What does a room steward do?

[808cruisers]

And do you leave tip somewhere or hand it to them directly?

[cjpj]

Your room steward will clean your room daily in the am and tidy in the pm. S/he will replenish your ice bucket and basically obtain any other items you may ask for if they can. Need a corkscrew, a bottle opener, more hangers, a robe, have a question -  your room steward is your first contact. For glasses you will often be referred to housekeeping, but I find this varies. You room steward will know your name (I don't know how they do it) and can be a great source of info. They often like to chat about their family back home, their contract, etc. 

We always tip out room steward on the eve of disembarkation and hand it to him/her discreetly.  Don't wait till embarkation day when it's all hands on deck for turnover day, your not likely to see him/her. And of course, we'd tip during the cruise for anything out of the ordinary.

[cr8tiv1]

You will receive a plethora of response to tipping the room steward.  I will mention that I hand it to him as I am leaving the room.  Three have been really rare occasions that I could not find him (not fault of his own).

 

What does he do?

 

I have a long laundry list since I am becoming more and more forgetful.
 

Besides the normal changing linens daily, he cleans the bathroom, vacuums, fills your ice bucket, empty the trash, but I am sure you are familiar with regular hotel house keeping.

For me, I request:

extra wash clothes

take my laundry order / and return it

….if I know he can do towel animals, I will request one (don’t need more than 1)

extra bar soap

remove room service dishes

and a few additions requests.

 

I am unsure if he has been newly assigned change out the mini-bar

 

 

 

[david63]

37 minutes ago, 808cruisers said:

do you leave tip somewhere or hand it to them directly?

Neither as you will have already paid tips somewhere along the way. But you can always give a "little" more if you believe that your cabin steward had "gone over and beyond".

[dreaminofcruisin]

5 minutes ago, david63 said:

Neither as you will have already paid tips somewhere along the way. But you can always give a "little" more if you believe that your cabin steward had "gone over and beyond".

 

BUT....you don't have to feel obligated to do so since you have already paid tips which are from $14.50/day/person to $16.50/day/person depending on the type for cabin you have. They are called "Crew Appreciation" or "Gratuities" and either included with Plus or Premium packages or listed separately on your folio when you cruise. We ask very little of our stewards so I often don't tip extra. If I have needed them for extra things or for whatever reason found that they did more than expected, I might tip them extra.

 

There's lots of opinions on CC....so you will get various responses.

 

[wowzz]

13 minutes ago, david63 said:

Neither as you will have already paid tips somewhere along the way. But you can always give a "little" more if you believe that your cabin steward had "gone over and beyond".

Which is what we do.

[billco]

We were recently on the Discovery Princess for 30 days on a B2B2B2B2B in 5 different cabins and four different stewards. All were excellent. One would have serviced three of the cabins, but he got promoted to supervisor. He sure was proud to be wearing a white shirt and tie. They serviced 18 cabins, which seems a bit more than in the past. Considering what they do and what they put up with, I had no problem tipping extra to each one. In addition to what has been mentioned, my wife always requests a robe if it isn't there. Usually they are being washed from the last cruise. Extra wine glasses. Room service still took care of the minibar.

[skynight]

3 hours ago, 808cruisers said:

And do you leave tip somewhere or hand it to them directly?

It's your choice to provide an extra tip. We always do. The way we did it was: 1) cash, 2) placed into envelope with a thank you note, 3) directly handed to the cabin steward on the last day before disembarkation.

[cruzsnooze]

3 hours ago, 808cruisers said:

And do you leave tip somewhere or hand it to them directly?

Neither because they are included in the daily auto gratuity. All cash has to be handed into the tip pool which is distributed to all the fleet. There is a misconception which I verified with corp. that crew keep cash tips if the auto gratuity is kept intact but that's not the case. So any cash tip you give a crew member goes into the pool and gets divided by thousands of crew members

Edited March 23, 2023 by cruzsnooze

[voljeep]

my wife fixes a 'special bag' for the steward that we give upon meeting him (hopefully) or her - 1 time not so good experience.  In the bag, so far this time, is a nice fingernail kit - files, clippers, etc, a small led flashlight with extra batteries, lip balm - so far... also enclosed will be a nice pre-thank-you card with a token of appreciation - call it a bribe - I don't care - it makes both my wife and the steward happy ... 'nuff said.

[david63]

30 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

There is a misconception which I verified with corp.

And you believe that?

[wowzz]

46 minutes ago, david63 said:

And you believe that?

I certainly don't believe it. If that was in fact the case, why is the steward so pleased to receive a tip if he knows he has to turn it in ? 

[cruzsnooze]

4 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I certainly don't believe it. If that was in fact the case, why is the steward so pleased to receive a tip if he knows he has to turn it in ? 

Because all the money across all the ships when turned in adds to the total amount in the pool. Wouldn't anyone prefer a $10,000 pool VS a $100 Pool to divide. 

[david63]

2 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

Wouldn't anyone prefer a $10,000 pool VS a $100 Pool to divide. 

I would prefer to keep the $500 that I had been given as a reward for my services rather than sharing it with 15,000 others.

3 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

Because all the money across all the ships when turned in adds to the total amount in the pool.

That argument was discredited years ago as a myth

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

Because all the money across all the ships when turned in adds to the total amount in the pool. Wouldn't anyone prefer a $10,000 pool VS a $100 Pool to divide. 

Surely it depends on how many are in the pool. 

As a steward would you rather be given $50 for your own use, or some unknown figure at a future date,  which is split between waiters, entertainers, cleaners etc ?

[jaycruising]

Also remember that if one of the staff members impresses you, to mention them by name in your survey you get as it does mean a lot to them!  We have always had fantastic room stewards. 

[cr8tiv1]

Congrats to your room steward.  It’s always so rewarding to hear that some one has been promoted. I have watched many crew friends make the jump.  Latest from Assistant Manager to Assistant Maitre d’. 
 

there are many myths circulating, so I will add what I’ve been told.  Cash tips ARE NOT pooled….IF….you kept your automatic crew appreciations in tack.  I believe poster removes and/or amends value and that may be the reason they have to turn in tips.  I could be wrong.  Just passing on what I’ve been informers.  
 

10 hours ago, billco said:

We were recently on the Discovery Princess for 30 days on a B2B2B2B2B in 5 different cabins and four different stewards. All were excellent. One would have serviced three of the cabins, but he got promoted to supervisor. He sure was proud to be wearing a white shirt and tie. They serviced 18 cabins, which seems a bit more than in the past. Considering what they do and what they put up with, I had no problem tipping extra to each one. In addition to what has been mentioned, my wife always requests a robe if it isn't there. Usually they are being washed from the last cruise. Extra wine glasses. Room service still took care of the minibar.

 

7 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

Neither because they are included in the daily auto gratuity. All cash has to be handed into the tip pool which is distributed to all the fleet. There is a misconception which I verified with corp. that crew keep cash tips if the auto gratuity is kept intact but that's not the case. So any cash tip you give a crew member goes into the pool and gets divided by thousands of crew members

 

6 hours ago, wowzz said:

I certainly don't believe it. If that was in fact the case, why is the steward so pleased to receive a tip if he knows he has to turn it in ? 

 

[brisalta]

 

Besides the standard tasks listed in above comments the room steward will attempt to fulfill special requests.

At the beginning of a cruise I have a special request that I ask the room steward to fulfill.  I know it takes extra effort for them to perform this task so I give them a $20 dollar tip at point of delivery of the items requested.

Edited March 23, 2023 by brisalta

[Thrak]

7 hours ago, david63 said:

I would prefer to keep the $500 that I had been given as a reward for my services rather than sharing it with 15,000 others.

 

If you are claiming you tip the room steward $500 what the heck are you doing sailing Princess?

[cruzsnooze]

10 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

If you are claiming you tip the room steward $500 what the heck are you doing sailing Princess?

Good question. Have you ever heard of being a big fish in a little pond? Also I certainly don't believe most of what people brag about on these boards. The best information for me is getting together on my roll calls for private tours. 

[trvlwrld]

New year’s cruise on Royal…room steward was in charge of mini-bar change-out, no more ice buckets or wine glasses (but did replenish drink glasses daily), he said tip rule has changed since restart.  Doesn’t make any difference if you keep or remove tips, they can now keep all cash tips, the auto-gratuities are the only ones that are split fleetwide. These were his words, not mine, and he was very grateful when we tipped him in cash on the last evening…even saw him hauling luggage down the hall.  I think things have changed since the restart with duties being split among all staff

[Ombud]

@trvlwrld if I don't get wine glasses from the steward, where do I get them?? I'm trading my mini bar for a bottle of wine so I'll need 4 glasses

 

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by Ombud

[DallasGuy75219]

9 hours ago, jaycruising said:

Also remember that if one of the staff members impresses you, to mention them by name in your survey you get as it does mean a lot to them!  We have always had fantastic room stewards. 

It's hard to forget when you're reminded by the crew so many times🙄

Edited March 24, 2023 by DallasGuy75219

[808cruisers]

I did some rough math.

Total cruisers 3000 X $100 in auto tips= $300,000/1000 staff=$300 each staff member.

For a 7 night cruise, <$43 a day in auto tips. I would say giving them extra gratuity is a good thing. 

[brisalta]

1 hour ago, Ombud said:

@trvlwrld if I don't get wine glasses from the steward, where do I get them?? I'm trading my mini bar for a bottle of wine so I'll need 4 glasses

 

 

 

Ask for wine glasses at one of the bars.