Beverage Package Tipping

[Bankshot]

Good Morning; We have been compted a Classic Beverage Package for our next cruise on the Summit. We are Captain's Club members and buy very few drinks outside Happy Hour. Since we don't sign a charge slip in the Captain's Club we always tip the servers with cash. Does the Beverage Package price include any gratuity or should we plan on tipping in other Bars around the ship?

[cb at sea]

The package will have tips added to the cost....no additional is needed. We usually do any "extra" tipping on the last evening to bartenders that we frequented the most.

[Clarea]

Good Morning; We have been compted a Classic Beverage Package for our next cruise on the Summit. We are Captain's Club members and buy very few drinks outside Happy Hour. Since we don't sign a charge slip in the Captain's Club we always tip the servers with cash. Does the Beverage Package price include any gratuity or should we plan on tipping in other Bars around the ship?

The package price includes gratuity, but we still add a tip for better service. Don't know if it's the same on Celebrity, but on RC, the company has reduced the number of bar servers on the ship since the beverage packages have become so popular. The additional tip helps to get prompt service.

[mjkacmom]

The package price includes gratuity, but we still add a tip for better service. Don't know if it's the same on Celebrity, but on RC, the company has reduced the number of bar servers on the ship since the beverage packages have become so popular. The additional tip helps to get prompt service.

 

Same here, $1 a drink, same as on land, mostly for selfish reasons.

[notentirelynormal]

I got to talking to a bartender last cruise. We had spent quite a bit of time at this bar and we started to chat. It turns out this AIBP thing is great for the ship and for the waiters but not so much for the bartenders. Any drink served in the restaurant, the tip is given to the waiter, not the bartender. That means that half of the tip goes to the waiters who are already getting tips for being waiters. He said, if you know a bartender who was one the ship a year ago, look around for him/her. Probably still not working on the ship.

 

As a matter of fact, he said, there has been a big exodus of bartenders because with this new and improved idea bartenders end up with about a third of what they received before. After that, we tipped them a dollar every time. My DGS had UKP and DGD bummed of his. Of course, his was mostly Shirley Temples and hers was a glass of cherries. If she was really lucky one of our two favorites would roll her cherries in sugar and put them in a cup. Both gave them big smiles and the handed them a single dollar wrapped in their hand.

 

The two favorites were then given an extra $20 and the end of the cruise. Service was fabulous and my children were never pushed to the back of the line. If they got there first, the got served first. How it should be but when kids are involved not always the case. Of course, they just had to see them coming and their drink/cherries were made before they got to the bar. And even more important, the bartender gave us a hint on how to be in the magic show which made the cruise totally worth while for my DGS who loves magic.

[SPacificbound]

We tip a $ per drink, every drink.

 

The reduction in bar staff is ridiculous.