YTD and tipping wait staff

[StolidCruiser]

those numbers are per person per day so if there are 2 of you its double and if its 4 of you its quadrupled.

 

if a typical meal is 30. per person then 6.40 is over a 20% tip.

 

Most people eat three meals (or more) per day. Re-evaluate your math based on the "typical" price of breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

For simplicity, the current IRS M&IE per diem is $63. Shave off $5 for the "IE" portion and you get $58.

 

What does the result look like under a more realistic assessment?

[cb at sea]

The tips they charge to your account daily cover ALL the waiters who serve you And your cabin attendant. There's no need to carry cash around the ship for tips.

[Pyrate13]

ProgRockCruiser

No sweat, the line doesn't belong to me, I'm just using it. :D

[Doggielover68]

We usually prepay gratuities and rarely tip extra on top of it, only because we do not use bar service and we don't make any special requests. The wait staff always serve the same tables so if you forget one night, it shouldn't be hard to find them the next day.

 

 

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[LakeWobegon]

Auto gratuity and extra last evening too. Though we have always chosen the freestyle or YTD dining. Feels weird to me to tip each night based on one night's great service. Almost like I'd force that person to offer the same level of service had we been served by them the next night. Maybe that's weird but how I personally feel. On NCL, we had the same waiter two nights in a row and asked to sit in his section the third night and at the end of the cruise, my kids made him and his assistant a hand drawn card and put the tip inside. Just a great waiter. He made napkin animals for the kids and was constantly trying to get my daughter to eat food. Standing behind her and chanting her name. Called my son Mr. No Sauce because of his love for plain food which had us in tears. At the same time, when cheesecake was only on the menu one night and he understood this was the only desert my son would eat, he produced cheesecake for him every night. And took the time to converse with us about his home country and family when he was clearly busier than heck. We had the kids go over and flag him down in the restaurant the last night to give him the card and tip. He found the card particularly amusing he told us because my daughter who was much younger, drew most of it and accentuated his eyes. We hadn't noticed that. Just looked like it had been drawn by a small child. Kind of embarrassing. But he seemed to think it was funny.

[summersigh]

Here is the breakdown, per day:

Housekeeping Team: $4.05 ($5.05 for suites)

Dining Team: $6.40

Alternative Services: $2.50

Not sure what alternative services are??

According to the Carnival FAQ's beside the Housekeeping and Dining Teams here's "alternative services":

 

A small portion goes to a mix of other personnel who are in guest-facing customer service positions within areas such as culinary and hotel services, along with certain key positions in entertainment and guest services.

[JonathanFlorida]

We always do YTD...We always try to find a wait staff team that we like, and request them each night. Usually, we are pleased with who we get on the first evening, occasionally we have to try a second time. Never had to change more than that. We always leave the auto gratuities on and we bring cash to tip extra on the last evening. We don't sit together for dinner like we should at home, and so, the MDR experience is the favorite part of cruising for our family. My kids really enjoy interacting with the wait staff, and the kids insist on generous tipping at the end of the cruise. Seems like everyone is happy at the end, despite some sincere tears due to having to say "goodbye".

[Basil55]

Are you able to use your onboard credit for tips? Do you have to sign off on it at the end of the trip? Or do you just tell them at the start?

[dmdiver]

OBC goes toward any onboard expenses - gift shop purchases, gratuities, beverage purchases, etc. You don't have to tell them anything, nor do you sign off on anything. Any expenses over the OBC will be charged to the credit card you provide to them. Some people use cash. That all being said, we always check our onboard account throughout the cruise for any discrepancies. We had one incident where we were charged for a drink that we never ordered. That was only once & Guest Services took it off our account.