Well Kept Secrete about Tips

[jenms2000]

The room stewards get no salary whatsoever----exist just on tips. I went to the Behind the Fun Tour and believe me it was an eye-opener!:eek:

we were told on the behind the fun tour last week that any tipping personnel makes $48.75USD per month. not per week. that blew our minds.....:eek:

[samikitty]

Also the Sail and Sign method assures that people you never see are compensated for doing their job.....

 

Sorry, but is that really my tips? Compensation for someone I never see? I never see the guys in the engine room, but I am sure they are doing a great job... maybe Carnival should implement a new $0.30/day charge for that too?

 

I am all for auto-tips, and an extended gratuity to those who provide exceptional service. These guys work hard for their tips. I will not, however, tip the ass't maitre'd because they came around and ask how my meal is.

[skylock]

I just wish CCL would charge the auto tips as a mandatory surcharge for every passenger-like a fuel surcharge.

 

Why? What business of yours is it what someone tips?

 

we were told on the behind the fun tour last week that any tipping personnel makes $48.75USD per month. not per week. that blew our minds.....:eek:

 

Why? Did you add room, board and medical on to that? For the majority of the service workers, $50 USD a month is about what they could hope for in their home country.

 

My neighbors son just married a girl from Panama. Her father is a plumber and the family is quite well off by the town standards, but they did not have a car or running water even.

 

Some nurses I work with tells of how in the Philippines they would have to save for 7-10 months to buy a pair of shoes and now they can buy several pairs a week.

[yambo]

The cruise ship staff is divided into two main groups - tipping personnel and non-tipping personnel.

Tipping personnel

 

Tipping personnel are the staff with direct contact with the guests who pay them "tips". There are specified amounts of tips per particular positions which are advised to guests prior to embarkation and which vary from one cruise line to another. Such personnel are waiters, busboys /assistant waiters, bar waiters/waitresses, bartenders, cocktail waitresses, etc. Tipping personnel have a small base salary. Most of their earnings are tips. Approximate sample earnings in this group are (in U.S. Dollars per month):

 

Waiter from $2500 to $4000

Busboy / Assistant Waiter from $1500 to $3000

Bar Waiter / Waitressfrom $1000 to $2500

Bartenderfrom $1500 to $3000

 

If they don't have the normal (land based) job expenses like housing, food, insurance (medical, housing, auto), taxes, clothing, transportation, and the like then aren't these pretty good earnings?

 

Ignore me if it's a stupid question since I'm still waiting to go on my first cruise...

[winddawn]

Considering the hours they put in between 12 - 14 hours a day 7 days a week for 8 long months with no other source of income coming in. :confused:

Well said. Carnival staff work very hard for very long hours trying to give us a good cruise experience. I can't imagine that anyone would stiff them out of their tips.

 

I can only imagine that I might be in a bad mood occasionally working those long hours. I can imagine that they might too--especially putting up with occasional insensitive passengers.

 

Carnival workers rock! :-) Now what about the Carnival "beards??" That's another story!

[stetucke]

$5.50 per day goes to MDR staff, $3.50 per day to your cabin steward and $1.00 per day to Lido staff. If you take off the auto tip (and this should NEVER be done, unless you had horrid service, which never occurs) then no tips are placed on your S&S card. If you have someone that gives you extra special service, tip them extra.

 

Wow never occurs, not even once. Way to speak in absolutes. I have had it happen, I said something to the MD who changed out waiters and we did have excellent service. Having watched a few other tables have the same problem with the same waiter who was gone by the second day all together I guess it does happen while. If I got stuck with the waiter from day one the whole week not only would I have not tipped him I probably would have not gone back to the MDR. The guy screwed himself because we were a table of about 12 people who will tip well and beyond for great service like we did to the waiter who replaced the grumpy guy.

[Zambini]

I think of it this way, you have a wait staff assigned to your table they don't get the night off if you don't come to the MDR, they are still there, so I would not remove the tips. Plus they have to work breakfast and lunch also, so the tips aren't just for dinner.

 

I also tip at all the restaurants in my neighborhood I don't eat at, poor waitstaff, they came to work anyway...:rolleyes:

[RossTheBoss]

There is NO PERCENTAGE calculation. The OP posted erroneous information.

The service staff get a salary commensurate with their length of employment, experience and position. Plus WHATEVER they make in tips. The salary has been well known not to be large. And tips ARE their mainstay. But there is no percentage calculation

 

The OP did not say it was a percentage calculation!

[halos]

I just don't make assumptions.. For all we know he could be worth millions and felt that he wanted to tip extra to whomever..

 

That is just me though..;)

 

My assumption would be that folks making millions wouldn't be sailing CCL. :p

 

You know, I really could care less what Carnival pays their staff. That's between the staff and Carnival. What I have a problem with is people acting like these poor souls are being taken advantage of, and then trying to make the rest of us feel like it's our fault.

 

I'm sorry, but I don't feel sorry for those folks in the slightest. I'm sure they knew the terms of their contract before they signed on, and if they didn't they should have.

 

Unless I receive the service that I think I should have you can be sure that I would not hesitate to remove tips.

 

On the other hand, if the service is above par, so will be the tip.

 

Bravo!!

I will add that I have never, ever felt the need to remove auto-tips and we've always recieved the service that deserved extra tips.

 

'Pity' and feeling sorry for these people is just wrong, IMO. When they do their job well, they make nice money. They are not slaves. I worked a service job and my salary was crap. Tips were definitely more than 75% of what I pulled in. This isn't a 'cruise' thing, it's a service job thing. Yes, cruise employees have tough hours, really tough....but this is a job they chose. They can quit at any time.

[pnjkeith]

I am only assuming this, but if someone removed auto tip at the beginning of the cruise, they would be billed the last night on the SS card correct? Isn't it $10 per day per person mandatory? Who does the auto tip take care of?

No tips are required. Tip or not, thats your decision.

[CorvetteLady]

I also tip at all the restaurants in my neighborhood I don't eat at, poor waitstaff, they came to work anyway...:rolleyes:

 

That's like comparing apples to oranges. People are assigned to tables in the MDR if they don't show up the tables are empty, no one is walking off the street to fill them. Those same waiters have to work breakfast and lunch and I have seen them on the Lido too.

 

I guess you just can't grasp the idea that the waitstaff does more than just serve you dinner.

[Zambini]

That's like comparing apples to oranges. People are assigned to tables in the MDR if they don't show up the tables are empty, no one is walking off the street to fill them. Those same waiters have to work breakfast and lunch and I have seen them on the Lido too.

 

I guess you just can't grasp the idea that the waitstaff does more than just serve you dinner.

 

It is the same, if I'm not there, no reason to tip, having gotten no service.

 

If I'm not there, they don't have to work as hard and EARN a tip, do they.

 

From Carnival:

"Our Staff is totally committed to exceed your expectations in every way possible. If you are not satisfied with the service you receive, we encourage you to contact the Guest Services desk while onboard. This will allow us to address your concerns in a timely and appropriate fashion. At your discretion, you may adjust the gratuities at any time while onboard. Gratuities will be deemed undisputed unless a request to modify is received prior to disembarking the ship."

 

Why would I tip for service I didn't receive?:confused:

 

Only an idiot would tip for something they didn't get.

[ilovesalsa]

Since everyone seems to have an opinion on tipping, what's appropriate and what's not, let me ask this...

 

If a 3 man lounge band learned and performed a new song for you, just because you asked if they knew it, would you tip? How much? I was on a 5 day, and on the last night they sang the new song for me. Would you hand the tip individually to each member, or let the lead spread it around? I totally did not know how to handle it. I was a first-time cruiser, and really other than the automatic tipping, gave no thought to the issue of tipping. I didn't realize all the other situations where a tip might be appropriate. I'm not gonna say what I tipped (lol), but feel free to tell me how you think you would have handled it.

[CorvetteLady]

It is the same, if I'm not there, no reason to tip, having gotten no service.

 

If I'm not there, they don't have to work as hard and EARN a tip, do they.

 

From Carnival:

"Our Staff is totally committed to exceed your expectations in every way possible. If you are not satisfied with the service you receive, we encourage you to contact the Guest Services desk while onboard. This will allow us to address your concerns in a timely and appropriate fashion. At your discretion, you may adjust the gratuities at any time while onboard. Gratuities will be deemed undisputed unless a request to modify is received prior to disembarking the ship."

 

Why would I tip for service I didn't receive?:confused:

 

Only an idiot would tip for something they didn't get.

 

I feel that I get good service on a cruise. I don't tip everyone that does something for me. I feel that the service I get in the MDR is worth more than the auto tip so I tip extra. I understand how the tipping works and even if I didn't use the MDR I would not remove the auto tip. That does not make me an idiot, nor is the person who removes the tip an idiot. We just disagree on the value of seen and unseen services.

[Sandgnat]

Since everyone seems to have an opinion on tipping, what's appropriate and what's not, let me ask this...

 

If a 3 man lounge band learned and performed a new song for you, just because you asked if they knew it, would you tip? How much? I was on a 5 day, and on the last night they sang the new song for me. Would you hand the tip individually to each member, or let the lead spread it around? I totally did not know how to handle it. I was a first-time cruiser, and really other than the automatic tipping, gave no thought to the issue of tipping. I didn't realize all the other situations where a tip might be appropriate. I'm not gonna say what I tipped (lol), but feel free to tell me how you think you would have handled it.

I would of sent the band their favorite choice of drink.

[ilovesalsa]

I would of sent the band their favorite choice of drink.

 

They can drink while performing? I thought about that. I figured drinks are cheaper in the crew bar, so maybe they'd rather have the $$.

[Perfect Stranger]

Three signature drinks could be $30.00....for a song?!

 

I'd hand one a $5.00 and say thanks.

[ilovesalsa]

Three signature drinks could be $30.00....for a song?!

 

I'd hand one a $5.00 and say thanks.

 

It does sound like alot, doesn't it? But how much time do you think they spent working up the song? They don't have sheet music or words in front of them. The singer had to learn the lyrics, the keyboardist played the music just like the original. I pictured them down below in some crew room, working this up, in hopes for a good tip. I figured 3 men's wages x at least 30 minutes, if not more.

[Perfect Stranger]

I wouldn't have felt obligated. It's not as if you asked them to learn and play a song for an anniversary or something.

[dan40]

The OP did not say it was a percentage calculation!

 

I can read. This from the OP's post,

 

"your bill ($70.00 pp) is 95% of their income they earn. Carnival only supplements this by only 5%. Meaning that our tips for the wait staff pay for 95% of their salary."

 

Now he MAY have meant that it is APPROXIMATELY 95% but that's NOT what he said. I simply pointed out that there is no % calculation, I did not claim the salary wasn't low.

[elcuchio24]

I can read. This from the OP's post,

 

"your bill ($70.00 pp) is 95% of their income they earn. Carnival only supplements this by only 5%. Meaning that our tips for the wait staff pay for 95% of their salary."

 

Now he MAY have meant that it is APPROXIMATELY 95% but that's NOT what he said. I simply pointed out that there is no % calculation, I did not claim the salary wasn't low.

 

Exactly. Obviously there will never be an exact percentage because it will vary from cruise to cruise depending on how many people are on the sailing, and how many people remove or add tips. Tip the crew well, but don't feel sorry for them. Its a good job for 75% of the worlds population (probably more). They have not been shanghighed into contracts and the majority are not first timers, they come back because the money is good compared to the money they would make in their home country.

[Zambini]

I feel that I get good service on a cruise. I don't tip everyone that does something for me. I feel that the service I get in the MDR is worth more than the auto tip so I tip extra. I understand how the tipping works and even if I didn't use the MDR I would not remove the auto tip. That does not make me an idiot, nor is the person who removes the tip an idiot. We just disagree on the value of seen and unseen services.

 

I just adjust my tips to the level of service I get, if I don't use the dining rooms that day/night, I adjust it downward for that day.

[monkeyates]

Riiiight! My BS flag is stiff in the breeze.

 

We were in a cat. 11 suite. I spend big and I tip big. If you don't believe me just ask the DW. Why ya pickin on me?

[dan40]

I just adjust my tips to the level of service I get, if I don't use the dining rooms that day/night, I adjust it downward for that day.

 

 

Do you then tip the buffet workers the withheld amount?

 

A big difference on a cruise is that your seat and your waiters ARE in the MDR awaiting your arrival. No one else is going to sit in your chair or be served by your waiters. Unlike a land restaurant, they cannot 'make it up' on the next diners sat in that seat, as there are no next diners sat in your place.

[PennyAgain]

The title of this thread says 'secret' but it is not a secret at all. Minimal wages and working for tips is how cruise ships treat their employees.