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cruisin1982
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Are tips added to the cabin. We always prepaid them and also gave tips through out the cruise. A tip is added to every drink we order that is what I understand. Is there a review card to be filled out. When we cruised before was told by staff if you marked anything other that the best ranking that it would reflect on them. I don’t know if it’s true or not I don’t like the envelop thing as why am I expected to tip the restaurant host when don’t do much for me expect show us our table the first night maybe they do it different on Disney.

 

 

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Are tips added to the cabin. We always prepaid them and also gave tips through out the cruise. A tip is added to every drink we order that is what I understand. Is there a review card to be filled out. When we cruised before was told by staff if you marked anything other that the best ranking that it would reflect on them. I don’t know if it’s true or not I don’t like the envelop thing as why am I expected to tip the restaurant host when don’t do much for me expect show us our table the first night maybe they do it different on Disney.

 

 

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DCL automatically charges the gratuities to your onboard account, daily. You can pre-pay the amount by calling DCL and they will add that cost to your cruise fare. FYI, onboard accounts are broken out by KTTW card, so each person will receive the charge (on the bill). But, since you can designate the same credit card for payment it'll actually be charged to the same card. Also, in case you don't know, the gratuities are $12.00 per guest (each person on a reservation) per night. That $12.00 breaks out to $4.00 per guest per night to your stateroom host; $4.00 per guest per night to your dining room server; $3.00 per guest per night to your assistant server; and $1.00 per guest per night to your head server. At the end of your cruise you'll receive a gratuity coupon sheet and tip envelopes. You separate the coupons and put them in the corresponding envelope to hand to each person. While you might not actually see the head server a lot, they certainly are doing their job. It's actually a good thing if you don't see him/her as it means that your serving team is doing what they are supposed to be doing. The head server is there to see that things run smoothly. He also will make contact with you if there are food issues (allergies, special diets) and make sure you are accommodated for those needs.

 

Purchased beverages (alcoholic or otherwise) have a 15% auto gratuity added to the bill.

 

You will receive a comment card at the end of the cruise to fill out and turn in.,

 

Yes, you will the "you must make excellent (10) or it will reflect badly on me" speech. Don't let that dissuade you from marking what you feel is appropriate.

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Frankly I find the DCL $12 per guest per night tip to be on the low end, it's certainly higher on NCL for my next cruise. As for the head server, I do find on DCL they are slightly more interactive, checking in on many tables throughout the night. I didn't mind paying his tip at all. You don't have to do anything with the tip envelopes if you don't want; they are just there in case you want to hand something to the servers, and/or put something extra in, but there's no obligation.

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If you do nothing, the tips will be applied to your KTTW card account. Yes, you can pay them in advance if you wish by calling DCL (your TA if you used one) and having the credit applied to the account. You can also increase, decrease, or remove the tips at Guest Services. DCL is not like many other lines in that the "suggested" tips are not pooled. The tips go directly to the people assigned to your cabin and your dining table. If you do the tips thru the KTTW card account, you'll get tip coupons and envelopes on the last full day. Place the coupon in the appropriate envelope and hand it to the person at dinner. You are obviously free to add more to the envelope if you wish, but that is not expected or required.

 

There is a 15% automatic charge applied to all bar items. This is pooled and divided among all the bar staff. There is also a line on the bar ticket for "additional tip." This goes directly to the person who served you. MANY people are not aware that they have already tipped the 15% and they don't have to add anything.

 

Likewise, there is an automatic 18% tip added to all spa services, along with a line for additional tip.

 

A good head server is doing a lot behind the scenes--dealing with allergy issues, being aware of any snags or issues that might slow your service and fixing them before they affect you, assisting any of his teams that are running behind, etc. He will also deal with any concerns or special situations you might have. I once commented to my server that the head seemed like a dud. He immediately started telling me that his head server was his "best friend" and allowed it to appear that he (the server) was doing a great job when in reality they were functioning as a team.

 

As noted above, the $12 per night "suggested" on DCL is below the industry average and has not been increased in many years. I cruised this month on another line--tips were $15.50 per person per night.

 

The comment cards....unfortunately, the "excellent" speech is spreading to other cruise lines. Yes, there is a competition among dining teams as to who has the best reviews and things like schedules for breakfast and lunch do depend on these reviews. Feel free to complete the survey honestly, giving things the ratings you feel they deserve.

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Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t complaining about tips I know they depend on tips. I have worked in the service industry and know how to tip for good service. I don’t understand the coupon thing. Can’t I just give cash instead adding it to a coupon. We tip our cabin person the first night we meet and again on the last night. So the coupons are for extra as we are being charged automatically

 

 

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Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t complaining about tips I know they depend on tips. I have worked in the service industry and know how to tip for good service. I don’t understand the coupon thing. Can’t I just give cash instead adding it to a coupon. We tip our cabin person the first night we meet and again on the last night. So the coupons are for extra as we are being charged automatically

 

 

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You can go to Guest Services once you board and have the auto gratuities removed from your account. You'll still get the tip envelopes, but no coupon sheet. Then you can tip as you see fit.

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DCL allows you to handle tips as you see fit. The auto-gratuity will occur if you do nothing. If you choose, you can go to Guest Services and have the automatic tips removed. In that case, there will be no charge to your account. You can also opt to increase the tips if you wish--in this case, the increase that you have designated is charged to whatever means you have placed to pay off your account.

 

You are welcome to remove the autogratuity and tip in cash.

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Don’t want to sound dumb I have it set up to prepay our tips. So it I use the coupon to give more and it will be charged to the card I have on file

 

 

 

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If you've contacted DCL and asked to pre-pay your tips, that amount will show as a credit amount on your onboard account. You don't have to add anything additional, unless you want.

 

At the end of your cruise, you'll get the coupon sheet. It has 4 coupons on it. Each will have the name of the person/position/and amount of trip being paid them.

 

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You separate out the coupons and place them in the appropriate envelope to hand out the last day/evening.

 

At that time you can add additional cash to the envelope, IF YOU WISH.

 

Alternatively, you can go to Guest Services prior to the last full day onboard, and increase how much in gratuities you want to pay, or reduce them, if you want. The coupon sheet you receive in your room will (should) reflect those changes.

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You actually can increase or decrease tips before the last full day. The CM at Guest Services will give you a form where you can indicate how much you want to tip each individual. Then that will be the amount shown on the coupons.

 

That's good to know. I've always just added to the envelope in cash.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t complaining about tips I know they depend on tips. I have worked in the service industry and know how to tip for good service. I don’t understand the coupon thing. Can’t I just give cash instead adding it to a coupon. We tip our cabin person the first night we meet and again on the last night. So the coupons are for extra as we are being charged automatically

 

 

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If you’re tipping the stateroom attendant in cash and having tips charge automatically and giving more at the end then you’re triple tipping.

 

 

IMO there’s no need to tip in cash like you’re doing. Just let it go automatically, and if you want to tip more at the end go for it.

 

 

 

Don’t want to sound dumb I have it set up to prepay our tips. So it I use the coupon to give more and it will be charged to the card I have on file

 

 

 

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The coupons are just something to hand over like in the days of tipping all cash at the end of a cruise. You actually don’t need to hand those over at all. The people will still get their tips.

 

If you want to add more, add more. You can do that in cash or go to first services and do it that way.

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If you’re tipping the stateroom attendant in cash and having tips charge automatically and giving more at the end then you’re triple tipping.

 

 

IMO there’s no need to tip in cash like you’re doing. Just let it go automatically, and if you want to tip more at the end go for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The coupons are just something to hand over like in the days of tipping all cash at the end of a cruise. You actually don’t need to hand those over at all. The people will still get their tips.

 

If you want to add more, add more. You can do that in cash or go to first services and do it that way.

If you have allowed the tips to be added to your KTTW account, whether pre-paid or applied during the cruise, you have tipped what is expected. You are obviously free to add more, either in the form of cash or by going to GS at any time during the cruise and increasing the amount.

 

The coupons also serve as a back up system for the crew. Yes, the vast majority of the time everything will be fine and they will get their tips whether they have the coupon or not. However, in the event of a dispute among the CMs, the one with the coupon gets the tip. We have had a couple of situations where the name on the coupon didn't resemble the name of the person in any way, so we asked our server. He explained that the person named on the coupon had left the ship at the end of the previous cruise and he was the replacement. He assured us that HE would get the tips because he would have the coupon, and that the cruise line would have sorted it out even without the coupon...but the coupon made it easier. Often the names don't match because the name on the name tag is different from the CM's legal name--sometimes CM's go by a middle name or nickname on the ship in order to make it easier for guests to pronounce and remember their names or to avoid names with religious or political contexts. But the legal name shows up on the tip coupon.

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I didn’t mean to cause problems. I didn’t know what the coupons were. I have on cruised Carnival and we paid tips in advance and were given envelopes on the last night if we wanted to give extra. I hope what I read was incorrect that when we prepaid that some cruise lines don’t give them to there employees or is it just someone saying it without really knowing

 

 

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I didn’t mean to cause problems. I didn’t know what the coupons were. I have on cruised Carnival and we paid tips in advance and were given envelopes on the last night if we wanted to give extra. I hope what I read was incorrect that when we prepaid that some cruise lines don’t give them to there employees or is it just someone saying it without really knowing

 

 

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There is no question that on SOME cruise lines, the pre-paid tips or "auto-gratuity" does not go to the person who served you or necessarily to any employee on the ship. On at least one line, it is pooled across the entire line and their many ships, and then divided up. The cruise line claims that this enables them to get good crew on "less desirable" ships or itineraries.

 

DCL is not one of those lines. On DCL, what you tip is exactly that--a tip to the person who served you, and the amount is on the coupon. They can keep any cash you give them or any increased amount that you add on your account. The pooled "bar" tips go to those employees in that category, and if you add any extra it goes to the person who served you. You can ask as many CMs on DCL ships as you want; current or past CMs, and I have always gotten the same answer--that the tips go to the person and DCL does not keep any sort of processing or handling charge. They get every penny that you tip. Also, surprisingly, DCL suggested tips are lower than on some other lines...perhaps because the whole tip goes to the CM.

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I didn’t mean to cause problems. I didn’t know what the coupons were. I have on cruised Carnival and we paid tips in advance and were given envelopes on the last night if we wanted to give extra. I hope what I read was incorrect that when we prepaid that some cruise lines don’t give them to there employees or is it just someone saying it without really knowing

 

 

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Don't worry about it. Possibly the person saying that the crew doesn't get the gratuities was the same person here whose mission seems to be telling people it's not worthwhile to even give gratuities.

 

There are cruise lines that keep a portion of the daily service fee for administrative, but that doesn't happen on DCL.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Frankly I find the DCL $12 per guest per night tip to be on the low end, it's certainly higher on NCL for my next cruise. As for the head server, I do find on DCL they are slightly more interactive, checking in on many tables throughout the night. I didn't mind paying his tip at all. You don't have to do anything with the tip envelopes if you don't want; they are just there in case you want to hand something to the servers, and/or put something extra in, but there's no obligation.

 

Agree! We went on our first Disney cruise in April and I had budgeted way more because I thought it was $36 per person a night, not $12.

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FWIW, my daughter always enjoyed handing out the tip envelopes when she was young. And it was cute--the servers always made a little bow and a big "thank you" as they would with an adult. Of course, they also made a point of shaking my hand and thanking me as well.

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How about tipping at Palo's. As a Platinum member, I normally tip around $25/head. What are your thoughts?

Tipping at the adult only restaurants is "per your discretion" according to DCL. They used to say that the tip was included, and indeed, a part of the upcharge did go to the servers in a "pooled" situation. I have been unable to get any recent, accurate information (as in from a Palo server) as to what the current status is. We are also platinum, and add a tip to our ticket. We understand that the added tip goes to the person who served us, not to the Palo pool. DO realize that if you have ordered any bar items at Palo, you are already paying the 15% gratuity on those. I usually tip $15-20 per person at Palo. Honestly, I don't feel that any amount is right or wrong, so go with your feelings.

 

What I do know is that Palo servers have an easier lifestyle and get more tips than main dining room servers, even without the "standard" tips. And yes, I am well aware that they have assigned shifts at Cabanas, on the pool deck, etc. The goal for servers is to either move to adult only dining or to management positions!

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  • 4 weeks later...

So if I have prepaid my tips when I booked the cruise, then I will have a couple hundred dollar credit on my onboard account to use for anything else such as drinks and souvenirs? I’m just a little confused at this point!

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So if I have prepaid my tips when I booked the cruise, then I will have a couple hundred dollar credit on my onboard account to use for anything else such as drinks and souvenirs? I’m just a little confused at this point!

Sorry, I don't understand your question. If you have pre-paid your tips, then your tips are paid. Period. I don't see how you think you will have additional credit out of this. If you placed additional money on your account, it will also be there.

 

If you pre-pay the tip amount, it shows up as a credit on your account until the tips are actually debited out of that account.

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