Tipping on Princess Cruises

[Islandmon]

We are booked for a cruise to Alaska on one of the Princess ships and have reserved the Grand Suite. We know that they automatically charge you the $10.50 per day for gratuity for the room stewards and wait staff in the dining room, but what is customary to tip on top of that for the room steward and wait staff? We are at a loss....would appreciate any comments on this....

 

Thanks!

[jstducky]

Something to note, on the Ruby Princess cruise I just got off of, it was $10.50 charged to your account per day for all rooms EXCEPT any form of Suite was charged $11.00 per day. I know, not a huge difference, but it is something to note

[wrecks]

Many different thoughts on this subject, but we always have. For a 7 day I would add approximately $20 each. Again, not required, your choice.

[Islandmon]

$20 each (room steward, wait staff) per day or total?

[Toto2Kansas]

We are booked for a cruise to Alaska on one of the Princess ships and have reserved the Grand Suite. We know that they automatically charge you the $10.50 per day for gratuity for the room stewards and wait staff in the dining room, but what is customary to tip on top of that for the room steward and wait staff? We are at a loss....would appreciate any comments on this....

 

Thanks!

 

How long of cruise are you looking at? 7-10-14 days?

[wrecks]

$20 each (room steward, wait staff) per day or total?

 

Total, if you tip $20- a day, I'll be your room steward and wait staff too :D!

[steponboard]

When they add the suggested amounts to your seapass card you have tipped appropriately and need add nothing, that's the whole purpose of them doing it automatically. If something is over the top you can always tip extra but you've met your obligation if you leave your auto tips intact on your seapass.

[English Tim]

You cannot possibly make a judgement until you have experienced the service. It may be fantastic and usually is, but it may be ordinary.

[mrrobby]

HI, We usually give the room steward 20 or 25 for the cruise. We have only been on 7 or 9 day cruises. The room stewards have been very good to excellent. We mostly do anytime dining and occasionally I leave them a few extra bucks at dinner if they are real good and then I may request to have them other nights of the cruise. In Crown Grill or Sabatini's I usually leave an extra $10 at dinner if it's just the 2 of us.

[cb at sea]

As long as you tip the recommended amount, you're good to go. If the service you get is "above and beyond", then tip additionally what that service was worth to you. There's no "set" extra amount (if any) to tip.

[pompeynanny]

Your $11.00 per day per person covers ALL the staff who will be contributing towards the service you receive on board, including those in the background whom you will not come into contact with. It also covers the room service waiters if you take advantage of that service.

 

I will only tip additionally if I believe someone has gone that little bit "above and beyond".

 

Have a good cruise.

[caribill]

Your $11.00 per day per person covers ALL the staff who will be contributing towards the service you receive on board, including those in the background whom you will not come into contact with. It also covers the room service waiters if you take advantage of that service.

 

 

 

Does not cover Spa personnel.

Does not cover bar service (15% automativally added)

Does not cover children's program personnel.

Does not cover casino personnel.

[Colo Cruiser]

Or specialty restaurants.

[mii]

After you have made final payment in about 2 weeks after that you weill get a Cruise answer Book which tells everything you want to know about the recommended tipping.

 

Marilyn

[Elequieu]

Does not cover Spa personnel.

Does not cover bar service (15% automativally added)

Does not cover children's program personnel.

Does not cover casino personnel.

 

Does not cover fitness center

[FLACRUISER99]

Does not cover Spa personnel.

Does not cover bar service (15% automativally added)

Does not cover children's program personnel.

Does not cover casino personnel.

Does not cover the Captain.

[Woobstr112G]

Does not cover the Captain.

 

 

...............:D:D:D

 

Bob

[acruisingpeach23]

i have to disagree with the automatic tipping...on my cruise to alaska i would say 90% of the staff were rude and nasty. When we were at dinner, by the way we were on the star princess, my aunt was not even done with her dinner and the waitress threw the desert menu in her lap! Although we had a great waitress the first night, the rest of our stay i felt we experianced very nasty attitudes and cold shoulders :(

 

If it were up to me i would have only tipped the staff that were nice and helpful. i felt like most of the people were nasty because they knew they were getting tipped either way :/

 

 

not a great system

[rich52us]

Does not cover Spa personnel.

Does not cover bar service (15% automativally added)

Does not cover children's program personnel.

Does not cover casino personnel.

 

Is Spa gratuities added to the price of the service?

[Pam in CA]

When they add the suggested amounts to your seapass card you have tipped appropriately and need add nothing, that's the whole purpose of them doing it automatically. If something is over the top you can always tip extra but you've met your obligation if you leave your auto tips intact on your seapass.

I assume you mean by "seapass" that you're talking about your cruise card. Seapass isn't a term used by Princess.

 

As long as you tip the recommended amount, you're good to go. If the service you get is "above and beyond", then tip additionally what that service was worth to you. There's no "set" extra amount (if any) to tip.

I agree. If I make special requests, such as an eggcrate or have dishes in my room that need to be taken away, I put an extra amount in an envelope for my cabin steward. If we make special dining food requests, I add a tip for the waitstaff.

[brfan]

i have to disagree with the automatic tipping...on my cruise to alaska i would say 90% of the staff were rude and nasty. When we were at dinner, by the way we were on the star princess, my aunt was not even done with her dinner and the waitress threw the desert menu in her lap! Although we had a great waitress the first night, the rest of our stay i felt we experianced very nasty attitudes and cold shoulders :(

 

If it were up to me i would have only tipped the staff that were nice and helpful. i felt like most of the people were nasty because they knew they were getting tipped either way :/

 

 

not a great system

 

Actually I would put the blame on management for that and not auto tipping. Management sets the tone and if they have unreasonable expectations or require extra duties done by the crew, then that will create a very unhappy crew.

 

Remember the crew also wants good comments on the comment card so I highly doubt auto tips will create this type of attitude that you described.

[LARGIN]

i have to disagree with the automatic tipping...on my cruise to alaska i would say 90% of the staff were rude and nasty. When we were at dinner, by the way we were on the star princess, my aunt was not even done with her dinner and the waitress threw the desert menu in her lap! Although we had a great waitress the first night, the rest of our stay i felt we experianced very nasty attitudes and cold shoulders :(

 

If it were up to me i would have only tipped the staff that were nice and helpful. i felt like most of the people were nasty because they knew they were getting tipped either way :/

 

 

not a great system

 

Interesting.. Our last 2 cruises were on the Star.. I found that ALL of the staff to be professional and courteous with no nasty attitudes or cold shoulders..

[pris993]

We were on the Star to Mexico in October 2008. We found the staff in the MDR that served us pleasant but not well trained. We also found when we asked them to do something for example to recork our wine or to bring us a fish knife, they would do so the first night and then we had to remind them the next time around repeatedly. These were services totally within their control. We also requested only whole grain bread, once again we often had to ask for it again. By the way we had no problem getting whole grain bread in the buffet. These are little things but not the kind of service we expect. Service was hit and miss on this 10 day cruise. We have found service on Mexican cruises out of San Francisco not up to part with other ships and itineraries, don't know why. This was our 5th cruise to Mexico in the last 10 years, probably our last given lack of quality service. Don't feel it has anything to do with auto tip. When we asked the waiter about a fish knife his reponse was "most Americans" think a fish knife is a butter knife, this I thought was a strange response.

 

The last couple of nights on the cruise we went to the buffet because we were tired of the MDR. Service at the buffet in the evening was actually better.

[anniversarycruiser40]

We always tip room service. I thought they weren't included in the auto tipping? Am I wrong? We usually tip extra for good service, but thought room service was not included in the auto tip.

[caribill]

We always tip room service. I thought they weren't included in the auto tipping? Am I wrong? We usually tip extra for good service, but thought room service was not included in the auto tip.

 

 

Room service is included in the auto tipping.

 

However, an extra tip is always appreciated.