gratuties on carnival glory

[tizaac]

hello everyone, we are new to cruising, never been on one, so carnival glory will be our testing station to how we holiday in future. Im a little concerned at the cost of the gratuties that are pre-added to your sail and sign card. Do you have to pay these or can you ask that you give gratuties to people at your own disgression. I would prefer to tip people myself, by giving more to poeple that have actually services us more. Any one ever not paid the pre paid gratuties

[tedjazz]

hello everyone, we are new to cruising, never been on one, so carnival glory will be our testing station to how we holiday in future. Im a little concerned at the cost of the gratuties that are pre-added to your sail and sign card. Do you have to pay these or can you ask that you give gratuties to people at your own disgression. I would prefer to tip people myself, by giving more to poeple that have actually services us more. Any one ever not paid the pre paid gratuties

 

Well tizaac, the short answer is this, Carnival allows you to adjust the Tips or even remove them if you wish, I think that means for those booking from the UK too, but here's the problem with posting your question here. You will find many people are going to pounce on you like a Lion on a wounded Water Buffalo, because you have entered sacred territory...Tipping. My advise is to Tip however you feel comfortable and don't worry about the rest. Have a Good Cruise. :)

[pnjkeith]

Yes go to guest services and have them remove the tips. Pay cash if you want. Its your money, but the ride is going to get wild, on this board, if you do decide to announce that you will be doing that.

[BlueC5Kitten]

There is a lot of discussion on these boards regarding tipping. Perhaps a quick search might yield the guidance you seek?

 

The is because there are many on these boards with very strong opinions one way or the other regarding tipping, taking into account that there are a lot of individuals with whom you do not always have direct contact on the ship receiving a portion of those tips added to your sail and sign account.

 

PS - I always leave the pre-paid gratuities on my card, and pay additional in cash if I feel those who are so deserving.

 

Cheers!

[winakork]

Time to sit back and see where this one goes!!!! :eek::eek:

[cruzeluver]

Good gravy! Its the OP's first post and they are already being subjected to the "pass the popcorn" junk.:rolleyes:

 

To the OP: Gratuities are billed to your onboard account each day. You can have them adjusted up, down, or removed entirely. However, part of the auto-gratuities go to those who work behind the scenes to ensure your vacation is great. So if you remove all of the gratuities, those folks will not get anything. Ultimately, the decision is yours. Whatever you decide, have a great cruise. The Glory is a terrific ship.

[bluwes]

hello everyone, we are new to cruising, never been on one, so carnival glory will be our testing station to how we holiday in future. Im a little concerned at the cost of the gratuties that are pre-added to your sail and sign card. Do you have to pay these or can you ask that you give gratuties to people at your own disgression. I would prefer to tip people myself, by giving more to poeple that have actually services us more. Any one ever not paid the pre paid gratuties

 

 

Tizaac,

As one Brit to another , take my tip ( see what I did there) dont worry about the prepaid gratuities you will get more than your money's worth of service from the staff.

Bare in mind the tipping culture in the US is different to Britain and Europe..

 

To everyone else.............there I did my best to prevent this thread from running to 20 pages or more before someone lit the blue touch paper

[fllady61]

hello everyone, we are new to cruising, never been on one, so carnival glory will be our testing station to how we holiday in future. Im a little concerned at the cost of the gratuties that are pre-added to your sail and sign card. Do you have to pay these or can you ask that you give gratuties to people at your own disgression. I would prefer to tip people myself, by giving more to poeple that have actually services us more. Any one ever not paid the pre paid gratuties

Leave the gratuity on. then tip those who give you exceptional service extra. I pre pay my gratuity when i book my cruise. saves me in the long run. I also make envelopes with a varierity of bills in them to total 20$ in about 6 envelopes then depending on the service i either leave as is, or remove. ie... bar waiter at dinner must see drink card nightly and have me sign nightly as opposed to seeing the drink card the first night and from that night on, what i want is on the table when i get there. ie... coke w/o ice. waiter... does not remember husband wants ice tea and i have to keep asking after the first or second night. as opposed to him having it on the table or bringing it shortly after i set down.

[Thunderboomer]

Tizaac,

As one Brit to another , take my tip ( see what I did there) dont worry about the prepaid gratuities you will get more than your money's worth of service from the staff.

Bare in mind the tipping culture in the US is different to Britain and Europe..

 

To everyone else.............there I did my best to prevent this thread from running to 20 pages or more before someone lit the blue touch paper

 

 

You deserve a medal!:D

[Thunderboomer]

To the OP,

 

Not wanting to get into the middle of this topic...but...one thing you may not be aware of is that no matter what you do for main tip it is customary to tip the person who brings your room service food/drinks. 1 - 2 dollars will usually suffice.

[Amosmoses33]

We went on another line a couple years ago and I never did meet the head waiter once...he went around to other tables all around us, and frankly I didn't feel I needed to tip him a penny because he didn't do anything for us but he got his because it was prepaid.

[Froufie]

We went on another line a couple years ago and I never did meet the head waiter once...he went around to other tables all around us, and frankly I didn't feel I needed to tip him a penny because he didn't do anything for us but he got his because it was prepaid.

 

 

Do you mean the maitre d'?? or your actual table waiter when you say 'head waiter'???

 

If it was the maitre d - he is not included in the prepaid tips - and you are well within your right not to tip him if you feel he did nothing for you....

 

If it was your table waiter I find it odd that he 'didn't do anything for you'???

[DocF]

hello everyone, we are new to cruising, never been on one, so carnival glory will be our testing station to how we holiday in future. Im a little concerned at the cost of the gratuties that are pre-added to your sail and sign card. Do you have to pay these or can you ask that you give gratuties to people at your own disgression. I would prefer to tip people myself, by giving more to poeple that have actually services us more. Any one ever not paid the pre paid gratuties

 

I see you are English, and I know that tipping is not a usual custom in you country. What is often done, though is a service charge is added to your bill at a restaurant.

 

The majority of the $10 per person per day is divided amongst your waiters and your room stewards. The is a portion of it set aside for the waiters who work the Lido deck as they serve everyone at some time or other during the cruise.

 

I have never, ever, in our cruises on Carnival received less than exemplary service from our room steward and our waiters. Usually, they do such a good job that I will hand them a few dollars at the end of the cruise in addition to the regular tips on the sign and sail card.

 

Trust me, this goes to the people who serve you. Carnival does not get a cent of the tip.

 

I do hope you enjoy your cruise. We had a great time on the Glory a couple of years ago.

 

Doc:D

[fllady61]

We went on another line a couple years ago and I never did meet the head waiter once...he went around to other tables all around us, and frankly I didn't feel I needed to tip him a penny because he didn't do anything for us but he got his because it was prepaid.

 

 

I have only tipped my matradee once and that is because she gave me some recipes that were not in any of the cook books you can purchase on the ship.

[Indiansbaseball]

Hi there :)

 

First of all...The Glory is a wonderful ship ! We loved her so much, we are going back less then a year later to sail her again.

 

As far as tipping, you can do what you want... but I found that the $10 a day when divided by as many people that get a share...is embarrasingly little. I was amazed that our waiter that served us dinner, could be found serving others breakfast. The "others" tipped their own waiters for dinner... nothing goes to my waiter serving them breakfast. So if everyone pays their $10 in tips... they all get the money they deserve.

 

I have never sailed another line.. the Glory was our first. What I did see....was that cruise line employees are some of the hardest working people I have ever met. The room stewards clean your room at least twice...sometimes three times. The waiters at night ...serve breakfast or work in the Lido buffet at lunch. They are amazing people!!

 

It is all subjective and I won't tell you which to choose... but unless the service is very bad... I leave the tips alone and tip more if needed.

 

Happy Sailing

Jen

[katiel53]

Do you mean the maitre d'?? or your actual table waiter when you say 'head waiter'???

 

If it was the maitre d - he is not included in the prepaid tips - and you are well within your right not to tip him if you feel he did nothing for you....

 

If it was your table waiter I find it odd that he 'didn't do anything for you'???

 

I think the poster might be referring to Royal Caribbean. The waiter and assistant are not the head waiter. There are others who are like assistant Maitre D's that have an area of the dining room. They check on service, help waiters etc.

 

Usually, they are very visible and visit each table nightly. So, if the head waiter never came around, then his tips, could have been removed.

 

I hope that clears up your question.

[Star1]

Please could someone tell me exactly how the $10 per day is divided up.

Thanks,

[tedjazz]

Please could someone tell me exactly how the $10 per day is divided up.

Thanks,

 

It's on the Carnival Web site, but it is also a much debated subject. Nobody knows, exactly, except Carnival.

[tizaac]

well thank you to everyone that responded, we will be leaving the $10 dollars on but just wondered how this worked as not cruised before, we were not sure if this was also charged for children at the same rate. I was alittle scared when I read the first comment though, about been pounced on - always thought these sort of forums where to get good advise from people who have done this sort of this before. Thankfully everyone gave good NICE advise which we will follow. The reason for my asking is as someone pointed out were from the UK, tipping is not done often anywhere unless you get exceptional service, and when we usually holiday its all inclusive so we only leave a goodbye tip to our room maids and anyone around who we think went that little bit further to make our holiday better.

[jolyn928]

This has been the best tipping thread ever :) tizaac, I hope you have a fantastic trip on the Glory, she's our favorite ship!

[tizaac]

This has been the best tipping thread ever :) tizaac, I hope you have a fantastic trip on the Glory, she's our favorite ship!

thank you too, we are very much looking forward to Glory as well

[vacruizer]

well thank you to everyone that responded, we will be leaving the $10 dollars on but just wondered how this worked as not cruised before, we were not sure if this was also charged for children at the same rate. I was alittle scared when I read the first comment though, about been pounced on - always thought these sort of forums where to get good advise from people who have done this sort of this before. Thankfully everyone gave good NICE advise which we will follow. The reason for my asking is as someone pointed out were from the UK, tipping is not done often anywhere unless you get exceptional service, and when we usually holiday its all inclusive so we only leave a goodbye tip to our room maids and anyone around who we think went that little bit further to make our holiday better.

 

Have a wonderful cruise - the Glory is a great ship!

 

The tipping culture is definitely different here in the US from what you are used to and the ships follow more of a US based system. Just like here in the US, waiters don't receive a normal wage like you think they would - it is often only $2 or $3 per hour and taxes, health insurance, medicare, social security, etc. are deducted from that wage leaving basically nothing as a paycheck from the establishment. The expectation is that if you get good service -tip 15-20% of the bill amount to the waiter. Having been a waitress - these tips are pretty much your only income. My paychecks from two weeks' work were often less than $10.

 

The ships also pay their waiters and room stewards very little with the expectation that it will be made up for in the suggested $10 per person per day tip amount. We just factor it into the cost of our cruise and there have been many times we thought the service was so exceptional we gave additional cash at the end of the cruise to various people. (And some situations where the service was just ok and we didn't leave any extra.)

 

A few other times where it's normal practice to tip here - $1 to $2 per bag to the porters, a few dollars if you order room service on the ship, and there will be 15% added to any bar drinks you order on the ship (this usually isn't done in land based restaurants in the US.)

 

Should you not get good service, you can go to the purser's desk and have the tip amounts adjusted. You can also have them adjusted up if you want to leave extra and not do it in cash.

 

Have a wonderful cruise!

[Indiansbaseball]

Hey Tizaac...what Itinerary are you all doing ? We did the western and loved all the ports and are doing Eastern in Feb. ! Good Luck and have fun.

 

Oh and to answer your question...they treat all passengers the same when it comes to tips. We all equally eat, sleep and bathe....so we all need looked after the same.

 

Hope you come back and tell us how you liked the Glory and cruising and the Ports :)

 

Jen

[Familyforce6]

well thank you to everyone that responded, we will be leaving the $10 dollars on but just wondered how this worked as not cruised before, we were not sure if this was also charged for children at the same rate. I was alittle scared when I read the first comment though, about been pounced on - always thought these sort of forums where to get good advise from people who have done this sort of this before. Thankfully everyone gave good NICE advise which we will follow. The reason for my asking is as someone pointed out were from the UK, tipping is not done often anywhere unless you get exceptional service, and when we usually holiday its all inclusive so we only leave a goodbye tip to our room maids and anyone around who we think went that little bit further to make our holiday better.

 

Tipping, dinner attire, chair hogs seem to be the most argumentive topics on here, that I've noticed. (maybe I have forgotten something?) But other than that.....I have learned a zillion things about cruising!!!! Hope you stay around! Have fun!:D

[tizaac]

Hey Tizaac...what Itinerary are you all doing ? We did the western and loved all the ports and are doing Eastern in Feb. ! Good Luck and have fun.

 

Oh and to answer your question...they treat all passengers the same when it comes to tips. We all equally eat, sleep and bathe....so we all need looked after the same.

 

Hope you come back and tell us how you liked the Glory and cruising and the Ports :)

 

Jen

eastern on the 21 october this year - so excited