Real Question on Gratuities

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

Please could I ask a question. I have always paid the service charge but I respect that it is a personal decision. I am concerned about the lack of clarity around this charge and I am considering removing it on a future cruise. Assuming the service is as good as it has always been, I would like to tip the same amount of £7 per person per day.

 

My question is how would you divide up the £7. I was thinking £3.50 for my cabin steward and £3.50 for my club dining room steward. I would leave these stewards to share it with their assistants. Does this seem a reasonable division to you.

 

I appreciate the service charge and tipping are a contentious issue but this is a genuine real question. I am not trying to criticise your choice but I would appreciate any advice about how I should distribute my tip.

 

Thank you, Stephen.

 

 

 

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[pete14]

I think your suggested split is perfectly reasonable. Hopefully everybody else will agree and this will be the only reply needed on this thread

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

I think your suggested split is perfectly reasonable. Hopefully everybody else will agree and this will be the only reply needed on this thread

 

 

Thank you. Reasonable is a what I am aiming for.

 

Best wishes, Stephen.

 

 

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[tartanexile81]

We also decided to remove gratuities because of lack of clarity which affected us personally and like th OP I see it as a personal decision. We do Freedom, so we give the two waiters £5 every evening, breakfast waiters £2, Steward £5 per day as a lump sum at the end and bits and pieces as we go. We also tip room service. It usually amounts to more than £14 (for 2 of us) per day

[AmazedByCruising]

My question is how would you divide up the £7. I was thinking £3.50 for my cabin steward and £3.50 for my club dining room steward. I would leave these stewards to share it with their assistants.

 

I'm not entirely sure about P&O, but usually if you remove the auto-tip the cabin steward is not allowed to keep the tips you give him. I completely agree that there's a lack of clarity here..

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

We also decided to remove gratuities because of lack of clarity which affected us personally and like th OP I see it as a personal decision. We do Freedom, so we give the two waiters £5 every evening, breakfast waiters £2, Steward £5 per day as a lump sum at the end and bits and pieces as we go. We also tip room service. It usually amounts to more than £14 (for 2 of us) per day

 

 

Thank you. I had wondered about breakfast, lunch and room service. I usually eat in the main dining room for those meals but will occasionally use the buffet. Perhaps £1 per person for breakfast and lunch tipped to whichever steward serves us.

 

The buffet would be more difficult but as it is self service perhaps a tip is not needed. Room service I have always assumed the tip was built in to the plate charge.

 

Best wishes, Stephen.

 

 

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[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

I'm not entirely sure about P&O, but usually if you remove the auto-tip the cabin steward is not allowed to keep the tips you give him. I completely agree that there's a lack of clarity here..

 

 

This is the kind of lack clarity that concerns me. At least I will have tried.

 

Thank you, Stephen.

 

 

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[CruiseGal999]

Why bother to remove it at all? Just leave it, pay it and you're done. No other tip is necessary, unless you get room service in your cabin. This way, the behind the scenes employees get their just share and you don't have to think about it.

 

If the cruise line you're sailing on has a $7.95 charge for room service, NONE of that goes to the employee. It's like pizza delivery charge, the driver does not get that money.

[picsa]

 

My question is how would you divide up the £7. I was thinking £3.50 for my cabin steward and £3.50 for my club dining room steward. I would leave these stewards to share it with their assistants. Does this seem a reasonable division to you.

 

No it does not.

 

I have never experienced a cabin steward do anything above and beyond what is expected and would deserve any sort of tip, and the only possible things they could do would be worth no more than £1 between the two cabin occupants.

 

Waiters do make a difference, but if you are going to tip I believe you should tip both the waiter and their assistant.

 

However tipping £7 per couple would put the cost of the meal (without wine as the service charge for the wine waiter is built in) at £70. No chance, so massive overtopping unless you are American.

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

Thank you for your advice. I think I will go £2.50 per person per day for each for my room steward and club dining steward. For breakfast and lunch in the main dining room £1 per meal per person per day person given to the appropriate steward.

 

I know it is a hassle but I do not feel happy with the service charge.

 

I respect this might not be your choice.

 

Thank you for your advice

 

Best wishes, Stephen.

 

PS Probably best to end this thread here. It has not yet become the usual tipping thread.

 

 

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[jeanlyon]

I heard the opposite, that they are allowed to keep whatever you give them. I always divide in half - so £3.50 to the cabin steward and £1.75 to each of my two waiters.

[davecttr]

I heard the opposite, that they are allowed to keep whatever you give them. I always divide in half - so £3.50 to the cabin steward and £1.75 to each of my two waiters.

The senior of your 2 waiters will not like that, they will have agreed the percentage for each so the junior waiter will hand the money to the senior one. Maybe a 60-40 or 70-30 division

[jeanlyon]

I have always done it that way and they have always been pleased. It's not up to me what they do afterwards.

[Tom Baker]

Why bother to remove it at all? Just leave it, pay it and you're done. No other tip is necessary, unless you get room service in your cabin. This way, the behind the scenes employees get their just share and you don't have to think about it.

 

If the cruise line you're sailing on has a $7.95 charge for room service, NONE of that goes to the employee. It's like pizza delivery charge, the driver does not get that money.

 

You obviously missed the thread in which a member of the crew posted what allegedly happens to gratuities, which made quite a few on here change the way they tip in order for the staff to benefit from the money and not the company.

[Tangoqueen]

What we have stated doing when travelling as a couple - we leave one of our auto gratuities in place and take one off and then divide that between cabin steward and two evening waiters on a split roughly 40% for cabin steward and 30% each for the two mdr waiters. It works for us as we feel we are helping the behind the scenes crew and can do the old fashioned sign of gratitude in giving envelopes and a little thank you note at the end of the cruise.

 

 

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[eddie11]

Just a thought - might the crew members have security problems with what might build up to fairly large amounts of cash?

[terrierjohn]

Quite a lot of you seem to think that waiters and stewards are paid far more than they appear to be from the anecdotal evidence on board. At 35% each for stewards and waiters/assts. from the auto tips, and assuming that stewards service 18 cabins each, the tips alone equate to £27000pa based on a 10 month contract.

Now I accept that all wages have to come out of passenger fares, but I certainly don't want to think that I am paying way above their assumed total salaries, from something the cruise lines want to call gratuities.

If you want to label me a cheapskate then by all means feel free to do so, but I have decided to stop paying auto grats and to tip what I feel is a reasonable amount, and will continue to do so until the cruise lines make tips part of their cruise fares.

[Jan5174]

Shall we all stop debating this now as everyone has their own views and makes their own arrangements. Personally - pay the required cost of the cruise and then don’t tip anyone. It’s their job and it’s not my responsibility to pay their wages. I don’t tip bus drivers who help me onto the bus; postmen who deliver my post; shop assistants who help me find an item in the supermarket etc etc............ Just ... WHY ???

[jeanlyon]

The auto grats do not actually pay anybody. P&O pay a bonus if they get Excellent on their review. You must have noticed how keen they are that you give them an Excellent. I have been asked that every time, but I've never been asked for a tip.

[Jan5174]

I’m fine about giving feedback and I’ve happily given an excellent when it’s deserved. We’ve had brilliant service on occasion ( most occasions, really) and I’ll always mention outstanding crew members by name. Just no additional money from us !

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

Thank you for your advice on the allocation of cash tips. It has be very helpful to me. Please could discussion of the service reward scheme be moved to another thread.

 

Best wishes, Stephen.

 

 

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[grapau27]

Shall we all stop debating this now as everyone has their own views and makes their own arrangements. Personally - pay the required cost of the cruise and then don’t tip anyone. It’s their job and it’s not my responsibility to pay their wages. I don’t tip bus drivers who help me onto the bus; postmen who deliver my post; shop assistants who help me find an item in the supermarket etc etc............ Just ... WHY ???

That is the problem in that most views are reasonable.

It's only an issue if people stop the AG then give nothing in cash.

[brillo]

We do not require anymore threads on this subject it has been done to death !

[kruzseeka]

There has been some interesting views expressed in relation to the OP's original and very genuine and reasonable question. I have found it worth reading. The digression into 'tipping' pros and cons was not the intention - and that was made clear. Perhaps the post should be closed now that it has for some gone down that line - but certainly not removed as there are some points aired which are not in the vein of 'the same old' and as such have merit imo.

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

There has been some interesting views expressed in relation to the OP's original and very genuine and reasonable question. I have found it worth reading. The digression into 'tipping' pros and cons was not the intention - and that was made clear. Perhaps the post should be closed now that it has for some gone down that line - but certainly not removed as there are some points aired which are not in the vein of 'the same old' and as such have merit imo.

 

 

Thank you. As the OP please could the mods close but no delete this thread.

 

 

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Edited July 5, 2018 by stephen@stoneyard.co.uk