Tipping on Princess

[gointostpete]

Does anyone know how the tips get divvied out on a Princess cruise? I really preferred the old way of tipping individually so when they first started adding the gratuity to your bill we had them remove it and continued to hand out our little envelopes. But then somewhere I read (a cruise magazine perhaps? Not really sure) that they were still forced to turn those over for sharing, under penalty of dismissal. Does anyone know if this is true? What is the best way to reward the crew member(s) you want to?

[rjscott]

I asked the Maitre D' on our last Princess cruise about that. Especially with Personal Choice Dining and the buffets, etc., I figured there had to be some sharing of gratuities. The maitre d' said that the general gratuities are shared, but anything given to the staff personally over and above the "minimum" is their's to keep. Don't know if this is true, but it's what I was told.

[AZ Boomer]

Give them the tip directly. My wife used an envelope from the in-room stationary and handed the steward the tip without having to flash green. Hopefully he didn't have to turn it in because he did a great job.

 

We did go to the purser before the trip ended to adjust the other tips to account for our son (who only ate pizza). He gave a tip to his favorite pizzaman (who knew him by name).

[spongerob]

The split on auto-tips is $3.50/day for the hotel staff and $6.50/day for food service. How these actually get divvied up is a mystery to me, I'm sure some insider knows for sure. We normally give extra to room stewards and dining room waiters, room service, etc., as warranted. There has been conflicting information as of late as to how the "extra" tips are supposed to be handled, or how hand-tips are treated when auto-tips have been removed. The way I see it, the entire crew is doing something for me throughout the cruise, so I leave the auto-tips in place.

 

It's a matter of personal preference how anyone wishes to take care of gratuities.

[FredS]

All the information I have found says if you remove the $10/day/person from your bill and give a cash gift to the steward and ass't they must turn that in. It is then put in the general pot that is made up of the $10/day/person. If you do NOT remove the $10/day/person and give a cash tip on top of that, they have to notify that they got the cash, and when accounts find that the $10 was not removed the cash is then returned, or they are allow to keep it and still get a portion of the $10/day/person tip.

 

Remove the daily $10 tip and cash received is put in the big pot, leave the $10 day tip on your account and give cash, they get to keep the cash and their portion of the $10 tip. If they do not turn in the cash received, when it is found out they are fired. I am sure that living in the close quarters they do that people know when someone is not turning in the cash they get and that issue is taken care of in some manner.

[Roses2]

The tip pool appears to be so much fairer. If, under the "old" system you tip your waiters and the room steward only, there are many more who serve you every day directly and indirectly who are left out.

 

The tip pool system appears to spread out the tips among all of the pool staff in an equitable manner.

 

Then, of course, we always give a bit extra directly to those who serve us directly. We know that they may have to add it to the pool, but it makes us feel better.

[bdjam]

I asked the Maitre D' on our last Princess cruise about that. Especially with Personal Choice Dining and the buffets, etc., I figured there had to be some sharing of gratuities. The maitre d' said that the general gratuities are shared, but anything given to the staff personally over and above the "minimum" is their's to keep. Don't know if this is true, but it's what I was told.

The minimum is the amount of the auto tip that is added to each passenger’s account. If you remove the auto tip and tip in cash, the “minimum” is pooled and anything above that is kept by the person tipped. So you might as well let Princess do the tipping for you through the auto tip because unless to remove it and tip personally a lesser amount, it’s all going in the pool anyway.

[Pam in CA]

Give them the tip directly. My wife used an envelope from the in-room stationary and handed the steward the tip without having to flash green. Hopefully he didn't have to turn it in because he did a great job.

 

We did go to the purser before the trip ended to adjust the other tips to account for our son (who only ate pizza). He gave a tip to his favorite pizzaman (who knew him by name).

Those tips would have been turned into the pool and if the people you tipped directly didn't report them and were found out, then they would have been dismissed. If I'd received good service, I wouldn't want to put these people in the position of possibly being fired and sent home. I'm assuming that you didn't eat in the dining room or the buffet for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Otherwise, all of those waiters and and crew cleaning the tables, helping you or serving you juice or coffee, would have been stiffed.

 

$10/day/pp is very minimal for all of the services you receive on a cruise. This is the same amount as was recommended years ago when tipping was individual.

[lianaks]

How about the tip we gave for room service (each time they deliver the breakfast), for them to receive is it depending on the auto tip is leave in the account or not?

 

Liana.

[misslou]

All the information I have found says if you remove the $10/day/person from your bill and give a cash gift to the steward and ass't they must turn that in. It is then put in the general pot that is made up of the $10/day/person. If you do NOT remove the $10/day/person and give a cash tip on top of that, they have to notify that they got the cash, and when accounts find that the $10 was not removed the cash is then returned, or they are allow to keep it and still get a portion of the $10/day/person tip.

 

Remove the daily $10 tip and cash received is put in the big pot, leave the $10 day tip on your account and give cash, they get to keep the cash and their portion of the $10 tip. If they do not turn in the cash received, when it is found out they are fired. I am sure that living in the close quarters they do that people know when someone is not turning in the cash they get and that issue is taken care of in some manner.

 

If you want to award them above and beyond the automatic tip, they get to keep it. We picked up envelopes for this purpose from the Purser's Desk. Be sure to put your name and cabin number on it so they can verify the automatic tip was not removed and then, the steward, waiters and any others you might tip can keep the full amount of what you give them.

[gointostpete]

Thanks everyone. I have lately been leaving the automatic tip on my bill as I suspected I may have caused unintentional harm by having it removed and tipping individually but I wasn't completely comfortable with that either because I like to tip more than the suggested. Sounds like I should leave the gratuity on the bill but feel free to give out extra in individual envelopes as long as I disclose my cabin #.