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Tips to the Wait staff


lenquixote66
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2 minutes ago, cruizergal70 said:

I usually leave the tips on but I feel no moral or ethical obligation.  The employees receive their pay from the cruise line. I'm personally a low maintenance cruiser. I don't even eat in the MDR and I do my best to never need to ask the staff for anything.

If you eat in a restaurant do you tip?  From everything I read - and I'm on a couple of food sites - these people don't make a "livable wage" and depend on tips.

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47 minutes ago, cruizergal70 said:

I usually leave the tips on but I feel no moral or ethical obligation.  The employees receive their pay from the cruise line. I'm personally a low maintenance cruiser. I don't even eat in the MDR and I do my best to never need to ask the staff for anything.

Unless you pack your own food for the cruise, you enjoy the efforts of the people who staff wherever you do eat, and who participate in the autotips, so your avoiding the MDR is irrelevant.

 

And, anyone who identifies him/herself as a “high maintenance” cruiser would hopefully leave a little EXTRA, perhaps recognizing that “high maintenance” on a passenger’s part translates to high effort on staff’s part.

 

Finally, even without your asking for anything, your cabin steward cares for your room, and other staff maintain public spaces, etc. 

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9 hours ago, Doug R. said:

 

Please forgive this poor ignorant Yank for believing that you British could ever be as rude, combative and uncouth as you seem to think we are. Then again there was the stories our tour host in Madrid told us about the behavior of British on holiday when she was working in Ibiza..........

Yes, more or less exactly the same as happens on Spring Break in Florida. 

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On 8/17/2019 at 8:06 PM, GUT2407 said:

But if the line allows people to remove them, they are sailing with a line whose policy aligns with theirs.

It is understood, if not always spelled out in writing, that removing them is “for cause” - meaning not just wanting to save  a few dollars, euros or pounds just because it can be done. So, unless the passenger has “cause”, there is no such alignment of policy.

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40 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

It is understood, if not always spelled out in writing, that removing them is “for cause” - meaning not just wanting to save  a few dollars, euros or pounds just because it can be done. So, unless the passenger has “cause”, there is no such alignment of policy.

Sorry never seen anyone asked to show cause when I’ve seen people removing them, save on NCL.

 

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10 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

Sorry never seen anyone asked to show cause when I’ve seen people removing them, save on NCL.

 

 

Nice to see that you are willing to spend your cruise time monitoring the transaction when people remove gratuities. The world needs more busy bodies to keep track of passenger behavior. 🙄

 

Me, I much rather spend time enjoying the fin activities on board than spying on other passenger's habits. 

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15 hours ago, GUT2407 said:

Sorry never seen anyone asked to show cause when I’ve seen people removing them, save on NCL.

 

 

In a typical American restaurant withholding a gratuity without cause is not illegal and does not require explanation.  But it is considered extremely bad manners and would bring into question the person's character.   Those of us used to this system would feel the same about grat's on cruise ships.   Truly is a cultural thing I guess.  

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18 hours ago, GUT2407 said:

Sorry never seen anyone asked to show cause when I’ve seen people removing them, save on NCL.

 

 

17 hours ago, SantaFeFan said:

 

Nice to see that you are willing to spend your cruise time monitoring their transactions when people remove gratuities. The world needs more busy bodies to keep track of passenger behavior. 🙄

 

Me, I much rather spend time enjoying the fun activities on board than spying on other passenger's habits. 

 

When I read his comment, my BS meter rose by several points and almost pegged out at maximum Smell-O-Meter levels - as it does with most of his posts on the topic. 😉

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We always tipped the wait staff.. including the head waiter and Matre-d for many years extra because we requested items not on the menu and received additional service as a result.  Once the main dining experience started to slip, we decided to stop going to the MDR.   So we go to extra fee dining instead at least a few evenings and use the $ we would have tipped extra for these special meals.    We actually save money on tips... enjoy the buffet mid day and skip dinner most nights.    Better for the waist line too, lol.  We do tip extra at the buffet if we ask for something not out and some gets what we requested.  Tip them on the spot.  

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2 minutes ago, pris993 said:

We always tipped the wait staff.. including the head waiter and Matre-d for many years extra because we requested items not on the menu and received additional service as a result.  Once the main dining experience started to slip, we decided to stop going to the MDR.   So we go to extra fee dining instead at least a few evenings and use the $ we would have tipped extra for these special meals.    We actually save money on tips... enjoy the buffet mid day and skip dinner most nights.    Better for the waist line too, lol.  We do tip extra at the buffet if we ask for something not out and some gets what we requested.  Tip them on the spot.  

Have you traveled on Oceania?

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31 minutes ago, clo said:

Have you traveled on Oceania?

No.  We have cruised Princess and Celebrity mostly, Holland America, Crystal, Cunard, NCL, RCCL, Royal Cruise Line and the old Sitmar now part of Princess.     My DH is 87 and I am 72... at this stage of our life we are not traveling far and wide, happy to do cruises primarily from our home port of San Francisco... so that means mostly on Princess.    Trying to resist flying as much as possible, not much fun anymore even in premium coach.  

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10 hours ago, pris993 said:

We always tipped the wait staff.. including the head waiter and Matre-d for many years extra because we requested items not on the menu and received additional service as a result.  Once the main dining experience started to slip, we decided to stop going to the MDR.   So we go to extra fee dining instead at least a few evenings and use the $ we would have tipped extra for these special meals.    We actually save money on tips... enjoy the buffet mid day and skip dinner most nights.    Better for the waist line too, lol.  We do tip extra at the buffet if we ask for something not out and some gets what we requested.  Tip them on the spot.  

Do you tip extra in the specialty dining (extra fee dining)?  Maybe leave an extra $5 or $10 depending.

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On 8/18/2019 at 1:46 AM, SantaFeFan said:

 

No, he made us believe he kept the auto gratuities in place, when in fact he says they are included in the price he pays, which I assume means it is part of the base fare and cannot be removed. 

 

And he is right that there is no "rule" to pay gratuities on most ships. It is a suggestion. And some people ignore suggestions when it benefits themselves to do so. Just like it is not a rule but a suggestion to refrain from using a smartphone at the theater but they do it anyway. Or talk loudly when visiting a place of worship when it is requested that the talk in whispers. Or force themselves to the front of a line because there is no absolute rule against it. Or take photos in museums when the sign clearly says no to do so.

 

It is all about satisfying themselves. 

 

My apologies here.

 

I assumed that everyone paid upfront for the tips. 

 

As I have only been on one cruise and that's what we did there.

 

I thought we were talking about tipping extra.

 

 

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16 minutes ago, DarrenM said:

My apologies here.

 

I assumed that everyone paid upfront for the tips. 

 

As I have only been on one cruise and that's what we did there.

 

I thought we were talking about tipping extra.

 

 

 

No apologies needed. While I can't say for certain, based on comments on these boards over the years I would guess that the majority of people don't pay in advance, letting the charge to their on-board accounts be billed on a daily basis, and then paid at the end of the cruise with the final account statement delivered to the stateroom the night before disembarking. We used to do just that, but now pay in advance when possible to have a smaller final balance owed at the end. If we have a large amount of On Board Credit (OBC), we will not prepay and let the OBC cover the daily gratuities.

 

One thing we NEVER do is remove the gratuities. We have had very few occasions where we received poorer than expected service, but always took a few minutes to bring it to the attention of the staff member's supervisor when it happened, which corrected the issue immediately. 

 

The staff works hard to make our cruise a good one, and we feel strongly that they should be rewarded for that hard work, even if it means we pay daily tips on those lines that have that system in place. 

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Why?

Gratuities included or paid as part of the daily amount, is enough!!!!!

Surely paying out twice is both silly / absurd

It's not as if these people are not paid from your fare

Tipping should be above and beyond the normal, the exceptional.

On Regent we never have same staff as anytime open seating means often only seeing a waiter once, therefore tipping on top is weird..........

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55 minutes ago, GrJ Berkshire said:

Why?

Gratuities included or paid as part of the daily amount, is enough!!!!!

Surely paying out twice is both silly / absurd

It's not as if these people are not paid from your fare

Tipping should be above and beyond the normal, the exceptional.

On Regent we never have same staff as anytime open seating means often only seeing a waiter once, therefore tipping on top is weird..........

why they certainly are part of the daily amount, is it enough ?????

 

 

 

 

 

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it's my money I'll decide !!!!!

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2 hours ago, GrJ Berkshire said:

Why?

Gratuities included or paid as part of the daily amount, is enough!!!!!

Surely paying out twice is both silly / absurd

It's not as if these people are not paid from your fare

Tipping should be above and beyond the normal, the exceptional.

On Regent we never have same staff as anytime open seating means often only seeing a waiter once, therefore tipping on top is weird..........

 

It is called being generous. Some of us actually like to do something nice for people, even if it isn't required. A concept you don't appear to understand. 🙄

Edited by SantaFeFan
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Noblesse oblige?  “Being generous”

 

I am a DSC hater, but yes, I do pay it, and I tip above occasionally, when deserved.  Last sailing my steward got a nice tip because she was outstanding, for example.

 

But I HATE the fact that the cruise lines push their payroll onto the pax and I’m very vocal about it here.  And they load the system (at least NCL does) by making back-end staff’s pay dependent on DSC, so if you have a legit complaint that isn’t remedied, you still shouldn’t pull the DSC because it affects everyone, not just the person or group who did poor service.

 

I’m accustomed to tips being increased/decreased (within reason) based on service.  My restaurant norm is 20%.  Terrible service will get 10-15% (10% is for dreadful); outstanding service is above 20%.  DSC isn’t a true tip, because you can’t adjust it down (legitimately, anyway, since it affects many others).

 

My vote is for to just add it to the fare and stop pretending it’s optional.  It isn’t.  Then have the same tipping policy “your fare includes all tips; you are welcome to tip extra as a reward for outstanding service, but it’s neither expected nor required”.  Easy peasy.  No one is stiffed, and these tipping threads would vanish.

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1 hour ago, erdoran said:

Noblesse oblige?  “Being generous”

 

I am a DSC hater, but yes, I do pay it, and I tip above occasionally, when deserved.  Last sailing my steward got a nice tip because she was outstanding, for example.

 

But I HATE the fact that the cruise lines push their payroll onto the pax and I’m very vocal about it here.  And they load the system (at least NCL does) by making back-end staff’s pay dependent on DSC, so if you have a legit complaint that isn’t remedied, you still shouldn’t pull the DSC because it affects everyone, not just the person or group who did poor service.

 

I’m accustomed to tips being increased/decreased (within reason) based on service.  My restaurant norm is 20%.  Terrible service will get 10-15% (10% is for dreadful); outstanding service is above 20%.  DSC isn’t a true tip, because you can’t adjust it down (legitimately, anyway, since it affects many others).

 

My vote is for to just add it to the fare and stop pretending it’s optional.  It isn’t.  Then have the same tipping policy “your fare includes all tips; you are welcome to tip extra as a reward for outstanding service, but it’s neither expected nor required”.  Easy peasy.  No one is stiffed, and these tipping threads would vanish.

 

You have described the identical end result of either pre-paying the tips or leaving the daily auto tips in place. If a fare costs $1,000 and the tips add an extra $150, it would be the identical to the amount spent for a $1,150 with the tips included. Same amount of money spent, same final outcome.

 

It amuses me when people insist that the tips be included in the fare while in the same breath complain about having to pay tips.  Pay them without complaining. Then it will be the same as if they were included. "Easy peasy". 

 

I am convinced that some people complain only to hear themselves complain. 

Edited by SantaFeFan
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1 hour ago, erdoran said:

Noblesse oblige?  “Being generous”

 

I am a DSC hater, but yes, I do pay it, and I tip above occasionally, when deserved.  Last sailing my steward got a nice tip because she was outstanding, for example.

 

But I HATE the fact that the cruise lines push their payroll onto the pax and I’m very vocal about it here.  And they load the system (at least NCL does) by making back-end staff’s pay dependent on DSC, so if you have a legit complaint that isn’t remedied, you still shouldn’t pull the DSC because it affects everyone, not just the person or group who did poor service.

 

I’m accustomed to tips being increased/decreased (within reason) based on service.  My restaurant norm is 20%.  Terrible service will get 10-15% (10% is for dreadful); outstanding service is above 20%.  DSC isn’t a true tip, because you can’t adjust it down (legitimately, anyway, since it affects many others).

 

My vote is for to just add it to the fare and stop pretending it’s optional.  It isn’t.  Then have the same tipping policy “your fare includes all tips; you are welcome to tip extra as a reward for outstanding service, but it’s neither expected nor required”.  Easy peasy.  No one is stiffed, and these tipping threads would vanish.

I hope you've gone to upper management with this because I agree that it's important.  Thank you.

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6 hours ago, SantaFeFan said:

 

You have described the identical end result of either pre-paying the tips or leaving the daily auto tips in place. If a fare costs $1,000 and the tips add an extra $150, it would be the identical to the amount spent for a $1,150 with the tips included. Same amount of money spent, same final outcome.

 

It amuses me when people insist that the tips be included in the fare while in the same breath complain about having to pay tips.  Pay them without complaining. Then it will be the same as if they were included. "Easy peasy". 

 

I am convinced that some people complain only to hear themselves complain. 

SantaFeFan, totally different final outcome.  My solution shows cruise lines CARING that the crew gets a decent wage because now it’s not going to go below the “base plus DSC” figure because the DSC will always be included—because it’s part of the fare.  And honestly, I think the fact that it’s positioned now as “discretionary” but people get gang-flamed if they DARE question it, or want to tip as they are accustomed to - directly- leads to negativity and takes away from the total cruise experience.

 

 Plus, at least on NCL, it’s known that crew get a “base” salary that is partially funded by DSC - so if no one pays DSC, crew at least get base, funded by NCL.  If some, but not enough, people pay DSC then crew STILL gets base.  Payroll is the employer’s responsibility, at least to whatever the agreed-upon base pay, and DSC/tips/service charges/gratuities really should be ADDED to base-every penny of that should be, not some unknown percentage.  For me and the direct tippers, that’s another big issue.  Why am I contributing to base pay for a tipped position?  My tips should go directly to crew, NOT to NCL to offset their payroll.

 

My other issue with DSC is that it comes across as a “sneaky” charge, kinda like a hotel resort fee.  It’s NOT advertised as part of the cruise fare, it doesn’t show up when booking (although I will say “prepay DSC” is an improvement, there was a time that wasn’t visible).  When you book directly by calling a TA it may not be disclosed at all until, at the earliest, final payment-and if it’s a deal-breaker, chances are by that time you’ve made other arrangements - airfare, time off work, etc.  There are a lot of “shoulds” here about how everyone “should know” about the DSC and “should” do research, but not everyone does things that way, so right or wrong, this type of thing does happen.  Since DSC is such a big deal and so important, why not make it visible/disclosed before booking?

 

If the advertised fare INCLUDED DSC, if travel agents were shown those fares on their screens, and it was no longer discretionary, that would solve a LOT of problems, don’t you think?  

 

 

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12 hours ago, GrJ Berkshire said:

Why?

Gratuities included or paid as part of the daily amount, is enough!!!!!

Surely paying out twice is both silly / absurd

It's not as if these people are not paid from your fare

Tipping should be above and beyond the normal, the exceptional.

On Regent we never have same staff as anytime open seating means often only seeing a waiter once, therefore tipping on top is weird..........

Regent hey? Methinks you ain't short of a few Bob to tip that bit extra.

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9 hours ago, SantaFeFan said:

 

You have described the identical end result of either pre-paying the tips or leaving the daily auto tips in place. If a fare costs $1,000 and the tips add an extra $150, it would be the identical to the amount spent for a $1,150 with the tips included. Same amount of money spent, same final outcome.

 

It amuses me when people insist that the tips be included in the fare while in the same breath complain about having to pay tips.  Pay them without complaining. Then it will be the same as if they were included. "Easy peasy". 

 

I am convinced that some people complain only to hear themselves complain. 

 

I don't the whole thing where people have to be forced to do the right thing.

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