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Are my sums wrong (tipping)


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out of curiosity I wondered how many cabins a steward would look after.

 

Google says it was between 20-35

 

So just for an example lets say, 28, now if we tip £10.23 per person, and lets say 2 person per room, that's £20.46 per cabin per day, therefore:

 

28 x 20.46 = £572.88 per day

14 x 3572.88 = 8,020.32 for a 14 day cruise

 

Does a steward really earn that much?

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You have some info confused and some is variable by person and cruise line. First, is it just one steward? Very difficult for one steward to cover 28 cabins...that is more likely for two steward teams, like Holland America uses. I think for one steward, 16-18 would be a more realistic number. Some cruise lines assign number of cabins by type- for example, as suites are larger, the stewards will be assigned fewer. They might be assigned more of smaller cabins.

 

Second, tipping is rarely mandatory...a number of people don't tip at all.

 

Third, your amount of money is typically spread over many staff- dining room as well as room stewards, not just room stewards. The cruise lines I am familiar with it is about $5 per day, per person in a cabin, for the room steward team, out of a standard 12.5 USD per person, per day tip..

 

So, no, the cabin stewards don't make anywhere near that much for their very hard work.

Edited by CruiserBruce
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Not really confused, more like ignorance, lol as you say, there are a lot of variable's, hence it was only an example. even if was split between 2 stewards, as you rightly said some lines do this, some also do cabins with a couple of suites on top, (do they tip better?) so worse case scenario if we halved it, that's still over £4k per month each.

 

plus don't they get a minimum wage?

 

I'm not aware or ever heard of the steward tips being shared with the dining crew, we ask for separate envelopes, (or sometimes there are multitude of envelopes left on our bed on the last night) to leave a tip on the last day and would hand it to the waiter, or wine waiter etc. I assumed he would take his envelope, and take them all back to his room and have a good count up.

 

How is anyone going to know what he has?

 

The envelope we leave on the bed on the last day with the tips, i assumed goes to the steward, if it does not, and as you said goes to the waiter etc, then i will be drastically reducing the amount, as we hardly ever use the restaurant.

 

And yes your right they do work very hard, and we have appreciated all of our stewards.

 

We mainly cruise with RCCI is $5 per day about right just for the steward?

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Again, where are you seeing 10+ pounds just for the room steward(s).This would translate into into about $13.25, which is very close to the standard tip, per person for all the "commonly tipped" staff. The "commonly tipped" staff includes room steward(s), dining room staff and several behind the scenes personnel, like the wait staff in the buffet, etc.

 

The old breakdown that was common when individual tipping was done was $3 or $3.50 for the room steward, $3 or $3.50 for the dining room waiter, and half as much for the dining room assistant. This split goes back 20 years of our cruising experience, the automatic tipping that is common today is less than 10 years old. So you can see how that adds up to around $9. The balance of the "standard amount" of about $13 goes to the behind the scenes staff.

 

Some lines the automatic tip is higher in suites.

 

Does RCI have automatic tip, or still individual tipping? Check on the RCI board.

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Here is the breakdown from the RCI website:

 

The automatic gratuity is $13.50 USD, or $16.50 USD for suite guests, applied to each guest's SeaPass® account on a daily basis. Here's how it is shared between your onboard service team:

Standard Staterooms:

$6.35 - Dining Services

$3.45 - Stateroom Attendant

$3.70 - Other Hotel Services

 

So, using 28 staterooms on a 7 day cruise, the Stateroom Attendant and his assistant would share $3.45 x 28 x 7 = $676.20.

 

As I understand it, this comprises the majority of their salary, since the cruise line is not required by law to pay tipped employees the normal minimum wage.

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Thats what i'm saying, all these years I have been doing it wrong, and leaving the stewards the full amount of tips, not realising it was being shared with everyone.

 

i shall now be reducing my tip to the steward accordingly. :)

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Thats what i'm saying, all these years I have been doing it wrong, and leaving the stewards the full amount of tips, not realising it was being shared with everyone.

 

i shall now be reducing my tip to the steward accordingly. :)

 

FWIW ... the tips are shared among many who serve you. If you tip using envelopes, you are shorting the hotel staff and those who serve you faithfully in the buffet, who would get a share of the tips if you paid the gratuities through the ship.

 

If you search the boards, you will find a lot of information on gratuities and how they are managed. It is my understanding that if you tip someone in cash and have removed the gratuities from your onboard account, then they will have to turn them in to be placed in the tip pool. In effect, you are just causing yourself extra work and perhaps shorting them on the tips.

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Thanks Schoifmom...what you said was exactly what I was trying to say. Guess I didn't say it so well...:cool:

 

Does RCI just bill the automatic gratuity to your room bill? Thus money "left on the bed" is an entirely different topic.

Edited by CruiserBruce
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Wherever possible we just prepay gratuities with the final balance before we go and forget all about it . Then we can get on and enjoy the cruise.

 

By far the least stressful way

Edited by glynandkath
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If you leave the suggested tips "as are"...then everyone who is supposed to get tipped, gets what they're supposed to get. On RCI, tips are not "pooled" if you tip in cash, rather than by adding tips to your account or pre-paying....but, some folks will be "left out"....so leave them as is!

Edited by cb at sea
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We prepaid the service charges on our last cruise with Norwegian which was great, but I also tipped my room steward extra on the first day and again on the last day in cash, he was awesome.

I'm totally with you on this one, leave as is and give a bit more if deserved.

 

The problem is this is such a volatile subject with such different attitudes to tipping depending on where in the world you come from .

 

My motto now is prepay and enjoy the cruise.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We usually leave the gratuities on whilst cruising however the one of the last cruises we were on the loud man at the table of 8 (we all had a good time at the table joking chating etc etc so stayed at table )was insisting we were mugs he had waited until last minute and got free gratuities and a free drinks package paid a lot less than us for a better cabin ...........

So on the last night of the cruise out comes his envelope with his tip and a big here you are my good man and lady for the waiters and wine steward at the table also another couple had taken there's off auto tip to tip them selves tipped at the table so we and the other couple are left sitting there slightly embarrassed explaining we left the tips on auto tipping ..... Big smile and a hand shake for the envelopes and a off the cuff thankyou sir / madam to us and the other couple

We agree with leaving a tip for good service so we are now halving what we pay auto and using the other half for envelopes never again will we be left sitting embarrassed at a table

We still enjoy cruising but will now wait for the best offers available 😎👩🏼🛳

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  • 1 month later...

No need to be embarrassed. They know by the end of the cruise if you have auto-tipped.

If the loud guy had free gratuities and also gave an envelope, he gave extra tips -so that may be the reason for the enthusiastic reaction to the envelope. Do you know for sure if the other couple with an envelope took off their tips? That may have given extra as well.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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  • 1 month later...
out of curiosity I wondered how many cabins a steward would look after.

 

Google says it was between 20-35

 

So just for an example lets say, 28, now if we tip £10.23 per person, and lets say 2 person per room, that's £20.46 per cabin per day, therefore:

 

 

28 x 20.46 = £572.88 per day

14 x 3572.88 = 8,020.32 for a 14 day cruise

 

Does a steward really earn that much?

1st cabin stewards on deal with 10 to 15 cabins. The current tripping policy is 12.50 per day per person. Of that 12.50 per day the cabin steward receives 4.00 per day per person. So that is 8.00 per cabin times

15 cabins max equals 120.00 per day. So on a 7 day cruise the steward would receive about 840.00 dollars.

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Look at your cruise line's brochure. It clearly states the Per person, per day tip amount. Abide by that, and you're totally fine. Your daily tip amount covers your cabin attendant, waiter, ass't waiter and head waiter....and some "behind the scenes" folks.

Edited by cb at sea
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  • 1 month later...
If gratuities are prepaid are you then expected to tip the cabin staff again at the end? Our current trip on Princess is $253.50 USD which is over $1,000 AUD for the three of us already.

 

Sent from my SM-N920I using Forums mobile app

 

You are not expected to tip more to anyone covered by the daily amount. We generally don't unless we've asked for something extra during the cruise.

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The daily suggested tip covers your cabin attendant, waiters, ass't waiter and head waiter. The cabin attendant only gets a portion of the daily per person tip...like around $3.50-$4.....that's about what you'd tip in a hotel for housekeepers.

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The daily suggested tip covers your cabin attendant, waiters, ass't waiter and head waiter. The cabin attendant only gets a portion of the daily per person tip...like around $3.50-$4.....that's about what you'd tip in a hotel for housekeepers.

 

What cruise line does the daily suggested tip include headwaiter? Not Princess or HAL.

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What cruise line does the daily suggested tip include headwaiter? Not Princess or HAL.

 

If you are defining headwaiter as the maitre'd then they usually aren't included in the daily tip, but we did have a headwaiter on CCL that was responsible for the wait team and service and he was on the daily tip list.

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For some years now we have stopped the automatic gratuities being taken from our credit card. We pay at the end to those who we consider have gone above what would be expected.

 

We are soon to do a 30+ days cruise and if we left the automatic withdrawal it would come to some £1200 and no where else in the world would you leave such a tip for any number of people, this also adds a significant cost to your holiday if you let the cruise company take it. Call me mean but its also my hard earnt money.

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For some years now we have stopped the automatic gratuities being taken from our credit card. We pay at the end to those who we consider have gone above what would be expected.

 

We are soon to do a 30+ days cruise and if we left the automatic withdrawal it would come to some £1200 and no where else in the world would you leave such a tip for any number of people, this also adds a significant cost to your holiday if you let the cruise company take it. Call me mean but its also my hard earnt money.

 

You do realize that on many cruise lines, that canceling the automatic tip and just giving cash to the desired employees requires that employee to turn in that tip to the pool? They don't get to keep that personal tip?

 

I don't think you can say, given the tipping culture in some countries of 15-20% of the costs, that "no where else in the world would you leave such a tip for any number of people". Think about that in terms of just how much a 30 day cruise costs. I understand your culture may not promote tipping- that is fine, not arguing that- but to say no where else in the world can't be factually stated.

Edited by CruiserBruce
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For some years now we have stopped the automatic gratuities being taken from our credit card. We pay at the end to those who we consider have gone above what would be expected.

 

We are soon to do a 30+ days cruise and if we left the automatic withdrawal it would come to some £1200 and no where else in the world would you leave such a tip for any number of people, this also adds a significant cost to your holiday if you let the cruise company take it. Call me mean but its also my hard earnt money.

 

I had to dine out twice in one day a year or so ago and the tips for that day came out to $9.50 per person (not sure what that is in pounds) and we weren't eating in any upscale establishments. It's not the crew's fault that you booked a 30 day cruise but you should consider the tips to be part of your costs.

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