Dining Room Tipping

[sas80]

we are going to skip having an assigned dining time. 

we are contemplating doing anytime dining, but we may never actually eat in the dining room

 

If we do anytime dining can we decline gratuities?

If we do anytime dining and decline the gratuities, but do eat in the dining room, is there a way to add tips on at the end of the cruise? If we add tips at the end of the cruise, can we only add the amount for the number of nights we ate in the dining room?  or is it an all or nothing tipping situation?

 

Can we/should we just leave the tip at every meal we do eat in the dining room during anytime dining? 

 

4 people, how much per meal to tip?

 

thanks!

[Biker19]

4 minutes ago, sas80 said:

If we do anytime dining can we decline gratuities?

You can opt out of grats at any time regardless of dining plan. Hope you are prepared for "feedback".

[sas80]

10 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

You can opt out of grats at any time regardless of dining plan. Hope you are prepared for "feedback".

Thanks

 

Well, let's hope ppl actually READ what i posted.  if we eat in the dining room we are prepared to tip for those nights.

 

I've cruised long enough not to worry if ppl tell me it's my job to fully tip regardless of if I eat there or not.

 

@Biker19, you dont know if I can have guest relations tip for 2,3,4 days, do you?  and/or if I should just leave an envelope of cash at the table every night we do eat there?

Edited January 21, 2020 by sas80

[davekathy]

5 minutes ago, sas80 said:

Thanks

 

Well, let's hope ppl actually READ what i posted.  if we eat in the dining room we are prepared to tip for those nights.

 

I've cruised long enough not to worry if ppl tell me it's my job to fully tip regardless of if I eat there or not.

 

@Biker19, you dont know if I can have guest relations tip for 2,3,4 days, do you?  and/or if I should just leave an envelope of cash at the table every night we do eat there?

I would suggest not leaving the envelope on the table. Hand the waiter and the assistant waiter their tip. 

[Biker19]

8 minutes ago, sas80 said:

@Biker19, you dont know if I can have guest relations tip for 2,3,4 days, do you?

I have not heard anyone able to specify days for grats.

[gerif]

It’s all or nothing. Either remove all gratuities and risk missing people who have served you or leave it in place and don’t worry about it. Just curious, if you are not planning to eat in the dining room, do you not plan on eating somewhere on the ship? Workers in other venues depend on the autograts as well you know, not just the waitstaff in the dining room. 

[stevea36]

Just remember that grats include a lot more than the DR staff, and a lot more than you see, a lot of behind the scenes folks get part of the pie...      ok, i'm stepping off my soapbox now

 

[grapau27]

16 minutes ago, sas80 said:

Thanks

 

Well, let's hope ppl actually READ what i posted.  if we eat in the dining room we are prepared to tip for those nights.

 

I've cruised long enough not to worry if ppl tell me it's my job to fully tip regardless of if I eat there or not.

 

@Biker19, you dont know if I can have guest relations tip for 2,3,4 days, do you?  and/or if I should just leave an envelope of cash at the table every night we do eat there?

The dining room waiter's also work in the windjammer buffet during the day.

 

[sas80]

Thanks everyone

Edited January 21, 2020 by sas80

[Tulsacoker]

[TYMAN]

Ahhh, the tipping thread. So, does the same philosophy work for the cabin steward as it does for eating in the DR?  You know, remove tip if you don't patronize? Just a thought....

[taglovestocruise]

Just leave your auto tips in place.  Room steward is taken care of, Windjammer staff is included,  specialty dining is set, Bistro and cafe staff are included. All waiters and assistant waiters are included in the pool. $60 a day is a lot of tipping but the crew works their asses off for you and the kids.  

[Joseph2017China]

Auto tips are a very small amount of money, spread among all dining room staff, for the entire day.  I would leave the tips alone, and consider it a part of your cruise, like taxes and port fees.

[Jamesatgsu]

If you request to remove a portion of your tip, you'll be asked for an explanation. Seeing as the tip is also supposed to cover for the Lido deck servers (The dining room staff works out there too), it wouldn't be appropriate to reduce the tip.

 

Personally I tip my servers on the last night in cash. I have a strong preference for Late Dining, as I like to have the same wait staff every night. Used My Time Dining for one night and hated it and they were able to honor our request for Late Dining, just in a different dining room. I just booked a cruise with no late dining  time available, so I might be screwed again, in which case I'll probably tip $5 cash each night (we usually eat every night in the dining room).

[brillohead]

So just because you don't eat in the dining room for dinner a few nights, does that mean you're not going to eat anywhere on the ship ever at all for the entire week?

Because that's where your tips go -- to the buffet workers, to the Cafe Promenade workers, to the dining room staff at breakfast and lunch, and also to the cabin stewards.

Stop thinking of your daily gratuities as just being a tip to your dinner waiter/assistant waiter and start thinking of it as a tip to virtually every single staff member who makes your cruise a wonderful vacation.  

It's a lot easier to just pay the auto-grat on your bill at the end of the week versus carrying around cash to tip every single worker you see.  

[not-enough-cruising]

11 minutes ago, Jamesatgsu said:

If you request to remove a portion of your tip, you'll be asked for an explanation.

Never been asked for an explanation, just go to GS, ask to have the automatic gratuity discontinues, no problem 

[Sail n Snow]

I haven’t asked to leave auto tip for certain days but I have done only one person in the cabin before and have never been asked for feedback. 
 

as for specialty restaurants depending on what package you get they may cover the tips.  I know the UDP has it included in the price.  
 

 The one tip I’ve used in the MDR during when on an assigned dining time is to tip my waiter on the 2nd night with part of the tip as a thank you (especially if I bring my own wine bottle). It shows that you appreciate the work they are doing.  
 

We can treat it like a “fee” but in reality if the cruise lines are using this to decrease the amount they pay the staff then call it a wage supplement fee or include it in the price of the cruise and truly pay these workers their contract wage.  This has been discussed a lot in the past just my .02. 

[HBE4]

5 hours ago, sas80 said:

4 people, how much per meal to tip?

 

Royal used to provide a breakdown of how the daily gratuity was doled out between the Stateroom attendant and the 3 MDR personnel - head waiter,  waiter, assistant waiter.   I haven't seen that breakdown in years, most likely because the tips are now pooled together and distributed to everyone.

 

If my hazy memory serves correctly, the MDR staff used to account for half of the daily tip.  Using that as a rough guideline, it should be roughly $7.50 pp/pd or $30 per meal for 4.

[LizzieandLuke]

4 hours ago, Tulsacoker said:

This was made me laugh.  

 

[gerif]

9 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

 

 

If my hazy memory serves correctly, the MDR staff used to account for half of the daily tip.  Using that as a rough guideline, it should be roughly $7.50 pp/pd or $30 per meal for 4.

Where do you get “per meal”?  Are you assuming people eat only one meal a day? No snacks?

[dplusd]

I wish they would ditch the discretionary gratuity model and replace it with a mandatory "resort fee".  That would take care of the cheapo's looking to stiff the hard working staff and/or those that can't really afford to cruise anyway. 

[sas80]

22 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

 

Royal used to provide a breakdown of how the daily gratuity was doled out between the Stateroom attendant and the 3 MDR personnel - head waiter,  waiter, assistant waiter.   I haven't seen that breakdown in years, most likely because the tips are now pooled together and distributed to everyone.

 

If my hazy memory serves correctly, the MDR staff used to account for half of the daily tip.  Using that as a rough guideline, it should be roughly $7.50 pp/pd or $30 per meal for 4.

Thanks. We were thinking $9 pp per day for the stateroom attendant, so that's almost in line

[Sail n Snow]

11 minutes ago, dplusd said:

I wish they would ditch the discretionary gratuity model and replace it with a mandatory "resort fee".  That would take care of the cheapo's looking to stiff the hard working staff and/or those that can't really afford to cruise anyway. 

This could work as long as they get rid of the 18% gratuity on drinks and everything else.  

[springfire]

1 hour ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Never been asked for an explanation, just go to GS, ask to have the automatic gratuity discontinues, no problem 

We always remove the automatic gratuity,  very easy to do.

[time4u2go]

2 hours ago, dplusd said:

I wish they would ditch the discretionary gratuity model and replace it with a mandatory "resort fee".  That would take care of the cheapo's looking to stiff the hard working staff and/or those that can't really afford to cruise anyway. 

There's actually a move afoot to get rid of mandatory resort fees, as they tend to mask the true price.