Tipping on Included Excursions

[ernieb]

My DW and I will be taking our second cruise on the Explorer next month and will take a few of the included excursions. I’m wondering if tips are also included or if most people add a tip for the guide/driver?

[Travelcat2]

Tips are not included on excursions.  We add a tip for the guide and driver (if the excursion was well done).

[ernieb]

Thanks a bunch. What about on the Regent transfers?

[Travelcat2]

7 minutes ago, ernieb said:

Thanks a bunch. What about on the Regent transfers?

 

It is pretty much up to you.  Not sure if Regent tips them or not.  In general (excludes the spa), outside contractors like tour operators need and expect tips (unless you are in a country that does not tip.  Guess there are a lot of "if's and but's"

[wishIweretravelling]

I do tip guides and drivers on excursions, as do most others. I've never tipped on a transfer, nor have I seen anyone else doing so.

[Travelcat2]

1 hour ago, wishIweretravelling said:

I do tip guides and drivers on excursions, as do most others. I've never tipped on a transfer, nor have I seen anyone else doing so.

 

Being Titanium, we do receive included private transfers and we do tip the driver!  If I was doing a transfer from a Regent hotel to the ship, I would at least tip a couple of dollars since they are a contractor.  OTOH, before we became Titanium, we would forego the "included transfer" as we felt it was like moving a herd of cattle from one spot to the other.  We always took a cab.  

[wishIweretravelling]

I was assuming from the nature of the question that the OP is not titanium. And answered as though s/he were, like me, a mere mortal who would rather not pay extra to get something that is included. A bus ride to the ship is hardly a horror.

[ronrick1943]

I personally take a Taxi, Uber, or a car service (if the port is far away).  However if I did take Regents transfer service I wouldn't tip here because it's a service Regent pays and a person has no choice-it's not a tour. That's just MO.

[ernieb]

No, we’re not titanium. This will be our second cruise with Regent. The first was on Explorer last year and we booked this one while on board. We did not take advantage of the included excursions and transfers previously.

 

Thanks for all the help.

[Travelcat2]

3 hours ago, wishIweretravelling said:

A bus ride to the ship is hardly a horror.

 

I suppose it depends upon your experience.  We have seen too many people the lobby of the Regent hotel* - many wanting to change the assigned bus transfer time.  While I do know how cattle feel, I do know how claustrophobic it was being part of the mob wanting to see the one Regent agent (we were in line only to let them know that we were doing our own transportation to the ship).  Once the bus(es) arrive at the ship, there usually is a line to register.  Going on your own may prevent the hassle (depending upon when you arrive).  I did not say that it was a "horror" but stated that it feels like we were in a herd of cattle being moved from one spot to another.

 

*We no longer use the Regent hotel.  As has been discussed on another thread, taking the credit and using your own hotel can be a money saver and the money saved can pay for the taxi.

[UUNetBill]

5 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

I suppose it depends upon your experience.  We have seen too many people the lobby of the Regent hotel* - many wanting to change the assigned bus transfer time.  While I do know how cattle feel, I do know how claustrophobic it was being part of the mob wanting to see the one Regent agent (we were in line only to let them know that we were doing our own transportation to the ship).  Once the bus(es) arrive at the ship, there usually is a line to register.  Going on your own may prevent the hassle (depending upon when you arrive).  I did not say that it was a "horror" but stated that it feels like we were in a herd of cattle being moved from one spot to another.

 

*We no longer use the Regent hotel.  As has been discussed on another thread, taking the credit and using your own hotel can be a money saver and the money saved can pay for the taxi.

I'll agree that we've had bus transfers that were more like cattle cars than transfers to a luxury cruise ship...but that's often due to the people, not the transfer itself.  If most people would just take a deep breath and play nice, everyone would get along better.  But you always have 'those people' who need to elbow everyone out of the way to get their favorite seat on the bus...

 

Honestly, though, most of our transfers have been decent, albeit with a little wait sometimes for the bus.  Again, I use that time to chat with some people, try and meet some new friends.  It's all good...

[merlot101]

This thread has wandered away from its initial question.  I think that a tip is never wrong.  As long as we received satisfaction from the excursion or transfer we offer a tip. If something was amiss we might reduce what we might have tipped.  Many of the excursions are short (3-4 hours) so we often take that into consideration when tipping.  Seldom has anybody refused a tip.

[SWFLAOK]

We always give a tip to our excursion guide if the excursion is free. Paying for an excursion raises the bar for the guide, and we only experienced 1 excursion where we paid more for the excursion than it was worth, and the guide was at fault. We thanked the guide, but didn't tip her, and she finished her job 2 hours early since everyone except us had gone elsewhere before the end of the excursion, and we were willing to take a walking tour back to the ship with her instead of the water taxi that was included. Regent gave us half of our excursion fee back as credit on our next cruise.

For a transfer, our tipping depends on what we need to do with our luggage, and how many other people are with us. On our recent Med cruise, our flight to Barcelona from Miami was the only flight that arrived on time. Rather than getting a bus to the Fairmont for our overnight as our Silver status and concierge room would have normally gotten us, we were given the Titanium treatment with a large, beautiful Mercedes, and a private driver who handled all of our luggage at both ends. We gave him a very generous tip. And give credit to Regent for not making us wait for a bus when another flight arrived sometime later. That's why we have 2 more Regent cruises booked, one 32 nights and the other 25 nights.

Edited August 27, 2019 by SWFLAOK
added more info

[Me&Red]

We always tip both the driver and the guide, usually in the range of $10 for the driver and $20 for the guide (for both of us).  If our transfer is just us (from the airport to the hotel), we tip as we would a cab.  The large group transfers from hotel to ship we have not tipped.