Retreat Cabana

[whtabtbob]

Treating ourselves to a Retreat Cabana on our upcoming 11 day Eurodam cruise. First time doing this and looking for tipping suggestions. Are the workers assigned for the cruise duration, or do they rotate out daily? When we order room service we always tip upon delivery to the individual. Should we show appreciation daily for exceptional service, or wait until the end and tip accordingly? Don't want to slight anyone. 

[CruiserBruce]

Tipping is a personal choice, totally up to you. We tip at the end of the cruise. For a cruise of that length, have seen people tip $30 to 70 per attendant (there should be 2 assigned).

 

Workers are assigned for the cruise.

[robotpony]

We ended up tipping $40 per attendant that we worked with per week, they served us breakfasts and lunches most of our sea days. Unfortunately there were some staff changes between cruise segments, so a few people were missed.

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

I was on 2 Konigsdam cruises in 2022 and on both there were 3 attendants assigned to the Retreat Cabanas.  I tipped at the end of the cruise. Since I did not get off at ports, I was there every day.

[CruiserBruce]

24 minutes ago, SJSULIBRARIAN said:

I was on 2 Konigsdam cruises in 2022 and on both there were 3 attendants assigned to the Retreat Cabanas.  I tipped at the end of the cruise. Since I did not get off at ports, I was there every day.

Yes, there is 3 for the Pinnacle class ships. But two for the smaller ships.

[HALcruiser2001]

Now I am curious... 

 

how do the 3 cabana steward work together?

 

Do they have assigned tasks and they do it for all cabanas?

 

or 

Do they each do everything for their assigned cabanas?

[CruiserBruce]

1 minute ago, bdd123 said:

Now I am curious... 

 

how do the 3 cabana steward work together?

 

Do they have assigned tasks and they do it for all cabanas?

 

or 

Do they each do everything for their assigned cabanas?

They move around taking care of business. Some bond to certain cabanas, as happened to us, as we didn't particularly like the personality of one of the attendants on our B2B KDam cruises. They definitely work together. If the Pinnacle class cabanas are all full, the 3 can be pretty busy, particularly around lunch time.

[robotpony]

20 minutes ago, bdd123 said:

how do the 3 cabana steward work together?

 

Do they have assigned tasks and they do it for all cabanas?

 

On our NS/Caribbean trip we had one main steward and the others were doing prep, bussing tables, running food/drinks. They switched staff out after week 1, and if I remember they were training the others who were new hires.

 

Our main server was fantastic and he remembered our orders and made pretty reasonable substitutions when grabbing things from the Lido for us. We did find some foods didn't travel as well, so we learned to pick foods with some forethought.

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

On both my cruises in a retreat cabana, each of the 3 did everything. I would say the cabanas were half full. A couple of times one attendant was reassigned to the Lido pool as they were short staffed there. All of them remembered my likes. As an aside, I was most unhappy when I learned that corporate had said no more frozen grapes in the afternoon. Another cut.

[POA1]

Your cabana stewards will probably stay the same throughout the voyage unless they're training or someone has a day off. We have a tip-as-we-go approach with a final larger tip at the end. As always, tipping is a personal choice, but we've always found our cabana stewards to be outstanding. It's a plum position in the beverage department so you are bound to get some great service.

[Florida_gal_50]

They were trying something different on the koningsdam.  All the cabana stewards were working in the cabanas for their entire contact.  Usually they stay for a couple weeks then shift back to their regular job.  I like the idea of having constant people there.  They probably like it too because I bet they make a lot more money. I got this information from the stewards themselves.

[mwj]

12 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

They were trying something different on the koningsdam.  All the cabana stewards were working in the cabanas for their entire contact.  Usually they stay for a couple weeks then shift back to their regular job.  I like the idea of having constant people there.  They probably like it too because I bet they make a lot more money. I got this information from the stewards themselves.

The two cabana attendants on the Nieuw Amsterdam were 'Beverage Runners' by title, one step below 'Beverage Servers'. They had been in that position for two and five months respectively. The latter one (Joey) was promoted at the end of our cruise, and no longer works the cabanas.

[NW Watty]

PA01... what would you give as daily tip?   I like the idea, i have a cabana for my next cruise.  

Thanks