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It is totally up to you. I gave our steward $50, he was excellent. We had 2 connecting cabins, 2 different stewards, the other wasn't that great, planned on tipping them each $25.

 

We bring a bunch of singles on for the bartenders, I'm going to say most people don't tip.

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It is totally up to you. I gave our steward $50, he was excellent. We had 2 connecting cabins, 2 different stewards, the other wasn't that great, planned on tipping them each $25.

 

We bring a bunch of singles on for the bartenders, I'm going to say most people don't tip.

P&O UK only use £, and the crew will happily accept £ if you want to give any extra over the auto tips, but it is not necessary, unless you feel you have had really excellent service.

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Hi

 

I am going on my first cruise with P & O in September. I am aware that a daily gratuity charge is added to the bill but I was wondering if you tipped stewards bar staff etc. and if so how often and how much?

Thanks

 

CruiseCritic has an update guide to tipping if you choose to do so over and above the daily gratuity charge. It was updated last month: http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=132

 

How much will depend on the length of your cruise and the level of service that crew member gave you.

 

Also, please be aware that the bar service charge added to each drink does not all go to your server. It's pooled among all the crew members who handle adult beverages.

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Hi

 

I am going on my first cruise with P & O in September. I am aware that a daily gratuity charge is added to the bill but I was wondering if you tipped stewards bar staff etc. and if so how often and how much?

Thanks

 

Not sure if you are UK/Oz branch but I know the UK part already put on tips (although these are smaller than US lines) in regards to your stewards/waiters/other staff so unless you want to tip extra those are already taken care of.

 

I am not aware of them adding a 15=18% gratuity per drink. If they do the waiter has already been tipped...if they don't then its up to you.

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If they add tip to each drink purchase (most cruise lines do), then no other tip is needed. I think 18% is MORE than enough for anything but a complicated drink. 18% to open a beer or pour a glass of wine is ample!

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This level of tipping is ludicrous,18% is a lot to pour a glass of wine

Regent is all inclusive so this is well hidden. I as a Brit do not understand this US tipping culture of 15% or upwards, at most in Europe/UK it is a round up and on drinks you pay the bill amount. Why pay to get a cork out of a wine or now more likely a screw cap £5 on a £25 bottle. I can do this. Compulsion to tip like this is a rip off!!

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Dining out or going out for drinks is not cheap ... before adding the tip. WHY does this industry put the burden of paying wait staff WAGES on it's customers who are already paying dearly for the food & drink! When you are at a bar and the charge (before tip) is $10 - $15 and more .... then 15 - 20% tip on top of that. Ridiculous.

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Hi thanks for the tips, sorry replies.

 

If I'm honest I'm not that much wiser.

 

I am on a P & O cruise (sterling) and wondered if you tipped your steward, if so at the start or end of the cruise, if at the bar every time you order a drink??

 

I have done all inclusive holidays and always leave something when I leave but feel this may be different, just wondered what the norm was as don't want to appear rude or offend the staff. Hope that makes sense.

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Hi thanks for the tips, sorry replies.

 

If I'm honest I'm not that much wiser.

 

I am on a P & O cruise (sterling) and wondered if you tipped your steward, if so at the start or end of the cruise, if at the bar every time you order a drink??

 

I have done all inclusive holidays and always leave something when I leave but feel this may be different, just wondered what the norm was as don't want to appear rude or offend the staff. Hope that makes sense.

 

Simple answer - if you leave the auto tips on, you do not need to tip any additional amount. Some passengers will give their steward an extra tip if they believe he/she has done an specially good job, but they are probably in the minority. You would certainly not tip at the beginning of the cruise. No need to tip the bar staff at all.

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Hi thanks for the tips, sorry replies.

 

If I'm honest I'm not that much wiser.

 

I am on a P & O cruise (sterling) and wondered if you tipped your steward, if so at the start or end of the cruise, if at the bar every time you order a drink??

 

There is a forum for P & O here I would post there

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=38

People will mostly be Brits & understand the system on that cruise line

 

 

JMO

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This level of tipping is ludicrous,18% is a lot to pour a glass of wine

Regent is all inclusive so this is well hidden. I as a Brit do not understand this US tipping culture of 15% or upwards, at most in Europe/UK it is a round up and on drinks you pay the bill amount. Why pay to get a cork out of a wine or now more likely a screw cap £5 on a £25 bottle. I can do this. Compulsion to tip like this is a rip off!!

 

Not to get involved in the morals of tipping but lets just consider the math. Lets assume extremely conservatively that the bar tender does 30 drinks per hour and lets also assume an average drink price of $8.00 per drink. I emphasize that both of these numbers are extremely conservative. Lets also assume that each bartender does an 8 hour shift although they probably work more than 8 hours considering how cruise lines overwork the crew. Lets also assume that 10% of the customers tip above the 15% put on the bill. I have no idea if my 10% number is correct.

 

That means that the bartender is getting $312 per day in tips. Based on a 6 day work week, that is $1872 per week in tips. Assuming that they are on a 6 month contract, they will get $48,672 in tips plus whatever wage they get for the 6 month contract.

 

That is pretty good money in my mind and a lot my numbers are conservative as it certainly does not take much time for them to pour a glass of wine or a glass of soda. Also, most of the drinks they serve are just pour and do not require and preparation.

 

DON

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Not to get involved in the morals of tipping but lets just consider the math. Lets assume extremely conservatively that the bar tender does 30 drinks per hour and lets also assume an average drink price of $8.00 per drink. I emphasize that both of these numbers are extremely conservative. Lets also assume that each bartender does an 8 hour shift although they probably work more than 8 hours considering how cruise lines overwork the crew. Lets also assume that 10% of the customers tip above the 15% put on the bill. I have no idea if my 10% number is correct.

 

That means that the bartender is getting $312 per day in tips. Based on a 6 day work week, that is $1872 per week in tips. Assuming that they are on a 6 month contract, they will get $48,672 in tips plus whatever wage they get for the 6 month contract.

 

That is pretty good money in my mind and a lot my numbers are conservative as it certainly does not take much time for them to pour a glass of wine or a glass of soda. Also, most of the drinks they serve are just pour and do not require and preparation.

 

DON

 

You didn't put your #s into a pool and divvy up the tips to an unknown # of people. That dilutes the above lucrative # of $48,672. Considerably, I would say.

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As mentioned- there's no tipping for drinks, and the prices are only pub prices, so it's not too expensive. However, if you use the same bar a lot, some of us do slip a tenner to the bar waiter whose looked after us, as a little gift.

It's the same with the steward... we often leave a few extra pounds for a really helpful one, but write on the envelope that we've given automatic gratuities already, so this is just a gift for him.

All money given to waiters and stewards is kept by those people, P&O promise.

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Hi thanks for the tips, sorry replies.

 

If I'm honest I'm not that much wiser.

 

I am on a P & O cruise (sterling) and wondered if you tipped your steward, if so at the start or end of the cruise, if at the bar every time you order a drink??

 

I have done all inclusive holidays and always leave something when I leave but feel this may be different, just wondered what the norm was as don't want to appear rude or offend the staff. Hope that makes sense.

 

The tipping culture here in the UK is different from the USA so just leave the daily auto charge in place and you don't have to tip anybody. The staff will not be offended as they are getting their tips via the daily auto charge for cabin staff and restaurant waiters and commission on the drinks you buy for bar waiters etc. I believe the bar waiters get 12% of the price you pay as commission, pooled for each bar.

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You didn't put your #s into a pool and divvy up the tips to an unknown # of people. That dilutes the above lucrative # of $48,672. Considerably, I would say.

 

But the pool is just the other bartenders so we can probably assume that each bartender in the pool generates about the same amount of tip money.

 

DON

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