Tipping at the beginning of your cruise?

I've heard of some people giving a cash tip to their room steward or servers/bartenders at the beginning of the cruise to hopefully ensure speedy or great service throughout the length of the cruise.

 

Is this practice you have found helpful?

How much would you tip up front for a 7 day cruise?

No and nothing upfront. That makes it a bribe.

After the fact makes it a gratuity and a small token of your appreciation for their hard work and attention to detail.

People do lots of strange things. That doesn’t mean you should.

There was just a long thread about this.

A tip is to reward someone for good service. If you haven’t received any service, why would you tip?

Agree, it’s a bribe. You shouldn’t have to bribe someone to do their job.

We have never tipped at the beginning of the cruise and have always gotten excellent service

I agree - no need to tip up front! Either prepay your standard gratuities, or have them billed to your account daily. Drinks have an automatic gratuity added.

 

Staff do a great job and have never had truly bad service. If you develop a friendly rapport with a bar tender, for example, extra tips are always appreciated; same with your room steward or waiters.

Tipping in advance is a bribe. It places the staff member in a position of servitude to the tipper. For some cultures, it is an insult. It implies that they can't be trusted to provide good service unless they are prodded in advance with a bribe. It is also an act of dominance on the part of the tipper. It is typically done by people who are obsessed with always being in control.

 

I have never tipped in advance. I have always gotten good to excellent service on cruises, so I have never come away regretting it. I don't need to be the dominant party when on a cruise. I am there to enjoy myself and not to spend my time posturing to be the alpha male.

Edited May 8, 2018 by sloopsailor

Silly practice.

 

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Why should you need to bride someone to do their job? Would never tip cabin steward in advance. And if he/she will only do the job based upon a tip they will have a problem. All tipping is optional and voluntary so no reason ever to tip in hopes of getting services you have already contracted and paid for..

 

No cruise line in the World advertises, our fare is x dollars but unless you tip we will provide poor service. I handle tips as what they are and pay them as I believe they are due.

I have seen many cruisers say they tip in advance. We never have and always get great service. We noticed in the theater that the bar waiters really appreciated us because we always left $1 tip per drink every night. On one cruise the servers would rush to us to get our order.

Why should you need to bride someone to do their job? Would never tip cabin steward in advance. And if he/she will only do the job based upon a tip they will have a problem. All tipping is optional and voluntary so no reason ever to tip in hopes of getting services you have already contracted and paid for..

 

No cruise line in the World advertises, our fare is x dollars but unless you tip we will provide poor service. I handle tips as what they are and pay them as I believe they are due.

 

True. The cruise lines say they will provide good service, and they almost always do exactly that. It is up to each passenger to decide if we will be a decent human being and show the service staff we appreciate what they have done for us, or take the stance that we value our money much more than the staff's hard work by tipping less than the suggested amount or worse, not at all. :rolleyes:

I always feel it is demeaning - to you. To me it means you think so little of yourself that you have to pay up front to get someone to do their job. EM

we have never tipped upfront & have gotten the same great service

I've heard of some people giving a cash tip to their room steward or servers/bartenders at the beginning of the cruise to hopefully ensure speedy or great service throughout the length of the cruise.

 

Is this practice you have found helpful?

How much would you tip up front for a 7 day cruise?

 

What are you tipping for before the cruise? Do you get paid at work before you have worked? Of course not, but that is what you are trying to do. It's not a tip, its a bribe.

 

The only reason to tip at the beginning of the trip is if you have the steward do something that is above or beyond their normal duties, in which case you give a couple of dollars for that particular action.

Tips are for good service. If you have had no service yet how can it be good?

Tips are for good service. If you have had no service yet how can it be good?

 

Because you are talking about simple logic... a person provides a service and after they have done so they get compensation. But the whole system that cruise lines use to play on guest feelings is rigged to get your money.

 

The first system was no system, you cruised and if you like the service tipped. Then the cruise lines saw a profit center and got into daily service fees. In part saying just pay one fee and we will take care of everything. Now they want a daily service fee, and a added reward for good service, which guest have already paid for. And then you have people wanting to pre tip cash in hopes of great service which they already owe to you as a guest.

 

How about crew just do the jobs they have been paid to do and guest get what they have paid for. If you want to a doctor to have a broken arm set and the doctor said $2500 dollars, that is the fee. The nurse, and the guy sweeping the floor would not come in and say, you need to give extra now in cash or we as a team will do a bad job. So why is it any different on a cruise ship you have paid the contracted fare. Anything over and about this is your choice and should have no effect on service.

I've heard of some people giving a cash tip to their room steward or servers/bartenders at the beginning of the cruise to hopefully ensure speedy or great service throughout the length of the cruise.

 

 

 

Is this practice you have found helpful?

 

How much would you tip up front for a 7 day cruise?

 

 

 

Surely, you're kidding. Folks will take your bribe and chuckle behind your back.

Tips are for good service. If you have had no service yet how can it be good?

 

 

Yet many passengers are happy to prepay their gratuities.

 

We do not like the idea of tipping, at all.

But obviously 'When in Rome..........'

Yet many passengers are happy to prepay their gratuities.

We don't "prepay" gratuities on any of the cruise lines we travel on. We will arrive at the port having paid nothing toward gratuities. Then, when we check in, we will put the standard amount for gratuities on account. We still haven't paid anything. Then toward the end of the cruise, after we have had a chance to decide whether it is an appropriate amount, that amount will be charged to our credit card (so, we still will not have paid, or "prepaid," but at that point it's a pedantic difference).

 

Beyond that, passengers don't all agree with each other about everything. (Gosh, that's an understatement!) There are other passengers who don't like the whole gratuities system, and would prefer that the cost of service be fully built into the fare. They treat the amount of the standard gratuities as if it is built into the fare. The will prepay it, if possible, as a reflection of their personal and individual feeling that that specific cost should be treated that specific way.

 

These are the two polar extremes aboard the cruises we take. Neither of these extremes resemble giving a cash tip to their room steward or MDR servers at the beginning of the cruise.

 

I will say that the practice of giving a cash tip to bartenders at the beginning of the cruise should be regarded as separate from giving a cash tip to their room steward at the beginning of the cruise. Lumping them together means you will rightfully get responses that pertain any of the three, rather than individual responses pertaining to each of the three. While I won't speak for others, I will say that my earlier reply, "Silly practice," did not refer to doing so with regard to bartenders.

I've heard of some people giving a cash tip to their room steward or servers/bartenders at the beginning of the cruise to hopefully ensure speedy or great service throughout the length of the cruise.

 

Is this practice you have found helpful?

How much would you tip up front for a 7 day cruise?

Not at the very beginning but early in a cruise I might tip a bartender, server or steward $10 to encourage more attentiveness for the remainder of the voyage and continue the tip each day if I'm receiving priority service. Technically, it's not a bribe but a "facilitation payment."

 

How well it works varies but when it does and the bar is crowded before dinner it's always nice to go to the head of line.

Technically, it's not a bribe but a "facilitation payment."

Isn't that exactly what a bribe is?

 

How well it works varies but when it does and the bar is crowded before dinner it's always nice to go to the head of line.

From what I have read, there are different opinions as to what extent such bribes make that happen versus that happening due to other factors.

 

 

 

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We think the idea of pre-tipping for better service is flawed in many ways. A tip or gratuity is generally something you give for services rendered. One could argue that a crew member will work harder to please if they think it will get them a reward (i.e. tip). It can also be argued that giving money in advance is an insult (i.e. "You need to give me money so I will do my job?"). On one particular line, Holland America, they tend to use many Indonesians for cabin stewards and folks from Indonesia might look at a pre-tip as an insult.

 

But we have discovered one place where a pre-tip can bring some great benefit. With bartenders and bar waiters :). Treat a bartender well, and they will often repay you many times over when they pour drinks :).

 

Hank

Isn't that exactly what a bribe is?

It's a gray area but a facilitating payment is one paid to speed up a process where the outcome is assured. An example would be paying a higher fee to get your passport faster from government.

 

On a cruise ship it would be a bribe to pay the room cleaner to bring a drink to your room because it is not something they do as part of their duties. Tipping a bartender to serve you sooner is a facilitating payment because she was going to serve you in any event.

 

But we have discovered one place where a pre-tip can bring some great benefit. With bartenders and bar waiters :). Treat a bartender well, and they will often repay you many times over when they pour drinks:).

We agree. The bar is where I use the pre-tip on cruises most often with positive results. I've also had success at land-based hotels in Europe where a full breakfast is included with your room. People rarely tip those servers but if you are staying in such a place for an extended period a good tip on the first morning usually results in vastly better service for the remainder of your visit.

I've heard of some people giving a cash tip to their room steward or servers/bartenders at the beginning of the cruise to hopefully ensure speedy or great service throughout the length of the cruise.

 

Is this practice you have found helpful?

How much would you tip up front for a 7 day cruise?

 

 

We do not tip at the beginning of a cruise. That does not guarantee that you will get good service.

We give extra tips (besides the Hotel Service Charge already charged to us) to those individuals whom we feel have made our cruise an enjoyable one.

Some of the employees consider it an insult

It's a gray area but a facilitating payment is one paid to speed up a process where the outcome is assured. An example would be paying a higher fee to get your passport faster from government.

 

I pre-tipped a room steward once when our three teenage sons had their own cabin. You could call that a facilitation payment if you want, I called it Hazard pay!;)

 

We have also pre-tipped waiters and bartenders to facilitate better service. The good Lord didn't bless me with the height or the good looks to get a bartender's attention at a crowded bar, but he/she did bless me with the ability to make good money. Hey, I just use what the good lord gave me!:D