Tipping and Children????

[mrsbooty]

Hello To all,

What do you think about tipping and Children?? Do they also Tip $10.00 per day?? We are going on Elation 1/16/05 and have a 10, 15, 16, year olds with us.

What are you Thoughts?

Thanks For the Help!!!:confused:

[taszmom]

Yes tipping for children..they sleep in a bed, they make a mess, they eat food which all gets cleaned up after. Frankly anyone willing to clean up after my kids well deserves a tip...I wish someone would tip me for doing it!

[hstrybuf]

Tipping for children is the same as for an adult. :)

[Cotton]

Yes, children should tip the $10 per day. My opinion is that it's a fair policy, because the crew caters to all passengers (and usually pay special attention to the children, especially in the dining room).:)

[kristikae]

I know it's tough when you have lots of kids (I took my 4 on a cruise) but just think of it as part of your cruise cost. The crew works so hard and they really do deserve it...and then some in many cases. Also don't forget the Camp Carnival counselors if your kids use it.

[soon2bcruising]

If you take your family out to eat, you tip the wait person on the whole bill, not just what the adults ate. It's the same on the ship. These people waited on all of you. Hadn't heard anyone mentioning tipping the counselors at Camp Carnival though, how much??? When???

[kristikae]

Hadn't heard anyone mentioning tipping the counselors at Camp Carnival though, how much??? When???

That's really up to you. Of course if you don't think they went above and beyond (that's not been my experience) then it's not warranted. Usually at the end of the cruise.

[soon2bcruising]

Well, Kristi, I imagine (cause I don't know, never been on a cruise) there are a number of counselors there with the kids. So do you just drop off an envelope there, did you choose to give a tip to ones who were especially helpful to your kids or was it a kind of group tip thing? Give me some kind of guideline for an amount, same as room steward? More? Thanks

[Cruiser@Heart]

I have a friend that worked as a Youth Counselor for a cruise line. Typically, they were tipped individually.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

At night the room steward would not only give our son a mint on his pillow but also a little plate with a cute BIG cookie with a smiley face on it!!!! Hey, that alone deserved a tip in his eyes LOL.

 

 

cheryl

[Lefty1]

true u should tip for children as they do eat and make a mess - according to my guide book on cruises, they say for young children, tipping should be half of what the adult tipping is - i forgot the website i went on and u put in the amount of adults, children and cruise line and it calculates what u should tip - i am going on miracle 8/21 and my daughter is 15 - now she is no infant so i would consider her an adult - but for a young child, i would do half.

[tef43]

true u should tip for children as they do eat and make a mess - according to my guide book on cruises, they say for young children, tipping should be half of what the adult tipping is - i forgot the website i went on and u put in the amount of adults, children and cruise line and it calculates what u should tip - i am going on miracle 8/21 and my daughter is 15 - now she is no infant so i would consider her an adult - but for a young child, i would do half.

Your guidebook makes a generalized statement without regard for the individual cruise lines policies.

 

Carnival's published guidelines state that *full* tipping is recommended for *all* passengers above two years of age. Other cruiselines may recommend half-tipping for younger passengers (NCL, for example), but this is not the case on Carnival.

[GoinCruisin]

You should tip the same for children as you do for adults (in most cases, MORE!!!!)... Kids sleep (beds have to be made, they don't sleep in shorter beds with shorter sheets that take less time to make), kids use the bathroom (which takes the same amount of time to clean), kids use towels (you getting the point???)... Kids in general make more of a mess, thus more cleaning for the crew... just because a person is "smaller" does not mean they should not have to tip... Also, the dining team generally goes out of the way to make children happy... anyone that would tell you that you should tip only half for a child is absurd... The child cruises at full fare and should tip the same...

[willybegolfer]

I understand your dilema, I travel with 3 daughters and tipping (for a 7 day cruise) can be expensive. I also believe in tipping for service, not because it is expected.

 

Just got off the Conquest and the cabin with my 3 daughters and one friend always looked like a bomb went off in there. The room stewards were fantastic. Often they picked up the clothes off the floor and folded them neatly, left cookies and spent much more time in their room than ours. They deserved more of a tip for the kids than us.

 

Last year on the Holiday, our waiter treated me poorly, but treated the kids better. Unfortunate for him that he ticked off the person controlling the money.

 

Follow your conscience and your pocketbook, and don't be afraid to adjust your tips accordingly.

[bethm214]

It is my opinion that children should tip at a higher rate than adults as they often create much more mess than the adults do.

Especially toddlers.

I have seen how hard the wait staff has to work to hurry and turn around the dining room between 'food shifts' and the mess under a toddler is very difficult to quickly clean up. And most toddlers are at the earlier sitting when they have the least amount of time.

And, at one time....i believed....'well, my kid doesn't eat in the dining room - he eats at the buffets, pizza places, etc so i should not tip for the waiter for him'...BUT now i know that these are STILL the same waiters, bus boys, etc just doing the OTHER part of their job. For every hour of the day we see them work, they work at least 10 more we don't see. And remember...they make $1.50 per DAY as salary. The intent of this rule is that if they have to work for tips, they will serve their passengers better. They work really hard to please the kids.....and the adults as well. And they do this while not seeing their families for 6 months at a time or more. I often ask personal questions of our servers (if they want to talk about it) about their off ship life. Many have shown me the pics of their families and homeland. I always feel so sorry for them. However, they NEVER speak of it unless you ask...and even then they don't tell the whole story (like $1.50 per day!).

As for the kids staff....i feel it is important to tip them for their work as well. I am betting they get paid a better salary, but I would rather show my gratitude than not.

The way I make it manageable is that all year long I dump all my change into a cup/box. I purposely do not give the 'exact change' so that i will get change back. just before the cruise i roll it up and turn it into bills. Back when we used to handout our own tips, i went on board with envelopes all ready and just labelled the envelopes with the correct name/title as i learned them. I would also take a pile of 1's for tipping randomly (room service, extras i had delivered, etc). Totally painless way of taking care of it!!

And on my early cruises, when the staff was still allowed to accept alcohol, i would tie the tips onto bottles of champagne that I had brought on board. They were not allowed to buy alcohol but were allowed to have it if given to them (except officers..they were allowed to buy it).

So, my long post is just my way of saying....tipping is important.

[cjalphonso]

This is cut straight from carnivals web site:

Guests under two years of age are not required to extend gratuities.

I would take that as you tip normal for 2 and over. Makes sense, the really can't do a whole lot for infants.

[MrPete]

It is my opinion that children should tip at a higher rate than adults as they often create much more mess than the adults do.

Not only that, you will find the staff caters to your children, doing all sorts of sillies that will let you kids gleem. My DD ends up thinking she's the queen of our area, she is treated to specially.

[triplelutz]

When we sailed in June, my toddler wasn't yet 2, but we tipped for her as well. Especially in the dining room - every night our waiter had fruit waiting for her when we sat down so she could nibble while we perused the menu. They did everything possible to make things enjoyable for us.

 

As for Camp Carnival, we've had our daughter give a tip to her favorite counselor and then we've given a tip into the pot to be split between the rest.

 

Like others have said, it seems like the smaller the kid, the more work it takes!

[steveaaaa]

Hello To all,

What do you think about tipping and Children?? Do they also Tip $10.00 per day?? We are going on Elation 1/16/05 and have a 10, 15, 16, year olds with us.

What are you Thoughts?

Thanks For the Help!!!:confused:

The $10 is "suggested" only and even though they sleep in a bed, the steward still only cleans 1 toilet,vacumns 1 room, fills only 1 ice bucket,cleans only 1 shower. If you had your kids in the room next to you the steward would get the same tip.:confused:

So in you case if you think about it, you are paying $126 for what?If it was only 2 of you in the room the steward would get $52. You can't tell me that he does 150% more work because of 5 people versus 2. He does more like 50% more work.

The waiters on the other hand do work on a per person basis.

 

A few of the other posters on this thread are solo travelers so they, tipping the "Suggested amount" only cost's them $26. But we will surely read all the post's to follow about how they tip like they are royalty.:D

 

Steve

[newbie2cruise]

How did you come up with 26.00 ? 10.00 pp/day still equals 70.00 for a 7 day , 50.00 for a 5 dayetc.

I am a waitress and have my own kid. they do take more work, make more messes , want their food faster etc. I had no problem tipping for my son. If you dont you are just a cheapskate in my opinion. they use extra towels, linens and such reguardless of sharing 1 bathroom

[nybumpkin]

Well, Kristi, I imagine (cause I don't know, never been on a cruise) there are a number of counselors there with the kids. So do you just drop off an envelope there, did you choose to give a tip to ones who were especially helpful to your kids or was it a kind of group tip thing? Give me some kind of guideline for an amount, same as room steward? More? Thanks

There were envelopes available for tipping Camp Carnival staff - we provided a group tip. I think the amount depends on the number of kids and the amount of time the kids spent with Camp Carnival - the more you use the service, the more you should tip. I was very happy with the Camp Carnival staff.

 

With regard to room stewards - yes, we had 5 people in a cabin and therefore paid more in tips than would a similar cabin with 2 people. However, we had many extra towels (including beach towels), more beds to make up (aside from the regular beds, there was the sofa bed, the pullman, and a rollaway), and more bathroom supplies than would a cabin with only 2 people. Plus the steward made sure the kids had chocolate chip cookies! Did he earn the tips? You bet!

[steveaaaa]

How did you come up with 26.00 ? 10.00 pp/day still equals 70.00 for a 7 day , 50.00 for a 5 dayetc.

I am a waitress and have my own kid. they do take more work, make more messes , want their food faster etc. I had no problem tipping for my son. If you dont you are just a cheapskate in my opinion. they use extra towels, linens and such reguardless of sharing 1 bathroom

$26 would be the rate for a single passenger $70 for the week.(A solo cruiser)

 

I am not refering to the dining staff,but to the room steward. Let me ask you a question. Which would take longer?

A steward cleaning 1 room w/5 people (2 adults,10,15, and 16)

or

A steward cleaning two rooms one w/3 people and one w/2 people

 

The answer is 1 room. How is picking up 5 towels off the floor instead of 2 any harder?How hard is it to bring in 5 towels instead of two?What part of that is worth $78.

 

Steve:D

 

My main beef is that the crew should be paid a decent wage and not to rely on tips. The tips for the room should be based on a room instead of the number of passengers.The tips should be part of the fare!

[Kami's pal]

so if you are going to use their services, pay for them.

 

And teach your children about the right way to treat people who work for them. If your children are lucky, maybe some day soon they will work for tips too. I did. My kids did. We learned to appreciate what we have.

[PollyNJ]

I know there is much debate about this tipping issue, and everytime I read a thread about it I remember our first cruise. My daughter was 13 and was deathly seasick. As she was throwing up she would say "mommy i'm sorry" and throw-up on the floor. "Mommy i'm sorry" and throw up on the wall etc etc. I told be sorry in the toilet please. LOL Either way I took her to the infirmary and told my DH I'd clean the bathroom when I got back. Of course when I got back with her the bathroom was sparkling clean and smelling disinfected. I said to DH "Oh honey TY so much" He told me he called the steward to clean the bathroom. He told me he gave him a $ 10.00 tip. Now this was 14 years ago-- I said OMG that is alot of money. He told me would you have cleaned up a strangers mess like that for $ 10.00? I mean it was a real mess. I said no. The moral of the story is really tip according to service. Tip according to how pleasurable that particular person has made your vacation. My opinion.

[Guest Time2gocruzn]

Carnival's published guidelines state that *full* tipping is recommended for *all* passengers above two years of age.

Well of course that's what they recommend! LOL! They sure as heck aren't going to ask for a lesser amount, if they can get people to buy into their "guidelines", and convince them that they should tip the full amount. ;)

 

Personally, I will take the guidelines into consideration, but I am waiting to see how things play out on my cruise. If they are really good to my kids, then fine. If not, I will probably tip half. JMHO.