Suggestions for stateroom attendant extra tipping?

[tcmagnum]

16 hours ago, Bookster99 said:

My wife and I have discussed bringing a small gift along on the cruise as a small added incentive above and beyond the tips. Good chocolate or something like that. What are your thoughts?

 

We've never done it: It's always the pre-paid gratuities plus a little more we slip in their hands. Just an idea. Thoughts?

Remember their rooms are even smaller than ours.  Cash is always greatly appreciated.  I do hand out chocolate, but it's with the cash.

 

[tcmagnum]

15 hours ago, scottie99 said:

Is it just me who is constantly astounded at Americans who take such pride in their tipping generosity?  I have always been appalled at the “tip em first day and get better service attitude “

 

We have cruised for 35 years, have lost count of how many but certainly in excess of 55. We have always paid the recommended amount. We have had great service and mediocre service, but always paid the tips. 
 

I expect to be shot down, but I find the American “tip em extra “ attitude as patronising to staff. This constant theme, “ we asked for ice etc” so tipped extra is ridiculous. I have pre paid tips, so I should be able to ask for ice ( I remember when it was delivered without asking)

Different cultures.  Different beliefs.  No reason to be judgmental one way or another.  The poster asked a legit questions.  It's all about learning different ways to do things.  When we are in Europe we learn and follow the traditions of the area.  Same thing.

[Tulsacoker]

2 minutes ago, tcmagnum said:

Different cultures.  Different beliefs.  No reason to be judgmental one way or another.  The poster asked a legit questions.  It's all about learning different ways to do things.  When we are in Europe we learn and follow the traditions of the area.  Same thing.

Exactly, when I plan on taking a cruise around the British Isles I will be prepared to not tip above standard and to not smile at anyone 😉

 

[ryano]

15 hours ago, scottie99 said:

  I have always been appalled at the “bribe em first day and get better service attitude “

 

 

 

 

Fixed it 😎

[goldfish65]

15 hours ago, scottie99 said:

Is it just me who is constantly astounded at Americans who take such pride in their tipping generosity?   
 

I expect to be shot down, but I find the American “tip em extra “ attitude as patronising to staff.

 

Many of us in the USA were brought up to be generous. Though we have our share who lean the other way. My Dad came from nothing and through hard work and good mentors he moved up. I know it felt good to him that he could afford to be generous.

 

I can attest being someone who receives tips, that when someone gives us extra, we are very grateful as we can certainly put it to good use, and never find it patronizing.

[Tulsacoker]

42 minutes ago, ryano said:

  I have always been appalled at the “bribe em first day and get better service attitude “

 

Fixed it 😎

guess no tipping the porters when you arrive at the terminal  

[Fuseman]

We always pay our tips but I personally think it is wrong.  Whether the employer is on land or sea they should pay their employees a proper rate for the job they do.  I have been employed when I have just had a salary and othertimes when I was paid an added bonus, but I always did the job to the best of my ability.  If staff on cruise ships were paid a decent wage their take home pay could possibly increase if they received an extra tip for excellent service

 

[Tulsacoker]

6 minutes ago, Fuseman said:

We always pay our tips but I personally think it is wrong.  Whether the employer is on land or sea they should pay their employees a proper rate for the job they do.  I have been employed when I have just had a salary and othertimes when I was paid an added bonus, but I always did the job to the best of my ability.  If staff on cruise ships were paid a decent wage their take home pay could possibly increase if they received an extra tip for excellent service

 

That is it in a nut shell. Tip (gratuities) weed out people that don't do it to the best of their abilities. When you pay a set wage with out incentive it brings mediocrity in some. See communism and socialism (or government) There is a percentage   

Edited January 24, 2020 by Tulsacoker

[marci22]

22 hours ago, goldfish65 said:

In my job as a server at a resort, we pool all tips. If we get cash, we turn it in to the manager who distributes it accordingly. It is not a punitive system for us because we know without everyone helping each other we would not be able to give the best service.

 

I am not saying that tip pooling is punitive. I was saying that it would be punitive to take someone's cash tip (vs auto grat) and redistribute it to everyone else and pay that person less. 

 

I am guessing that auto tips are pooled but everyone makes a minimum amount. Someone is not going to make less because you tipped directly vs auto tipping. 

[Fuseman]

1 minute ago, Tulsacoker said:

That is it in a nut shell. Tip (gratuities) weed out people that don't do it to the best of their abilities. When you pay a set wage it brings mediocrity in some. See communism and socialism (or government) There is a percentage   

So the Captain and  engineers are possibly mediocre in their jobs.  Tips or gratuities is just a word and no reflection on a persons abilities.

[Tulsacoker]

10 minutes ago, Fuseman said:

So the Captain and  engineers are possibly mediocre in their jobs.  Tips or gratuities is just a word and no reflection on a persons abilities.

Francesco Schettino was 

[ryano]

29 minutes ago, Tulsacoker said:

guess no tipping the porters when you arrive at the terminal  

 

Huh?  I tip the porter after he has taken my bags. He provided a service, I tipped him for said service.   Same thing when he rolls my bags all the way out to the vehicle and loads them after the cruise is over.  You make no sense. 

[HBE4]

35 minutes ago, Tulsacoker said:

guess no tipping the porters when you arrive at the terminal  

 

Aren't the porters part of the Longshoreman's union?

 

They make more $$$ than most of the passengers.😲

 

I still tip tho....hope they are not insulted by the amount.

Edited January 24, 2020 by HBE4

[Tulsacoker]

1 minute ago, ryano said:

 

Huh?  I tip the porter after he has taken my bags. He provided a service, I tipped him for said service.   Same thing when he rolls my bags all the way out to the vehicle and loads them after the cruise is over.  You make no sense. 

one you tip before he completes service the other after ... think about that

[rusty nut]

My Wife and I are pretty good tippers. We do the prepaid tips and if we decide to tip extra, it's always at the end, never at the beginning. I don't know, I kind of agree with @scottie99 it just seems kind of tacky and tasteless, patronizing, if you will. I know if I were in the service industry and a customer tried to slip me a $20 before any service was performed, of course, I would appreciate the money, but I'd be mumbling under my breath, "man, what a schmuck". 

[notyours75]

3 minutes ago, rusty nut said:

My Wife and I are pretty good tippers. We do the prepaid tips and if we decide to tip extra, it's always at the end, never at the beginning. I don't know, I kind of agree with @scottie99 it just seems kind of tacky and tasteless, patronizing, if you will. I know if I were in the service industry and a customer tried to slip me a $20 before any service was performed, of course, I would appreciate the money, but I'd be mumbling under my breath, "man, what a schmuck". 

 

Trust me that's not what happens, at least with the crew.  I tell them "this is a deposit on excellent service yet to come" and follow that back up at the end of the week (assuming excellent service) with a follow up tip.  It simply tells the crew member up front that if they take care of you, you will take care of them.  A bit of a social contract if you will.  I believe that doing some part of it up front better establishes your expectations for the cruise as well. 

 

I do agree with some of the comments, tipping culture in the USA is getting excessive.  You should not get a tip just because you did your job (except for restaurant workers because they are paid a different hourly rate because of tips.).  If your job is to hand me a fork and you give me a fork then you don't deserve a tip.  If you hand me a fork, knife, spoon, polish them up so they are nice and shiny and explain how to best use said fork, knife and spoon then that's tip-worthy service. 

[Biker19]

5 minutes ago, notyours75 said:

If you hand me a fork, knife, spoon, polish them up so they are nice and shiny and explain how to best use said fork, knife and spoon then that's tip-worthy service. 

Kinda doubt that happens on any flight, except maybe Frontier.

Edited January 24, 2020 by Biker19

[Judyrem]

23 minutes ago, rusty nut said:

  I know if I were in the service industry and a customer tried to slip me a $20 before any service was performed, of course, I would appreciate the money, but I'd be mumbling under my breath, "man, what a schmuck". 

I WAS in the service industry for a while and I would have been ecstatic if someone pretipped me, "schmuck" would have never entered my mind.   Walk in their shoes for a while.........

[SRF]

On 1/23/2020 at 12:54 PM, marci22 said:

Aren't auto grats one big tip pool? That is how Royal describes it.

 

Even if you do tip in cash, it's hard for me to believe that Royal would penalize that worker by decreasing his pay and distributing his cash envelope tip to everyone else. Seems ridiculous and punitive.

 

Check other threads.

 

If you leave auto grats in place, and tip extra in cash, the worker gets to keep it.

 

If you remove auto grats, they have to turn them in, and they go into the pool with the auto grats.

[not-enough-cruising]

3 hours ago, Tulsacoker said:

guess no tipping the porters when you arrive at the terminal  

Nope 

don’t tip the porters 

[rusty nut]

1 hour ago, Judyrem said:

I WAS in the service industry for a while and I would have been ecstatic if someone pretipped me, "schmuck" would have never entered my mind.   Walk in their shoes for a while.........

Perhaps "schmuck" was too strong a word. "Putz" comes to mind. 😁

[Bronx12]

Does anyone REALLY know how much stateroom attendants actually make? I have read several different stories, but it seems that there is never a clear answer. In one article I read, stateroom attendants make as much money per month as my wage. We all have a job to do, and most of us don't have the opportunity to receive tips.

 

I've worked in the service industry, but I also received an hourly wage, if we got a tip, it was a bonus, not an expectation or part of a "top up" to make my hourly wage.

 

If you think about it, it's kind of funny who we tip and who we don't tip as a society. We tip the people who give us our coffee at a drive thru, or people on a cruise ship, or anyone else that works in the service industry, yet, we DON'T tip our Doctor, Surgeon, Pharmacist, or Paramedics, and these people save our lives in some cases.

 

I'm not looking to stir the "tip pot" discussion, but, I just don't understand how we, as consumers, have to cover someone else's wages, or feel like we have to do this.

 

And YES, we do tip.

OK, I'm off my pedestal lol.

 

[notyours75]

5 minutes ago, Bronx12 said:

Does anyone REALLY know how much stateroom attendants actually make? I have read several different stories, but it seems that there is never a clear answer. In one article I read, stateroom attendants make as much money per month as my wage. We all have a job to do, and most of us don't have the opportunity to receive tips.

 

 

On our Jan 2018 Breeze cruise I spoke at length with our cabin steward.  He was one of the best we've ever had.  He was from the Philippines and it was his 20th year to work for Carnival.  He said that he had 8 kids that he'd put through school and showed us pics of his big house and said his wife didn't have to work outside the home and his in-laws lived with them as well.  He said that working on cruise ships had provided him a much better standard of living in his country than he could have ever made by staying there.  He's just gone 8 months out of the year.  In fact it was his last week on the ship and he would be going home for 2 months before returning right back to the Breeze for another contract.   So by American standards he probably didn't make all that much but by his standards he was well off.  If my in-laws lived with us I'd probably find a job that I was gone 8 months out of the year as well. 

[not-enough-cruising]

1 hour ago, notyours75 said:

 

On our Jan 2018 Breeze cruise I spoke at length with our cabin steward.  He was one of the best we've ever had.  He was from the Philippines and it was his 20th year to work for Carnival.  He said that he had 8 kids that he'd put through school and showed us pics of his big house and said his wife didn't have to work outside the home and his in-laws lived with them as well.  He said that working on cruise ships had provided him a much better standard of living in his country than he could have ever made by staying there.  He's just gone 8 months out of the year.  In fact it was his last week on the ship and he would be going home for 2 months before returning right back to the Breeze for another contract.   So by American standards he probably didn't make all that much but by his standards he was well off.  If my in-laws lived with us I'd probably find a job that I was gone 8 months out of the year as well. 

Agree, have seen many instances such as this.   If it wasn't a good job to have there wouldn't be so many people making a long career of it.

[brillohead]

9 hours ago, notyours75 said:

Another quick tip is use two dollar bills.  The crew doesn't see many of them so they are a bit of a novelty and helps them remember you throughout the week. 

Actually, that's not such a great idea.  The bills are such a novelty that many people/places think they are fake and refuse to accept them.