Tipping in the YC lounge?

What do these excursion and tour guide stories have to do with Yacht Club tipping?

 

FWIW, we just got off our Divina Yacht Club cruise a couple of days ago. In addition to paying the auto-grats we gave our waiter 40 euro, his assistant 20 euro, and our butler 10 euro. The waiter and his assistant were outstanding. I wouldn't have tipped the butler, but my wife wanted to so we did. I didn't think our overall butler service, while very good, exceeded my expectations. Butlers make significantly more than the other staff and have a lighter workload. Which is what my waiter told me when he said yes to my question about whether he would like to become one. He also told me that working the Caribbean where there are a lot more Americans is prized, because they do extra tipping way more than cruises with predominantly Europeans.

Thanks for the info. We will be on our first YC cruise in a few weeks and have been following this thread with interest. We intend to keep the auto-gratuity but to also tip additionally for outstanding service. When you say butler do you mean room attendant - the person who cleans your room?

Also does anyone know who looks after stocking the mini-bar - is that the room attendant as well? Also, we have purchased a laundry package. Do we actually see the person who handles our laundry so we can tip that person as well?

Thanks for the info. We will be on our first YC cruise in a few weeks and have been following this thread with interest. We intend to keep the auto-gratuity but to also tip additionally for outstanding service. When you say butler do you mean room attendant - the person who cleans your room?

 

 

Also does anyone know who looks after stocking the mini-bar - is that the room attendant as well? Also, we have purchased a laundry package. Do we actually see the person who handles our laundry so we can tip that person as well?

You'll have a butler who will attend to your needs in the cabin. He/she will have an assistant (who does most of the cabin cleaning). The butler or the assistant will ensure that your laundry is sent and collected. Your butler will ensure that you have your mini-bar stocked with your preferences, such as extra whiskeys/gins/vodka and your preferred brand of beer, once you let him/her know what they are. There are other butlers who serve your drinks in the Top Sail Lounge and will bring drinks to your cabin as well as room service items. If you have any problems, or don't feel you're getting the service you think you should, you can speak to the head butler, who will ensure you have an amazing time.

On a couple of our YC sailings we only tipped the butler's assistant and not the butler, as we felt we were more looked after by the assistant.

I was thinking I would like to tip the person who actually does the laundry. But I prob would not give a tip to the butler or assistant for the laundry person as I would have no way of knowing if the tip would go to the right person.

There could be more than one person handling your laundry. For one, if you get the laundry package, you can send items over the course of the cruise up to the number of items included. For another, there will be the person collecting your laundry, then someone else putting it in the machine; there may be someone else who would remove it and even another person either ironing or folding and packing, ready to be returned to your cabin, probably by yet another crew member!

The butler picked up our laundry (2 times) during our 7-day cruise on Seaview earlier this month. He also checked the number of items and if the items are categorized correct on the laundry order sheet. The butler delivered the laundry (on hangers or folded) before 5:00pm the follwing day. We were very pleased with the laundry service. The pre-paid laundry package is cheaper per item then my laundry at home. The only thing you will notice are small white stickers with letters & numbers inside each item. They iron these stickers to identify each item. Kind of anoying to remove the stickers but no big deal. By the way... pyjama is only 1 item, not 2 (top & bottom) ;) . You select if you want the items on hangers or folded. We selected “on hangers” for items we used during the cruise and “folded” at the end of the cruisd. My shirts came back ironed & folded in plastic bags. Perfect to put in suitcase for our extended vacation on land.

Concur SirWolf. I found the price to be quite reasonable. We are used to complimentary laundry and dry cleaning on HAL, MSC was well done. We just didn't send a bag out each day. :-)

Dennis

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I was thinking I would like to tip the person who actually does the laundry. But I prob would not give a tip to the butler or assistant for the laundry person as I would have no way of knowing if the tip would go to the right person.

You could always place a note with cash in your laundry bag

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I don’t believe any individual does someone’s laundry; it is quite an operation with washing, drying, folding stations etc. While a nice idea, probably not practical. They may already share in the service pool but I don’t know that.

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I suppose if I would have given this some thought....how impractical and inefficient if only one person did the the laundry? I would think (hope) laundry staff would share in the tip pool. That is why I would never remove automatic gratuity; for all the people behind the scenes. And yes I hope they are already being paid well, but that they see the gratuity as a bonus.