Has anyone taken gifts for your steward/waiter, etc?

[wieslaw]

On our Christmas cruise we gave our Steward, Waiter and Assistant Waiter small Christmas stockings and we tucked candy and a twenty dollar bill in each of them. I had a glitter glue stick that I brought with me and I wrote their names in glitter on each of their stockings. They seemed very touched. It must be so hard to be away from your family at Christmas!

 

 

Hi,

so many people on this board have such a big hearts and want to do some kind things to others........ but how do you know if "Christmas" means anything to the person helping you with the cabin ? How do you know what is their religion ?

 

How does one know if the steward likes or can eat chocolate ?

 

There is so many things that we do not know ..... but one thing we all know for sure: the steward is on the ship to make a living and money is what they work for.

 

Wes

[karatemom2]

Hi,

so many people on this board have such a big hearts and want to do some kind things to others........ but how do you know if "Christmas" means anything to the person helping you with the cabin ? How do you know what is their religion ?

 

How does one know if the steward likes or can eat chocolate ?

 

There is so many things that we do not know ..... but one thing we all know for sure: the steward is on the ship to make a living and money is what they work for.

 

Wes

 

Well regardless of their religion, the ship we were on certainly was celebrating Christmas in a big way and no matter what their beliefs, seeing all of the families traveling together is bound to make crew nostalgic for their families, especially those with young children at home. I don't know if they eat chocolate, but most people do and if they don't I imagine they can share it with other crew members.

 

Of course we understand they are working for money. That is why we gave them the twenty dollar bills in the stockings. That was really the point. It just felt a little more festive to give it in the stockings as opposed to simply handing to them.

 

And this in no way took the place of the autotip or additional tip we gave them at the end of the cruise. It was just our way of trying to share a bit of holiday spirit and it was received with great warmth and appreciation, the same spirit in which it was given.

[mosel]

The calling card idea made me thing of something my son told me. Last year he was away for about 8 months at Navy boot camp and individual training. He told me that so many people sent them calling cards they were laying all over the place. When a new class came they would give stacks of the cards to the new guys. They really appreciated the thought behind the donations and it made them feel good that others were thinking of them. However during boot camp they could only call home once unless they earned a phone call for doing something really good. Once they got to individual training all of them had their cell phones so once again the cards were not used at all.

So while the thought behind the phone cards are good I bet alot of them are never used. Cindy

[wieslaw]

Well regardless of their religion, the ship we were on certainly was celebrating Christmas in a big way and no matter what their beliefs, seeing all of the families traveling together is bound to make crew nostalgic for their families, especially those with young children at home. I don't know if they eat chocolate, but most people do and if they don't I imagine they can share it with other crew members.

 

Of course we understand they are working for money. That is why we gave them the twenty dollar bills in the stockings. That was really the point. It just felt a little more festive to give it in the stockings as opposed to simply handing to them.

 

And this in no way took the place of the autotip or additional tip we gave them at the end of the cruise. It was just our way of trying to share a bit of holiday spirit and it was received with great warmth and appreciation, the same spirit in which it was given.

 

Hi karatemom,

there is no doubt in my mind that you are a very carring and wonderful person and what you have done for the few people that were helping you on your Christmas cruise was just such a nice thing to do - not many of 'us' would have done this to show our appreciation, as much as you did.

 

But the cruise ship personnel is so international, there is probably close to 40 or 50 different nationalities and not all of the people think the same way as 'we' do, or appreciate the same things that are so dear to "us" ,

 

just like some of "us" do not understand or appreciate the things that are dear and important to "them" ....... but kindness is probably contagious and understood by many..... especially if it is 'decorated' with money.

 

I am very glad that you made someone happy and you were able to share the holiday spirit with them.

 

Sending my regards,

 

Wes

[imnance]

I said this in another thread some time ago, but I'm going to say it again.....

 

If you've done a great job at work and your boss is going to reward you for it, how would you feel if he said, "Hey you've done such a great job, I really want you to know how much I appreciate your work. Here's a 30 minute calling card!"

 

I doubt that anyone on this board would be thrilled with that. Why would anyone assume that the people who work on the ships would like it any better?

 

I would want cash for my bonus and I'd bet most, if not all, of the people here would too. I highly suspect cruise ship employees are no different than we are. ;)

[Putterdude]

OP’s may be right about calling cards and it is quite possible they do get an abundance of them however, you do often see crew lined up at shore pay phones presumably phoning home. Also, many of the phone cards that are purchased in the US are international cards. Our thought in giving them at Christmas was to keep it out of the tip pool. However we did give them $20 each at Christmas as well as the card and another item relating to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. One of the crew did thank us for it a few days after Christmas. I have also read in another post where some pax give some Wal-Mart cards as you often see crew buying merchandise in Wal-Mart.

[RetireeWannabee]

Only gifts I would consider would be edible treats from home that are distinctive (none I can think of!), hubby's latest cd or home made thank you card with our picture and cash in it.

[emjsea]

I said this in another thread some time ago, but I'm going to say it again.....

 

If you've done a great job at work and your boss is going to reward you for it, how would you feel if he said, "Hey you've done such a great job, I really want you to know how much I appreciate your work. Here's a 30 minute calling card!"

 

I doubt that anyone on this board would be thrilled with that. Why would anyone assume that the people who work on the ships would like it any better?

 

I would want cash for my bonus and I'd bet most, if not all, of the people here would too. I highly suspect cruise ship employees are no different than we are. ;)

 

At my last job HR has the bosses give us paper yellow (gold) stars! And if we were good boys and girls and got enough gold stars we could turn them in for candy. It was like being 8 year olds and it was not only patronizing it was enraging. :confused: I told my boss if she ever gave me one of the gold stars I'd quit.

[ehfl]

I would never give them shampoo....I would stick with cash. If it was someone I knew, and they expressed interest in some item that was difficult to get where they lived, but was available in the US, I might bring them that (in addition to cash).

[momofmeg]

The best "extra" I had heard was a dollar wrapped around mini candybars. The example was given by a lady who left it for her room steward because he brought her ice every afternoon. Who doesn't like some chocolate on occasion.

 

I always throw in some Hersey's Kisses with my thank you card and extra tip. I leave the sealed thank you card covered with kisses on the desk in the stateroom for the steward. For the waiters, I just bring one of those tiny gift bags which inside has the Hershey kisses and the thank you card with the extra tip.

[6rugrats]

Cash is best and is always appreciated. I sometimes think the other gifts make us feel good, but they aren't what the crew really wants or needs.

[momofmeg]

Cash is best and is always appreciated. I sometimes think the other gifts make us feel good, but they aren't what the crew really wants or needs.

 

I agree-so that is why I give them a thankyou card and a few piece sof candy with the extra cash. it personalizes it a little bit and makes me feel good without me wasting too much money on some little gift they would not even desire and would prefer the cash anyway.

[AmoMondo]

i'd say cash is best. many of them are sending cash home to help families. I think it is a different matter when you are going to a land based holiday in a developing country were some things that we would class as essentials are also impossible for the loacals to get, for example when my sister went to kenya last year she gave the waiter and room maid toiletires as well as cash. However with ship's crew they have access to "luxuries" if they want them when they go ashore.

[lady_cruiser]

On a recent Voyage of the Voyager (pun intended) we became close to our waiter, Harry. He mentioned that he loves to go shopping at Walmart on his day off when the ports he is in has a Walmart. So on our next "Voyage on the Voyager :p " we plan on not only giving the customary tip but bringing $25.00 (or more) gift cards to Walmart to pass out to our room steward, waiter and waiter's assistant. We figured that will be $25.00 more in their pocket if they don't have to use their own money and that will be less cash we have to carry.