Pre-tipping

[LVGlenn]

I've seen a couple threads where people mentioned tipping their cabin steward in advance to get better service. Living in Vegas, I'm very used to being in a tipping intensive atmosphere and don't mind at all tipping a little extra if I get value for it, so I'm interested to hear about what people's experience with pretipping has been. Does it make a difference (certainly that will vary a lot from person to person but I'd like to get a general sense)? If you have tipped in advance, how much do you tip? Is there anyone else other then the cabin stewards that might warrant some advance tipping?

 

Oh yeah, and I don't have one of those schwanky countdown clocks, but as of today, it's sixty days till I'll be at sea. :)

[DON M.]

I to had read about pre-tipping the cabin steward which I had never done. So, on our 11th cruise in Jan. on the Vision we met our steward who showed us around our "huge" cabin etc. and seemed very very pleasant. He also converted our king bed into 2 -doubles. Anyway, that first day i gave him$10.00 and I think there was another day when he came and took pictures in our cabin another $5.00. I really dont know if because of the extra tips he was the best steward we every had, but I felt good about it, and I certainly would rather tip him than a bartender handing me a drink or give to a black-jack dealer taking my money.

[Sea Island Lady]

We pre-tip and fill it is worth it!

[MadCnty]

We pre-tip and usually get "very good" service (from filling our cooler everyday) and other "perks". In fact on the last cruise we were on, the room stewart did not even bother to wake us (unlike the first cruise we were on). We awoke to the the loud speaker announcing colors for disembarkation!!! As a rule of thumb we pre-tip $10.00 per person and go from there...

[LVGlenn]

Thanks for the insight! I think I'll give it a try this trip.

[Sea Island Lady]

I need to correct what I said above. We do not "pre-tip", instead we "extra" tip. In other words, we give $20 per room steward up front along with any request we may have. At the end of the week, we still give the recommended amount...plus some more extra.

[LVGlenn]

Sea Island Lady:

 

Thanks for the clarification. That's what I had in mind as well.

[Riana]

I have to say that on our recent SOS cruise, until we extra tipped mid-way through the trip, we had not even received adequate steward service. We then took that into account when calculating the final amount given.

[SlightDraw]

I pre tiped my cabin person on the last cruise 20$ for three of us. I indicated I would like to have fresh ice and glasses twice daily. You would not believe what twenty bucks can get you. Like a clock, she knew when we would be gone and made sure we were set up!

[madforcruising]

I don´t have any experience with pre-tipping but to Tim, I thought that is the usual service provided. I got this service ervery single time without asking for it.

[Ocean Boy]

I've never had anything but good cabin service without pre-tipping. I would not pre-tip as that seems sort of like a bribe to me. The way I see it a tip is to show appreciation for service received. It is pretty hard to do that when you have neither received the service nor know if it was provided to a satisfactory level.

[SlightDraw]

I would like to clarify: 20$ was for a request of fresh ice and glasses twice daily. I agree, this should happen (not on our first EOS cruise) anyway. I think the 20$ also sets the overall relationship with your cabin attendant and the overall quality of service you will get throughout the week....That said, is it needed or should you pre tip? Probably not. Will 20$ improve your overall service. I think so.

[Sea Island Lady]

I would like to clarify: 20$ was for a request of fresh ice and glasses twice daily.

Water/ice and glasses are part of the daily service anyway. We tipped to have fresh ice placed in our snall cooler - twice daily.

[Michuck]

We "extra tip" up front too . We know that we usually get excellent service from our steward, and always tipped extra at the end anyway. Part of the reason we pre-extra-tip is selfish - it makes us feel so good to see the look on our stewards face when we tell him/her "here's a little extra so if you can get off at one of the ports, you can have a little extra for fun" or "here's a little extra for you to call home". It's just a good-feeling thing for us. . . .

[Murphy]

We also "pre-tip/extra tip" a bartender, usually in the Solarium pool area. We also scope out a bar server or two and let them know how often to come around and what we drink. It works great. Last cruise the bar servers were even bringing me the free iced tea or lemonade when they were filling our other drinks. Believe me, they were compensated, but it makes me feel special and pampered to know they take care of us.