haven restaurant, courtyard service and bar tipping

[Jana60]

I leave $5 each breakfast and lunch and $1 each drink.

 

I take env of these small bills in my carryon.

 

 

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There's just no way I could afford to tip so high on cruises. I pay for both myself and my sister. The drink and dining package already has gratuities of $224. If I paid another $60 per day ($420 per week!) for dining and drink gratuities for the two of us, and $189 for standard cabin gratuities this would total $833![emoji47] Traditionally at least where I come from good tipping is about 20% of the price of whatever you're doing. Whether it be a meal or an event. Without the additional $420 of meal and drink tips the Tipping for the cruise already adds up to $413 which is 17% for us. I may give an occasional tip to someone who gives us extra special service. Usually the cabin Steward get extra and a bartender if they take extra good care of us but I do not feel compelled to give any extra tips as a routine practice. Rather I give extra tips only if I receive extra special service.

 

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Edited October 15, 2016 by Jana60

[tawaik]

There's just no way I could afford to tip so high on cruises. I pay for both myself and my sister. The drink and dining package already has gratuities of $224. If I paid another $60 per day ($420 per week!) for dining and drink gratuities for the two of us, and $189 for standard cabin gratuities this would total $833![emoji47] Traditionally at least where I come from good tipping is about 20% of the price of whatever you're doing. Whether it be a meal or an event. Without the additional $420 of meal and drink tips the Tipping for the cruise already adds up to $413 which is 17% for us. I may give an occasional tip to someone who gives us extra special service. Usually the cabin Steward get extra and a bartender if they take extra good care of us but I do not feel compelled to give any extra tips as a routine practice. Rather I give extra tips only if I receive extra special service.

 

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I agree with all of the above.

 

We sailed on the Getaway last week in the Haven and tipped the night before leaving to those who gave us exceptional service. This was in-addition to what we already pre-paid.

[Sparkygirl]

I agree with all of the above.

 

 

 

We sailed on the Getaway last week in the Haven and tipped the night before leaving to those who gave us exceptional service. This was in-addition to what we already pre-paid.

 

 

 

I do need to chime in on the tipping front, DH and I prepay our gratuities for the three of us and then for our 5 year old daughter we budget an additional $200 for a 7 day cruise. She is in splash academy which we tip $100 for the week and she has food allergies and a special needs waiter brings her meals for breakfast and dinner each day, we figured $5 per meal as an additional tip and then added on to that because we bounced locations at the last minute, she overslept breakfast one morning requiring tracking down a chef after the galley closed, etc.

 

 

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[DMH15]

There's just no way I could afford to tip so high on cruises. I pay for both myself and my sister. The drink and dining package already has gratuities of $224. If I paid another $60 per day ($420 per week!) for dining and drink gratuities for the two of us, and $189 for standard cabin gratuities this would total $833![emoji47] Traditionally at least where I come from good tipping is about 20% of the price of whatever you're doing. Whether it be a meal or an event. Without the additional $420 of meal and drink tips the Tipping for the cruise already adds up to $413 which is 17% for us. I may give an occasional tip to someone who gives us extra special service. Usually the cabin Steward get extra and a bartender if they take extra good care of us but I do not feel compelled to give any extra tips as a routine practice. Rather I give extra tips only if I receive extra special service.

 

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Jana, I tip the $5 in the suite breakfast venue. The service is that good. I budget for it. I am really a frugal person. I am not rich by any means, just past 50, divorced with no kids. I by no measure expect others to do what I do. It is just what I like to do. I do not cruise often, I would rather cruise less but in a suite. The service is usually top notch so I like to recognize it.

 

 

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[Jeff&Pam]

1000 threads on butlers and concierge

 

but what do you do for the 3 things mentioned in the title of this thread. just wait until the end like the other services? we will definitely be using the restaurant heavily for bfast and some lunches

 

in the courtyard do they bring drinks with your UBP? i did find out there's a smaller menu to bring food out there but would they bring stuff that is on the normal haven menu at the appropriate B/L/D time?

 

also if you run out, where's appropriate to get change for bigger bills?

 

There was someone coming around taking drink orders, and it was covered under up, but not often in the courtyard. We do not drink much, and since the tips are covered, we did not tip extra for the bar.

 

We did get great service in the restaurant so we tipped the ones we had more then once...like the ones dealing with 6 kids who were eating together with NO PARENTS....from three different families...and also waiting on us.

 

We thought they did a great job wrangling the kids and acting like "replacement parents"..."don't play with your food", picking up spills, etc. the kids policed themselves, saying shhhhhh if one got loud. Apparently that happens every cruise...kids are dropped off in the haven restaurant for dinner with other kids that the kid's befriended during the trip, and taking themselves down to the kids club. The oldest was maybe 12-13 and the youngest maybe 6-7.

 

Breakfast, lunch and dinner, sometimes for the whole cruise...

 

My opinions on this don't matter...but we tipped the wait staff at the end for dealing with the kids, and making sure the neighboring tables were not impacted.

 

(We do not have kids ourselves, and we laughed at some of their adorable antics...they were not bad, or spoiled or rude... just kids being kids.)

[Jana60]

Jana, I tip the $5 in the suite breakfast venue. The service is that good. I budget for it. I am really a frugal person. I am not rich by any means, just past 50, divorced with no kids. I by no measure expect others to do what I do. It is just what I like to do. I do not cruise often, I would rather cruise less but in a suite. The service is usually top notch so I like to recognize it.

 

 

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When we were in The Haven our Butler brought us breakfast several times. He also did things like bring us ice, extra cappuccino, snacks, and got a hold of a copy of the menus from the main non specialty restaurants for us to see if we wanted to visit those during our week. So for all this service we did give an extra $100 tip at end of week. But I would not be able to afford to pay extra at every single meal and for every single drink.

 

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Edited October 16, 2016 by Jana60

[luckyinpa]

i have tons of threads to go back and fill in data from my research so here's some results for you

 

concierge wasnt really used = $0

 

butler did bring 2 or 3 room service orders and 2 or 3 special snacks = $50 when he brought sundays bfast to my room.

 

steward was really nice guy who kept the room sparkling and he was always asking if we needed anything and knew our names from day one. i wish i could request him again if we ever go on board. = $100 and i found him saturday nite to personally hand the money

 

haven restaurant got 5 bucks per meal to each server. dont wait until the end. one lady couldnt find her server and was asking questions about her/schedule. we did breakfast at least 5 or 6 days in haven. lunch 1 day and i believe dinner 1 day. except for NYC 1st day i think i used the haven bar maybe 2x and gave a buck per alcoholic beverage. the breakfast server was very good and we got her 3 days in a row i believe. she knew my special request for how the filet was prepared and it was just wonderful. she also rushed breakfast one day when we needed to make a ferry.

 

also i find they help each other a lot there. the hostess was making up a table and saw someone waiting out front. she stopped and left and almost immediately a server picked up where she left off. there's no 'not my job' mentality there. edward the maitre d was always walking around asking if things were ok.

 

one annoyance which i realize is HQ's fault. one window i the restaurant has permanent fog in it and i do feel given the cost in haven it should be fixed asap. i know this cannot be done while moving but why not while docked in bermuda? no clue how long its been there.

[strykes]

The people in the Haven area can really make a cruise for me. I will write a little thank you note and include the tip, which I give to them the last night or last breakfast.

 

I take singles with me for drinks outside of the Haven. Larger bills for dinners in specialty restaurants.

[tombec1]

The people in the Haven DEFINATELY make a difference.

 

I was on the Getaway Xmas cruise in 2015 in the Haven, and my teenage daughter wound up getting strep throat while on the boat. The Haven Matre'd, Kalai, kept checking on her, made her milkshakes, and said they'd make whatever she wanted so she'd feel better. Kalai definately went above and beyond. My wife and I were super impressed, and we made sure to give him a nice tip and thank you note at the end of the cruise.