Tipping for kids

[first-time-with-kids]

£10 per day pp seems the story - $280 for 2 adults which is about £160-170.

 

Our kids were free on board and sharing with us and it's been suggested we will be charged tips for the kids too. Is that true? How do other parents deal with this?

 

Cheers

[spongerob]

The auto rate is $10 per day per person - a shade over 5 GBP at today's rates. Princess uses the US dollar for their on-board currency and all rates should be quoted in dollars.

 

The suggested rate for children is the same as adults. Most people who have cruised with children seem to think this is very fair.

[cozzello]

Wow lucky you your children going for free. Then by all means you should be more than willing to pay for the service that will be afforded to your children by the on board staff. I have always found that the staff actually spent more time with our children than they did with us (adults). I would hope that you would feel as we did, the service more than equalled the gratuity charged.

Enjoy your cruise.

[first-time-with-kids]

Yeah buit the only way we could afford to go was takling them on a free kids deal. Ah well...

[dreaming99]

How were you able to take your kids for free? I am paying 3rd and 4th rate for my 3 yr old and 8 month old. Don't mind on the 3 yr old, but under 1 yr seems like a rip off to me.

 

 

Thanks

[first-time-with-kids]

Just the way the tour operators work in the UK. Booked last Sept for this June, kids in the cabin with us, paid £2800 for 14 nights from Southampton, no flights. Works out $5300 - how does that compare?

[Kim]

We always travel with our kids and on some lines they say to pay 1/2 the amount for tips that you would for an adult. To us, I feel the crew has to make their beds, wash their dishes and wait on them just as they would adults so we don't mind paying the full tip amount and more if they are wonderful....which they usually are!

[first-time-with-kids]

We always travel with our kids and on some lines they say to pay 1/2 the amount for tips that you would for an adult. To us, I feel the crew has to make their beds, wash their dishes and wait on them just as they would adults so we don't mind paying the full tip amount and more if they are wonderful....which they usually are!

 

Yes but the crew gets paid for doing all that and we paid for a holiday where we expect that.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We always put in the tip (same amount as each of us) for our child. As another poster said, the room steward is still cleaning, making bed, etc. for her too. We always bring a tip envelop for the kids' program as she spends a lot of time there.

[first-time-with-kids]

We always put in the tip (same amount as each of us) for our child. As another poster said' date=' the room steward is still cleaning, making bed, etc. for her too. We always bring a tip envelop for the kids' program as she spends a lot of time there.[/quote']

 

What do you mean "put in" - isn;t the tip just billed to you?

[Princess Di]

Once is not enough.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=151683

 

"Put Into" an Envelope to hand out to each crewmember individually. Cumbersome and archaic (although some prefer this time-honoured tradition).

Now replaced with Automatic Tipping on your Folio.

[first-time-with-kids]

Once is not enough.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=151683

 

"Put Into" an Envelope to hand out to each crewmember individually. Cumbersome and archaic (although some prefer this time-honoured tradition).

Now replaced with Automatic Tipping on your Folio.

 

This thread is asking for tips on how best to enjoy a cruise you pudding!!! It then got twisted. The other one was about how much gets tipped for kids...

[Princess Di]

Dear Nick,

This IS Your Tipping for Kids thread. You are so cornfused; however, maybe that's what happens when someone makes two (2) TIPPING threads. Here is the Plain Tipping (over) thread:

 

http://messages.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=151683

 

Why don't they have one of those little Smilies with his eyes closed??

 

SWEET DREAMS

[Princess Di]

Is that a compliment? Or is it followed by Head??

Nick, I was answering your question, above, post # 55, regarding your question (at 3:47 p.m.):

"What do you mean "put in" - isn;t the tip just billed to you?"

[mummsie]

The staff don't get paid a cent. The only pay they receive is from tips. I especially asked our room steward when we were on our recent trip. They get a pretty raw deal actually. Room stewards seem to be treated as the low of the low. They never get to see any ports and are not allowed off the ship. They work some ridiculous hours - 7 days week and even have to pay for the use of the staff pool. Don't begrudge them their share of your $10 a day tips.

[Beryl]

first-time-with-kids makes a statement and then asks a question...."it's been suggested we will be charged tips for the kids too. Is that true? "

 

The answer is yes. Princess will bill your onboard account $10.00 per person per day-and that includes the children.

 

If you wish to remove the tips from your onboard account all you have to do is go to the Purser's desk and let them know. Your account will be adjusted accordingly.

 

S/he also asks "How do other parents deal with this?" When our son cruised with us...in the days before auto tipping....we tipped the suggested amount for him. It is an entirely personal thing. You must do as you think best.

[Tahitian Princess]

Yeah buit the only way we could afford to go was takling them on a free kids deal. Ah well...

Just remember in many cases these wonderful souls work harder then most of us(18 hour shifts), and I'm sure we all work very hard. They do rely on tips per person. We've talked to many of the onboard employees and they've been stiffed many times. I don't think people realize that many of the ship employees come from 3rd world countries and every little bit helps and many of them send money home to their families to keep them out of poverty.

[merela]

US$10 per day tip applies to room steward and dining room staff. I think it's a good deal considering the amount of trouble our children put the staff through.

 

First, if you have small children, the room steward needs to dump diapers out many times a day. I buy small plastic bags (or you can get them for free at grocery stores) and put smelly diapers in (and tie it up) before I throw them in the garbage cans. As far as I am concerned, I can only stand my own children's diapers, so I really admire these room stewards. The room stewards also clear all the plates and cups that contains the food I bring into the room to feed my little ones. He/she also need to turn down the bunk beds to accommodate 4 people in that cabin. So our room steward does more work with the 4 of us in one cabin.

 

As for dining room staff....they do more for us too. They need to serve the kids drinks, appetizers, main dish, and desserts as well. They also need to bring booster chairs or high chairs sometimes. Kids make more mess around where they eat, so the waiters or assistant waiters do have to clean up more.

 

So all in all, I think paying $10pp per day tip for kids (no matter the age) is worth it. Having said that, if you have an infant who doesn't really do anything except creating diapers, then you can go to the Purser's Office and request the tip be removed from your account that last day when you review your room statements.

 

Yes, the $10pp per day tip is added to your cabin account everyday. So for a party of 4 (in one cabin) for a 14-day cruise will be US$560.

 

BTW, I checked a few on-line TAs and I don't see any 14-day cruise out of Southampton in June, so I suspect your cruise is sold out on that particular sailing. Usually summer months, cruises charges more for their fares, but you can still get pretty good deals at around US$100 pp per day, especially closer to the sailing date if the ship is not full. In the US, we can get 3rd and 4th passenger rates at about 50% of the published rates, so essentially, you pay 3 passenger rates for 4 people. I would imagine for a 14-day cruise, you can probably buy a 4-people inside cabin for US$4200 +/- $200. So without knowning the cabin category you reserved under, it is difficult to see if the rate of $5300 is at par with US rates.

 

I think "kids travel free" marketing strategy does not hurt the cruiselines. I'm sure they have built in a cushion of price differentials to make sure they are still breaking-even (or even make money) on the price they have quoted.

 

Crystal cruises had the same promotion a while back for their first sailing to Alaska (I believe early May) for $1400 pp for a 7-day cruise. So it's $2800 for 4 people, not a bad deal considering it's Crystal cruises. But for the 4 of us, we still paid considerably less for our Alaska 7-day cruise on the Diamond Princess last August. So in the end, it is how much you are willing to spend on your vacation that matters.

[bluehorizonlover123]

some cruise lines only charge half the $10 per day charge for kids under 12 years old so don't fret yet.

[Cruisin' Chick]

That's a good point about packaging up the dirty diapers. I even asked the steward what to do with them and he gave me little bags. It's also a good idea for women to be considerate (you know what I mean).

[JandD Mom]

We have not yet cruised Princess, but we have cruised Celebrity and RCCL with kids. Our last cruise was the Jewel of the Seas (RCCL) in January. They do (or at least used to) recommend tipping 1/2 for kids. Here is what we did:

 

Room steward: We tipped more than the full recommended amount. He really was good to us and he deserved every bit of it. Four people in the room more than quadruples his work.

 

Waiter/Assist Waiter/Head Waiter: We tipped more than the recommended amount for the adults and half the recommended amount for the kids. The kids came to the dining room a total of 1 time (they went to the kids club the other nights). Every other night we went to the buffet and we were their wait staff. However, they did send desserts to the cabin for the kids a few times. So we believed they did deserve the 1/2 for the children.

 

That's just our practice and our opinion (we had a group of 3 families and we were all in agreement with this formula).

[Shelly97060]

On Princess the auto tip is 10 dollars per day per person including children. Given the high level of service each one of us enjoyed on our recent cruise I felt it was a bargain.

[merela]

some cruise lines only charge half the $10 per day charge for kids under 12 years old so don't fret yet.

 

Princess cruise line charges $10 per person per day no matter what age that person is. The $10 per day charge is automatically added to your cabin account. So if there are 4 people in your cabin, you will see $40 added to your cabin account each day. Of course they have envelopes available in case you want to tip more.

 

If you don't think you want to tip the full amount for your child/ren, just go to the Purser's Office the last day and they will remove the charges from your account.

 

Since many of us chose Personal Choice dining, we got different wait staff each night. It was nearly impossible to figure out who served us after 7 days, so the auto-tipping saved me the hassle of divvying out the tips and finding each waiter who served us!

[first-time-with-kids]

You have all been very helpful, thanks.

 

I suppose what I didn't realise was that the tips is the pay - in the UK tips is on top of pay and we normally tip about 10% for excellent service. Poor service gets nothing and to be honest probably only 50% of people tip.

 

Anyone do loans?

[ourlol]

Nick,

 

I take 4 teens with me. I do pay the $10 per day per child and actually give a little extra on top. I figure the guide of £5.25 per day is the least I can give to the staff who, in my experience, are very attentive and responsive to our needs. You will hopefully find out for yourself in June, that the money is well deserved. You will undoubtedly see 'service with a smile'.

 

If you saw my note (on your other thread) about looking at the Nationwide Credit Card that should give you some savings (approx 3%) on your onboard expenditure. It's better than nothing.

 

It sounds like you got yourself a good deal. I'm a Brit but I now use a US Travel Agent and typically find it's cheaper than booking over here. It's more hassle, you need to do your homework but the rewards can be worth having i.e. in 2002 in the Med I was given two price drops after booking. Basically the fare was reduced and the TA passed on those savings to me. That definitely wouldn't happen over here.

 

You will have a wonderful time, but remember this cruising lark can be very addictive.

 

Laura