Pre paid tips

[Merion_Mom]

We prepay, but do it onboard---thus, no name on a sheet.

 

My guess is you would've received poor service regardless of when or how you tipped. You received great service the first week, but did you know whether or not that waiter had seen the sheet? Also, we've never had a waiter do anything other than put the envelope in a pocket and say thanks.

I agree with jwlane. I think that this waiter is just not a happy camper. The problem here is HIS SAYING THIS TO YOU. How incredibly rude and inappropriate and totally stupid.

 

The only time I handed a cabin steward a big chunk of cash up front (after reading posts about this on CC), we had LOUSY service. I don't think that it's because I gave him cash up front. I just think that he was a lousy cabin attendant.

 

Ship happens. Not every single waiter and steward is fabulous - just MOST of them. You got one of the crappy ones. They can get demoted out of the dining room for this kind of BAD behavior. They then get NO tips. It's a pretty clear situation of CONSEQUENCES. (remember teaching that one to your kids?)

 

I would have been P.O.-ed if this had happened to me, but it wouldn't make me change the way I choose to handle gratuities. That's for your convenience, and I repeat: I think that his bad service came from HIS bad attitude, not your pre-payment of tips.

 

JMO YMMV.

[JaKetravels]

I like the idea of giving the workers on the ship a surprise. I too was thinking of bringing along some gift bags to hand out, I think it's a nice touch. My family owns a gift shop that also has a large penny candy section and I plan on bagging up some of the wrapped candy and leaving them for those I think will appreciate it. It must be brutal to do what they do day in and day out. I wouldn't want to wait on us spoiled and pampered Americans..no way! They see that we have so much, I think the earlier poster has it right, a little something extra with some thought put in goes a long way to humanize the rest of us.

[beachgirl8078]

FYI, you can cancel the prepaid tips if you want. After hearing all this I decided I wanted to cancel them, called RCI, and the cs representative just took them off and credited my credit card no questions asked.

[jwlane]

I agree with jwlane.

Someone on this board agreeing with me!:D

[Treven]

My extra "tips" (for up and beyond) are international calling cards - usually about $20 ones. I get 5 or 6 before I leave home.

[FinelyCruising]

they seemed as though they were not interested, it was only at the end of the week when we gave them the vouchers did the waiter comment before even looking at the envelope that he "had looked at the sheet on the first day to see if we had pre-paid our tips" I think this is disgusting and RCCL should make sure staff have no access to such information. I am sure had he not known we had pre-paid we would have received better service.

 

I wasn't there but it seems this was a fragment of the entire conversation....

 

For example, we looked a the sheet the first day want to say Thank You.

 

Something is missing form the above.

 

While I do get the service may have differed from the first week, it also sounds like there were different sets of waiters.

 

If service was bad it was bad. That is one thing, and perhaps the best reason not to pre-pay the tips before you have sampled the service, I mean really, why would you, wait service is not a pre-pay industry.

 

But I'd like to hear the rest of the conversation, just to have all the pieces so I am not pursuaded only in one way. Thanks.

[beerbucketdave]

My question is why would anybody pre-pay tips in the first place?

When you go to a restaurant do you pay your tip before or after your meal?

Just wondering. Pre-paying just doesn't make sense to me.

[jwlane]

My question is why would anybody pre-pay tips in the first place?

Because (her we go on this cruise tipping thing) tipping (gratuities) on a cruise is not the same thing as tipping in a restaurant. THey are really two completely different things (although others disagree). It is a continuing "convention", a means, to compensate the wait/cabin service personnel. It's the standard, "time-honored" (is that a cliche?) way of doing business on cruises.

[FinelyCruising]

My read on the post was why pre-pay, not never pay.

[Captain Crunch]

Because (her we go on this cruise tipping thing) tipping (gratuities) on a cruise is not the same thing as tipping in a restaurant. THey are really two completely different things (although others disagree). It is a continuing "convention", a means, to compensate the wait/cabin service personnel. It's the standard, "time-honored" (is that a cliche?) way of doing business on cruises.

 

It seems that a certain "time honored" "convention" is a one way street. Do you think the service today is at the same personal and encompassing level it was when the "time honored" "cpnvention" was initiated?

 

As I am not a cruiser in the time honored tradition, I will follow the guidlelines of the cruiseline:

10. Tipping - So that you can thank those who have made your cruise vacation better than you could have imagined, we've developed these gratuity guidelines:

Suite attendant: $5.75 USD a day per guest

Stateroom attendant: $3.50 USD a day per guest

Dining Room Waiter: $3.50 USD a day per guest

Assistant Waiter: $2.00 USD a day per guest

Headwaiter: $.75 USD a day per guest

Note: These gratuities apply to guests of all ages.

Gratuities for other service personnel are at your discretion. A 15% gratuity will automatically be added to your bar bill or wine check when you are served.

 

Envelopes for gratuities will be provided in your stateroom on the last night of the cruise. Gratuities may be paid in the following ways:

Pre paid by having them added to your reservation by your booking agent.

Added to your onboard SeaPass account.

Paid in cash at the end of the cruise

 

[wilfking]

I wasn't there but it seems this was a fragment of the entire conversation....

 

For example, we looked a the sheet the first day want to say Thank You.

 

Something is missing form the above.

 

While I do get the service may have differed from the first week, it also sounds like there were different sets of waiters.

 

If service was bad it was bad. That is one thing, and perhaps the best reason not to pre-pay the tips before you have sampled the service, I mean really, why would you, wait service is not a pre-pay industry.

 

But I'd like to hear the rest of the conversation, just to have all the pieces so I am not pursuaded only in one way. Thanks.

Why would the waiter look at the sheet to say thankyou?

the only conversation was exactly what I stated when handing over the envelope!

Of course they were different waiters, if you read the post it says the waiters from the first week were rotated round!

[beerbucketdave]

My read on the post was why pre-pay, not never pay.

 

That is exactly what I meant.

[aisling323]

I thought you had the option to remove prepaid tips at the end of the cruise if you felt you didn't receive good service. We chose to prepay our tips, but if I were getting poor service, I would make sure the situation was corrected right away by speaking with the head waiter.

 

I served my way through college and there were a few occasions that a diner would hand me over a large gratuity as soon as I got to the table and ask me to "take care of them." I always made sure I went even further above and beyond for them. Sometimes a server can give the best service, have a great time with their customers and still get stiffed because some people are just cheap. At least if you pay in advance, they should show some gratitude by treating you well.

 

I agree with the OPs that have said it sounds like this was just a bad server. I will keep my prepaid tip and if the staff does a good job, I'll give them extra cash.

[cappy09]

I always prepay tips on my cruises. The staff works really hard for the little bit of money they make to support their familys. When the service is good I always add more $$ to the envelope. When it is bad I just tip the ammount suggested by RCCL. So far in my experience I have never received poor service on the 13 cruise I have taken

[Lynnees]

I will never pre-pay tips either through the seapass card or in person. At the very least a couple of days have to pass to see what can of service I'm getting.

 

I worked in service for years and never once did I expect anyone to pay me up front for service they hadn't received.

 

If I receive better than average service I give better than average gratuities. If I recieve less than average service I give less than average gatuities. If I receive bad service I don't give any gatuities.

 

I've never had that happen on a cruise, but certainly in some restaurants. For example the waitress who spilt hot soup on my foot and then snarled at me. Guess how much she got.

 

I have only tipped a maitre de (sp) once. Only once have I received any service from one and he got a tip. When we only see this person on the last night with his hand out he gets a handshake.

[w&k]

We have used the charge to on-board account method as soon as it became available, just because it is so convenient.

 

No decrease in level of service has been evident to us on RCCL, X and Norweigan.

 

Also, we add cash to the voucher in the envelope, with the amount getting larger for excellent service.

 

We have only given the standard amount twice. The first time was with the world's slowest waiter (Nordic Empress ~2001). The second time was fall 2005 on Carnival Glory, where we had mediocre service, and we did not even recieve vouchers to hand out (excellent service in the bars, though).

 

Wendy

[Kate1]

How did you know how many mens' or ladies' bags to make up? Or did you just take a selection of each?

[Nliedel]

I don't prepay tips. I don't know why I just never do and I am not inclined to in the future.

 

What the waiter said to you was wrong, more than wrong. The only thing I might have done differently is speak up early in the second week if the service was markedly different.

[FinelyCruising]

Why would the waiter look at the sheet to say thankyou?

the only conversation was exactly what I stated when handing over the envelope!

Of course they were different waiters, if you read the post it says the waiters from the first week were rotated round!

 

The waiter, would look at the sheet precisely to say Thank You. And smarty pants I did read the post and while it was not expressly stated by you, I Thank You for the clarification that was not made in the original post.

 

And, to boot, I don't think that you have told the entire story...I still think he said Thank You and you omitted it from your post, possibly in a nod or a gesture or some manner, and I think you found it insulting the waiter "cheated" to see who had already pre-paid and used that tilt to fashion the position you took when you could easily have withdrawn the tip if you felt was negated for the service on this second leg that was inferior. Particularly as it seems you indicate if one prepays they may expect lesser service since the carrot is no longer dangled as the incentive.

 

Which is exactly why many still tip midway on the voucher basis or by the old fashioned cash method, or for some no matter what, sadly not at all.

 

Sorry, not looking to pick a fight, but I just think something is missing from your account.

[Gator83]

Even if someone prepays the tips and then gets bad service, the customer can always go talk to the supervisor to get the problem taken care of so the waiter should not assume that pre-paid tips means he/she can slack off. And the staff never knows if there is more than pre-paid tips coming; a lot of people on the board say they also tip at the end.

 

I would like to know exactly what kind of poor service you received for the week. I have been on 5 cruises (which isn't a lot) and can say I have never had any problem with the service at all. If the service was truly poor then one needs to speak with a supervisor immediately.

 

The gift bags....I would think the workers would really rather receive money than a gift bag unless you were told directly by the staff that they needed a razor, pens, $2, etc. My impression is that the staff would prefer cash to anything else.

[parrotthead]

My question is why would anybody pre-pay tips in the first place?

When you go to a restaurant do you pay your tip before or after your meal?

Just wondering. Pre-paying just doesn't make sense to me.

We pre-paid so it was 'just part of what we paid for the cruise'. That way it doesnt seem like 'real money' to me..its paid and I dont have to 'budget' that at the end, either on seapass or remember to have cash. For extra good service, I'd tip extra in cash.

[1corona4u]

I don't think it's a given that if you pre-pay you will get poor service. My steward on the NOS, as well as our waiters knew, and actually said that they knew we had done prepaid tips. I received excellent service despite that. I also tipped along the way though.

 

I prepaid tips, and added some throughout the Enchantment criuise, and had no issues.

 

I don't think people should withdraw prepaid tips because of one waiter's comments.:rolleyes:

[wilfking]

The waiter, would look at the sheet precisely to say Thank You. And smarty pants I did read the post and while it was not expressly stated by you, I Thank You for the clarification that was not made in the original post.

 

And, to boot, I don't think that you have told the entire story...I still think he said Thank You and you omitted it from your post, possibly in a nod or a gesture or some manner, and I think you found it insulting the waiter "cheated" to see who had already pre-paid and used that tilt to fashion the position you took when you could easily have withdrawn the tip if you felt was negated for the service on this second leg that was inferior. Particularly as it seems you indicate if one prepays they may expect lesser service since the carrot is no longer dangled as the incentive.

 

Which is exactly why many still tip midway on the voucher basis or by the old fashioned cash method, or for some no matter what, sadly not at all.

 

Sorry, not looking to pick a fight, but I just think something is missing from your account.

 

Copy of original post, it was stated very clearly the waiters were rotated,

 

"Just returned from Mariner 2 week back to back and would like to relate an incident and welcome comments.

At the end of the first week we gave out our pre-paid tip vouchers as per norm, service in the dining room was brilliant. However the dining room staff are rotated round so we had different ones the second week and they were very poor, they seemed as though they were not interested, it was only at the end of the week when we gave them the vouchers did the waiter comment before even looking at the envelope that he "had looked at the sheet on the first day to see if we had pre-paid our tips" I think this is disgusting and RCCL should make sure staff have no access to such information. I am sure had he not known we had pre-paid we would have received better service"

[FinelyCruising]

Thanks, I did miss the rotation you noted. Now how about the rest of the story? ;) That you note pre-paying tips the first rotation too....and you did say your service was good, it doesn't seem consnsitent that pre-paying equals bad service. I do think pre-paying is convenient though. Even if charged to the sea pass account mid-cruise, the staff does get a list with those details, that I know for a fact.

[FinelyCruising]

I posted this on another thread and it sums up my thoughts on tipping even if the personality of the service giver is less than stellar~

 

Assumption of the delivery of certain guest relations services is implied in the cruise package. Those implications are included in the cruise ticket, for example, a dining room wait staff is available to order and deliver your meals to you, there is a dining room for that service, if you wish to plate your food 100% of the time, the buffet is available for that, and if you are 100% buffet for the entire cruise, then I can agree that individual dining room guest services were not delviered as they were not required by the guest, and a non-tipping policy may be appropriate under those conditions.

 

I don't agree that to be the case in terms of cabin staff, since I think that the daily service is individual guest related, the base cruise would be for a set of sheets, and if you want more make the bed yourself, and here is a bunch of rolls of toilet tissue and clean towels to tide you over this cruise so fill the roll and wipe up your bathroom mess yourself, just like at home. So unless you specifically tell the cabin steward not to delvier daily services, then pay the guy for not leaving at the edge of your bed the stack of clean sheets to do your own work, and stop complaing that you don't see him since you still are getting 100% of all the services. Pay him extra then for being friendly!

 

So, splitting hairs, the cruiseline provides the staff if you chose to utililize them to wait on you hand and foot. If you use them, then pay them the minimum and stop complaining and begruding them. If you specifically elect not to utilize the staff's individual service, then by all means, assume that the base cruise price covered your individual needs. (A baby sitter is available, but if you don't need it or use it do you pay for it??? No, you don't and it's not expected either.)

 

At the end of the day, if there were staff that were exceptional to you, then give them a bonus. I don't know where most posters here work, but where I work when I do a really good job, I get a bonus. It's a nice thing and it means alot to know that others see the extra efforts I have made to contibute to delivery of service.