this?

[bdstrom]

I have to ask two things...

What in the world did your whole group do to the wonderful staff that they would treat all in your group poorly???? I see though that you won't mention it so it was probably a way to not only beat the service staff out of their tips but also to stiff Carnival on a credit for another cruise....:rolleyes:

Second, let us all know how you avoid tipping all staff, waiters, cabin stewards and so on on your next cruise so we all can do the same thing and get a credit for our next cruise...:D

 

One person in our group requires a microwave for his medical needs and the microwave is located in staff area, so someone had to come and get the medicine and then microwave it... this guy got nothing but three hours wait and rolling eyes. That is only a fraction of everything.

 

Why would you call them wonderful if you were not even there? :rolleyes:

[arkerlin]

On our last cruise, our room steward was horrible. We never saw him/her or his/her assistant once. Our bed was partially made, we never received ice, one day we had NO new towels. Since some stuff had been done, we just reduced our tips for that particular person.

 

We also requested a guest survey and were told it would be emailed to us. It never was, it disappointed me because I really wanted to let Carnival know how bad our room steward was.

 

I will say though...on our last cruise we had first-time cruisers teller us how "shocked and angry" they were that gratuities were added to the bill. When I hear people like this, I just ignore them. Some people don't tip EVER - including at restaurants or bars at home. Hopefully these people will some day see the errors of their ways.

[Healed32]

I am in no way an expert. I have only cruised one time and have another scheduled for September. We did tip the Maitre D last year but he came by our table every single night and talked and joked with us. I probably wouldn't tip if I had no interaction with him.

[meatloafsfan]

On our B2B cruises I left the auto gratuity on both weeks and only tipped extra to some of the bar staff who took good care of me over the two weeks.

 

I did not tip the Maitre D either week because he never visited our table. The last night on the second week, he spent a lot of time at the table next to ours flirtly shamelessly with the two young women (early 20's) who were sitting there (he was crouched down by their table throughout most of their dinner - he would have to leave briefly but always came back). Despite being right next to us, to never even acknowledged our table so I figured he really didn't want a tip from us.

 

On DCL, I did tip our Maitre D (or whatever they call them) because he came around each night and made sure we knew about elegant nights, character breakfasts, and to make certain that everything was okay.