Specialty Dining Gratuities

[wowzz]

42 minutes ago, SantaFeFan said:

 

According to Princess drink package pages:

 

Package Details and Qualifications

• The Plus Beverage Package is US $64.99 per day plus 18% service charge (totaling $76.70 per day) for all itineraries except Australia.

But why buy a drink package ? Cheaper to buy Princess Plus

[voljeep]

5 minutes ago, wowzz said:

But why buy a drink package ? Cheaper to buy Princess Plus

I agree with you ... but ... always that but

 

One person can buy the drink Package , then both either can or don't pay grats, and wifi

[SantaFeFan]

17 minutes ago, wowzz said:

But why buy a drink package ? Cheaper to buy Princess Plus

 

I was replying to your question about the Plus Package (which is $76.70, not $60), not a separate drink package:

 

Edited February 22, 2023 by SantaFeFan

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

But why buy a drink package ? Cheaper to buy Princess Plus

 

1 hour ago, voljeep said:

I agree with you ... but ... always that but

 

One person can buy the drink Package , then both either can or don't pay grats, and wifi

Sure, one person can, but doesn't make sense.

 

Presuming both are paying into the pool and using internet, fixed costs are $32/day for Crew Incentive and $15/day for MedallionNet (assuming eligible for 50% discount and to present best case scenario).  That is $47.  Now add one Plus Beverage Package for $77 and we are at $124/day total - roughly.  Now, surely the other cabinmate is going to get some occasional drinks of one sort or another, which only pushes the $124 total higher.

 

Two PLUS Fare upgrades are $120.

 

[PMGS247]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

But why buy a drink package ? Cheaper to buy Princess Plus

 

Yeah like I said the modern packages that are more all inclusive muddy the waters a bit, I was just using the pricing of the stand-alone package as a general rule of thumb to guide my decision to "double dip" or not. As someone pointed out my simplified example of $60+11 is a little dated and the actual current rate of a stand-alone package is $64.99+$11.71.  The drink package cost IS still buried in the Princess Plus package it's just discounted in combination with a bunch of other benefits. Does this mean the gratuities from the drinks portion of the princess plus package are less than if you buy a stand alone package?  I don't know....knowing the cruise lines it's probably fair to assume the crew eats some of that discount as well, but it's still a decent general rule to assume you're tipping $11.71/day for beverages on princess plus, whether you use it or not.  Decide from there whether that's sufficient for the amount of service you're consuming.  Totally fair if it is; just throwing my 0.02 on my thought process.

[voljeep]

26 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Presuming both are paying into the pool and using internet, fixed costs are $32/day for Crew Incentive and $15/day for MedallionNet (assuming eligible for 50% discount and to present best case scenario).  That is $47.

Presuming - NOT paying into the pool ... as I stated

[cruzin4us]

I personally don't add an additional tip unless the service far exceeds my expectations and it usually doesn't as of late.   I haven't found the service in the Specialty Dining to be any better/worse than in the MDR.   Why would I tip more in SD if I'm not tipping the MDR staff anything additional?   Just askin'

[Steelers36]

36 minutes ago, voljeep said:

Presuming - NOT paying into the pool ... as I stated

I didn't think you were serious. 😇

[SargassoPirate]

On 2/21/2023 at 6:24 PM, wowzz said:

But bar staff get an 18% tip on your drink, don't they,  so are you not double tipping as well ?

That's why I said "I understand tipping for extra good service and I err in the side of generosity for the bar staff". 

 

On my most recent cruise in January, there were two really good servers in the Elite lounge.  After a couple of nights, my butt and my drink hit the table at about the same time.  If I was at another venue where they were working, they would hustle right over to take my order.

 

No ordering on the app and watching the server wander around trying to find me 

 

Extra good service = extra good tip.

[cruzsnooze]

On 2/21/2023 at 3:00 PM, SargassoPirate said:

I understand tipping for extra good service and I err on the side of generosity for the bar staff, but isn't it triple dipping, so to speak, to tip extra for specialty dining?  

 

1) Daily gratuity charge - single dip

 

2) Specialty dining gratuity - double dip

 

3) Additional tip for specialty dining - triple dip

 

 

 

 

Yes indeed but people seem to like to feel important and tip till it hurts.

[bafinegan]

4 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

Yes indeed but people seem to like to feel important and tip till it hurts.

I disagree.  I will tip extra for exceptional service, no matter what the venue.

[SantaFeFan]

6 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

Yes indeed but people seem to like to feel important and tip till it hurts.

 

I guess to some the concept of being generous is considered a character flaw. SMH. 

[cruzsnooze]

Just now, SantaFeFan said:

 

I guess to some the concept of being generous is considered a character flaw. SMH. 

I guess to some it's about themselves  feeling important if you believe they tip so much.

[SargassoPirate]

1 hour ago, cruzsnooze said:

Yes indeed but people seem to like to feel important and tip till it hurts.

Just curious how you arrived at that conclusion?

 

I'm sure that some people spend money they don't have to buy things they don't really need to impress people they don't even know 

 

[dreaminofcruisin]

On 2/22/2023 at 10:03 AM, t&atravel said:

Specialty dining includes 17% service charge per Princess.com FAQ’s

 

 

Thanks for this. I hadn't seen this before.

We had a specialty dining included last summer on the Emerald and since we don't often do SD we were debating about whether or not to tip at the end. In the past, they had presented something for us to sign where you could add an extra gratuity. This time, they never came back after dessert, so we figured we were just supposed to leave....🤷‍♀️

So, if you do want to tip extra you would have had to have cash.

Now....this was out of Southampton, so I don't know if this happened because tipping isn't as big in the UK, but just FYI. 

[wowzz]

5 hours ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

Thanks for this. I hadn't seen this before.

We had a specialty dining included last summer on the Emerald and since we don't often do SD we were debating about whether or not to tip at the end. In the past, they had presented something for us to sign where you could add an extra gratuity. This time, they never came back after dessert, so we figured we were just supposed to leave....🤷‍♀️

So, if you do want to tip extra you would have had to have cash.

Now....this was out of Southampton, so I don't know if this happened because tipping isn't as big in the UK, but just FYI. 

You don't sign for anything, anymore.  At the end of your meal you just get up and go. So yes, you tip in cash. Without going into the "should you or shouldn't you" if we decide to leave a tip, we prefer to give it directly to our server, rather than leave it on the table.