dining package now has tips add should we still tip at the table?

[Dewaldcruiser]

On 5/27/2023 at 6:37 PM, basenji56 said:

I don't think it's necessary.  I usually leave $5-10 if the service was good and I plan to come back.  But everyone is free to tip as much as they want

This is how I tip at specialty restaurants as well.  Occasionally I leave no extra when service is poor and occasionally I leave more than $10 for exceptional service.  Tipping as it was originally conceived before many companies figured out that they can get their patrons to pay their staff.

[Wanna Be Retired]

When you give the waiter extra I wonder, do they get to keep that money or are they required to share tips with everybody?  Like if you work in a restaurant you might have to split tips with the person who Carrie’s food from the kitchen to the table.  I have no clue how tips work.

[Georgia_Peaches]

50 minutes ago, Wanna Be Retired said:

I have no clue how tips work.

Exactly!  Most people here have no clue how the tips work. Myself included. I’d like to think they get to keep the extra without splitting but we will never truly know. 

[lovesthebeach2]

1 hour ago, Wanna Be Retired said:

When you give the waiter extra I wonder, do they get to keep that money or are they required to share tips with everybody?  Like if you work in a restaurant you might have to split tips with the person who Carrie’s food from the kitchen to the table.  I have no clue how tips work.

I think when we give a tip to a bar server for example, and they quickly put it in their pocket….they’re keeping it.  But when we leave a tip on the bar, it goes in the pot.  
 Not sure if every bar server keeps it, but in our experience they do, we’ve asked them 😉

[basenji56]

I've been criticized in the past for equating tips with bribes for good service.  But I absolutely think this is why people tip bar servers.  Quicker drinks and (hopefully) more potent drinks.  

[Georgia_Peaches]

5 minutes ago, basenji56 said:

I've been criticized in the past for equating tips with bribes for good service.  But I absolutely think this is why people tip bar servers.  Quicker drinks and (hopefully) more potent drinks.  

I prefer to call it an incentive 😁. And yes, incentives have produced great results at the bar!  I'm happy, the bar tender is happy...I call that a win-win!

[jean87510]

12 minutes ago, basenji56 said:

I've been criticized in the past for equating tips with bribes for good service.  But I absolutely think this is why people tip bar servers.  Quicker drinks and (hopefully) more potent drinks.  

Absolutely!!!  But it sounds better to say one tips to help the poor starving bartender who has to feed his wife and 8 children back home.  

[Kiki and The Noush]

On 5/27/2023 at 9:22 PM, taglovestocruise said:

The waiters only get a few dollars from the meal. Most of the 18%  goes into the ship tip pool.  Divide the 18% amount by the 7 - 10 meals,  with sea day lunches and multiple meals a day some may have 12 - 15 melas on a 7 night cruise,  it  still works out to only a dollar or so.  We always leave $10 per visit. 

We look at it this way as well.  We almost always have excellent servers when we specialty dine and the amount they get of that pooled tip is ridiculously small. We tip them extra - the service we get is usually far superior to the service we get on land.  They deserve it.

[basenji56]

41 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

Absolutely!!!  But it sounds better to say one tips to help the poor starving bartender who has to feed his wife and 8 children back home.  

This is why I tip my cabin attendant half of what I expect to give at the START of the cruise.  If the service is bad, I don't tip the other half.  

[Dewaldcruiser]

4 hours ago, Wanna Be Retired said:

When you give the waiter extra I wonder, do they get to keep that money or are they required to share tips with everybody

I asked the Hooked manager this question and he said that the waiter/waitress got to keep the entire amount.

[katiel53]

We get the UDP on all our cruises.  We tip  $5 per person for lunch and $10 per person for dinner.  While in the restaurants we use our Diamond vouchers for a drink at lunch and a couple or 3 glasses of wine with dinner.

 

There is no tip included for the Diamond drinks, so we feel we should definitely tip extra and some of that tip is for the great service we get.  

[not-enough-cruising]

43 minutes ago, katiel53 said:

 

 

There is no tip included for the Diamond drinks, so we feel we should definitely tip extra and some of that tip is for the great service we get.  

You will get conflicting information on this point

[edwrawhide]

You will get conflicting information on every point. 

[cruisegirl1]

If I have the dining package and go specialty every night, what happens to the daily gratuity I've paid to the regular dinner dining staff for the week? Remember I'm not using the dining room for dinner. Is it transferred to the wait staff where I dine?   If I have this right, I've paid the daily gratuity (for dining staff including dinner), was charged 18% gratuity on the dining package price, and then tip staff each meal as well.  Is this the norm? 

 

We've only had the package once and left additional at the restaurants. 

 

M 

[nimbex1970]

On 5/29/2023 at 8:06 AM, Georgia_Peaches said:

Exactly!  Most people here have no clue how the tips work. Myself included. I’d like to think they get to keep the extra without splitting but we will never truly know. 

There are several bloggers out there that used to work on cruise ships as well as FB groups for people that work on the ships.  The breakdown of how tips work is shared through these sites and others.  Because it varies through cruise lines, I have no memory on the specifics.  Only that there are several hands in the pot that share the tipping revenue. 

[Dewaldcruiser]

1 hour ago, cruisegirl1 said:

If I have this right, I've paid the daily gratuity (for dining staff including dinner), was charged 18% gratuity on the dining package price, and then tip staff each meal as well.  Is this the norm?

That is accurate.  Is it the norm is a good question.  I leave my dining room gratuities alone even if I have the UDP or any other dining package.  No idea how many others do so.  I have always felt that the wait staff needs the money more than I do.  Not sure there is a completely right or wrong choice.

 

[joyhannah]

that is a good question. what happens to the pre paid tips for the dining room? I also pre paid all my gratuity. now i am wondering what happens with that.

do you think it goes to UDP also?

 

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, joyhannah said:

I also pre paid all my gratuity. now i am wondering what happens with that.

Depends on what you want to believe, but it ends up paying staff salaries.

[bucfan2]

An inadvertent way to get us to yet another tipping thread.  Nicely done. 

[basenji56]

25 minutes ago, bucfan2 said:

An inadvertent way to get us to yet another tipping thread.  Nicely done. 

I bought a dining package but found that chair hogs had taken all of the loungers before I could tip...

[LilBlackDress]

21 hours ago, cruisegirl1 said:

If I have the dining package and go specialty every night, what happens to the daily gratuity I've paid to the regular dinner dining staff for the week? Remember I'm not using the dining room for dinner. Is it transferred to the wait staff where I dine?   If I have this right, I've paid the daily gratuity (for dining staff including dinner), was charged 18% gratuity on the dining package price, and then tip staff each meal as well.  Is this the norm? 

 

We've only had the package once and left additional at the restaurants. 

 

M 

 

19 hours ago, joyhannah said:

that is a good question. what happens to the pre paid tips for the dining room? I also pre paid all my gratuity. now i am wondering what happens with that.

do you think it goes to UDP also?

 

My understanding, but I could be wrong, the tips stay with the Dining Staff...
The Dining Staff covers all the included venues. MDR, WJ, Park Cafe, Cafe Latte Tude, Cafe,   Promenade, Sorrantos, etc... 
Where do you eat breakfast? late night? Lunch if you stay on the ship for a port day? 

The MDR Staff works all over the ship during breakfast and lunch. 

I pre-pay the gratuity regardless of what type of dining I purchase. The Dining staff only receives a portion of the auto gratuity 

[bucfan2]

1 hour ago, basenji56 said:

I bought a dining package but found that chair hogs had taken all of the loungers before I could tip...

And the we’re most likely at the trough in their robes, having already claimed their evening poolside seats. 

[JupiterTwo]

When I tip at a specialty restaurant, I usually tip as if it were a land-based restaurant. I don't tip based on the upcharge amount, but that's just me.

[Jasukkie]

Additional tipping of $10-20 per meal on the UDP is above my generosity point.  I tip on my diamond plus vouchers, but I swear I never see anyone else tipping and bartenders always seem surprised. I suspect the people who spend a lot of time hanging at a particular bar all week tip for the night/week, rather than per drink. 

[robmtx]

On 5/30/2023 at 11:37 AM, joyhannah said:

that is a good question. what happens to the pre paid tips for the dining room? I also pre paid all my gratuity. now i am wondering what happens with that.

do you think it goes to UDP also?

 

 

Someone floats the "Where does gratuity go" card around here from time to time and it shows you how much goes to the main waitstaff. You could take that amount, multiply by number of days you're cruising, then have your auto-gratuities adjusted down at Guest Services. We're always talking about how you can go to GS and have tips removed from your acct, but you can also have them adjusted down (or even up!)..