1 dollar coins and 2 dollar bills for tipping

[Ashkins]

I have been hearing about how much to tip the room service people and others that you would just give a quick tip to. I have been thinking of (accually have a few) If its something I would give a dollar for using dollar coins I get as change from the post office when I use their stamp machine.. And for a 2 dollar tip using 2 dollar bills.

Anyone have any suggestions??


BTW you can get 2 dollar bills from your bank if you ask for them. =)

 

[prymsu]

In all my travels around the world, no one wants the coins...It is hard for them to exchange, and i have been told that coins are virtually worthless, so you are better off to give the two dollar bills...

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

My guess is that the people receiving the tips are much more interested in the amount of the tip than in whose picture is on the money.

 

[pursuethekingdom]

The people I gave the dollar coins to were very happy to get them. I guess if the Cast Members really don't want them they can exchange them at the main lobby desk.

 

[prymsu]

I took a big trip one time, and thought that folks i would tip would enjoy the coins, but they said it would be difficult to exchange, and that paper money was the only US money that was worth anything to them.

I hadn't thought about cruise staff being able to go to the purser's desk to exchange...Good point.

 

[ruvidu]

We took the $1 coins last year to use as room service tips. Both times we used them I got a look like "is this it?". I think they thought I was tipping 50 cents instead of $2.
Next time we are carring $2 bills.

 

[infobahn]

Two Georges equal $2, and he is easier to get in bulk, and spend if I don't use him!

Novel tips, aren't.

 

[atigeg]

We brought $2 bills (after going through the challenging process of getting them at Citibank...you would have thought I was asking for gold nuggets!), as well as $2 bills, and the people we have them to didn't seem to care one way or the other. As a matter of fact, I still have a lot of the coins left. As ruvidu said, I think they didn't even realize how much the coins were worth. From then on, I have stuck with George.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[nedleycan]

The only reason that they have trouble with coins when you are traveling is because you are in foreign lands. Outside of the U.S. (like where I am in Canada) the banks will not accept U.S. coins. They will however exchange U.S. bills into any currency. Since the people on the boat are based out of Florida, there shouldn't be any problem with them using the coins for useful purchases on land.
Although, why would you want to carry coins, when you can carry bills? In Canada we only have $1 and $2 coins (no paper left). It is terrible. If I could just carry bills, I would be very happy about this. It is a lot lighter.

 

[Cookie1963]

We used a few $2 bills for tips and one waiter in particular said that he appreciated the bill and that it was actually a collectors item for him !?

Cookie

 

[sandee]

Like some of the other posters here, I went to the trouble to get the $1 coins and $2. bills but when we used them for room service and other small tips, the reaction was like .....nothing. Unless it's really important to you to do this, just take a bunch of $1 bills. We did have to laugh when recalling what one CM who delivered room service to us said when he got his $2 bill. "Aren't these considered bad luck?"

 

[ruvidu]

No, thats a $3 bill you are thinking about.

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

It wasn't worth the hassle for me. I tried both the $1 coins and the $2 bills on our cruise. They were <i><b>very</b></i> difficult to get. The grocery store branch of my bank doesn't even stock them. They said they don't have room. Okay, fine. I tried a full-service branch of my bank. They didn't have them. I tried yet another full-service branch of my bank. <b><i>They</i></b> didn't have them either. They seemed unaware that these are both <i><b>legal tender currency!!!</b></i>. But at least at this branch, a "floating" tellar was able to tell me of a branch she knew of that does stock them.

So, it was a hassle to get them. And I didn't like having the $1 coins in my pocket because they made too much noise. I didn't have any problems with the $2 bills, but I didn't perceive any particular delight on the part of the recipient that justified the hassle I had to go through to get them.

To me, it's easier just to start saving your $1 bills for a week or so before you go.

 

[ruvidu]

We will use $1 in September. We got used to taking $2 bills years ago when we followed the CLEMSON TIGERS to bowl games. We would all use the $2, usually with an orange tiger paw stamped on them, for tips. This let the host city know who we were and gave them a souvineir of our visit. We will not bother on the cruise next time.
In discussing the $1 coins, isn't it just great that the US Postal Service machines give them as change but will not let you use them to purchase anything from the machines? Just had to throw that in.

 

[nedleycan]

I know that when we switched to $1 coins in Canada, all our vending machines were switched over. Apparently it cost millions of dollars to do this (a friend of mine worked at a vendar machine manufacturing company). For the U.S. Postal Service to switch over their machines would cost them a fortune. They will probably only do it once there are no more dollar bills, or $2 bills (our machines now handle both 1 and 2 dollar coins.

 

[Ashkins]

Thank you all for your replies it has helped me a lot in how I am going to handle tipping for room service and the like.

 

[Casey's mom]

I stocked up on $1 bills for the two weeks leading up to our trip. I tried to have a number of $5 bills as well. Between the airport skycaps, checking in and out of hotels before and after our cruise and some tips on the cruise, it was nice to have them all. I wish I had another trip planned, so I could start saving up again