Tipping for room service?

[guardhouse]

Wow. Isn't it amazing how quick the topic can change from what the original question was?

 

Not sure if room service shares in the cabin or server tips or not, we tip extra anyway. When we first meet our cabin steward and dining room waiter and bus boy, I tip extra right then and there as we are introduced. I let the know that we will likely have a number of special requests, and this is just something up front to let them know how much we look forward to enjoying our vacation.

 

I also always keep extra $1 bills in the cabin as I like a pot of coffee every morning. Every morning there is a light knock at 6 AM, I get coffee, they get $2. Never fail and it is trivial to us at that point.

 

Some have slammed us in the past for doing extra tips up front, but To Insure Prompt Service is what tips are about. I kid you not when I say an extra $20 or $50 has gotten us WONDERFUL service with virtually never a question, even for things out of the norm.

 

I LOVE vacations!

[seacuracao]

They have access to the list of passengers and know who has removed the auto tip. One of our stewards said that she never looked at the list; another said that he knew who had kept the auto tip on.

 

Technically, they wouldn't know if you put money in an envelope for your Room Steward, but all the crew are required to report cash tips or risk being fired and put off the ship at the next port :eek: . I don't think many would take that chance.

 

Now I feel really bad because I took off the auto tip and individually tipped out $300.00, with $100 going to my steward.

My justification for doing so is that in our resort there is no tipping. The company shares out 2% of the gross revenue for the month equally amongst the staff.

Any staff caught taking tips have to turn them in or get fired. In 18 years I cannot think of one person getting fired:D

I felt that Princess, not us, should take care of the those behind the scenes.

 

From now on, I willl leave it on and tip accordingly

[cruisePRN]

.

 

Some have slammed us in the past for doing extra tips up front, but To Insure Prompt Service is what tips are about. I kid you not when I say an extra $20 or $50 has gotten us WONDERFUL service with virtually never a question, even for things out of the norm.

 

I LOVE vacations!

 

I have always received excellent service on princess and never tipped upfront so your strategy may not truely be reflecting what you think:p

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Wow. Isn't it amazing how quick the topic can change from what the original question was?

 

Not sure if room service shares in the cabin or server tips or not, we tip extra anyway. When we first meet our cabin steward and dining room waiter and bus boy, I tip extra right then and there as we are introduced. I let the know that we will likely have a number of special requests, and this is just something up front to let them know how much we look forward to enjoying our vacation.

 

I also always keep extra $1 bills in the cabin as I like a pot of coffee every morning. Every morning there is a light knock at 6 AM, I get coffee, they get $2. Never fail and it is trivial to us at that point.

 

Some have slammed us in the past for doing extra tips up front, but To Insure Prompt Service is what tips are about. I kid you not when I say an extra $20 or $50 has gotten us WONDERFUL service with virtually never a question, even for things out of the norm.

 

I LOVE vacations!

 

How do you know you wouldn't have gotten excellent service without giving them a tip upfront?

 

Bill

[mrdood]

Some have slammed us in the past for doing extra tips up front, but To Insure Prompt Service is what tips are about. I kid you not when I say an extra $20 or $50 has gotten us WONDERFUL service with virtually never a question, even for things out of the norm.

 

I LOVE vacations!

 

...and you should be slammed... TIPS is NOT an acronym for To Insure Prompt Service...

 

http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/tip.asp

 

I am sure you are happy with your largesse, but you will never know if had you not tipped in advance, you would have received the same service, even with your special requests.

[m steve]

rarely do you tip there for service in a restauant or hotel. They really get pi--ed of at the Yanks who routinely tip.At least they don't cut off your hand or head for defying local customs. It must be something in the Vegimite!

[Julia’s Journey’s]

We always tip when ordering room service and take small bills along to do this. Always appreciated.

[Foxy lady]

last cruise we brought a roll of the new gold colored presidential $ coins for room service tips.

 

 

Cute idea giving the gold coins but even I get those confused with quarters and they are a lot of weight. I get a bunch of $2. bills at the bank before I leave. Use them at the airport, room service, wherever and you need half as many $1's. Everyone seems delighted to get them, as if they are really unusual. When I order room service onboard, even if coffee only, I give 'em 2 bucks.

[Julia’s Journey’s]

Cute idea giving the gold coins but even I get those confused with quarters and they are a lot of weight. I get a bunch of $2. bills at the bank before I leave. Use them at the airport, room service, wherever and you need half as many $1's. Everyone seems delighted to get them, as if they are really unusual. When I order room service onboard, even if coffee only, I give 'em 2 bucks.

 

I also used to use the $2 bills and thought they were great until I heard how hard they are for the crew to use and exchange as they are not 'common' so I stopped using them.

[Host Caroline]

... can we please get back to the OP's original question???????:confused: :confused:

[vince_g]

Yes absolutely tip room service. Someone is making a special trip to your cabin to cater to you. How anyone could figure that doesn't deserve a small expression of gratitude is beyond me.

[suzyl62]

We always tip when we call for are morning pot of coffee. it is the right thing to do. thay work long hours for us and when you need anything, are room guy is always there. day or Night with my pot of coffee :)

[Jade13]

I am happy to tell you why I intend to have the auto tip removed.

 

1. I don't believe in being told how much and whom I shall tip. I do follow the American dream while in the US, however in international waters ?? Who is kidding who? Helping cruise lines to pay wages :eek:

2. If we book through Carnival Australia we do not get any onboard

credits whatsolever! They tell me you guys can do quite well out of this, enuf to pay your A/tips on a 10 day cruise, Lucky ewes.

3. To make it worse, we do not/cannot join Captains Circle, therefore we do not get any of the platinum/elite beneifts.

 

We are about to make our 4th Princess cruise, 3 out of Sydney the one coming up out of NY. I got a sheet of paper in my tickets received last week, stating this. blah blah blah, but it is totally a discretionary charge and may be removed.

 

Full marks for guess what we intend to do :D

 

So, does that mean that you do not tip at all, believe $10 per day is too much and/or just plan to give cash tips to whom you prefer?

[mithryl]

I agree. We order a pot of coffee and a pitcher of ice water with lemon wedges on the side every morning. We also occassionally order room service for lunch and/or dinner.

For the morning service, I generally tip $3.00 (it's realy worth it to me.) For lunch or dinner, it depends on what I order, but I usually tip $5.00 for the two of us.

[Chivalrygirl]

So, does that mean that you do not tip at all, believe $10 per day is too much and/or just plan to give cash tips to whom you prefer?

 

 

At this point in time I am absolutely not sure what I will do! I am still feeling so miffed that I am treated as something different from U S Cruisers, I am actually thinking I will buy some phone cards and make gifts of them to people who really look after us., ie., room steward.

 

I absolutely find the tipping procedure abhorant.

[NSWP]

I ask the QUESTION AGAIN..why tip for cabin service when the staff get paid for the job they do, they accept the employment. I agree with ChivalryGirl from Kiwiland..Automatic Wage Subsidy unacceptable to us.

 

Example: How will Regal Princess crew accept their wages cut in half when the RP becomes Pacific Dawn in Oct/November this year. To clarify..P&O Australia will charge AUS$7 per pax per day Automatic Wage Subsidy, whearas Princess charge US$10. Plus the fact that Aussies are not 'born to tip.' Not being offensive here, just stating the facts, the truth.

 

Cheers

[happyscot]

It made me so aware of how much these tips meant to these hard working young people....nothing has changed....serving the public, in any capacity, is very, very hard work and when a job is done very well it deserves to be recognized by us! Tipping is the way to do it!!!!!!!!! I don't care what "land" you hail from.....:rolleyes:

 

 

Now let me get this straight: I understand that when I'm sailing in the Bay of Biscay in a British-registered, Italian-built boat owned by a Panamanian company and containing around 90% non-US passengers (Sea Princess), I must do as the Romans do when receiving room service. I understand from these boards that this does not mean I must behave as though I was in central Italy in 300 BC, but as though I was in a small pizza restuarant in 21st century New York and must follow a tipping culture that is absolutely unique to North America, and is at best not understood and at worst seen as an insult by the people making up 90% of the passengers, otherwise I'm very very bad and horrible and nasty and making people starve in Rwanda and probably personally chopping them up with machetes. Ok, clear so far.

 

Now though from the post above I understand that I only tip if someone is working not very, but very very hard - say a fireman working 30 hours without a break in a terorist incident (obviously you don't mean a fit young person serving drinks for 12 hours with breaks - we've ALL done that) and who has done not merely well - put out lots of fires - but very well - put out lots of fires, captured 3 terrorists single handed, personally strangled Bin Laden, that sort of thing. Not, surely, errrr serving drinks for 12 hours with breaks.

 

Well I've never met any one like that. So I don't have to tip - excellent!!! I probably will - but thank you for making it clear there is no need for me to, unless I meet one of these super heroes making a special trip (because of course as a room service waiter he wouldn't normally be delivering room service) to deliver my lemon wedge, egg crate mattrass and crock-pot shiner.

 

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[bplazo]

I ask the QUESTION AGAIN..why tip for cabin service when the staff get paid for the job they do, they accept the employment. I agree with ChivalryGirl from Kiwiland..Automatic Wage Subsidy unacceptable to us.

 

Example: How will Regal Princess crew accept their wages cut in half when the RP becomes Pacific Dawn in Oct/November this year. To clarify..P&O Australia will charge AUS$7 per pax per day Automatic Wage Subsidy, whearas Princess charge US$10. Plus the fact that Aussies are not 'born to tip.' Not being offensive here, just stating the facts, the truth.

 

Cheers

 

 

If it is "unacceptable" for you to do the right thing do not avail yourself to the service.

[happyscot]

If it is "unacceptable" for you to do the right thing do not avail yourself to the service.

 

 

But he's paid for it.....not the same as you but more. Outside N America that high fare would have been used to pay good wages, making tipping - except for exceptional service - unnecessary. That's how it works in most of the world. You want him to pay the fare, then the extra bit Aussies pay, then remove the priviliges they don't get like OBC's and CC, and THEN you want him to pay their staff's wages for them? And if he doesn't agree to this, he shouldn't eat?????????

 

I'm so stunned at this logic, I'm going to do some work.

 

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[m steve]

raise the fares so thhey can pay their service personnel a decent wage by building it into the fare there will be tipping. I know the Kiwis hate it and us for continuing to do it but when in Auckland do as the Kiwis do but when on board just be another ugy American.

[bplazo]

But he's paid for it.....not the same as you but more. Outside N America that high fare would have been used to pay good wages, making tipping - except for exceptional service - unnecessary. That's how it works in most of the world. You want him to pay the fare, then the extra bit Aussies pay, then remove the priviliges they don't get like OBC's and CC, and THEN you want him to pay their staff's wages for them? And if he doesn't agree to this, he shouldn't eat?????????

 

I'm so stunned at this logic, I'm going to do some work.

 

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Stay home!

[Foxy lady]

I'm going on the first around the world cruise, Pacific Princess, departing Jan. 10th. It will be 102 days,. Like most of you posters, I have always left my tips on my account & tipped above and beyond that but can you imagine some of these cheapskates on a 102 day cruise???? Thank goodness Princess did the right thing for the crew and included a charge of $2,200. and said there was no tipping (unless you wanted to pay more).

[CalCruzer]

Pleeeese..don't get off on the whole auto-tip vs tip as you go argument again! We do not auto-tip, we tip as we go. If the room steward knows this he/she has never given any indication by their service. It has always been excellent. We enjoy having morning coffee in our room, however we never know what time we will be awake and ready for our coffee. So, we call room service as soon as we wake up and the coffee service is there within 10 minutes. We always tip the waiter $2 and, yes, most of the time they looked surprised.

[joan24]

We'll be in the Grand Suite, and I just assume that room service breakfast will be delivered every morning by our room steward. Do others actually deliver breakfast? If our room steward delivers our breakfast, should we tip him every time or just give him extra money at the end of our cruise. I know that I sound likea newbie but we've taken over 25 cruises, nine on Princess. In suites on other lines, we've had butler service and the butler always delivered breakfast. That's about the only time we get room service.

Joan

[jckvpa0]

Maybe someone can clear this up for me. Are waiters in other countries paid better salaries than they are here in the U.S. ? In the U.S. a service person could not survive on what an employer pays them for a salary, it's understood that they work for tips !