princess club class dining

[meatloafsfan]

What about extra tipping in Club Class? We asked the front desk about it and they said No need to tip. But that last night when we didn't tip, we could tell the servers were VERY disappointed. What do others do? And if you tip, how much? Next month it will be a 7 day Alaska cruise on Emerald. We felt so uncomfortable after not tipping that last day that we almost feel like not going back to CC.

 

We're cruising on the Caribbean Princess for 38 days next winter in a Window Suite (so club class); based on our experience last November (same ship, same cabin), I am already setting aside extra money for more tips. Our service was phenomenal and we wanted to tip extra. On average cruises, with average service, we don't always give extra - on this one, we tipped quite a bit extra because we really felt like they were consistently going above and beyond our service expectations (the head person Mirelle even went and got us soda refills one night after dinner and brought them to our cabin - that's just wow).

[Ronnieslady]

[/url] #17

Burbank, Ca

992 Posts

Joined Aug 2008

 

 

Posted Yesterday, 06:15 PM

 

We have done the CC twice. We were in a full suite both times. So far our experience is this: I was really surprised @ how different it was on the 2 different ships we were on. The 1st time on the Star it was not good. We love the Star, but their Club Class was very lacking. There was usually a wait (people were burning mad about it) . The area was just too small. Even thou they knew the time people seemed to want to eat (around 5:45 every night) they did nothing about it. They needed extra staff. It was very obvious, but nothing changed over 15 nights. The wait staff was very unfriendly & sometimes rude. Was it their culture or because they were so obviously over worked??. The only extra entree every night was a Cesar salad done by the ma’tre d. It was good by the way.

Then 5 months later on the Emerald it was just the opposite. There was never a wait for a table for 2. Or if you wanted to sit with others. The staff was very friendly, and they seemed to genuinely care about us. And not just us everyone . After about 2 nights they called us by name. They had what I would call a real extra entree. A few nights it was filet mignon steak, steak Diane, lamb, different shrimp dishes , or even lobster newberg. The food was excellent. And every night was a special dessert. They treated everyone like VIP’s.

What a big difference in the 2 ships. It was down right shocking.

So if you get the experience we had on the Emerald, I would say it’s worth all of $70.00 a day extra.

[Woobstr112G]

We will be in a suite on the Star Princess in November. I’m really looking forward to trying Club Class.....:):):)

Bob

[moki'smommy]

What about extra tipping in Club Class? We asked the front desk about it and they said No need to tip. But that last night when we didn't tip, we could tell the servers were VERY disappointed. What do others do? And if you tip, how much? Next month it will be a 7 day Alaska cruise on Emerald. We felt so uncomfortable after not tipping that last day that we almost feel like not going back to CC.

You tip at a higher rate for a mini-suite or full suite than for a standard cabin. Not our business how that is divided, but presumably some of the extra service is covered in that extra tip amount.

 

Your servers were wrong to let you see their disappointment. We probably had a total of 6-7 different people serving us during our 10 nights. The easiest way to tip additional would have been to give the extra to the head server with a request that he divide it amount the staff in that area. It would have made a lot more sense than trying to tip 7 people on the last night. We did not tip extra...sorry, but this was a cruise that I got no "extras." No grats included, almost no OBC, etc. Our standard tips were over $450, which came out of my pocket and I felt it was reasonable. It also calculated to 14.5% of my cruise fare (which obviously included things other than meals), so I felt that was a reasonable percentage. I'm with the others--Princess has determined what the appropriate tip is, and on this trip I was not in a position to augment that. We did give excellent write-ups to several of the people who took care of us.

 

Sorry, my feeling is that as long as I've tipped the standard amount, I've done what is expected. I've never removed tips on Princess. But I've also not usually augmented them. On lines that handle tipping differently, I've been somewhat more generous.