Connoisseur cruise tour question

[cusematt4]

Connoisseur Alaska tour guide question - hi all, have a question about this pre or post cruise tour.

 

So far it’s been enjoyable, especially the meals.  But I’m confused as to what the guide does and why the recommended tip is $10/day pp.

 

Other than riding on the bus with us and offering to make dinner reservations (which we are doing on our own very quickly and easily after day one) we don’t interact with the guide.  There are no guide organized activities at the lodges nor does the guide do anything compared to if we were on our own.  

 

On days we aren’t on the bus we don’t see nor interact with the guide.  We are all for tipping and tipping the max for awesome service, but we are confused what the guide does and why we would tip the full amount for zero service or interaction.  Curious what others think and have done.

 

This is nothing against the guide him/herself, but there just doesn’t seem to be a need for one or a purpose.  We would rather put the money towards the employees we are interacting with and who are showing us around, helping with our luggage, etc.  on the hotel only on your own days, we go days without seeing the guide until the next transfer and bus ride.  The guide allegedly is available for questions, but everything is planned out and there’s not really anything we could think we’d have a question about or need help with.  The bus driver does all the talking during the rides.

 

Thanks so much.

[Rick&Jeannie]

Be prepared for an onslaught of tipping vs not tipping posts!  That just seems to trigger everybody's hot button on the forum!  We have never done one of these tours you speak of...but it sure sounds like from your description that the recommended tip may be a bit much, considering what he/she is or is not doing.  Keep in mind, they may very well be doing things behind the scenes to "keep things on the rails" that you may never be aware of.  Also...if something really develops into a train wreck they may be worth their weight in gold serving as the "fixer" for any problems that crop up.  It's hard to know what the best course of action might be...we *might* consider a lesser tip if there really is no obvious service being rendered.

[Rudy888]

Wr did the Alaska Connoisser cruise last year. We did 20 days on land, 5 lodges. What did the tour guide do? 

1. My wife has slight mobility problems , the guide made sure all venue took that into consideration.

2. We enjoy dining with others. Our tour guide made reservations at the te we requested with different couples each night. Very enjoyable.

3. Our tour guide did narration along with the bus driver on our bus trips.

4. The plan/itinerary was put together by Princess. Over 10 days changes can happen. The bus driver is driving the bus. The tour guide makes sure makes sure everything runs smoothly. 

 

We felt our tour guide was worth the tip,  based on what we saw and what we didn't. 

 

 

 

 

[cruzrbachoua]

On 6/9/2024 at 1:25 PM, cusematt4 said:

Connoisseur Alaska tour guide question - hi all, have a question about this pre or post cruise tour.

 

So far it’s been enjoyable, especially the meals.  But I’m confused as to what the guide does and why the recommended tip is $10/day pp.

 

Other than riding on the bus with us and offering to make dinner reservations (which we are doing on our own very quickly and easily after day one) we don’t interact with the guide.  There are no guide organized activities at the lodges nor does the guide do anything compared to if we were on our own.  

 

On days we aren’t on the bus we don’t see nor interact with the guide.  We are all for tipping and tipping the max for awesome service, but we are confused what the guide does and why we would tip the full amount for zero service or interaction.  Curious what others think and have done.

 

This is nothing against the guide him/herself, but there just doesn’t seem to be a need for one or a purpose.  We would rather put the money towards the employees we are interacting with and who are showing us around, helping with our luggage, etc.  on the hotel only on your own days, we go days without seeing the guide until the next transfer and bus ride.  The guide allegedly is available for questions, but everything is planned out and there’s not really anything we could think we’d have a question about or need help with.  The bus driver does all the talking during the rides.

 

Thanks so much.

I feel you may have our guide.  We did tip at the end but after we did I asked myself this same question..what exactly did he do.  He gave us our welcome packet with the itinerary for each day, made one reservation at one lodge at the other he claimed they were all full for the day/time we wanted.  We got to the lodge and went right there had a table for the day and time we wanted for our group.  He did none of the talking on the bus he just sat there napping it looked to me. When he did speak he kept talking about this being the end of his season and couldn't wait to leave/get home.  We spoke to him maybe 3 times the last being when he came down the train to get his tips.  We did tip but in the end I was like for what...I say go with your gut..if you feel he is not doing anything ie, dinner reservations, helping with any medical needs etc...then don't do the full recommended tip and and do what you think he may have done on the backend which probably gather the documents and helped get everyone on the right bus etc. I wish we had gone with ours and tipped less than what we did. 

[leck57]

@Rudy888 sums up perfectly what our guide did on our Connoisseur tour. She was always around at the lodges as well and seemed to work quite hard. She did all the narration on the bus.

There was no problem tipping her as we thought she was great.

[Thrak]

My take: We had something like 40 people in the group. At $10 per person per day that's $400 a day in tips if you tip the recommended amount. Our last cruise tour had 8 days on land. At the suggested rate of tips that would mean the guide would receive $3,200 for minimal effort during the 8 days. This would, of course, be in addition to whatever pay they were already receiving from the cruise line. The guide could do 3 or (with slight fudging of the number of days) 4 tours in a month.

 

I understand tipping and I do tip but the suggested amounts (no matter what activity or industry one is talking about) are almost universally idiotic.