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Tipping/ Coastal Kitchen?

rt1092
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Amtrac

Amtrac

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What is the normal way to tip the waiters? Are they part of the daily tips that Royal charges?

 

 

 

Yes but you can always leave a little extra.

 

 

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Clarea

Clarea

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What is the normal way to tip the waiters? Are they part of the daily tips that Royal charges?

We had a fantastic waiter and gave extra at the end of the week.

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Espn

Espn

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We had a fantastic waiter and gave extra at the end of the week.

Same here. We ended up eating all our dinners and some breakfasts in the CK and had the same waiter all week, he was great. We tipped the waiter, CK manager, the assistant manager, and the bartenders. I don't mind tipping extra for wonderful service.

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Passing Lane

Passing Lane

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On our Oasis cruise we tipped at the end of the week, but on the Harmony we changed to daily so who ever was our server would get the tip. We found that to be a better system. It also created a desire of all the waiters to want to serve us. When we got to the check in desk the waiters would come to the desk and fight for us. Never had to wait. Tipping up front always brings better service.

 

 

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Milwaukee Eight

Milwaukee Eight

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A side note

 

We prepaid gratuities and we ate in the CK all but one night (Samba). We did breakfast mostly in CK/SL. I do believe we did have breakfast in the WJ once or twice.

 

We did not ask to have any gratuities removed even-though we never ate in the MDR. We did have reservation for the MDR that we cancelled the first afternoon once we learned of the CK.

 

I was told that the wait staff in the CK also shared in the tip pool from prepaid gratuities. Not sure of the reasoning behind removing gratuities? Why remove if the CK wait staff shares in them. What about the other onboard dinning? The waiters in WJ are generally part of the MDR wait staff at times.

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Grandma Dazzles

Grandma Dazzles

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If you do not eat at any main dinning rooms during the cruise don't forget to tell the service desk and you will get back any tips they charged to you account.

 

 

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Why do this? Although you may not eat in the MDR, the tips also cover all food venues and behind the scenes staff. Often have seen MDR waiter working in the Windjammer, as an example. Just another way to not pay tips.

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Seatravelers

Seatravelers

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Why do this? Although you may not eat in the MDR, the tips also cover all food venues and behind the scenes staff. Often have seen MDR waiter working in the Windjammer, as an example. Just another way to not pay tips.

 

Exactly! The daily tips amount is for Dining Services, not a specific MDR waiter(s). ONLY reason anyone should remove these tips is if they do not eat in any dining venue on the ship, period, inho

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clo6216

clo6216

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After excellent service the first night on Oasis last week, we requested to be seated at Natasha's station each night and were accommodated all but one evening. Her personality, advice and professionalism added to our enjoyment of Coastal Kitchen. We tipped her for the week on our last night.

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rt1092

rt1092

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Thanks for all the responses. I would never cancel the tips, because even if we never eat in the MDR. Those tips are shared with all wait staff in the free venues Park Cafe, Solarium, Windjammer, Etc.

We are looking forward to eating in the Coastal Kitchen. It will be our first time there. We will just tip every night I'm figuring $10 for the 2 of us.

If it isn't crowded I hope to invite a couple of people that we meet in the lounge. We have hoped for a year, to get an invite but it never happened. Had to book an "expensive" (for us) cabin. To get the privilege.

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Passing Lane

Passing Lane

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The Coastal Kitchen staff get no tips! I even tried to move my tips in the MDR to CC, It was explained to me the CC staff get paid more but get no tips. I got this information from the cruise line and staff on board the ship. If you give the maitre gets all the money they will pool it. You can do what feels right to each of you. I keep in touch with one of the Harmony waiters via e-mail and he told me about the higher pay and no tips except those customers give them. I basically take my MDR tips and give it to the CC waiters.

 

 

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Pratique

Pratique

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We will just tip every night I'm figuring $10 for the 2 of us.

 

That's what we usually do as well. As far as the pooling its good to know about but I leave it to them to sort it out. Often in CK another server will also help our server, it seems to be a team effort both in the dining room and behind the scenes. They have even gone down to the Windjammer to get us a special request (I forget what it was, might have been a glass of juice). They also prepped a meal to go one night when my wife wanted to eat in the room, so they are worth every cent of the extra tip and probably more in some cases.

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gerif

gerif

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The Coastal Kitchen staff get no tips! I even tried to move my tips in the MDR to CC, It was explained to me the CC staff get paid more but get no tips. I got this information from the cruise line and staff on board the ship. If you give the maitre gets all the money they will pool it. You can do what feels right to each of you. I keep in touch with one of the Harmony waiters via e-mail and he told me about the higher pay and no tips except those customers give them. I basically take my MDR tips and give it to the CC waiters.

 

 

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Those "MDR" tips cover every eating venue on the ship. Do you never eat a single bite from anywhere other than CC? If you do, you are stiffing someone.

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sellwingri

sellwingri

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Posted (edited)
On Anthem we tipped at the end of the week in cash. We spoke to the maitre d and he told us that all tips get pooled and distributed equally. No need to tip as individuals because of this.

 

This is only true if you add it to your bill or shipboard account. If you want to tip a specific waiter, stateroom attendant, bartender, or anyone else, personally give them cash. Cash tips are not pooled.

Edited by sellwingri
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TeeRick

TeeRick

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This is only true if you add it to your bill or shipboard account. If you want to tip a specific waiter, stateroom attendant, bartender, or anyone else, personally give them cash. Cash tips are not pooled.

 

Sorry but that is not entirely correct. The cash tips in CK at least on Anthem are pooled. Not sure about elsewhere on the ship such as at bars. I confirmed this on Anthem anyway. They consider their service in CK a team effort. In a similar way, we have been told on Celebrity ships that the staff in Luminae, similar to CK, also share tips from a pool.

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