How much do you tip for room service?

[love2sale]

Looks like I must tip excessively I always tip the room service 5 dollars. Hey they are coming to your door and you can be lazy. I usually order very late like 3 or 4 in the morning. Cause we usually close up every bar and the casino. Plus I own a pizza business and I have drivers that work for tip, I mean they make a pay check, but they are out there burning their gas and coming to your door. So maybe that is why I tip very well.

[SallyMay]

We usually tip $2, however, if we order more than we tip more.

[Cotton]

I think one of the early replies to this on the first page mentioned that the cabin steward gets only $3.50 per day, per passenger, and she was comparing the two jobs.

 

SO - with the cabin steward doing all the work he does for that small amount, I think if a room service person brings a tray to your cabin, $1-2 is plenty.....in comparison to what the cabin steward gets.;)

[love2sale]

well, I also give my room steward more at the beginning and at the end, depending on the job at the end. I also do the same with the dining team. I just think its fair, with like you said they get so little per day.

[Safeteeguy]

You all have been very helpful. Thank you for your info.

 

This will be our first cruise, as you could probably figure, and I've been learning so much from so many people on this site.

 

Eight more working days! I'm so ready to get away from the office and indulge in vacation. I liked the reply from cruzin, although I might spend a great deal of time not in my cabin, but on the balcony with foofoo in hand. Is it polluting if a cell phone and pager "accidently" fall from my hand into the Gulf? <just kidding>

 

I'll let you know how our cruise was...

[PINEVIEW01]

That is a great idea!

 

I am going with my 15 year old son, and he is cheap. I can just see him order a zillion times a day when i am not there and not tipping them at all. I had best make sure I have plenty of $2 bills on hand...

I left a pile of ones for my girls. They would tip $1-$2 each time. I think they order at least a dozen times a day just to see how cute a guy they could get.

[nick0danger]

I tip 1 buck for every plate they bring in, if i order my self i always have 2 plates, one time we order for a few of us my wife, sister and her husband, and we had 20 plates they got a 20. that is my opion a buck for every plate.

[rlanting]

I have a Question ??

 

Can you order room service any time of the day and if so is the food always free you just pay for the drinks and the tips ??

 

Just reading from what was above everyone talks about the tip, but not the food prices. Is there Menu's to help you plan things

 

Thank you

[Cotton]

QUOTE=rlanting]

Can you order room service any time of the day and if so is the food always free you just pay for the drinks and the tips ??

Yes and yes. Room service is available 24 hrs. a day. No charge for anything on the menu except alcoholic drinks or soft drinks.

 

Just reading from what was above everyone talks about the tip, but not the food prices. Is there Menu's to help you plan things

Here ya go. The room service menu from my last cruise:

Juices:

Orange, Tomato, Apple, Grapefruit

 

Breads:

(Served with butter; jelly on request)

Toast, white, whole wheat, or rye

Assorted Danish and Croissants

Toasted bagel and cream cheese

 

Sandwiches:

Turkey, Ham and cheese, cheese sandwich - choice of American, Swiss, or Cheddar, Bacon, lettuce, and tomato, Peanut butter and jelly

 

Note: Above sandwiches are served plain or toasted w/the choice of white bread, whole wheat bread, or rye; with potato salad, coleslaw, potato chips, or pretzels.

 

Roast beef and brie on baguette, Open-faced shrimp salad sandwich on French roll, Vegetarian: tomato, cucumber, lettuce,, and cream cheese on Seven grain roll, Tuna salad on toasted English muffin

 

Salads and Desserts:

Tossed garden salad: mixed greens, garnished w/tomato, cucumber, radish, and red onion. Choice of Ranch, Thousand Island, Bleu cheese or fat-free Honey mustard. Caesar salad, Crudites of Veggies with bleu cheese dip, Fresh fruit salad, Whole fresh fruits, Assorted cookies and brownies. Featured dessert of the day. Strawberry yogurt.

 

Beverages:

Regular coffee, decaf coffee, hot tea, iced tea, hot chocolate, milk, skim milk, chocolate milk.

[gsb]

2 gold dollars or a $2 bill

[serene56]

oh mi Cotton-- did you type that up?? (LOL)

 

room service is available 24 hours a day. THere is a seperate breakfast menu that you can hang on your door- Dont expect anything like eggs or hot stuff.. Just basic continental stuff.

[mc'smom]

One day after we returned from the ship from snorkling in St. Thomas I order room service. Our eyes were bigger than our tummies. I ordered quite a bit. I truly thought I would not make it to the late seating for dinner. The poor server brought two trays to the door, I felt like a pig. I felt so bad for him having to carry all of that food, I gave him a $ 10.00 bill.

 

Needless to say we did not starve ! :o

 

LOL

[OC Mom]

I agree with the $2 bill idea. I read about that here on CC a while ago and have been collecting them for my cruise ever since. Dh and I go everywhere on board together so we always need to tip in increments of at least 2 dollars. This is our first balcony and I plan on using room service quite a bit so we need to get our tip stash together ;).

 

Last year on our Mexico cruise, we were sooo tired from walking everywhere in port that we came back to the room and weren't interested in dressing for dinner. For some reason, we wanted basic "comfort" type food. We ordered (mostly dh) a BLT, PB&J, plate of cookies and brownies, tea and of course juice to mix cocktails. It was perfect. Not lobster, but perfect in it's own way. :)

[rlanting]

THanks for the Information.... and Cotton that was great that you typrd that in for me...

 

Thanks again :) :)

[Cotton]

Glad I could help.:)

[cruising3times]

we always tip 2 to 3 dollars, if we really order a lot we may tip more.

[Bsan1221]

I always let them charge me the tip onto my room or sign and sail card. I have NEVER had a bad experience with my room steward or waiters.. Even if I did I dont think I would take away their tip, they work on these ships 8 months out of the year for 15 hour days.

 

Anyhow, I always leave them each including my room steward, the assistant steward, and dining room staff a min. of $20.00 per person in the cabin. I dont think they get paid enough as it is.

 

They always tell us to tip the Maitre D'.. I dont give him much, because our last Maitre D' Manuel on the Carnival Spirit I was told by more than one crew member that he gets paid more than the Captain he gets paid a min. of $12,000.00 (Yes Twelve Thousand a Week) I thought that was crazy amount but my friend over at Carnival Main office confirmed it. Manuel had been with Carnival for 25 years, so he gets paid very well.. So you can imagine his tip went down when I heard he gets paid an exagerrated amount of money...

 

I know people who tip the Carnival Camp counselors at least 100.00 for a week of putting up with their children for almost 12 hours a day...lol.

 

Anyhow, we had a bus driver that took us to a bunch of places before returning us to the cruise port after an excursion and we tipped him...

Also, if you do anything in the SPA they doing get paid, they get paid by tips.

 

I had in total 4 massages.. Only 3 that I liked that where by the same girl each time I went I increased her tip and on my 3rd massage I was her last client of the day late afternoon she gave me an extra 20 mins plus a wonderful muscle destressant oil that cost about $55.00 (because I wanted to buy it but not for $55.00 during my prev. massage) of course she justified it by putting it on my bill and then adding a discount of the same amount.

 

So the "moral" to my story, if you take care of them they take care of you>

[GoinCruisin]

$12K a week had to be a different countries funds... Even the Cruise Director on the high end makes $7500 a month and the Chief Purser on the high end is $6K a month, I can't see the Maitre'D making over 6 times the salary of these people... Heck, I'd take that job for 1/2 a mil a year, LOL...

 

I totally agree, if you take care of them, they will take care of you... and it's something I don't mind doing!!! I always have fabulous staff, so far!!

[Dihead]

2 gold dollars or a $2 bill

 

Canadian eh?! LMAO

here's to a fellow canadian-er! :)

[JrMafia90]

Usaully I just might oreder a bagel and a BLT. So I leave them $2, but some nights on the balcony we order a bunch of milk and cookies and coffe. So I would tip them about $3 or $4.

[awsmrn]

We prepaid a tip, supposedly the going rate (about $280?), but this is not included for room services? Also, I've heard that tipping our steward up front (about $20) is worth it because of the better treatment we'll get throughout the cruise. Is that always the case?

 

I guess, even though we prepaid, we should also take a handful of cash for more tipping.

 

I also heard of checking in water/sodas/alcohol in luggage to save a few bucks. Sounds like this might work as long as we keep ice handy and we can use the empty luggage for purchases during the trip.

 

LESS THAN TWO WEEKS!!! :D :D

 

We just returned last night from our third Carnival voyage this was the first time we pre-tipped our room steward and it was the best service We have ever had or heard of. It made our trip that much better.

[Cruisin Dave]

We have only use room service a couple times and for breakfast only. I tip $2 to $3 per tray. I keep plenty of ones on hand and also the gold dollars.

[Lisichka]

$12K a week had to be a different countries funds... Even the Cruise Director on the high end makes $7500 a month and the Chief Purser on the high end is $6K a month, I can't see the Maitre'D making over 6 times the salary of these people... Heck, I'd take that job for 1/2 a mil a year, LOL...

It may not be that far off. A friend of mine has a daughter who is cinderella on Disney Cruise lines.....and she makes $20K a month doing that. American funds. Not kidding here either. I didn't believe it at first either, but she showed me her pay stubs.

 

Crazy.

[Momplanner]

I am new to this. We are cruising in August. We did pre-paid tips so do we still tip cabin steward? I read that some cruisers tip with international phone cards. Has anyone tried that?

[Phlybice]

I am just wondering how much you guys tip when you order room service. Let's say you are in your cabin and order a drink and a light snack. How much do you tip your room attendant when (s)he brings it to you?

 

Being the tip for a full service meal in the dining room for an hour and a half is just under two dollars per person, one delivery of a tray nets maybe 50 cents.

 

Unfortunately, you didn't include that option.