Tipping on board brittania?

[kandgm2006]

Hi everyone, finally just one week to go until our 1st ever cruise, very nervous but getting just a little excited now, we're off on the brittannia, apologies for a silly question, but I'm confused over tipping, not sure if it's standard practice but apparently Park & October add a daily supplement to cover tips, we always tip wherever we go, not sure whether to ask for this to be removed from our bill which we can apparently do and just tip as we go, if we did the automatic tipping, I think I'd feel mean not tipping the waiter or room service, haso anyone any experience of this at all, any comments or suggestions would be most appreciated, don't really want to end up doing both. Thanks in advance.

[the english lady]

Hi everyone, finally just one week to go until our 1st ever cruise, very nervous but getting just a little excited now, we're off on the brittannia, apologies for a silly question, but I'm confused over tipping, not sure if it's standard practice but apparently Park & October add a daily supplement to cover tips, we always tip wherever we go, not sure whether to ask for this to be removed from our bill which we can apparently do and just tip as we go, if we did the automatic tipping, I think I'd feel mean not tipping the waiter or room service, haso anyone any experience of this at all, any comments or suggestions would be most appreciated, don't really want to end up doing both. Thanks in advance.

 

Entirely up to you..now that's helpful.

We do not touch auto grats, and do not tip on top.

Some will say they take the auto tips off and tip the old way.

And some will leave the auto tips in place and tip on top.

If you leave the auto tips in place you can just forget about the whole tipping thing. You will not have to think about it at all on your cruise.

Why would you feel mean not give people a tip, when you have already done so via auto tips. Plus they are so busy in the MDR these days you probably would not be able to find them when you leave anyway.

Should add you do not tip every evening anyway. If you take auto tips off you tip at the end of the cruise.

Edited October 28, 2016 by the english lady

[Cruise Puss]

I totally agree with everything English Lady has said.

 

We don't touch the auto tips either. We do, sometimes, give a bit extra to the Room Steward, but it's unusual. When we have a Suite we also give the Butler extra as we use him alot.

 

My advice, leave well alone and enjoy your cruise! 🚢 [emoji4]

 

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[dgs1956]

This question comes up time and time again.

Clearly you are OK with tipping so can I suggest you leave the auto-tipping on and don't tip any extra at all. Don't feel bad about it. Just do it and forget it. Keep it nice and simple.

[Garfunkel]

We leave it on, it's part of the holiday cost to us. We still give the room steward a tip when we leave.

 

 

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[Mysticalmother]

We leave it on, it's part of the holiday cost to us. We still give the room steward a tip when we leave.

 

 

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We leave it on too. If the room steward is very good he/she might get a bit extra. But with Freedom dining you may get different waiters on different nights anyway, so the auto tips cover this.

 

It is so easy just to leave it on, and then forget about tipping. Tipping is part of the culture of cruising.

[sapphire4]

We always leave the gratuities on the account then we can enjoy the cruise without having to carry money around and worry about the levels of tips to give people. That said the queue to remove them at reception on a recent Britannia trip was huge. Its a huge subject of debate with lots of threads about the whys and wherefores. We had a suite and had the most useless butler and wish now we had removed the butler element.

[annieuk]

First, Sapphire can I say you were very unlucky to have a useless Butler. The ones we have had have all been great. The trouble with saying you don't want the Butler is that it removes the possibility of dining in your suite from other than the Room Service Menu. It's nice sometimes to have a cooked breakfast in your suite, or something from the main Dining Room lunch menu and you can only have that via the Butler but if that doesn't bother you then fine. We have tended to use the Butler a lot for entertaining but not everyone does.

 

We always leave the auto tips on which covers the cabin steward and the waiters - it's supposed to cover the Butler too but we have always left extra for him, depending on how much we have asked him to do. I don't know what people do who are on Freedom Dining and remove the auto tips - they can't take money down each evening to pay their waiters for that night surely. We've always had set or Club Dining but as I say have left the tips on. We have found some people saying "You can take the tips off you know". We just accept it as part of cruising. Maybe one day it will all be included in the fare but I can't see it happening just yet.

[jeanlyon]

Interestingly as somebody who removes the auto tip and does it the old fashioned way, on our next cruise with Fred, tips and drinks are included! Now to me that simply means they have factored it into the price of the cruise, so I would probably still use an envelope. Hmmm, strange one.

[majortom10]

Followed numerous threads on tipping/gratuities on various forums over a long period of time and cannot see or understand the logic of removing auto-tips and then "they say" pay the same amount in an envelope at the end of the cruise. My logic is that those that do this have no intention of paying the same amount and pay either less or nothing at all or that it makes them feel "greater than thou" by handing over the same amount in an envelope.

[jeanlyon]

As usual, you always say the same thing. Your logic is wrong.

 

Our waiters on Oriana were absolutely magic and it was a great pleasure to give them their tips, especially the junior one who was on his way home to see his wife and 1 year old child. We had great conversations with them about their home and their families. Nothing to do with greater than thou!. I don't feel greater than anybody. It's a gift for a job well done. I don''t feel greater than my hairdresser or a taxi driver. Our cabin steward Zino was also a lovely person, very worried about my husband who was ill on the cruise. Again, it was so nice to personally give him his tips. It's a gift freely given, not a bloody service charge.

Edited October 29, 2016 by jeanlyon

[Mysticalmother]

As usual, you always say the same thing. Your logic is wrong.

 

Our waiters on Oriana were absolutely magic and it was a great pleasure to give them their tips, especially the junior one who was on his way home to see his wife and 1 year old child. We had great conversations with them about their home and their families. Nothing to do with greater than thou!. I don't feel greater than anybody. It's a gift for a job well done. I don''t feel greater than my hairdresser or a taxi driver. Our cabin steward Zino was also a lovely person, very worried about my husband who was ill on the cruise. Again, it was so nice to personally give him his tips. It's a gift freely given, not a bloody service charge.

 

Jean....I don't doubt for one minute that you personally do tip generously, but I do think that majortom has a point. Like many of us, I have followed many a thread on tippping over the years, and now on facebook and there does seem to be a bit of a groundswell to remove auto tips and pay what you want to who you want ( if anthing) particularly amongst the newer cruisers, who seem to think that £5.50 a day is far too much.....:( I guess if they are unfamiliar with cruising culture and pay a rock bottom price for a cruise then it may seem a disproportionate amount...not to me I hasten to add, I think it is very reasonable.

Bit what you have said about your upcoming cruise with Fred does rather concern me. if tips are included , and then you tip above that as well, then all that means is that you are perpetuating the "tipping in envelope" culture, and potentially inadvertently increasing the price of cruising for all of us! If tips are included then they are included....and that should mean no additional tipping unless it is to someone not included in the tipping pool. Otherwise you have the potential to make others feel they should tip over and above which completely defeats the object of including in the price in the first place.

[majortom10]

As usual, you always say the same thing. Your logic is wrong.

 

Our waiters on Oriana were absolutely magic and it was a great pleasure to give them their tips, especially the junior one who was on his way home to see his wife and 1 year old child. We had great conversations with them about their home and their families. Nothing to do with greater than thou!. I don't feel greater than anybody. It's a gift for a job well done. I don''t feel greater than my hairdresser or a taxi driver. Our cabin steward Zino was also a lovely person, very worried about my husband who was ill on the cruise. Again, it was so nice to personally give him his tips. It's a gift freely given, not a bloody service charge.

 

Pity it has no effect on your magic waiters and doesnt matter if he has 6 wives or 10 kids the money you gave him, if you have removed auto gratuities, is handed over to P&O and put into the general pool before it is divided amongst deserving staff. This is correct as of last week and after discussion with my absolutely magic cabin steward on Britannia so my logic is not wrong. Iasked what she preferred and she said it doesnt matter if you tip at end of cruise in envelope or leave auto gratuity on it all goes into same pool she told me they were only allowed to keep tips handed over personally if the auto gratuities were left in place.

[joe grumble]

we are also on this cruise and hope you have a smashing time on your first cruise.

about the tipping, if its like all the other cruise lines then just ask to have the automatic tipping taken off your account and ask for some envelopes so you can tip your cabin steward/waiters etc. at or near the end of the cruise.

[jeanlyon]

MM, yes agree. I can only speak for what I do. I give the correct amount. I'm sure there are some that do not. Just don't like people who make sweeping generalisations.

 

The thing they are concerned about is the Excellent mark on the feedback. I am told by crew members that if you tip with an envelope then they do not have to hand it in, even if I have removed autotips. If they do not get excellent on the feedback, then they lose the bonus payment from P&O.

 

Re the free Fred tips, yes it's a problem. One feels mean if there are no auto-tips because it's included in the price. Havent decided what to do about that.

Edited October 29, 2016 by jeanlyon

[akrdeb]

How much to tip cabin steward beside auto gratuity for two weeks cruise

 

 

 

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[wowzz]

How much to tip cabin steward beside auto gratuity for two weeks cruise

 

 

 

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You do not need to tip anything - you have already tipped via the auto tip.

 

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[davecttr]

How much to tip cabin steward beside auto gratuity for two weeks cruise

 

 

 

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Nothing!

 

The cabin steward already gets their tips from the auto gratuity

 

If the steward offers excellent service you might want to give them a tip. the amount is entirely up to you. Giving them an excellent mark on the survey is better as they get extra for that.

[balf]

Pity it has no effect on your magic waiters and doesnt matter if he has 6 wives or 10 kids the money you gave him, if you have removed auto gratuities, is handed over to P&O and put into the general pool before it is divided amongst deserving staff. This is correct as of last week and after discussion with my absolutely magic cabin steward on Britannia so my logic is not wrong. Iasked what she preferred and she said it doesnt matter if you tip at end of cruise in envelope or leave auto gratuity on it all goes into same pool she told me they were only allowed to keep tips handed over personally if the auto gratuities were left in place.

 

I fear your magic cabin steward is following in a long line of others in telling porkies to passengers on this subject. There have been long discussions on the Cunard boards and if you look at the stickies there you can see what is obviously the true story.

 

No one has ever told how the handing in of tips could really work, short of searching the staff.

 

David.

Edited October 30, 2016 by balf

[terrierjohn]

I fear your magic cabin steward is following in a long line of others in telling porkies to passengers on this subject. There have been long discussions on the Cunard boards and if you look at the stickies there you can see what is obviously the true story.

 

No one has ever told how the handing in of tips could really work, short of searching the staff.

 

David.

For your view of the system to work fairly then stewards and waiters (can't see how freedom could operate anyway) where passengers deduct auto tips would need to have an eqivalent deduction from the pool, otherwise they would receive double tips.

From all I have read P&O make up the difference for ALL auto tip reductions, which makes the hand over of all envelopes the most likely option. Most of this money would be due to P&O, with only the extra amount paid into the pool.

Whichever option currently operates has flaws and possibilities for cheating by both staff and company, which makes it far safer for all involved to make gratuities compulsary or build it into the cruise price.

It is not worth keeping the option to deduct auto tips just to satisfy the desire for some paasengers to feel the satisfaction of being thanked by the stewards and waiters.

[davecttr]

I fear your magic cabin steward is following in a long line of others in telling porkies to passengers on this subject. There have been long discussions on the Cunard boards and if you look at the stickies there you can see what is obviously the true story.

 

No one has ever told how the handing in of tips could really work, short of searching the staff.

David.

Phantom passengers. The crew are told that occasionally some passengers that remove auto tips and hand over an envelope are actually working for the company. If the staff member does not hand over the envelope they have their contract terminated.

 

Nasty but thats business.

[jeanlyon]

Going by my next cruise - tips are free, so therefore Fred Olsen have built the tips into the price we have paid.

 

I shall feel the necessity of giving an envelope as I have always done before, because it is not an autograt I have removed. It's an odd feeling. I think if they built it into the price, most people would tip the old way.

[SteveH2508]

I fear your magic cabin steward is following in a long line of others in telling porkies to passengers on this subject. There have been long discussions on the Cunard boards and if you look at the stickies there you can see what is obviously the true story.

 

No one has ever told how the handing in of tips could really work, short of searching the staff.

David.

 

Employer-employee relationship of trust, coupled with dismissal if employee is not following the rules (including flying themselves home on their dime - not worth it for an envelope with a few quid in it). Also, peer pressure - they live in very close proximity to each other - it would be known quite quickly who is 'cheating the system' and their colleagues.

[vinniega64]

I'll be first in the queue to get gratuities taken off, my wife and i work on a very tight budget, we save really hard all year, i mean scrimp and save all year to afford this cruise, we cut out a lot of our luxuries, we both work very hard for our yearly cruise, we cannot afford £5.50 each daily for 14 days, we will tip, but we will tip whoever we think deserves it, it will not be near the total that we would be paying if we left gratuities on, but it will be what we can afford and no more, sorry if this offends people who think i'm conning people out of money, believe me, i'm not

[wowzz]

Why not have a cheaper holiday? The auto tips are clear to see, so if you can not afford them, go elsewhere.

 

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