Tipping cabin steward upfront?

[tom3562]

Has anyone had luck tipping your cabin stewards up front? 

Even thou we always pre-pay our gratuities, I got into a habit of giving our steward a $20 bill up front when they introduce themselves. This has seamed to always make a great cabin steward / customer relationship for the week. with thee exception one time. I believe it was a 4 day voyage, I tipped up front, and never seen him again till the last day leaving my room. Curious if anyone else does the same?

Happy Sailing!

[Cruiser_1977]

Nope. I leave auto grats on. If I deem my RS "worthy" of additional cash, I give it to him/her on the last morning in person.

[BigBuoys]

Nope. I tip additional once I know the additional requests/services have been performed.

[bakersdozen12]

That would be a bribe, not a tip. Tips are for good services rendered. I prepay auto gratuities ahead of time and then give the steward a nice thank you card with cash on the last night. 

[tom3562]

Then isn't prepay gratuities also a bribe?   

[BigBuoys]

3 minutes ago, tom3562 said:

Then isn't prepay gratuities also a bribe?   

 

Nah. It's prepaid to the cruise lines, not the employee. You also have the option to reduce it for sub-par service before debarkation. Good luck getting your $20 cash back if they didn't perform the reason why you tipped them in advance.

Edited March 1, 2019 by BigBuoys

[Jerseygirl1416]

I’ve always pre paid gratuities but I’ve tipped the cabin steward extra both at the beginning and at the end. Didn’t see too much difference. I’ve always had great stewards. Our last cruise I decided to tip the steward as I would a hotel room attendant so I left $5 each morning with a simple “thank you” written on the pad they leave and I think I like this method best now. 

[Eliot Ness]

We have never tipped early, but have always received very good service.  Like the MDR team, we do tip the steward a little extra on the last night.

 

[elcuchio24]

43 minutes ago, bakersdozen12 said:

That would be a bribe, not a tip. Tips are for good services rendered. I prepay auto gratuities ahead of time and then give the steward a nice thank you card with cash on the last night. 

 

Absolutely, and thats what I always do. $20 when we meet, figure its better to grease the palms up front. Always seemed to work for us. 

[susan1957]

20 minutes ago, elcuchio24 said:

 

Absolutely, and thats what I always do. $20 when we meet, figure its better to grease the palms up front. Always seemed to work for us. 

Just curious....what are you actually greasing the palm for?

[canes20]

We tip when we first meet. We also ask for morning and evening service. We also like to make sure that we always have ice and a couple of extra hand towels.

[fuzzychop1]

FYI... the word TIPS actually means To Insure Prompt Service. We always tip cash to our cabin steward, bar tenders and servers in the casino first and people have actually asked us why we get such good service and never have to wait for a drink and/or ice or anything else we need in our cabin. Take care of the people that take care of you. 

[sanmarcosman]

It's a waste of time.

[sanmarcosman]

14 minutes ago, fuzzychop1 said:

FYI... the word TIPS actually means To Insure Prompt Service. 

That urban legend has been debunked for several decades now. 

[BigBuoys]

1 minute ago, fuzzychop1 said:

grammatically yes, but the acronym uses the "I"

 

Then the acronym is not correct.

 

 

[elcuchio24]

55 minutes ago, susan1957 said:

Just curious....what are you actually greasing the palm for?

 

To have the person prioritize my needs during their day to day activities, as I have proactively incentivised them monetarily.

[fuzzychop1]

Wow... I should have known better. I guess us old people just stick to what works. The point is we always get better service when we tip ahead of time and never wait for someone to prove their "worthiness"  of an extra 5, 10 or 20 bucks for their family that we would normally spend on a supersized happy meal (yes, I know you can't get a supersized happy meal) while at home. Choose your battles. 

Happy Sailing!!

[Aplmac]

1 hour ago, susan1957 said:

Just curious....what are you actually greasing the palm for?

.

To get rid of all that excess cash!!  Duuhhh..

 

We have to demonstrate our affluence, you know! LOL!

[asalligo]

I leave auto gratuity on and usually tip up front when I make custom requests like an extra chair or robes and I let them know what I like in terms of service like I do not need ice, but the kids really love towel animals and I want twice a day service. When they perform my immediate request, I tip a $20 on the first day and then if they are doing a really good job and actually performing full service twice daily and doing the things I mentioned I liked, then I leave a five each day. I feel this increases the service, my mother was with us on a recent cruise and the same steward skipped her a couple days and no towel animals when I got them.  I am sure though that you would get acceptable service with no extra tip. 

[mpdog42]

38 minutes ago, Aplmac said:

.

To get rid of all that excess cash!!  Duuhhh..

 

We have to demonstrate our affluence, you know! LOL!

Do you ever say anything to actually contribute to a thread?

Mike

[Purvis1231]

4 hours ago, tom3562 said:

Then isn't prepay gratuities also a bribe?   

 

I have never tipped up front but it call it a bribe is a little ridicules, A bribe is a crime. People who tip up front are just trying to get good  service. 

[beachbum53]

I consider a tip to be a wage enhancement. I don't get paid at work before I've done anything to earn it. I don't pay our cabin steward before he's done anything either. As someone else pointed out, that would be a bribe. If you give someone a tip before they do anything, there's no real incentive for that person to go above and beyond the bare minimum of their responsibilities. And, as someone else already said, if you're unhappy with something, it's unlikely that you'd get your money back.

[Story2write]

We always prepay the gratuities and we make sure to meet with the steward that cover our cabin. We ask for a bucket of ice and we place a tip each night thanking them for their efforts.   

[JMAE]

We always pay the CCL gratuities and when we first meet the steward I give a $20 tip up front and another $20 on the last night.  Along with keeping the ice bucket full it helps in other ways.  We have been on the Pride 9 times, it is often late returning to Baltimore.  2 of the 9 cruises returned late, guests were asked to leave their staterooms so the stewards can start cleaning.  Both time our steward told us to stay in the stateroom until we were docked.  The staff is wonderful to us and it is worth it to me. 

[tom3562]

Well, as always its a mixed bag.........

I think I'm going to stick with slipping the steward an extra $20 on the first day to insure/ensure great service. I say try it on your next cruise and see what happens. Of course its all over and above the pre paid gratuities. 

If you thing of it, it's monies that aren't shared with the rest of the crew, and very appreciated! 

 

We once gave a crew member that was closing up the photo shop a cheep bottle of champagne we won on some contest that night. He was so excited and happy, we never expected anything, he was just one of those nice crew members you strike up a conversation with. Next day were at the photo shop and we bring up a bunch of photos for them to just discard. we bought our 2 photos, and he stuck all the photos in the bag! Probably $200 worth of photos.