Confused about tipping

[kellyx3]

I am just off the pride and had a wonderful time. The service was the best we have had in the last couple of cruises. My questions is regarding who to tip. We paid 500 in prepaid gratuities for my family of 6 but wanted to tip above that, however, we had three servers in the dining room, two cabin stewards, the maître d who helped us before boarding with an issue we had, as well as many girls working up in camp carnival with our kids who were in 4 different age groups. When I sat down to figure it out that is more than 20 people to tip. While I would have loved to do this it would have been a huge extra expense so where do you draw the line. Do you tip all the people in camp or does it go in a pot to be split, and same with the wait staff. Do you tip all three or does the head waiter take care of his assistants. So confusing and makes me prefer the old days of cruising where you fill the envelopes the last night to hand out. I would appreciate any insight.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[Herbaltees]

I thought the pre-paid tips covered all of these staff members. When I tip above, its for an individual's special service.

 

On my last cruise, I was cruising with my youngest son who was potty training. The room steward gave our room extra attention throughout the week. He provided hazmat trash bags and attended the room, much more than 2x day, or so it seemed.

 

That to me was extra service and deserved extra.

[Bdw062590]

I tip individually based on service.

 

i.e. going above & beyond the call of duty.

[YB Nrml]

We've only tipped extra once or twice. We're not high-maintenance, don't make special requests in the dining room and leave our cabin picked up so the room steward can get in and out quickly. We tipped extra when we had our two teens with us in a separate cabin one cruise because I've lived with those monsters and know how their room probably looked! :D

[OCruisers]

Kelly .... You covered everyone with your prepaid gratuities! :)

We sometimes tip a bit extra in cash but it is not necessary.

LuLu

[cb at sea]

The grats. they add daily cover everyone who is supposed to be tipped, except for room service delivery folks.

[Bookbug53]

If you want to go above and beyond the auto tips just tip who you want, when you want, and how much you want. Very easy.

[ShakyBeef]

Although we aren't high maintenance, don't make special requests in the dining room, and do keep our cabin clean (heck, I leave the cabin cleaner than I found it with all my extra wiping-down and sanitizing:rolleyes::p), we like to tip extra to those that improve our cruise experience.

 

For example, here's what we handled tips on our last pride cruise, a couple weeks ago:

 

* As always, we left the autotips in place.

* We tipped extra in cash with every drink order.

* I went to GS on the last Sea Day and increased our autotips by an extra $2 per person, per day ($28 extra total). This amount was divided out to all in the tipping pool.

* We handed extra cash in little "Thank You" envelopes to certain crew members on the last night: our head waiter, his 2 assistants, the MDR bar waitress that had regularly served us, and a couple of our other favourite bar servers.

* We gave our Room Steward an additional amount of cash in a "Thank You" envelope on Debarkation Day, thanking him in person and letting him know this was a little extra as thanks for all he did for us.

 

We didn't have our kids with us and have never used Camp. But if we did, we would probably tip those that had the most contact with our children extra cash, as well.

 

If we 'miss' someone with our extra cash tips, it makes us feel better about it to know that we not only left our autotips in place, but increased them. This hopefully lets management know that we were happy with the service we were given onboard.:)

 

That's how we do it. Everyone has different ways of looking at and handling tipping. I'm not knocking anyone else's method. It's a personal choice. This way works best for us.

[kelkel2]

The only people we typically feel the need to tip in addition to the pre paid gratuities we already paid are of course the room service people, and our room steward who on our last 2 cruises we truly did feel went above and beyond for us. We of course do not feel obligated to tip extra. We only do that if we have gotten exceptional service.

[Budget Queen]

Although most of the above claim your prepaid tips cover "everyone". They do NOT cover Camp Carnival, who likely should have been tipped, if the kids were regular participants.

[jimbo5544]

I tip individually based on service.

 

i.e. going above & beyond the call of duty.

 

The op wants to know about how to pay extra, not remove them. Let's try and keep it to answering the question and not drag it into a tip or not tip.

[Sauer-kraut]

Although most of the above claim your prepaid tips cover "everyone". They do NOT cover Camp Carnival, who likely should have been tipped, if the kids were regular participants.

 

This! Since some passengers have no children cruising the staff in the Kid's Club isn't included in the daily service charge. They should be tipped if the children have used the Camp, and they know who their 'group leader' was for the majority of the time.

[amcjeep4life]

I'm doing a cruise in April with my nephews. I am assuming they will enjoy Camp as much as everyone says they will. If you just drop a tip off there, does it get split among all the counselors? I seem to remember there being several there at all times the last time I did a cruise with just one nephew.

[SadieN]

Auto-Grats cover your room stewards, waitstaff in the MDR and Buffet and a few other undisclosed crew share $1/pp/day.

Bar staff gets tipped on time of service or share the tips from the Soda and Cheers packages.

 

The Maître D and the kids camp counselors are not part of the Auto-Grats.

(Neither are Spa or Casino dealers.)

 

When our kids were young we tipped out the counselors. Actually had one tear up because many do not tip. They do get a salary, they are not paid as the crew that are part of the tip pool.