Tipping?

[RumRunner2021]

3 minutes ago, chefchick said:

I’m curious. Do you tip your Doctor ?  Your accountant?  Tip whomever you’d like of course, but the Captain of a Ship is a well paid, salaried professional….maybe it’s me, but that seems unusual.

I think you missed the joke.  The "winky face" was our first clue.

 

I mean really, "a souvenir fridge magnet" for the captain?  🤣

[chefchick]

2 minutes ago, RumRunner2021 said:

I think you missed the joke.  The "winky face" was our first clue.

 

I mean really, "a souvenir fridge magnet" for the captain?  🤣

I must have…it did seem strange.  Look, I’m confused by the ways of the “people of cruise critic” on a daily basis.  
 

I mean, you’ve been around long enough to know there have been more weird answers to posts than that one and they were completely serious.😎

[GettotheSun]

I clearly stoked the fires on this thread...mea culpa

I also posted a very sarcastic comment that was unwarranted. 

 

Myself, I would love a fridge magnet, if it was a good one.  A lot of the fridge magnets these days suck and you need like 3 of them to actually display your kids' ugly artwork.

 

 

Edited August 1, 2021 by GettotheSun
grammar

[GettotheSun]

5 hours ago, FreestyleNovice said:

 

 

Turning the question around; what extra service does the line cook do to deserve a tip? Does he toss in an extra egg? 

 

 

I think the difference is service workers who face the "customer".  It is very different to be a service worker who has to deal with the patrons vs. those who are behind the scenes.  I would say that most would pick a behind the scenes job....except for the tips.  Would you disagree?

[RumRunner2021]

3 hours ago, GettotheSun said:

I would say that most would pick a behind the scenes job....except for the tips.  Would you disagree?

I'm not sure exactly what a "service worker" is, but I do know what a generic "worker" is and most prefer whatever pays the most.  That's how I spent my working life.  I was never in it for how I was treated/respected/appreciated.  Show me a good paycheck and I feel all the respect and appreciation I need.

[complawyer]

i may be completely mistaken ,but i think you missed the humor of this post. no one tips the captain and i would be very shocked if someone actually tried and he accepted./

[RumRunner2021]

5 minutes ago, complawyer said:

i may be completely mistaken ,but i think you missed the humor of this post. no one tips the captain and i would be very shocked if someone actually tried and he accepted./

hmmm....  Didn't "some guy" already point this out?

[Sailing12Away]

On 7/31/2021 at 7:54 AM, Trimone said:

I tip for exceptional service, if someone is average in my view tough luck!

A pure example of this once was the bartender in the Haven, he wouldn’t leave this certain group at the bar, just kept everyone else waiting, I know for a fact off other passengers he didn’t do very well at all for tips, and he certainly do off me, however the bar staff in other venues did well off me…

If this was on the Epic sailing the southern Caribbean, I apologize. We completely consumed Erwin with our little band of merry folk at the bar every night. Don't worry, whatever tip he lost on you he more than gained on us. It all works out in the end.... as it usually does with tipping in general...

 

15 hours ago, complawyer said:

just trying to say, sometimes its not the waiters fault the diners have a bad experience.

Yes, it is. That's the thing that I think a lot of folks in this thread are missing. The wait staff is front-facing. Meaning they're the ones who interact with the customer. It's their job to make sure we have a good time, get the right food, get good service and have an overall enjoyable experience. They certainly can't do that without the whole host of characters behind them supporting them - it's an entire team, but the front facing person is the one responsible for our ultimate overall experience.

 

So if they hear about an issue or get a request, it is not their job personally to fix it, but it is their job to escalate as needed to a supervisor/manager, or to get the line cook to do it over again. If someone goes above and beyond their normal scope of duties that results in you having an exceptional experience, by all means go ahead and tip extra (yes, it is "extra" because the compensation for their tasks was already covered by your DSC). They provided extra service or extra smiles, which resulted in someone wanting to provide extra compensation.

 

Assuming you had a normal cruise with no hiccups or issues, and you paid the suggested DSC - you have no moral, ethical, or peer-pressured obligation to provide any additional tips while onboard a cruise ship. (except in the Haven where some of the staff is not included in that DSC pool of funds) 

 

Regardless of how high someone's horse is, anything additional beyond that is purely subjective and highly dependent upon personal expectations and experiences.

[GettotheSun]

2 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

Yes, it is. That's the thing that I think a lot of folks in this thread are missing. The wait staff is front-facing. Meaning they're the ones who interact with the customer. It's their job to make sure we have a good time, get the right food, get good service and have an overall enjoyable experience. They certainly can't do that without the whole host of characters behind them supporting them - it's an entire team, but the front facing person is the one responsible for our ultimate overall experience.

 

This is a fascinating position.  Have you ever served tables?  I spent most of high school and university as a server (first as a bus boy then as a waiter).  The server is often subject to rude and obnoxious behaviour by patrons for issues beyond their control.  Servers are also subject to drunk customers who think they can speak to them like they are garbage.   It is NOT their job to make sure you have a good time.  It is YOUR job to make sure you have a good time.  Honestly...the entitlement here is strong.

 

[GettotheSun]

12 hours ago, RumRunner2021 said:

I'm not sure exactly what a "service worker" is, but I do know what a generic "worker" is and most prefer whatever pays the most.  That's how I spent my working life.  I was never in it for how I was treated/respected/appreciated.  Show me a good paycheck and I feel all the respect and appreciation I need.

 

That is the point - the tips are what would incentivize a person to work in a front-line job.  Why else would they?  If you can be a dishwasher in a restaurant and make the same as a server, who on earth would want to be a server, dealing with douches day-in, day-out. 

 

 

I find your comments a bit odd - so someone can be verbally abusive towards you so long as they pay you enough?   That's quite the mouthful.   

 

 

[GettotheSun]

11 hours ago, RumRunner2021 said:

hmmm....  Didn't "some guy" already point this out?

 

Who was that?

[ColeThornton]

21 hours ago, GettotheSun said:

 

Agreed, I'm tapping out.  

 

 

And when does that start?   lol

[GettotheSun]

Just now, ColeThornton said:

 

 

And when does that start?   lol

 

LOL - ouch.  ok, I shall shut up now.  Point taken.

 

(hey it's a long weekend here and I'm a bit bored)

[RumRunner2021]

14 minutes ago, GettotheSun said:

I find your comments a bit odd - so someone can be verbally abusive towards you so long as they pay you enough?   That's quite the mouthful.   

 

Apparently, you never worked at Megacorp.

[Sailing12Away]

21 minutes ago, GettotheSun said:

It is NOT their job to make sure you have a good time.  It is YOUR job to make sure you have a good time.  Honestly...the entitlement here is strong.

 

Yes, by saying something to someone who works there so it can be corrected when things go wrong. I'm not talking about entitlement of asking folks to do things beyond the scope of normal. I'm talking about basic things like getting an order correct and as someone pointed out earlier, not having to wait 20+ minutes to settle the check. I'm not talking about asking my server to sing and dance for me, just do their job. 

 

Servers do their job, patrons do their jobs by not acting like douchebags, and everyone is happy. 

[BirdTravels]

14 hours ago, RumRunner2021 said:

I'm not sure exactly what a "service worker" is, but I do know what a generic "worker" is and most prefer whatever pays the most.  That's how I spent my working life.  I was never in it for how I was treated/respected/appreciated.  Show me a good paycheck and I feel all the respect and appreciation I need.

So that's it, right? Service workers' compensation is part pay, part gratuity.

 

The minimum wage in our town is $15/hour. If you wait tables at the local diner, the minimum wage is $5/hour. And your first $10/hour in tips just to get you to minimum wage that a shop worker would make. You need to turn a lot of tables at $1 tip a table to get anything more than minimum wage. Same is true on a cruise ship. You sign a contract for $10/hour. The cruise line pays you $4/hour. And the gratuities help get you to your contract wage.  

[RumRunner2021]

4 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

So that's it, right? Service workers' compensation is part pay, part gratuity.

 

The minimum wage in our town is $15/hour. If you wait tables at the local diner, the minimum wage is $5/hour. And your first $10/hour in tips just to get you to minimum wage that a shop worker would make. You need to turn a lot of tables at $1 tip a table to get anything more than minimum wage. Same is true on a cruise ship. You sign a contract for $10/hour. The cruise line pays you $4/hour. And the gratuities help get you to your contract wage.  

That all makes perfect sense, but I'm not seeing how that relates to my post that you quoted.  Did I say something to the contrary?

[ysolde]

We tip the people who push my wheelchair on and off the ship.  We tip the cabin steward.  We also tip beverage service and spa staff in addition to what NCL charges.  We also tip at the specialty restaurants (again, on top of whatever tip NCL automatically charges for service).  Obviously, we tip outside vendors, such as excursion guides, cab and Uber drivers, and the like. 

Edited August 1, 2021 by ysolde

[ClevelandCruisin]

I thought this was a forum for tipping on a cruise ship?

 

This thread needs deleted. 

 

I'm going to answer the original OP question....If you want to tip extra in cash, coins, foreign money, snacks, gifts, signing a piece of paper you may do so if you think they deserve that extra gratuity or gift. Leave a thank you not to for your steward if they do a good job or go out of their way for you.

 

It's completely up to each individual. I don't care what anyone does. But maybe time to move on people.

 

If you choose not to tip extra and just go with the daily service fees, then go with it and enjoy your cruise.

 

Bunch of cry babies in this forum. If you don't like that I tip extra, then block me! Enough said!!

[WarfRatWA]

On 7/31/2021 at 11:46 PM, Trimone said:

I’ve just taken the family out to probably the most prestigious French restaurant in our town; they seated us in the wrong place, immediately asked about drinks, we said give us a minute, the food was over cooked, my daughter told them.

The bill for five was £285.00 what tip would you give them?

We didn’t pay there percentage we set a challenge, a bundle of £5 notes and every five minutes we removed one they lost £15…

we had no reduction for new food cooked whilst ever body eat there’s…

Not sure where you are located (assuming within UK), but If there was no service charge on the bill, I'd give 10%.  The issues you experienced don't seem to be related to the server, though you had a subpar experience.  Your challenge seems a bit incongruent with a 'prestigious French restaurant'.

[Trimone]

21 minutes ago, WarfRatWA said:

Not sure where you are located (assuming within UK), but If there was no service charge on the bill, I'd give 10%.  The issues you experienced don't seem to be related to the server, though you had a subpar experience.  Your challenge seems a bit incongruent with a 'prestigious French restaurant'.

In the U.K. we have big staffing issues since Brexit and Covid-19, the President of our cricket club invited guests to the same restaurant for lunch this Friday, they have called and said they are not opening because of staffing issues….

[MoCruiseFan]

On 8/1/2021 at 4:22 PM, ClevelandCruisin said:

If you want to tip extra in ...

Again there is no such thing as tipping "extra".

[Oakman58]

I leave the DSC in place and the only crewman I will tip extra is my cabin steward because they have to clean up the mess I make.  On my next 7 day cruise the cabin steward’s tip will be one less cabin to clean because with the Covid Delta variant I don’t want him/her coming into my cabin.  I’ll clean my own cabin and make my own bed.

 

The 20% gratuity that is automatically charged with the beverage package is more than I would tip in a land based bar so nothing extra from me.  I’m not trying to prove how rich I am.

 

I like having the DSC.   Back in the day of the tip envelopes put in the cabins I was never sure how much to tip and I didn’t like carrying a lot of cash with me.

[hallux]

15 minutes ago, Oakman58 said:

Back in the day of the tip envelopes put in the cabins I was never sure how much to tip and I didn’t like carrying a lot of cash with me.

On my second Royal cruise (on the Anthem) they still put envelopes in the rooms.  We did a set time and table dining, our waiter probably got $200 or more extra (in addition to what they get from the DSC) from just our table of 9.

[PelicanBill]

I leave the DSC in place and give extra where service is attentive and friendly - where deserved - the cabin steward extra $20 (some have been great, some have been invisible and unresponsive), specialty restaurants extra $5-10, bartenders get $1 per order (1 or 2 drinks) when I am there for a while if they are attentive and friendly. Of course baggage handlers and wheelchair help gets tipped. Musicians also where permitted.