tipping porters, tour bus drivers and guides, etc. (Royal)

[Kellie in Texas]

This is not about the standard tips per day for room stewards, waiters, etc.  I'm wondering what the going rate is for tipping a porter at the cruise terminal (Galveston, most likely it will only be one large suitcase). Tour bus drivers and guides in Costa Maya, Belize, and Roatan, most likely ship excursions (not independent ones). Our last cruise was the Baltics in 2016, so I want to make sure we have some appropriate dollar bills.

[Cigar King]

I usually tip the porters 10 bucks.  We have three of four bags.  The rest I tip depending on what they do.  Usually, 10 bucks or more per person.

 

I'd suggest just have some cash with you.  You'll need it.

[LGW59]

27 minutes ago, Kellie in Texas said:

This is not about the standard tips per day for room stewards, waiters, etc.  I'm wondering what the going rate is for tipping a porter at the cruise terminal (Galveston, most likely it will only be one large suitcase). Tour bus drivers and guides in Costa Maya, Belize, and Roatan, most likely ship excursions (not independent ones). Our last cruise was the Baltics in 2016, so I want to make sure we have some appropriate dollar bills.

Is this your first time ever going on a cruise/vacation, using porters, tours etc?  

[Kellie in Texas]

2 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

Is this your first time ever going on a cruise/vacation, using porters, tours etc?  

Of course not. But it is the first time in 5 1/2 years. What kind of question is that?

[Xtentions]

Porters at the embarkation/demarcation port get a couple dollars per bag as do the shuttle bus driver.  I have only sailed out of Galveston between 2016 and 2021and that is what we do.

 

Tour buses driver if that is all they do get a couple bucks.  Tour guides start at $20 as that is sometimes split with others depending on how good they are.  All of these folks while paid depend in some part on these gratuities.

 

This is what my wife and I are comfortable with you do as you wish.

[Husky1987]

5 minutes ago, Kellie in Texas said:

Of course not. But it is the first time in 5 1/2 years. What kind of question is that?

Someone on these boards always has to be "that" poster.

 

To answer your question (with a non-answer), tip whatever you feel comfortable tipping.  The replies stating numbers are pretty spot on.  My philosophy is that an extra $5-10 means more to the person I'm tipping than it does to me.

Edited January 6, 2022 by Husky1987

[LGW59]

3 minutes ago, Kellie in Texas said:

Of course not. But it is the first time in 5 1/2 years. What kind of question is that?

It was asked to help me formulate the advice that you asked for re tipping.  

[Kellie in Texas]

@Xtentionsthat all sounds reasonable, thanks.

@LGW59apologies for reading your reply as being a bit snarky. As I said, we have cruised before but not in several years. We usually do land-based, mostly driving vacations and the only tipping we do on a regular basis is waiters at a restaurant. And nowadays, that's almost all on plastic; I rarely carry any cash, so, I want to make sure we've got a reasonable amount of cash with us. 

[LGW59]

19 minutes ago, Kellie in Texas said:

@Xtentionsthat all sounds reasonable, thanks.

@LGW59apologies for reading your reply as being a bit snarky. As I said, we have cruised before but not in several years. We usually do land-based, mostly driving vacations and the only tipping we do on a regular basis is waiters at a restaurant. And nowadays, that's almost all on plastic; I rarely carry any cash, so, I want to make sure we've got a reasonable amount of cash with us. 

For us, this is our formula.  At the airport (when they still had curbside check-in) we give $2/bag.  For a cruise, we give $5/bag, as the porters have a bit more work to do lugging the bags than for curbside airport check-in.  For sponsored tours (which we only do when we have to), we give the bus driver $5 and the tour guide $10.  For private tours, which we much prefer, it totally depends on the duration of the tour but can range from $50 for 4 hours to $100 for a full day.  We base the cash that we will bring for tipping totally based on our itinerary, which we know well in advance of our vacation.  YMMV but this has always worked well for us.   

[pcur]

5 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

For us, this is our formula.  At the airport (when they still had curbside check-in) we give $2/bag.  For a cruise, we give $5/bag, as the porters have a bit more work to do lugging the bags than for curbside airport check-in.  For sponsored tours (which we only do when we have to), we give the bus driver $5 and the tour guide $10.  For private tours, which we much prefer, it totally depends on the duration of the tour but can range from $50 for 4 hours to $100 for a full day.  We base the cash that we will bring for tipping totally based on our itinerary, which we know well in advance of our vacation.  YMMV but this has always worked well for us.   

This is EXACTLY what I tip, also.

[Bailey & Sophie]

 

For embarkation porters we give $20 for 4 bags.

On excursions it depends on the guide and how much info they share.

We've only non tipped a guide once. (I can't recall the town but it was where they filmed Peyton Place.) He was disgusting.

We would get our for a brief walk and he would disappear so we had no clue what we were looking at. His only interest was in the architectural aspects of the houses.

(Gross observation follows, read at your own comfort level.) And while waiting for everyone to get back to the bus he hawcked a big one on the sidewalk.

[SRF]

FYI the luggage porters at the dock are HIGHLY paid longshoremen at most ports.  And, IMO, they do less than curbside check in.  They just put your bag in a bin, and then the bin is loaded on the ship.  The crew unpacks the bin, takes bags to the proper floor then to the cabin.

 

Tip what you wish, but many of those porters make more than you do, even without the tips.

 

For tour guides I tip $5 - 10 per person depending on how good they are.  I would only tip a bus driver if they did more than just drive (loaded/unloaded luggage, did some commentary).

[time4u2go]

2 minutes ago, SRF said:

FYI the luggage porters at the dock are HIGHLY paid longshoremen at most ports.  And, IMO, they do less than curbside check in.  They just put your bag in a bin, and then the bin is loaded on the ship.  The crew unpacks the bin, takes bags to the proper floor then to the cabin.

I was thinking the same thing. The porters move the suitcases maybe 10 ft from the curb onto one of those rolling carts and that's it.

[boscobeans]

We cruise a lot from Cape Liberty and tip the porters at embarkation $10. for two bags from car to baggage trolley.

 

We park in the port parking building and when we return we get a porter who takes ALL our bags (checked and carry on) along with liquor boxes right to our car and that porter gets $20.

 

[topnole]

Typically 10 or 20 to the porter depending on how many bags.  FYI.  Not sure at all ports, but in some (or many) the porters are unionized longshoreman.  Don’t kid yourself, these folks make very good money and they aren’t just doing cruise ships work, they are working other types of longshoreman duties too.  They certainly like cruise ship work.  
 

For bus drivers or at the airport it just varies.  Usually $1-2 per bag.  Sometimes more, sometimes none of they don’t do anything.   It’s weird.  At the curb at the airport you can have the same worker checking you in that might work inside an hour later.  But you don’t tip inside, only outside even though the work is the same.  That one is just funny to me as it exemplifies our feeling of need to tip in certain scenarios.  It is the norm outside and not inside, but the work is identical.

It’s tipping.  Just do what feels right to you. All of these folks will experience plenty of big tippers and plenty who will tip them nothing even if they saved their

life while loading their bag.   

[Kellie in Texas]

Thanks to all of you.  I'll make sure we've got a good amount of cash with us.

 

[Joseph2017China]

My goal, is to tip the least amount possible, and not to read threads on tipping.  People love to toss money around and that is great for them. I on the other hand, will tip what is customary.

[DCPIV]

It pretty much depends on what I have on me at the time.  Tour guides typically get $20 for the two of us.  Drivers might get a little something if I have small bills, but guides also usually split tips with the driver (if not evenly then to some extent). 

 

Porters when we arrive get something (a few bucks or so, maybe up to $10 if we have a few bags), but folks are correct that they pretty much just put roll the bags to a nearby area where someone loads them on a large cart that goes straight to the ship--not a big job, and they are getting union wages to do it (unlike your friendly neighborhood waiter or bartender).  That's very true for Galveston, a terminal we visit often.  I'd say that $5 is very generous for even one, large bag

 

We haven't used ports when getting off the ship since we had young children with us (i.e., more luggage but fewer hands).  I always tipped them very well when we did because we NEEDED their help! 😂  Nowadays, luggage rolls almost on its own.

 

In the end, unless I'm short on cash or only have overly large bills at the moment (like only $20s when I make it to the terminal), I'd rather give someone a little too much than a little too little or none at all.

 

[SRF]

On 1/7/2022 at 8:25 AM, time4u2go said:

I was thinking the same thing. The porters move the suitcases maybe 10 ft from the curb onto one of those rolling carts and that's it.

 

Not only that, in most ports, the cruise ship work is overtime for them.  Plus the crazy tips being handed them.

 

Figure a small ship, 3000 passengers.  That is likely even with 1 bag per person, tipping $5 per bag, that is $15,000 in tips.  For a few hours work.  That they are being paid to do.

[ATG]

How much do you tip for a private tour?  I was thinking about 10% or so.

[neverbeenhere]

I always give these tips. (Over the years I've "lost" a lot of luggage)

 

10 Tips for Saving Money

• Keep track of your spending.
• Separate wants from needs.
• Avoid using credit to pay your bills.
• Save regularly.
• Check your insurance policies.
• Be careful about spending a significant amount of money on periodic purchases, like gifts and vacation.
• Cut or downgrade your services.

[deliver42]

On embarkation, I usually give #5.00 to the porter. On excursions usually $10.00 for the guide, and $5.00 for the driver.

[LGW59]

2 hours ago, SRF said:

 

Not only that, in most ports, the cruise ship work is overtime for them.  Plus the crazy tips being handed them.

 

Figure a small ship, 3000 passengers.  That is likely even with 1 bag per person, tipping $5 per bag, that is $15,000 in tips.  For a few hours work.  That they are being paid to do.

You make it sound as if each Porter is getting $15 grand, they are not.  Does not matter how much they make they are still schlepping our bags for us.  A few dollars going to change your life before you board a luxury cruise vacation.

[not-enough-cruising]

2 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

You make it sound as if each Porter is getting $15 grand, they are not.  Does not matter how much they make they are still schlepping our bags for us.  A few dollars going to change your life before you board a luxury cruise vacation.

They are getting overtime pay (on a already very high base pay) plus union benefits to “schlep” those bags 3-4 feet. 
no thanks, I don’t tip porters, they do nothing special, just the bare minimum to satisfy the job description 

[LGW59]

4 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

They are getting overtime pay (on a already very high base pay) plus union benefits to “schlep” those bags 3-4 feet. 
no thanks, I don’t tip porters, they do nothing special, just the bare minimum to satisfy the job description 

I prefer to not live on the cheap.  Wait staff at my go to restaurant do really damn well on tips also.  They schlep my dinner from kitchen to my table, oh maybe 15 feet, still waiting on me, and I appreciate it.  I don’t care how much they earn, I still appreciate what they do for me, even if they earn $100k/year.  Cheap people always find a way to make an excuse.  Hope your luggage always makes it on board.