How much additional do you tip?

[dazee8]

If your steward/stewardess, waiter, asst. waiter (if you are at the same table each night) have done an outstanding job for a 7 day cruise, how much do you tip them extra per day approximately???

[Toto2Kansas]

For us that all depends on the service. If it is exceptional, or if the room steward does a few special things for us besides just make the bed and clean the bathroom, then we often times tip an additional $20 for each of them for a 7 day cruise, more for longer cruises.

BUT, if they just do the basics, nothing extra or just 'go through the motions' of their job, then we leave the basic tip that has been deducted from our shipboard account.

Now, for the room steward, if we plan something special, like cocktail parties or sometimes a surprise party, I tip the day it is planned an extra $20 over and above what we would give them extra the last evening. It all depends on how they handle their duties as waiter or room steward for us.

 

So, I guess it all depends on how they provide service or any extras we ask of them during the cruise.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Disclaimer: Tips are a very personal thing. Some people value superior service greatly and others consider it expected. Here's our take, (in a nutshell):

 

Super, super good service = $100 extra

Good service = $40-$60 extra

A little better than average = $30

Average to below average = regular automatic tips, nothing added, nothing taken away.

Far below average = haven't encountered this yet, thank God! ;)

[dazee8]

Thanks Toto,

 

I know this is a sensitive issue for many people to try and talk about. I just wanted to know that I wasn't over or under tipping. I was worried when I read on a previous thread how someone saw a guy tip their waiter $100/night. I use the same rate that you do and usually give our room stewardess/steward and additional $20 for a 7 day cruise. As for the waiter and asst. waiter, that sometimes depends on if we change our table or dining room, but it is comparable to the same for our room steward. I know they work very hard and long hours, but I did too in order to take the trip.

[dazee8]

Lady Jag,

 

Thanks for your input. I can't say I have ever experienced super, super good service yet either. Perhaps that will happen when I turn Elite! :p I doubt that actually, but it will be nice to get those additional perks.

 

On Princess I have found that service is usually very good and have only encountered the occasional "odd bird." I am very respectful of the staff and am truly thankful when they do go out of their way to accomodate a sepcial "wish." As they say, you only have to ask and they will try their best to do it for you. :)

[pamwinn]

On our recent cruise, we tipped our steward $10.00 per day above the autotips. He provided great service for us. We keep odd hours and they vary from day to day and he was able to adapt well to that.

[dazee8]

Thanks Pam for letting us know your thoughts on this subject. Generally, we try to keep to regular hours, but once we realize that we are on vacation that goes out the window in a few days. Where's to go, eh? :)

[hockey072]

Just to clearify, since I don't want to come out looking cheap, or like I'm flashing money around; say I order room service late at night, how much should I tip?

[tinsel57]

We tried to judge room service on what we paid at home for the food and tipped as we would tip at home. So if you're ordering a pot of coffee, that's one thing, If it's dinner for two, that was quite some thing else.

 

For our steward, waiter and assistant waiter, we did get excellent service and really greatly enjoyed interacting with these people. My husband was VERY generous with them. Our room steward came and found us later to make a point of thanking us.

 

We bring little thank you cards to write a personal note or well wish for the table waiters and room steward and always tip in cash and give them our personal verbal thank you. Sure they need the money that's why they're there but you'd be amazed at the reaction you get from a few kind words.

 

The staff made my entire trip.

[Toto2Kansas]

For a full meal from room service we normally tip when it is delivered, then we also tip when we call to have the dishes removed.

If you order a small item from room service late at night, say a sandwich (which is about all you can get that late) a $2-$3 tip is customary. For a full meal, you would want to tip a more, especially if it is for two.

[Totally Addicted]

We usually tip an extra $40-$45 for the room steward as we request egg crates and keeping our little cooler full of ice (for making our own drinks.). We do anytime dining so we don't add any extra to the tip that is automatically deducted. After reading some of these I'm thinking we should maybe be a bit more generous! Thanks everyone for sharing this info!! :D

[smellywax]

we usually tip $50 extra if the service is good...the automatic tips are pooled and distributed so that is the only way for us to show our gratitude.

[Genessa]

we have usually tipped between $40 and $60 extra to our asst waiters, waiters and stewards (on a 7 day cruise). On our last cruise, we had good service, but not the exceptional service we had experienced on past cruises. We tipped them all $20 each (for a 10 day cruise). We urged cruise companions, who had a different steward, not to leave anything extra, they had a steward who didn't leave clean pool towels and often didn't give them their "mail" until much later than everyone else got their mail.

[dazee8]

Thanks to all that posted. I really appreciate your opinions on this subject. When it comes to anytime dining, that is a difficult one to figure out if you are at a different table each evening. Therefore, I can understand why Totally Addicted didn't give anything extra. On the other side of that coin, I have been in anytime dining and been fortunate the same table each night. When that happens I usually tip the waiters $15-20 at the end. :)

[DrivesLikeMario]

Dazee - I should've added this to my disclaimer: :D

There are 4 of us, 2 adults and 2 teens, so our amts. reflect a party of 4.

 

For room service, we usually tip $5, but again, there are 4 of us. If there were only 2 of us, then $3 is what we'd tip. We have tipped $10 sometimes, but that's when we've ordered a whole meal for each of us.

 

Tipping is such a sensitive issue. No one can really say someone is doing it right or wrong. It's just what's appropriate for you. Whatever floats your boat - everyone should do what they're comfortable with. :)

[HighLordDave]

As our friends have said, tipping is a very personal thing. You should only tip extra if you think you have received extra service.

 

In my opninion, if your room steward is polite, attentive and resonably efficient, to me that is the level of service I expect. As such, I don't think that merits tipping above what is recommended.

 

Same thing for the dinner staff. The tip that is recommended is the benchmark for good service.

 

If your service is above average or exceptional, you can (and should) tip extra. How much depends on you. How much can you afford? Was the service really that good?

 

On my last cruise (on Royal Caribbean) we had a room steward who was excellent. His name was Lloyd. He was friendly, remembered my name every time I saw him, asked how I was doing, asked if there was anything he could do for us and whenever we did ask him for something, it showed up quickly and often with a smile. We're not rich, so we didn't give him $100 per day extra, we gave him a few dollars per day above the recommended amount for his trouble.

 

On the other side of the spectrum, was our dining room assistant waiter. He was nice and friendly, but slow. Not Forrest Gump slow, but well . . . leisurely. He made our main waiter work extra hard because he was flirting with the girls all the time. On day, he was replaced with some other guy because he was sick or something. As such, we actually gave him less than the recommended amount because I thought the level of service he provided was less than what I expect.

 

As a side note, I tipped in cash, rather than just letting the cruise line just add the tips on to my bill.

 

I do this for a couple of reasons. First, it lessens the "credit card shock" when the bill comes a month after getting home. Tips are something we budget for when booked the cruise, so I took some extra cash with me. Second, it lets me thank the service employee personally instead of just hitting a button on the TV screen at checkout. Third, through your interactive bill, you can often adjust your tips up, but not down.

 

Why would you adjust your tips down? Aside from having sub-par service, what if you received no service?

 

One night for dinner, we spent the evening at one of the specialty restaurants on the ship and didn't eat in the main dining room. So why should our waiter, assistant waiter and head waiter get a tip for that night? It also let us take off for the night our assistant waiter was replaced by some other guy who was nice but didn't know our names or what we drank.

 

Do not feel cheap if you do not tip more than the recommended amount. Do not feel obligated to tip extra because your waiter remembered that you like sweet tea with your dinner and take milk and sugar in your coffee. You should expect that.

 

At the same time, if you receive some service that is exceptional (such as your waiter on Thursday night gets you a piece of the double-layer chocolate fudge cake that they served on Monday night but you haven't seen it since and it's so good that you'd sell one of your children's kidneys to get another slice of it), you should recognise the employee who provided that service with an extra gratuity.

 

Sometimes it is appropriate to do so at that time (such as in the spa) and other times when you tip at the end of the cruise (as with your room steward). On another note, if you had an excellent room steward or waiter, when you get home, you might want to drop a note to the cruise line with your name, cabin number, sail date and the employee's name; some lines bonus employees who get "kudos" from their passengers.

 

If your still reading this, you might also want to remember that some gratuitites are already added into your bill, so if you tip any, sometimes your tipping double. The bars are the most frequent place where this occurs. When your bill comes, it probably has a gratuity already on the ticket. Most people never check this and add $1-2 extra thinking that they're tipping the server, but that has already been taken care for you, so unless you want to give that person extra, check to see if the gratuity has already been added on.

[dazee8]

HighLordDave,

 

Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts. I have also heard from other people that have posted that you can adjust and read your bill on the TV interactively on RCI. Unfortunately, Princess doesn't have that yet, but it is a good idea.

 

Your way of tipping was very thoughtful. I will certainly keep it in mind on my next cruise. Thanks again. :)

[mafig]

On Princess we have usually had excellent room stewards and tip them extra.

 

 

 

I would never penalize my waiter and asst. waiter because I chose to eat in the specialty restaurant one night. It's not like someone else will be sitting in your chair, giving them the opportunity to earn a tip. No, your seat is empty. It's not that big a deal to me, but I think it probably is to them.

[HighLordDave]

I would never penalize my waiter and asst. waiter because I chose to eat in the specialty restaurant one night. It's not like someone else will be sitting in your chair, giving them the opportunity to earn a tip. No, your seat is empty. It's not that big a deal to me, but I think it probably is to them.

 

I don't see not giving someone a tip for not serving me as a penalty.

 

I understand that the folks who do all the grunt work on a cruise ship are probably not paid very much and count on tips for a large part of their income, but if someone is not providing a service for me, I don't feel the need to pay them for it. When we ate in the specialty restaurant, we gave that server a gratuity for that night because they served us. If we didn't book that table, they wouldn't have gotten a tip for the hard work they did for us night.

 

I don't feel an obligation to be "double dipped" just because someone happens to be my regular waiter and assistant waiter and I had dinner somewhere else that night.

[mafig]

I certainly understand how you rationalize not tipping your waiter and asst. waiter on the night you were at the specialty restaurant.

 

We just do not sit down at the end of our cruise and say, "let's see, we ate at the specialty restaurant Tuesday, so let's deduct $3.50 x 2 from our waiter's tip." "Oh, don't forget, our assistant waiter forgot our name(s) on Wednesday, let's deduct $3.00 from him too; isn't this fun?"

 

Just seems petty to me.:(

[HighLordDave]

Tips and gratuities are not obligatory. They are a reflection of the level of service which is given.

 

Give me excellent service and I'll tip you extra for it. Give me exceptional service and not only will I tip you extra for it, I'll make sure your boss and everyone I know hears about it, too.

 

If someone gives me an acceptable level of service, I tip at the recommended levels; not more and not less. By acceptable I mean courteous, professional and efficient, but not necessarily personal or endearing.

 

In the unfortunate event that I receive an unacceptable level of service, not only will I not tip very much (or even at all), but I'll make sure that person's boss and everyone I know hears about it, too.

 

In my opinion, many people, both on the giving and receiving ends of the gratuity, have come to think of cruise ship tips as being automatic. In my opinion, gratuities should not be automatic lest they become taken for granted, not a reflection of a high level of service that is provided.

 

If someone does not provide me a service, why should I pay them as if they had?

[mafig]

I did say I completely understood your reasoning for adjusting your tips downward.

 

However, I'm on vacation. I don't go around looking for ways to adjust tips downward. I certainly would not (dare I say the word again) penalize my asst. waiter because he didn't remember what I drank or my name.

 

The other matter of eating in the specialty restaurant -- some people DO adjust their tips downward because they're not in the regular restaurant. We don't. Whatever you feel comfortable with is OK, I guess.

[dazee8]

Yes, while on vacation I don't want to think about dealing with tips either, but it's a necessity. I think that many have brought some good insights to this topic and ways that they handle it. Many thanks. :)

[Logie]

When I am on vacation the thought of taking down my tip has never occured to me, I am only looking to give out some extra.

 

I am not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but one of the best "tips" crew can recieve is a "You Made the Difference" card filled out and handed in.

 

So for those of you who are on budgets and cannot afford the extra cash tip this is a very appreciated form of thank you!!! If a crew member has a comment card in his name he/she can sometimes have a say in what ship they would like to work on next.

 

Most crew members also like alcohol. They can have a glass of wine at the end of their shift or a sip with you for a toast at dinner, so share that bottle with your waiter and I gaurantee a huge smile!! I am Elite and do not drink hard liqour in general so I also leave my mini's for the room steward and what ever else I have not finished.

[harrodsfan]

I don't feel an obligation to be "double dipped" just because someone happens to be my regular waiter and assistant waiter and I had dinner somewhere else that night.

Totally agree. Also tip less if service is slow and special reguests are continually forgotten.

Have only had really superior service in the dining room on Legend of the sEas cruise in 1997. wE liked our waiter and assistant so much we didnt' miss a meal in the dining room and they were amply rewarded!

Other times have ranged from pretty good to so an attitude so bad we complained to the Head waiter and had a new waiter the next night.

WE had a cabin steward in the bAltic that couldnt' get our breakfast order straight in two weeks but had such a wonderful personality that when we docked in Stockhom we took her whole family to lunch. She was just delightful...Danica..that means you! :) She got a really big tip.