Tipping in Advance

[LILDUDETTE]

For those of you who tip a little extra to the cabin steward and wait staff in advance, can you tell me a "delicate" way to do it? May seem like a silly question, but I need to know a good way to approach them.

[pungo3]

For the cabin steward, we call him/her and ask for an extra pillow. When he brings it, we give him a nice pre-tip and tell him what we'd like during the week. It's worked nicely several times. For our wait staff, my DH usually has cash in his pocket which he "slips" to the waiter when shaking his hand. Believe me, all the folk who work on these ships know how to take your cash discretely. They've had tons of practice. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

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Carnival Pride 5/4/02
Carnival Conquest 1/19/03
Carnival Legend 1/16/04
Carnival Destiny 10/24/04
Carnival Valor 10/30/05
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[ken56]

It is a nice gesture to pre tip....and much appreciated. I have done this a few times and I thought the level of our service / attention was enhanced by doing this. we are not demanding people anyway but its nice to have a little more attention when you need/want it. cabin stewards work very hard as do the dining room waiters.......no way would I care to do their jobs.

[LisaTX]

I'm sure I sound like a true idiot; however, as a first time cruiser bear with me. How much is an appropriate pre-tip for steward and wait staff??? We prepaid our gratuities.

[Cotton]

No questions are silly. How else will you learn?

I don't tip my cabin steward in advance. I also don't pre-pay my tips.

I DO, however, leave ALL tips on my S&S account, and tip extra at the END of the cruise. (I also leave $1 or $2 taped to the mirror every day for my steward. Just a little 'happy' to brighten his day.)

"Laissez les bon temps rouler!"
Festivale 1987
Carnivale 1988
Mardi Gras 1989
Pacific Princess 1990
Norway 1994
Holiday 2001
Holiday 2002
Holiday 2003
Sensation 2004

[Kenster]

The first afternoon we were on board, I asked our steward to fill our collapsible cooler we brought on board and asked him to refill it every day. I was ready to lay a ten on him just to keep the cooler filled but he immediately handed it off to a cleaner. The cleaner brought it back to the steward who gave it to us. I kept the ten, but was still planning on tipping extra later, to cover the ice. He never once got ice for us for the remainder of the trip. I went looking for him one day but he was not to be found. I found a young Asian girl cleaning the next cabin and she immediately went to get ice for me. I gave her a five right then. You would have thought she had just won the lottery! She gave me a big ol' smile and put her hands together and bowed toward me, saying "Oh, thank you, Sir! Thank you, Sir!" I think she may have been more pleased to be acknowledged than to have received the money.
Our traveling companions, two doors down, gave the steward $20 in advance and again, (same steward) not once filled their cooler for the rest of the trip, nor did anything above and beyond that would warrant an extra tip.

Carnival Carnivale -1988
Carnival Celebration - 2001
Carnival Celebration -June 2004

[ken56]

I tip $20 to my cabin steward when we first meet him or her. and anoter $20 to our waiter at dinner the first night, discreetly as in the hand shake, and so far have never been let down in the service area. if I were to be dissapointed after giving the pre tip then I would go to the pursers desk and adjust the s&s card tip accordingly. then again these people work very hard for their tips and it would take a really appalling display of non service to have me take money away from them in the regular tip on the s&s card.

[LisaTX]

Thank you all for the info - this helps out and gives me a guide for our upcoming cruise. Leaving on Sunday!!!!