Does Anyone Tip at the Beginning of the Cruise?

[osiebosie]

We have always tipped at the end of a cruise by using the account. This time, I think I will not put my tips on the account, but will use envelopes at the end of the cruise. But, I was thinking about slipping the room steward a $20 at the beginning of the cruise.

 

Has anyone ever done this? Will this ensure a little extra care? We do it at hotels and it seems to work well.

 

Thanks for your replies,

 

Shay

[m steve]

$20 to cabin steward and $20 to waiter. This ensures a little extra attention like bringing a large bucket of ice to the room at 4 pm and waiter bringing out coffee and green tea after dinner without asking. Also when we cruise at Thanksgiving I get a big plate of turkey skin to keep my cholesterol level up.

There are a few other perks that are special only to us.

[greydog]

This question has surfaced opposing views in the past. One is that the good service is expected regardless and that pre-tipping is some form of insulting bribe. Others like us have given a prepaid international phone-card worth $10-15 at first meeting to main service staff as a show of appreciation. Our experience was always gracious acceptance of the token and perhaps a little special effort from the staff thereafter. If I was service person who is raising a family on tip income, I think I would feel a little encouraged from the early token that my service efforts during the next week were going to be acknowledged. Have a great trip.

[Rich&Natalia]

There's no problem in pretipping. I think a lot of people do it. I personally don't, but then it's a personal thing. I think that the results of pretipping also varies between different people you deal with. Some cabin stewards and waiters may take it as an incentive to do a little extra, and others may not. I'm not sure if those who pretip tend to tip more than those who don't or vice versa. If there is virtually no difference in the total amount of tip at the end, then maybe there is not that much incentive in tipping early.

 

Many will have their own stories of how pretipping may or may not have led to good service. But that's all inductive reasoning and will not be a good gauge of what your results will be. Just do what you're comfortable with and what you think will enhance your experience.

[janetz]

We bring on a bottle of wine for our steward. They always seem pleased. :)

[tuggers]

I'm one who thinks a 'pre-tip' makes the person think you expected less than stellar service unless you greased the palm early. In other words, insulting. Now, a few days into the cruise, when you actually have something to appreciate, is great. Let's them know you really are appreciative of the efforts so far.

I also tip some early if I know the person has shore time coming up and might like a bit extra to spend.

[Pisti]

We always pretip $20. over the normal tip and $10. for the assistant. I am always appalled at how hard these people are expected to work, so a little extra doesn't hurt. Have no idea whether or not we get better service.:rolleyes:

[Drew B]

This ensures a little extra attention like bringing a large bucket of ice to the room at 4 pm and waiter bringing out coffee and green tea after dinner without asking.

 

I always got service like that without pre-tipping. Of course, I then tipped generously at the end.

 

I think that giving these hard-working people a little something up front is a lovely thing to do -- I don't get how it would be "insulting" at all. However, I wouldn't do so expecting to get some special level of service. ALL passengers on X get fabulous service (or at least should) regardless of tipping practices.

[tuggers]

Drew, maybe insulting was too strong a word. I think we need to remember that these people are not Americans. They come from a culture that takes great pride in their jobs and doing their jobs well. Unfortunately, that is not always the case with Americans doing these same types of jobs. I spoke to a CS once about this and his answer is what led me to the conclusions I posted. His idea was that he did not need any incentive to give great service, but he would appreciate being compensated if I thought the service was indeed superior. It seemed to be a point of honor with him that he did his job exceedingly well. My thought was that a tip two or three days in, might fit in better with this scenario.

[Drew B]

That's very thoughtful. I think I understand how it would be insulting IF the tone was "Here's $20. Now, you had better give me some extra-special treatment!"

[keela1eva2]

I am one who strongly disagrees with tipping at the beginning of a cruise. I would find it an insult and if something would offend me I would not dream of doing it to others.

 

I am always generous in my appreciation of everything the staff do for me and yes they do take a pride in doing a good job. I always take with me a few little items or even will purchase something ashore or in the ships shops.

 

I had a female Cabin Steward who told me she loved her job. i had brought with me a necklace which was very beautiful in my opinion and she was delighted with it. I gave her this at the same time as her tip.

Her assistant was always smiling cheerful and did a great job. He has an 18 month daughter and I bought from the ship shop a little Murano glass little star with a small flower in the middle. He was absolutely over the moon with it and was going to call his wife right away to tell her. You would think I had given him the moon. I also tipped him naturally.

I had bought several of these little gifts for my own grandchildren and also a couple as a small gift for friends. There were little hearts and are set in silver and I even have one for myself if I dont give it away.

 

I don't give to receive to expect better service but simply because I get more pleasure in giving. I know the sincerity of the way things were accepted was genuine. Oh I also took with me some IRISH BLESSING LITTLE CARDS just in case I find someone who would appreciate this.

 

Yes maybe I am odd and different but I have no problem with being odd or different. What a dull world it would be if we were all the same.

 

Sue

[kruisecat]

I am one who strongly disagrees with tipping at the beginning of a cruise. I would find it an insult and if something would offend me I would not dream of doing it to others.

 

I am always generous in my appreciation of everything the staff do for me and yes they do take a pride in doing a good job. I always take with me a few little items or even will purchase something ashore or in the ships shops.

 

I had a female Cabin Steward who told me she loved her job. i had brought with me a necklace which was very beautiful in my opinion and she was delighted with it. I gave her this at the same time as her tip.

Her assistant was always smiling cheerful and did a great job. He has an 18 month daughter and I bought from the ship shop a little Murano glass little star with a small flower in the middle. He was absolutely over the moon with it and was going to call his wife right away to tell her. You would think I had given him the moon. I also tipped him naturally.

I had bought several of these little gifts for my own grandchildren and also a couple as a small gift for friends. There were little hearts and are set in silver and I even have one for myself if I dont give it away.

 

I don't give to receive to expect better service but simply because I get more pleasure in giving. I know the sincerity of the way things were accepted was genuine. Oh I also took with me some IRISH BLESSING LITTLE CARDS just in case I find someone who would appreciate this.

 

Yes maybe I am odd and different but I have no problem with being odd or different. What a dull world it would be if we were all the same.

 

Sue

 

Sue -

 

I don't think you're odd at all!! The gifts you have told us about sound just lovely and I'm sure anyone would be happy to recieve them.

 

We do not pretip either but have always ended up giving significantly higher amounts in our envelopes at the end of the cruise. And I must say that our service has always been exceptional both on X and RCI.

 

Christine

[Lsimon]

A few cruises ago I greeted our steward with a list of things I wanted them to take care of daily - nothing extreme, just minor non-standard things one would have to otherwise ask for - like making sure we had clean wine glasses in the room daily. I offered a tip along with the list and the steward refused. He said he appreciated the offer but he'd rather we show our appreciation at the end of the cruise.

 

Since then we've verbally let everyone know how much we appreciate things during the cruise, but otherwise take care of people at the end of the cruise. There are several exceptions like room service and rewards for especially good one-time services from people not on the normal tipping list.

[osiebosie]

Thanks for the replies. I am unsure if we will pre-tip or not. I like the gift idea, but don't know how that'll work. On our last cruise, we never had the opportunity to get to know our room steward. We never saw him. He did a great job, and we tipped well at the end of the cruise. I also like the idea of tipping a few days in. I guess we'll sort of go with our gut, and see how things work. And always, if we don't tip early, we will tip well at the end of the cruise.

 

Shay

[rebeccalouise]

My parents are older and very persnickty- I am going on a 12 night cruise with them in July and plan to pretip the waiter,:p assistant waiter and sommelier the first night- before they arrive for dinner. Just want the waiter to know that "yes, they are a handful" and this might soften the blow.

[irishguy]

Hello

 

I live in Ireland and our tips are added on to the price of our holiday before we go! i dont know whether this will affect the overall service due to having them paid up front.

[smokingpizza]

We just came off our first cruise (ever!) on Century in a Sky Suite. Based on learnings gleaned from this board, we felt well prepared. One of those things was to talk with our butler on embarkation day about things we liked, what we'd like for him to take care of for us, find out his normal schedule, worked out details of a couple of parties, etc. It was clear that we were going to make good/lots of use of his services throughout the cruise. I gave him $40 with a comment "This is just to say a partial thank you in advance for all you're going to do for us this trip". He smiled and accepted it with a heartfelt "thank you" and a comment that he hoped he would make this a memorable cruise for us (which he did, to say the least!!). He was absolutely fabulous the entire trip, and at the end, we gave him a voucher for the recommended amount and another $60. So in total we tipped him $100 over the recommended amount (and feel he more than earned it).

 

I like the idea of a couple of days into the cruise tipping as a thank you rather than at the beginning. I'll do it that way next time.

[tuggers]

irishguy, I've never known that to affect the service at all. Besides you can always add a little in the form of a cash tip at the end and I'll bet they are hopeful of it.

The small amount the cruise line suggests is not enough in my book, if you have rec'd great service.

[BobN]

We just got off the Sovereign Of the Seas, this was our first time on the sister line and on the first day of our three night cruise to celebrate our 50th anniversary. When we boarded we found that we needed the services of our room steward for a few things, Brian Patterson completed the few items in record time, I gave him $20.00 as a pre tip just to say thank you, he had made it a priority to ask our names and when my wife arrived he made it a point to greet her and whenever he saw us in the hall he was sure to greet us by name, In all the cruises we have taken he was probably the best steward we have had and I am sure that the pre trip tip had nothing to do with his dedication to his trade. We had a party of thirteen in 5 cabins and all my guests had only good things to say about the service from their room stewards, I wish that I could say this about the evening dinning room service, it was some of the worst service I have had on any ship in the last ten years, It took an intervention by the Crown & Anchor host to straighten out the problems that occured.

 

The reason for changing was the short weekend cruise that our children and grand children could get away for. I am sure that in the future we will be sure to stay with Celebrity, there is a vast difference in the presentation and service between the two lines, well worth the small difference in cost.

[osiebosie]

Thanks, again, ya'll. I'm thinking definitely a couple of days into the cruise.

 

Just a few days away,

 

Shay

[GramaFran]

Who was your butler on Century? We were on 9/2/06 in SS 1210 and had Cliff as our butler. He was fantastic, really made our cruise special.

Francine

[SLH]

I'm one who thinks a 'pre-tip' makes the person think you expected less than stellar service unless you greased the palm early. In other words, insulting. Now, a few days into the cruise, when you actually have something to appreciate, is great. Let's them know you really are appreciative of the efforts so far.

I also tip some early if I know the person has shore time coming up and might like a bit extra to spend.

I like the idea of an extra tip a fews days into the cruise to show appreciation of a great job.

[smokingpizza]

Who was your butler on Century? We were on 9/2/06 in SS 1210 and had Cliff as our butler. He was fantastic, really made our cruise special.

Francine

We were in 1229 and had Paul as our Butler and Ingrida as our cabin attendant. Both were fabulous and pampered us beyond anything we could have imagined.

[bmct]

We are in 1228 in two weeks. Can you tell me if the new Sky Suites have jetted tubs? Do you have by chance any pictures of this suite, and bathroom? Hope we have a great butler like your Paul, or GramaFrans's Cliff. I do like the idea of tipping after a few days. Will do that!

 

Thanks Bob

[chasetf]

We have always tipped at the end of a cruise by using the account. This time, I think I will not put my tips on the account, but will use envelopes at the end of the cruise. But, I was thinking about slipping the room steward a $20 at the beginning of the cruise.

 

Has anyone ever done this? Will this ensure a little extra care? We do it at hotels and it seems to work well. Thanks for your replies, Shay

We don't primarily because there are not any of the "out of the ordinary" needs for us. We don't need a bucket of ice each day, or fruit... or... so we just wait until the end of the cruise and tip accordingly. We almost always provide an envelope at the last day for something above and beyond the standard onboard account amount. :) We only hold it back if disappointed (which is very seldom).:( We are easy to please. :D