Tipping at cruise terminal, Fort Lauderdale

[cruzsnooze]

Ft Lauderdale is longshoremen who earn in excess of $30 an hour. Tipping is not required at this port and their are signs to that effect. Some people are so intimidated with the porters they tip anyway so do what you are comfortable with. Your luggage gets to the ship regardless of whether you tip or not.

[cruzsnooze]

Because bad things can (and do) happen if you don't tip. Do you really want to take that chance?

That is not true at all. All the porters do is put your luggage on a conveyor belt that has netting surrounding it to avoid any mishaps of luggage falling in the water. After they load their fully loaded luggage carts and bring it to the conveyor they don't know nor do they care who tipped or what they tipped. They usually put the tip in a pocket without even looking at it. It is the ship crew that take the luggage off the belt and deliver it to the cabins.

[Coral]

I think the tipping culture in the US is really out of control, i feel sorry for visitors to US who dont really understand how things work. If they dont tip the abuse you can get is quite bad. I visit the US all the time and i understand how it all works. I go back to my original point about the guys a Port everglades, there are signs up telling you not to tip, so why do passengers ignore it.

 

We do it so that our luggage doesn't accidentally fall into the water.

 

For (4) 26" bags, I tip $10.

[6pack]

We usually tip $4-5 for 2 large bags. On tips alone these guys do very well!

[highheel girl]

That is not true at all. All the porters do is put your luggage on a conveyor belt that has netting surrounding it to avoid any mishaps of luggage falling in the water. After they load their fully loaded luggage carts and bring it to the conveyor they don't know nor do they care who tipped or what they tipped. They usually put the tip in a pocket without even looking at it. It is the ship crew that take the luggage off the belt and deliver it to the cabins.

 

Believe me it is very true, and if you think they can't single out ones luggage in certain circumstances would be very nieve.

[wineforhealth]

I remember standing in line to get a taxi as we arrived back in port everglades, taxi pulls up in front of us, trunk lid flips up, i load my bags in and close the lid, as im getting into the taxi, the taxi despatcher puts his hand out for a tip. We work on tips here, he said, cant tell you my reply to him, it wasnt nice. Atip for blowing a whistle, i dont think so.

 

Same thing happened to me, the driver would not leave until I gave a tip. Needles to say the driver never receive a tip once we arrived at the airport. When he looked with amazement at the exact fare that I had paid, I told him him tip was back at the pier with the other gentleman.

[matj2000]

Interestingly enough the ones who are doing the most work are the ships crew members. The bags etc are manhandled into and out of an elevator and dragged miles down the hallways of the ship. The guy that does the least amount of work is receiving the cash. It is naive to think there is a connection between tipping and getting good service thru the entire chain of people who are involved with handling your luggage.

 

If I catch the guy bringing the luggage outside my room I always tip him.

[antsp]

Same thing happened to me, the driver would not leave until I gave a tip. Needles to say the driver never receive a tip once we arrived at the airport. When he looked with amazement at the exact fare that I had paid, I told him him tip was back at the pier with the other gentleman.

 

This was the guy who blow a whistle to tell the taxi to pull up, pointless job really i'm sure the driver could figure it out. Im sure its a job created to extort tip money from the passegers

[cruzsnooze]

We do it so that our luggage doesn't accidentally fall into the water.

 

For (4) 26" bags, I tip $10.

They have nets up so that can't happen.

[Coral]

They have nets up so that can't happen.

 

I have seen plenty of luggage in the water either accidentally or not.

 

I have also met several people whose luggage accidentally ended up in the water and they were working with the cruise line to get their clothes cleaned.

 

It happens.

[antsp]

So they carry the luggage over to the dock, seperatly and throw it in.

[Happy ks]

We tip $1 per bag, we usually have 2 bags. The porters don't pay any attention to whether it's a $5 or $1 bill they've been handed, they just take it and stick it into their pocket.

 

I feel that if you tip $5 per bag, it's not going to get any better treatment than the $1 tip. But if you feel the need to dispose of your excess cash, they certainly won't deny it. The bags all go into the same carts.

 

The ones who should be tipped for baggage handling are the ship's crew that unload and deliver the luggage from the carts. They are the ones doing the majority of the work.

[Putterdude]

They have nets up so that can't happen.

 

Sadly. it still happens. Three large bags went into the water on Christmas Eve 2011 in San Diego, two sank and the crew was able to rescue the third when we pulled away from the pier.

[Coral]

Sadly. it still happens. Three large bags went into the water on Christmas Eve 2011 in San Diego, two sank and the crew was able to rescue the third when we pulled away from the pier.

 

I don't remember which cruise I was on but a metal cage filled with luggage somehow ended up in the water. I think they were able to get everything back, though quite wet. It was the talk of the cruise.

[Shogun]

Hi All

 

I can recall a full cage of bags going into the water a few years back,

 

if I recall right the cheap plastic bags floated while the others sank,

 

when the bags were recovered they were placed down on deck four

 

for folks to spot their bags, when opened, most were filled with black water,

 

yours Shogun

[Reader0108598]

[quote name='Aus Traveller']Would someone please let us know what the appropriate tip is for the porters at the Fort Lauderdale cruise terminal. We don't to offend or insult anyone by giving too little, and we don't want to over-tip and make it awkward for other passengers. :)

Guidance required, thank you.[/quote]

We tip a dollar bag (and a Thank you) never had a problem:) These guys make more money than I do. I work Mega Over Time to be able to afford a cruise and don't mind tipping for good service but will not tip just for the sake of tipping.

Oh and Shogun that tip was fine, the guy was a jerk!

Reader

[Loonbeam]

BTW, unless things have changes the porters who collect your bags to the carts and the longshoremen who move the carts to the ship are two different jobs with different compensation (because the cart movers can use forklifs, etc, they are considered skilled)

When Philly had an active cruise port, they were posting for the equivalent of the porter position at $14 per hour, part time. The longshoremen position was around $26 per hour + benefits, full time because they could load other kinds of ships.

I would expect the model in Florida to be similar. Note that some of the longshoremen do supplement their income as porters.

[Runbarb55]

We always tip. Once it was raining cats and dogs. All the luggage was getting wet. My hubby gave the guy a twenty and ask him to keep it dry and it was dry when it got to our cabin. Everyone was complaining that night about their wet bags. Not us. He was a good guy, he could have just taken the cash and left our bags in the rain.

[tarheelmjfan]

We tip $2+ a bag depending on how heavy our bags are. We don't do it, because we feel we have to in order to receive our luggage intact. We do it, because someone is doing something for us to help make our vacation run smoothly.

IMHO, a sign saying a tip isn't required is very different from a sign saying it isn't allowed. If we saw a sign saying tipping wasn't allowed, we wouldn't tip. I definitely don't want to get anyone fired. We also wouldn't tip in countries without a tipping culture. I have a when in Rome type of philosophy.

[quote name='Loonbeam']BTW, unless things have changes the porters who collect your bags to the carts and the longshoremen who move the carts to the ship are two different jobs with different compensation (because the cart movers can use forklifs, etc, they are considered skilled)

When Philly had an active cruise port, they were posting for the equivalent of the porter position at $14 per hour, part time. The longshoremen position was around $26 per hour + benefits, full time because they could load other kinds of ships.

I would expect the model in Florida to be similar. Note that some of the longshoremen do supplement their income as porters.[/quote]

I would be very surprised if the people taking our luggage at the port made $30+ an hour also. It's much more likely your scenario is correct.