Tipping on excursion question

[2boys2girls]

I am so bad with knowing what is the "appropriate" tip to give depending on the person or service. We will be doing a Carnival excursion and an independently booked excursion on our upcoming cruise. The Carnival one is more expensive at $400 for the 4 of us and the independent one is $100 for the 4 of us. Is there a "right" or "normal" percentage to tip after the excursion?

Any input would be great!

[cmptrwiz]

We, as in a couple, usually tip a few dollars unless the excursion is over the top.

[cmecruise1962]

I generally pay approximately 20% or about $5 per person, unless I feel neglected or it's over the top!

[love my grandkids]

Depends if tour guide did a real good job making our tour really good or went thru motions adding nothing to the day

 

For real good job we would tip 20 or so and have done more. Going thru the motions usually no tip

[cmptrwiz]

I hate when they make you feel like you are being held hostage. You have to tip before you get off.

[buddylover]

I hate when they make you feel like you are being held hostage. You have to tip before you get off.

 

You NEVER HAVE to tip.....even if it can be embarassing. But those are normally the worst of the tour guides who do that, those you do not want to tip....LOL!!

[LilMissScareAll]

Generally we tip 10/20 as a couple depending on what the excursion was and how involved the tour guide is.

[ScottsSweetie]

Be sure to keep in mind that there may be more than one person or place to tip.

 

As an example, we recently booked an independent excursion for cave tubing and zip lining, which involved an hour bus drive to the location. The total for the excursion was $260 for four of us.

 

On the drive there, the guides are giving a tour of the island for almost the entire hour. On the drive back, they normally are not talking. We gave a $5 tip on the bus for those people.

 

At the cave tubing, there was 1 guide for every 8 people. The guide is giving a narrative during the tubing, as well as pulling the rope for all of us who have tubes all tied together. Strenuous work! We tipped our guide $15.

 

At the zip lining, you are taken to the first tree and given instructions, and a person is "receiving" you at each platform (there are maybe 6 or 7?). They had a tip box down where the equipment was picked up / dropped off. We tipped $15.

 

We were supposed to stop for lunch on the way back; however, we were running short on time so our lunch was served to go. A couple of the restaurant workers got on the bus and handed out our pre-packaged meals & water bottles along with rum punch that was served after lunch was finished. We tipped those workers $5.

 

Sometimes you may only have one person to tip - other times you may have several.

[Kolten]

We tip $10 if it's good... Only two of us so that's $5 each.

[Langley Cruisers]

You NEVER HAVE to tip.....even if it can be embarassing. But those are normally the worst of the tour guides who do that, those you do not want to tip....LOL!!

 

I know, right? My philosophy is if they ask for the tip, they do not get the tip. I mean really - a reminder to tip? A tip jar or an upside down hat is fine, really - but an actual audible tip request is game over in my book.

[cb at sea]

The tip amount is whatever you feel you got out of the excursion. There is no "rule"..there is no "common amount"...

 

If you had a good time....tip what YOU feel it's worth.

For us, a GREAT excursion would warrant about $20 for all of us.

 

 

 

Folks on here go crazy with tipping...you are not required to tip at all...just give a token amount. And, I agree with the tip requests some of the guides make...that turns me OFF..BIG TIME.