Extra tips

[NewbieCrsr]

If you have MTD and your tips are pre-paid.....but you want to leave extra....how do you prefer to do it? Fill out the envelope provided and drop it by guest services or leave your cabin steward a thank you note with tip inside? Is that an acceptible practice?

[Oppgaard]

I would personally give it to the person who you want to receive it.

[PattyG12]

We either put it i the envelope with the voucher or hand it directly to the person that deserves it.

[kc320]

Tips are generally given in person rather than left with Guest Services...a warm smile & Thank you along with the tip are very appreciated by the staff....

[Lizcourt]

MTD affects only your wait staff tips; your cabin steward tips are not prepaid when you book MTD. Accordingly, you are still going to be giving your cabin steward an envelope anyway. If you decide to charge your tips to your sea pass account, then you will receive a voucher to put in the envelope, which you can supplement at your discretion.

 

I frankly thought it was kind of odd on our recent Oasis cruise that you are also given vouchers and envelopes for the wait staff, despite the fact that (1) everyone knows your tips are prepaid if you have MTD; (2) there is a separate floor of the dining room devoted to MTD, so there is no doubt who has prepaid and who has not; and (3) making you give an envelope with the voucher just means you are probably going to be going through the motions of handing an envelope to a member of the wait staff who never waited on you before that last night. Seems like kind of an empty gesture to me.

 

If you were asking specifically about wait staff, as opposed to cabin stewards, then I would agree with the original poster that you should give the additional tip specifically to the person whom you think deserves special attention. However, I believe (though if I am wrong, no doubt someone will let us know) that all the MTD staff pool tips anyway, so other than having them know that you valued their service, the extra tip is not going to be of direct benefit just to them.

[houlacruiser]

I agree with the others - I would give it to the person directly. :)

[kc320]

MTD affects only your wait staff tips; your cabin steward tips are not prepaid when you book MTD. Accordingly, you are still going to be giving your cabin steward an envelope anyway. If you decide to charge your tips to your sea pass account, then you will receive a voucher to put in the envelope, which you can supplement at your discretion.

 

I frankly thought it was kind of odd on our recent Oasis cruise that you are also given vouchers and envelopes for the wait staff, despite the fact that (1) everyone knows your tips are prepaid if you have MTD; (2) there is a separate floor of the dining room devoted to MTD, so there is no doubt who has prepaid and who has not; and (3) making you give an envelope with the voucher just means you are probably going to be going through the motions of handing an envelope to a member of the wait staff who never waited on you before that last night. Seems like kind of an empty gesture to me.

 

If you were asking specifically about wait staff, as opposed to cabin stewards, then I would agree with the original poster that you should give the additional tip specifically to the person whom you think deserves special attention. However, I believe (though if I am wrong, no doubt someone will let us know) that all the MTD staff pool tips anyway, so other than having them know that you valued their service, the extra tip is not going to be of direct benefit just to them.

 

 

This is incorrect...when you pre-pay your tips on MTD it covers ALL your tips.. Cabin Steward & Dining room staff

[parrotplay]

MTD affects only your wait staff tips; your cabin steward tips are not prepaid when you book MTD. Accordingly, you are still going to be giving your cabin steward an envelope anyway. If you decide to charge your tips to your sea pass account, then you will receive a voucher to put in the envelope, which you can supplement at your discretion.

 

I frankly thought it was kind of odd on our recent Oasis cruise that you are also given vouchers and envelopes for the wait staff, despite the fact that (1) everyone knows your tips are prepaid if you have MTD; (2) there is a separate floor of the dining room devoted to MTD, so there is no doubt who has prepaid and who has not; and (3) making you give an envelope with the voucher just means you are probably going to be going through the motions of handing an envelope to a member of the wait staff who never waited on you before that last night. Seems like kind of an empty gesture to me.

 

If you were asking specifically about wait staff, as opposed to cabin stewards, then I would agree with the original poster that you should give the additional tip specifically to the person whom you think deserves special attention. However, I believe (though if I am wrong, no doubt someone will let us know) that all the MTD staff pool tips anyway, so other than having them know that you valued their service, the extra tip is not going to be of direct benefit just to them.

 

All tips are prepaid when you do MTD, even the cabin stewards. We always take our vouchers, add a little extra and hand the envelope to the waiter, assistant waiter, and head waiter. Since the MTD pool their tips, we asked our waiter about the extra that we included in his envelope; he said that they so not pool the extra tips, just the prepaid ones.

[foxesden1]

so if we leave the tips on our seapass account, do we still have to give them the voucher? (unless we round up, which we always do in cash)

 

T

[cruzkitty]

When I booked my RCCL cruise, I was told MTD charges up front include ALL tipping on Oasis.

[Paul65]

No. You do not have to give them the voucher.

[Lizcourt]

Appears I clearly was mistaken about the scope of the prepaid tips when you sign up for MTD. Kind of makes me wonder why I separately signed up to have my cabin steward's tips on my sea pass card two weeks ago on the Oasis. (I thought that was why I got a voucher) Clearly, I will have to read my sea pass account statement more carefully in the future. Thanks to those CC'ers who corrected my misinformation.

[tneah]

When I book MTD I do not hand over the vouchers to the waitstaff. I find this a silly practice. The only reason for me to hand one over is when I add more to the tip.

 

Then, I wonder if they even bother opening the envelopes thinking that there's probably not more than a stub and toss any extra I may have given.

[NewbieCrsr]

Is it acceptable to give wait staff at the specialty restaurants an extra tip while you are there?

[PattyG12]

The Specialty restaurants include a tip. However, we always add a little extra depending on the level of service we receive.

[storm1of4]

LOL Are you kidding me???

We cant seem to get some nationalities.........YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, to even tip the basic amount and to stop removing tips from the bar tab.

GEESH!! Now you want to give extra!!!! What is this world coming to!:D

[Sequim88]

When I book MTD I do not hand over the vouchers to the waitstaff. I find this a silly practice.

 

This last cruise was our first on MTD (and last). We were told that unless the people involved turned in the voucher they did not get the money. I was doubting that but decided to give them the envelope anyway. Besides I did want to add a well deserved bit of extra - except for our cabin person who we never saw after the first brief introduction, we just left her envelope with voucher in the cabin.

 

As for the bar tips I always added at least a buck for a couple drinks - sometimes two - and found the drinks getting larger and larger and much more attention to when we wanted to reorder. Built in tips are just price inflation - To Insure Promptness you need to add a "real" tip or incentive (or bribe :rolleyes:) or whatever. Funny thing was the drinks were so large (usually bourbon on rocks or brandy straight) we ordered half as often so that extra buck saved us big time.