Live from the Equinox--tipping question re: Blu

[toodycat]

Hi. We are on the Equinox currently and having an amazing time. It's our first trip on Celebrity and we are very impressed. However, we are a little confused about gratuities. We are in an Aquaclass suite and are being charged $28/day for tips. We will give our steward, Mario, something extra because he totally rocks. But what about the staff at Blu? They are all excellent, but we almost never have the same servers twice. Should I not tip them at all? Tip the people who wait on us the last night? Give the manager a lump sum and ask her to divide it up among her staff? Also, the Blu maitre d is great. Should we tip her? If yes, what is an appropriate amount? I'm guessing that we don't need to tip the sommelier because he's already getting a gratuity for every bottle we buy, right? TIA for any advice!

[Orator]

They pool tips in Blu.

[helen haywood]

The servers at Blu are included in your daily gratuity charge.

[shubsens]

We were first time cruisers and ran into the exact same dilemma. I even went to guest relations to try and get an answer and no one would help.

 

In Blu we were seated in 3 different areas throughout the week and enjoyed everyone's service.

 

I ended up asking for an envelope at guest relations and the last night tried to give it to the person at the front that always seated us asking if she could take care of it but she would not take it. I then asked her who am I supposed to give it to and she would not give me an answer so the next morning we just handed it to the maitre d

[Orator]

Hi. We are on the Equinox currently and having an amazing time. It's our first trip on Celebrity and we are very impressed. However, we are a little confused about gratuities. We are in an Aquaclass suite and are being charged $28/day for tips. We will give our steward, Mario, something extra because he totally rocks. But what about the staff at Blu? They are all excellent, but we almost never have the same servers twice. Should I not tip them at all? Tip the people who wait on us the last night? Give the manager a lump sum and ask her to divide it up among her staff? Also, the Blu maitre d is great. Should we tip her? If yes, what is an appropriate amount? I'm guessing that we don't need to tip the sommelier because he's already getting a gratuity for every bottle we buy, right? TIA for any advice!

I will be in Blu on the August 27th cruise. Can you tell me the name of the Maitre 'd? Thanks

[toodycat]

Lynda is the maitre d. Anitsa is the manager.

[Orator]

Lynda is the maitre d. Anitsa is the manager.

 

Thanks for the information.

[curleyjane]

Did you happen to have a waiter named Joseph in Blu? He is the best, sure hope he is still there in October! :D

[dkjretired]

Hi. We are on the Equinox currently and having an amazing time. It's our first trip on Celebrity and we are very impressed. However, we are a little confused about gratuities. We are in an Aquaclass suite and are being charged $28/day for tips. We will give our steward, Mario, something extra because he totally rocks. But what about the staff at Blu? They are all excellent, but we almost never have the same servers twice. Should I not tip them at all? Tip the people who wait on us the last night? Give the manager a lump sum and ask her to divide it up among her staff? Also, the Blu maitre d is great. Should we tip her? If yes, what is an appropriate amount? I'm guessing that we don't need to tip the sommelier because he's already getting a gratuity for every bottle we buy, right? TIA for any advice!

 

The $28 per day is broken into $14 per person the standard charge for Aqua customers. This tip covers your dining and housekeeping personnel and you have no need unless you wish to tip anyone else. This excludes drinks of course. The tips in Blu are pooled because they know people have different waiters each night.

[ebtrip]

When dining in Blu, I did not give the waiters addl gratuities as we had many different servers. I did tip the matte D, and hostess as they went out of their way to make our dining experience fantastic as we were celebrating our 50th anniversary and 2 birthdays.

[vtcruising]

We ran into this in Luminae last time and felt that we had some amazing people that we wanted to give extra tips to, but knew that the extra tips would be pooled. We bring thank you notes and used one to detail the wonderful things that certain staff brought to the table (literally :D) and included extra cash for the whole staff to share (gave to manager). We plan to do the same in Blu in a few weeks, if we have some outstanding people to recognize - if not, the daily gratuities will cover it. We always tip an attentive sommelier separately at the end of the cruise - they can really enhance the experience. ;)

 

We also always fill out comment cards part way through the cruise, and again near the end, with specific comments about staff members that went above and beyond. One person mentioned getting extra time off for the positive comments and others have said that they got special recognition by the boss in front of their colleagues and that it helps with promotions.

[jelayne]

As mentioned Blu staff pool the tips and we always give an envelope to the hostess or Maitre D.

 

We asked the Maitre D about the sommeliers and were told that they are not included in the Blu pool, so we tip our sommelier separately.

[Banjo]

Lynda is the maitre d. Anitsa is the manager.

 

Lynda is very good. After a day she will remember your name and your preferences on where to be seated.

[dkjretired]

As mentioned Blu staff pool the tips and we always give an envelope to the hostess or Maitre D.

 

We asked the Maitre D about the sommeliers and were told that they are not included in the Blu pool, so we tip our sommelier separately.

 

The sommelier would be included in the tips for the drinks you buy. Also, in the past, extra tips are not generally pooled.

[Ereggae]

How was the food and service in Blu?

[warmwinds]

. Also, in the past, extra tips are not generally pooled.

 

Do you mean in the past they were pooled, but not now?

 

We always thought they were pooled, but last month we specifically asked about extra tipping and were told that whoever you give it to, it is theirs to keep.

 

Whether this was true or not (a new policy) we felt both our cabin steward and waiter/assistant deserved more. On this latest cruise in Blu (Summit) they tried (and succeeded) to have you with the same servers every night, so giving them something extra was easy.

[dkjretired]

Do you mean in the past they were pooled, but not now?

 

We always thought they were pooled, but last month we specifically asked about extra tipping and were told that whoever you give it to, it is theirs to keep.

 

Whether this was true or not (a new policy) we felt both our cabin steward and waiter/assistant deserved more. On this latest cruise in Blu (Summit) they tried (and succeeded) to have you with the same servers every night, so giving them something extra was easy.

 

Sorry if I was unclear. It is my understanding that extra tips are not pooled and never have been just like you said.

[helen haywood]

In case the OP is confused, the $28 per day gratuities they are paying includes the wait staff in Blu. Those automatic gratuities are pooled as you often don't have the same staff. If you choose to tip extra those tips are not pooled and are kept by the individual to whom you gave them.

 

 

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[hcat]

We give extra to sommelier , maitre d , and any waitstaff we have for most of our meals..otherwise do not tip random waitstaff

 

Last cruise(infinity), we only tipped sommelier as he is the one who paid attention to us... otherwise service was poor and a totally uncaring attitude.....Hoping this was a one off..esp since we'll be back on that ship in a few monhs

[shipshape sam]

In case the OP is confused, the $28 per day gratuities they are paying includes the wait staff in Blu. Those automatic gratuities are pooled as you often don't have the same staff. If you choose to tip extra those tips are not pooled and are kept by the individual to whom you gave them.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Great explanation!

[vtcruising]

Sorry if I was unclear. It is my understanding that extra tips are not pooled and never have been just like you said.

 

Good to know. We were told extra tips were pooled in Luminae a few months ago (but maybe were misinformed), so assumed it was similar in Blu.

 

When we were in Blu on a couple of cruises a few years ago, we did give extra tips individually to those who gave us excellent service and will plan on it again this time.

[ClaudiaB]

We always give the tips in Blu and Luminae to the maitre d' and let her/her distribute it. We have also had various servers, and there are always the bread servers and people who seem to run the entire room.

[2theship]

While the auto gratuities are distributed to the Blu staff, we often like to tip extra so we give an envelope to the maitre d' on the last evening and have been told that it's pooled for the staff to split. When we get special attention from the sommelier we will tip him or her directly.

[eatdrinkfly]

Did you happen to have a waiter named Joseph in Blu? He is the best, sure hope he is still there in October! :D

We had him on the Equinox in March - he was fantastic! we requested to sit in his section every night after night 2.

[Straughn]

On our last Silhouette cruise, we specifically asked the Luminae manager about tipping extra to staff who waited on us. We were told that if a server receives a tip personally from a passenger, it is his/hers to keep. If you give the $$ to the Maitre'd, that is shared among the staff. We chose to do both. We gave an envelope to the server whose station we requested every night. We also gave the Maitre'd an envelope to be shared among the rest of the staff. We tipped the sommelier separately.