First time cruiser questions

[cruiser3775]

I'm packing for my first cruise, from Brisbane on Thursday on Coral Princess to PNG.  I'm so grateful to all the good people on Cruise Critic who have helped me navigate the whole new language of cruising.  A couple of last minute questions:

Tipping for room service.  How much should I give?  I guess Australian dollars are OK? Is the person who delivers room service the same person who looks after your room generally?

I'm not a fan of large crowds, and happy to eat later.  What locations and times would be quieter?

 

[Aus Traveller]

On Princess room service is free, but you can tip if you wish. Unfortunately our smallest notes are $5 ... This is a bit excessive as a tip for room service. The person who delivers room service is NOT the person who looks after your room.

 

If you have your meals a bit later than usual, there will be fewer people.

[buchhalm]

I'd say for cruises EX Australia, tipping in AUD is quite ok.

But I agree AUD 5 may be a bit much.

I'd go to a bank or money change place and try to get a stack of USD 1.00 notes .

 

However, I'm pretty sure that your cruise line is charging you a certain amount per day in "gratuity/tips/service charge" anyway. 

Your room service waiter should be getting parts of this from the general tipping pool. 

[aussielozzie18]

Deleted 

Edited November 14, 2022 by aussielozzie18

[boeckli]

40 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

On Princess room service is free, but you can tip if you wish. Unfortunately our smallest notes are $5 ... This is a bit excessive as a tip for room service. The person who delivers room service is NOT the person who looks after your room.

 

If you have your meals a bit later than usual, there will be fewer people.

 

What's wrong with coins?

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, boeckli said:

 

What's wrong with coins?

I would possibly tip in coins on an Australian based cruise. The staff will go ashore at some time and be able to spend the money. Usually the reluctance with coins is that they cannot be banked in a foreign country and the staff on the ship wouldn't have an Aust bank account.

[Aus Traveller]

28 minutes ago, buchhalm said:

However, I'm pretty sure that your cruise line is charging you a certain amount per day in "gratuity/tips/service charge" anyway. 

Your room service waiter should be getting parts of this from the general tipping pool. 

The OP said they are going on the Coral Princess. There isn't an extra charge for gratuities. It is built into the fare. Crew on the Aust based Princess ships are not part of the tips pool. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

We were dining around 8pm. It was usually quite quiet then and we rarely had to queue. If you prefer a two-seater table go to the Bordeaux restaurant and see if you can get a regular booking at one if these tables - 121, 122 and I think the third is 123. Angelito is the waiter for that group of tables.

[buchhalm]

2 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

The OP said they are going on the Coral Princess. There isn't an extra charge for gratuities. It is built into the fare. Crew on the Aust based Princess ships are not part of the tips pool. 

It's the same really,  isn't it.

The passenger pays the gratuity. PRE-pay, in this case.

No further tipping is necessary. (But a nice thing to do nevertheless)

[Aus Traveller]

13 minutes ago, buchhalm said:

It's the same really,  isn't it.

The passenger pays the gratuity. PRE-pay, in this case.

No further tipping is necessary. (But a nice thing to do nevertheless)

I don't feel it is the same. Aust passengers aren't charged a specific amount per day for gratuities. This is different from when we went on a Celebrity cruise and we were told we had to pre-pay gratuities at the stipulated amount.

 

However, I agree that extra tipping isn't necessary.

[Tripmode33]

Personally, I would be very disappointed if tipping became common culture in Australia. We certainly tip overseas where expected, and on international cruises, but are very strong in our resolve never to tip in Australia and never on a domestic cruise.

Our last cruise was Carnival Luminosa last week and the Captain and the Cruise Director, as well as other management, while never mentioning tipping, did stress the importance of taking note of the names of those that served you well and mentioning them by name in your review/feedback. That way, they'll certainly get extra time off, shore visits and promotions in their job. 

[nnps]

11 minutes ago, Tripmode33 said:

Personally, I would be very disappointed if tipping became common culture in Australia. We certainly tip overseas where expected, and on international cruises, but are very strong in our resolve never to tip in Australia and never on a domestic cruise.

Our last cruise was Carnival Luminosa last week and the Captain and the Cruise Director, as well as other management, while never mentioning tipping, did stress the importance of taking note of the names of those that served you well and mentioning them by name in your review/feedback. That way, they'll certainly get extra time off, shore visits and promotions in their job. 

Agree, I hate the whole tipping culture, it's so demeaning.

[cruiser3775]

35 minutes ago, nnps said:

Agree, I hate the whole tipping culture, it's so demeaning

So do I and like most Australians, I am glad we do not have a tipping culture here. My problem is that i feel the need to tip people who are paid poorly and expected to supplement that pay with tips. Ships' crews would not be on the same wages they would get if they worked in Australia.  I think I'll just take some $A2 coins to give out for small personal services.  As the Coral Princess is based in Brisbane for the summer, they can use them in port.

[lyndarra]

2 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

So do I and like most Australians, I am glad we do not have a tipping culture here. My problem is that i feel the need to tip people who are paid poorly and expected to supplement that pay with tips. Ships' crews would not be on the same wages they would get if they worked in Australia.  I think I'll just take some $A2 coins to give out for small personal services.  As the Coral Princess is based in Brisbane for the summer, they can use them in port.

They may be paid poorly by our standards but certainly not compared to their home country.

 

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, cruiser3775 said:

So do I and like most Australians, I am glad we do not have a tipping culture here. My problem is that i feel the need to tip people who are paid poorly and expected to supplement that pay with tips. Ships' crews would not be on the same wages they would get if they worked in Australia.  I think I'll just take some $A2 coins to give out for small personal services.  As the Coral Princess is based in Brisbane for the summer, they can use them in port.

Like most Australians, I hate tipping.  I take small gifts to give for personal service.  I also listen.  On one cruise, the receptionist collected fridge magnets, but didn't get leave at every port.  I could tell by the look on her face, she was delighted with the fridge magnet I bought her to add to her collection.  

[Batto]

Tipping is included in your fare on cruises (in aud) departing Australia (carnival, p&o Australia, Princess) that is because Australians don't tip from habit. So they are getting 'paid' however if your happy with your cabin steward something extra at the end is good. 

[Jandex]

On 11/14/2022 at 5:07 PM, OzKiwiJJ said:

We were dining around 8pm. It was usually quite quiet then and we rarely had to queue. If you prefer a two-seater table go to the Bordeaux restaurant and see if you can get a regular booking at one if these tables - 121, 122 and I think the third is 123. Angelito is the waiter for that group of tables.

Angelito was our waiter for our 3 night cruise in August. There were 10 of us travelling together and seated at the table for the three nights and he was really fantastic.