As a WDW server, I figured I would update how things are going from my perspective, now 3 weeks into the new DDP.
First off, I have to say that almost all DDP guests are tipping me and my fellow servers at my restaurant well for good service. Yes, there are the horror stories here and there. One family (who had purchased princess gear for daughter and Mickey ears for son) left in the tip line on a $160 check not an amount, but rather a sentence saying "I am sorry would like to tip but can't afford it." Ouch. Again, so far at our restaurant this is the rare exception and not the norm.
Servers do feel extremely tacky asking guests to tip. The way it is set up, a guest must enter a tip amount before the ddp credits are swiped. If a server sees a blank, we must take the receipt back to the guest and ask for them to enter an amount if they choose. Again, very awkward and tacky. One key reason a server feels very uneasy about this (aside from general social norms) is because up until now, it was a terminable offense for a server to solicit a tip from a guest in this manner. Now it is acceptable (the server has to inform the guest how the system works and that the tip amount, unless cash, must be entered prior to swiping the card).
The biggest hassle for servers and guests is paying for a tip with big, split parties. For example, imagine a party of 12 on the ddp split between 2 tables and 2 different servers. They seat the kids at one table and adults at the other. As this is 2 families eating together with 3 rooms, 2 adults and 2 kids in each room, all heck can break loose. In this scenario, which happend in our restaurant, each of the 3 cards had to be run by each server (to get the adult credits at one table and the kid credits at the other), so 6 swipes total. The auto grat, on a split check, goes to each corresponding check. So, a visa card had to be run 6 times to cover the gratuity, which got split onto the 6 separate checks. If this was confusing to read, imagine how confusing it was for the busy server and unsuspecting guest (and the guests at those 2 servers' other tables.) A nightmare all the way around.
Again, on the whole things are good so far for the servers (not the nightmare envisioned). Luckily, the bad tricky situations and unfair tip stiffing is very minimal.
Nevertheless, most of our servers would like the system to revert to the old way. It is easier for all involved when it comes time to present and pay the bill.
First off, I have to say that almost all DDP guests are tipping me and my fellow servers at my restaurant well for good service. Yes, there are the horror stories here and there. One family (who had purchased princess gear for daughter and Mickey ears for son) left in the tip line on a $160 check not an amount, but rather a sentence saying "I am sorry would like to tip but can't afford it." Ouch. Again, so far at our restaurant this is the rare exception and not the norm.
Servers do feel extremely tacky asking guests to tip. The way it is set up, a guest must enter a tip amount before the ddp credits are swiped. If a server sees a blank, we must take the receipt back to the guest and ask for them to enter an amount if they choose. Again, very awkward and tacky. One key reason a server feels very uneasy about this (aside from general social norms) is because up until now, it was a terminable offense for a server to solicit a tip from a guest in this manner. Now it is acceptable (the server has to inform the guest how the system works and that the tip amount, unless cash, must be entered prior to swiping the card).
The biggest hassle for servers and guests is paying for a tip with big, split parties. For example, imagine a party of 12 on the ddp split between 2 tables and 2 different servers. They seat the kids at one table and adults at the other. As this is 2 families eating together with 3 rooms, 2 adults and 2 kids in each room, all heck can break loose. In this scenario, which happend in our restaurant, each of the 3 cards had to be run by each server (to get the adult credits at one table and the kid credits at the other), so 6 swipes total. The auto grat, on a split check, goes to each corresponding check. So, a visa card had to be run 6 times to cover the gratuity, which got split onto the 6 separate checks. If this was confusing to read, imagine how confusing it was for the busy server and unsuspecting guest (and the guests at those 2 servers' other tables.) A nightmare all the way around.
Again, on the whole things are good so far for the servers (not the nightmare envisioned). Luckily, the bad tricky situations and unfair tip stiffing is very minimal.
Nevertheless, most of our servers would like the system to revert to the old way. It is easier for all involved when it comes time to present and pay the bill.
