Tips for Kids Crew

[coffeecat]

Hey!

My family is sailing on the Gem this spring! So excited! My brother is bringing his two kids and they are very excited to check out the kids crew. I have read on these boards that tipping for kids crew is customary. I am sure it varies widely and depends on how much the kids are there, but does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Coffeecat

[ThymeToCruise]

Our kids love the Kids' Crew staff, and we usually have to pull them out for dinner or family activities. So I guess you'd say we're "heavy users" and usually tip $100 for a week. You have to remember that the daily surcharge for tips does not include the Kids' Club staff, and we've always felt that they go far beyond what is expected of them. We also figure that alot of people don't even think about tipping, so we're trying to make up for that too.

Of course, your mileage may vary.

[coffeecat]

Our kids love the Kids' Crew staff, and we usually have to pull them out for dinner or family activities. So I guess you'd say we're "heavy users" and usually tip $100 for a week. You have to remember that the daily surcharge for tips does not include the Kids' Club staff, and we've always felt that they go far beyond what is expected of them. We also figure that alot of people don't even think about tipping, so we're trying to make up for that too.

Of course, your mileage may vary.

 

Thanks so much for the response! I know that my SIL is going to be asking so I wanted to be able to tell her what is the norm. If I may ask, is that 100$ per child, per counselor, or total?

 

Thank you!

Coffeecat

[ThymeToCruise]

That's total (for us). When we did a 12-day last year we put in more, for more days. But to balance the discussion a bit, when the counselors were able to lay out the envelopes (they can't anymore, NCL thinks it's "tacky") I accidentally picked up a filled one, and found only $20 inside. For all I know, these folks might have only used the service once or twice, but as I said in my earlier post, your mileage may vary.

[Warmer Climes]

We have one kid who uses the Kids Crew every second she can on every cruise and we tip them $60 to $80 for the week. For me if I had two kids in there most of the time I would think $100 is an appropriate amount.

 

As Thymetocruise said, the counselors are not in the tip pool and they always make our DD excited to be in their program, which allows DH and me to enjoy some time alone together. My thinking is that MY enjoyment of a cruise is based heavily on my DD's enjoyment, and the Kids Crew makes that happen (one reason we keep coming back to NCL!)

 

Have a great cruise!

 

Barb

[Vyhanek]

Kids Crew Counselors are not in the tip pool HOWEVER, they are salaried employees of NCL. Just like the Cruise Director and Excursion Desk employees.

 

I think $100 a week is way too big of a tip. I usually tip $50 a week for two well behaved kids who use the service for only the evening activities. I think most people tip far less than $50.

 

I've spoken with these Counselors about this in the past. Many of them have some college in areas of elementary education and early childhood ed. They report that NCL pays them about the equivalent of a first year teacher if you take into account their room and board.

 

They aren't in the normal tip pool but they aren't paid the same rate as the Cabin Stewards or the Bar Servers either.

[Geobugs]

Lets do the math...

 

Days Ports Hours in KC

Sat Venice 0

Sun Split 3

Mon Corfu 3

Tue Santorini 3

Wed Mykonos 3

Thu Iraklion 3

Fri At Sea 9

Sat Venice 0

 

Total hours in KC = 24 hours = $48 per child in my estimation.

[nadeki]

We pay at least $10 per child per day. You can not beat that for child care. And we too are trying to help make up for all those that do not contribute. The crew has so many expenses on board as there cabin key card works just like ours. They have to pay for internet minutes, restaurants etc...

 

I can not imagine trying to be cheap with anyone taking care of my kids so I can enjoy my vacation. I even give them my magazines and they seem to be grateful.

[coffeecat]

Thank you everyone for all the information in input! It really does seem to vary quite a bit but now I feel prepared to answer questions regarding this when it comes up on our trip. From everything I have read people seem to be extremely happy with the kids crew which is just so great. My nieces are totally psyched for the trip!

 

Is the backpack a good idea? I have read a couple of threads on this and it seems like a good deal. Any other tips for the kids crew in general?

 

Thanks again for all the responses!

 

Coffeecat

[CanadianTwosome]

Thank you everyone for all the information in input! It really does seem to vary quite a bit but now I feel prepared to answer questions regarding this when it comes up on our trip. From everything I have read people seem to be extremely happy with the kids crew which is just so great. My nieces are totally psyched for the trip!

 

Is the backpack a good idea? I have read a couple of threads on this and it seems like a good deal. Any other tips for the kids crew in general?

 

Thanks again for all the responses!

 

Coffeecat

 

This is going to depend on the kids in question. I bought one for my daughter on our first cruise and she liked it, but honestly we didn't get much use out of it. She doesn't drink soda or American style iced tea, so the band went unused, but I knew that going in and wanted the backpack and the other contents as souvenirs. The backpack itself is fairly small and very bright; it's great for smaller kids and can be useful in port. The sunglasses are bright plastic wayfarers; my daughter really wasn't much for wearing them, but they were great on a towel doggie that our stewards made. :) Let's see... what else was in there? Ah, there was a tee shirt, but it was never worn because on the last night there's a pillow fight and tee shirt decorating in the Kid's Crew and you get to keep the shirt - my daughter always has all of her friends and the crew sign it, so it's much better than the 'plain' one that came in the backpack.

 

So... it may sound like I'm discouraging the backpack, but I think for the right kids at the right age, it's an excellent investment - especially if they'll use the drink band. I don't regret buying it at all. My daughter was very excited and happy when she saw it and she did get some use out of it while we were on the trip. I've spent more money on things that have been much less useful or enjoyable. :)

[smeyer418]

$50 per child is what I use as a guide for a week....

 

There are more than one counselor so its really not much per person....IMO

 

BTW now that they raised the service charge to 12 per child I do think at least some of that should go to the kids crew....

 

I also spoke with one of the kids crew not assigned to my child she came to the VIP reception. She told me of one demanding person with two kids who made them jump through hoops and in the end left a total of $10.00....(and the kid wouldn't listen and I wonder why-not really)

 

$50 per child is a good tip...

[maui07]

YC's do NOT make anywhere near what a beginner teacher makes. You cannot count living in a tiny box with 3 other roomates equivilant to room and board. Keep those $100 tips coming. The staff makes between $1200-1700 a month (and you are taxed if from the US) for a 50+ hour work week.

 

ps. about 3% of parents tip in general

[MechTeach]

We have 2 children, and tip about $100/week. We are not super-heavy users, but the kids do love the club, and spend a decent amount of time there.

 

FWIW, on the last cruise, my husband noticed that a lot of other parents were not tipping. We felt bad about that, and wish that we had innocently asked some of the other people for advice about how much to tip, so that maybe they would have started to think about it.

[CanadianTwosome]

We have 2 children, and tip about $100/week. We are not super-heavy users, but the kids do love the club, and spend a decent amount of time there.

 

FWIW, on the last cruise, my husband noticed that a lot of other parents were not tipping. We felt bad about that, and wish that we had innocently asked some of the other people for advice about how much to tip, so that maybe they would have started to think about it.

 

I think it's very hard to tell if people are tipping or not. Many people consider it something that should be done discreetly. For us, on our last cruise, both my husband and I thought the other had brought an envelope along to our last pick up, but we hadn't. By the time we scrambled around and got back to the Kid's Crew with it, the whole area was like a ghost town and I felt lucky we'd made it in time to catch a staff member still there. I imagine we would have been a couple that you assumed were not tipping.

 

In general response to the thread, I wanted to add, also, that the tip in that particular envelope was a mere $20. :eek: Based on some of the posts in this thread, I think I'm supposed to feel somehow 'guilty' or 'cheap' about that. I don't. The Kid's Crew staff are paid at least adequately (first year teacher's salary sounds pretty good to me), and of all the ones I've talked to, not a single one is providing for anyone but themselves. On the other hand, at my daughter's school, there are lunch room supervisors who are mostly parents trying to supplement their family's income, with a supervisor to kid ratio of something like 30 to 1. They have to stand watch in a room full of kids who all have someplace they'd rather be, are armed with food (meaning a potential for throwing, spitting, choking, etc.), and may have even snuck in something with nuts. :eek: They don't have organized activities to fall back on, they are usually alone in their designated room, and they're paid about $50 per week. So... back to Kid's Crew... I do not feel obligated to tip them. Of course, I also don't feel obligated to tip servers. In both cases, I tip based on HOW they provide their service, not IF they provide their service. I also tip similarly in that when I tip for meal service I calculate a percentage of the bill; the $20 I gave at Kid's Crew was about what I would leave for a $100 meal. Based on what I used to pay for my daughter's full time daycare when she was 3, I'm comfortable with assigning that value to the time my 10 year old spent at Kid's Crew on the Pearl. (including time spent helping with the younger children since there weren't many her age)

 

So... my point is simply that tipping is a personal choice and should be made - or not made - according to what WE think is appropriate. We left more on the Star the year before because there were more kids and the experience for our daughter was much more robust; the staff definitely had to work harder, and they absolutely went the 'extra mile' to make the kids all feel special (including enthusiastically greeting kids by name when in port or elsewhere on the ship). There were numerous activities that did not take place on the Pearl, such as family karaoke, a pirate parade, and a kid's talent show, to name a few. Leaving the same tip on the Pearl as we did on the Star would have been inappropriate.

[smeyer418]

I think it's very hard to tell if people are tipping or not. Many people consider it something that should be done discreetly. For us, on our last cruise, both my husband and I thought the other had brought an envelope along to our last pick up, but we hadn't. By the time we scrambled around and got back to the Kid's Crew with it, the whole area was like a ghost town and I felt lucky we'd made it in time to catch a staff member still there. I imagine we would have been a couple that you assumed were not tipping.

 

In general response to the thread, I wanted to add, also, that the tip in that particular envelope was a mere $20. :eek: Based on some of the posts in this thread, I think I'm supposed to feel somehow 'guilty' or 'cheap' about that. I don't. The Kid's Crew staff are paid at least adequately (first year teacher's salary sounds pretty good to me), and of all the ones I've talked to, not a single one is providing for anyone but themselves. On the other hand, at my daughter's school, there are lunch room supervisors who are mostly parents trying to supplement their family's income, with a supervisor to kid ratio of something like 30 to 1. They have to stand watch in a room full of kids who all have someplace they'd rather be, are armed with food (meaning a potential for throwing, spitting, choking, etc.), and may have even snuck in something with nuts. :eek: They don't have organized activities to fall back on, they are usually alone in their designated room, and they're paid about $50 per week. So... back to Kid's Crew... I do not feel obligated to tip them. Of course, I also don't feel obligated to tip servers. In both cases, I tip based on HOW they provide their service, not IF they provide their service. I also tip similarly in that when I tip for meal service I calculate a percentage of the bill; the $20 I gave at Kid's Crew was about what I would leave for a $100 meal. Based on what I used to pay for my daughter's full time daycare when she was 3, I'm comfortable with assigning that value to the time my 10 year old spent at Kid's Crew on the Pearl. (including time spent helping with the younger children since there weren't many her age)

 

So... my point is simply that tipping is a personal choice and should be made - or not made - according to what WE think is appropriate. We left more on the Star the year before because there were more kids and the experience for our daughter was much more robust; the staff definitely had to work harder, and they absolutely went the 'extra mile' to make the kids all feel special (including enthusiastically greeting kids by name when in port or elsewhere on the ship). There were numerous activities that did not take place on the Pearl, such as family karaoke, a pirate parade, and a kid's talent show, to name a few. Leaving the same tip on the Pearl as we did on the Star would have been inappropriate.

 

 

I for one won't disagree. If the cruise line expects them to be tipped, I wish they would just have them get part of the daily service charge. Yes its personal but if the cruise line expects it to be done, they should just include it and not make it so no one knows what is the "right" amount anyway. Then the whole issue doesn't come up and if you feel that they are outstanding and want to leave a small additional amount it really isn't an issue.

[smeyer418]

.

 

ps. about 3% of parents tip in general

 

 

do you have a source for this? my friends tell me its about 75% leave at least something.

[maui07]

Yes, I do have a source...I used to work as a youth counselor for NCL for several years as well as for Celebrity cruise line.

 

As for tipping, I atually didn't ever expect it and that is because I know that the majority of parents don't do it (but it was great when we were tipped and much appreciated). The parents that tip were generally the younger kid's parents because they had to sign in their child and their was more chance for interaction. Forget about tipping from the older kids who could sign themselves in and out (because there was NO child/counselor interaction) and teens-NEVER. Remember all the tips are pooled so if the counselors received $200 in tips it would be divided 5 (or how ever many counselors were onboard deprnding on the season) ways.

 

And yes you are right, the YC's are salaried employees -the waitstaff, bartenders, room stewards make 2-3 times the amount of a YC-and they should, they work their tails off get treated poorly and are supporting famly back home. This is just my honest opinion.:)

[smeyer418]

Yes, I do have a source...I used to work as a youth counselor for NCL for several years as well as for Celebrity cruise line.

 

As for tipping, I atually didn't ever expect it and that is because I know that the majority of parents don't do it (but it was great when we were tipped and much appreciated). The parents that tip were generally the younger kid's parents because they had to sign in their child and their was more chance for interaction. Forget about tipping from the older kids who could sign themselves in and out (because there was NO child/counselor interaction) and teens-NEVER. Remember all the tips are pooled so if the counselors received $200 in tips it would be divided 5 (or how ever many counselors were onboard deprnding on the season) ways.

 

And yes you are right, the YC's are salaried employees -the waitstaff, bartenders, room stewards make 2-3 times the amount of a YC-and they should, they work their tails off get treated poorly and are supporting famly back home. This is just my honest opinion.:)

thanks!

[k4btzs]

Yes, I do have a source...I used to work as a youth counselor for NCL for several years as well as for Celebrity cruise line.

 

As for tipping, I atually didn't ever expect it and that is because I know that the majority of parents don't do it (but it was great when we were tipped and much appreciated). The parents that tip were generally the younger kid's parents because they had to sign in their child and their was more chance for interaction. Forget about tipping from the older kids who could sign themselves in and out (because there was NO child/counselor interaction) and teens-NEVER. Remember all the tips are pooled so if the counselors received $200 in tips it would be divided 5 (or how ever many counselors were onboard deprnding on the season) ways.

 

And yes you are right, the YC's are salaried employees -the waitstaff, bartenders, room stewards make 2-3 times the amount of a YC-and they should, they work their tails off get treated poorly and are supporting famly back home. This is just my honest opinion.:)

 

We must be in the minority then because on our 7 day cruise I had 1 child in the 7-9 group and 1 in the 10-12 group and we tipped both groups. We didn't know what kind of tip was customary but we tipped either $50 or $60 to each group and my kids were not what I would consider heavy users, maybe 2-3 hours a day or less. For my son who could sign himself in and out, I gave him the envelope and had him give it to the counselors. Hopefully it made the counselors happy to get a tip, especially if those age groups don't typically tip.