New to Carnival.....tipping

[firefly333]

Please don't paint everyone with the same brush Fire.

 

Some people prefer to tip in cash as they don't want additional charges on their CC. People do things for different reasons. Yes, there will be some that do it because they are cheap, but there is no need for that kind of generalization across the board.

 

Up until we started doing MTD, we always tipped in cash at the end. I brought the recommended amounts in separate envelopes for each suggested person on the tipping sheet. And I gave them out at the end. Now that I do MTD, I pre pay because I must. Either way, people get tipped.

 

There are times that I believe tipping in advance can be detrimental to service. We travelled to WDW for many years and took advantage of the dining plan which included gratuities. Many people felt that service significantly fell off because the servers were aware that anyone on a dining plan had tips included, and these reports were widespread. After a time, gratuities were removed from the dining plan package. It was a great deal cost wise when included, but I can see the reason for removing them from the offering at WDW.

 

Someone posted recently that their server told them he gets a printout every day listing guests who have prepaid gratuities. I know we get wonderful service on all ships, but many report issues. Maybe for some servers, knowing who has auto paid comes into play. I don't know, just a thought.

 

If a cruise line requires me to pay on auto pay, I do. If I can pay in cash, I might opt to do that. It is a personal choice.

 

But its the truth .. MOST (not 100%) dont do automatic tips in order to tip less. Everyone knows its true. If you are finding excuses .. thats what they are. There are always a few exceptions .. but that is the main reason.

 

I think I even saw statistics once on how many who remove tips, tip less. Its the vast majority.

 

Sounds like a excuse to say, you want to remove tips and then tip at the end because you think that will make service better .. the person doesnt know you will eventually tip or not .. what kind of logic is that. As I said sounds lame to me.

 

Service probably would have been the same no matter what. Ill stick with my .. if you are removing tips it is to tip less. If you were going to tip more, you would leave the tips as they are, the automatic tips and tip on top of them. ... dont try and pull my leg with excuses why you remove tips. Its cheap.

[spintowin]

You are probably right. But I do think Carnival or any cruise line should just add this to your overall price of cruise.:D

[quiet1p]

I guess I dont understand what the big deal is.. I mean if you go out to eat 3 times in 1 day at home, I tip approx $3-$5min. usually more, then if you go out to a club, you ordered say a beer for what $3.50?? (Not been to a bar in a very long time) Once you get your beer or what ever, you may put $1-$2 back to a waitress. So why should it be different on a cruise?? They are ppl to service you, if they treat you extra good, then tip them some extra.. I would rather walk around the ship knowing that my tips are paid, which probably saved me money in the long run..

[katiel53]

I kind of like what RCI does. Leave envelopes in cabin on the last night. Can I request envelopes and do my own tipping? Has anyone ever done this? I prefer to tip after service is rendered.

 

I just wanted to mention that although the tips show up on the Sail and Sign card I think on day 2, the actual charge doesn't go through to your credit card company until the end of the cruise. So, really, one is tipping at the end of service.

 

RCL now makes you pre-pay your tips if you choose anytime dining on any of their ships. I guess that they allow you to select auto tips once onboard isnt working out well for them .. especially with anytime diners .. so if you want anytime dining .. prepay those tips on RCL.

 

Fire, as long as Anytime dining has been offered on Royal Caribbean, the tips have had to be pre-paid. I think it's a form of discrimination, but whenever we sail on RCI, we always do ATD. I really don't mind pre-paying the tips and I do understand their reasoning. One thing that I love about RCI ATD is that we could make reservations for every night. We choose that as we like to go to dinner at 7 every night and on RCI our table is always ready, whereas, on Carnival we have to wait every night if we go at 7.