Poll:Tipping on a Cruise

[Rustic23]

We just got back from a 7 day cruise on Royal Caribbean. They have a mandatory tipping policy, as other lines do. However, they also 'encourage' tipping for superior performance if you wish at the end of the cruise. I was wondering what folks considered 'normal'. Thus the poll.

Keep in mind this is in addition to the 'required tip' i.e do not include any required tip.

I left off 11 Nothing. Not sure how too add it. Also need multiple answer. Help!
Can't delete and start over.

 

[Alan]

I added "Nothing" as the last option bit don't know if I can change it to multiple choice.

 

[mystang52]

Looks like I was the first! Anyway, I usually leave $10 for cabin steward, but have left as much as 20 for exceptional service. If we have same waiter (we cruise on NCL), we'll likewise give somewhere from 10 to 20, depending on service and also how many times we are there; we usually get 2 or 3 complimentary dinners at the for-fee dining alternatives so we don't have same waiter for 7 nights.

 

[swakyaby]

If a cruise operator includes mandatory tips in the cost of the cruise, then I would consider this all that is required for standard service, i.e. room is clean and stocked daily, waiters and assistant waiter give standard service, maitre d doesn't make you wait in line excessively. But if anyone goes above and beyond and takes extra time doing something for you, an extra gratuity in the envelope with their name at the end of the cruise would be greatly appreciated. Just my opinion.

Ahh, I see this is a poll! It really depends on the service and the length of the cruise. For the cabin steward/housekeeper, I placed $20 in the envelope for a 7 day cruise, $20 for the waiter and $10 for his assistant. But on our 14 day cruise, I placed $50 for the cabin steward because she made these cute animals out of the towels and always greeted us enthusiastically by name daily, and $40 for the waiter and $20 for the assistant.

 

[mn54]

We opt out of the automatic tip placed on your bill at the end of the cruise, and instead personally tip the waiters, room stewards and others who have provided good service.

 

[Ready]

We were on an Alaska cruise with Holland America last week and we were pre-charged $200 for a 7 day cruise (2 passengers). I did not feel the need to tip beyond that, as it seemed pretty generous. Come to think of it, I thought the service was pretty average, nothing special.

And while on the subject of cruises, I don't know if I'm just getting pickier as I get older, or if the food is getting worse, but I thought most of the food they served on the ship was just dreadful. We ate in a specialty restaurant one night with a $50 upcharge and thought it was quite good. But the dining room and cafeteria food were the worst I've had on any cruise ship. Any middle of the road restaurant charging $10 for a meal would have easily surpassed these meals in quality and taste.

 

[swakyaby]

And while on the subject of cruises, I don't know if I'm just getting pickier as I get older, or if the food is getting worse, but I thought most of the food they served on the ship was just dreadful.

I think it would be interesting to hear what people think about the quality of meals are on the various cruiselines. A new poll?

 

[jonat]

Recently I have been on cruises where "tips were included", which I liked a lot. We could choose to tip individually for exceptional service, and sometimes we did for our cabin attendant.

 

[GSMAN]

In addition to the mandatory tipping, we usually tip around 60 bucks at the end of the cruise to our dining room waiter and 60 bucks to our cabin attendant as well. These folks work extremely hard and leave their home land for months at a time. I think they earn every penny!

 

[Bamaman]

We usually top the mandatory amount. Even better is when we get enough onboard credits to cover all tips.

 

[Souschef]

We opt out of the automatic tip placed on your bill at the end of the cruise, and instead personally tip the waiters, room stewards and others who have provided good service.

That does not work, as the people have to put that money into the tip pool if you opt out, and they know who you are.
I will tip the room steward extra for services. On our 32 day cruise, we tipped him before, in the middle, and at the end of the cruise, because he did such a great job for us.

 

[FUEGO]

Out of ~8 cruises we've been on, I don't think we've ever left anything extra beyond the ordinary suggested tip (which seems pretty generous IMHO). Maybe once or twice we slipped a very friendly helpful room attendant a $10 or $20 or whatever we had handy as a personalized thank you (can't recall). Maybe a buck or two for room service??

I prefer the automated "suggested tip" or "mandatory gratuity" that shows up on your bill automatically. I'm going to tip the suggested amount anyway unless the service falls way out of line with expectations (on the good or bad side), so it saves time and mental energy when my goal is relaxation and not thinking about calculating an employee's compensation.

 

[gerntz]

And while on the subject of cruises, I don't know if I'm just getting pickier as I get older, or if the food is getting worse, but I thought most of the food they served on the ship was just dreadful. We ate in a specialty restaurant one agnight with a $50 upcharge and thought it was quite good. But the dining room and cafeteria food were the worst I've had on any cruise ship. Any middle of the road restaurant charging $10 for a meal would have easily surpassed these meals in quality and taste.

Perhaps reducing standard food quality is a strategy to encourage folks to spend on the speciality restaurants. Agree that cruise food gets monotonous and is very average. Big reason we prefer land trips and tours.

 

[garyt]

Perhaps reducing standard food quality is a strategy to encourage folks to spend on the speciality restaurants. Agree that cruise food gets monotonous and is very average. Big reason we prefer land trips and tours.

More likely just a cost saving measure.

 

[athena53]

Perhaps reducing standard food quality is a strategy to encourage folks to spend on the specialty restaurants. Agree that cruise food gets monotonous and is very average. Big reason we prefer land trips and tours.

Not all cruise lines do this- just the ones that want to get you on board with a low sticker price so they can turn you into an income stream- upcharges for some restaurants, exorbitant drink prices, casinos, excursions, etc. I've just booked my 4th cruise with Uncruise Adventures, where all alcohol and excursions are included and the food, for the most part, is locally-sourced and made from fresh ingredients.

To get back to the OT, gratuities are purely voluntary and you tell them what to add to your bill. I tipped 10%.

That does not work, as the people have to put that money into the tip pool if you opt out, and they know who you are.

Souschef, could you explain this? Who are "the people"? I could see how if you tipped people only individually there might be an imbalance because they also share in the tip pool, which would reduce others' shares, but I'm not sure if that was what you meant.

 

[Nemo2]

We tip the cabin stewards varying amounts. We might also give them non-monetary gratuities; e.g. if they're trying to get ashore we'll generally tell them just to change the towels and not to bother cleaning the room or making the bed. As a matter of course we always tell them not to turn down the bed in the evening; (approaching 75 I've pretty much learned how to do that myself).

We only eat in the buffet and don't frequent the bars, so they are not factors.

 

[braumeister]

We've only done four cruises, three of them on very small ships. Just tipped the suggested amount, rounded up. There was one exception. On our Galapagos trip, one of the Ecuadorian guides was so awesome that I slipped him an extra $100 as we were leaving. He was well worth it.

 

[Dash man]

We typically tip $40-$60 to the stateroom attendant, dining room waiter and assistant waters above the standard mandatory tipping. These folks work pretty hard in my opinion.

 

[AlbaCrush]

When we took a 5 Day Cruise with Carnival in May, they added the tips. I guess they started adding tips to cruises, because too many guests stiffed the employees.

Even though they added tips, we added the following additional tips:

2 Waiters - $20 each waiter
1 Head Waiter - $25
Maitre d - $15
Room Steward - $25

 

[Dreamer]

I returned this month from an Alaskan cruise with Royal Caribbean. I have never added additional tips, until this cruise and added about $40.00 extra. I agree with Ready, that the food was nothing special. I was also wondering if the reason was to push the specialty restaurants. They were offering a behind the scenes galley tour of the kitchen area, with all the food at lunch and champagne for an additional cost. I had already been on this tour previously, at no additional cost. As far as all the food, hello, you are on a cruise and can eat all the food you want and I don't care for champagne.

 

[Teacher Terry]

All 6 RC cruises we had excellent service and so tipped between 20-40 for waiter, head waiter, room attendant, etc. On our terrible Princess cruise with rude staff and bad food we did not tip at all extra beyond what was added to our bill. WE have always had great food in the dining room on RC.

 

[athena53]

On our terrible Princess cruise with rude staff and bad food we did not tip at all extra beyond what was added to our bill.

Why did you even let them do that? My understanding is that you can tell the people in charge that the service was so bad you want the "suggested" tip amounts reduced or removed completely.

 

[FUEGO]

if they're trying to get ashore we'll generally tell them just to change the towels and not to bother cleaning the room or making the bed.

We do that too. We'll tell them we don't need any service on a particular day if we're planning on being in and out of the room (naps, changing before/after swimming, or prepping to go out to shore for the day). We don't mind reusing towels multiple days and don't make such a mess that needs to be vacuumed and cleaned daily. Still tip the full recommended amount but figure it'll make their job a little easier without diminishing our enjoyment at all.

 

[Bestwifeever]

We've been on maybe five cruises. Now that we're old we tip more than we used to in general because we have more money than we used to and it make us happy to spend a little that way. On our last one we gave our cabin steward a little bonus to thank him and it obviously meant a lot to him too.

...As a matter of course we always tell them not to turn down the bed in the evening; (approaching 75 I've pretty much learned how to do that myself)....

I have no idea why, but I've found for some reason I LOVE coming back to a room in the evening to turn-down service . I'm sure the attendants like you better!

 

[treeofpain]

We've been on 15 cruises since the 1990s. When they went to the automatic tipping, it rubbed me the wrong way at first, but I guess people just aren't very generous. We usually add a little extra if the service is great.

On the food, the quality and variety has definitely gone down a bit, but it's still pretty good. To be fair, the prices of cruises has gone down, and that has been compounded when you consider inflation. Our first 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise in the 90s was around 1200 per person. We are doing a comparable trip in a couple of weeks for around 700 per person.