Tipping - Harv and Marv

[34TigerLily]

How much do you tip these guys? It is my understanding that their boats are owner-operated. Does that change the amount that you ntip? The 3-hour tour is $149.

[canadarocks]

I'd like to know as well and how much do you tip the driver, who I understand is usually another family member?:confused:

[cindep]

To me, tipping is such a personal thing and depends on the services rendered. Unfortunately, you can't just go on x amount times the cost of the tour. We DID tip Jay (our Harv (or Marv)) after our tour as it was an outstanding job and we felt we got more than the cost of the tour. I don't recall if we tipped the family member that drove the van ... we may have.

 

An exceptional tour in my book gets at least $20 for us as a couple, unless it is a REALLY long tour. That's kind of my "rule of thumb".

 

Also, they may (Pete did anyway) have some cards and photos you can look through and purchase. There is no pressure to do this ... but it can be a nice way for you to have a momento and also to support the "family". You may want to have a little extra cash for that as well, but they will also take a credit card they'll call into Eileen.

[vbmom87]

$10 a person seems to be the often mentioned amount for a tour like this. Those that tip drivers, usually give a couple of dollars.

[TazzMann]

We tipped the boat captain $15 plus I bought a hat and 2 pictures. We tipped the van driver $5.

 

 

TazzMann

[crusinwen]

Tipping is such a personal matter. We did NOT tip Harv and Marv as we felt the $300.00 per couple was amble money for what we got (3 hours total time for this excursion) We have tipped most of the time for different excursions, the amount depending on what the original cost of the tour was and how happy we were with that excursion. Probably somewhere between $10.00-$20.00.

 

We were slightly disappointed with Harv and Marv (maybe expectations were too high) so we did not tip.

[Teknofauz]

Tipping is a personal thing. My husband is usually a big tipper, however on this trip he did not tip at all.

 

Nancy:)

[nativetexan]

about the disappointment? Any other details you care to share? Our family of 4 will go shortly!

 

thanks!!

[Teknofauz]

Our disappointment was the fact that we did not get as close to the whales as we thought we would. Other boats were closer and had better angles. Pete said that he doesn't like to interfere with the whales, which I totally respect, but truthfully I also wanted to be able to see better than we did. If I had to do it all over again - I would have used the coupon in the TourSaver book and got it a lot cheaper.

 

That is why we didn't tip. Neither of the other couples tipped either.

 

Nancy:)

[crusinwen]

about the disappointment? Any other details you care to share? Our family of 4 will go shortly!

 

thanks!!

 

For us the disappointment could have been partially based on expectation. We had this excursion buildt up SO much based on very good reviews on CC. I understand that when looking for whales or other wildlife it is very unpredictable. I think I thought that with a small boat that somehow we were going to be able to access areas that the big boats could not get to. I really thought it was going to be awesome. Well, it was fine we had a good time and Pete is a nice guy but we did not get very close to the whales (I am aware that you have to keep a certain distance from the whales) I thought Pete was too conservative and I did say something at one point at how close the other boats seemed to be. There were about 4 other boats that were in the same area as we were and they were all closer, even the bigger 2 level boat was closer.

 

So, thats why the disappointment....I also would have used a toursaver coupon that I had for a buy one get one free and saved alot of money - To me $300.00 was alot for what we got. Thats why we did not tip....tipping is not automatic....it should be when you get really great service and you are really happy with the excursion that you were on...otherwise they were well paid for their services.

 

You will have a good time.....enjoy!! I don't mean to be a downer.....just sharing opinions with others so that everyone can make the best decisions they can for themselves. You will love Alaska!!!

 

Wendy

Groveland, FL

[nikkin]

I just spent almost 1,200 for 4 days of ports..for two people for our upcoming trip in Alaska.. I do not believe I will get my husband to fork over an extra penny on any of the tours we are going on. We have been on some in the past where we tipped. ..but they were very inexpensive tours.

[jmhlaw]

We booked a private tour because they wouldn't take our 4 year old with a group. It wasn't much more expensive becuase there were four of us. We tipped Jay $50.00 for the 4 of us because he went out of his way to make things more interesting for our daughter. We went to see seals, eagles, lighthouses, etc. He took us to different points to get good photo opps of the Glacier, mountains, etc, he is a photographer and the pictures we took with him were some of the best of the trip. We weren't as close to the whales as we thought we'd be but Harv and Marv's other boat was very close to a mother and calf. Jay explained that if you are under power, regulations require that you stay 150 yards away. If you are drifting without power and a whale swims up to you you can get as close as you want. The day we were there, a NOAA boat was patrolling the waters and all of the operators were about the same distance from the wales except for the one boat that was just drifting. We really enjoyed the tour but I'm not sure how different it would have been if we hadn't been by ourselves.

[crusinwen]

We booked a private tour because they wouldn't take our 4 year old with a group. It wasn't much more expensive becuase there were four of us. We tipped Jay $50.00 for the 4 of us because he went out of his way to make things more interesting for our daughter. We went to see seals, eagles, lighthouses, etc. He took us to different points to get good photo opps of the Glacier, mountains, etc, he is a photographer and the pictures we took with him were some of the best of the trip. We weren't as close to the whales as we thought we'd be but Harv and Marv's other boat was very close to a mother and calf. Jay explained that if you are under power, regulations require that you stay 150 yards away. If you are drifting without power and a whale swims up to you you can get as close as you want. The day we were there, a NOAA boat was patrolling the waters and all of the operators were about the same distance from the wales except for the one boat that was just drifting. We really enjoyed the tour but I'm not sure how different it would have been if we hadn't been by ourselves.

 

There is only room for 6 on his boat and we were on the boat with my husband and my sister and brother in law. There was one other couple...so it was "almost" private. We had Pete and not Jay but we did not feel like we had any unusual services to warrant the high cost as well as the very high recommendations from CC. The tour was fine....but it was the only thing that we did in Alaska that we had some dissappointment over. We were aware of having to stay a certain distance away from the whales. I understand that others think that Harv and Marv is fantastic....this was just our experience.

 

Wendy

Groveland, FL:D

[plenox]

I tip people who live on fixed wages or minimal wages who count on tips for make a reasonable living. Tipping owner is like tip the cruiseship captain. I typically don't do that. I am sure they don't expect you to tip them either because for $139pp, it is not cheap already.

[crusinwen]

I tip people who live on fixed wages or minimal wages who count on tips for make a reasonable living. Tipping owner is like tip the cruiseship captain. I typically don't do that. I am sure they don't expect you to tip them either because for $139pp, it is not cheap already.

 

For us it was $149.00 pp!

[CowPrincess]

I tip people who live on fixed wages or minimal wages who count on tips for make a reasonable living. Tipping owner is like tip the cruiseship captain. I typically don't do that. I am sure they don't expect you to tip them either because for $139pp, it is not cheap already.

 

When I had my own service business, with staff on payroll, any tips that were given to ME went directly to my staff, split among them. Without good staff, my business would have been in trouble!

[Podie]

This is an interesting thread for me because we just returned from Alaska and our cruise with Jay of Harv & Marv. In just a short time we felt he was an old friend of ours and we all took part in watching for whales. He explained the rule about not approaching the whales (I thought he said 100') and I'd say we were about 100-150' away at all times. Even so, we got fantastic photos because his boat is so smooth. I have been whale watching in Hawaii and didn't get anywhere near as close as I did this time. So I guess it's all relative, but for us it was one of the high points of the trip.

[compulady]

I was just on a Harv and Marv trip. The info from the Alaska Marine Center (or something like that) said boats need to stay 100 yards away from wildlife. That is a football field in length. At 100 yards you need binoculars or a telephoto lens for the whales or other wildlife to appear close.

 

We saw Humpback and Orca Whales as well as Stellar Sea Lions on our trip!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/losta/sets/72157620075067569/

[nativetexan]

Thanks for the feedback on your experience. Managing expectations is so darn hard! This will help. We are looking for a great morning out on the water and hopefully - close to the wild life. Seeing the animals in their setting is amazing!!

 

Thank you all for your info!!!

[CruzinNoony]

I was just on a Harv and Marv trip. The info from the Alaska Marine Center (or something like that) said boats need to stay 100 yards away from wildlife. That is a football field in length. At 100 yards you need binoculars or a telephoto lens for the whales or other wildlife to appear close.

 

We saw Humpback and Orca Whales as well as Stellar Sea Lions on our trip!

 

 

Great photos!! Thank you for posting them.:)

[Teknofauz]

I was just on a Harv and Marv trip. The info from the Alaska Marine Center (or something like that) said boats need to stay 100 yards away from wildlife. That is a football field in length. At 100 yards you need binoculars or a telephoto lens for the whales or other wildlife to appear close.

 

We saw Humpback and Orca Whales as well as Stellar Sea Lions on our trip!

 

You seemed to be closer than we were on our Harv & Marv trip.

 

Nancy

[nauticalnancy]

Thank you all for the info and input. 6 of us are going with Harv & Marv in August and we wondered what the small-ship experience would be like (a couple people are worried about being seasick!)