A new type of Tipping question. Shore Excursions?

[islabahia]

Tipping excursion guides, taxi drivers, etc is subjective. We tip what we believe is fair for the value received.

[horseymike]

Went on a crummy stingray city excursion in grand cayman, booked through celebrity.

Got the “ did you have a good time ? “ speech  “:if so please leave a tip . I left nothing.

[George C]

1 minute ago, horseymike said:

Went on a crummy stingray city excursion in grand cayman, booked through celebrity.

Got the “ did you have a good time ? “ speech  “:if so please leave a tip . I left nothing.

One of the worse excursion I ever did was same one on rccl , that’s one of the reasons I try to avoid ships excursion, I complained to rccl I might have gotten some money back.

[drakes2]

53 minutes ago, George C said:

One of the worse excursion I ever did was same one on rccl , that’s one of the reasons I try to avoid ships excursion, I complained to rccl I might have gotten some money back.

I complained about an excursion last fall which was a replacement of one Celebrity cancelled giving less than 24 hours notice. They said they had already given me a 15% discount but my original excursion was already discounted the same amount as it was pre booked. So in essence they did me no favors.  Some of their excursions are the worst. 

[SusieAV8R]

2 hours ago, drakes2 said:

I had a miserable taxi driver last week from the pier to the airport. Wouldn't even open the door for me then left my luggage behind his trunk.  I just paid him what was on the meter.  Opening the door for an older lady equals $5 bucks. 

 

1 hour ago, RTR 21-0 said:

Those guys are the worst. People start standing up before the tender arrives at port just to get away from the blah blah blah as quickly as possible.  

So DH & I have reached the point where we have no qualms about saying "we paid for the excursion" and "we have paid for the tender in the price of our cruise"; if nothing extraordinary occurred,  no tip.  (Maybe we are getting "heartless" from the beggars at our local traffic lights who, when we are stopped at a red light, ask us for a tip, holding a sign that says "need to feed my [3, 4, fill in the number] hungry children".  😞 )

[drakes2]

5 hours ago, SusieAV8R said:

 

So DH & I have reached the point where we have no qualms about saying "we paid for the excursion" and "we have paid for the tender in the price of our cruise"; if nothing extraordinary occurred,  no tip.  (Maybe we are getting "heartless" from the beggars at our local traffic lights who, when we are stopped at a red light, ask us for a tip, holding a sign that says "need to feed my [3, 4, fill in the number] hungry children".  😞 )

You must be my neighbor. 😆 I was stopped at a traffic light and the husband was on one side of the street and wife on the other with sign.  Please help me feed my children. Pathetic they get away with this.  Then a few days later we parked and were approached by well dressed woman fancy boots and Michael kors purse looking for cash. 

[OysterD]

Curious, do people tip similar amounts no matter which part of the world they're sailing? Also curious if Europeans tip as much/at all for this kind of thing as Americans do. As a Brit it's pretty much tip someone if they go above and beyond otherwise if they're just doing their job, no tip. I would never leave a tender boat crew a tip, they literally just did their job, for which they're already paid. Now if they gave some wonderful commentary about the port/area we were in during the journey then I would consider it. But to give a speech about how they care about your safety and what a great job they did of not sinking the boat, then nope. I'm not giving you extra money for the fact you did your job sufficiently such that we didn't drown! 

[jean87510]

3 hours ago, OysterD said:

Curious, do people tip similar amounts no matter which part of the world they're sailing? Also curious if Europeans tip as much/at all for this kind of thing as Americans do. As a Brit it's pretty much tip someone if they go above and beyond otherwise if they're just doing their job, no tip. I would never leave a tender boat crew a tip, they literally just did their job, for which they're already paid. Now if they gave some wonderful commentary about the port/area we were in during the journey then I would consider it. But to give a speech about how they care about your safety and what a great job they did of not sinking the boat, then nope. I'm not giving you extra money for the fact you did your job sufficiently such that we didn't drown! 

Once when we were in Cozumel in March 2021, we were talking to a dive shop owner from Lanzarote.  He and his wife were discussing the tipping in Mexico and the Caribbean and were giving us their perspectives about tipping for excursions and restaurants.  They personally would leave some change as they said the wait staff where they were from were already paid well.  They were baffled by people giving ones and fives at Punta Sur for basically pulling a chair across the sand.  Now this is just one couple but we had a great day hanging with them discussing our tipping culture vs theirs.

[RTR 21-0]

4 hours ago, OysterD said:

Curious, do people tip similar amounts no matter which part of the world they're sailing? Also curious if Europeans tip as much/at all for this kind of thing as Americans do. As a Brit it's pretty much tip someone if they go above and beyond otherwise if they're just doing their job, no tip. I would never leave a tender boat crew a tip, they literally just did their job, for which they're already paid. Now if they gave some wonderful commentary about the port/area we were in during the journey then I would consider it. But to give a speech about how they care about your safety and what a great job they did of not sinking the boat, then nope. I'm not giving you extra money for the fact you did your job sufficiently such that we didn't drown! 

Would love it if we got to the point as in Europe and UK that service workers (particularly restaurants) were paid a decent wage and didn’t need to rely on tips to make ends meet.  I’m from the US and readily admit we are almost programmed (basically coming out of the womb) to leave a tip for a service provided.  I’m talking restaurants, hair stylists, dog groomers, even the cashier at a restaurant who did nothing but pick up a bag of ordered food and handed it to a customer. I’m not really a social media person, but on the rare occasion I do check out FB I always see conversations related to how hard it is to make ends meet, someone giving a waitress a huge tip just because (whether the story is true I cannot say) but I feel like in today’s society in America I’m guilted into tipping and it’s getting pretty old. Post-covid, tipping here has taken a turn from “we appreciate what we get” to giving a rendition of how hard it is to make ends meet.  Doing our research and for the countries we will be visiting on our upcoming trip we plan on following their protocol for tipping (which is not) and have to say it’s going to be nice to not feel that I HAVE to tip but that I WANT to tip.  

[jean87510]

On 2/13/2023 at 9:44 AM, Georgia_Peaches said:

More and more I am subscribing to the school of thought that I'm going to keep what I tip others for their service close to my vest.  I think we are generous tippers but just can't imagine a scenario where'd I'd offer a tip based on what others say they do as opposed to tipping based on the service we ourselves received.  

I disagree because it's part of research for your trip.  Asking what others do is a part of gathering information.  Of course everyone can do as they please.  But I have noticed a definite difference in the expectation of tips since pre covid in cruising and on land.  Which is why I posted the original questions.  And I received a lot of pretty honest and interesting feedback.

[DCPIV]

18 hours ago, manmachine said:

So that’s 10% to 20% on the cost of the entire tip to the tip taker?  They are some of the harder working folks out there and you know they must be trusted by their coworkers or they would not get to handle cash.  We must not forget them!  Tip the tip taker!

 

Hey, man.  How about a tip for all my valuable advice?  I got a cruising habit to support.

[Georgia_Peaches]

53 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

I disagree because it's part of research for your trip.  Asking what others do is a part of gathering information.  Of course everyone can do as they please.  But I have noticed a definite difference in the expectation of tips since pre covid in cruising and on land.  Which is why I posted the original questions.  And I received a lot of pretty honest and interesting feedback.

Absolutely!  and I am not knocking the fact that you asked for opinions at all.  Was just saying why I wasn't giving mine.  But like you, I learned a few things from this thread, so thank you for posting 😊. 

[drakes2]

15 hours ago, horseymike said:

Went on a crummy stingray city excursion in grand cayman, booked through celebrity.

Got the “ did you have a good time ? “ speech  “:if so please leave a tip . I left nothing.

In all honesty the tour operators that fare the best are the ones who are attentive, treat you with respect and don't ask for a tip at the end of excursion.  Sometimes they say tips are very much appreciated.  Less is more. 😆 

[SusieAV8R]

16 hours ago, drakes2 said:

You must be my neighbor. 😆 I was stopped at a traffic light and the husband was on one side of the street and wife on the other with sign.  Please help me feed my children. Pathetic they get away with this.  Then a few days later we parked and were approached by well dressed woman fancy boots and Michael kors purse looking for cash. 

Unfortunately am familiar with both scenarios 😞 

8 hours ago, drakes2 said:

In all honesty the tour operators that fare the best are the ones who are attentive, treat you with respect and don't ask for a tip at the end of excursion.  Sometimes they say tips are very much appreciated.  Less is more. 😆 

I totally agree, drakes2.  Well said.

[manmachine]