Tipping bar staff

[carhirer]

PO say "The daily gratuity charge is shared equally between all*the waiting staff and cabin stewards.*"

 

Does "waiting staff" include the waiters in bars or who bring drinks to you by the pool?

 

Does the bar bill include a space for you to add an optional service charge?

[Vampire Parrot]

On P&O, the wine waiters and bar stewards get a percentage of the cost of the drinks you have ordered. There is no need to tip them... unless you really want to!

 

VP

[daiB]

PO say "The daily gratuity charge is shared equally between all*the waiting staff and cabin stewards.*"

 

Does "waiting staff" include the waiters in bars or who bring drinks to you by the pool?

 

Does the bar bill include a space for you to add an optional service charge?

 

A lot of the wait staff on the decks are the same staff who are wine waiters at night.

 

If we use a bar a lot in a cruise we leave a tip which is shared between the barren and the wait staff, eg. Lords Tavern on Oriana

 

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

[davecttr]

I believe tha bar serving staff get a percentage of the value of the drinks sold as i was told by one that some bars are more popular amongst them because they have a higher turnover so they get more money.

 

You can of course tip bar staff if you wish.

[NSWP]

I like to tip the MDR wine waiter if service is good. They are busy little bees, a lot of tables to look after. On Arcadia last year, Sydney to Southampton, we used to ring the 'wine line' in the afternoon and order our wine for dinner, saves waiting, it is sitting there, lubberly jubberly. Do P&O still have the wine line on their ships? Particularly Arcadia, as we are on her next year too.

[annieuk]

Yes the Wine Line is still there although we didn't find it that efficient on our recent cruise on Azura. We used it one day and the wine waiter that evening had no knowledge of it - hopefully it was just a hiccough - we did use it once more and it was fine. We did feel the wine waiters had far too many tables to cover and we often didn't get our wine until we had our starters. It was the only thing on the cruise that wasn't the usual standard, the rest of the cruise was fantastic - food included.:)

[NSWP]

Yes the Wine Line is still there although we didn't find it that efficient on our recent cruise on Azura. We used it one day and the wine waiter that evening had no knowledge of it - hopefully it was just a hiccough - we did use it once more and it was fine. We did feel the wine waiters had far too many tables to cover and we often didn't get our wine until we had our starters. It was the only thing on the cruise that wasn't the usual standard, the rest of the cruise was fantastic - food included.:)

Thanks for update.

[carhirer]

Thanks for your responses.

 

I thought I would ask P&O, to get a factual answer from the horse's mouth. I asked them whether the add-on daily tip covered the bar staff, whether an additional service charge was added to bar bills or expected by bar staff.

 

Their answer is

 

"There is no additional gratuity charge for bar staff. Any additional tips you give are entirely at your own descretion."

 

Which does not really get me further! I hate this tipping game, but am prepared to play the game as long as the rules are clear. I can only assume that if P&O are adding a daily charge for the sake of certainty and to ensure that passengers make up staff wages to a reasonable amount, then it would be illogical for staff to expect further tips, ie to have a hybrid tipping scheme.

 

"Logic". LOL!