Tipping for excursions

[MississippiMom]

We JUST struggled with this on Thursday.  We knew we would be tipping, but couldn’t really decide on the amount until the actual private tour excursion occurred.  The range in our heads was anywhere from $2 per person to $10 per person.  We wound up giving closer to $11 per person, since we weren’t going to dig change out of the tip jar.

[Garth2]

Thank you again to all for your valuable input.

[SandiLynn]

On 3/10/2019 at 5:01 PM, fyree39 said:

Early in our cruising experience we were quite generous, tipping everyone who though they should get a tip.  Now, we're more selective.  This change came about mostly because of the tender operators that suddenly felt they needed to beg for tips. We didn't have any choice other than to use a tender to get off the ship.  I'm not tipping for that.

 

We now discuss together toward the end of an excursion if we should tip and if so how much. We usually DO tip, but it's sure not as much as it used to be. I'm growing quite tired of the constant presence of the tip jar and palm waiting to be greased. If a decent job is done, we'll tip $10 to the guide and possibly $5 to the bus driver if we're on the bus for quite a while. Sometimes this amount is more. It just depends. However, I refuse to be guilted into tipping.

 

This is not to be confused with on-board tipping. We leave those in place and sometimes tip more when warranted.

I agree. A driver of a bus that never said a word to any one until the end to ask for tips is not deserving of a tip.  His job is to drive the bus, he did that, that's his job. I see no reason to tip. However we did have a driver once that inaddtion to driving, he made sure we had water,when the water ran out made extra  stop to get more, gave safety tips for shopping, made extra effort to help an elderly lady on and off bus and offered to stay with her during the tour, he was interacting with us as appropriate per driving. All the things the tour guide should have done but couldn't be bothered with. He got a tip! On the other hand, while on ship, we like a certain band, so we made sure to go where they played. It never failed that a certain mean spirited bartender was always in that lounge. He was down right mean. Told people they were taking to much time to order and rolled his eye when asked to make a drink (his job). He got no extra tip. In fact , we complained. It's not his job to make people feel bad about ordering a drink. 

[Kristi Williamson]

At this point even taxi drivers have a tip jar in the Caribbean. Tip based on the level of service you receive. If they are extraordinary, we tip a little more, but for the most part we tip 5 to 10 bucks to the people who served us. You're always going to have keyboard warriors telling one story or another, but tip what YOU feel is a fair amount for the people who earned it and you'll be doing the right thing. We cruise at least twice a year and I've rarely seen 1/2 the cruisers not tipping; more like 10%, in our experience.