Phone Cards for tipping....yes or no

[SakeDad]

I was thinking of taking phone cards to tip those that go above & beyond the $10.00 per day per pax rule. Anyone that makes my trip "special".

 

I am someone who travels 40 weeks a year and live in hotels months at a time and usually leave $5 a day for the maids. I tip waiters 20% unless it was average service then it's 15% and if it was HORRIBLE I tip 5%. So I have no problem tipping.

 

I know the staff pools their cash tips so I was thinking if I gave a phone card they could use that and not have to pool it. I can get a stack of them for $29US at Sam's Club.

 

THOUGHTS??????

[TV Dad]

Great idea! There are always lines at the pay phones when I board a ship -- usually crew calling home.

 

Another idea, believe it or not, is T-shirts from your hometown sports teams. A lot of the crew are sports fans and they like to wear them in theitr off time!

[Seago2]

I would say no on the phone cards. I still email with a waiter I had in summer '05 and I asked him about it a long time ago. They have Skype on board and they can talk on the computer. It might be busy at times but they can do it. It might still be apprectiated- but I think cash is still king.

[gizmo]

I would forget the phone cards and T shirts and go with cash. ;)

[hammybee]

Based on the respones on this board as well other boards, I agree that giving cash is best. Reportedly, most of the crew relies upon the internet. Phone cards do not work in all ports and there is a huge difference of time between port and home time.

 

One of my personal favorite gift tipping stories is of our tablemates who gave their favored crew, beautifullly wrapped framed pix of themselves as a reward above and beyond the suggested minimum tip. Can you imagine?

[cnvh]

Pax gave the crew beautifully-framed pictures of themselves as an extra tip?!?! If I was a crew member and someone handed me that, I'm afraid it would be all I could do not to shatter such a thing over their heads... How awful!

[hammybee]

Pax gave the crew beautifully-framed pictures of themselves as an extra tip?!?! If I was a crew member and someone handed me that, I'm afraid it would be all I could do not to shatter such a thing over their heads... How awful!

 

The recipients were gracious, as if they had been handed $100 bills. They deserved Oscars for their performance. I would love to be the fly on the wall, in crew quarters. I wonder if they have contests for the most bizzare stuff pax award them.

[IheartHAL]

A crewmember who receives a cash tip from you can keep it, as long as it is in addition to the daily $10 gratuity that is charged to your shipboard account. If you have the daily charge removed from your account so that you can give cash instead, the crewmember is required to report it, and then it probably goes into the pool.

 

Personally, I give cash in addition to the daily $10 charge on my shipboard account. On our last cruise, we also gave a few of our favorite crew baseball caps from home -- they got a kick out of those!

[Len3]

CASH is the word. Is there anyone who doesn't just love it?

[hammybee]

Personally, I give cash in addition to the daily $10 charge on my shipboard account. On our last cruise, we also gave a few of our favorite crew baseball caps from home -- they got a kick out of those!

 

I think the crew gets all sorts of well meaning gifts from pax, including baseball caps, perfume, ceramics, DVDs, memorabilia from pax home towns, scarves, ties, t-shirts, calling cards and sometimes even framed family portraits of someone else's family. What are they supposed to do with all this stuff?

 

They live in very tight quarters with limited storage space and need to travel light due to weight restriction on their own luggage when flying home.

 

I do not mean any ill will here- really I don't. But I think we have to look at it from the crew's perspective. Tips represent a substantial part of their income and who amongst us wants to be paid in well intentioned stuff in lieu of cash?

[Sale Away]

CASH is the word. Is there anyone who doesn't just love it?

 

How much would you consider to be appropriate to give in an additional tip? Assuming great service... how much would you consider to be chintzy and how much would be too much?

[dakrewser]

Just imagine that it's a month after the end of your company's fiscal year, and everyone is lined up to get their bonus from the boss. What would you prefer to get:

 

1) a picture of the boss' family

2) a baseball cap from the boss' favorite team

3) a phone card good in the interior of Canada

4) cold hard cash - in any currency

 

I know which one I want!

[SakeDad]

I fully intend to keep the auto-tips in place. I guess I read wrong when I saw all cash tips were pooled. I certainly would never think of giving anything that would take up precious cabin space as I know how tight (and shared) their cabins are. Besides, Vegas doesn't have a sports team:p

[dakrewser]

Besides, Vegas doesn't have a sports team:p

 

 

Sure they do,

 

 

:D

[bankerbabe]

I had read somewhere that crew get special kudos if they receive a written acknowledgement of their excellent service - something about it goes in their personnel file and is taken into consideration at review time. Is this true? If so, would it be helpful to them if I included their cash tip in a thank you note, so that they could have the cash as well as a commendation for their file?

[sortingthoughts]

For our cabin steward, I left a thank you card with some additional cash in it, and a package of chocolate - I didn't want to give him anything 'big' because I know they're in very cramped quarters - he thanked me a few times for the 'thoguhtfulness' of it.

[Jade13]

SakeDad - I'm not sure I agree. My impression is it may be different on different ships. I was on the Veendam last summer and the show announcer said not to give cash tips. Why would he announce this with a good portion of pax at the show? He said the $10 per day was reasonable and he hoped pax would not take it off of their account. He also mentioned (on that ship) crew WERE required to report and pool all cash tips to be divided among the crew. He said this in front of 100's of passengers. What I got from this was that it was just easier to add money at the end using your credit card since it would be pooled.

 

This is what we were told...which may or may not be correct but I bet every captain runs his ship differently.

[wrk2cruz]

Stupid Question.....How in the world would anyone know if I did or did not give x-tra cash to my steward or waiter or anyone else for that matter......If I were that steward etc..I would place the well deserved cash in a private spot on my person and just forget it....

Even if I would not tip automatically on my account.....how would they know???? Big Brother????:eek:

[Jade13]

Bankerbabe - Yes, on the Veendam we were asked to fill out the comment card and list 3 crew that were very helpful and did something special for us. This was mentioned during the same speech not to leave cash tips. We were to explain why. Mine included the dinning room Manager who specially prepared King Crab Legs for us since we had missed them the first formal night we were in the Pinnacle Grille. He just offered. We walked by to see what we missed and asked a staff member if they would be serving them again. He ran to get the Manager who ran to ask the Chef (if they had enough for two entrees left) and they made them for us the following night. It felt very concerge level. Btw they weren't very good, too tough (doesn't compare in our opinion to ones from Maryland - where they get them from Louisana) but the idea hat they arranged this was awsome. It was good to try them and avoid going out for lunch somewhere in Alaska where the King Crab legs are about $42.00pp.

[Seago2]

Comment cards are key!!!

[sail7seas]

Stupid Question.....How in the world would anyone know if I did or did not give x-tra cash to my steward or waiter or anyone else for that matter......If I were that steward etc..I would place the well deserved cash in a private spot on my person and just forget it....

Even if I would not tip automatically on my account.....how would they know???? Big Brother????:eek:

 

 

You sell short people's intelligence. ;)

 

IF all the stewards are averaging a certain sum of money per cruise in additional tips from guests, wouldn't it seem odd that one particular (or a few) consistently received less than all the others?

 

Either they are not carrying their load and doing a good job or they are not pooling the tips they receive. In either case, attention will be on them.

 

Honesty........ let's not call them less than honest. They live and work together in very close quarters. It would be a hard life I would imagine for someone who does not abide by the rules and do as expected of them.

 

**** Praise and special thanks written on end of cruise comment sheets matters A GREAT DEAL!!! Those positive (and negative) comments go a long way when it is time to consider promotion or even whether they will be offered another contract. To Compliment your dining/cabin/bar steward etc on those cards means a lot. And don't forget the Captain and Hotel Manager and GRM and CD etc......... the positive comments about them matter also. If they have done something special to make your cruise more wonderful, comment card is a wonderful place to say thank you.

[hunt182644]

Evidently you are not a hockey fan. Go Las Vegas Wranglers.

[mariner]

Here is what I've done for years.

 

When sailing out of Lauderdale, I go to the calling station and purchase phone cards. I do this because I know they'll work for the crew. The ones you get at home may not.

 

I give them to them before St. Thomas (or any other American port) because there's always great phone facilities at reasonable rates.

 

When not sailing from Lauderdale, I give them each $10 and tell them call home from St. Thomas. They get 30 mins for $5. And I have the joy of hearing about what's happening at home later that night.

 

I then give them cash in envelopes at the end of the cruise and sing them high praises in the comment cards, while leaving auto-tipping in place.

[jhannah]

Evidently you are not a hockey fan. Go Las Vegas Wranglers.

And how about the Las Vegas Gladiators arena football team?

 

Praise and special thanks written on end of cruise comment sheets matters A GREAT DEAL!!!

Absolutely. Cash is the toke of choice, for sure, but a thoughtfully-written pat on the back is probably even more meaningful.

[mmh0805]

Here's a question--what does the crew do when they receive cash? Is there a crew bank? Surely they don't keep what could amount to a huge sum over the course of their contracts hidden in their cabins.

 

So if the bonus cash tips are kept in some kind of bank or account by the cruiseline for each crew member, then there is some record of how much each has received and it could be checked against the autotipping records?