Tipping Help!

[3Rouselings]

I am wondering how much to tip variou people throughout our stay?

The Magic Express Driver - what shoud we tip him?

Housekeeping especially them! We didn't get great housekeeping service on our last trip until we started tipping. Our plan was to tip housekeeping on our last day but we ended up changing that plan as soon as we saw results.

We are a family of 5 staying in a family suite - what is considered a good tip for housekeeping daily? I have to purchase some American money before we leave and want to ensure I have enough!

 

[2Tiggies]

I think the general 'accepted' way is $1 per person per day but it's really for you to use your own discretion.

We've always had good service or at least acceptable, from our Mousekeepers. Because there are just 2 of us in a room I feel bad leaving just $2, but we really don't need the room done every day so I put the Do Not Disturb up every other day and we just make our own beds in the morning and I leave $ 5 on the in between days.

With a larger group, as you have, you'd need to decide what you feel is fair if you are going the tipping route and also if you are going to tip as standard, or if you are going to tip after the first day based on satisfaction.

 

[Lynne M]

Tipping is considered optional for housekeepers at WDW resorts, in that their salaries are not set on the assumption that there will be tips, as a restaurant server's would be.

So, tipping is at your discretion for housekeeping, usually $1-2 per person per day, if you choose to do so. If you are going to tip, do it each day instead of once at the end of the stay, as you may well have a different housekeeper each day.

In fact, that may explain why the quality of housekeeping changed during your stay. You might have gotten a different housekeeper that day.

 

[DevonsDisneyMom]

For Magical Express, we usually tip the driver $1 per bag that he has to retrieve from the storage compartment under the bus.

As for housekeeping, we typically leave $1 per person per day. I would think for a family of 5 staying in a suite. $5 a day is a good tip.

 

[Sue M]

DME driver, we tip him $1 per suitcase he has to handle. We always have carry on. So if we each have one, there are 2 of us. So we give him $2 or $3.

Mousekeepers are a different story. There are 2 points of views here. Some say its not a tipable position according to Disney and so don't tip.
I'm one who does. And we leave $1 per person per day. The reason i say per day is you will get different mousekeepers during your stay. Our last stay I think we got 3 different ones. So I tip every day to make sure everyone who cleans our room gets a tip. If you just tip at the end, only the person that cleans your room on that day gets the tip. And that person may have just gone on shift, and not been the one cleaning all week.

We leave our tip on the sink under their name card.

I hope this helps.

 

[UsualNoise]

We just finished our trip and I left no tips for housekeeping. I normally would, but this was an all-cashless trip for me. I just didn't want to worry about going to ATMs, etc., especially when absolutely everything can be paid for with a credit card. As was mentioned tips aren't required so I didn't feel overly bad. Also, we kept the do not disturb sign on every day except once in the middle of the trip since we didn't need any cleaning.

The only time I wish I had had cash was when we did online check-in at the resort. The baggage handler kept going on about how he would take great care of our bags ... I finally had to say "Um, I'm not carrying any cash" and then he abruptly switched to "OK, you're all set".

Of course, I left lots of generous tips at restaurants since you can use a credit card for that.

 

[Cindie-rella]

We leave $3/day. We have already had the same mouse keeper most of the week and asked her if she would be working the day we were leaving and left her a bigger tip on our departure day. I make up cute little envelopes w/Disney pics on them addressing them to our "Mouse-Keepers" and fill them before our trip. We keep them in our room safe then each morn before we leave our room we leave one on the sink. We are usually rewarded with cute little towel animals.

 

[jmartinez1895]

There are five people in my group so before we leave I put a 5 dollar bill in an envelope marked for housekeeping. I will make enough for each night of our trip. I tip the skycaps at the airport about 2 per bag and I usually give ME drivers a little extra because we need to sit at the front of the bus due to a child with motion sickness on the highway and they always go out the way to get us on the bus first and take care of us ( of course I know they are very thankful to not have to clean up after a sick kid).

 

[Pakey]

I tip $2 per person per day for cleaning and $1 per person per day for turndown service.

I do not use ME so I can't answer on that one.

 

[Julie711]

ME we tip $2 per bag, housekeeping I used to leave $10-12 at the end of our trip (5-6 nights usually) until I read about how it could be a different housekeeper each day, so we leave $2-3 per day.

 

[Cappy81]

There are 3 of us. We tip ME $5 and Housekeeping $5 per day.

 

[goofy4tink]

I tip the DME driver if he has given me better than expected service. I have tipped them when they haven't had to touch a bag of mine..but they provided such great service, I felt it needed to be acknowledged. On the other hand, I've put my tip money away and just walked off the bus and taken my bag before. When a driver makes note of the fact that gratuities are always gratefully accepted and says not one other word?? Nope, no tip from me...I don't care if you have to pull out 3 50lb bags for me. (he didn't, it was just one largish carryon!!). I tend to tip $1-2 per bag, when I do tip.

Housekeeping? Well, that's a horse of a different color, so to speak. Disney tells us they are not a tipped position...much the same as bus drivers to the parks. Many here feel that they should tip housekeeping. But, when I hear someone say that they got less than good housekeeping, and then when they started tipping, the service got good?? Ah, no. That's not how it's supposed to work. Housekeeping gets paid a fairly decent amount. Are they going to retire at 50 and move to Palm Beach? No, I doubt it. But the vast majority of the housekeepers make as much, if not more, than my dd was making at a day care facility!!
If you get good housekeeping and are so inclined, then sure, go ahead and leave a tip. But to think that if you don't tip you're going to get crappy service? I'll be calling the housekeeping manager before I'm held hostage to that mentality!!!!
Here's the issue with housekeeping at WDW. You are not always going to have the same housekeeper every single day of your trip. You may...but it's not a sure thing. So, if you get back to your room on Wednesday night and find that the bathroom is uncleaned, or that there is trash on the floor, so you are now inclined to not tip the next morning?? Well, you may be stiffing the housekeeper that cleaned your room on Tuesday...and did such a good job that you left a nice tip on Wednesday morning...but she never got it. And now, here it is, Thursday, and you're still irked about the condition of the room the previous day??? So you leave nothing??? Well...the less than stellar housekeeper got a great tip, the good one got nothing!! And you really have no way of knowing who is who.
Long story short? If you find that housekeeping hasn't done a good job? Call Housekeeping and speak to a manager. Let them know.
This is one of the reasons I like staying DVC....no worry about tipping until mid-stay....they don't come in every day. In fact? Now, if I stay at a non-DVC resort I've started hanging out the privacy hanger on the door. They will usually leave fresh towels and such in a bag by the door. I really prefer to keep 'strangers' out of my room, unless I really need them in there.

 

[gilesmt]

Tipping is considered optional for housekeepers at WDW resorts, in that their salaries are not set on the assumption that there will be tips, as a restaurant server's would be.

So, tipping is at your discretion for housekeeping, usually $1-2 per person per day, if you choose to do so. If you are going to tip, do it each day instead of once at the end of the stay, as you may well have a different housekeeper each day.

In fact, that may explain why the quality of housekeeping changed during your stay. You might have gotten a different housekeeper that day.

REALLY! I have been looking for a long time, years to explain tipping to waitresses, in our state a waitress makes minimum wage, okay, but in our state was also have the highest minimum wage of all 50 states. So for 21 years I have been asking why, do they expect 15 to 20% tip? I always think, that we over pay in this state, and unless I get the best service ever I only pay 10% and I really think that is a lot, when compared to where I use to live, where the waitresses made less than minimum wage and counted on tips. If your etiquette on tipping a hotel maid less because she her salary is not based on it. Would that not be the same as if I tip in my state where the waitress makes over $9 an hour, compared to some states where the waitress is still paid less than $5 an hour. This is a huge debate here.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey12]

If it is just my DH and myself in a room, Disney or not, I leave a $5 tip for housekeeping. When my entire family goes (5 of us) and we stay in a family suite at All Star Music I tip $2 per person per day ($10 a day)

That room is twice as big as a standard room. There are 4 sleepers/beds for them to make up and 2 bathrooms to clean. It's a big job to clean up that suite.

We got excellent housekeeping service and I am sure we would have gotten just as good of service even if we hadn't tipped. But I have always tipped hotel housekeepers. I don't care what their base pay is. If they are cleaning up after me and scrubbing my toilet EVERY DAY (who cleans the toilet every day at home? Nobody I know of) then they deserve an extra boost in their income from us.

I have never had the housekeepers respond by leaving towel animals. In the last 4 trips we have only gotten 1 towel animal. And we kept it and brought it home. (Which is a topic for a whole other thread)

We never had any carry on bags for the DME driver to handle. We did have DME deliver our checked luggage but we were not in the room when they brought up all our bags so nobody got a tip there. We never tipped DME. On other trips we rented a car so that didn't apply.

Last trip, we had 7 checked bags and when we went to get ready to check out on departure day we took all our bags to the resort airline check in desk down on the side of the hotel for them to send them on to the airport for us and after they got through handling all those bags I gave the guy $10 and told him it was for THEM, letting him know I meant for him to share with the others. There were several ppl working the desk.

 

[DisneyHardin]

There are just two of us. I usually give the ME driver a couple dollars if we have our carry ons under the bus.

I always leave a couple dollars a day for the mousekeeper. We are fairly neat and don't usually leave too much for her to have to clean. In all our trips, our room has always been cleaned very well.

 

[AstroDad]

Do you tip as much as the character buffets as you do at the non-buffet restaurants? Just wondering what is appropriate for these. I normally tip 20% or so, but don't eat at buffets much, if ever. Do you tip the waitstaff the same at these you would elsewhere when they basically just keep your drinks filled as opposed to taking your order, bringing the food, etc?

 

[kaytieeldr]

We just finished our trip and I left no tips for housekeeping. I normally would, but this was an all-cashless trip for me. I just didn't want to worry about going to ATMs, etc., especially when absolutely everything can be paid for with a credit card. As was mentioned tips aren't required so I didn't feel overly bad. Also, we kept the do not disturb sign on every day except once in the middle of the trip since we didn't need any cleaning.

The only time I wish I had had cash was when we did online check-in at the resort. The baggage handler kept going on about how he would take great care of our bags ... I finally had to say "Um, I'm not carrying any cash" and then he abruptly switched to "OK, you're all set".

Of course, I left lots of generous tips at restaurants since you can use a credit card for that.

I can understand not wanting to carry cash, but when traveling there are situations where tipping is customary but charging isn't possible. Tipping anyone who handles one's luggage is a great example of this; $20 or so in ones can come in handy (ditto for when somebody's desperate for a soft drink and the credit card machines are down ).

 

[StillWorldlyWise]

I know the search is down but tipping has been well covered in earlier threads. Half the people are wrong on them but you know how ignorant that half of the people are.

 

[dp911]

Me and my baby had to wait for the bell hop to come get my bags my last stay at wdw, my dh and kids were at hs and he forgot to leave me the tip money. I had the bell hop come and told him the story. I got his name and where he was from so I knew exactly who he was. He left, I went down to the ATM in the lobby and got his tip money. I went right over to the bell desk, asked for him and waited to give him his deserved tip. He was surprised to see me and I told him, I promised to get it as soon as I could, but I guess you have heard that before from some guests and they lie. Point of story, even if you do not have cash, you can get some and why would you use a service and leave the workers tipless?

 

[Deb & Bill]

Do you tip as much as the character buffets as you do at the non-buffet restaurants? Just wondering what is appropriate for these. I normally tip 20% or so, but don't eat at buffets much, if ever. Do you tip the waitstaff the same at these you would elsewhere when they basically just keep your drinks filled as opposed to taking your order, bringing the food, etc?

At the buffets, the guests must get a new plate every time they go to the buffet line. So that means a lot of dirty dishes on the table. The server takes care of all these dirty dishes, plus refills your bevergages. So they do at least the same amount of work if not more.