How much extra to tip

[RS77471]

Interesting seeing all the different points of view. This makes me want to tip before during and after...lol Just kidding!!!! I like the "everyone do what works for them" after all it is vacation ;-!!!

[TNcruising02]

We never ask the room stewards for anything and have always gotten good service. Our rooms are always clean and they leave towels animals. Although I really couldn't care less about the towel animals, they do make me smile. Cleaning up after people can't be fun, so we always leave a $20 on the last day. We also prepay gratuities.

[riclop]

It's all up to you.

[Toesinthewater728]

Always tip the casino dealers!

 

 

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[GUT2407]

Auto tips are plenty.

[joeyancho]

Since the OP asked how much, here goes. If the room steward was good and personable, $40-$50 at the end. If the MDR team was good, attentive, chatty, $40 for waiter, $25 for assistant. Last cruise we had ATD so I tipped maitre'd $40 up front and never waited and got the same waiter every night. I took my grandson on a cruise when he was 2. The husband and wife wait team fawned all over him. Even picked him up when he cried so we could eat. They brought him lots of off menu food. I tipped them $100. All this was on Princess, we don't cruise Carnival anymore. BTW, in addition to auto tip.

[Indianamale]

Alot of great ideas. Thanks!!

[CA_Cruzing]

Alot of great ideas. Thanks!!

 

 

 

Enjoy your cruise! I'm betting you got more answers than you planned for [emoji41][emoji379]

[satxdiver]

The cruise line sets the auto-gratuity and we pay it of course. We neither tip more nor ask for special services. The whole idea of a gratuity should be automatically included in the price of the cruise and not set aside so that a few can cancel it. We do not need to hold money over the heads of the crew to get good service. A simple thank you for the service or on occasion filing an atta-boy with the cruise line is enough.

[MandyMooToo]

The cruise line sets the auto-gratuity and we pay it of course. We neither tip more nor ask for special services. The whole idea of a gratuity should be automatically included in the price of the cruise and not set aside so that a few can cancel it. We do not need to hold money over the heads of the crew to get good service. A simple thank you for the service or on occasion filing an atta-boy with the cruise line is enough.

 

 

 

On that note, I wonder if cruise lines will ever go this route? We have done the all inclusive resort trip before and tips were actually forbidden. The price included gratuity and we were told to give staff a shout out on a review card if they went above and beyond but no tips. Their bonuses/raises were based on how many positive review cards they received. The AI resort we went to said that is their policy so that everyone gets equally excellent treatment and staff isn’t basically sucking up to only the people that tip extra and it can cause staff discord. Interesting idea from that viewpoint.

 

 

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[bUU]

Precisely the problem wrong with the United States. Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me

What's interesting is how that maps into understanding the cruise crew members' perspective: Many Americans assume the foreign crew members must think like Americans-like-them think, and that assumption feeds a lot of misapprehensions about the crew members themselves. The best example of this is the extent to which crew members will take money "under the table" without complying with cruise line policies that would dictate that that money be turned into the tip pool. Let's be clear: There are other cultures that would think the same way as those "Americans-like-them". However, there are other cultures within which such "Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me" thinking is an anathema.

[DirtyDawg]

On that note, I wonder if cruise lines will ever go this route? We have done the all inclusive resort trip before and tips were actually forbidden. The price included gratuity and we were told to give staff a shout out on a review card if they went above and beyond but no tips. Their bonuses/raises were based on how many positive review cards they received. The AI resort we went to said that is their policy so that everyone gets equally excellent treatment and staff isn’t basically sucking up to only the people that tip extra and it can cause staff discord. Interesting idea from that viewpoint.

 

 

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I hate that idea!:mad:

 

If cruise lines ever banned extra tipping there would be no more of these wonderfully entertaining tipping threads here on CC.:(

 

No more pre-tip vs post tip debates.

No more "I tip $1,000 a day for wonderful service" boasts.

No more "America is so Me Me Me". :loudcry:

 

(Who am I kidding there will always be America is so Me Me Me posts ;))

 

P.S. there might be a teeny-weeny bit of sarcasm in the above post.

[Havingfun2010]

I never tip extra for a drink.....the added tip, is more than sufficient, and in some cases way too much.

As far as the auto tips, I find in most cases they are enough. My very first cruise, I carried onto the ship, individual envelopes as recommended tips for each person. This was before people "bragged" on places like cruise critic on how much they tipped (bribed) to get something simple like some ice. Which by the way, is their job to do it, and not extra.

[mdsgu]

Precisely the problem wrong with the United States. Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me

 

If taking care of myself and my family is what is "wrong with the United States," then I don't want to be right. Perhaps if more people bothered to take care of themselves, the country wouldn't be in the state it is in.

 

If you bothered to read the rest of my post, it was about tipping the steward, wait staff, and bar staff for excellent service. Tip in advance = excellent service = another tip earned, and so forth. YMMV, but this works for me. Whether you have a great vacation or a good vacation or a meh vacation is all up to you (and doesn't really concern me). I'm doing what I can to ensure my family has a great vacation. Priorities.

 

CA_Cruzing -- if you're on the Thanksgiving Dream cruise, bring another bottle of the cab sauv! :D

[sparks1093]

If taking care of myself and my family is what is "wrong with the United States," then I don't want to be right. Perhaps if more people bothered to take care of themselves, the country wouldn't be in the state it is in.

 

If you bothered to read the rest of my post, it was about tipping the steward, wait staff, and bar staff for excellent service. Tip in advance = excellent service = another tip earned, and so forth. YMMV, but this works for me. Whether you have a great vacation or a good vacation or a meh vacation is all up to you (and doesn't really concern me). I'm doing what I can to ensure my family has a great vacation. Priorities.

 

CA_Cruzing -- if you're on the Thanksgiving Dream cruise, bring another bottle of the cab sauv! :D

 

You can of course do what you want, it's your money, but to suggest that others who don't do as you do don't experience a great vacation is incorrect. We've always received great service without giving the staff extra upfront.

[Micahs Grandad]

You can of course do what you want, it's your money, but to suggest that others who don't do as you do don't experience a great vacation is incorrect. We've always received great service without giving the staff extra upfront.

 

Agreed.

 

A good steward or waiter will give good service as a matter of course. A bad one will give poor service no matter how much you tip in advance.

[10-777]

We have travelled the world on multiple cruise lines and never tipped beyond the daily deducted by the cruise line. We treat all the crew with respect and dignity, always have great service.

[mdsgu]

You can of course do what you want, it's your money, but to suggest that others who don't do as you do don't experience a great vacation is incorrect. We've always received great service without giving the staff extra upfront.

 

I never said that you wouldn't have a great vacation unless you do just as I do. I said, "YMMV [your mileage may vary], but this works for me." What constitutes a great vacation will, of course, also vary from person to person, and it's entirely up to you. If you have a 100% enjoyable vacation without tipping upfront, then, by all means, continue.

 

I have great vacations (cruising, theme parks, AIs), and I feel that what I do makes them great. If it ever stops working for me, I'll definitely change my tactics.

 

This is one of those topics where everyone has an opinion, there is no universal "right" answer, and no one is going to change their minds based on these boards.

[bUU]

This is one of those topics where everyone has an opinion, there is no universal "right" answer, and no one is going to change their minds based on these boards.

It is not reasonable to expect comments on threads about contentious issues to ever change the minds of those expressing a definitive opinion. Such comments are about helping those reading the thread, but not posting, to make up their minds.

[sparks1093]

Whether you have a great vacation or a good vacation or a meh vacation is all up to you (and doesn't really concern me). I'm doing what I can to ensure my family has a great vacation. Priorities.

 

 

I never said that you wouldn't have a great vacation unless you do just as I do. I said, "YMMV [your mileage may vary], but this works for me." What constitutes a great vacation will, of course, also vary from person to person, and it's entirely up to you. If you have a 100% enjoyable vacation without tipping upfront, then, by all means, continue.

 

I have great vacations (cruising, theme parks, AIs), and I feel that what I do makes them great. If it ever stops working for me, I'll definitely change my tactics.

 

This is one of those topics where everyone has an opinion, there is no universal "right" answer, and no one is going to change their minds based on these boards.

 

If you weren't insinuating that by not doing as you do in the sentence I've highlighted then I apologize for misreading, but that is exactly how I read it.

[mdsgu]

If you weren't insinuating that by not doing as you do in the sentence I've highlighted then I apologize for misreading, but that is exactly how I read it.

 

Honestly, I was not insinuating that. You, and only you, can decide if you have a great, good, or meh vacation. Whatever works for you is fine. Again, what constitutes a great, good, or meh vacation will vary from person to person. Cheers!

[Emmski35]

I never tip extra for a drink.....the added tip, is more than sufficient, and in some cases way too much.

As far as the auto tips, I find in most cases they are enough. My very first cruise, I carried onto the ship, individual envelopes as recommended tips for each person. This was before people "bragged" on places like cruise critic on how much they tipped (bribed) to get something simple like some ice. Which by the way, is their job to do it, and not extra.

 

I agree with everything you say on here. We are very lucky to be able to afford a suite, but we never really ask for anything, in fact we'd rather be left alone. Room cleaned, some ice, that's it. But it doesn't mean we don't tip our steward and butler some extra at the end of the cruise, based on their attitude mainly. We had a butler one year who was pretty rude towards me (think pretty woman in the store hahaha, I got the feeling he felt I didn't deserve to be there, don't know why, just a feeling and he had a mean attitude) so at the end of the cruise as well as our pre paid tips, we had his tip waiting for him, he virtually chased us from the room and followed us for the tip. I'm not ashamed to say, he didn't get it and we used it to buy a bottle of wine in the airport and said a 'cheers' to him! Sorry if this is mean, but rudeness is not acceptable in my opinion.

[Emmski35]

We have travelled the world on multiple cruise lines and never tipped beyond the daily deducted by the cruise line. We treat all the crew with respect and dignity, always have great service.

 

I agree so much with this...:)

[momof3cruisers]

I'm always curious if the pre-trip tippers have ever experienced a cruise w/o extra tipping to start. We have always had excellent stewards who refill our ice twice a day, bring extra towels if we ask, are very friendly and helpful. We had one who when our boys wanted room service instead of MDR dinner had them wait in one of our connecting rooms while he did the other room up and then switched places with them chatting the whole time with them, sharing stories about his home and what they liked to do etc. We did tip him extra at the end.

 

Most bartenders know your name after the first few times, we have always gotten beverages immediately upon sitting down when choosing fixed dining. Has anyone ever been denied or even given a second look when asking for more than one app or dessert? Most times if you are unsure of debating they encourage you to order both.

 

I don't care what people tip. If you remove tips without a good reason, I think you're a jerk. As far as giving extra, go for it. It's a personal decision. I just wonder how people "know" they get better service if they tip ahead. I also find it interesting that when asked about pre tipping, John Heald asked why in the world people would do that and assured that their crew take pride in their jobs and don't need to be bribed to provide excellent service.

[ElisabethH512]

Please don’t flame me for asking but you tip in cash or by using your sailing card? I’ve been on two cruises but they were always “led” by family members who took care of all the tipping. I’m going on one in March and taking a cousin who has never been, so I just want to make sure I am up to date on all these details.

 

 

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