Poor Cabin Steward Service & Tipping

[borcherk]

So, we always prepay gratuities and we've only had poor cabin steward service on one cruise but wanted to get other cruisers thoughts on tipping in situations where the service is poor.

 

Do you reduce your prepaid gratuity? I will say that I would first give the steward the opportunity to correct the problem by reaching out to a manager.

 

Thanks for your input.

[Stephluva2711]

I would maybe speak with guest svcs before reducing it. I have only had 1 cruise where the svc by dining staff was sub par and that was back in the day when you gave cash instead of the automatic grats they put in place now. It was the Waiter, he was just.. bad. If you asked for let's say an extra entree he would literally sigh, once he said "look you need to figure out what you want in the beginning" He would make the assistant waiter basically do all the work. The head waiter was awesome as well, so when It came time to give the envelopes at the end, we actually gave the assistant waiter more than the head waiter. What I didn't expect was for the assistant waiter to tell the waiter what he got, and the waiter actually run after us when we were walking out and say we made an error because the assistant got more than him. I was shocked, but I also told him, there was no mistake. And we spoke with the head waiter about it as well.

 

Sorry, I kind of went off on a tangent lol. But in my opinion if you do receive sub par svc from your cabin steward, I would talk to guest svcs first, or even maybe the head of the house keeping dept. to see if the issue can be rectified.

[Merion_Mom]

So, we always prepay gratuities and we've only had poor cabin steward service on one cruise but wanted to get other cruisers thoughts on tipping in situations where the service is poor.

 

Do you reduce your prepaid gratuity? I will say that I would first give the steward the opportunity to correct the problem by reaching out to a manager.

 

Thanks for your input.

 

First you should talk to the Head of Housekeeping. That person is your cabin steward's supervisor. If there is a serious problem, s/he will either see that it is corrected, or in extreme circumstances, replace your steward. (happened to someone I know)

 

If that doesn't fix your problem, escalate to the Hotel Director. S/He is the supervisor of the Head of Housekeeping. ;)

[Ashland]

First you should talk to the Head of Housekeeping. That person is your cabin steward's supervisor. If there is a serious problem, s/he will either see that it is corrected, or in extreme circumstances, replace your steward. (happened to someone I know)

 

If that doesn't fix your problem, escalate to the Hotel Director. S/He is the supervisor of the Head of Housekeeping. ;)

Agree... But a first step can be to contact the housekeeping deck supervisor then they contacted the Head of Housekeeping.

 

We have family that did indeed have their cabin steward replaced before the first cruise night was over but by the deck supervisor...this was extreme...but it can and did happen.

 

No need to reduce pre-paid gratuities as they ended up with a wonderful steward...and all was well.

[SFCAcruiser]

If one opts to reduce the prepaid gratuities because of a poor cabin steward, wouldn't this also reduce the gratuities for the dining room staff? Or is there a way to specifiy how your gratuities are to be directed? This seems unlikely, but one never knows, hence my question.

BTW, I have never reduced my gratuities and always give extra cash tips, so my question is hypothetical.

[north29]

I have had good, OK, great, Room stewards services but NEVER BAD enough, as to even think of reducing TIPS, sometimes not giving extra was my choice.

 

So what do cruisers think BAD service is?

 

We are D+ so have experiences a number of Room Stewards.

[Clarea]

If one opts to reduce the prepaid gratuities because of a poor cabin steward, wouldn't this also reduce the gratuities for the dining room staff? Or is there a way to specifiy how your gratuities are to be directed? This seems unlikely, but one never knows, hence my question.

BTW, I have never reduced my gratuities and always give extra cash tips, so my question is hypothetical.

Guest Services has a form you can fill out to direct gratuities as you see fit.

[NemoCrownie]

I have had good, OK, great, Room stewards services but NEVER BAD enough, as to even think of reducing TIPS, sometimes not giving extra was my choice.

 

So what do cruisers think BAD service is?

 

We are D+ so have experiences a number of Room Stewards.

Not making up the room one day, no turn down two evenings, ice (requested) only delivered at evening turndown, dirty wine glasses never removed or replaced, a dirty plate never removed etc., etc., etc....The excuse was she was tired and still had a month to go on her contract. FWIW, we did not reduce gratuities but we did not give additional.

Edited September 23, 2015 by NemoCrownie

[gerif]

We've never reduced gratuities but did have a waiter replaced after the first night. No problem at all and we were very happy afterward. Can't see suffering through an entire cruise with poor service and then complaining about it here when it can be dealt with early on.

[ksuds]

We had someone terrible once. On the first day, all the rooms in his section were not given hand soap. We asked for and waited for hours, and called housekeeping but they couldn't help because it was boarding day. It took us until almost late evening before we could wash our hands in our room with real soap, not shampoo.

 

The next day, was the no towel day. He made up our cabin and never gave us any towels.

 

By then our entire section of rooms complained. He was removed from our section and replaced with someone who typically does the suites. We had the best service after that.

[Tinious]

For what it's worth, I noticed on my recent NotS sailing that staff are as concerned with your online feedback as they are with tipping. Perhaps moreso. Our room steward very carefully, politely and deftly highlighted how important solid online survey feedback was to him. He was awesome anyways, so it was easy to give marks -- but it would seem some sort of benefit comes to those with great online scores (better assignments? promotions? bonuses?)

[molsonschooner]

We just got off Indy on Sunday. The cabin steward on this cruise was the worst we have experienced so far. We have always had great stewards. They did a great job, took time to inquire about your day and to show an interest in us. The guy we had this time showed no interest in us, other than to say hi. That is ok as their job is to clean , but we always liked to develop a sort of week long friendship. The two issues that bothered us were, my wife requested extra washcloths everyday. She had to remind him 3 or 4 times. On day 3 he did not do the nightly turn down service. We try to keep the room neat so it wasn't a big deal. We thought at the time there might have been some misunderstanding so we let it slide. It just meant that i had to go to GS to get a compass for the next day. He also missed the turn down on the last night. When I saw this I took the money out of the envelope we had set out for him. We left the normal gratuities in place.

[mcatmcat]

For what it's worth, I noticed on my recent NotS sailing that staff are as concerned with your online feedback as they are with tipping. Perhaps moreso. Our room steward very carefully, politely and deftly highlighted how important solid online survey feedback was to him. He was awesome anyways, so it was easy to give marks -- but it would seem some sort of benefit comes to those with great online scores (better assignments? promotions? bonuses?)

 

 

They are also super interested in the "wow" cards but I don't know why or how they really work for them

[borcherk]

I also agree with a prior poster that it is nice to develop a relationship with your cabin steward. Our stewards who have gone out of their way to develop those connections are always financially rewarded. We see this as adding to our cruise experience.

 

Much like a bartender who remembers your favorite drink or a waiter who remembers that your kids love ice cream with all the fixings, except whipped cream. I think those connections over the course of your cruise really can enhance your experience.

 

Our kids always look forward to "checking in" in the evenings with our steward to see what has been left at turndown. They anticipate those towel animals and if they don't show up they are pretty disappointed.

 

Our last cruise, RCCL sailing 7, seemed to lack some of these connections so we look forward to our next sailing in less than 60 days.

[Goodtime Cruizin]

They are also super interested in the "wow" cards but I don't know why or how they really work for them

 

I've been told that WOW cards of a good nature earn them 'extra' days off etc but not exactly how this works.

[LilBlackDress]

During our last cruise our Suite Attendant wasn't great but wasn't horrible, just below average of what we are used to with our land/cruise services.

 

We didn't change the auto gratuity, but when it came to the WOW envelopes we didn't give one to him either. We were given 3 WOW envelopes in the morning of the 6th night of a 7 night cruise. We thought it was rather odd because normally its the next morning that they are given out. We took them and put them away for the people we wanted to tip/give extra to (Waiter, Asst, CL bartenders). When we returned from dinner that night there was another WOW envelope left. We stuck it on the table went about out night, left on an early excursion, come back to the room and what do you know.... ANOTHER WOW envelope. It was a huge turn off!!

 

Had he done anything we had asked for, small nothing little things. Such as: ice in the evenings, a door stopper (asked on day 1, received it on day 5) not to move my medicine bag from shelf on the side of the vanity. The first few nights AFTER asking it not be moved (again on day one), I would find it in the bathroom... I ended up putting a 'post it' on it saying "we appreciate all the work you do:) Please leave the meds here, Thanks :)"

 

My thoughts are, their pay is worked in with the gratuity and I work that into my budget, the extra is for me to decide if they deserve more or not and how much!

[rum & monkey]

They are also super interested in the "wow" cards but I don't know why or how they really work for them

 

 

Not sure if the program is still run the same way but in 2013 it was explained to us by a member of the crew:

 

At the end of the month the crew member on the ship with the most WOW cards turned in gets recognition with their pic hung up in the crew area (not clear if it is in each category or overall).

They save their cards for special perks. Our head waitress that we had on NOS in 2013 was saving hers to take her family on a cruise with her. We were traveling with the kids and my parents so she got 8 from our table and was almost in tears so excited as she was close to her goal. The more they save the better the perk. Those that are good and are delivering the WOW to you are probably saving for something special, those that are not giving the WOW service probably don't have any to save therefore are not trying.

To some crew these cards mean a lot to them as they can earn some pretty special perks (like taking their family on a cruise) so we always make sure we give ours out. The last time boarding I was really disappointed with the check in as he gave us one and said that was his last one. He was cheating the crew on the ship that might be working hard to receive one and he just wasn't going to get anymore. I asked the girl next to him if she had any and she gave me a couple and told him where he could get another box of them and his response was that he would restock it later.

Our cabin steward received ours this time, first time ever we gave it to a cabin steward but she was by far the best steward we have ever had.

[Doug S]

Just pointing out that the WOW cards are not the same as the envelopes with WOW on them.

 

The WOW cards are given to you at port check-in and the envelopes are left in your room by stewards for putting extra tips in. To my knowledge, on board personnel do not have access to / or distribute the WOW cards that they are hoping to get. The WOW envelopes get emptied of cash and tossed in the trash.

 

WOW cards need to be filled out with info on the employee getting it. WOW envelopes need to be filled with cash....

 

This did confuse me when I first heard of the program, and some previous posts seemed to have the two crossed up as well.

[ronandannette]

I have had good, OK, great, Room stewards services but NEVER BAD enough, as to even think of reducing TIPS, sometimes not giving extra was my choice.

 

So what do cruisers think BAD service is?

 

We are D+ so have experiences a number of Room Stewards.

 

Not sure if the program is still run the same way but in 2013 it was explained to us by a member of the crew:

 

At the end of the month the crew member on the ship with the most WOW cards turned in gets recognition with their pic hung up in the crew area (not clear if it is in each category or overall).

They save their cards for special perks. Our head waitress that we had on NOS in 2013 was saving hers to take her family on a cruise with her. We were traveling with the kids and my parents so she got 8 from our table and was almost in tears so excited as she was close to her goal. The more they save the better the perk. Those that are good and are delivering the WOW to you are probably saving for something special, those that are not giving the WOW service probably don't have any to save therefore are not trying.

To some crew these cards mean a lot to them as they can earn some pretty special perks (like taking their family on a cruise) so we always make sure we give ours out. The last time boarding I was really disappointed with the check in as he gave us one and said that was his last one. He was cheating the crew on the ship that might be working hard to receive one and he just wasn't going to get anymore. I asked the girl next to him if she had any and she gave me a couple and told him where he could get another box of them and his response was that he would restock it later.

Our cabin steward received ours this time, first time ever we gave it to a cabin steward but she was by far the best steward we have ever had.

 

Interesting. I have not received any of these cards to hand out; ever. I do know that the post-cruise surveys ask if there was any crew member worthy of special recognition but unfortunately by that time I was able to identify the position only and did not remember names.

 

FWIW, it's honestly been awhile since I've been blown away by any service received on an RCCL ship. Regarding the original thread topic, our most recent cabin attendant simply said "I can't help you with that" when we requested a mattress topper and softer pillows. We decided not to waste vacation time escalating the issue, but you'd better believe we didn't leave any extra tip. (Personally, we never mess with the auto-grats; we consider them part of the cost of the cruise and wish they would just charge that much more and do away with the entire idea of them being discretionary.)

[rum & monkey]

To my knowledge, on board personnel do not have access to / or distribute the WOW cards that they are hoping to get.

 

 

We have been told that there are no WOW cards on board as well, that the only access the crew has to the cards is receiving one from C&A members (and only available at check in) .[ATTACH]eytrpq[bATTACH]

[Stormy15]

We didn't receive any of these to give out on our August cruise on Navigator only the envelopes with Wow on them. Hmm....

 

 

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[Cuizer2]

So, we always prepay gratuities and we've only had poor cabin steward service on one cruise but wanted to get other cruisers thoughts on tipping in situations where the service is poor.

 

Do you reduce your prepaid gratuity? I will say that I would first give the steward the opportunity to correct the problem by reaching out to a manager.

 

Thanks for your input.

 

Simple - don't prepay the gratuities.

[brfan]

We have been told that there are no WOW cards on board as well, that the only access the crew has to the cards is receiving one from C&A members (and only available at check in) .[ATTACH]eytrpq[bATTACH]

 

I've been told that as well, and have not yet received one when I checked in nor have I remembered to ask for one. However last year I did a back to back on the Liberty. I didn't get one when I checked in for the first cruise but one was left on my bed at the beginning of the second cruise.

[Cuizer2]

Guest Services has a form you can fill out to direct gratuities as you see fit.

 

I don't think that applies to prepaid gratuities.

[vikielynne]

I don't think that applies to prepaid gratuities.

 

It does, we do prepaid gratuities since we do MTD and on our cruise last NYE our cabin steward was horrible. We spoke to housekeeping twice and they helped get what we needed at thew time but didn't address the issue with the steward. I went to Guest Services and explained the situation and they gave me a form to remove the prepaid amount and then pay what I felt was deserved.