Anytime dining - tipping question

[coffee39]

I am not trying to start another tipping war....I am just wondering if we are doing anytime dining and auto tipping how will they know who to give the tip too? Will the waiter that does the work get the tip or will it be divided amoungst all waiters?

[Toto2Kansas]

The reason Princess has the tips automatically deducted from your shipboard account. They go into a tip pool and are divided between the wait staff.

[willysgrandma]

It gets divided. You always have the option of giving a particular waiter you may really like extra cash though.

[dennbr9]

With Anytime you may have varied wait staff, autotip is the only way to do it.

[chasetf]

I am not trying to start another tipping war....I am just wondering if we are doing anytime dining and auto tipping how will they know who to give the tip too? Will the waiter that does the work get the tip or will it be divided amoungst all waiters?

They will share in the auto tip pool so they are taken care of. If you happen to think they did a good job a little extra is always appreciated.

 

We did a standing reservation on a 10 day in Anytime because we liked our wait staff. We showed our appreciation at the end of the cruise.

[Jeffbhhs]

They will share in the auto tip pool so they are taken care of. If you happen to think they did a good job a little extra is always appreciated.

 

We did a standing reservation on a 10 day in Anytime because we liked our wait staff. We showed our appreciation at the end of the cruise.

 

Thats my attitude, if the service is good I have no problem tipping extra if they deserve it, on my last cruise however the wait staff was VERY slow, the asst waitress actually was much better so we chose to leave her something extra. Anything extra is up to you since you already are tipping like others said with the auto deduct

[chasetf]

Thats my attitude, if the service is good I have no problem tipping extra if they deserve it, on my last cruise however the wait staff was VERY slow, the asst waitress actually was much better so we chose to leave her something extra. Anything extra is up to you since you already are tipping like others said with the auto deduct

We had kind of the opposite experience on one of our cruises. The waiter was great.... but he had a lazy assistant. As such our waiter was always covering for him, doing half his job and picking up the slack. We ended up tipping him handsomely..... and gave nothing extra to his lazy assistant.

[trooper 1]

Thats my attitude, if the service is good I have no problem tipping extra if they deserve it, on my last cruise however the wait staff was VERY slow, the asst waitress actually was much better so we chose to leave her something extra. Anything extra is up to you since you already are tipping like others said with the auto deduct

 

We were told if any waiters were given extra tips they were required to put it into the pool. Incorrect info? However, we did tip certain persons extra anyway.

[mrskenny]

We were told that the waiter could keep the extra tips IF we were "auto-tipping". If we chose not to "auto-tip", the cash had to go into the tip pool.

 

Same for room stewards.

[Jeffbhhs]

We were told if any waiters were given extra tips they were required to put it into the pool. Incorrect info? However, we did tip certain persons extra anyway.

Interesting, if I was told that I would not have tipped extra. I do not mean to come across as cheap here lol, but I like to tip for good service and if I was going out of the way to give a waiter or waitress a few extra dollars I would want it to go directly to them not the entire staff that did not make my experience special, to me the rest of the staff is compensated by the auto-tips. Again just a opinion, I really am hoping that Princess wait staff is better than Carnival's was :)

[mrskenny]

I'm with you on the tipping. Mandatory tipping has reduced "service" to a joke in many places.

 

We've been on 2 Princess cruises (3rd coming up in 2 weeks) and 1 Carnival. Overall, much better service on Princess. BUT - service in the dining rooms was hit and miss.

 

On the Crown in Sept 2007, we had anytime dining. First night, the service was ok, and the tables for 2 were as close together as a NY Deli. DH, who is in the restaurant business, scanned the room and found what he considered to be the best duo in the dining room. After we finished our meal, he had a chat with the waiter, who just happened to have a more traditional "deuce" in his station. We got the table number, and made reservations for that table for the rest remaining 8 nights. After our first dinner with "our waiter" (wish I could remember his name), we arrived at our table each everning to find our preferred beverages waiting for us. This duo took very good care of us and we took good care of them, too. This waiter was the one who told us about the tipping policy.

 

On the Golden last December our luck was not as good. We tried several different servers, but as previous posters mentioned, you often find a strong-weak pairing. Couldn't seem to find the kind of team that we had on the Crown. The Captains were much busier that we normally see them, as they had to step in to assist. Fortunately, it was only a 7-night cruise, and we ate in the specialty dining rooms (1 night each) and the buffet on another night.

[jtmalt]

When we were on the Crown this April, we had anytime, and we were asked each night at dinner for our cabin number. I finally asked why, and was told it was so that the wait staff would get the proper credit for their share of my auto tip.

 

Service was generally very good. When we found a waiter we particularly liked, we asked to be seated in his section each time we went to the dining room thereafter, and tipped him extra on the last night.

[trooper 1]

(Edited) When we were on the Crown this April, we had anytime, and we were asked each night at dinner for our cabin number. I finally asked why, and was told it was so that the wait staff would get the proper credit for their share of my auto tip....

 

If the tips go into a pool anyway why does your cabin number make any difference? Does this mean if you are not on auto tip your waiter gets nothing for serving you that evening? Or, perhaps to be absurd, if he/she has a run of bad luck and nobody at the table has chosen auto tip that week, is the waiter entirely dependent on whatever is given in the envelope the last night, if anything? What am I missing?

[jtmalt]

If the tips go into a pool anyway why does your cabin number make any difference? Does this mean if you are not on auto tip your waiter gets nothing for serving you that evening? Or, perhaps to be absurd, if he/she has a run of bad luck and nobody at the table has chosen auto tip that week, is the waiter entirely dependent on whatever is given in the envelope the last night, if anything? What am I missing?

 

Maybe the info that it all goes into an equally shared pool isn't 100% accurate. There may be other incentives that we're not aware of.

 

I can only relate what I was told.

 

"Why do the waiters keep asking for my room number?"

"Because we need to write down who we served so we get credit for the tip."