Tipping wait staff extra - how much?

[Sanz]

7 hours ago, fscool said:

I feel like the 18% gratuity is already a tip that I am paying.  However, I will give the Room Steward something extra if I like them.  I've found them to be the most useful when I need something done or if I have a question.  

 

However, what do people do if you have My Time Dining and you have a different server each night?  

More often than not we have the same waiter each evening  when we have My Time Dining.  We give extra  if service is good.

 

If we have a different waiter for a night or two, we give a small tip based on what what we would give for the entire cruise.

Edited February 27, 2019 by Sanz

[Saab4444]

7 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

I like to give half of the extra tip to the room steward on day 1.  I think it might help him be extra motivated. 🙂

And that is exactly the worst approach. Unless you have very special requests that is not a tip but bribery to treat you better than other guests who "just" pay the standard 14.50 per person per day. It might also be considered disrespectful in some cultures as this is the typical cartoon of an American with a big wallet who buys himself better treatment and friends the moment he steps into a room. Many Europeans or Asians in customer service functions lough about it or even are offended.

 

In hotels in some countries in North Africa the room stewards have often stopped providing any towels, toilet paper or soap on day two of your stay until you give a first tip... That is kind of bribery as well. 

 

First do your job and then you can expect a fair feedback and reward!

 

The general issue is that all these huge extra tipping raises the bar for an expected and fair tip on the employees side and this impacts all guests, big or just standard tippers.     

[Thorben-Hendrik]

1 hour ago, Saab4444 said:

And that is exactly the worst approach. Unless you have very special requests that is not a tip but bribery to treat you better than other guests who "just" pay the standard 14.50 per person per day.

That's what tipping is all about! 👎

Stiff other guests from paid services! 😱

[DISFANS3]

Bring your on TP from home.. cost saver...

[papaflamingo]

4 hours ago, Saab4444 said:

And that is exactly the worst approach. Unless you have very special requests that is not a tip but bribery to treat you better than other guests who "just" pay the standard 14.50 per person per day. It might also be considered disrespectful in some cultures as this is the typical cartoon of an American with a big wallet who buys himself better treatment and friends the moment he steps into a room. 

I don't do this anymore, but did for a while.  I always had great service.  It shows the cabin steward that I'm willing to tip above the normal amount.  I also ask for a few extras and am never disappointed.  But these days we rarely see the cabin steward at the beginning of the cruise so I simply wait until the end to give any extra.  I will say I doubt there's much difference in service, but when I tipped at the beginning, I was always greeted and recognized by the cabin steward. 

Anyway, a "bribe" to treat me better than other guests?  Please, give me a break.  Besides, if I get treated better than other guests, how is that my concern?  Maybe if someone doesn't remove the tips, he can get treated better too.  Who knows? 

And "disrespectful?"  Hardly.  These people work for tips.  What is disrespectful is removing the auto gratuities and tipping in cash at the end according to the service.  You are telling them that you aren't sure they're going to be worth the auto gratuity and need to "prove" themselves every day to you to justify what has really become a standard service charge and the basis for their pay.   Talk about bribes.  You tell effectively tell them you expect less than adequate service so they better "step it up" before they get a dime out of you!  Yeah...that "oozes respect."  

[Tree_skier]

7 hours ago, Saab4444 said:

And that is exactly the worst approach. Unless you have very special requests that is not a tip but bribery to treat you better than other guests who "just" pay the standard 14.50 per person per day. It might also be considered disrespectful in some cultures as this is the typical cartoon of an American with a big wallet who buys himself better treatment and friends the moment he steps into a room. Many Europeans or Asians in customer service functions lough about it or even are offended.

 

In hotels in some countries in North Africa the room stewards have often stopped providing any towels, toilet paper or soap on day two of your stay until you give a first tip... That is kind of bribery as well. 

 

First do your job and then you can expect a fair feedback and reward!

 

The general issue is that all these huge extra tipping raises the bar for an expected and fair tip on the employees side and this impacts all guests, big or just standard tippers.     

You tip how you want, I'll tip how I want.  Remember #myvacationmymoney LOL

[FLACRUISER99]

On 2/26/2019 at 5:20 PM, brillohead said:

It's not stupid to reward people who have treated you well.  

It is, however, rude to call people stupid.  

Excuse me, I never said these folks were stupid You did. I said they had more money then brains. This means excess money not a shortage of brains,

[brillohead]

2 minutes ago, FLACRUISER99 said:

Excuse me, I never said these folks were stupid You did. I said they had more money then brains. This means excess money not a shortage of brains,

You can try to spin it any way you want -- but you clearly meant it as an insult.  

Nice backpedal, though....

[mrpayroll]

On 2/22/2019 at 11:34 AM, clean1owner said:

I always cancel auto-grats and then give everyone $10 at the end of the week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is just as believable as anyone else posting how generous they are.

Same here, but I give them  ten singles. It makes it look like am giving them more. ( lol )

[Anniversarygirl25]

Oh gosh, a tipping question! The one thing guaranteed to bring CC together in a single voice of agreement! Lol. 

 

I consider the prepaid gratuities part of the cruise fare - I pay it upfront and never think about it again. At the end of our trip we tip our wait staff and our cabin steward usually 50ish  sort of depending on what length of cruise we are on. We have drinks package but tip cash to our servers as we go.

 

My thinking is this - it doesn't mean that much to me, but it could mean a lot to someone else. So will I miss the extra cash? Nope. 

 

I learned a great tip on here a couple years ago that I have used for each cruise. I never spend 1s or 5s - ever. If I get them back in change they go right in an envelope for travel tips. Usually use the 1s in combination for every drink I get - coffee - alcohol - etc. And then have 5s in whatever combination I need to tip the car service, shuttle drivers and cruise staff. It's painless and I almost always have more than I need. 

[Amberle3]

We had MTD as we didn't want to be locked in to a set dining time.  Our servers on the first night we were fantastic, and they mentioned that if we really liked them we could mention on our way out that we'd like to be seated in their section the remainder of the nights and that's exactly what we did.  It wasn't always at the same table but we were in their section and they continued to be awesome every single night.

 

22 hours ago, brillohead said:

With MTD, I just leave the auto-grats in place (as I do with regular dining) and only tip extra for people who go above and beyond. 

...
For me, giving extra cash to MDR waitstaff beyond what they get from the auto-grat is a function of how the relationship developed over the course of the week, which is something you don't normally get a chance to do with MTD waitstaff.  

[Amberle3]

duplicate post

Edited February 28, 2019 by Amberle3
Duplicate post

[Amberle3]

Sorry for the multiple posts, something was weird on my end and the draft message & "submit reply" button didn't go away 

Edited February 28, 2019 by Amberle3
Duplicate post

[brillohead]

6 minutes ago, Amberle3 said:

Sorry for the multiple posts, something was weird on my end and the draft message & "submit reply" button didn't go away 

Since the "software update" I've noticed that it takes a LONG time for messages to post after hitting Submit Reply.  I never used to see duplicate posts on the old system, but it's quite common nowadays.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

2 hours ago, Anniversarygirl25 said:

So will I miss the extra cash? Nope.  

Good for you! 👍

RCI loves you! 💘

[laslomas]

There are a couple of tipping threads on the go at the moment and many posters mention tipping cash with every drink, and in the MDR and even in the buffet. I understand from reading through these threads that this is normal procedure for many guests. The skill of 'sleight of hand' must be very well practiced. On all my cruises with various cruise lines over several years I can honestly say I have never seen it happen. I know it is easy to add a tip when signing a receipt for a drink, but much of the talk is of cash. I will do a bit more people watching on my next cruise to see how it is done. Personally I just leave the auto gratuities in place and enjoy my time without needing to carry money around with me in what I always thought was a cashless environment.

But with tipping it will always be each to their own, and there will always be discussions about tips until the cruise lines make the decision to make changes to the way they deal with the salaries of their staff. Cultural differences also come into it, and always will. But the threads are always fun to read   

 

 

 

 

Edited February 28, 2019 by laslomas

[cb at sea]

I would suggest and extra $20 for those who went "above and beyond".  NO extra is REQUIRED...so anything you give is appreciated.  No need to go "overboard"!

[MandyMooToo]

2 hours ago, laslomas said:

There are a couple of tipping threads on the go at the moment and many posters mention tipping cash with every drink, and in the MDR and even in the buffet. I understand from reading through these threads that this is normal procedure for many guests. The skill of 'sleight of hand' must be very well practiced. On all my cruises with various cruise lines over several years I can honestly say I have never seen it happen. I know it is easy to add a tip when signing a receipt for a drink, but much of the talk is of cash. I will do a bit more people watching on my next cruise to see how it is done. Personally I just leave the auto gratuities in place and enjoy my time without needing to carry money around with me in what I always thought was a cashless environment.

But with tipping it will always be each to their own, and there will always be discussions about tips until the cruise lines make the decision to make changes to the way they deal with the salaries of their staff. Cultural differences also come into it, and always will. But the threads are always fun to read   

 

 

 

 

 

This made me laugh,  please come back to report whether or not you see tipping on the side!  I admitted earlier that we tip extra sometimes/usually if we have an excellent bartender or server in the MDR. But we do not carry around a ton of cash to do so. If their service is great we will pass them an extra tip with our sea pass card or with the shake of a hand. Whether anyone likes it or not, we do it this way because we leave on auto grats, so if we give so we aren’t shorting any staff, and if I give the extra cash I want it to go to that person. I firmly believe they keep the cash tips given to them or possibly split the cash with the partner they are working with at that station. 

[leisuretraveler223]

As has been said, it's a personal choice.  But for me, cruise lines that automatically add gratuity are just like restaurants that do the same. They have taken me out of the equation and I'm happy about it!  I will gladly accept their surcharge as to not have to give it any more consideration.  The fact that the amount they have chosen to charge is LESS than I would have voluntarily offered up is even better.

 

So now, it's set it and forget it.  They charge a gratuity, I needn't think about it at all!

[SRF]

On 2/21/2019 at 4:13 PM, DfDinLA said:

3. Americans tip in dollars and those dollars are converted by the recipients into their home country currencies worth fractions (sometimes small fractions) of a dollar.

 

HUH????

 

If you tip $10.  And that $10 = 1,000,000 smoots, they still have $10 worth of value.

 

Actually more, as that 1,000,000 smoots will buy more in their country than $10 will in the US.

 

BTW, smoots is a technical term for ANY foreign currency. 😄

 

 

[SRF]

I tip for above and beyond the "normal" service.

 

So I tip the bartender if they do something extra.  Like making my caipirihnas with real sugar rather than simple syrup.  And if they remember to do so the next time.

 

We seldom eat in the MDR, so I do not generally tip extra.

 

We sail in a suite, so I tip the concierge on the last day.   I tip the room steward if they have done what I consider as more.

[Anniversarygirl25]

10 hours ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Good for you! 👍

RCI loves you! 💘

 

That was one line out of a whole post, but whatever. I just don't feel the need to spend any time agonizing over what honestly amounts to less than 200.

 

If I understand correctly, because I don't remove auto grats - the wait staff and cabin steward get to keep that extra money, yay! Contrary to the faulty math I have seen thrown about on these kind of posts, the staff is not raking it in if you average it out. Also RCI factors the auto grats in to wages so removing it literally takes money out of the staff pockets. 

 

It's a ridiculous system, that's why I am for just including gratuity in the cruise fare and letting everyone do what they want from there. 

[DfDinLA]

7 hours ago, SRF said:

 

HUH????

 

If you tip $10.  And that $10 = 1,000,000 smoots, they still have $10 worth of value.

 

Actually more, as that 1,000,000 smoots will buy more in their country than $10 will in the US.

 

BTW, smoots is a technical term for ANY foreign currency. 😄

 

 

Exactly.  The $10 tip converts to a currency with greater purchasing power in the home country, which is why cruise ship workers make more money than skilled teachers, nurses and machinists in some 3rd world home countries.  I submit to you that this is not a good thing in the aggregate.  Ultimately it drains people out of the skilled  labor pool because people can make more as a bartender on a cruise ship from over-tipping Americans who think $10 is merely $10.  Shortages of teachers, nurses and other skilled jobs is not a good thing for a developing economy.  

 

And my original point was this is something I consider when I travel outside the USA.  I don't have any problem with a cruise ship worker.  It can be difficult work.  But there is a perception amongst some Americans that these people are paid poorly.  They may be paid poorly compared to Americans but they don't live in the US.  Some live in places where the average annual wage and the cost of living is far lower than the USA.  So it is going to take some real evidence, not just anecdotal comments about how hard people work, to convince me that a cruise ship worker needs extra tips (above base pay and standard tips) to live a decent life.  

 

I've sailed twice.  On both occasions during the parade of flags it was announced how many of the crew are from each country.  On both of my sailings the significant majority of workers came from developing countries.  

[Justmekaren918]

On 2/21/2019 at 4:13 PM, DfDinLA said:

I think about the following things in regard to tipping on a cruise ship:

 

1. Tipping is an American custom and is not common in much of the world.

2. The cruise ship business is an international business with an international work force.

 

 

 

Thanks 4 reminding us of this & since RCI is making a mandatory daily charge $$. That's all they'll get from me & I used to tip them all well, not to mention why do I have to pay for waitstaff that I never used. 

[mayleeman]

Seems to me that since most crew have little chance to spend while working a contract, many will take or send their money home. That adds much needed currency to their home economies, which should benefit their families and towns.