Poll:Tipping on a Cruise

[YVRRocketSurgery]

We don't fiddle with the auto default gratuities. We just let them flow as intended.

For our cabin steward, we always tip a little extra. For a 7 day cruise where they've been ok, we've tipped an extra $10. For a 12 day cruise where our steward was fricken' amazing, we tipped an extra $100 and sent an email to head office asking they recognize what a great ambassador he is to their brand. All other cruises, something in between but more towards the $20-30 side and maybe an extra $10 if they had an assistant.

For our MDR waiters, we've tipped between nothing extra to an extra $60 to the waiter and $30 to the assistant waiter. We've tipped the head waiter once an extra $20.
The situation where we've tipped nothing extra is when we ate in specialty dining about half the time and were on My Time/Flex Dining so we didn't have a regular wait team. A couple of times the waiters were able to source us copies of the MDR menus so we've appreciated that.

 

[Nemo2]

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.

Almost 55 years ago I took an ocean liner from Melbourne, Australia, to Southampton, England.......6 weeks accommodation, a number of ports, and all meals included......for way less than the cheapest flight available.

 

[Souschef]

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.

Basically the cabin stewards, waiters and bartenders. The tips collected by the cruise line are pooled and distributed to the above people. The thinking is if you opt out, you are reducing the amount for everybody in the pool. There is a requirement that all individual tips be put into the pool.
If you visit the cruisecritic website there are a tremendous amount of discussions on tipping. In fact it is one of the "third rail" topics on that forum.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

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.

I think part of the problem is that tipping culture across the world isn't consistent. Some people think tipping is truly optional, which it is and isn't. Gratuities on cruising IMO are kind of part service charge and part tipping. Staff rely on gratuities to supplement their measly base pay. IMO in theory, cruise lines should incorporate gratuities in their pricing and make tipping truly optional but it'd never fly as it would increase the sticker price of the cruise and they likely prefer the incentive of tipping to motivate staff.

I think the food goes in cycles. Cruise lines claim not to have cut their food budget but instead they really need to increase it to keep up with inflation.

Overall, I agree that cruise lines have been able to keep prices from increasing dramatically over the years when we compare our first cruise in 2005 to today but they definitely seem to be ebbing up over the last 5 years.

 

[OldShooter]

We are not cruise people but we did do a Viking small ship cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg a few years ago. IIRC there were to be tip envelopes distributed at the end of the trip. Tipping the crew directly was prohibited.

The first night we had really good service in the bar, so I rolled a $20 really small and tight and slipped it to the barman, who palmed it with aplomb. In the dining room we always tried to get one of a few deuces and the two waiters for "our" table were the same for every meal. The next day when we got to the dining room there was a deuce prepared for us and our prepaid bottle of wine open and ready. Obviously the bar guy had told the waiters about the $20. So I rolled up another one and watched it disappear unobtrusively into the waiter's pocket. From that point we were king and queen. Always a reserved table with wine, especially attentive service, first to choose among multiple meal choices, etc. And great service in the bar, too, of course. We tipped each of the three another $20 at the end of the trip. I don't remember what we did with the envelope.

It seems to me that tipping anonymously and at the end of the trip is a waste of money. You don't get any credit for it and the staff members that really did provide good service don't get recognized. I understand why passengers tipping staff ad hoc is not a tenable boat policy, but it was a much better policy for us on that trip.

 

[athena53]

Basically the cabin stewards, waiters and bartenders. The tips collected by the cruise line are pooled and distributed to the above people. The thinking is if you opt out, you are reducing the amount for everybody in the pool. There is a requirement that all individual tips be put into the pool.
If you visit the cruisecritic website there are a tremendous amount of discussions on tipping. In fact it is one of the "third rail" topics on that forum.

Thanks for the explanation. Yes, I visit CruiseCritic occasionally and I agree with you that it's definitely a "third rail" topic. Fortunately, most of the things people complain about are not issues at all with the line I use.

 

[gayl]

I'm an ovo-lacto vegetarian and often travel with a vegan. So I tip the maitre d who meets with us at the beginning of the cruise so that we have a wider variety of food available at each meal. That wasn't actually included on the poll and I also tip the waiter separately. Those two need to go above and beyond so that I don't wind up with simply boiled vegetables at each meal

 

[FUEGO]

I can't recall a maitre d doing anything for us on hardly any cruise, if we even met him at all. I do recall talking to one on a couple of cruises but not on the other 6 we've been on. I suppose I tip him per the regular tipping automatically applied but that is a weird one. Maybe he's working it behind the scenes to make sure good stuff happens and we don't go hungry (because you know how easy it is to go hungry on a cruise when they feed you 5x per day and there's only a brief sliver between 2 am and 5 am where there's no meal service ).

 

[AlbaCrush]

I can't recall a maitre d doing anything for us on hardly any cruise, if we even met him at all. I do recall talking to one on a couple of cruises but not on the other 6 we've been on. I suppose I tip him per the regular tipping automatically applied but that is a weird one. Maybe he's working it behind the scenes to make sure good stuff happens and we don't go hungry (because you know how easy it is to go hungry on a cruise when they feed you 5x per day and there's only a brief sliver between 2 am and 5 am where there's no meal service ).

I tipped the maitre d on our last cruise because I had late dining and wanted early dining. I ended up emailing him a couple of weeks before our cruise and after a week, he was able to fine us an open table. He even came over to our table a few times.

On another cruise, I tipped the maitre d because I made a special meal request and he made arrangements with chef and the next night we had two Filipino dishes that we requested. I thought it was pretty cool that I could request stuff that's not on the menu personally prepared. Our head waiter told us that only he could authorize it if it.

 

[Eagle43]

A friend told me to tip on the first day of the cruise. So I did and the room Stewart took great care of us. I also pay the mandatory tips which the cruise line requires. I think You can lot out of those but I never have.

 

[Sunset]

We are not cruise people but we did do a Viking small ship cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg a few years ago. IIRC there were to be tip envelopes distributed at the end of the trip. Tipping the crew directly was prohibited.

......

We recently had a Viking river cruise, and directly gave an extra tip to our room steward on the last day, as he was like a ghost, working around our use of the room, and he was the only staff member that had to deal with our messy ways..

 

[Helen]

The tip that is added to the bill also goes to the hidden employees that we never see, like the persons working in the laundry room. All the cruise ship employees seem to work really hard. We tip various people extra, especially the one who takes care of the cabin since we come in contact with him or her the most.

 

[Souschef]

The tip that is added to the bill also goes to the hidden employees that we never see, like the persons working in the laundry room. All the cruise ship employees seem to work really hard. We tip various people extra, especially the one who takes care of the cabin since we come in contact with him or her the most.

+1
On our 32 day cruise we had a fantastic room steward. We tipped him at the beginning , half way through, and at the end of the cruise.