Specialty Dining Tipping

[shipsealand]

Went to specialty dining on my most recent cruise last month and designated a tip for the waiter.  He was pleasantly surprised.  It got me wondering that with automatic tipping by Princess, that most dining is included in the fare, and that there is an additional cover charge for the specialty restaurants, that the designated tipping might not have been necessary?  Does the specialty dining staff already share in the automatic tipping charged per day by Princess?

[Aus Traveller]

11 minutes ago, shipsealand said:

Went to specialty dining on my most recent cruise last month and designated a tip for the waiter.  He was pleasantly surprised.  It got me wondering that with automatic tipping by Princess, that most dining is included in the fare, and that there is an additional cover charge for the specialty restaurants, that the designated tipping might not have been necessary?  Does the specialty dining staff already share in the automatic tipping charged per day by Princess?

Yes. They work in other dining areas of the ship also.

[SinbadThePorter]

26 minutes ago, shipsealand said:

with automatic tipping by Princess

 

26 minutes ago, shipsealand said:

the designated tipping might not have been necessary? 

 

Yes.

[satxdiver]

It has been reported that the tip in the specialty dining venues is included in the fee paid for the meal.

[ukestrummer]

yes, included in charge, always has been, that is why they charged $5 in beginning when started this special dine stuff. which is outrageous  to begin with

[JF - retired RRT]

OP: we usually tip with cash in the specialty restaurant. On one of our cruises we forgot to bring cash. The waiter heard me trying to figure out how to add it to our charge slip & said, "don't worry about it". I conclude that the extra tip is just that...extra.

[voljeep]

Gratuity not included ...

[antsp]

Part of the auto tipping, wait staff are part of the tip pool of the entire fleet. If you want to tip extra that's a personal choice, just like tipping additional to any other crew member at Princess. 

[Doug R.]

5 minutes ago, voljeep said:

Gratuity not included ...

Wrong answer.

[voljeep]

2 minutes ago, Doug R. said:

Wrong answer.

what's printed on the menu is wrong ? ... huh...

[zalusky]

But of course they make you sign an invoice at the end with the extra tip line.

 

[c-boy]

And here we go .... 

[Doug R.]

9 minutes ago, voljeep said:

what's printed on the menu is wrong ? ... huh...

Just looked at the menus for several of the specialty restaurants and see no such printing. Please post an example of the menu that does.

[antsp]

The crew are part of the tipping pool. The tip is not included but is not necessarily. Read the Princess.com info. It's all there in black and white

[voljeep]

4 minutes ago, Doug R. said:

Just looked at the menus for several of the specialty restaurants and see no such printing. Please post an example of the menu that does.

those are 'sample menus' ... others have posted actual menus that includes that language

[frugaltravel]

It is very clear if booking online that gratuity is NOT included.

 

Try booking a specialty restaurant online.

 

Edited October 16, 2019 by frugaltravel

[satxdiver]

Gratuities is always a flash point on these boards.  I personally wish the places in the US would adopt what they do in Europe and just pay their employees a decent wage instead of reliance on consumer good will.  I don't need to hold a gratuity over their head to get good service.  If you had bad service take the complaint to the manager who relies on your returning for his business and (s)he will correct the problem.  If you had great service also make sure the manager knows so he can give attaboys to the server.  

[antsp]

46 minutes ago, satxdiver said:

Gratuities is always a flash point on these boards.  I personally wish the places in the US would adopt what they do in Europe and just pay their employees a decent wage instead of reliance on consumer good will.  I don't need to hold a gratuity over their head to get good service.  If you had bad service take the complaint to the manager who relies on your returning for his business and (s)he will correct the problem.  If you had great service also make sure the manager knows so he can give attaboys to the server.  

It’s a very odd system, why oh why America allows so many of its workers to essentially beg for a salary, such a shame the country is so split on working conditions 

[Huck]

We always leave a gratuity in the specialty restaurants!

[Mike45LC]

I know that the servers at the specialty restaurants (1) also work in other venues, and (2) share in the tipping pool that we fund with the automatic gratuities.  Nonetheless, having been raised in America, I always tip extra (in cash) when I eat at the specialty restaurants.  For a couple, the Crown Grill is an additional fare of $58.  15% to 20% is $9 to $12.  For the exceptional service I normally get at the Crown Grill, I'll leave $10 to $12. 

 

I do not know if this cash is turned in to the pool, or if the waiter keeps his/her own tips, or if the Crown Grill has its own pool, or ….  Given the policy (as reported on this Forum) that cash tips are turned in to the pool if the passenger has turned off auto gratuities, but is kept by the server if the passenger has not opted out of auto gratuities, this does get complicated!

 

If I eat in the Main Dining Room and order one of the extra fare Crown Grill steaks, I don't feel compelled to tip extra.  But that might increase the cash tip I leave for my waiter, busboy and cabin steward at the end of the cruise.  I rarely feel that the standard gratuity is enough for the wonderful service I expect and usually receive from these three essential people.  I don't care about the Maitre D', the Cruise Director, the ship's Captain -- the steward and MDR servers are the ones who make my cruise!

 

 

[CineGraphic]

We dine in the Crown Grill often. When presenting the check, a few times the waiter or waitress will have already drawn a line through the gratuity blank, and say "all I need is your signature".

We always leave a bit of extra cash.

On our last cruise we tipped the head waiter of the Crown on our last night, because I would drop off a bottle of wine beforehand, and he always had it decanted, waiting for us to enjoy.

 

[caribill]

23 hours ago, satxdiver said:

It has been reported that the tip in the specialty dining venues is included in the fee paid for the meal.

 

19 hours ago, ukestrummer said:

yes, included in charge, always has been, that is why they charged $5 in beginning when started this special dine stuff. which is outrageous  to begin with

 

No part of the fee for specialty dining is a gratuity. This is per an officer in charge of payroll on a Princess ship.

 

As others stated, the waitstaff there is part of the tipping pool you are already contributing to.

 

18 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

OP: we usually tip with cash in the specialty restaurant. On one of our cruises we forgot to bring cash. The waiter heard me trying to figure out how to add it to our charge slip & said, "don't worry about it". I conclude that the extra tip is just that...extra.

 

If you do want to add a gratuity by putting it the charge slip, it goes into the overall tip pool, so your waiter would only get a few cents of what you sign for.  If you do want to give a tip in a specialty restaurant, do it with cash as they can keep all of what you give them that way.

[terry&mike]

This brings up something I have coming up. I have a dinner party for 12 people that I am hosting/paying for on Diamond Princess for DH's 60th birthday. I paid the $29 pp fee in advance, as the ship requested, to secure the reservation. Usually, when DH and I dine in a specialty, I leave $10 cash ($5 pp) for the wait staff, unless the service is poor. Based on that, I was thinking I should leave $60 for the birthday dinner, but it sounds as if many think this is not necessary. Thoughts?

[Griller]

Quite often we take a bottle of wine into Crown Grill and sometimes  they don''t charge us corkage, I am inclined to be more generous with a cash tip then. Works for me.

[Hlitner]

Perhaps we can avoid all the emotion on the usual tipping subject.  Whether or not you tip in a specialty restaurant is personal preference although the language on the menu and on the tab certainly "encourages" the practice.  We do tip our waiter if we are really pleased with the service, and do not tip if the service sucks.  I will usually take some cash to dinner so that if we do decide to tip we can quietly slip it to our waiter (whether he/she actually puts it into the tipping pool is their decision).

 

Folks on these boards also should be considerate of the fact that those of us who live in North America come from a "tipping culture" why many on these boards from other parts of the world come from different cultures where tipping is not the norm or it is done at a relatively low amount.  

 

Hank