Select Dining Newbie - tipping?

[lovestx]

I know tipping questions are a pain on CC but I can't find a definitive answer by searching the boards so please indulge me.

 

We leave in 10 days for a short Connie cruise. First cruise we were in Aqua Class and we gave additional tips to the staff in Blu who were our usual servers. We have chosen Select Dining for this next cruise and, as such, have pre-paid gratuities.

 

I know that our waiter will get $3.65 for our dinner service from our pre-paid gratuities. I would like to give him/her more than that. So should I tip extra each night as we will have different waiters each night? Or do you generally get the same wait staff with Select?

[dkjretired]

I know tipping questions are a pain on CC but I can't find a definitive answer by searching the boards so please indulge me.

 

We leave in 10 days for a short Connie cruise. First cruise we were in Aqua Class and we gave additional tips to the staff in Blu who were our usual servers. We have chosen Select Dining for this next cruise and, as such, have pre-paid gratuities.

 

I know that our waiter will get $3.65 for our dinner service from our pre-paid gratuities. I would like to give him/her more than that. So should I tip extra each night as we will have different waiters each night? Or do you generally get the same wait staff with Select?

 

Most likely you will not have the same wait staff every night as you could be seated in different locations. Extra tipping is up to you.

[KirkNC]

I would tip nightly.

[cruisinsusin]

We have chosen select on our past 3 cruises. Each cruise, after just 1 or 2 dinners, we found waitstaff that we liked and stayed in their areas each night subsequently. This was the best of both worlds- the flexibility of timing with select but waitstaff that remembered our likes/ routine requests ( and even our names!). We tipped extra the last night of the cruise.

[lovestx]

Thanks. Sounds like we will tip each night as it's only a 4 night cruise.

 

But have to say that $3.65 X 4 people for serving four people dinner seems paltry. Guessing our 'bill' would be $200 without alcohol if we were in a regular restaurant and we would normally give $40 in a tip for good service.

 

We will tip accordingly and you have all been helpful!

[caribsun]

We had a different wait team each night. The service was robotic so no extra tip.

[isdoo]

Your tips will be auto-added to your on-board account.

 

This applies to select dining as well.

[dkjretired]

Your tips will be auto-added to your on-board account.

 

This applies to select dining as well.

 

Not true, With select dining you are required to prepay tips. Prepay tips means prior to getting on the ship...Totally different than automatically being added to your on board account. If you change to select dining on board your tips are charged all at once instead of showing up on your account on a daily basis for traditional dining.

[lovestx]

We had a different wait team each night. The service was robotic so no extra tip.

 

Wow...sounds pretty bad. Hope our experience is different.

[travelberlin]

We have chosen select on our past 3 cruises. Each cruise, after just 1 or 2 dinners, we found waitstaff that we liked and stayed in their areas each night subsequently. This was the best of both worlds- the flexibility of timing with select but waitstaff that remembered our likes/ routine requests ( and even our names!). We tipped extra the last night of the cruise.

We did exactly the same.

[isdoo]

Not true, With select dining you are required to prepay tips. Prepay tips means prior to getting on the ship...Totally different than automatically being added to your on board account. If you change to select dining on board your tips are charged all at once instead of showing up on your account on a daily basis for traditional dining.

 

oops - sorry. of course.

 

No need to worry about tips as they are all pre-paid :)