Tipping?

[travgurl]

Please help!

I need a refresher on how much to tip!

What people to you tip and how much?

For example: taxi drivers? Luggage porters at the port? Cabin Steward?

Serving staff in the dining room? Guides on excursions?

Anyone else?

Thanks for your help.

[MACISBAC]

Please help!

I need a refresher on how much to tip!

What people to you tip and how much?

For example: taxi drivers? Luggage porters at the port? Cabin Steward?

Serving staff in the dining room? Guides on excursions?

Anyone else?

Thanks for your help.

 

 

I have heard you can actually save a few bucks by handleing your own bags at the pier. Can anyone let me know if that is true? Otherwise the standard is $1 per bag. I have heard for taxies you can just round up or if you like give a $1-$2 extra. As far as dining room staff and cabin steward it is already added to your bill. There is no need to tip excursion guides unless you want to.

 

Now there will be many self promoters here trying to show off how much money they have by telling you tip excessively. I would just go by the standard $1 extra for taxies, porters, and room service, except for the $10 a day already added to your account.

 

Hope that helps.

[98Charlie]

Carnival has followed the path many other cruise lines have taken in adding an automatic gratuity to pax sign & sail cards of $10 per day which gives the minimal recommended tip to your waiters & cabin stewards.

 

Although tips to baggage handlers at the pier is not actually necessary, DH & I always tip them at least $1 per bag. Others have said they tip more than that. (Baggage handlers at the pier are employed by the port, not by the not by the individual cruise lines.) Those handlers are in charge of getting your luggage from the point where you dropped it off into the cruise line terminal for baggage screening.

 

Have never taken a taxi yet when we did not tip the taxi driver something. Tip depends on the length of the ride normally. (Except when we embark in FLL where the ride to Port Everglades from our normal hotel is normally under $10. We always tip the driver extra on those short hauls.)

 

While on ship if you order room service, it is nice (but not mandatory) to tip the room service deliverer a couple to a few bucks according to what is ordered. DH & I order coffee & danish every morning and nromally tip $2 for the service. If we order something more like a full breakfast or lunch to our cabin, we tip more.

 

 

It is not expected of you to tip more than the automatic gratuity for cabin stewards or waiters, however, if you can always tip these people extra if you wish. We normally do via an envelope handed to them the last night of the cruise with an appropriate pic of a US president inside.

 

DH has been in the restaurant industry for 35 years and we do understand the work of the maitre' de in the dining rooms and always make sure we pass along a few dollars to him/her as well at the end of the cruise.

 

Dianne

[Cotton]

You really should tip the porter at the pier who takes your luggage. It's a very small amount to insure that your luggage is taken care of properly is put on the ship. As above, the porters at the pier are not Carnival employees, but work for the port authority of that city. They only put your luggage onto the ship - your cabin steward delivers it to your cabin.

 

As above, your Sail & Sign account will have the automatic $10 per passenger per day on your bill. This can be adjusted or even removed, but I truly believe the cabin steward and your waitstaff, as well as Lido personnel deserve this small amount. I always tip more, according to the service I receive.

 

Room service is not included in this auto tip, so $1-2 is what I suggest for each delivery.

[kruisecat]

DH has been in the restaurant industry for 35 years and we do understand the work of the maitre' de in the dining rooms and always make sure we pass along a few dollars to him/her as well at the end of the cruise.

 

Dianne

 

 

While I agree with everything else you said, I have to say that I disagree with this. The maitre' d on the our Liberty cruise never showed his face until the night before they announced that an envelope would be in our room for a tip for him. I have been on other cruises where the md made the rounds much earlier in the cruise and in many cases actually made a difference in our cruise. We just didn't feel that in this situation he did anything to deserve any money from us. And frankly the "he trains the staff" blurb from the cruise dirctor made me say to myself "then let Carnival give him a tip". And before anyone jumps down my throat, our waiter, asst waiter, room steward and one photographer (who made our trip spectacular) all received extra $$$ in addition to the auto-tips. We are not cheapskates, we just don't give away money for someone who actually ddn't do anything to make our vacation better. just my 2 cents

[travgurl]

Kruisecat: I totally agree with you about tipping the maitre'd. I could not believe when they actually announced about leaving him/her a tip. The maitre'd stopped by our table once. I did tip our dining room servers and cabin steward because they did such a great job taking care of us.