Yet Another Tipping Question (sorry!)

[BobBeaSea]

Do you think a buffet warents the same tipping as as the full service dining room?

 

Therein lies the confusion, I've always been under the impression the tips are for the sailing, not where you eat. I really couldn't care less about how they get distributed.

[critterchick]

We just cruised on the Radiance and the waiters were confused when one of the couples at the table (we asked for a table seating four couples) never appeared. I know one night when my wife and I chose not to come to dinner because we were observing a holiday, I went down and told our waiter, and he appreciated what I did.

As far as tipping, toward the end of the cruise, you will see a place to give tips for the Windjammer. Of course, you will tip your Cabin Attendant and anyone special in the Windjammer. I would think you give a little something to your waiters in the dining room even if you are not there. They might appreciate a few extra dollars.;)

 

I'm not sure why the waiters would be confused. We ended up abandoning the dining room because the food and service just weren't up to RCI's usual standard, and ate at the WJ for about 5 nights (did Chops or Portofino the other nights). We told our tablemates of our intentions, and ran into them in the WJ more than once, so it wasn't just us having a bad time of it.

 

We tipped our dining room waitstaff a little more than 1/2 of the recommended amount (more than they deserved for 3 nights of mediocre service IMHO) and gave a good tip to the WJ staff and a little extra to our excellent servers in Chops and Portofino.

 

Until that cruise, I'd always been an advocate of tipping the full recommended amount no matter how often you eat in the DR, and had we simply opted out of the DR for our own reasons I might have done so. But the folks in the WJ did a spectacular job for us and I thought they deserved it more. BTW, the WJ tip box seems to be unique to Radiance. We usually like to hand the cash to whomever is serving us on a particular night because I assume the boxed tips are split. So we did both...