Beachchick - Tip question

[lvcruises]

Hi Beachchick, I just found your lovely review of the POH and your upsell experiences. We were offered an upsell last week AF to AA and we took it. Like you we have NEVER had an opportunity to have a suite before much less an Owners suite. I read thru the whole thread trying to find out what you tipped or what you thought were appropriate tips. We will probably have breakfast in our room most days, most of our excursions are early. Dinner 1 or 2 times in our room. We will use the Concierge for reservations and probably VIP tickets and such.

 

We have been saving for this trip for a year so we have limited funds, however, I don't want to come across like a country bumkin that doesn't have a clue. I've read people post $4pp per day up to $15pp per day. I don't think we can afford the latter especially if we need to tip the Room Steward and Concierge. What would you recommend for each? :confused:

[beachchick]

Aloha. I'm glad you found my review helpful. How wonderful that you'll be in a lovely suite. We asked for only a few extra services and had dinner ensuite once (plus breakfast and a couple of room service deliveries--call your butler for room service or you might get "scolded" for going through the normal channels). We tipped our butler $100. I could not believe how some of the courtyard pax kept him hopping! I hope they tipped accordingly. We barely used the concierge, saw him twice during the cruise, and only called him twice the whole week. We tipped him only $20 or $30 (I think). Our suite steward was efficient and personable, so we tipped him $40 on top of whatever his "portion" of the $10 p/p daily service charge is.

 

I totally understand your situation. This was definitely a splurge for us. But we also realized that with the extras (sodas, waters, bubbly on arrival, cocktails while waiting for our suite to be ready, cocktail party, little goodies, etc.) that we would have spent extra for anyway, we benefited in many ways (saving us $$ out of pocket). IMO, your tipping should be based on what extra services you request, how your butler/concierge treat you, and what you feel you can afford. Our butler wouldn't even accept a "pre tip" for extra services because he said he enjoyed doing his job and that he wanted us to have a wonderful time and not worry about things. IMO, you shouldn't fret over tipping what you can afford. What you mention for services (breakfast in your suite, etc.) is pretty normal. Unless you've got some crazy requests, I can't imagine why you would tip $15 p/p/day--Ouch!

 

beachchick

[lvcruises]

Beachchick..Thank you for getting back to me. The whole tipping thing has been hard to nail down. $100 sounds good to me and definately something we can do. Will see how much we use the concierge and if the room steward is good $40 sounds good also.

 

Everyone on the board really appreciates your help. I know I have.:)

[beachchick]

Thank you very much for your nice compliment. I'm glad I could help.

 

beachchick