Pre tipping

[shipshape sam]

Sounds like pre-tipping wouldn't work for anyone not using or expecting service from the room steward other than making up the bed and fresh towels.

 

It really is a matter of preferences. I get more value than the $20.00 pre-tip I give to our room steward and our waiter, thus I am happy. My wife is happy that all during the day as we return to our cabin, the ice bucket is full! We use the ice, so to us, not having to run low, seek out the room steward is worth the pre-tip for the ice and other small things they do!

 

As to the waiter, yes the other table mates are made to wait. We are served first, and if there is any food left and if there is still time, the other table mates get waited on if they have not pre-tipped. What does happen, is they learn your name, they make sure your wine order or previous nights wine is there promptly, they anticipate your empty plate, or a problem with your food selection. Some waiters do this without a pre-tip. I am at this point in my sailing life, not wanting to chance it, so I pre-tip and have a great time! Its only $20! I would be willing to bet($$$) many lost that in 2 minutes in the casino.

 

Service without pre-tipping is fine, service with pre-tipping has been great for us and we will continue the practice. I only hope that you do not get our waiter or room steward the week after us. We also are very friendly and nice to our staff. We once pooled $5.00 from each couple at our dinner table and gave to our assistant waiter on a Saturday evening for him to call his parents the next morning as we docked. He had mention he had not spoken to them in a month and we just did something nice. Did he have the money and choose not to call............we don't care, we did something nice. Look at the pre-tip in that light. Do something nice, something unexpected, wow the waiter or room steward with being a great guest!

 

 

 

 

 

If you don't pre-tip, don't fret.

[littlewoodenboxes]

My philosophy is that every working person deserves to be justly compensated for doing an honest days work. That said, the problem is, who should be deciding what is just.

 

 

That is mine as well. Where we differ is possibly in the relationships that we have had. My sister has been a waitress/bartender for 13 years and is very good at what she does. Listening to her horror stories of guests that run her in circles and then leave tiny, if not altogether non-exsistant tips gives me an appriciation of how many people in the service industry live with the constant threat of being "Stiffed" even when they do a good job.

 

My husband and I will be taking our first cruise this fall. So I have many questions, and no answers. Personally, I bridle at the concept of a "suggested tip"; I will decide who, when, and how much I tip. In spite of that I will be pre-tipping. Not in any attempt to place a bribe for better service, but strictly as a favor to relieve the tension of those that serve me. At least they won't have to worry if my husband and I will "stiff" them. I don't expect better service because of it, however I see how gratitude would be a normal human recation. I will base my pre-tips on what I believe to be base payment for competent performance. I may leave an additional amount at the end of the cruise as service warrants.

 

Justly or not, the service industry as a whole works very hard for the money they earn, and are often underpaid for their effort, just like many of us. To me, pre-tipping is a way of expressing my appriciation of their efforts without holding my judgement, like an axe over them for the duration of the cruise.

 

I'd also hate to get stingy at the end when I see what is likely to be an enormous bill that makes me choke!

-April.

 

-Fair Winds.

[Soxfan4ever]

Having recently disembarked on a CB cruise, I did give the steward a pre-tip. As it was my first cruise, I didn't know what to expect. To be honest, I don't think that I would do it, again.

 

The cabin service was fine, but I didn't notice any special attention (I think that anybody can get cushions for the balcony chairs). Being fairly low-maintenance travelers, I don't think that we would need anything out of the ordinary. I tend to think that I might give a little extra at the end, if I notice exemplary service. Just my humble thoughts after a wonderful first-cruise experience.

[Leo Jay]

The real value of additional/pre-tipping comes if you have specific things you need done on a regular basis. I think I'll hand the steward $10 and ask him/her to put the beds together and make them up as one, and maybe provide an extra bedsheet to lay over the (woefully underlaundered) bedspread. Then based on the level of service he/she provides, I can adjust the auto-tipping amount accordingly. So even if he/she is marginally competent, he/she still gets something, which is more than fair for marginally competent in my book.

:p

[SugarFreeSheila]

Pre-tipping is a fabulous idea. I'm pretty high-maintenance on cruises, so just $20 upfront (with an assurance that there will be more to come later provided it is due) can take you such a long way in terms of good service and an excellent attitude. Everybody's happy. No "Service With a Smirk" for me! :D

[michmike]

Do you folks pretip when you go to a restaurant?? If not, why do you feel compelled to do so on a cruise ship? To me it smacks of bribery. If the practice takes root, then won't all of us eventually be forced to pretip if we don't want to be ignored while you are accommodated?

 

I expect service personnel to provide SERVICE. I tip at the end of the trip based on how well they did that and whether there was anything in their performance that was above and beyond the normal.

 

If they fail, during the trip, to provide adequate service I bring it to their attention first and if that doesn't yield results then I start up the supervisory chain.

 

As for the discussion of pooling of tips, I can only speak to the practice on Holland America. There they assess a $10 per person, per day automatic gratuity that is shared by the dining room servers, your cabin steward and certain other shipboard staff. The bar staff are taken care of separately by an automatic 15% service charge on all beverage orders. You MAY remove the auto-tip if you feel that service has not been adequate.

 

IF you REMOVE the auto-tip, then anything you give to any of the staff in the way of individual tips must be turned in by them to be pooled. I'm not certain of the enforcement process but understand that one's job can be in jeopardy if they fail to turn in tips received from folks who have removed the auto-tip. A list of those who have removed the auto-tip is provided to staff members so that they know who have removed it and therefore know that tips received from those folks must be turned into the pool.

 

If you do NOT remove the auto-tip, then anything extra you give to staff members can be kept by them.

 

Again, please keep in mind that this is only the Holland America process.

 

Personally, unless the service was abhorrent, I think anyone who removes the auto-tip is simply cheap. If we can't afford the $20 a day for the two of us, then we shouldn't be cruising.

 

The next to last day of the cruise we discuss over bfast the service we've received and then make decisions about who, if anyone, we feel is deserving of an additional tip. We then seal those tips in envelopes and present them personally with a thank you. That process works for us and we have never had any significant service problems.

 

All of that having been said, this is another of those board topics where folks have their own opinions and it's not likely we will change each other's behavior. All we can really do is give newbies both sides of the issue, so that they can form an opinion of their own.

[Floflegs]

What a valid point about pre-tipping when you go out at home. Of course you don't. As we are taking our first cruise from U.S. in November we are really at a loss as to whether to pre-tip or not. Previous cruises in the Med on British ships had tips included in the fare and we gave extra to those who deserved it at the end of the cruise. I would like to have tips included in the fare and to tip as appropriate over and above that.

[nan&glen]

We have always wondered about room service tipping. We have never used room service, but would like to someday. Who delivers your room service items? Is it your cabin steward? A waiter or assistant waiter? or someone from the kitchen staff?

 

What is an appropriate tip for room service? One of the posts suggested an envelope with $1.00 bills. It seems that $1.00 would be pretty low as the distance from the kitchen seems pretty far. Someone else mentioned getting $2.00 bills for tipping. That sounds reasonable but for a cup of coffee & danish maybe too much, and $1.00 would be appropriate. Again who is providing the service? Is it someone who is already getting a tip or someone who only survives on a small salary as kitchen help and relies heavily on tips from the room service function?

 

We have sailed exclusively on RCCL so a reply from anyone who knows their methods would be most valuable.

 

Thanks

[shipshape sam]

Nan&Glen,

 

I have never used room service, but my wife loves to use it. Especially in the morning to have breakfast delivered. The individuals who deliver the items requested are not your cabin stewards. I am not sure how they are compensated other than I would assume they do earn a salary and do get tips. It would be interesting to know if any tips they get along with tips that room stewards get go into a pool or are they separate?

 

Anyway, my wife tips either $1.00 or $2.00 depending on the item brought. If it is a breakfast, she tends to tip $2.00. If it is something small requested during the day, usually she tips $1.00.

 

It is really presonal preference as to the amount of tip and your concept of 'value' received.

 

The only thing I have against tipping in general is the original concept of cruising whereby 'everything' was included. Cruise lines are getting away from this to allow ship service personel to earn more money, shift the payment for these people to passengers and keep their 'stated' price of the cruise lower. I do not like to carry cash around once I get on board ship. Cruise lines also (RCL in particular) automatically add 15% gratitudity to drink purchases around the ship. In the last year, I have noticed, that there is another line on the receipt, whereby you can give an additional tip. I guess the reason for this is, for example, you purchase a drink for $4.50. They would add a 15% tip of around 70 cents to that. Someone as in the example of room service might think that a $1.00 tip is appropriate, thus could add another 30 cents or even more.

 

I have on occasion added an additional tip, but most times do not.

 

I personally would like standard room service charge and when I (actually my wife) orders room service, an automatic tip charge would show up on my folio. This way, I would not have to have a wad of $1.00's to hand out during our cruise. Again, this is because I LIKE just carring my CARD and nothing else unless I head to the casino.

[Aussie Cruisers]

I have found this discussion so interesting. My wife and I have never cruised, but have pre-paid our tips with the travel agent. In Australia we don't tip as our government has very good minimum wages that means tipping is very rare. I guess waiters love American tourists!

 

Anyway, I guess it is a cultural difference for me as tipping at the start, as well as the tips that we have already paid (months before we even stepped aboard) seems to be a bit expensive. We lose money changing to the US dollar too!

 

However, I will try the tip to the room steward, and the dollar bills on the door. I am sure it will be a fun "Cross Cultural" experience!

 

Thanks for all your tips! hahahah :p

[kakalina]

WOW! Two dollar bills, what a brilliant idea. Going to the bank tomorrow for some for my cruise this month. As for pre-tipping; on our first cruise in '02 we had never heard of the boards and had no advice. It just semed to us that we had heard the wait staff didn't earn much and also they had days off during the cruise so it seemed appropriate to tip them in advance so they could buy something on their day off. This is what we told them when we tipped them and it has always worked for us. Once HAL instituted their "recommended tipping" policy we always opt out and tip on our own. I don't want the obnoxious waiter in the dining room to get a tip OF ANY KIND is he was rude to us. IMHO this works for us.

Trisha