Tip Question...

[teras75]

I am a fairly new cruiser and we are going on our second cruise next month. On our first cruise we only ate in the formal dining room once and our children did not eat there at all. We did not adjust the tips from what came on the bill at all, $x per person(4) per day(7) for the waiter and head waiter. My question is, is it customary to tip the waiter and head waiter per person if our kids didn't even go? Or if we didn't even eat there every night? I don't want to be cheap to the waiter but then again, I feel like I am giving my money away for pretty much nothing?? What do you experienced cruisers do in these cases?

[LHT28]

You must have eaten someplace on the ship the nights you did not go to the dining room!!

Where did you eat breakfast & lunch? Someone waited on you!

 

Usually the wait staff work in the buffet as well... during the cruise they rotate their shifts for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

If the tips are added to your S&S card they are usually put in a "pool" and shared by the cabin stewards & wait staff.

 

People think because they don't eat in the dining room for dinner tips do not apply to them.

 

If they have the auto-tip just leave it on your account and if you find a waiter or cabin steward go above & beyond you can always tip extra to that person.

[julieanne]

I am a fairly new cruiser and we are going on our second cruise next month. On our first cruise we only ate in the formal dining room once and our children did not eat there at all. We did not adjust the tips from what came on the bill at all, $x per person(4) per day(7) for the waiter and head waiter. My question is, is it customary to tip the waiter and head waiter per person if our kids didn't even go? Or if we didn't even eat there every night? I don't want to be cheap to the waiter but then again, I feel like I am giving my money away for pretty much nothing?? What do you experienced cruisers do in these cases?

Giving money away for nothing? LOL! I agree with the other poster. The waiters all work the buffets in rotation, so you're getting service! On Celebrity, they recommend 1/2 the amount for children. Usually the head waiter is tipped .75 cents per day. This is a personal decision. If they are very good and we see them quite often, we tip them. If we never see the head waiter, then.......We have always tipped our waitsaff the full amount, even with the children along. On our 14 day honeymoon cruise, we ate in the dining room maybe 4 times, but our waiter/busboy got over the full amount. :)

[teras75]

Thanks for the reply. I didn't mean to sound cheap in any way. It's just that we ate at the buffet with our kids most of the time so we could be more casual or we ate at the 24 hour pizza place in the Promenade. Nobody at the buffet or the promenade waited on us, we got our own food and drink, but these are the people that dealt with us and cleaned and bused the tables. If I am tipping anyone shouldn't it be these people, not the waiter who we met once and a head watier that we did not see at all? So if it goes in a pool I am ok with that and feel 100% better about tipping the recommended amount. Otherwise I would be tipping the waiter in the dining room for doing nothing for my family and the nice folks in the buffet who made little napking animals for my kids would be getting nothing. Isn't that the point of tipping? Good service?

[mollyeilis]

People think because they don't eat in the dining room for dinner tips do not apply to them.

 

 

It mystifies me as to why people get so mean to people asking questions about tips.

 

You want to know why people think that sort of thing? Because the tip, as it states in the info, is "for" the waiter and other dining room staff.

 

The ships would really help people out if they would STATE that it goes into a tip pool, that the dining room waitstaff work elsewhere on the ship, that it doesn't just go into that one waiter's pocket.

 

Then fewer people would have questions about it.

 

 

To the OP. Although cruiselines seems to want to keep it a secret, I've learned from here that it's pooled, and tipping "the waiter" actually means more than just "the waiter". So yes, you're supposed to tip, but to make it happy for you mentally, don't think of it as being a tip for that one person. :)

 

 

 

When you don't think about it that way, without the knowledge that tips are pooled, it can seem like having a choice of restaurants all in a row, and choosing a buffet restaurant but having to tip the staff at the snooty restaurant next door. Just doesn't make sense. Until you find out it's pooled and/or the waiters also work in the buffet areas.

[LHT28]

It mystifies me as to why people get so mean to people asking questions about tips.

 

You want to know why people think that sort of thing? Because the tip, as it states in the info, is "for" the waiter and other dining room staff.

 

.

It is an observation, nothing to do with being mean.

 

Most cruiselines now state the tip is for the "dining team" or "hotel staff"

People have a tendency not to read the brochure FAQ section and that is why the tipping question appears on the forums so often.

from Princess:

"For your convenience a Hotel and Dining charge of $10 per passenger per day (including children) will be automatically added to your shipboard account on a daily basis. The Hotel and Dining charge will be shared amongst those staff who help provide and support your cruise experience, including the wait staff, stateroom stewards and accommodations staff, buffet stewards, galley staff, laundry staff and others. "

[teras75]

I do read all of the FAQ's in the cruise ticket contract and on the website. I am by any means not an experienced cruiser, which is why I asked. According to Royal Caribbean's website this is their gratuity poicy...

 

 

 

So that you can thank those who have made your cruise vacation better than you could have imagined, we've developed these gratuity guidelines:

Suite attendant:$5.75 USDa day per guestStateroom attendant:$3.50 USDa day per guestDining Room Waiter:$3.50 USDa day per guestAssistant Waiter:$2.00 USDa day per guestHeadwaiter:$.75 USDa day per guestNote: These gratuities apply to guests of all ages.

Gratuities for other service personnel are at your discretion. A 15% gratuity will automatically be added to your bar bill or wine check when you are served.

Envelopes for gratuities will be provided in your stateroom on the last night of the cruise. Gratuities may be paid in the following ways:

Pre paid by having them added to your reservation by your booking agent.Added to your onboard SeaPass account.Paid in cash at the end of the cruise

 

 

Nowhere in there does it say the gratuities are for the "wait staff" but implies that the gratuities are for my waiter who is the same waiter at the formal dining room every night. Obviously Princess's gratuity policy is different from RC.

 

Another question about the idea that all tips are pooled, if we wanted to give extra to our stateroom attendant and put the extra in the envelope that was provided by RC, is that extra given to our attendant or is it put in the pool?

 

 

 

[LHT28]

I do read all of the FAQ's in the cruise ticket contract and on the website. I am by any means not an experienced cruiser, which is why I asked. According to Royal Caribbean's website this is their gratuity poicy...

No where in your OP did you say what cruiseline you were sailing on

The majority do pool tips.

 

I will not guess as to whether they keep the extra tip so best to check with the Purser onboard.

All lines operate differently

 

Enjoy the cruise

[Bobblsc]

You must have eaten someplace on the ship the nights you did not go to the dining room!!

Where did you eat breakfast & lunch? Someone waited on you!

 

The statements above are certainly not nice. They may not have been intended to be mean spirited or insulting, but they could be interpreted that way.

 

The OP was asking a question to gain information, not to become the subject of ridicule.

 

In normal tipping practice on shore, buffet service does not warrant the same size tip as full table service. However, cruise lines typically provide very little direct pay to service employees. This should be kept in mind when deciding on tip amounts by cruisers who seldom have meals with full table service. Tipping is an individual decision and should be commensurate with the service given.

 

We have sailed mostly with Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. As best I can determine, both lines allow the designated individuals to keep the full amounts of their tips. This is apparently not so with some other lines. We have sailed only once on HAL, the Westerdam, but I was told by a young lady at the front deck that tips on HAL ships are divided among all who provide any service to any passengers. My memory is that she said all tips are pooled and that 60% is apportioned among waiters, assistant waiters, and cabin stewards, and 40% is given to all others who do anything for passengers. (I could be slightly off with my percentages, but not much either way.) She said that she, as a person who helps passengers, is included in this arrangement. I believe others such as laundry personnel were also said to share.

 

HAL had a set amount per passenger for these tips. I believe it was $10.00 per day. The total amount thus computed was automatically added to the shipboard charges bill at the end of the cruise. If one desired to make an adjustment, a form had to be completed specifying the reasons. I had issues with both the front desk people and the laundry, so I adjusted the automatic charge. I then augmented the tips for our waiters and cabin steward with cash so that they would not suffer. There was never a notification to passengers about the pooling and method of dividing tips among crew. I think this is somewhat less than forthright.

 

Not all cruise lines act the same with regard to tipping. They should be above board and inform cruisers how tips are distributed, but not all do.

 

Bob :(

[Cotton]

For Carnival cruisers - The auto tips are $10 pp per day. This breaks down into:

 

$3.50 pp per day to cabin steward.

$5.50 pp per day to dining room waiter and asst.

$1.00 pp per day to Lido buffet personnel.

 

The total amount is not pooled. The Lido amount IS pooled.

 

Someone above was correct in that the dining room staff also work in the other venues of the ship pertaining to food. So by removing or reducing the dining room tips, you would be doing the other food staff members a great injustice.

 

You can always tip anyone extra should you think they've gone over and above in service.:)

[kiraryker]

So on Carnival there is no need to tip extra (unless someone does especially well) because it is already figured in your bill charges for the ship? Just don't want to leave anyone out.

[Cotton]

That's correct. The tip amounts I listed will be what is on your Sail & Sign account. I generally tip my steward a little at the end of the cruise, and sometimes the waiter and asst. in the dining room, but not always. It's customary to tip the room service delivery person $1-2 each time. Your cabin steward does not do room service. (There will be an envelope in your cabin the last evening for the Maitre d'. I never tip him unless he has performed a special service for me...he's salaried.)

[katiel53]

If you don't plan to eat in the dining room at all, do you notify the maitre d' when you board that this is what you are going to do? If you do, then perhaps I can see where you don't want to tip the dining room staff, but just tip in the buffet. You seats in the dining room could be given to others who wanted early/late seating but weren't able to get the seating.

 

If you don't notify the dining room staff, then your seats are held for you for the cruise and I do feel you should tip the requested amount. The waiter would have served you but you chose not to be served. It isn't fair to him/her to expect you to be there and you don't show up.

 

I haven't seen it, but I have heard that there is now a box in the buffet for tipping. If I had dinner in there I would definitely tip. This trip we plan to try the buffet one night to see how we like it as well as go to Portofino and Chops a few nights. Because we will still be having dinner in the dining room the other nights, we will still tip the waiter etc. I do feel it's not the waiter's fault we aren't eating in the dining room. JMO.

 

 

Katie

[LHT28]

If you don't plan to eat in the dining room at all, do you notify the maitre d' when you board that this is what you are going to do? If you do, then perhaps I can see where you don't want to tip the dining room staff, but just tip in the buffet. You seats in the dining room could be given to others who wanted early/late seating but weren't able to get the seating.

Katie

If you never plan to have dinner in the dining room yes it would be good to notify the Maitre'd then your table mates are not subjected to waiting for you to arrive to order their meals.

 

Tipping...it is a personal choice!

just keep in mind the dining room waiters will sometimes rotate to the buffet service during the cruise.

check to see if the tips are pooled on your cruiseline, if so you could just leave the auto tip in place.

If you want to tip the buffet staff each day, each meal it is of course up to you .

You will have different crew usually at each meal.