Lido Deck Waiter Loyalty

[Frank12]

We usually pick a good waiter and try to stick with him.

[bitemyfly]

Yes. And works very well for both of us

Server and I

[conchead]

The waiters walk around lido deck with the special for the day (dont remember what special) and have a bottle of booze and put a shot on top of the drink. Its only 1 day during a 7 day trip..

 

I have never seen a waiter walking around with a bottle,

unless they are serving someone a beer.

[mikel24m]

The waiters walk around lido deck with the special for the day (dont remember what special) and have a bottle of booze and put a shot on top of the drink. Its only 1 day during a 7 day trip..

 

I have never seen a waiter with a bottle to do a floater.Im sorry to say but I think you are thinking of a different bar

[LitchfieldParkCruisers]

I love the comments from people that assume that there is no way that treating a server/waiter nicely and throwing a tip in the mix will ever benefit you. I have tipped well on multiple occasions on a cruise and noticed the flavor of my drinks getting better and better. The servers and bartenders live together and there is a good chance they are friends. A server could very easily mention to a bartender that you are a nice person and a good tipper and the pour could easily get heavier.

Find a favorite..it couldn't hurt...

 

LPC

[arpie05]

bar waiters would not give you an extra shot.Bartenders make all the drinks for the waiters/waitresses.We do find a bartender for the week and they dont forget a face ,especially ones who tip extra like us :)

someone further down may have already said, and if so sorry.... i'm sure it is no different on the ship than in any other restaurant or bar... the wait staff has to tip out the bartender. so the bartender wants the server to do a good job and make tips. It has been too long since I did this but I'm recalling 10-20% goes to the bar.

[aprime23]

No, I also don't leave/buy gifts, calling cards, cookies, a bottle of their(my) favorite wine, ask if they need me to buy anything for them in port. Will I tip large for excellent service - yes, am I going to add them to my x-mas card list and visit their relatives when I'm in their home country - No

[gsu_paintballer]

I love the comments from people that assume that there is no way that treating a server/waiter nicely and throwing a tip in the mix will ever benefit you. I have tipped well on multiple occasions on a cruise and noticed the flavor of my drinks getting better and better. The servers and bartenders live together and there is a good chance they are friends. A server could very easily mention to a bartender that you are a nice person and a good tipper and the pour could easily get heavier.

Find a favorite..it couldn't hurt...

 

LPC

 

The flavor of drinks tends to get better as you drink more.

 

That's because there's alcohol in them.

[emjay]

We always find a waiter that we stick with. On our last cruise we went into the comedy club and it was packed, when our bar server saw us he grabbed chairs from somewhere and we all had great seats for the show. He even found us at dinner on the last night to thank US for the week,

[Texarribean Chick]

Yes - we always find one waiter that is eager to serve. We generously tip at the end of the cruise. :D

[jimjamxx]

I was wondering, we have a group of us that usually sail together and the first day on the ship we usually find a Lido Deck Waiter that we hit it off with. We usually stay loyal to him all week. We will make sure we find him and he takes care of us all week. This usually ends up with us giving him a huge tip at the end of the cruise. Do any of the rest of you do this?

 

 

We do the same thing, except we tip on 1st day as well as last day. Works great, he knows our names, folio #, and what we want.

jimmyjames

[elcuchio24]

No. As long as whoever it is brings drinks in a timely manner, I really counldn't care less who's doing it. You do realize you are auto tipping him everytime you buy a drink?

[elcuchio24]

No, I also don't leave/buy gifts, calling cards, cookies, a bottle of their(my) favorite wine, ask if they need me to buy anything for them in port. Will I tip large for excellent service - yes, am I going to add them to my x-mas card list and visit their relatives when I'm in their home country - No

 

Like

[Thom524]

On one of our cruises we had a lido deck waiter who was friendly, efficient and entertaining. We encountered him first thing on embarkation day and everywhere we were it seemed so was he. In the MDR the waiters have assigned stations and this guy was in the station next to ours and we had to step on some toes to have him get us our bar drinks. On the last night we all gave him extra tips and he was very appreciative.

On another cruise we had late dining so our group would meet near the casino for a before dinner drink, there was a young waiter our wives all concurred was very handsome so to keep the girls happy we made it a point to order from him. After a while it seemed the other waiters knew we were his customers and wouldn't even approach us.

[ajagent]

No, I also don't leave/buy gifts, calling cards, cookies, a bottle of their(my) favorite wine, ask if they need me to buy anything for them in port. Will I tip large for excellent service - yes, am I going to add them to my x-mas card list and visit their relatives when I'm in their home country - No

 

Wow. Not sure anybody said anything about any of the above but Ok.

[ajagent]

No. As long as whoever it is brings drinks in a timely manner, I really counldn't care less who's doing it. You do realize you are auto tipping him everytime you buy a drink?

 

 

Yeah I realize we auto tip with every drink. If they go over and above and take great care of us I think it is worth it to shoot them a little extra cash. I hate seeing an empty bucket of beer!!!

[mikel24m]

someone further down may have already said, and if so sorry.... i'm sure it is no different on the ship than in any other restaurant or bar... the wait staff has to tip out the bartender. so the bartender wants the server to do a good job and make tips. It has been too long since I did this but I'm recalling 10-20% goes to the bar.

 

I have never asked but I do not think the service bartender gets tipped out by the waiter on ships.I think the servers get tipped out weekly not daily.Also they are tipped automatically so why would a bartender care they get tipped either way.Strong drink/weak drink same tip unless you tip extra in cash

[usafchick1980]

We didn't look for a certain waiter but he seemed to watch for us. Everytime we turned around he was there. He took good care of us. So at the end of the week we made sure to give him a bit of a tip.

[parrothead74]

I find a waiter I like the first day and tip them a twenty spot in cash and tell him to keep them coming till I say otherwise.

 

Waitress bring a pitcher every 10 minutes till someone passes out, then every 5 - Rodney Dangerfield

[ClCB0911]

I was wondering, we have a group of us that usually sail together and the first day on the ship we usually find a Lido Deck Waiter that we hit it off with. We usually stay loyal to him all week. We will make sure we find him and he takes care of us all week. This usually ends up with us giving him a huge tip at the end of the cruise. Do any of the rest of you do this?

 

 

yes i do it sometimes, specially when traveling on a group...we usually try to look for the same waiter!!!

[DnD_Cruisin]

We have only been on 2 cruises so far and from what I have read on this thread and others, I am guessing our experience is very uncommon.

 

On our 1st cruise (Valor) we spent quite a bit of time on the Lido and got to know the bartenders and 1 waiter pretty well. The waiter took fantastic care of us and our 1st & 2nd drinks each afternoon always had a extra shot. He always had great advise for each port and we benefitted greatly from both his service and assistance.

 

When we got up to the Lido deck on our second trip (Victory) 10 months later, we sat down with a few folks from our group and there was the same waiter! He remembered our names and what we liked. Again we got the same extra shots, great service and recommendations for each of the ports. During conversation with him we found out he was moving to the Splendor in Mar and would be on that ship for our upcoming cruise. It is a small world after all....

[Dangjr213]

I do the same thing except I find a bartender on the promenade deck that I will go to all week. I like being able to walk up to a bar and get my drink right away. After the first day I don't even have to tell them what drink I order. At the end of the week I make sure to leave as extra tip

[JerseyshoreBruce]

The auto tip wouldn't buy a tube of toothpaste for the waiters. So yes i tip on top of what they get automatically. And you don't think they ever split tips with a bartender? So tipping can get you stronger drinks no matter what others may think. Like i said it got me a few free beers on HMC.

[mikel24m]

The auto tip wouldn't buy a tube of toothpaste for the waiters. So yes i tip on top of what they get automatically. And you don't think they ever split tips with a bartender? So tipping can get you stronger drinks no matter what others may think. Like i said it got me a few free beers on HMC.

 

I was a service bartender for years and can tell you servers do not split with the bartender.Basically you are at their mercy to give you what they want.I know servers who have never had a good night and always let you know around tip out time how bad of a night they had.

 

As far a strong drinks why would a bartender "hook up" a server for them to be able to make more money.If my guest came to me and over tipped me I would make it happen but not for someone elses gain.

[lilypad76]

I will say that one of our waiters came up to us at the end of a cruise and said we had helped get him top sales of the week. We tipped him 100.00 and he actually started to cry. He said that his sales meant he got his pick of shifts for the upcoming week. GO YOMAN!!!!

 

We had a Yoman on our cruise on the Inspiration. He was fantastic and at the end we made a point to find him to tip him extra! I don't know if it's the same person but I will never forget his name and just had to comment!