Tipping in the Pinnacle Grill?

[cruisin'sz]

Is tipping in the Pinnacle Grill separate from those tips you leave at cruise end?

[KSCnCA]

Definitely! You should tip there in cash. I would tip comparable to the same "land" restaurant meal. (In my opinion 15 - 20% of either regular $20 nights or first night $10 is too cheap for the meal and service your receive.)

[Cruiseoften]

No question - tip (in cash) as you would on land, taking into account your cocktail and wine cost - 15 /20%

[garydm]

From the HAL website:

 

Gratuity Policy

 

Exceptional service is part of the Holland America cruise experience. Because you are our guest, it is our goal to make sure you receive the finest service possible. And we have made it easy for you to reward excellent service onboard.

 

A gratuity of $10 per guest per day for dining and stateroom services will be automatically added to your shipboard account on a daily basis. We are confident that you will find the service onboard exemplary and, should you wish to make adjustments, you may do so at the end of the cruise by contacting the front desk. A 15% service charge will be automatically added to your bar charges and dining room wine account.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Of the $10 per day per person tip that is added onto your account, $3 goes to your cabin steward, $3 for you dining room steward, and the other $4 is divided among the dining room assistant, cooks, cleaners, Pinnacle Grill staff. There are so many behind the sceenes people that each one only gets a few cents out of that tip money.

Therefore anytime we eat at the Pinnacle, we always tip both waitstaff and the wine steward even though he gets part of the 15% gratuity that is added onto your bar bill.

[sail7seas]

I agree with KK.

 

[elmorejj]

I also agree. When we have dined in the Pinnacle, we usually leave $5 for the wine steward (we only have a cocktail each) and $10 to each of the 2 servers. I do not tip the Maitre D` unless he has arranged something special for us.........jean :cool:

[trubey]

Oh, great! yet ANOTHER tipping thread.

 

Yes, I always tip in the pinnacle grill, even though I have yet to dine there. It is included in the optional HAL-suggested staff gratuity of $10 per person per day on my shipboard account.

 

LKT

[sail7seas]

Maybe when you have the opportunity to dine in Pinnacle, you may change your mind and perhaps (?) grant that the pennies that trickle down to Pinnacle stewards out of the automatic tip simply is not enough for the service they provide in Pinnacle. IMO.......

 

Maybe you will still disagree and think that automatic included tip is enough. That is your perogative. We couldn't dream of dining there and not tipping additional. That is our perogative.

[rumple]

Well, you know, you get what you pay for. And that does include tipping. I mean, I would be flattered if they treated us like kings & queens out of the goodness of their hearts, but after all, they work for money, not love!

 

I wonder, however, if the formula to divvy the spoils does include a 'cut' for the Pinnacle should you dine there. In which case your other waitstaff gets less?

 

That doesn't seem right.....

 

Karen

aka Rumpleteaser

[esther e]

If memory serves me, I remember the waitstaff in Pinnacle being exclusive to the Neptune Lounge. Perhaps it has changed, but this is how it was recently. My point is that I wonder if they are paid a higher rate because they only seemed to work in the Neptune and not in the dining room.

Esther

[azcaptainbob]

On the Rotterdam last June on a Med. Cruise along with another couple we dined in the Pinnacle Grill on the first evening...half price. Seated at the table next to us was a family dressed in bermuda shorts and t-shirts! Now if we are expected to pay extra for "fine dining" shouldn't we feel as though we are not at "fast food"? The irony is that the main dining room will not allow people in shorts for dinner. Personaly we did not think the food was any different/better than the dining room and our wait staff and wine steward were fantastic the nine days of our cruise. We believed that attire was ignored due to the lack of patrons...perhaps that is the reason TA's are using the Pinnacle as "perks"??? I'll take the wine package and free robes to take home any day!

[Krazy Kruizers]

The Pinnacle Grill staff are not paid any higher wages than the regular staff. They alternate working the Neptune Lounge. On cruises of 10 days or more they work longer hours because the Pinnacle Grill is open some days for lunch for all passengers ($10 per person). There was a time when they worked breakfast and lunch -just for the suite passengers - those days are gone.

[cruzincurt]

Perhaps those people at the other table on the first night had not gotten their luggage yet? I would expect they would not be allowed in on subsequent nights.

 

Personally, what they wore would not affect the taste of my steak, I focus my attention on my DW. We leave a tip for the waiters, the wine steward gets his automatically on the bill.

[trubey]

All joking aside, this is indeed a very important personal subject.

 

In the Times this morning, I notice that the restaurant Per Se in NYC is changing to an included tip of 20%, rather than at the diner's discretion which averaged higher than that. Alice Waters (Chez Panisse) has had 16% added to the bill for years. French Laundry, ditto. Before it was sold Quilted Giraffe had 15%.

 

So HAL is only following a policy already in place in some of the best in America.

 

I personally prefer the tip added to my bill; otherwise it requires a whole lot of extraneous thought about plusses and minuses of how well some guy did what he was hired for, when I'd rather be enjoying my dinner. If it were a restaurant where I returned again and again it would be a moot point whether to tip well or not: I would not go a second time to a restaurant where I did not like the service -- but I always tip that first and only time.

 

So, compensate them as you will, be you fresh as a daisy or clouded up a bit with a few bottles of champagne.

 

Lane

[SueOverend]

This is a very hard topic from those of us from England. Over here you tip if you receive good service - normally 10%, no more than 15%. Sometimes not at all, if your service is poor. We are always very uncomfortable with the U.S. expected system - it's hard to remember to budget an extra 15% - 20% on everything that you have, be it taxis / food etc. On our cruise on the Millennium (Celebrity), we ate in their Speciality restaurant a couple of times and did not tip on either occasion. We were told that the fee we were paying for eating there was to cover the service that we received. Now whether this is right or wrong, I now feel a little embarrassed that we did not leave anything. When we travel on the Westerdam in December, we will tip in the Pinnacle if we receive good service. I guess most people from North America are brought up with this heavy tipping culture, where in England it is not something that you automatically have to do. Remember, when you're visiting the UK, you don't need to tip as much!! I guess we pay our restaurant staff a little more, which is reflected in the menu prices. You certainly do not tip a barman when you go and buy your own drink from the bar, so we always find the 15% on board ships, a bit of a rip off. However, saying all of this we love the U.S., travelling over as often as possible and must accept that whilst in America, we must remember to follow what is expected. Sue

[trubey]

You certainly do not tip a barman when you go and buy your own drink from the bar (Etc., snip) Sue

 

Thanks. I always know what I mean, but it takes somebody else to clarify it!

 

We travelled many times to Western Europe when we lived in the US, and it took a bit of adjustment at first, until we realized that waitstaff didn't think we were nice -- more like, stupid. We round up to the nearest Euro on the Continent or maybe a little more (never more than an euro), but I tried to give a tip to a barman here once and he wouldn't take it, gave me a look like I grew a new head. As we start to get more and more US tourists, I suppose this will change.

 

Lane

[TidePrideGA]

In the Times this morning, I notice that the restaurant Per Se in NYC is changing to an included tip of 20%, rather than at the diner's discretion which averaged higher than that.

 

This is an issue with me. I'm a heavy tipper, unless the service is noticeably inferior. In a restaurant, I generally tip around 18% for "normal, expected" service, and 20-25% for noticeably above-and-beyond service. When I go to a restaurant where they auto-tip (usually 15%), that's it. That's all they get. If they are going to FORCE me to to tip (which goes against the very definition of tipping, which is to reward service level) then so be it. They choose the level - that's what they get.

 

I'm struggling a little with what I will do on the Westerdam. Never having cruised, I don't have a "policy". When I booked the cruise and learned of the autotip my initial thought was "good, something I don't have to worry about on board". Now, of course, I know better.

 

I don't think I will be as heavy an "extra" tipper as some of y'all are. I'll tip the porters for sure (I don't think they are HAL employees, so aren't included in the autotip, correct?) I do think I will tip for room service (I plan to have coffee and a light breakfast in the room every day - we have an aft balcony), but my guess is that I will only tip additional to the room steward, dining room wait staff, etc. if the service warrants it, or if I request some service that is unusual, a hassle to provide or excessive in some way. Having said that, my definition of "the service warrants it" tends to be pretty liberal - overall I'm a pretty generous person and a VERY generous drunk - I'm one of those who will buy a table of strangers I've been chatting with a round if I've had a few.

 

Does this make me a bad person. Y'all make the call - but keeping in mind, that before I tip the first penny "extra", I will have already spent $210 in auto-tips.

[Tarkus]

Thanks. I always know what I mean, but it takes somebody else to clarify it!

 

We travelled many times to Western Europe when we lived in the US, and it took a bit of adjustment at first, until we realized that waitstaff didn't think we were nice -- more like, stupid. We round up to the nearest Euro on the Continent or maybe a little more (never more than an euro), but I tried to give a tip to a barman here once and he wouldn't take it, gave me a look like I grew a new head. As we start to get more and more US tourists, I suppose this will change.

 

Lane

it's interesting how ingrained u.s. tipping is for many of us... as i now work for a brit-owned concern, i've been to the u.k. several times in the past few years. i've gotten used-to rounding-up tipping while there - but still can't get past the feeling that i'm somehow not paying what i should (admittedly my own problem, but even when in rome it can still make you a bit uncomfortable doing as said romans do).

[bobseesit]

Interesting! My last cruise on Celebrity Millennium, we were told that the full price we paid for eating in the specialty restaurant went to the servers as their tips. Not so with Holland America? Are we to believe that the additional amount paid for the meal in the Pinnacle is to cover more expensive ingredients than when eating in the regular dining room? I doubt it.

I will be sailing first time on Westerdam in February 2006 and haven't made up my mind on the Pinnacle. I can be pretty stubborn sometimes but don't confuse that with being cheap. My wife (a waitress) and I are notorious over-tippers.

[trubey]

On this issue, there are many posters who always indicate that they believe the personnel in the Pinnacle Grill should be tipped. And there are others, who indicate that it is not necessary. I was very confused about this issue and wrote HAL specifically to determine if my $10pd/pp tip covered Pinnacle Grill employees. They answered yes. It is then, a very personal matter if an individual wishes to leave an extra tip.

 

I have read comments about the problem that the standard tip leaves little to be filtered down to the behind the scenes employees. But we are not able to judge that. We do not know what their contractual agreements actually are. Perhaps some employees receive higher pay or an extra perk to cover this. And we all know that in most any company, anywhere in America or Europe, there are jobs which pay more and there are jobs which pay less. A good employee rises to fill the "better" job. How many people in an American restaurant rush off to find the bus staff at the end of a meal? Instead we assume that they are compensated by the waitstaff, their paychecks, or the hope that someday they will get one of the better jobs.

 

I believe that for the most part, the HAL staff do their jobs well and in a professional manner. That is what their employer expects of them.

 

The cruise critic boards are an excellent place for new cruisers to come and ask questions. They are also a wonderful place where we are free to express our opinions, differing as they may be. susana.

[Typhoon1]

Live well and be Happy !!!!

[garydm]

trubey-Thanks for obtaining the clarification as that has always been my interpretation of the policy. Unfortunately our service in Pinnacle on 3-4 occasions has been adequate at best, while our service on Statendam in the dining room has always been excellent. Amsterdam is another story. I prefer to load some extra cash above the suggested minimum onto the guys who work the hardest to meet our needs and this has been the dining room and room stewards. If that someday happens for us in the Pinnacle, I would certainly overtip above the daily amount.

 

And, I am pleased for folks who find the Pinnacle food and service "consistently outstanding." For outstanding, try the specialty restaurants on Silversea or Crystal and that helps put it in perspective.

 

Gary