Tipping....Hmmm

[MrPete]

Wow! They make a lot more money then i do per month almost $2000 more. In their country they would be considered rich.

 

ok i keep hearing how they only make a lil bit of money. How did you get this info

 

How many days, and how many hours a week do you work?

[Yvonne]

Another tipping thread.:eek: Pass the popcorn, please!

 

Happy cruising to all!

 

Bob

 

Oh good grief :rolleyes: I'll tell you what you can do with your popcorn...

 

As to the original question, we love the auto tipping and then just add cash to the envelope at the end of the cruise. Usually at least $20, sometimes more. I think there was only one time that we did not tip the head waiter, he never came around even once during the week to introduce himself. Normally they come around once per night, those are the ones we tip. The last time I cruised, it was with my Mom and she had some dietary issues and the head waiter came to our table early each night to make sure she wasn't eating anything she wasn't supposed to. I thought he was very sweet, so he got a much larger tip than normal. I think the crew works very, very hard for their money and they have to put up with a lot of crap from some passengers.

[toby #1]

Wow! They make a lot more money then i do per month almost $2000 more. In their country they would be considered rich.

 

ok i keep hearing how they only make a lil bit of money. How did you get this info

 

You poor thing.

 

I'm wondering how you can afford to cruise :confused:

[toby #1]

Oh good grief :rolleyes: I'll tell you what you can do with your popcorn...

 

As to the original question, we love the auto tipping and then just add cash to the envelope at the end of the cruise. Usually at least $20, sometimes more. I think there was only one time that we did not tip the head waiter, he never came around even once during the week to introduce himself. Normally they come around once per night, those are the ones we tip. The last time I cruised, it was with my Mom and she had some dietary issues and the head waiter came to our table early each night to make sure she wasn't eating anything she wasn't supposed to. I thought he was very sweet, so he got a much larger tip than normal. I think the crew works very, very hard for their money and they have to put up with a lot of crap from some passengers.

 

I agree with you.

 

We always tip the stewards and mdr head waiter & asst. Always except one time we didn't tip the head waiter. He never brought our meals at the same time. We had to wait for the others or one of us to get our dinner. He seemed to cater to a table next to us and was always there for them. Our Asst. waiter tried hard and we tipped him extra.

[FamilyDoc]

We just did the galley tour on the Conquest and she said the wait staff currently make $85 a month plus tips and that the average "station" the waiters have is between 16 (for low seniority) and 25 passengers.

 

So if they have several family groups they can have lower tips. She said lots of families that don't bring the kids to all the meals take the kids tips off. I don't remember what the autotips are but the math should be relatively simple for an estimate. 20 pax X 2 meal times X 4 cruises a month. She did say that the new guidelines say that they can "only" work 70 hours per week now and can only carry 12 plates per tray. Less injuries that way but more trips back and forth. She said they get blocks of time off but in a 6 month contract usually only get maybe 3 full days off. Something else I found interesting, if they are sick and cannot work they are not allowed to leave the cabin for any reason. Meals are brought to them and even in what would have been sched'd down time they have to stay in the cabin until they have returned to work.

[drivemecrazy]

Okay, you go out to eat at a nice place and have steak and lobster. Your bill comes to...oh let's say $60 for the two of you. You tip 20%, that's $12 and then go back home. On a cruise for the same meal you tip $7 (that's for the whole day for two people) and then go to a show and then to the casino and then watch a glorious sunset and then go to your room which has been cleaned twice that day and the bed has been turned down. Someone call a waaabulance I've been mugged.

[dave76310]

They are paid a small amount by Carnival. ($70 per month plus room and board) The extra comes from the tips they earn.

 

When you consider that in many of the countries the workers come from, the min wage is around $50 a month for 6-7 12 hr days, their job is not so bad.

 

The ones who go on and on about they deserve so much more are basing that on what one would expect to make in the US. Those people do not live in the US.

 

I just laugh when everyone talks about how hard they work. I liken their duties to the nursing assistants I have worked with. Most of them fine people. 3 assistants on the floor. 2 are "busy" from the minute they hit the floor until they leave. The other is usually reading a magazine and getting to answer the call lights because the other two were "busy". When I really started watching the "busy" workers, I noticed they were doing the same things over and over. (folding a towel) Not really getting anything done. Everyone talked about how "hard" they worked. The one that reads a magazine seeming most of the day's work was complete. You rarely found anything she missed. I asked her how she had so much extra time. She said there really is not that much work if you just do it and don't play around.

 

I'm inclined to believe both, the $3000 and the $70. Fact is, it will always work out in the end. Some will overtip, some will undertip. Undertipping, defined by Carnival and American Express standards does not mean you are cheap. It means you have different standards, which you are allowed to have in a free country. Why is it such a hot issue here?

 

All jobs on the ship are definitely unique. You sleep 8 hours and eventually get bored with what little else there is to do in those you do not work. You might as well be working. The job is designed that way and the staff know it in advance. It definitely is not for everyone. On the other hand, I believe what you all are calling hard work, is actually good training. The staff are trained to always be doing something while they are in the public area. Whether they are picking up plates at the buffet, putting towels in the locker room, or cleaning a toilet, they are always focused on their jobs and polite. None of this is necessarily, hard.

 

I used to work in the construction field in south Texas, working in 90+ degree heat 8-10 hours a day coming home with sore muscles and soaking wet from sweat. I have yet to see any staff member on a cruise ship, certainly not wait staff or stewards with sweat on their brow. So who worked harder? Matter of opinion.

 

Personally, if I were still able to do those kind of hours and I got the choice of working in south Texas or on a cruise ship, I would take the cruise ship job any day. Staff earn their tips by making you happy and providing you service above expectations. They do no earn them by being "poor", and you feeling sorry for them. "Poor" is a highly subjective term, and most understand that $1000 will go a lot further in the Phillippines than it will in the US, particularly Oregon :D. Paying these people what you want to pay them will put them all in castles and there will be no one left except Americans to work on cruise ships. I don't believe anyone wants that to happen.

[5o'clocksomewhere]

Please remember that they work 12 to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, 6 to 7 months in a row. I don't know many Americans that are willing to work that hard for that pay. They earn what they make.

Pat

 

For pay that is worth sometimes 15 times more then what I make here in the U.S.:confused: Where do I sign up:D I think anyone would be stupid to turn that down........

[dan40]

You Floridians make it up in sales tax--that's something we don't have in Oregon. :)

 

What do you need with a sales tax? I thot you grew or made everything you needed at home!

And our max sales tax is 7.5% [6.5% here] and doesn't apply to everything. Far below the 8.4% charged to a couple making only $75,000. A couple making $125,000 owes $10824.00 a slightly higher %. You stick with your income tax and rain,:p:p I'll stick with the sales tax and sunshine.:) Trade you a hurricane or two tho!!!:mad::D

[Quilting_Cruiser]

What do you need with a sales tax? I thot you grew or made everything you needed at home!

And our max sales tax is 7.5% [6.5% here] and doesn't apply to everything. Far below the 8.4% charged to a couple making only $75,000. A couple making $125,000 owes $10824.00 a slightly higher %. You stick with your income tax and rain,:p I'll stick with the sales tax and sunshine. Trade you a hurricane or two tho!!!:mad::D

 

That's right--I just made my man a new buckskin shirt only yesterday. Today, I'm mudding the log cabin and sweeping out these dirt floors and tending the garden. ;)

 

Hurricanes? Well, can't say I've personally experienced one. You're right, I'll keep my high income tax rate and pay lower taxes on my home and for fuel than you do. :) Oh, BTW, the temp yesterday was high 90s. How's the humdity there???

 

:D

[dan40]

That's right--I just made my man a new buckskin shirt only yesterday. Today, I'm mudding the log cabin and sweeping out these dirt floors and tending the garden.

 

Hurricanes? Well, can't say I've personally experienced one. You're right, I'll keep my high income tax rate and pay lower taxes on my home and for fuel than you do. Oh, BTW, the temp yesterday was high 90s. How's the humdity there???

 

 

The same,,,,,,,,high 90's:eek::D

 

 

Currently:

 

90° (Heat Index 97°) Dewpoint: 72° Wind: NE 10 MPH Humidity: 56% Pressure: 30.02 in Hg Average: High 90° Low 73°

Record: High 96° (1995) Low 68° (1989)

 

When I lived in Ca. I had to go to Oregon to train a salesman. Halfway there I thought, "Arrrr I didn't bring a raincoat!"

Didn't matter, it snowed off and on the whole week I was there!

 

Also was working with the same salesman a few years later when Mt. St Helen blew her big steam plume. I flew out that day [scheduled, not running:D] and she blew her top the next day. Somewhere in the archives [or thrown out by the wife] I have a bottle of volcanic ash he collected for me.

[quickrate]

For pay that is worth sometimes 15 times more then what I make here in the U.S.:confused: Where do I sign up:D I think anyone would be stupid to turn that down........

You wouldn't last a week. Many Americans have tried, but it's too much for them. So you're saying that $3,000 a month is 15 times more than you make?:eek:

Pat

[5o'clocksomewhere]

You wouldn't last a week. Many Americans have tried, but it's too much for them. So you're saying that $3,000 a month is 15 times more than you make?:eek:

Pat

 

Exchange rates;) The Americans that were working on cruise ships were getting paid U.S. dollars......So no I wouldn't work that many hours for $3,000.........

But if I had a chance to make 10 to 15 times what I make now......this American would have no problem and doing so with a big smile on my face......

[twinklen01]

You poor thing.

 

I'm wondering how you can afford to cruise :confused:

 

We have to have two incomes to pay the mortgage, bills, health insurance etc. Dh use to cut my hair when it was one length but the cut i have now i go get a $15 cut, i dye my own hair, we only have one kid and instead of spending money on junk we save for a cruise. Jan will be only our 2nd cruise.

 

$3000 is a lot of money in other countries. If cruise workers make $3000 on a cruise ship imagine what others in their county make that dont work on cruise ships. I know cruise workers work hard and deserve tips . I just didnt know they made that much money.

[dave76310]

Sometimes those cost of living differences occur pretty close to home. My 1700 sq ft home here in nowhere, Texas cost me $70,000. It would go for 2-4 times that in more populated areas of the State, and probably 10 times that in California or New York. If this same house is in the Phillipines, it may go for $2000. What takes me 30 years to pay off here will take a cabin steward one weeks pay, based on the numbers being thrown around on this thread. That is the comparison that needs to be made. That $70 a month may be providing a better living for them than some of us that make $70 an hour in some parts of the USA. Do you think those American Express tipping standards are designed for people from the Phillipines? Do you think people in the Phillipines pay those kind of tips when they go out to eat? It probably does not go to this extreme, but you won't find any cruise staff admitting they are doing pretty good, true or not. Just think, these are very smart people from all over the world who actually speak english (unlike many uh, immigrants, along the southern border of the US), can carry on conversations, have legitimate skills and work very hard to make others happy. They know what they are doing and certainly deserve a nice income for doing so. I'm just not sure it should be the "recommended" amount of tips.

[loxley]

You wouldn't last a week. Many Americans have tried, but it's too much for them. So you're saying that $3,000 a month is 15 times more than you make?:eek:

Pat

 

If I could make 30 times minimum wage working on a cruise ship, I would be there in a heartbeat. (about what an unskilled worker from a third world country makes working on a cruise ship vs what they would make in their home country)

 

The thing is, $3000 a month to an American is not worth it to work like that. Considering most third world country workers can expect <$100 A MONTH it very much is WORTH IT.

[loxley]

Okay, you go out to eat at a nice place and have steak and lobster. Your bill comes to...oh let's say $60 for the two of you. You tip 20%, that's $12 and then go back home. On a cruise for the same meal you tip $7 (that's for the whole day for two people) and then go to a show and then to the casino and then watch a glorious sunset and then go to your room which has been cleaned twice that day and the bed has been turned down. Someone call a waaabulance I've been mugged.

 

Look at it another way. If your server was from the phillipines and was living at the restraunt with room and board paid, it would be like you had tipped them $120 for the meal once they convert it into pesos. Probably more. So that little $7 is the same as giving a $70 tip for your meal on the cruise.

 

As someone else said, you can not compare what they earn by US standards because they are not living in the US. However, we are expected to tip them as if they do.

 

I leave my tips in place usually, but do not tip more. In terms of value to them, my ten dollars is equal to about $100 buying power to them in their home country and that is more than enough.

[dan40]

If I could make 30 times minimum wage working on a cruise ship, I would be there in a heartbeat. (about what an unskilled worker from a third world country makes working on a cruise ship vs what they would make in their home country)

 

The thing is, $3000 a month to an American is not worth it to work like that. Considering most third world country workers can expect <$100 A MONTH it very much is WORTH IT.

 

$ 3000.00 a month is $3000.00 a month. If you want it to have the purchasing power you are talking about, You'll have to go to the Philippines and live in the barrio too. Those nipa huts aren't too bad. Slept on the floor of one. Woke up with lines of mosquito bites where they came up through the floor boards!!:eek:

[Havingfun2010]

If we have the same server every night, and I have never had to ask for iced tea and extra butter after the first time i asked for it, or the waiter brings my husband an extra lobster tail because he has seen he has a big appetite, then we give extra tips to the busboy and waiter at the end.

 

If the maitre d has to change our table or do anything special for us other than just show up at the table on tip night, then he gets an extra tip.

 

if i see the cabin steward smiling at me in the hallway, and then he is pretty much invisible except when i want something....yet somehow manages to make up our cabin perfectly every time we leave before we come back, then he gets an extra tip.

 

the amount can be anywhere from an extra $10.00 to an extra $25.00, depending on who and what they did.

 

Ok, sounds like all these people are doing what they are suppose to be doing per there employment contract. So what is exceptional? Lets not confuse "exceptional" with doing their job.

 

Tip more based on if you want, but don't sugar coat it when they are doing exactly what they are suppose to be doing!

[loxley]

Ok, sounds like all these people are doing what they are suppose to be doing per there employment contract. So what is exceptional? Lets not confuse "exceptional" with doing their job.

 

Tip more based on if you want, but don't sugar coat it when they are doing exactly what they are suppose to be doing!

 

They think that is exceptional service because they are used to service in the US.

 

You get slap dash service in the US and are expected to tip 20%. More if they actually do a good job at the slap dash service.

 

What has happened to service in America? If you go to the Mexican place around here, service is excellent. Any other place, service is sorry. I am much happier tipping the illegal workers, yes I know that for a fact, than I am the American servers.

 

I told my husband last night they need to open up a job center to teach the waitresses how to do their job. At the very least, they should make sure what you ordered is what they sit down in front of you. I got an entirely different dish than what I ordered. She was very surprised to hear that even though she was the one who took my order 17 min before. She came back and said she must have pushed the wrong button because "they are very close together". How hard would it have been just to double check she had pressed the right buttons, or noticed what appeared was not what she should have put in?

 

She poured hot tea on my son's half glass of ice, which immediately melted every last cube. Se didn't notice. He had to ask for a glass of ice.

 

We ad to ask for A1 more than 6 times because she kept "forgetting".

 

We are not hard to please people.

 

These were just the most glaring of the poor service she preformed. And I am sure she was expecting a 15%-20% tip. She didn't get it, and I am sure she called us a few names, but to be honest, she was lucky to get what she did because I feel I gave her money for simply breathing and being assigned to us. I saw no service that deserved tipping.

[t8te]

Wow - this topic sure gets a lot of discussion on these boards. It seems to have drifted from tipping to compensation ;-)

 

My 2 cents: We need a reason to remove the autotip (we had plenty of reason on our last cruise due to a very poor steward), and we do tip extra for our nightly servers. Also to the bartenders who always remember our drinks and keep our glasses full. Never understood tipping the Maitre d' since we never knew who he was!

 

Bottom line, I hope staff are getting the tips they deserve and that passengers are tipping at least the autotips and adding to that when they are particularly pleased.