Gratuities and kids

[spcopps]

Do you have children? Bring them on cruises with you? :)

.

 

I do travel/cruise with my 3 kids (ages 7, 4 and 4 last cruise) and believe me, they do deserve to be tipped double. My kids are not slobs; they hang their own towels and pick up their own dirty clothes, but they are kids and have toys that the stewards always "line" up, always have the sofa turned down and make a bigger mess during dinner than "most" adults. We always tip more than recommended based entirely on the fact that we do have kids with us.

[XLRATION]

Sorry if this has already been stated as I have not read through all the posts.

 

We tip for our children equally, we even tend to give a bit extra just because our crew members always have gone out of their way for the kids.

Whether its the extra work of making up pullman beds or pullout sofas, making up extra towel animals for each child, offering my oldest adult menu choices in MDR over kids options etc. we have always felt that they deserved the full gratuity.

We also give gratuities to the Ocean Adventure staff for their great work.with the.kiddies.

[wvufan]

My first cruise, I sailed with "friends" :o that went had the Carnival gratuities removed totally for their 2 year old and cut in half for them :mad: for no other reasons than just being a cheapskate.

 

Children are just as much work if not more in a lot of cases than adults are.

 

IMHO, and I hope this doesnt make anyone mad BUT, if you cant afford the tips for ALL people in your party (including kids) you shouldnt be cruising at all.

 

Flame away, I can take it ;)

 

I agree totally. Ask your "friends if they would mind if the IRS removed the deduction for their two year old and cut the ones for them by half.

 

Happy Sails to You

 

OOOEEE Baby :D:D Bob and Phyl

[teddie]

Me as well. I just thought your comment was a little harsh, is all. Maybe you meant it as a joke; it's hard to tell in this setting.

 

Hi there..I agree that it's hard "reading" comments on a screen, when you can't see facial expression, body language, and hear the tone of voice. It's nice when people here ask for and receive clarification, as opposed to getting flamed.

 

Kudos to you both for that!

 

teddie

[kwiikii]

Off topic, but regarding the above "hard reading" post, I find it hard to read posts while scrolling past the many signatures. Is anyone really interested in stacked graphics of ships and lists of past cruises sometimes going back to the 1980's? Sometimes they take up an entire page. I'm just sayin'.... it makes for "hard reading" :)

[RoofingPrincess]

You can turn off the viewing of signatures in your profile if you don't want to see them.

Go to "UserCP", choose "Edit Options", and scroll down until you find the checked box for viewing signatures, and uncheck it.

[kwiikii]

Call me an idiot, which I admit I am sometimes! Thanks for that info and helping out an ignorant moron.

[bplazo]

Call me an idiot, which I admit I am sometimes! Thanks for that info and helping out an ignorant moron.

 

Don't feel bad because I find out something new about the computer every day.

[storm1of4]

Hi,

 

Do gratuities apply to ALL passengers? I had thought so, but then I read somewhere that kids do not.

 

Is this true, or a mistake? I was under the assumption that you would pay for each passenger.

 

Thank you.

 

Really??? you read somewhere? Where ?

[CFIGuy]

Can anyone tell me what is a good amount to tip for Adventure Ocean? Seems kind of like the concierge with no official guidelines. Guessing most people do one pooled envelope?

[Havingfun2010]

Here is my thought. Tips are just part of the price. However, some comments, and my thoughts and feelings on some items are common. For example, a 7 and 8 year boy, sharing the cabin with parents. Question, does the room steward do that much more work? 2 extra beds to be made, but the rest of the room stays the same. (NO, kids are not extra work, careless parents are) It always seemed high to expect the kids to pay in this case.

 

On the other hand, meal service is an individual person task, not a group task, regardless of the age. Equal service for them so expecting an equal tip is easy to accept.

 

So I wouldn't question someone, or flame them for thinking, because it's tough to pay for a family, and sometimes every penny needs to be counted and as a whole, I dislike any automatic tip, anyplace, and any time. I have gone as far as telling a waitress, if she brings me a bill with a tip added, I would take it off. It's my choice, and my right to decide if it is worth it. (BUT DON'T FLAME THAT STATEMENT, AND THINK I DON'T TIP, BUT IT IS A TIP, NOT A FEE).

[kwiikii]

Honestly the whole gratuity thing is flawed really. If a 13 month old baby has to prepay due to mtd, then its really not a tip. Its a fee. In fact its a fee for everyone who prepays. Tips are figured "after" service is rendered. Good service results in good tips. Great service results in great tips. To prepay a tip prior to the service goes against the whole definition of a "tip" . So why dont they just call them fees, or raise the rates by the same.amount. otherwise people should not be frowned upon if their babies dont leave tips. Its a personal thing right? Perhaps certain people do not believe tips are deserved for babies. Or kids. Is it reasonable for an 8 year old to leave 50% of what the adult tip would be? And if this results in complaints, then just call them fees, add them to the bill, eliminate tipping, and be done with it.

[Wilda]

Off topic, but regarding the above "hard reading" post, I find it hard to read posts while scrolling past the many signatures. Is anyone really interested in stacked graphics of ships and lists of past cruises sometimes going back to the 1980's? Sometimes they take up an entire page. I'm just sayin'.... it makes for "hard reading" :)

 

Honestly, sometimes seeing the cruise history helps frame up the context of the question or the response.

[Cigar King]

Honestly the whole gratuity thing is flawed really. If a 13 month old baby has to prepay due to mtd, then its really not a tip. Its a fee. In fact its a fee for everyone who prepays. Tips are figured "after" service is rendered. Good service results in good tips. Great service results in great tips.

 

You can always just consider the prepaid tips a fee, and then tip extra based on the service you receive. That being said, if RCI paid their employees a living wage this would be less of an issue.

[Onessa]

Here is my thought. Tips are just part of the price. However, some comments, and my thoughts and feelings on some items are common. For example, a 7 and 8 year boy, sharing the cabin with parents. Question, does the room steward do that much more work? 2 extra beds to be made, but the rest of the room stays the same. (NO, kids are not extra work, careless parents are) It always seemed high to expect the kids to pay in this case.

 

Is there any more or less work for 4 people in a stateroom than 2 people in a stateroom? I say there is more work for 4 than 2.

• There are extra beds need to be made and turned down. In many cases those "extra beds" are non-standard types (fold out couch, upper berths) that are a bit more challenging.
  
• With four people (of any age) using the bathroom - there is double the number of towels, double the use of ship-provided tolietries. If four people are using a bath, the number of smudges on the glass, gunk on the floor, etc is greater and will cause a bit more work for the steward.
  
• With four people the amount of trash will be higher. With four people the amount of sand/dirt on the carpets will be double, number of fingerprints on the glass will be double, etc. They will need to work "around" twice the amount of stuff in the room.
  
• The stewards may need to provide alternative sized life vests, double the number of mints, double the number of drinking glasses. If you do any room service or stuff, they will need to "bus" away the additional plates, glasses, etc.
  

Adding another pax or two of any age will increase the room steward's workload. Think about how YOUR household chores would decrease if your 7 and 8YOs were not living in your house.

 

So I wouldn't question someone, or flame them for thinking, because it's tough to pay for a family, and sometimes every penny needs to be counted and as a whole, I dislike any automatic tip, anyplace, and any time. I have gone as far as telling a waitress, if she brings me a bill with a tip added, I would take it off. It's my choice, and my right to decide if it is worth it. (BUT DON'T FLAME THAT STATEMENT, AND THINK I DON'T TIP, BUT IT IS A TIP, NOT A FEE).

Yup, call it what it is -- a fee or put it into the upfront cost, then the line should pay the crew a living wage, and then they can outlaw the "tip".

 

When I am planning a family trip I look at the "tips" as a part of the cost. It is part of the budget -- if I cannot afford the trip with ALL of the costs factored in, I cannot afford the trip -- I don't look for opportunities to cut corners by cheating the crew out of a living wage.

[midwife1021]

When we went on our first cruise last January, I had not pre-paid our gratuities (me, husband, plus our 14 year old, 11 year old and 6 year old kids), so I went to the customer service desk to inquire about adding them to the sea pass account. The customer service gentleman said he would add them on for me and my husband. I was a bit puzzled and I asked about the kids. He said that gratuities are not expected for childrenand that people who do leave gratuities for their children's cruise tend to leave far less than the suggested amounts for adult passengers. I asked him to add gratuities for them as well since everyone really went above and beyond for the kids and treated them with great respect.

Before cruising, I thought it was a bit odd to leave gratuities for every little thing on the ship, but after the excellent service I felt bad we didn't leave more!

ALong with gratuities I also took down names of especially helpful crew and made sure to write a letter to the corporate offices about the stellar service. They wrote back thanking me for the feedback and assuring me that those particular employees would receive special recognition.

[dfa1]

We always tip the full recommended amount or above for our 3 children. We already have our tips set aside for next month's cruise. Yes, it is over $400, but we got a great price on the cruise, so it's not so bad.

 

The only time we did not tip extra for our child (we had only 1 then), was when we had a particularly poor stateroom atendant, who failed to clean our cabin well, displayed an attitude all week, and generally treated us like we were a burden. We still tipped him the full amount for 2 adults, because anyone can have an off week.

[storm1of4]

Off topic, but regarding the above "hard reading" post, I find it hard to read posts while scrolling past the many signatures. Is anyone really interested in stacked graphics of ships and lists of past cruises sometimes going back to the 1980's? Sometimes they take up an entire page. I'm just sayin'.... it makes for "hard reading" :)

 

 

LOL

People love their badges!!!!!!

[waterbug123]

Not that I believe service staff do not deserve tips. They very certainly do. And we are typically very good tippers.

However, add up 7 days worth of tips per person per day - that's a good chunk of money - over $400 for my family of 5!

The kids pay a lower rate to sail but are expected to pay full-fare on the tipping? I haven't fully come to terms with that, I'm just sayin' :rolleyes:

 

No, technically they don't. If you have more than 2 people in a cabin, then yes- the 3rd and or 4th person often pay a lower fare, but it's not a kids' rate, it's simply a 3rd/4th person rate, regardless of age. 3 or 4 adults in the cabin would get the same benefit. Likewise, if you put the kids in a separate cabin, they would be the 1st/2nd person in that cabin and would pay full fare.