Extra tipping for bartenders

[Algebralovr]

We asked this direct question to the Beverage Operations Manager on Solstice a couple of weeks ago.  It is someone we had met a few years ago, and were comfortable asking directly.   We took a sail only cruise on the cheap, and used Al Bacio as our hang out.  The Elite Plus benefit was a great help to our budget. 😉

 

When we order a drink using our E+ benefit, the bartender who makes it get a part of the automatic gratuity that is assigned to the drink, as does the server.  The company picks up the cost of the gratuity.

 

We had about $60 in OBC from our shareholder OBC.  We asked the Bar manager how we could best reward the team with it, as they made our vacation so pleasant.  He had one of the servers bring us a “zero dollar bill slip” and we wrote it on there as an additional gratuity.  He said that we could put it on one, and they would share it among the team.   So Raceli brought us the slip to sign, and all of them knew we had signed it for that amount for them to split.  
 

You just need to ask for a zero dollar receipt.  

[Wineaux007]

8 hours ago, dazey said:

This is a tip question but unrelated to this discussion.  We are Elite and have free drinks from 5-7 PM.  I usually give $5 to the bartender when he/she serves us two drinks.  Does that sound like an acceptable amount?

A dollar a drink most would consider the norm.  Some will want to tip more, and some nothing.  If you're at the bar for the 2 hours with the same bartender, you can figure out how much you should tip.

[jelayne]

We don’t tip per drink or even every day.  We generally frequent 1 or 2 bars and we tip mid cruise and again at the end.  Mid cruise as sometimes our pattern changes and we don’t get back to a bar we had been to the early part of the cruise. 

[CGTNORMANDIE]

8 hours ago, dazey said:

This is a tip question but unrelated to this discussion.  We are Elite and have free drinks from 5-7 PM.  I usually give $5 to the bartender when he/she serves us two drinks.  Does that sound like an acceptable amount?

That’s very generous.  I’ll wager you get great service too!

[GottaKnowWhen]

7 hours ago, Algebralovr said:

We asked this direct question to the Beverage Operations Manager on Solstice a couple of weeks ago.  It is someone we had met a few years ago, and were comfortable asking directly.   We took a sail only cruise on the cheap, and used Al Bacio as our hang out.  The Elite Plus benefit was a great help to our budget. 😉

 

When we order a drink using our E+ benefit, the bartender who makes it get a part of the automatic gratuity that is assigned to the drink, as does the server.  The company picks up the cost of the gratuity.

 

We had about $60 in OBC from our shareholder OBC.  We asked the Bar manager how we could best reward the team with it, as they made our vacation so pleasant.  He had one of the servers bring us a “zero dollar bill slip” and we wrote it on there as an additional gratuity.  He said that we could put it on one, and they would share it among the team.   So Raceli brought us the slip to sign, and all of them knew we had signed it for that amount for them to split.  
 

You just need to ask for a zero dollar receipt.  

Thank you! I never thought of the zero receipt approach.

[Algebralovr]

39 minutes ago, GottaKnowWhen said:

Thank you! I never thought of the zero receipt approach.

You are welcome!  If I had not had a bunch of OBC-N, I would not have necessarily thought of it, but I did.  
 

We used the same approach on a cruise last week, over Thanksgiving.  We completed a form at Guest Relations for some additional gratuities for other staff, and asked for zero dollar receipts from a couple of bar servers. Happy to reward people who make us happy, particularly on the company’s dime!

[cruisegirlppp]

18 hours ago, dazey said:

This is a tip question but unrelated to this discussion.  We are Elite and have free drinks from 5-7 PM.  I usually give $5 to the bartender when he/she serves us two drinks.  Does that sound like an acceptable amount?

We are also Elite and bring ones to tip the servers as they deliver the "free" drinks. Started to run low on recent cruise and was able to get replenished at GS without a problem.

[dazey]

I thought because we were receiving "free" drinks during HH as we are Elite I should tip something but I guess I know why he always was so quick to serve us even while sitting at tables at the Martini Bar. I was unaware they would still get some gratuity without us leaving something. As long as I am not under tipping - just what I wanted to know.