How much do you tip?

[psychtobe]

For those who are willing will you please discuss exactly how much you tip and why?

 

If you tip just the suggested amount please say so.

 

We want to appropriately recognize good service or going above and beyond and don't know what is appropriate (ie, in land restaurants we know 15-20% is normal, so with exceptional service we tip 25%). We don't have a good point of reference for cruises.

 

Example: On our last (7 day) cruise we tipped the suggested amounts, except $50 extra for our MDR waiter and $40 extra for his helper guy. They were very nice to us, especially our kids, playing games with them and always bringing them extra goodies without being asked. That represented extra for the 4 of us and in retrospect we wonder if that was really an appropriate amount ($50 divided by 4 people divided by 7 nights = not even $2 extra per person per night).

 

So I am looking for specific amounts and your rationale. I will not feel attacked if you think I tipped too little above. Please let me know.

 

(Our upcoming cruise is 14 days so I would expect tips to be more accordingly).

 

thanks

Edited December 1, 2014 by psychtobe

[Jana60]

I frequently cruise solo and feel a little bad for the room steward because he's not getting auto tips from two people. I am very neat so they don't have to do a great deal of work in my room but I try to give at least $20 extra on a 5 day cruise or $30 extra on a seven day cruise. Of course this is in addition to the auto tip. Otherwise I tip an extra $1 here and there to the bartenders and I always give $2-$3 to the waiter who delivers room service each morning. I like to have coffee on the balcony before I do anything else in the morning.

 

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[cb at sea]

We tip AT LEAST the suggested amount..and usually about $10-20 additionally, for those who have served us very well. In truth, only once did we have a waiter who got only the suggested amount. She was awful...but her ass't. tried to make up for her shortcomings, so we gave the additional amount to the assistant waiter!

 

As long as you do what the cruise line recommends, you're good to go. I'm not sure when all the "extra" tipping came into practice, but it's not necessary at all!

Edited December 1, 2014 by cb at sea

[paul929207]

I leave on the autotip, which on Princess is $11.50 per day ($12 for a suite) and give $20 to $40 extra per week if the service is great.

[navybankerteacher]

Because tipping is essentially incentive pay for a job well done, it makes sense to give more than the standard auto-tip if you feel your cruise experienced has been enhanced by the efforts of cabin and dining room stewards. Reflecting the level of service, an extra $5 or so per day of the cruise to primary, and $3 or so to assistant, stewards seems appropriate.

[SPacificbound]

We do MTD on Royal Caribbean so the suggested amount is already a done deal. Our Celebrity Cruises are Select dining, so done deal there also.

 

For extra tips above the amount we have already paid, we tip our stateroom attendant, dining staff & servers, etc. an amount that we feel is appropriate for the service given over the total time of the cruise.

 

Bar servers, room service are tipped at time served. From $2. to $5. typically.

[psychtobe]

 

For extra tips above the amount we have already paid, we tip our stateroom attendant, dining staff & servers, etc. an amount that we feel is appropriate for the service given over the total time of the cruise.

That's the point of my question: how much? Can you give some examples?

[freestyling]

for above and beyond service for 2 people in cabin we tip additional per day as follows:

Primary Room Attendant - $3.00

Assistant - 1.50

MDR - Waiter or Waitress - 3.00 / Assistant - 2.00

Bartender - 1.00 order at time of service

Room Service - 1.00-2.00 per order at time of service

We budget for a 7day cruise an additional $100.00. Most of the time the service is above and beyond and our budget is spent. We are happy to be able to provide the additional tips.

[fortinweb]

We do MTD on Royal Caribbean so the suggested amount is already a done deal. Our Celebrity Cruises are Select dining, so done deal there also.

 

For extra tips above the amount we have already paid, we tip our stateroom attendant, dining staff & servers, etc. an amount that we feel is appropriate for the service given over the total time of the cruise.

 

Bar servers, room service are tipped at time served. From $2. to $5. typically.

 

for above and beyond service for 2 people in cabin we tip additional per day as follows:

Primary Room Attendant - $3.00

Assistant - 1.50

MDR - Waiter or Waitress - 3.00 / Assistant - 2.00

Bartender - 1.00 order at time of service

Room Service - 1.00-2.00 per order at time of service

We budget for a 7day cruise an additional $100.00. Most of the time the service is above and beyond and our budget is spent. We are happy to be able to provide the additional tips.

 

On most lines there will automatically be a 15% gratuity added to the cost of a drink in the bar. There is no reason to tip more unless you feel the bar server has given you better than expected service.

Edited December 1, 2014 by fortinweb

[freestyling]

I agree. I only provide additional tips for above standard service. I have found on my Holland America cruises that this seems to be occuring quite frequently.

[BridgeMates]

For those who are willing will you please discuss exactly how much you tip and why?

 

If you tip just the suggested amount please say so.

 

We want to appropriately recognize good service or going above and beyond and don't know what is appropriate (ie, in land restaurants we know 15-20% is normal, so with exceptional service we tip 25%). We don't have a good point of reference for cruises.

 

Example: On our last (7 day) cruise we tipped the suggested amounts, except $50 extra for our MDR waiter and $40 extra for his helper guy. They were very nice to us, especially our kids, playing games with them and always bringing them extra goodies without being asked. That represented extra for the 4 of us and in retrospect we wonder if that was really an appropriate amount ($50 divided by 4 people divided by 7 nights = not even $2 extra per person per night).

 

So I am looking for specific amounts and your rationale. I will not feel attacked if you think I tipped too little above. Please let me know.

 

(Our upcoming cruise is 14 days so I would expect tips to be more accordingly).

 

thanks

 

This is such a personal thing, but for a 7-day trip I think you were very generous. Of course some people will tip more, but I would imagine most would tip less. You did good.

[euro cruiser]

On most lines there will automatically be a 15% gratuity added to the cost of a drink in the bar. There is no reason to tip more unless you feel the bar server has given you better than expected service.

I've actually tried to take off the auto tip at the bar in a couple of cases. I scratched it out and re-wrote a total without it but to be honest, I never checked the final bill to see if they really took it off. I tried to take it off because of truly awful bar service (and I was bartender for more than a decade so I think I have a solid basis for judgement).

[Jana60]

I've actually tried to take off the auto tip at the bar in a couple of cases. I scratched it out and re-wrote a total without it but to be honest, I never checked the final bill to see if they really took it off. I tried to take it off because of truly awful bar service (and I was bartender for more than a decade so I think I have a solid basis for judgement).

 

I agree bar service is sometimes the worst service on my cruises but they do not allow you to get rid of the auto tip. You can add additional tip but you cannot get rid of the minimum. I think they should make the tip optional on the drinks then maybe the waiters would hustle instead of taking an hour to get you a drink.

 

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[sparks1093]

That's the point of my question: how much? Can you give some examples?

 

It really comes down to what do you, personally, feel the service was worth. If we make special requests to the staff than we will leave an additional gratuity, and we pay the recommended amount. If the service is great than we make sure to fill out an onboard feedback card so the management staff knows how good the service was, which to me is probably more important to the staff than extra money since it can lead to bonuses and promotions.

[flamomo]

I cruise with Princess, and always leave the autotips in place.

Additionally, at the end of a cruise, I give my cabin steward an extra $2 per day (rounded off to the next higher $5 increment) for standard service, and $3-4/ day for more exceptional service.

We/I dine in the Anytime dining rooms, so usually have different waitstaff each night, so consider their tip covered by autotips. If we happen to be able to reserve the same table for every night, depending on the ship and the maitre`d, I would tip the waitstaff similarly to the steward.

Room service gets $2-3 per delivery, depending on how large the order is.

Tour guides and/or drivers generally get $5 for a half day tour or $10 for a full day, unless there were outstanding, in which case I would give them more.

[Nebr.cruiser]

We always leave the auto tips on. Unless service is really mediocre or worse, we tip $20-$40 extra for our room steward, depending on the length of the cruise.

 

We almost always do Anytime dining, so don't normally tip extra in the dining room. The exception was when we took 7 grandkids on a cruise. Even though we did Anytime, we always had the same table and wait staff, who were so wonderful with the kids that we tipped them each an extra $10. (5 day cruise)

 

We don't drink, but if we did I think the included gratuities should be plenty. We also seldom order room service, but tip $1-$2 if we do.

 

I think you were very generous in your extra tips.

[travlnblueberries]

We keep the auto on. We tip as follows:

Main room steward $25-$50 depending on the service.

Asst. room steward $25-50 depending on the service.

MDR waiter $25+

Asst. waiter $25+

On one cruise the asst. waiter in training was better then the head waiter and his asst. so not only did we give him an extra $25 but we also made a point of pointing him out to the matre d and informing them what a fine outstanding job he was doing.

In the buffet area for breakfast and lunch, we try and eat in the same area everyday. We will tip an extra $10-$20 to this person (if we are given service such as asking us if we'd like a beverage etc. all week long) Or anyone for that matter that we feel made our vacation a pleasant experience.

Tour guides $20-$100 depending how good they were.

We actually had a taxi driver tell me I gave him too much money. When I told him that was his tip, he was speechless and had tears in his eyes. I just about start crying myself at his reaction. To this day it brings a tear to my eyes thinking about it.

We don't use bar service

We don't use room service.

We are every day people (DH and I), that work 6-7 days a week. We know and understand how hard they work and don't have a problem giving back. We just wish we could give more.

[kelkel2]

We always leave the auto-tips on. We feel like that is part of their income and if there is a problem with the service we speak to the people who we need to speak to, but we don't remove tips. Now, we have never had bad service.

On our first cruise we barely ever saw our room steward. His job got done, but I would't say he went above and beyond. So we just tipped the suggested amount. We just didn't bond with him and didn't really get to know him well.

On our last 2 cruises both of our room stewards went above and beyond, they knew us by name, said hi to us in the halls, we frequently saw them and our room was always tended to quickly if we needed something. Both of those people we really enjoyed and although we aren't the "needy" type we did give each steward an additional $20 at the end of the cruise. But we don't automatically do that.

[marco]

We always do the "auto tip", or whatever each line calls it and then if service has been exceptionally good (which it usually is), we will put something in an envelope and give it to those specific people.

[pris993]

In the MDR we tip extra - to whom and how much depends on what they do.

 

We always order off menu, on some lines the Headwaiter takes our order every night in advance and actually brings our plates to the table. When that happens we usually tip the Headwaiter and the Matr'ed $50 to $75 extra depending on how long the cruise is, we usually do 10 to 16 day cruises. In this case, our regular waiter and assistant don't do much, so we simply go with the auto tip for them.

 

On other lines, the Headwaiter takes the order, and has the waiter supervise to see we get what we ordered, plus the waiter bring our food to the table. When this happens we tip the Headwaiter and Matr'ed extra - plus the waiter and assistant, generally $20-30 each.

 

Ref our Room Steward and sometimes assistant, if they really know what they are doing, we tip extra, because their service reflects professionalism and we appreciate their service. If they play games we may may give them a little extra, since we are demanding passengers, i.e., we want fresh sheets and towels every day. We are very neat and kept the cabin in order otherwise. It various, just as Room Steward vary. Generally around $30-$40 extra.

 

We also always tip $2-$3 dollars for Room Service and for special requests we might make in the buffet at the point of service.

[donaldsc]

 

Bar servers, room service are tipped at time served. From $2. to $5. typically.

 

They already rip you off 15% to hand you a soda or pour something out of a gun. Then you tip $2 to $5 on top of the 15%. Have you figured that if you tip $2 on top of the 15% for an $8 tip, you are giving the bartender a 40% tip for all his or her hard work?

 

DON

[DonnaK]

We tip the recommended amount, which is usually automatically posted to our onboard account.

 

We don't usually tip more, unless someone does something extraordinary, and outside of the realm of their regular job duties, for us.

[Jana60]

They already rip you off 15% to hand you a soda or pour something out of a gun. Then you tip $2 to $5 on top of the 15%. Have you figured that if you tip $2 on top of the 15% for an $8 tip, you are giving the bartender a 40% tip for all his or her hard work?

 

DON

 

I agree with you when it comes to bar staff. I usually have worst service from the bar staff than anybody else on the ship. For instance having to wait an hour for a drink I've requested to be brought back because the waiter doesn't wanna come back towards my end of the room until he has a full tray of drinks to deliver. Or buying a coke card and then having waiters never bring the coke that I ordered. On my last cruise I just made it a habit to go to the bar to get my coke. During the entire 7 day cruise I only had one waiter return with the coke I had ordered. Even that time they only returned because I told the manager of the craps table that I was going to have to quit playing and go get something to drink because I was too thirsty and the waiter had never returned so he raised heck and got the waiter to bring my coke.

 

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[sail7seas]

In the MDR we tip extra - to whom and how much depends on what they do.

 

We always order off menu, on some lines the Headwaiter takes our order every night in advance and actually brings our plates to the table. When that happens we usually tip the Headwaiter and the Matr'ed $50 to $75 extra depending on how long the cruise is, we usually do 10 to 16 day cruises. In this case, our regular waiter and assistant don't do much, so we simply go with the auto tip for them.

 

 

<snip>

 

 

 

What is it you always order 'off menu"? How come? Just curious. :D

 

Sounds like you tip nicely and I'm sure it is appreciated. Thank you for indicating how many days your cruises usually are. If someone tips $20 for a seven day cruise, it is quite different than if they tip the same for a sixteen day cruise. :)

 

[donaldsc]

They already rip you off 15% to hand you a soda or pour something out of a gun. Then you tip $2 to $5 on top of the 15%. Have you figured that if you tip $2 on top of the 15% for an $8 tip, you are giving the bartender a 40% tip for all his or her hard work?

 

DON

 

I meant to say "15% for an $8 drink", not "15% for an $8 tip". What I said makes no sense. Sorry.

 

DON