First Day Room Steward Tip-how much?

Usually a sport team tee shirt or hat (Patriots or Red Sox ;))' date=' sometimes local candy...[/quote']

 

 

Oh how nice! I'm from the Midwest so I give John Deere truck key chains

 

I also bring stockings full of stuff at Christmas

 

And easter baskets at easter.

 

 

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I read on these boards once about a couple who gave their steward a framed 12X14 picture of themselves so he would remember them. I do not know if they signed it.

Nice!!!!

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We give cash tip to the steward at end of the cruise.

Tipping PRIOR to service is a bribe...there is NO NEED to tip upon meeting your attendant....or tipping the waiters before they take your order....

Tip more than what the ship charges daily, if your experience has been so wonderful, you can't help yourself! And do it on the LASY NIGHT, as is customary on a cruise.

I usually ask for only one special thing from our steward all cruise: a light blanket, as the quilts are too hot for me. I hand him/her $5 at that time when he/she brings it. When we leave a bag of laundry, I place a $5 bill on top of it - usually do 2 loads a cruise. (I love coming home with clean/folded clothes!) Otherwise, we don't bother him/her, or tip extra at the end unless they do something extra ordinary.

Is the room steward responsible for folding the laundry? I wasn't sure...

I never give a bribe up front and personally don't care if I never meet my cabin steward! As long as my cabin is serviced, I'm good. If I need something, I leave a note on a post-it stuck on the mirror, but I rarely need anything other than what is provided.

If I want to add anything at the end of the cruise, I'll leave it in the cabin. If I want to add to my wait team (typically on Carnival and have traditional dining), I add it at the service desk. I am not comfortable handing people money. The idea is to thank them, not make myself feel generous by having them thank me! I read lots of comments of people saying how good it makes them feel to hand the server/steward cash. That's not what it's supposed to be about folks!

This thread is getting very deep with semantics. Bribe vs tip, tomato, to-mah-to.

Do what feels right and enjoy your vacation OP!!

This thread is getting very deep with semantics. Bribe vs tip, tomato, to-mah-to.

 

Do what feels right and enjoy your vacation OP!!

I love the "bribe" posts. People get so insulted over what others do with their money :confused:

Bribe or tip -- I don't care. I want good service, and I'm not against paying for it.

I read somewhere that TIPS stands for To Insure Prompt Service. Seems to me if you are insuring it, you are doing it ahead of time.

We have never tipped the steward the first day.

We prepay the DSC and unless the steward does an extra request from us we do not tip during the cruise at all. We do give an extra tip at the end of the cruise of $25 or more depending on the length of the cruise and how satisfied we were with the service. My husband goes to the cabin early so we appreciate having the turndown service completed by 7:30pm.

Same here...never have left a tip on the first day. If we tip extra we do it on a daily basis...we leave it on the pillow each morning

Bribe or tip -- I don't care. I want good service, and I'm not against paying for it. I read somewhere that TIPS stands for To Insure Prompt Service. Seems to me if you are insuring it, you are doing it ahead of time.

You are never certain though that you have actually 'tipped' for better service if you tip ahead of time. You don't actually know what the service would have been if you tipped at the end of the cruise, each day, or nothing extra at all.

To each his own though...free to tip anyway you choose.

You are never certain though that you have actually 'tipped' for better service if you tip ahead of time. You don't actually know what the service would have been if you tipped at the end of the cruise, each day, or nothing extra at all.

Agree!

Each time this comes up some of the upfront tippers say they always tip on the first day and get great service! But, I've never tipped ahead of time and have always gotten great service (with only one exception and I don't think an upfront tip would have mattered with this steward)!

People will do what they will do. I would feel uncomfortable handing my steward money on the first day unless I'd asked for him or her to provide some additional service for me (and, even then I would tip at the end of the cruise) and others feel it's a normal and natural thing to do. Does it really matter in the end? Personally, I doubt the steward thinks much about it and is insulted and feels bribed. More likely, he puts it in his pocket and goes along to his next task.

we usually tip at the end,,,last time on breakaway in a mini suite large balcony, I tipped Owen $20 on Day 1 and got the worst service ever, no ice, no towel animals, no shampoo or soap, chicken wings under the bed etc

TIPS

To

Insure

Prompt

Service

why give prompt service if you already got you tip?

There's never going to be any agreement on tipping.

It differs from west to east, generation to generation, former service worker to non-service worker.

We tip at the beginning of our cruise because we have a lot of large boxes of medical supplies brought to our cabin. The cabin steward usually has to rearrange the couch or table when they are wheeled in on two or three dollies. We tip every time we call someone to our room, whether it is for a blanket, extra ice, or a BLT. We tip bartenders & baristas who know us by name and/or know our preferred drink. We tip the tour guides on excursions, and we tip any street performers if they were so good we stopped to listen or look.

Granted, we have both worked in the service industry. We know what it feels like to get a 50 cent tip on a $20 meal. Or to have to clean up a hotel room covered in food, trash, and filth, with nothing extra offered, and no additional time allotted by the management. It sucks.

Whether you tip at the beginning, end, or everyday... please just don't be the people that remove the service charges or gratuities at the end of the week. NCL is doing the right thing, and making people jump through a hoop to receive their money as a refund. Until it is included in the price of the cruise, I think this is the way to go.

we usually tip at the end,,,last time on breakaway in a mini suite large balcony, I tipped Owen $20 on Day 1 and got the worst service ever, no ice, no towel animals, no shampoo or soap, chicken wings under the bed etc

 

 

TIPS

 

To

Insure

Prompt

Service

 

why give prompt service if you already got you tip?

What this tells me is that by tipping him early on that he now felt that you would be asking too much of him so he said away

Btw...those issues you mention above...what exactly did Owen say when you brought them to his attention?

Based on what he didn't do for you...if you just let it go then it's all on you

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we usually tip at the end,,,last time on breakaway in a mini suite large balcony, I tipped Owen $20 on Day 1 and got the worst service ever, no ice, no towel animals, no shampoo or soap, chicken wings under the bed etc

TIPS

 

To

Insure

Prompt

Service

 

why give prompt service if you already got you tip?

http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/tip.asp

Last cruise we tipped our cabin steward on first day and he was tripping over himself for the 15 day cruise to get us anything we needed.

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we usually tip at the end,,,last time on breakaway in a mini suite large balcony, I tipped Owen $20 on Day 1 and got the worst service ever, no ice, no towel animals, no shampoo or soap, chicken wings under the bed etc

 

 

TIPS

 

To

Insure

Prompt

Service

 

why give prompt service if you already got you tip?

We had the same experience with Owen. I was traveling with a friend and her daughter, their first cruise. She tipped Owen $40 on the first day. We were also in a M6.

Out of 17 NCL cruises Owen was the absolute worst room steward or NCL worker that I have ever encountered.

We have always given $20 at the beginning of the cruise. At the end the amount can vary from $0 - $50 based on the quality of service provided. Only once gave $0. Maiden Voyage of Carnival Triumph. Steward was unresponsive to requests and unfriendly.

 

 

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just saw this now..Thats funny I was on the maiden voyage of the Triumph ( lido deck..balcony) and had the most surly room steward who refused my requests as well..such as towels for 4 of us instead of 2 towels,, 4 glasses instead of 2 ..we were a family of 4 in the cabin..Forget about folding up the sofa bed or bunk bed every morning.. Not gonna happen..

that was the only cruise we undertipped on...tipped based on 2 people instead of 4...We overtipped at that based on the level of service

We usually give extra whether cruise or other vacation. We don't expect anything extra but feel it's nice for the person we are tipping. Just came off getaway and tipped the room steward on day 1. Told him that we wanted ice morning and night and also towel animals for our child. Always had ice, and also the best towel animals we have seen on any cruise. He was always there as well and asked if we needed anything extra.

$0. I tip in the only way you can tip unless you are just giving money away, once service is satisfactorily rendered.

I give the room steward $20 on day one and ask for the fridge to be emptied out, for robes and ice every day. We also usually have a bar setup and need to get the mixers of our choice ( a lot of times they just give you anything and we want specific mixers). I will tip however it is deserved at the end of the cruise. Usually another $20 - sometimes more for extra friendly and prompt service.

Get your popcorn out, it's another tipping thread! Just remember—if someone does something differently than you, that must mean one of you is wrong! ;p

Seriously, OP, there's no right or wrong answer, though most here would agree that removing or reducing the DSC is usually not a nice thing to do, so leave that intact. The DSC will cover most personnel on the ship, including many folks you don't see. Some notable exceptions are the Haven butler and concierge—those folks should be tipped separately if you're in the Haven.

Some folks will argue over whether the DSC is a tip or not, or whether it's too much or too little, or whether it goes to the staff or to keep Frank Del Rio's swimming pool filled with crisp hundreds.

Personally, I trust that NCL is telling me the truth that the gratuities are for the staff—once I stop trusting them, I guess I'll need to find a different cruise line.

So, I let the DSC cover everyone that NCL says it covers, and just tip a few bucks to anyone that made my experience special, or provided excellent service. I also fill out the Vacation Hero cards.

Oh please the dsc is most certainly a tip

How many times do I need to read posts that say the ease of dsc allows for pax....

To not worry about who when where or how much to tip

And

The nonsense of the old days with tip envelopes are no longer needed

And

That all the mainstream lines are doing it this way for the convenience of the pax

Oh and of course ncl doesn't call it a tip....because they CANT force you to tip!!!

That is why you can remove dsc

That is why they don't call it a tip

And that is why it's not included in base fair

Give extra cash if you want

But you are already tipping everyone from the steward to the dishwasher to the engine mechanic via the dsc

You know because you always tip the dishwasher in restaurants. Lol

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Check out the first post of this thread in which NCL refers to the DSC as "gratuities." http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2370560

Also, IIRC when I booked my upcoming Alaska cruise, one of my perks was "free gratuities," which is the DSC.

The definition of a gratuity is that it is a tip.