Childrens Gratuities

[topspin1267]

We are taking our 1st Carnival Cruise with a child and have a gratuity question. On RCCL we always prepaid for the adults and then did extra cash for our cabin steward, waiter etc that deserved it and then tipped the adventure ocean people for the kids. Since the kids never went to the dining room we didn't prepay theirs as we wanted to tip the people who they actually interacted with.

On Carnival they won't let you prepay part of a cabin and I hear that they automatically add gratuities but you can remove them. Does anyone know if you can remove just 1 persons or if you have to stop the prepay for all? Thanks

[rhorhorho]

Yes you can remove the tips for just one person in the cabin.

 

Can I ask though why your children don't eat in the dinning room with you? If they don't eat in the dinning room then I am guessing they eat at the buffet or other venues, those people are also included in the gratuities - why not redistribute them instead of removing them? Not preaching about tipping, but you might want to brace yourself, people can get very defensive about the tips here.

 

Have a great cruise.

[topspin1267]

Yes you can remove the tips for just one person in the cabin.

 

Can I ask though why your children don't eat in the dinning room with you? If they don't eat in the dinning room then I am guessing they eat at the buffet or other venues, those people are also included in the gratuities - why not redistribute them instead of removing them? Not preaching about tipping, but you might want to brace yourself, people can get very defensive about the tips here.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

Thanks for the reply. They always ate with their friends at Adventure Ocean or we had room service breakfast. We almost always had lunch off the ship or the sea days we would grab pizza at the cafe.

 

When we had room service we always tipped their and always tipped our room steward the standard plus for the child. Just knew our son would never see the maitre' d or the waitstaff.

 

I hesitated to even post after reading some of the posts about tips :)

I'm definitely not trying to avoid tips, just would rather that money go to Camp Carnival people directly.

[Cotton]

I'm all for tipping, even for little ones. However, I think your statement was that you intend to tip Camp Carnival folks extra, as well as others who help your son. Just prepay the tips, and if you see fit, remove the amount for him. I think you're being fair.:)

[kelz66]

Yes you can remove the tips for just one person in the cabin.

 

Can I ask though why your children don't eat in the dinning room with you? If they don't eat in the dinning room then I am guessing they eat at the buffet or other venues, those people are also included in the gratuities - why not redistribute them instead of removing them? Not preaching about tipping, but you might want to brace yourself, people can get very defensive about the tips here.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

Exactly...the tips are not just for the dinner wait staff...they go to the staff at the pizza place, the deli, the buffet, the cabin stewards, ect.

 

You will never meet everyone that cleans up after you. :p;)

[Vanessa L]

Thanks for the reply. They always ate with their friends at Adventure Ocean or we had room service breakfast. We almost always had lunch off the ship or the sea days we would grab pizza at the cafe.

 

When we had room service we always tipped their and always tipped our room steward the standard plus for the child. Just knew our son would never see the maitre' d or the waitstaff.

 

I hesitated to even post after reading some of the posts about tips :)

I'm definitely not trying to avoid tips, just would rather that money go to Camp Carnival people directly.

 

This is one of the few times I agree with removing tips IF the child has no use of any of the dining venues whatsoever, i.e. the buffets, lido dining, etc. I know that the waitstaff of the formal dining rooms do double duty (as it were) in those areas as well so removing their tips is not a good idea in that case. However, if your child never uses any of those venues, I'd say dumping all that extra into the Camp Carnival staff and/or the room service people may not be a bad idea.

 

It's those folks who say, "I am removing tips because we never use the dining room" that really get my goat. I have to assume that, they just did not know that the same personel work in the buffet and lido dining areas as well and once informed by the knowledgeable people here, do in fact, add the tips back in (at least I hope no one is truly that cheap because they have no business cruising at all if they can't afford the tips--it's part of the price of cruising, IMHO).

[noblepa]

First of all, prepaid gratuities are not the same as the tips that are automatically added to your onboard account. Prepaid tips are paid, along with your cruise fare, before you ever set foot on board. Autotips are added to your S & S account, just as any other onboard purchases are.

 

The last time I cruised on Carnival, prepaid tips never showed up on my S & S account and therefore, could not be adjusted. Autotips can be adjusted up or down, as you wish.

 

However, you should be aware that if you reduce or eliminate the autotips, it is taken as a sign of dissatisfaction with the service and the cabin steward or dining room waiter may be called on the carpet by his/her supervisor to explain.

 

If you leave autotips in place and "sweeten the pot" for exemplary staffers, they are allowed to keep all of that additional cash. If you reduce or remove the autotips, they are required to surrender the cash to be pooled along with the autotips.

 

So, you really can't beat Carnival's system. The money WILL be distributed their way, not yours. IMHO, the only reason (and one I've never personally encountered) to reduce/remove autotips is if you received service that was so bad that you want to tip less than $10 per day per person. If you're willing to spend that amount or more, leave the autotips in place.

 

Also, while I've never travelled with small children, it is my understanding that the Camp Carnival staff are not included in the normal distribution of the autotips. So, if you child enjoys Camp Carnival, please remember those people at the end of your cruise. As with all the others, pictures of dead presidents are greatly appreciated.

 

Paul

[firefly333]

Im surprised you didnt tip for your child on RCL either?? Why wouldnt you tip for him?? Im betting he was in the children's activities and had more care than you adults.

 

Sure you can remove one person's tips. Feeling sorry for those who have to service your family.

[kelz66]

and now the civil conversation ends..... :rolleyes:

[arpie05]

My comment to the poster is that when their kids eat in the Kids Club or Adventure Club - they eat in the buffet - so the people they are removing the tips from are getting left neglicted. If they really want to do it right - just adjust the tips to increase the tips for the buffet areas for the child. But your child is missing out if they never eat in the dining room with you the whole vacation. My son since he was age 9, loves it. He always tries the one kids dining night - and always wishes he had skipped it.

[topspin1267]

Im surprised you didnt tip for your child on RCL either?? Why wouldnt you tip for him?? Im betting he was in the children's activities and had more care than you adults.

 

Sure you can remove one person's tips. Feeling sorry for those who have to service your family.

 

Unfortunately you didn't read the follow up post. Not only did we tip our steward for him we also tipped Adventure Ocean basically what a week of day care would have been. But thanks for replying.

 

Feeling sorry for those people that have to deal with you on a daily basis for free. :D

[jbroons]

On our recent cruise, here is exactly what I tipped....feel free;) to tell me what you think...either way:

 

Cabin Steward $20.00 Tipped him half-way through our 6-day cruise.

Maitre' d $20.00 Tipped him on last night.

Head Waiter $20.00 Tipped him on last night.

Assistant $10.00 Tipped him on last night.

Room Service $2.00 every time they came....(every night;)).

 

These were obviously just Carnival-related gratuities.....others included porters at port, airport, etc. (It really can get a bit crazy, right??!!).

[aggieastrosfan]

On our recent cruise, here is exactly what I tipped....feel free;) to tell me what you think...either way:

 

Cabin Steward $20.00 Tipped him half-way through our 6-day cruise.

Maitre' d $20.00 Tipped him on last night.

Head Waiter $20.00 Tipped him on last night.

Assistant $10.00 Tipped him on last night.

Room Service $2.00 every time they came....(every night;)).

 

These were obviously just Carnival-related gratuities.....others included porters at port, airport, etc. (It really can get a bit crazy, right??!!).

 

A 6-day cruise would've been $60 in auto-tips, the maitre'd is not included in those calculations. You left $50 to the people who are auto-tipped. So unless this is in addtion to the auto-tip, congrats, you did in fact stiff people. And if you took the auto-tips off, all that money had to get turned in, anyway. :rolleyes:

 

Why do people insist on making it so hard? Why is it just so wrong to let Carnival distribute the money to the people who's income is based on tips?

[katiel53]

On our recent cruise, here is exactly what I tipped....feel free;) to tell me what you think...either way:

 

Cabin Steward $20.00 Tipped him half-way through our 6-day cruise.

Maitre' d $20.00 Tipped him on last night.

Head Waiter $20.00 Tipped him on last night.

Assistant $10.00 Tipped him on last night.

Room Service $2.00 every time they came....(every night;)).

 

These were obviously just Carnival-related gratuities.....others included porters at port, airport, etc. (It really can get a bit crazy, right??!!).

 

Are these the total amounts, ie cabin steward etc. or in addition to the $10 per person per day? If it's total, I think you undertipped everyone but the Maitre D. I think you overtipped the Maitre D. I am assuming that you were only tipping for one person. If that amount was for more than one person, it was way under. (I know you said our cruise and you tipped.)

 

If this was in addition to the suggested tips, I think you were generous even if it were for 2 people. JMO.

[jbroons]

A 6-day cruise would've been $60 in auto-tips, the maitre'd is not included in those calculations. You left $50 to the people who are auto-tipped. So unless this is in addtion to the auto-tip, congrats, you did in fact stiff people. And if you took the auto-tips off, all that money had to get turned in, anyway. :rolleyes:

 

Why do people insist on making it so hard? Why is it just so wrong to let Carnival distribute the money to the people who's income is based on tips?

 

Meredith -

No, these tips were in addition to the auto-tips.....I didn't remove anything.

Surly to bed...surly to rise, huh?!

[Cruise, J.D.]

Service Gratuities

For your convenience, we automatically charge the gratuities for dining and stateroom staff to your onboard Sail & Sign account. The total amount is $10.00 per guest, per day (our recommended guideline) as follows:

$ 3.50 Per Day Stateroom Services

$ 5.50 Per Day Dining Room Services

$ 1.00 Per Day Alternative Services: distributed to other kitchen and hotel service staff

http://www.carnival.com/CMS/FAQs/Gratuities_Tips.aspx

 

The tipping policy states what portion of the auto-tips goes for "Dining Room Services". This might help you in evaluating how to adjust tips if your child does not use the dining room.

[jbroons]

Are these the total amounts, ie cabin steward etc. or in addition to the $10 per person per day? If it's total, I think you undertipped everyone but the Maitre D. I think you overtipped the Maitre D. I am assuming that you were either traveling alone or only tipping for one person. If that amount was for more than one person, it was way under. JMO.

 

I cruised with my two daughters so those tips were in addition to the $180.00 auto-tipped. It's probably more than most people do....unless I'm missing something here.

 

What do you tip, out of curiousity?

[jbroons]

A 6-day cruise would've been $60 in auto-tips, the maitre'd is not included in those calculations. You left $50 to the people who are auto-tipped. So unless this is in addtion to the auto-tip, congrats, you did in fact stiff people. And if you took the auto-tips off, all that money had to get turned in, anyway. :rolleyes:

 

Why do people insist on making it so hard? Why is it just so wrong to let Carnival distribute the money to the people who's income is based on tips?

 

And aside from your incorrect presumption, what exactly do you tip Meredith?

[Kurbanfan]

We are taking our 1st Carnival Cruise with a child and have a gratuity question. On RCCL we always prepaid for the adults and then did extra cash for our cabin steward, waiter etc that deserved it and then tipped the adventure ocean people for the kids. Since the kids never went to the dining room we didn't prepay theirs as we wanted to tip the people who they actually interacted with.

On Carnival they won't let you prepay part of a cabin and I hear that they automatically add gratuities but you can remove them. Does anyone know if you can remove just 1 persons or if you have to stop the prepay for all? Thanks

 

Not sure why you can't prepay just the people you want to prepay? Maybe give Carnival another call. It seems you can ask them the same question 3 times and get 3 different answers lol!

But if you can't then just do the auto tip which will be added to your sail and sign card. That way you can go to the pursers desk and adjust your childs tip and distribute it the way you see fit.

Good luck!

 

And please don't let anyone bully you on here about how they think you should tip lol!

[rhorhorho]

Personnally -

1. I LOVE the auto-tip (pre-paid or on S&S) - one less thing to think about on vacation - makes those who are outstanding really stand out - I want to tip them, and do.

2. My sons (all 3) eat in the dinning room - we eat together at home too. Exceptions are granted, but it's so routine for them they just eat with us.

3. I say takethose kids to the dinning room. It's just one more social situation that they can learn appropriate behavior for. Nothing like a 20 year old that doesn'tknow the napkin goes in your lap.

4. I feel that tipping the Campstaff istheright thing to do. When we have used them we tip the babysitting rate - but we don't use it that much and I figure that's harder on the staff because they have to reestablish the repore everytime, with my shy shy 5 year old.

 

There is good info here, just sometimes presented in a snarky manner. It is true that on CCL the lido deck is staffed by the waiters and asst. waiters from the main dining room.

 

FWIW - TRUE! If you prepay gratuities it is an all or none thing with CCL. Don't know why but even when there was an infant 8mths (their own policy said no gratuties were required) it was still allor none.

[G'ma]

Well, surely your children eat somewhere.....that's what the gratuities are for. Your dining room waiters also work the buffets and other eating venues onboard the ship. Just leave them on your account. It's easier than trying to remember who waited on your kids and when.....

 

The kids also sleep in the cabin, use the bathroom, leave a mess for the steward to clean.

 

Think of it as going out for dinner somewhere. Would you subtract the child's meal and tip only for adults? Probably not. Same on a ship.

[jbroons]

On our recent cruise, here is exactly what I tipped....feel free;) to tell me what you think...either way:

 

Cabin Steward $20.00 Tipped him half-way through our 6-day cruise.

Maitre' d $20.00 Tipped him on last night.

Head Waiter $20.00 Tipped him on last night.

Assistant $10.00 Tipped him on last night.

Room Service $2.00 every time they came....(every night;)).

 

These were obviously just Carnival-related gratuities.....others included porters at port, airport, etc. (It really can get a bit crazy, right??!!).

 

So people here don't continue to get presumptuous, these gratuities were in addition to the $180.00 given for me and my two girls over a six-day cruise.

[hotpinkpanther]

So people here don't continue to get presumptuous, these gratuities were in addition to the $180.00 given for me and my two girls over a six-day cruise.

 

I think you tipped very fairly and generously, in fact, I never give the Maitre'd more than $10 but we all tip what we feel is fair.

[LHP]

We have cruised a lot as a family of four and we have always paid the full tips on all 4 of us.

 

It did not matter where the boys ate. They were going to eat somewhere (Lido, Pizza, etc) and we trust Carnival's system to be the best to cover all the folks that take care of us that we have not even thought about.

 

We have always done additional tipping where additional service was provided...like room service, Camp Carnival (now Club O2), Maitre D' (I read recently ~ but I can't remember where~ that a Carnival Cruise Director said $5 for the Maitre D' is ok), piano bar (when I make a request) and the karaoke host (because I live there).

 

I have also been known to drop a dollar or two on the tray at the Past Guest Party and Captain's party.

 

We do prepay our tips...and it is my understanding that prepaid tips can not be removed. (which does not affect us since we do not ever expect to remove them)

[tnt091605]

We just leave the auto tips in place. Actually we like to pre pay them. We feel that the auto tips is the minimum we would tip.

 

We give extra to anyone that provides excellent service.