Have you experienced better/worse service when increasing/reducing tips?

[Karysa]

The post that I quoted said:

"Only ONCE have we gone to the Purser's Desk and had the automatic tips totally removed. That was on a Carnival Cruise, we were "yelled" at by a dining room waiter and then on another day, we feel, treated very badly by the asst. maitre'd in the dining room. Both of these incidents were at Breakfast time when they were not rushed. If it had been at dinner time, when they have hundreds of people, all wanting something at the same time, I may have cut them some slack. BUT they were both JUST RUDE!

Also, on the same cruise, our stateroom attendant was terrible, mostly because of the language barrier. I AM sorry, BUT if you are going to work on a ship with mainly American passengers you should be able to speak and understand English. We have never had a problem with foreign crew on any other ship we have cruised on, or anyone else on that cruise. Anytime we needed anything we had to call the Purser's Desk - VERY Inconvenient!

Thus we only tipped the waiter and asst waiter that we had for dinner and before tipping them we made sure that THEY got to keep the tip and would not have to put it in a pot and share with others. It was our only experience with BAD service on a cruise. "

 

The post I was referring to was your post #64.

 

Karysa

[PhoneGoddess]

The post I was referring to was your post #64.

 

Karysa

My sincerest apologies. Things got a little convoluted because that person replied to a question I was asking of another poster...the one I originally quoted. And then you replied to me regarding the second person's reply. And round and round we go! :D

I just would like 2sunny to explain how they "made sure" that those servers were able to keep their extra tips if they took the autotips off. It baffles me!

[dclcruiselover]

I have always tipped the recommended amount (I never pre-pay my tips) and for those who go the extra mile, I give them a bonus in cash on top of the tip vouchures that you get from the cruise line the last night, except on one cruise. I had this one cruise on Disney Wonder (our 4th with DCL) that the service was poor on the part of our stateroom attendent who was never around and our room was not taken care of well. I did decrease his tip and low and behold, our luggage was lost when we went to get it at customs. Apparently all our luggage tags, both the Disney ones and our personal identification ones all fell off on all 6 of our bags. It took us well over an hour to locate our luggage. Coincidence? Who knows. You decide. I have given stateroom attendants, half way through a cruise, $20 to let them know we appreciate the service so far. I then tell them that this is in addition to what their end of cruise tip will be. I do not do this to get better service. I do it to let them know I appreciate all the hard work and long hours of their service.

[Arwenmark]

Wait now I am getting confused. The post that you are referring to said "extra". If you don't remove the auto tips and choose to tip extra that money stays with that individual, does it not?

 

Karysa

 

Karysa,

even when the tip is extra ON TOP OF the auto tips the staff must turn it in, it gets noted with their name and your cabin number etc. Once they verify that you did NOT remove the auto tips they get this money paid back to them.

 

 

for the other poster, They may very well look in his pocket, that would be his shipmates whom you can be sure are watching like hawks to see if someone is tipped in cash.

They do turn each other in if that is not reported.

 

You are not doing anyone any favors the way you are doing things.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We always have tipped at the very least the recommended tips. Have never adjusted or removed the autotips. This process actually makes the last day of the cruise easier as then we just concern ourselves with filling tip envelopes for the kids' program counselors and for any waitstaff or cabin stewards that we feel deserve an extra tip. In addition, we may fill out the "Made a difference" cards.

 

We have never "pre-tipped."

[keep on cruisin]

On one occasion i removd the auto tip from our account. This was due to many problems that we had with the MDR. I wanted to only remove the portion related to the wait staff, but they told me that if I only reduced the amount of auto tip then the % to each would stay in place.

 

I ultimately removed all the tips, and noted the reasons why on a reduced tip request form.

 

I did make sure that I informed my room steward when this occured because I was concerned he would find out and not be happy. I told him that he and his assistant would be taken care of in cash on the last day. I also made sure that I singled out a certain waiter (Leo) that went above and beyond, and took care of him.

 

When writing a letter to NCL at the end of the cruise I also made sure that Leo's excellence was noted, in addition to the failures that we had dealt with.

 

I generally am a very good tipper, so I will normally leave them in place, and tip extra when warranted.

[coordinator23]

On a RCL cruise last year, I mistakenly put the wrong "tip slips" in the envelopes for the dinning room staff. When I realized this, I apologized to our main waiter, and he told me not to worry. The gratuties had already been posted to "their" accounts, so my mix up didn't matter. This indicates that the RCL staff does know ahead of time if they've been tipped. The slips of paper they receive from us don't have to be turned in for credit.

[Karysa]

My sincerest apologies. Things got a little convoluted because that person replied to a question I was asking of another poster...the one I originally quoted. And then you replied to me regarding the second person's reply. And round and round we go! :D

I just would like 2sunny to explain how they "made sure" that those servers were able to keep their extra tips if they took the autotips off. It baffles me!

 

No apology necessary. I know how you feel. This is an interesting topic that has many twists and turns. But here is the question that I am trying to get answered and forgive me if someone answered it and I missed it. If you do not take the auto tips off and you tip above to individuals who gave you wonderful service do they get to keep 100% of the EXTRA, not auto tips. Karysa

[PhoneGoddess]

It is my understanding that yes, individuals do get to keep the extra tips as long as the auto tips were not removed.

[sunshine nana]

We have always left the automatic tip in place and tipped extra to the stewards who have always been great. Sometimes we have also tipped extra to the waitors if we have the same ones every night. We always tip for room service. Only once did we have bad service. The host at LaBistro in Hawaii rudely told us that we were early (10min.). This was about 5:20. He made us wait until 5:30 and then gave us a poor table. We were paying for the dinner, it was not given to us as a credit or part of the romance package.Others who came in after we did got better tables. It wasn't crowded.Then they did not have the wine DH picked from the wine list. It kind of put a damper on the evening. We have never gone to a specialty restaurant in all of our crusies after that. I did wait almost an hour to speak to the man in charge of dining the next day. He was very understanding. I told him I did NOT want any refund, I just wanted him to correct the host's behavior.He asked about our service in the regular dining room and I told him the name of the waitor and that it was great service. That night, our waitor brought us a free bottle of wine. I really didn't expect that, but it did help our impression of NCL since prior we had always been on Princess.

[cruiser1114]

We generally pay the automatic tips but on our last one we felt it was too much, 10 day x 11pp = 220.00, in addition to the automatic tips we always pay room stewart 100.00, maitre'd 100.00, head waiter 100.00, waiter and assistant 100 each plus give cash to the bar personnel, it seems to us that we would rather not pay the automatic tips but give cash to the employees which adds up to much more than the automatic tips and they can keep it and not pay taxes on it and there was a post awhile ago from someone who said that the employees do not get the automatic tips that the cruise lines keep them for more profit, if that is the case we definitely will not pay automatic again, anyone have information if that is correct or not?

[LHT28]

We generally pay the automatic tips but on our last one we felt it was too much, 10 day x 11pp = 220.00, in addition to the automatic tips we always pay room stewart 100.00, maitre'd 100.00, head waiter 100.00, waiter and assistant 100 each plus give cash to the bar personnel, it seems to us that we would rather not pay the automatic tips but give cash to the employees which adds up to much more than the automatic tips and they can keep it and not pay taxes on it and there was a post awhile ago from someone who said that the employees do not get the automatic tips that the cruise lines keep them for more profit, if that is the case we definitely will not pay automatic again, anyone have information if that is correct or not?

If you go back a few pages the question was answered by BRUCEMUZZ

[peggyann1216]

We choose to remove the automatic tips from our account. BUT......on the first day of the cruise, we hand each person we choose to tip a minimum of 1/2 of the total amount we want that person to have, and we make sure they know more is coming on the LAST day. We have always received exemplary service, and the people seem to be very happy with this arrangement.

[librarian1]

How many times does someone have to say "if you REMOVE the auto-tips and tip only certain individuals IN PERSON they do NOT get to keep the tip"?

 

Keep the auto-tip and tip extra if desired then the tippee keeps the extra.

 

Remove the auto-tip and tip individually and the tippee must give that money over to the pool. You've not helped them.

 

*sigh*

[VEGASVIV21]

I feel that tipping is important to crew members, who put in long hours and receive low pay for their duties. I have been on 79 cruises, and i could say that the percentage of good service averages about 77% out of the 79. Most of the waiters, bar people and assistant waiters, room stewards are there to try to please you. They will try to furnish all services that are extremely high quality. I have coffee delivered every morning, and am always greeted with a smile by the server, we usually give a cash tip every morning for this service. I usually stay in a suite and can say that all the room sewards handling these rooms are of high calibur. They serve well and try to please you in all ways possible. My dining room waiters are extremely courteous, know our names what we like and have everything waiting for us when we come into the dining room. Some of them double as wine sewards and know the wine and drinks we prefer and have them at the table as we enter. If we arent satisfied with a specific course the waiter will gladly change it to something we enjoy eating. I recently was on Explorer of the Sea, and was seated on the 3rd level, which we didnt enjoy. I went to the Head Waiter and expressed my discomfit, and he remembered us from the cruise we take 3 months, prior to this cruise, and told us, when we return he would make sure we were seated right behind the captains table. He follow through with his promises and we were resitted at a different level and a different table. He was compensated on the first cruise and remembered us on the return cruise, because of the tip. Tipping is another way of saying thank you for caring, so dont withhold the tip, unless you feel it is absolutely necessary, being lack of service.

[HFB]

I have only reduced tips once and I have taken a lot of cruises. On this occasion the service our cabin steward gave us was terrible. For example: There were 4 of us in the cabin and we asked him to remove one of the chairs as we couldn't move with the sofa bed out--He refused. We ended up putting the chair in the shower for the whole cruise and going to the spa to shower. We asked that our room be made up early at least some of the time as there was no room on the floor with the sofa bed filling all the floor space. Our room was never made up until at least 3:00 so of course we ended up making up the bed ourselves as we couldn't move. These are just 2 examples of many frustrations. Since there were 4 in the cabin the steward was going to receive 4 gratuities from our cabin. 2 of us opted to remove a portion of our gratuities but we did not do so until the end of the cruise when we got the final bill. With the surly attitude of the steward we were concerned that if we had removed the gratuity earlier he would have done something to our possessions in our absence. This experience was so unlike the experiences we have had on all our other cruises.

[Cruzaholic41]

How many times does someone have to say "if you REMOVE the auto-tips and tip only certain individuals IN PERSON they do NOT get to keep the tip"?

 

Frustrating, isn't it?

 

It's evident by some other posts, also, that not everyone has caught on to the topic here. It's about the removal of automatic tips, not tipping in general or why people should tip.

[BruceMuzz]

If tips aren't really tips then why don't the cruise company charge a set amount for your cruise holiday allowing for them to pay their staff a decent wage and that's that. At least in the days before this 'auto tipping' you were just allowed to hand your envelopes to the waiters, cabin stewards etc and you knew where you were. This auto tipping has just confused the issue - forget calling it auto tipping and just have one price per person.

 

After reading what some people have said on this thread I'm seriously worried that unless I do tip at the beginning of the cruise some seriously bad things could happen - the mind boggles - sounds a bit like blackmail to me. Pay up or you'll pay..............

 

If the company just adds the tips into the crew salary - and increases the price of the cruise to pay for this - where is the incentive for crew to do a good job? They then get the tips even if they do a terrible job. At least now you have the option of evaluating their service for the entire length of the cruise. If they did a great job, you have no further obligations. If their performance was less than stellar, you can remove or diminish their tip at the end of the cruise. This is exactly the way it works in nearly every Hotel, Bar, and Restaurant in America. It seems to have worked pretty well for the past hundred years or so.

 

You needn't tip anyone at the BEGINNING of the cruise. If your service staff did a great job (as happens about 99% of the time) just leave the auto-tips in place and do nothing else. Everyone is happy and your vacation is very simple.

[Midnight Writer]

We were on another ship the Carnival Glory, 2 years ago. I was not aware of not tipping the waiter that night. We did so for the next 7 days he wanted more tip money, the less we gave he would get irate, Now I learned that the tip was the last thing that I was supposed to give at the end. Then we found out that they take it automatically out of you, when you board.

I do not like this, and I will not have it again. Suppose you get a jerk like I did and he was a real pain in the can and he would not serve me my coffee when I asked him I wanted Espresso that I was going to pay extra for, he said to me you look full so no coffee for you.

What nerve!

At the end, we did not want to pay the allowed amount but I felt pressure from the pursers office, so we did. I will not go on the glory again because of this.

Red:mad:

[Midnight Writer]

I have only reduced tips once and I have taken a lot of cruises. On this occasion the service our cabin steward gave us was terrible. For example: There were 4 of us in the cabin and we asked him to remove one of the chairs as we couldn't move with the sofa bed out--He refused. We ended up putting the chair in the shower for the whole cruise and going to the spa to shower. We asked that our room be made up early at least some of the time as there was no room on the floor with the sofa bed filling all the floor space. Our room was never made up until at least 3:00 so of course we ended up making up the bed ourselves as we couldn't move. These are just 2 examples of many frustrations. Since there were 4 in the cabin the steward was going to receive 4 gratuities from our cabin. 2 of us opted to remove a portion of our gratuities but we did not do so until the end of the cruise when we got the final bill. With the surly attitude of the steward we were concerned that if we had removed the gratuity earlier he would have done something to our possessions in our absence. This experience was so unlike the experiences we have had on all our other cruises.

 

On what ship was this at? If you get lousy service you have the right not to give more of a tip... I know I have.

Most of the stewards in the cabins are very nice, so I have no problem and give more to them. they do work hard. They have been a delight so I gave them alittle extra before I left, this one gal on the Mariner of the seas Yolanda was super cool she would put ginger snaps in my room i always had tummy from the motion. I missed having cookies from home, so she would bring me down some, I gave her additonal tip, but not for the cookies but for her services.

Red

[FIREKILLER]

I feel that tipping is important to crew members, who put in long hours and receive low pay for their duties. I have been on 79 cruises, and i could say that the percentage of good service averages about 77% out of the 79. Most of the waiters, bar people and assistant waiters, room stewards are there to try to please you. They will try to furnish all services that are extremely high quality. I have coffee delivered every morning, and am always greeted with a smile by the server, we usually give a cash tip every morning for this service. I usually stay in a suite and can say that all the room sewards handling these rooms are of high calibur. They serve well and try to please you in all ways possible. My dining room waiters are extremely courteous, know our names what we like and have everything waiting for us when we come into the dining room. Some of them double as wine sewards and know the wine and drinks we prefer and have them at the table as we enter. If we arent satisfied with a specific course the waiter will gladly change it to something we enjoy eating. I recently was on Explorer of the Sea, and was seated on the 3rd level, which we didnt enjoy. I went to the Head Waiter and expressed my discomfit, and he remembered us from the cruise we take 3 months, prior to this cruise, and told us, when we return he would make sure we were seated right behind the captains table. He follow through with his promises and we were resitted at a different level and a different table. He was compensated on the first cruise and remembered us on the return cruise, because of the tip. Tipping is another way of saying thank you for caring, so dont withhold the tip, unless you feel it is absolutely necessary, being lack of service.

 

Vegasviv21,

Shouldn't and wouldn't you think that the Head Waiter should of accommodated you even if you didn't tip him extra? I am guessing that you left the auto-tip on, anyway, If he could perform your request without moving 500 people, wouldn't you expect him to do that? Isn't that part of customer service? To me it sounded as, "I'm not going to honor your request, but since you tipped me, I'll do it". Maybe I'm off base:D

[cruisinnewfy]

I always tip the room steward when we first board. I have found that i have never wanted for anything during the rest of my stay. I also extra tip persons that have provided excellent service. One cruise the waiter was so good we returned to that table every night. By the last night you had to wait for his station.

[dtracker]

I've never adjusted DSC either up or down, but have always added extra in cash at the end when I was able to locate outstanding crew members.

 

DT

[dtracker]

I'm not going to flame you, especially since you made things rights on your end.

 

This type of story is so sad to me. That people expect others to work for them as slaves, without pay. I can understand how some people don't want to pay additional gratuity to persons who are somewhat paid already, but to take away their income completely?

 

I know friends are precious, but I'd hesitate to go anywhere with this type of person. I certainly would not cruise with her and I'd only go to dinner with her at a fast food restaurant where the workers are at least paid minimum wage. She does understand that in the US (sorry if I'm wrong about where you live :o) restaurant servers are not paid minimum wage and they do have to claim tips for income tax purposes. If they don't receive a tip from her, they still have to pay income tax on what the gov't thinks they are collecting.

 

I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I would not associate with this person at all or someday I might be on the short end of her stick. If you want to peer into the heart of a person, look at how they treat waitstaff. If you find malace, then drop them like a hot firebrand. :eek: JMHO.

 

DT

[dtracker]

1. Nearly all the mass market cruise lines have some sort of auto-tip system in place. Most are nearly identical. This was really put into place to stop the massive loss of good service staff who could no longer afford to work for cruise lines where as many as 30% of the passengers were tipping nothing. The auto-tip doesn't make it impossible to opt out on the tip, but it does slow down the "cheap charlies" and results in higher earnings for the service staff.

 

Cheap Charlies (CC)...I hope the crew doesn't get that mixed up with CC (Cruise Critic). :D

 

DT