Tipping on excursions?

[cindi0511]

We're going on our second cruise, and I have a quick question: when you take excursions through the cruise line, do you tip? For instance, my hubby will be going deep sea fishing. When he does that here in Florida, he tips the boat captain and crew. Do you do that on a cruise line excursions? What if you set up an excursion on your own? Is there a difference? Just trying to get all the finances figured out and squared away. Thanks for all your help and advice!

[betanden]

We tipped when we went on cruiseline excursions. I believe that they don't get paid much and depend on the tips that they receive.

[cindi0511]

We tipped when we went on cruiseline excursions. I believe that they don't get paid much and depend on the tips that they receive.

 

Did you tip a percentage? How did you decide? For the life of me, our first cruise was such a whirlwind, I can't remember what we did on our two excursions.:rolleyes:

[Chipster2]

Here is a suggested amount that I had found posted in another forum

 

Tipping tour guides

We've done $2-3/person half-day, $5 day/person full day, and bus driver $0

 

Does this seem adequate? I also would like to know.

 

Thanks,

[macdays1]

Although that is a guide, I think it really depends on how much you enjoyed the tour and what you got out of it. When we did the horse & carriage tour in St. George, we tipped the driver $5 for a little over an hour. He really explained a lot of what we were seeing, and stopped...telling us to take our time, to look at the sites. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and felt that it was worth it.

[cindi0511]

What I'm wondering about is for the fishing trip -- when we've chartered a boat, there was room for only six people to go on it. We tipped the captain, and the two guys that were with him, but they did everything: rig the poles, help with fish that we caught that were too big for us to pull in, scaled and filleted the fish when we got back, etc. They did get 20 percent. But there's no way this charter boat is going to be that small or the help be that individual. Then again, $2-$5 per person seems way under.:confused:

[serene56]

Even if using the excursions provided by the cruiselines-- these are private vendors who have contracts with the cruiselines..

You would tip as though if it was a privatly booked excursion.

[newmexicoNita]

Regardless of how we book our tours we do tip: usually about $2-$5 per person. If it's an all day tour of course we will adjust accordingly but normally we do 1/2 day ones. NMnnita

[Genessa]

we always tip on our excursions, with the exception of two - and we had been planning on tipping, but the behavior of the guides caused us to "pull" our tips.

 

we generally give $2 and up for bus drivers depending on how long, whether they give commentary,etc.$5 pp (and up) for snorkle excursions (we actually gave significantly more on an exceptional excursion) .

 

As for fishing, specifically, my dh has done several fishing excursions, both through the ship and booked privately. The deep sea he has booked through the ship have been as small (almost) as the ones he's done privately - privately it's usually either 2 or 3, ship is usually 4 to a max of 6 and they always do the very individualized service. I'm pretty sure it's usually about $20pp for a half day that he gives - whether it's a ship's excursion or booked privately.

[cindi0511]

we always tip on our excursions, with the exception of two - and we had been planning on tipping, but the behavior of the guides caused us to "pull" our tips.

 

we generally give $2 and up for bus drivers depending on how long, whether they give commentary,etc.$5 pp (and up) for snorkle excursions (we actually gave significantly more on an exceptional excursion) .

 

As for fishing, specifically, my dh has done several fishing excursions, both through the ship and booked privately. The deep sea he has booked through the ship have been as small (almost) as the ones he's done privately - privately it's usually either 2 or 3, ship is usually 4 to a max of 6 and they always do the very individualized service. I'm pretty sure it's usually about $20pp for a half day that he gives - whether it's a ship's excursion or booked privately.

 

THANK YOU!!! I know this is going to be a packed boat, and I've heard that it's one that takes out 30-40 people at a times, so that's why I was concerned about the tipping and quality of service. I appreciate your help!

[Genessa]

THANK YOU!!! I know this is going to be a packed boat, and I've heard that it's one that takes out 30-40 people at a times, so that's why I was concerned about the tipping and quality of service. I appreciate your help!

 

when we go out on "party" fishing boats here at home, with maybe 30 to 80 people, we tip the mates according to how much personal help they give. If they are just supplying bait and aren't so quick to help when you have a fish on, they'll get about $10. If it's one of the really helpful, friendly mates they'll get around $20. So, if we ended up on one of the large boats while on a cruise, we'd tip them accordingly.

 

I don't know if you mentioned it and I missed it, but now I'm curious - what port and what kind of fish and about how much is the cruise line charging, if you don't mind answering... DH would go more often, but the boats with only 4 tend to get VERY expensive.

[cindi0511]

I don't know if you mentioned it and I missed it, but now I'm curious - what port and what kind of fish and about how much is the cruise line charging, if you don't mind answering... DH would go more often, but the boats with only 4 tend to get VERY expensive.

 

It's Disney on their private island, Castaway Cay, and I just found on their web site that their max is 8 people. They are charging $117 per person. It's all catch and release, so I'm not sure what kind of fish will be there. I can let you know when we get back. When we've chartered a private boat on our own here in Florida, we've paid $1,000 for 8 hours, taken our own food and drinks, and given a $200 tip, with the max number of people being 6. That would break down the tip to be $33 per person, but I had originally thought this would be a party boat. I'm so glad it won't be!

 

Thanks to all for their input!

[Genessa]

Cindi,

 

that sounds like a fun excursion! I hope your dh has a great time.