Tipping from a cruise staff perspective

[Cruise staff]

Hello all,

 

Just to answer some questions that seems to be a hot topic here on the board. As a crew working on ships, I will try to cover the basics in terms of tipping. If you have more detailed questions, post it on here and I will try to answer it for you and if I don't have the answer, I will try to get them and post it. Some of the policies and procedures applies to the cruiseline that I work for. ( For privacy concerns, I am not able to divulge the line I work for. For some of our seasoned travellers, you might be able to figure it out )

 

Basically, the daily fee that is charged on to a pax account is voluntary. Passengers are able to have it removed from the account if they so wish to do so. For some, they will play the I did not know game and others I was not told at booking. At times, you can tell if a pax is honest about this. When you book a cruise, there are the terms and conditions page which most of us choose to ignore. The T&C is also called the passage contract. It has all the legal mumbo jumbo but there is a section that explains to passengers about the discretionary tipping policy.

 

Charges are charged per person per day. The most basic stateroom are a certain amount and the mini-suites and above are a higher amount. Again this charge are discretionary. As most cruiseline set up separate billing account for each passengers, there are usually separate charge on each passenger.

 

For us at the front desk, my cruiseline that I work for does not have tipping guide at the desk that we hand out. Not too sure, for seasoned traveller may answer this, if they use to have it. For this reason, a lot of passengers will come to the desk and ask what the customary tipping is for stateroom steward and MDR wait staff. Unfortunately, we are not able to suggest anything as suggestion is treated as a form of solicitation of gratuities even if does not impact us at the desk. When a passenger comes up to me and ask, my answer will be it is all up to you what you think is the right amount.

 

Now some of you may be wondering how is the gratuities divided up amongst the ship staff. Basically, when the hotel charge ( tips ) are generated, they go into a gratuity pool. From that pool, certain percentage will go to the housekeeping or accommodation department and certain percentage goes to the Food and Beverage dept. From there, it will be divided up by the head of department and those grats will be paid on the crew members pay check.

 

For those of you who said; " But I don't dine at the MDR so I should not have to pay for the automatic tipping. But I will tip my steward myself." The thing with automatic gratuities or tips, it does not go to the waiters and waitress at the MDR. What about the buffet stewards that help clears your plate or that chef that cut your roast beef or the accomodation attendant that cleans up the ship so that it is all clean. By removing the automatic tips, you are removing that source of income for them. Lets just say that those guys and gals depends on the tips from passengers to boost their pay check. For many of you that are not aware, the basic salary for those types of position can range from anywhere from $100-300 a month US.

 

With that being said, some may say but from where they came from, that is a lot of money for them. Well, "if you want to play that kind of cards", then I can't justify your thinking. Others may say that those gratutuies goes to people that did not give great service so why should they get rewarded. Unfortunately, that is true but those people are just a minority of the crew that sadly should not be in direct contact with passengers. But most crew members will go out of their way to make a passengers cruise vacation as wonderful as they can. To penalise these latter crew members just because your latte is not up to Starbucks standard or I did not get that elephant shaped towel from my cabin steward is somehow not fair to me anyways. I had a passenger that I had to deal with remove the grats because the ship did not sail close to the glacier. The said passenger told me that he came on the cruise to see the glaciers and since he could not see it, they did not enjoy the cruise. Thus removing the grats.

 

Another cruiser said that oh they are not making use of any services on board the ship so they want to have the grats removed and said that they will tip the steward at the end of the cruise. Later on after the cruise, I bummed into the steward cleaning the stateroom and jokingly asked how much the passengers gave in tips, he said $20. $20 for a seven day cruise with 3 people in the stateroom. Go figure....

 

Anyways, my post is getting long winded. Hope the mods won`t mind it. If you have any questions and want to hear from a crewmembers perspective about tips and other stuff, just ask.

[NoobCruise]

Great post! Thanks for explaining that :)

[sail7seas]

If a guest leaves the automatic tips in place on their OnBoard Account and then tips 'over and above' to some stewards and bartenders etc, do those crew persons keep the whole amount of is it put into the pool to be shared?

 

Thanks for the help you are so generous in sharing with us. :)

[Cruise staff]

If a guest leaves the automatic tips in place on their OnBoard Account and then tips 'over and above' to some stewards and bartenders etc, do those crew persons keep the whole amount of is it put into the pool to be shared?

 

Thanks for the help you are so generous in sharing with us. :)

 

 

Any gratuities that the crewmember gets above and beyond goes directly to them and does not count towards the gratuity pool.

[Cras108er]

Any gratuities that the crewmember gets above and beyond goes directly to them and does not count towards the gratuity pool.

 

If you left the automatic gratuities on, then tipped your room steward (and one else) an additional $20-30, would that be an insult?

[boogs]

Thanks for trying to clear up the misconceptions about tipping. A big question many people have is what happens if the automatic grats are removed and cash is given to specific staff instead. Do they have to turn it in to the pool, or do they keep it?

[wwcruisers]

Cruise Staff -- thanks so much for your input. :)

I understand why you can't divulge the name of the cruise line you work for -- but you just know that we're all going to try to figure it out. ;) From what you've told us so far, I've been able to rule out Royal Caribbean. They are one of the few remaining lines that don't automatically add gratuities to passenger accounts (unless the voluntarily sign up for it).

It is reassuring to learn that, on lines that do add the auto-tip, crew members get to keep the additional tips that they are given. :cool:

[Cruise staff]

If you left the automatic gratuities on, then tipped your room steward (and one else) an additional $20-30, would that be an insult?

 

Any gratuities received from passengers will be highly appreciated.

[Cruise staff]

Cruise Staff -- thanks so much for your input. :)

I understand why you can't divulge the name of the cruise line you work for -- but you just know that we're all going to try to figure it out. ;) From what you've told us so far, I've been able to rule out Royal Caribbean. They are one of the few remaining lines that don't automatically add gratuities to passenger accounts (unless the voluntarily sign up for it).

It is reassuring to learn that, on lines that do add the auto-tip, crew members get to keep the additional tips that they are given. :cool:

 

Haha....I won't confirm or deny comments or suggestions made as to what cruiseline I work for. :p

 

Thanks for trying to clear up the misconceptions about tipping. A big question many people have is what happens if the automatic grats are removed and cash is given to specific staff instead. Do they have to turn it in to the pool, or do they keep it?

 

Once the automatic grats are removed, whatever amount they receive will be kept by them and them only. Sometimes they will share a certain amount with the stateroom assistants.

[panheads4ever]

We (my wife and I) have always left the per day on.. Our cabin steward and waiters, and even the Matri'D we have always tipped extra. and not a measly 20 or 30 bucks either.. These people work extremely hard to please at least the guys I have dealt with. I for one know what it is to have to work hard to earn a living. The question I have is this.. would the extra tip come at the beginning so we let them know that we are already grateful for the services provided to come, or wait till the end? Or maybe half now and the other half later? It does not take a lot to make us happy either.. Sometimes it is a smile and a friendly greeting every day or so that goes a long way.

D

[calliopecruiser]

Once the automatic grats are removed, whatever amount they receive will be kept by them and them only. Sometimes they will share a certain amount with the stateroom assistants.

 

That depends on the line. Some must be pooled.

[euro cruiser]

Basically, when the hotel charge ( tips ) are generated, they go into a gratuity pool. From that pool, certain percentage will go to the housekeeping or accommodation department and certain percentage goes to the Food and Beverage dept. From there, it will be divided up by the head of department and those grats will be paid on the crew members pay check.

How much flexibility do the department heads have when dispersing the money among their employees? Can they choose to give more to some, and less (or none) to others? Also, how do the comment cards play into this decision, if at all?

[Starbright]

I don't think people should tip at the beginning of a cruise. That's more like a bribe than a tip!

[redpatti]

If I chose to give a partial tip at the beginning of the cruise to my room steward, would he/she find that insulting or think it's a bribe? I would truly be giving it so that had some of the money ahead of time and so they know that I do not intend on stiffing them. Yes, I know that because they then know that I am hoping that they will think of me first for the rest of the week but I don't want them to be insulted. What do you think?

[Hlitner]

Lets try to carry the logic of the OP a bit further. Supposed I want to buy a Mercedes that is advertised for $80,000. Now lets suppose that a local dealer advertises that Mercedes for $50,000....and of course I go running to that dealer. He says, yes, the car will only cost you $50,000 but we will also add an "automatic gratuity" to pay for the labor of building, shipping and selling the car and that "automatic gratuity" will only be $35,000.

 

We can also see this approach for education. Perhaps a school will charge $5000 a year in "automatic" gratuities to pay for the teachers, janitors, etc. And of course we might then be able to give you a $1000 reduction in your taxes.

 

My point is that the cruise lines have traditionally used the "tipping" scam as a way to market lower prices (which do not include gratuities). And then they try to turn the argument around by saying its the customers (cruiser) responsibility to pay the staff. What an idea! Perhaps I will run for President on the campaign promise that I will eliminate all income taxes......(and replace it with an automatic gratuity).

 

Hank

P.S. We will leave it to the reader to judge the seriousness of this post :)

[deladypilot]

Last year on my cruise, we had a wonderful bartender. Had so much fun with him. Every time we ordered a round of drinks, I added an extra tip (on top of the automatic tip). Usually just a couple dollars each round.

 

My question is did the bartenders working that shift get the tip or did it go into the pool? If it went into the pool, next time I will tip that special bartender at the end myself.

 

Thank you for taking the time to answer all of our questions. I think for the most part most of us want to be fair and we truly appreciate those people that make our vacations extra special.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We do leave HAL's Hotel Service Charge in place.

That way -- any tips we give extra at the end of the cruise -- we know that those crew members do get to keep those tips.

HAL has a policy that if you remove the Hotel Service Charge -- any tips you hand out the crew members must turn in and be pooled. The crew members do receive the names of these people who remove the HSC from their supervisors and they are on the honor system to turn in those extra tips if they do not want to be fired.

[paul929207]

If you left the automatic gratuities on, then tipped your room steward (and one else) an additional $20-30, would that be an insult?

Why would it be an insult?

[Happy ks]

If I chose to give a partial tip at the beginning of the cruise to my room steward, would he/she find that insulting or think it's a bribe? I would truly be giving it so that had some of the money ahead of time and so they know that I do not intend on stiffing them. Yes, I know that because they then know that I am hoping that they will think of me first for the rest of the week but I don't want them to be insulted. What do you think?

 

 

I see this posted from time to time and I cannot understand why people would do this.

 

For some reason, people think they will get better service with a bribe. We have never tipped anything upfront and all the "extra" service people list is normal for everyone. We give any extra gratuity at the end of the cruise, with a handshake and a thank you. There have been a very few exceptions when we did not tip extra.

 

Upon meeting the cabin steward, our experience has been they have a clipboard and write down any extras you request at that time. It's normal to request extra towels, pillows, ice, etc... and we have never pre-tipped for this service.

[dave_k63]

can the waiters and cabin staffs tell if you pre-paid gratuities?

[calliopecruiser]

can the waiters and cabin staffs tell if you pre-paid gratuities?

 

Yup, I'm sure they can - at least to the limit of their ability to remember. I'm sure they make a point of remembering who chose to opt-out of the pre-paid gratuities.

[SuitCaseBears]

A great way to "bribe" the staff in advance is to smile and introduce yourself and ask them a little about themselves (not when they are hurrying to get everyone's luggage set up, of get the first night's tables set up), say thank you A LOT, ask for things in advance, not at the last moment, if possible; and generally treat these wonderful people like wonderful people.

 

You will be re-paid many times with even more excellent service.

[electro]

Lets try to carry the logic of the OP a bit further. Supposed I want to buy a Mercedes that is advertised for $80,000. Now lets suppose that a local dealer advertises that Mercedes for $50,000....and of course I go running to that dealer. He says, yes, the car will only cost you $50,000 but we will also add an "automatic gratuity" to pay for the labor of building, shipping and selling the car and that "automatic gratuity" will only be $35,000.

 

We can also see this approach for education. Perhaps a school will charge $5000 a year in "automatic" gratuities to pay for the teachers, janitors, etc. And of course we might then be able to give you a $1000 reduction in your taxes.

 

My point is that the cruise lines have traditionally used the "tipping" scam as a way to market lower prices (which do not include gratuities). And then they try to turn the argument around by saying its the customers (cruiser) responsibility to pay the staff. What an idea! Perhaps I will run for President on the campaign promise that I will eliminate all income taxes......(and replace it with an automatic gratuity).

 

Hank

P.S. We will leave it to the reader to judge the seriousness of this post :)

 

 

Yeah, because the price that car dealers advertise is always the bottom line price.:rolleyes:

[sail7seas]

We (my wife and I) have always left the per day on.. Our cabin steward and waiters, and even the Matri'D we have always tipped extra. and not a measly 20 or 30 bucks either.. These people work extremely hard to please at least the guys I have dealt with. I for one know what it is to have to work hard to earn a living. The question I have is this.. would the extra tip come at the beginning so we let them know that we are already grateful for the services provided to come, or wait till the end? Or maybe half now and the other half later? It does not take a lot to make us happy either.. Sometimes it is a smile and a friendly greeting every day or so that goes a long way.

D

 

I don't think people should tip at the beginning of a cruise. That's more like a bribe than a tip!

 

 

I agree. We never 'pre-tip' as I feel it is insulting to the crew. IMO that is like saying you don't think they will provide good service UNLESS you tip them upfront. They take pride in their work and it is a rare cruise ship steward who does not do their very best. In addition to wanting the tips, they also want to return for another contract. Complaints do not get them hired again for another contract.

 

 

 

 

 

We do leave HAL's Hotel Service Charge in place.

 

That way -- any tips we give extra at the end of the cruise -- we know that those crew members do get to keep those tips.

 

HAL has a policy that if you remove the Hotel Service Charge -- any tips you hand out the crew members must turn in and be pooled. The crew members do receive the names of these people who remove the HSC from their supervisors and they are on the honor system to turn in those extra tips if they do not want to be fired.

 

 

Yes, we've been told that again and again on all the HAL ships by all the HAL CD's.

 

But I'm not sure I accept it as absolute.

I sometimes question. :)

 

[Cras108er]

Why would it be an insult?

 

Because of comments like this (that I have seen from time to time on this site):

 

We (my wife and I) have always left the per day on.. Our cabin steward and waiters, and even the Matri'D we have always tipped extra. and not a measly 20 or 30 bucks either.. These people work extremely hard to please at least the guys I have dealt with. I for one know what it is to have to work hard to earn a living. The question I have is this.. would the extra tip come at the beginning so we let them know that we are already grateful for the services provided to come, or wait till the end? Or maybe half now and the other half later? It does not take a lot to make us happy either.. Sometimes it is a smile and a friendly greeting every day or so that goes a long way.

D