SINGLE HSC/TIPPING THREAD (Previously "Why are gratuities not included in Fares?")

[catl331]

In the extra charge restaurants, is the server's gratuity part of that fee?

They are covered by the HSC pool.

Do we tip room service?

We do. $1 or $2 for breakfast or lunch. We've never had dinner in the room.

[styles27]

This is a great question. We always tip the specialty restaurant staff in cash after our meal...I didn't realize that they were included in the HSC.

 

Thanks for clarifying that.

[cb at sea]

Your cabin attendant, waiters, ass't waiters and Head Waiter are covered by the HSC. If you decide to tip more than what you already have, it's customary to do it on the last evening....not "as you go".

 

The specialty restaurant fee INCLUDES the tip.

[cccole]

Room service tips should be given when food is delivered. It's always nice to have some bills ready, especially if you are in your robe welcoming the delivery of your first cup of coffee. As has been mentioned, other cash tips are welcomed by employees during or at the end of your cruise.

[RuthC]

The specialty restaurant fee INCLUDES the tip.

No, it doesn't. All of the specialty restaurant fee goes to HAL; none of it goes to the stewards.

However, the specialty restaurant workers do receive money from the Hotel Service Charge.

[RocketMan275]

Your cabin attendant, waiters, ass't waiters and Head Waiter are covered by the HSC. If you decide to tip more than what you already have, it's customary to do it on the last evening....not "as you go".

 

The specialty restaurant fee INCLUDES the tip.

Perhaps for those in traditional dinning with the same servers every night.

 

We intend to dine exclusively in the specialty restaurants in the future including breakfast (suites). We will tip "as we go".

[rkorchid]

We tip MDR stewards $50 a week (together for the two of them).

 

We tip $2 for room service (breakfast).

 

We also tip bar servers $2 each time we sit down for drinks. Sometimes that may involve more than one drink each.

 

This is on a 30-day plus cruise where we interact with these people over a long period.

[serendipity1499]

Got an article written by Dan Askin a Cruise Critic Contributer with Eric Silverstein a Cruise Critic senior Editor outlined the 7 times you should not tip on a cruise..

 

No. 3 threw me for a loop..

 

Quote

3. You're dining at the specialty restaurant.

 

Paying $30 for surf & turf

 

We always leave a tip when dining at specialty restaurants..

 

Wonder what others think of this..

Edited March 26, 2017 by serendipity1499

[mysticsailor]

I agree with you. We always tip weekly in the main dining room, why should we be different in the Pinnacle?

[igraf]

Here is a link to the article:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=2077

 

I agree about not tipping extra for meals. That is definitely included in the daily hotel service charge.

 

igraf

[iancal]

I actually agree.

 

When we travel to countries that add a service charge, often fifteen percent, we do not tip extra.

 

Why should we do so on a ship when every transaction involves a service charge. There is no way we are tipping extra at the bar, as an example, when 15 points is added to the bill.

 

We recently came back from South and Central America. Most places added a service charge but then left room for an additional tip. I asked a waiter why.....he replied that it is for Americans. He did not expect anyone else to leave an additional amount.

[freestyling]

We leave an additional tip @ specialty restaurants. I don't know who get's the corkage fee and since we bring our wine onboard I will also tip the wine steward each night.

[alwaysfrantic]

We do tip at the specialty restaurants. I assumed the fee was the fee. I know they are covered by the daily gratuity but always felt they ought to get extra.

[rkacruiser]

Specialty restaurants: sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. It does depend upon my level of satisfaction and the quality of service.

 

Fixed Seating MDR: I have never had a dining room team that provided sub-par service. I do provide an additional gratuity to them at the end of the cruise. Wine service in the MDR is a different question. Some Wine Stewards provide minimal service and they will receive, if anything, the smallest gratuity ($1/day) of the MDR team.

 

If I find a bartender or lounge stewards and stewardesses who provide exceptional service, at the end of the cruise, I do offer them an additional gratuity. Sometimes, I become a regular at a lounge's bar rather sitting at a table. Again, if I develop a "relationship" with the bartender(s) at that time, sometimes I will start leaving an additional small gratuity when I leave. I have found sometimes doing so will result in a more generous pour in the future. Sometimes, it seems to make no difference whatsoever. (That is OK by me because I am doing this because I appreciate their willingness to be friendly and take their time to interact with me.)

[bUU]

Why should we do so on a ship when every transaction involves a service charge.

I agree. It is one thing is the service provider makes clear "this isn't going to the servers" and therefore strictly a convenience charge covering the preparation but not the service. Absent that, I take the service charge to be just that - THE charge for service.

[DocJohnB]

I agree with the "not tipping" in speciality restaurants.

When the speciality restaurants first came about with their extra fee (above MDR), it was stated/implied that the fee INCLUDED the gratuity.

One is already (in reality) paying for the meal in the MDR as part of the price of admission. Additionally gratuities are automatically generated on a daily basis. In reality, when I dine in a speciality restaurant, I am paying for my MDR food, extra for the speciality dining "experience, and my gratuity is being charged to my bill already. Enough! YMMV

I am not adverse to tipping and in fact consider myself a generous tipper.

[sammiedawg]

Mass market cruisers are so accustomed to nickel and dining they often assume extra tipping is always required. We all pay the hotel service charge which is a daily gratuity, split among various categories. This service charge came about because cruisers did not want to guess on how much to tip and who to give it to.

Bar staff still charge an extra gratuity for every soda or drink dispensed.

 

Americans are special suckers for tipping, as someone pointed out already. Service employees have their hand out, even when they are doing their basic job. This is especially true in big cities. We spend a lot of time in NYC where the hotel doorman is looking for a buck just for opening the door.

[rkacruiser]

sammiedawg: re: Hotel Doorman---From me for opening the door, they receive a "thank you very much" and nothing more.

[iancal]

I had an email from Marriott not that long ago. They were promoting the notion that we should be leaving a tip for the maid when we stay at a hotel. The article seemed to indicate that they would be placing envelopes in rooms for exactly this purpose. Sure enough,we did see one of those envelopes during our stay in a Marriott hotel last earlier this month.

 

I did not leave a tip. I expect the room to be clean and ready for us with everything in the room functioning as it should. That is the basic premise of their offer and my acceptance (payment).

 

I do not think that it is reasonable for Marriott,HAL,or any other company to expect customers to subsidize their payroll costs.

[GUT2407]

Just do what you like and stop trying to tell everyone else what to do.

[igraf]

The responders on this thread have been telling others what they personally do, not what everyone else should do.

 

You are the only one telling others what to do!

 

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

Just do what you like and stop trying to tell everyone else what to do.

[NMLady]

I had an email from Marriott not that long ago. They were promoting the notion that we should be leaving a tip for the maid when we stay at a hotel. The article seemed to indicate that they would be placing envelopes in rooms for exactly this purpose. Sure enough,we did see one of those envelopes during our stay in a Marriott hotel last earlier this month.

 

I did not leave a tip. I expect the room to be clean and ready for us with everything in the room functioning as it should. That is the basic premise of their offer and my acceptance (payment).

 

I do not think that it is reasonable for Marriott,HAL,or any other company to expect customers to subsidize their payroll costs.

 

We always leave a daily tip for hotel/motel maids. If there is no envelope or card, then I take a notepaper and write For Housekeeper, thank you. And I put a couple $$ on top.

[Lady Chew]

We always leave a daily tip for hotel/motel maids. If there is no envelope or card, then I take a notepaper and write For Housekeeper, thank you. And I put a couple $$ on top.

 

That's exactly what I do!

Shipboard ... I always give the cabin attendant(s) a generous tip ... since we do My Time Dining, or whatever it's called, we don't always have the same wait staff, so we generally don't tip extra. If we do develop a "relationship" with any of them, we'll leave them an extra tip at the end of the cruise. Same with the bar staff. I don't add a tip to any drink we purchase, and I don't tip for any free drinks we get on various cruise lines ... but, if we develop a relationship, yes we do ...

[ithaca gal]

I read the article and was taken aback at the suggestion that you do not need to tip the counselors in the Kids Camp. I'm not going to go into detail here, but I think that they should be tipped if you believe they have kept your kids happy during the cruise.

 

As for other tipping, I can't see why giving a little extra tip to servers in the MDR isn't a good idea if you can tell that they have really tried to give you a great dining experience. We have always tipped a little extra on the last night we are in the MDR -- sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less, depending on the servers. We have been lucky to have servers who go all out for us, so why not?

 

We never really thought about tipping in the specialty restaurants until I read it on CC. Then I realized, if they knock themselves out for us, we will do so. Unfortunately, we haven't found that to be so on a couple of recent cruises, so we didn't.

 

I guess our philosophy is this: If we can make someone's day with a few dollars, why the heck not?

[swin26]

We do not tip at the specialty restaurants unless the server does something very special for us. We have open dining and do not tip our servers each night - this, to us, is the same. We typically tip extra to our cabin stewards (in addition to the daily charge).