Only for those who will give distribute there own tips

[sparks1093]

on a ship, the people i am already tipping through my autotips. they are the same people, and often you will see your actual mdr server up there. my 5.50 a day tips are for 3 meals....not one.

 

it's funny how some people are hoodwinked into worrying about washing dishes and the "kitchen help" upstairs, but no one worries about these same individuals downstairs.

 

Um, I don't think so. The 5.50 covers the meals that you eat in the MDR with your assigned waitstaff and the $2 helps cover the meals that you eat elsewhere (even in the MDR during breakfast or lunch with different waitstaff).

[prattmom]

When one leaves autotips on the S&S account, does he/she get something to put in the envelopes to show that the waiter (or whoever) has gotten the suggested gratuity? We always tip extra, and I take thank you notes from home, but I was just wondering how the person knows he/she will get the standard gratuities also.

Thanks for an answer, :)

Cruin Lady

 

Hey Cruzin'! See ya soon!

 

The staff knows who removes auto-tips... if they aren't removed they know they are received...

[H82seaUgo]

Um, I don't think so. The 5.50 covers the meals that you eat in the MDR with your assigned waitstaff and the $2 helps cover the meals that you eat elsewhere (even in the MDR during breakfast or lunch with different waitstaff).

 

sorry. you are completely wrong on that one.

[sparks1093]

sorry. you are completely wrong on that one.

 

lol, really? When was the last time you went out to a nice sit down meal in a nice dining establishment an you paid less than $5.50 per person for a tip? If you think $5.50 is adequate compensation for service at three meals then I'm glad you don't pay me;).

[H82seaUgo]

lol, really? When was the last time you went out to a nice sit down meal in a nice dining establishment an you paid less than $5.50 per person for a tip? If you think $5.50 is adequate compensation for service at three meals then I'm glad you don't pay me;).

 

that's why it's funny on threads where people say they are tipping too much, because they see it as one lump sum.

 

break it down, and it's not much at all.

 

but believe it or not, it's for three meals a day.

 

you even used to get a dedicated table for all three of your meals, with both a waiter and assisted waiter.

 

over time, that was cut back to only a waiter for breakfast and lunch, to open seating, to alternative dining, to actually closing the mdr for some meals.

[sparks1093]

that's why it's funny on threads where people say they are tipping too much, because they see it as one lump sum.

 

break it down, and it's not much at all.

 

but believe it or not, it's for three meals a day.

 

you even used to get a dedicated table for all three of your meals, with both a waiter and assisted waiter.

 

over time, that was cut back to only a waiter for breakfast and lunch, to open seating, to alternative dining, to actually closing the mdr for some meals.

 

I've not experienced tradtional dining yet so that's good info to know about having the same table for all of the meals. I have always seen the suggested tipping/service charge as a bargain because I realize how much work is being done, both what I can see and what I can't see.

[newkscruiser]

sorry, but i have never been served at the lido deck. actually, i prefer to eat in the mdr for my three meals, but there are times they close that now. :confused: so i am forced to serve myself.

 

i also don't tip at cafeterias or at buffets on land.

 

At buffets and cafeterias on land, people are paid an hourly wage. It is my understanding that the wage paid these employees comes strictly from the prepaid tips on your sail and sign account, nothing from Carnival. When you remove them, then everyone suffers a loss in wages. Not all of the restaurant workers are working in positions to receive extra tips to make up the difference lost. The people you see and enjoy each day are not the only ones making your cruise a wonderful experience. Hundreds are working out of sight and depend on your prepaid tips.

[cruisecruisecruise2011]

lol, really? When was the last time you went out to a nice sit down meal in a nice dining establishment an you paid less than $5.50 per person for a tip? If you think $5.50 is adequate compensation for service at three meals then I'm glad you don't pay me;).

 

Are saying the dining room on ship is on par to a nice dining establishment on land? What would you consider nice on land that equates to the dining room taking into account the stupid antics.

 

I think its more like a Chucke cheese. There's whoopping and holloring,people dancing in the aisles,table dancers,people waiving napkins,announcemnts over a PA system,conga lines,and poor singing. If it makes you feel better,the mouse is wearing a tux so its more like an elegant night.

[H82seaUgo]

At buffets and cafeterias on land, people are paid an hourly wage. It is my understanding that the wage paid these employees comes strictly from the prepaid tips on your sail and sign account, nothing from Carnival. When you remove them, then everyone suffers a loss in wages. Not all of the restaurant workers are working in positions to receive extra tips to make up the difference lost. The people you see and enjoy each day are not the only ones making your cruise a wonderful experience. Hundreds are working out of sight and depend on your prepaid tips.

 

unless you have a source, i can only assume this is heresay.

[angel61]

I think my thread has been hijacked. Still looking for any help in how to self tip. There have been some very helpful responses. Please do not make this a multi-page disagreement.

 

Thank you

[zqvol]

I'm only looking for a good way to give out my own tips. Would you have an envelop and put say $6/day/pp to the two waiters and an envelop with $4/day/pp to the room stewards?

 

Please no name calling or arguments. Don't look if you hate tip questions. Just some good advise from others that may do this.

 

Thank you

 

 

Very easy way to distribute your gratuities. Leave the auto tips alone and enjoy your cruise. Doing it any other way does not result in the result that you want.

[zqvol]

I guess there is no real completely fair way, but do not want to use the auto tip system either. Just looking for some reasonable ideas.

 

Thanks

 

Then just don't even fool with gratuities.

[sparks1093]

Are saying the dining room on ship is on par to a nice dining establishment on land? What would you consider nice on land that equates to the dining room taking into account the stupid antics.

 

I think its more like a Chucke cheese. There's whoopping and holloring,people dancing in the aisles,table dancers,people waiving napkins,announcemnts over a PA system,conga lines,and poor singing. If it makes you feel better,the mouse is wearing a tux so its more like an elegant night.

 

I have yet to sail on CCL so haven't experienced what you are alluding to and the way you describe it I'm not sure it will be my cup of tea but that's to be decided and I'm not going to prejudge. I know that the dining experience that we had on NCL equated to roughly a 3 star land restaurant experience. DW and I experienced a banquet dinner on land that cost $40 pp which we both agreed was very similar to what we had experienced on NCL, meaning that the tip at 15% would have been $6. YMMV.

[timetogosoon]

I actually tipped throughout the whole week to the room steward and wait staff as well as leaving automatic gratuities. The extra money I just tipped according to the job they did. If they were awesome I tipped 5-10 dollars. If they did poorly it was usually more like 0-5 dollars. Then at the end they still got the auto gratuities. I took $55 for tipping on the ship for a 5 day cruise in addition to the auto ones.

[happy cruzer]

Would you give for example to the head waiter $4 and $2 to his assistant per person/ per day, or go 50/50 or just put it all in a envelope and let them split it.

 

Thanks to the good people of cc for the ideas, the humor and for no flames.

 

So your questions are exactly why there is autotipping so that Carnival splits the tips per the contracts that they have with their service staff. The staff all sign a contract that explains how they compensated.

 

My understanding:

 

They all know who has left autotips in place

 

If they receive a cash tip and the autotips are not in place, they turn the cash tip into the pool to be shared. Their fellow service staff expect that.

 

If they receive a cash tip and the autotips are in place, they get to keep "their" tip that is not part of the pool.

 

So all the maneuvering to deliver cash just ends up with the same result of the autotip amounts being met and extra getting to particular people.

 

Do it however you like, but Carnival tries to make it match the contract their staff has signed and are committed to.

[timetogosoon]

Oh and by the way, I found my dining experience varied greatly by the menu offered and the server at our table. Some nights the food was something I could find at long john silvers. Sometimes a nice buffet. One night it was at the level of a nice restaurant. I definitely wasn't raving about the food at all except for in the steakhouse, and I had to pay $30 pp to go there along with a $10 tip

[big_duck]

I have yet to sail on CCL so haven't experienced what you are alluding to and the way you describe it I'm not sure it will be my cup of tea but that's to be decided and I'm not going to prejudge. I know that the dining experience that we had on NCL equated to roughly a 3 star land restaurant experience. DW and I experienced a banquet dinner on land that cost $40 pp which we both agreed was very similar to what we had experienced on NCL, meaning that the tip at 15% would have been $6. YMMV.

 

There is entertainment by the wait staff that lasts a couple of minutes at the end of the meal.

 

You need to take anything C3new# says with a huge boulder of salt

[sparks1093]

There is entertainment by the wait staff that lasts a couple of minutes at the end of the meal.

 

You need to take anything C3new# says with a huge boulder of salt

 

Yep, that much I've figured out:D.

[DebJ14]

sorry, but i have never been served at the lido deck. actually, i prefer to eat in the mdr for my three meals, but there are times they close that now. :confused: so i am forced to serve myself.

 

i also don't tip at cafeterias or at buffets on land.

 

Yes, but they clean up after you! And, they do come around with drink refills and serve you the desserts. Sorry, but you should be tipping at buffets and cafeterias on land too.

[momof3cruisers]

Are saying the dining room on ship is on par to a nice dining establishment on land? What would you consider nice on land that equates to the dining room taking into account the stupid antics.

 

I think its more like a Chucke cheese. There's whoopping and holloring,people dancing in the aisles,table dancers,people waiving napkins,announcemnts over a PA system,conga lines,and poor singing. If it makes you feel better,the mouse is wearing a tux so its more like an elegant night.

 

Heavenly days! Whatever cruise you went on sounds extremely unpleasant! Or you haven't been to Chuck E Cheese in a long time!

 

OP, why don't you just take the amount Carnival suggests for each job each day and put it in your envelopes. Then if you feel that someone deserves more, you can add it in. In the days before auto tipping, I always left home with the right amount of cash in each envelope. No worries about getting the bills I needed or overspending in port.:eek:

[NotWthOutablcony]

sorry, but i have never been served at the lido deck. actually, i prefer to eat in the mdr for my three meals, but there are times they close that now. :confused: so i am forced to serve myself.

 

i also don't tip at cafeterias or at buffets on land.

That's my thought exactly :confused: I have never tipped anyone on a land based buffet, why would I do it while out to sea? Sure I'll leave $1 for clearing the dishes away or what would be recognized as bus staff, but who in the world would walk through a buffet line tipping as they go along? Thank goodness tips are discretionary, that way "I" can see to it that the people deserving of a gratuity (given MY cruising and customer service experience, not my neighbors or dinner mates) get what "I" believe they deserve, nothing more, and more importantly, nothing less.

[NotWthOutablcony]

I think my thread has been hijacked. Still looking for any help in how to self tip. There have been some very helpful responses. Please do not make this a multi-page disagreement.

 

Thank you

OP, my best piece of advice is to tip as you go along, no envelopes, tip as YOU receive services at YOUR OWN discretion, don't break it down to $10 per person per day or the new $11.50 per person per day, if you thing the services rendered deserve a $5 tip, then hand them the $5 and be done with it, if you think they deserve more or less, by all means adjust it to YOUR liking. Get the $10 per person per day out of your head completely and tip as you would a land based vacation. If YOU would like to tip the laundry staff, call the Guest Services Desk and have the manager come to your room or stop it by the "GSD", same goes for other back of house wrokers. Tipping as I go along has been the most convenient way for me and my family.

[boltnut55]

When I first started cruising, they would tell us the suggested tip per title, so if you could find out what that is, then you can do that. I'll make up some numbers because I don't actually know what the real numbers are... If you are going on a 3 day cruise, and it states suggested $15/day to the head waiter and $3/day to the assistant, then I would put $45 in an envelope with the head waiter's name on it and $9 in the envelope to the assistant. If I felt I should give more, I would. Or less if I thought it was bad service.

 

Now... when I first started cruising, I would figure out how many meals I had at the MDR and then tip accordingly. For example, if there were 9 meals (B, L, and D for 3 full days)and I only ate dinners at the MDR, then I would tip 3/9 or 1/3 of the full amount, so using the numbers above, I would give $15 and $3 respectively for the entire cruise. However, someone here reminded me that my servers took shifts at the buffet for breakfast and lunch time even they weren't necessarily MY servers. And someone else's MDR servers were serving me by bussing my trays, answering my questions, greeting me, etc. So from then on, I stopped deducting the tips.

 

It's one thing when you've cruised 20 times, talked to a lot of the staff, and figured out the ins and outs. For others, it's one cruise every 5 years. I hardly speak with the staff. I don't know that they are paid very little, leave their families for 6-9 months at a time, etc. I only know this because I read it here. I don't ask them about their personal lives, and I don't want them to share their issues with me. I am interested in them, but I wouldn't want any conversation to lead me to feel bad for them and therefore tip more. Whatever they are getting paid is still better than what they'd be getting at home; otherwise, they wouldn't be doing this type of hard work.

[Cjlovestocruise]

Angel 61

I like to give my tips in person with a nice hand written note. I have always done this and tipped more than the recomended amount.

On my last cruise I found out that the staff is given a list of people that have removed their auto tips, and ANY cash tips given to them must be turned in and shared in the pool with the other tips.

So if you turn off the auto tips, your people will not get any extra. If you leave the auto on then they are allowed to keep the extra given to them.

I personally hate the auto tips but I want my servers to get everything I tip them so I leave them on and give the extra in an envlope at the end of the cruise.

[skylock]

Angel 61

I like to give my tips in person with a nice hand written note. I have always done this and tipped more than the recomended amount.

On my last cruise I found out that the staff is given a list of people that have removed their auto tips, and ANY cash tips given to them must be turned in and shared in the pool with the other tips.

So if you turn off the auto tips, your people will not get any extra. If you leave the auto on then they are allowed to keep the extra given to them.

I personally hate the auto tips but I want my servers to get everything I tip them so I leave them on and give the extra in an envlope at the end of the cruise.

 

You found out wrong, but continue to tip the way you want to.