HOW do you tip?

[Hardrocknerd]

First of all, I'd like to say that I don't want this to turn in to a discussion on how much to tip. I need to know the logistics of tipping. Might sound really stupid, but I'm not really used to tipping other than at restaurants and in taxis, and then I just add it to the bill, or leave the change on the bar when I get a drink and pay cash. I'm not used to giving it to people in person.

 

In this case, we will be doing the prepaid gratuities, but if I want to give something extra to say, the waiter, or the stateroom attendant, how do I do that?

 

Last cruise I was on we simply left money on the desk when we left the ship, kind of like I would at a bar (we also filled in the card with who we felt gave great service), but preparing for our next Cruise I have read some posts and people seem to give money directly to people in envelopes.

 

I tried once when we had room service, but the person delivering pretty much just came in, left the food, and was gone. Can you just stop someone and tell the to wait while you get money? Should you give it to the people in the restaurant on the last night when you order or when you pay? And is it ok to leave money on the desk as we did or was that really rude? Should you be discreet (I read something about shaking hand and palming a bill?), or just hand them a bill?

 

So many questions :confused:, hoping for some help from you guys.

Edited January 11, 2015 by Hardrocknerd
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[luddite]

Uhhhhhhhhh...............

Hand them cash and say " Thank You".

[LHT28]

We leave the auto tips in place (like prepaid ) Then on the last night we give the room steward an envelope with something extra

Because we have open dining we may or may not give the wait team something extra (also in an envelope) if we sit in the same section with the same team each night

It is up to you if you want to do this or not

No need for the secret handshake etc..

Leaving $$ on the desk is OK as well

 

Enjoy the cruise

[Hardrocknerd]

Thank you! Glad I don't have to feel like an idiot for leaving money on the desk. :)

 

 

We leave the auto tips in place (like prepaid ) Then on the last night we give the room steward an envelope with something extra

Because we have open dining we may or may not give the wait team something extra (also in an envelope) if we sit in the same section with the same team each night

It is up to you if you want to do this or not

No need for the secret handshake etc..

Leaving $$ on the desk is OK as well

 

Enjoy the cruise

Edited January 11, 2015 by Hardrocknerd
Spelling. Again...

[YubaSutter]

We cancel the auto tips and personally give tips to those who provide exceptional service.

[Krissica]

We cancel the auto tips and personally give tips to those who provide exceptional service.

 

Agreed. We end up tipping everyone anyway. However we feel our room steward deserves above and beyond a tip because we utilize him more, in comparison to the waiter - we go to the dining room maybe once during an entire cruise, if that.

[Karysa]

We cancel the auto tips and personally give tips to those who provide exceptional service.

 

I would not recommend to do this OP. this in my mind is where the trouble with tipping begins. We leave the auto tips and when we order room service we grab the money off of the counter and have it in our hand to tip the server when he or she delivers our food. We also tip extra to those that have given us exceptional service during our cruise. I really don't think that having an envelope or not matters to the crew at all. We use US money even while in Europe but that's probably not necessary and just a habit.:)

Edited January 11, 2015 by Karysa

[paul929207]

We leave on the autotips. Or at least we have always had excellent service, so never felt any need to remove them. We give additional cash if we feel the service warrants it.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We do keep our auto-grats on as it makes things easily than in the old days of "stuff the envelopes" on the last day -- and of course, this is the way to make sure the background workers get their tips (so I wouldn't do what the previous poster does as it actually reduces the tips your steward and waitstaff gets).

 

So now we just decide on any extra tips and those go in an envelope and are given with a "thanks." For your steward, you can leave the envelope with the steward's name written on it plus your cabin # and the word "thanks" on your desk if you wish.

 

The one time we did flexible dining (which we didn't care for), I've seen some diners doing the "green fisted" handshake. But we don't carry around cash on us while on board, nor do we want to.

[paul929207]

Agreed. We end up tipping everyone anyway. However we feel our room steward deserves above and beyond a tip because we utilize him more, in comparison to the waiter - we go to the dining room maybe once during an entire cruise, if that.

You only eat one meal a week? I guess you go on a cruise to lose weight.

 

You do realize that the staff in the buffet, room service and specialty restaurants share in these tips along with staff in the main dining room.

[taglovestocruise]

We cancel the auto tips and personally give tips to those who provide exceptional service.

 

If you cancel the auto tips how do you tip all the behind the scenes crew who are part of auto tips. House keeping staff, laundry, cooks, buffet waiters and servers, all guest relations staff. There are a whole lot of people that share in auto tips that you never see or hear from. How sad that you only tip the privileged few who personally service you.

[LHT28]

We cancel the auto tips and personally give tips to those who provide exceptional service.

 

On some lines they still have to hand the tips into the pool

so you are defeating yourself

[cb at sea]

We put any extra in an envelope and leave it in the cabin before we head to dinner on the last night..... We aren' t going to search for the attendant!

 

At dinner, again, any extra is in an envelope...which we hand to our servers, and we say "Thank you"! Very easy, and it's sort of expected, so it's not awkward or anything, if that's what's worrying you.

 

The tips cover your cabin attendant, waiter, ass't waiter, and head waiter. Those are the only ones you need to worry about.

 

RCI doesn't "Pool" tips.....and I guarantee if you hand someone cash, it will go into their pocket....absolutely, positively.

Edited January 11, 2015 by cb at sea

[YubaSutter]

If you cancel the auto tips how do you tip all the behind the scenes crew who are part of auto tips. House keeping staff, laundry, cooks, buffet waiters and servers, all guest relations staff. There are a whole lot of people that share in auto tips that you never see or hear from. How sad that you only tip the privileged few who personally service you.

 

I still don't get the idea of tipping people that we never see or hear from. If they don't provide a personal service, they should be paid a salary that is not tip dependent. I am comfortable with the method I choose to tip so you shouldn't feel sad. I let my conscience be my guide.

[Karysa]

I still don't get the idea of tipping people that we never see or hear from. If they don't provide a personal service, they should be paid a salary that is not tip dependent. I am comfortable with the method I choose to tip so you shouldn't feel sad. I let my conscience be my guide.

 

I think people who do this just tip less. That may or not be the case but I bet that is exactly what the front desk staff think when you cancel your auto tips. I would at least like it better if they just gave you fake money to hand out that the staff could get and turn in for cash. Somehow I really think that this is simply a way to save money for folks.

 

Doing this YubaSutter is one thing but sharing this not so kosher practice is another. I think that this is a dirty little secret that if I had I certainly would not share.

Edited January 11, 2015 by Karysa

[Lerin]

I still don't get the idea of tipping people that we never see or hear from. If they don't provide a personal service, they should be paid a salary that is not tip dependent. I am comfortable with the method I choose to tip so you shouldn't feel sad. I let my conscience be my guide.

Perhaps they should be paid a salary, but alas, they are not.

By taking away auto tips and only giving money to a select few, you are taking away from many others who do in fact serve you.

[paul929207]

I still don't get the idea of tipping people that we never see or hear from. If they don't provide a personal service, they should be paid a salary that is not tip dependent. I am comfortable with the method I choose to tip so you shouldn't feel sad. I let my conscience be my guide.

Many people post that they rarely see their cabin steward. Does this mean they should not be tipped?

[taglovestocruise]

I still don't get the idea of tipping people that we never see or hear from. If they don't provide a personal service, they should be paid a salary that is not tip dependent. I am comfortable with the method I choose to tip so you shouldn't feel sad. I let my conscience be my guide.

 

Not only are you tipless but your also clueless, I feel sad for all the behind the scenes crew who work hard to make your trip enjoyable. Whenever auto tips are removed the room attendant and your table waiters are called in to hotel management to explain what they did to upset you. They also are required to put your tip money into the tip pool and share with all those you tried to take advantage of. The only time the staff are allowed to keep the tips you give are when they are addional to the auto tip. If you let your conscience be your guide your probably lost..

[Life is Good Cruising]

We *always* leave auto tips in place and do give additional tips to those that have made our cruise memorable.

[luddite]

I still don't get the idea of tipping people that we never see or hear from. If they don't provide a personal service, they should be paid a salary that is not tip dependent. I am comfortable with the method I choose to tip so you shouldn't feel sad. I let my conscience be my guide.

 

Ah.

Here's your problem. You're thinking it's a tip when it is actually the crew's pay. Tipping is what you give after paying what is expected.

[kelkel2]

We always prepay out tips. Then at the end of the cruise I give my cabin steward extra cash as a thank you and tell them how much I have appreciated them. I also throughout the cruise tip room service people if I order. Plus, if I get a favorite bartender that I like I tend to revisit them and tip them extra occasionally too, because I've learned that it does pay off to be nice. And, truly those people work so very hard!

[Hardrocknerd]

At dinner, again, any extra is in an envelope...which we hand to our servers, and we say "Thank you"! Very easy, and it's sort of expected, so it's not awkward or anything, if that's what's worrying you.

 

Haha, I suppose that IS what's worrying me. To me it's kind of akward to go "I like how you treated us, here's some money" (ok, maybe not exactly like that, but you get what I mean :rolleyes:). I just feels weird because I'm not used to it. So where do you get these envelopes? Do you ask guest services for them, or do you bring your own. Also do you give them before or after the meal?

 

 

I want to thank everyone for answering to my stupid questions. Like I said, we pre-paid the gratuities since we will be doing My-time dining, just like our last cruise, but then we were still seated with the same server every day. That time we just added our tips to the bill on the last night, and of course we said thank you.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We also leave the Hotel Service Charge in place.

At the end of the cruise we leave an envelope on the bed for the cabin stewards.

There was a time when we used to have the same bar servers in the lounges, but not so much any more. So we used to tip extra to the ones who constantly served us.

In the dining room, DH just gives a hand shake for our servers there and passes over the extra tip then.

When we used to get room service, we would have the money ready to hand to the person delivering the food.

[borasue]

So where do you get these envelopes? Do you ask guest services for them, or do you bring your own.

 

Before we leave we set up envelopes for all our tips (stewards, excursions, etc, and one envelope with plenty of ones for room service). Those go in our carryon/handbag, ready to be distributed. We leave auto-tips in place. On embarkation day when the steward comes by to greet us we usually ask for a couple of extra things like an extension cord… let them know we would like early turndown service, etc. At that time we give them an envelope. The last night of the cruise we give the steward or his/her assistant a second envelope.

[Nebr.cruiser]

We always leave the auto-tips on; never has service been so terrible that we'd consider stiffing the whole crew who shares this tip.

 

Since we usually do Anytime dining and rarely have the same waiters, we don't normally tip extra there. We always tip our room stewards extra on the last night or morning--I've never had what I would consider bad service from a steward.

 

I wrap the extra in a piece of the notepaper that is provided in the cabin with a 'thank you' message and if possible hand it to the steward directly. If I can't find them, I just leave it on the bed or desk.

 

You could also bring an envelope from home. Most ships have envelopes for you to use if you ask at the front desk.