Tipping on Regent Shore Excursions

Are you guys regularly tipping the driver and guide on Regent organized shore excursions outside the United States? Our travel consultant at Regent replied that no tips are required or expected on shore excursions except Egypt, where the driver/guide ask for "voluntary" tips.

I still like to know what is customary and how much if anything people tip.

While tipping is included on the ships, it is not included on tours/excursions. Assuming that the tour guide and driver did a good job, we do tip them both.

To be honest, I have no clue what t the "travel consultant" at Regent means about tipping in Egypt as it is the same everywhere (sometimes I think that Regent customer service representatives and travel consultants should sail on Regent and learn what it is really like..... many times they have no idea).

Here is a link to a page where they are recommendations for the amounts people typically pay to their tour guides and bus drivers. http://www.bing.com/search?q=tipping+tour+guide+and+drivers&src=IE-SearchBox&FORM=IESR02&pc=EUPP_UE04 Hope that this helps.

Not to get off topic, I hope that you will book (or did book) your cruise through a TA that regularly sells luxury cruises - specifically Regent. Their information is invaluable (and accurate). Additionally, many of them give you a percentage back of your cruise fare and on board credits for many itineraries. It is a win-win situation!

Our travel consultant at Regent replied that no tips are required or expected on shore excursions except Egypt, where the driver/guide ask for "voluntary" tips.

Well, he or she is misinformed since (and I think this is explicitly spelled out somewhere, but can't find it at the moment), shore excursion guides are not included for the shore excursions, so we always tip based on the quality of the experience. Note that there are often ship's personnel who go along as escorts and they are covered by the on-board gratuities policy.

If you mean that a corporate Regent employee is telling you this rather than an uninformed TA, that's rather bad.

WT56 - I heartily agree with the two previous posters (both of whom are experienced Regent cruisers) when they state that gratuities for the drivers and guides on shore excursions are definitely not included in your fare. Whatever a "travel consultant" at Regent is, he or she does not appear to have a clue regarding the matters that actually occur on a cruise.

Indeed, it is often very disheartening to witness many passengers on the included tours not give the drivers and guides any tip whatever. We have even seen passengers go to such lengths as exiting via the rear doors of the coach in order to avoid doing so. In any event, on our recent (December) cruise on Voyager, there was a regular reminder in Passages (the daily newsletter) that gratuities for the onshore drivers and guides were not included and should be considered by the passengers.

Just to be clear, there is no tipping at all on the ship? Also, what about the staff at the 'free pre-cruise' hotel and drivers from hotel to ship?

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Just to be clear, there is no tipping at all on the ship? Also, what about the staff at the 'free pre-cruise' hotel and drivers from hotel to ship?

 

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Tipping on the ship is a subject that can go ballistic. However, I can tell you that the "staff" at the pre-cruise hotel and drivers from the hotel to the ship are not Regent employees (they are contractors - the same as excursion tour guides and drivers) and they should be tipped.

Thanks travelcat!

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Just to be clear, there is no tipping at all on the ship? Also, what about the staff at the 'free pre-cruise' hotel and drivers from hotel to ship?

 

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I can see this thread really taking off! As in life, tipping is up to the individual.

• From our experience pre-cruise tipping is not included in cruise package.
  

• We always tip driver and guide - amount based on level of service, in fact Passages usually mentions tour tips are not part of the "all tips included" cruise package.
  

• Re on board, we always give a donation to the Crew Welfare Fund, amount depends on length of our cruise. Finally it is not uncommon for frequent cruisers to tip Cabin Housekeeping Stewards (wealthiest people on board) ;) and certain wait staff.
  

You can't take it with you, but then again you could put it toward the next cruise!

R.

Actually it's not just Regent that does not include tips for excursions. Every ocean or river cruise we have been on we always tip both guide and driver. Sometimes it is minimal as the experience can vary.

Freddie you are so right. It is embarrassing to see people try to avoid even good guides. If you can afford these cruises you can afford to be responsible.

On Tauck River Cruises all tips are included in the cost of your cruise. They have wonderful excursions and there is no expectation of tipping the tour guides or the bus driver.

On Tauck River Cruises all tips are included in the cost of your cruise. They have wonderful excursions and there is no expectation of tipping the tour guides or the bus driver.

Same for Scenic river cruises.

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On Tauck River Cruises all tips are included in the cost of your cruise. They have wonderful excursions and there is no expectation of tipping the tour guides or the bus driver.

We've taken several river cruises with Tauck and what you point out is true. There is a difference, however, in that they don't offer multiple tours each day at ports that are only visited a few times a year and supplied by a wide range of contractors. Therefore, they know precisely what each passenger will be doing (in our experience few passengers stay on board...almost all head out on the tour de jour) and can calculate the appropriate tipping amounts and include them in the tour cost. They also have deep insight into all of their excursion operators since they use them many, many times each year with (literally) a boat-load of passengers. They can be quite sure that the overall quality is up to a standard that rates a specific amount of tip. It is, of course, very convenient to have them included.

With Regent (and AFAIK all blue water cruise lines), they have no idea what you'll be doing at a port. I wouldn't like them to assume we are doing nothing but Regent Choice excursions and include an appropriate tip amount based on those excursions costs. They could calculate and include a base tipping amount assuming everyone takes one of their "free" excursions and add the tipping amount to the cost of the choice excursions. Of course, that would mean that everyone was paying for tips even if they never went ashore. The problem with this approach is that even at a port that might even be totally new to them, they would have to assume that the excursions all met a high standard and set the tip accordingly. For anyone who has cruised much, and our experience with Regent, this is true most of the time. However, there are misses where the excursion isn't great and, if the fault of the guide and/or driver, deserve an appropriate tipping response. Likewise, we've been on some tours which were made wonderful by the guide (and even sometimes by the driver) which we acknowledge in our tips.

Haven't done river cruises yet (they're on our radar, though) but I agree that excursion tipping should be left up to the individual passengers. I also agree that people need to acknowledge good service by the guides and/or drivers and that sneaking out the back door or skirting the guide to avoid tipping is shameful.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I have, on occasion, not tipped a guide. But it's a very, VERY rare occurrence and the guide has to be just incredibly bad - a rarity, but it happens. I honestly don't want to see excursion tips rolled into the cruise fare - I prefer to tip the guides in person, and I want to be able to thank them for an amazing experience if that's what they provided. Just my opinion.

Scot, I have done Tauck river cruises and as you say tips are "included". I would say, however, over 50% of the passengers tipped and I was among them. Same was true on Uniworld.

Good points by Portolan. I agree that Regent should not include excursion tips in the cost of the cruise. I was just pointing out that Tauck does but, in fairness, you really don't have more than 2 options for cruises at each stop. In response to Newlondon we have also tipped extra, especially since the guides are almost uniformly excellent and well-informed about the subject matter of the excursion they are leading.

Tips off the ship aren't included by Regent. However (and this is a big "however) tipping is primarily an American custom. In some countries, it is not expected at all. In others, it is expected but in a far lower amount than is customary in the US. As far as I have seen, so-called "customary tip amounts in the US are the highest in the world.

On a Regent ship, I have heard of tipping a service crew member who did something for a guest that was a bit outside the scope of the crew member's duties. I tried that once, and the tip was refused! And if you REALLY liked the service onboard, a donation to the crew fund is always appreciated, but don't feel any compulsion to do so.