Help with tipping

[donnabonna]

I am on Anthem now and tonight is the last night of the cruise. We have had the same wonderful waiter every night and want to tip him extra. It was a five night cruise and we are two people. Is $50 too little? Quick answers would be very helpful. Thanks in advance!

[Bee Guy]

For an extra tip I do not believe $50 is too little.

[gfargo53]

$50.00 would be very generous.if my wife and I were on the same cruise we would also tip 50 bucks

they work long hours for their money.

[dplusd]

Assuming you have left the auto-gratuities in place, a $50 additional tip is generous and will be greatly appreciated.  Glad you have enjoyed your MDR experience!

[marci22]

I am not sure why anyone would think that $50 extra is too little. Many people just tip the standard, and some do not tip. So anything extra is generous.

[donnabonna]

I forgot to say we have been eating in Coastal Kitchen every night. Does that change your answers?

[Bee Guy]

3 minutes ago, donnabonna said:

I forgot to say we have been eating in Coastal Kitchen every night. Does that change your answers?

No

[marci22]

8 minutes ago, donnabonna said:

I forgot to say we have been eating in Coastal Kitchen every night. Does that change your answers?

I was told that when you eat at CK, the servers are allotted your (daily paid) gratuities proportionally. So the $50 would still be 'extra'.

Edited August 14, 2019 by marci22

[donnabonna]

Thank you everyone! It has been a wonderful first RCI cruise and I will post a short review when I get settled back home. I used to sail exclusively with NCL, but Royal has won me over!

[Milwaukee Eight]

1 hour ago, donnabonna said:

I forgot to say we have been eating in Coastal Kitchen every night. Does that change your answers?

We generally tip the waiters in the CK at least $10 each per day if they wait on us for Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner. If we don’t have the same waiter each day, we tip all the waiters in the CK $10 each at the end of the week as they are all helping serve us. If someone has gone above, we are likely to tip a bit more. 

 

We also pre pay Gratuities.

 

I would say if you have had the same waiter each night in the CK and left Gratuities on, $50 would be welcomed. 

[Merion_Mom]

1 hour ago, donnabonna said:

I am on Anthem now and tonight is the last night of the cruise. We have had the same wonderful waiter every night and want to tip him extra. It was a five night cruise and we are two people. Is $50 too little? Quick answers would be very helpful. Thanks in advance!

 

In light of you eating all of your dinners in Coastal Kitchen, my answer is:  It's not too little - there really is no such thing.  But if I extrapolate it to what I gave my waiter on my last Anthem cruise in the same circumstances, I gave more.

 

That is not meant to tell you to give more.  But I did.  I love CK and I love the service that I get there.  It "makes" the cruise for me.

[vacationlover_mn]

Other than an extra $1 per drink, we never tip extra.  I think $50 is generous!  (Note, we do not remove the standard tip, and always get a drink pkg)

[Merion_Mom]

2 hours ago, vacationlover_mn said:

Other than an extra $1 per drink, we never tip extra.  I think $50 is generous!  (Note, we do not remove the standard tip, and always get a drink pkg)

 

Do you eat in the specialty restaurants on board?  Do you leave extra there?

 

Coastal Kitchen is basically a specialty restaurant.  So it's not the same as MDR.

[bpphoto]

1 hour ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

Do you eat in the specialty restaurants on board?  Do you leave extra there?

 

Coastal Kitchen is basically a specialty restaurant.  So it's not the same as MDR.

I just wanted to point out that just because you are in a suite and eat at Coastal Kitchen does not obligate you to tip extra to the waitstaff there. Remember: If you stay in a suite you pay more in prepaid tips than a standard room. That should cover CK. and other staff. But if the service warrants extra tips than you may do so if you so desire... Your Call!

[Merion_Mom]

6 minutes ago, bpphoto said:

I just wanted to point out that just because you are in a suite and eat at Coastal Kitchen does not obligate you to tip extra to the waitstaff there. Remember: If you stay in a suite you pay more in prepaid tips than a standard room. That should cover CK. and other staff. But if the service warrants extra tips than you may do so if you so desire... Your Call!

 

I said nothing about obligation.  I was responding to someone who said that she never tips extra.

 

But that extra is supposed to go to the cabin attendants.  Not every ship has a Coastal Kitchen (by a long shot) but every ship has suites and in those suites every passengers pays the higher gratuities.

[marci22]

9 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

Coastal Kitchen is basically a specialty restaurant.  So it's not the same as MDR.

I would disagree with this based on tip allocation. In specialty, 'part' of the fee charged goes towards tips, rather than daily gratuities. When I asked the headwaiter about tipping in CK, he told me that my daily tips covered that. So to me, anything extra would be like tipping your MDR servers extra.

[donnabonna]

Thanks again everyone. We were only in a JS ( we won an upgrade bid two days before sailing) so only had dinner in Coastal Kitchen as we were not entitled to breakfast and lunch. After eating those meals in the main dining room, I really came to appreciate coastal Kitchen and it's quality of food and service. It was a free cruise through a land casino and the bid I won on the suite upgrade was very low, so I was happy to tip people who have me great service extra. I tipped my cabin steward every day as I would in a hote l. I'm not sure if junior suites are supposed to pay higher daily fees, but it seems they did not charge extra. It was only $14.50 a day, which is what I thought everyone was paying.

 

 

[bananawindnj]

19 hours ago, donnabonna said:

I am on Anthem now and tonight is the last night of the cruise. We have had the same wonderful waiter every night and want to tip him extra. It was a five night cruise and we are two people. Is $50 too little? Quick answers would be very helpful. Thanks in advance!

For a 5 ,7,9 night cruise $20-25-30  max extra for us.

 

[Queen of Oakville]

@Merion_Mom - understanding there is no such thing as too much or too little - just curious what you would tip for a family of 4 in chops?  We were caught off guard by the tip line and thought gratuities were included.  We left $10.

 

Also do you know how tips work with a beverage package?  With 18% gratuity paid on the package how does that get paid to the staff.  My hubby and kids had a lot of specialty coffees at Café Promenade, and we put money in the tip jar on the last morning - but I'm curious about how it works.  If we paid $20 per day - and pre-paid 18% gratuity - if he had several coffees each day AND bottled and mock-cocktails throughout the ship - does my 3.60 get divided amongst all the places I visited - or does the ship pay 18% to each server based on the cost of the drink I ordered?  

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, Queen of Oakville said:

...

 

Also do you know how tips work with a beverage package?  With 18% gratuity paid on the package how does that get paid to the staff.  ...

 

The staff shares the gratuity pool from the beverage packages equally.  They don't get extra (unless you pay them extra) based on the number of drinks they serve.

[Queen of Oakville]

5 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

The staff shares the gratuity pool from the beverage packages equally.  They don't get extra (unless you pay them extra) based on the number of drinks they serve.

 

So - for the 3.60 I pay each day (and all gratuities paid by all other passengers) - is divided amongst all beverage staff regardless of whether they served any passenger a beverage?   Interesting and good to know for future cruises.

 

Going off topic here, but I noticed very few waitstaff in the theatres and the pools.  Most times, we had to get a beverage on our own.  It became a running joke that at ever show, DH would order a water and it would never show up.  Now, we know why 🙂 We tipped extra at Café Promenade, and probably should have tipped extra at Vitality Spa.  

[SuiteLady]

Wow...just off the Anthem in May and I have to say that the pool wait staff was fantastic!!  They constantly walked around and as soon as your drink was just about empty, or empty, they were right there asking if you wanted another!!  I was VERY impressed with the ALL the servers on Anthem....:)

[Clarea]

33 minutes ago, Queen of Oakville said:

 

 ...

Going off topic here, but I noticed very few waitstaff in the theatres and the pools.   ...

 

And virtually no bar service in the MDR too I'll bet.

[Merion_Mom]

49 minutes ago, Queen of Oakville said:

@Merion_Mom - understanding there is no such thing as too much or too little - just curious what you would tip for a family of 4 in chops?  We were caught off guard by the tip line and thought gratuities were included.  We left $10.

 

Also do you know how tips work with a beverage package?  With 18% gratuity paid on the package how does that get paid to the staff.  My hubby and kids had a lot of specialty coffees at Café Promenade, and we put money in the tip jar on the last morning - but I'm curious about how it works.  If we paid $20 per day - and pre-paid 18% gratuity - if he had several coffees each day AND bottled and mock-cocktails throughout the ship - does my 3.60 get divided amongst all the places I visited - or does the ship pay 18% to each server based on the cost of the drink I ordered?  

 

Bob answered you about the drinks.

 

You asked specifically how I tip in Chops.  90% of the time, service is excellent in Chops.  On the 10%, I have left nothing extra.  90% of the time, I leave about $5 per person.  (so that you can extrapolate by the number in your party)

 

But I'll say this about the beverage packages:  I have NEVER purchased one.  I have always been content to confine myself to 3 1/2 hours of drinking, and for a brief period of time, I was "Prime" and enjoyed THOSE free drinks very much.

 

But I got "in" on GlitchGate.  I intend to tip $1 for every drink I get on those four cruises.  If there is an amazing server that I encounter repeatedly, s/he will get  more.  If I am on CocoCay and my server seeks me out on a lounger, as opposed to me seeking him/her out, s/he will get more.

 

Again, personal choice.  🙂 

[Queen of Oakville]

@Host Clarea  MDR service was pretty good - can't complain about that 🙂

 

@Merion_Mom thanks very much!  lol, took me a while to figure out GlitchGate, but I did.  Sounds like a good plan.