Another DDE Question

[foreverprincess]

I ate at The Princess Storybook Breakfast in Norway and The Garden Grill the first week of Jan. Neither of them added the tip, although the bill did show the suggested tip of 18% and 20%

 

[JCMcGinn]

I ate at The Princess Storybook Breakfast in Norway and The Garden Grill the first week of Jan. Neither of them added the tip, although the bill did show the suggested tip of 18% and 20%

You may not still have your receipts, but our experience was that the "final" receipt that you would sign (we charged) showed a total, a space for a gratuity and a space for you to write the grand total. Another slip had the details, including the 20% discount of the pre-tax total and 18% of the pre-dicounted price for gratuity. If you only looked at the final slip you might easily assume that there was no gratuity included. We had some servers mention the automatic gratuity and some fanned the receipts in the folder so you could see everything clearly. On the otherhand we had some fold the detail slips up, only showing the final slip with a space for a gratuity and one who ommitted the detail slip entirely!

 

[theparsons]

I debated about this card up until the actual evening we arrived and then finally decided to go ahead and get it. While I dislike being forced to pay a certain tip amount (much prefer tipping based on the service given and downgrading that amount for less than adequate service).....I looked at the economics of it, and decided that it basically meant that I was paying $60 in tips for my entire stay.

The AP alone will get you a discount at a few places but then you have to pay a tip anyway, and my AAA card got me a discount at Swan when the AP/DDE offered nothing and again I had to add a tip, so in my mind I figure the DDE didn't really get me a discount, it simply saved me having to pay a tip anywhere. So $60 for tips for an entire month of eating is a bargain by any means!

This past weekend we did two TS meals and spent over $200 before tip....so that would be a $36 tip that was added, so just this weekend paid for about half my DDE card.

So far the service has been fine....nothing to complain about so I feel that the tip required was at least as much as I would have left (if perhaps lower than I may have left if required to do the math myself). I have already told myself that if the service is not as I would expect when leaving that type of a tip, then I will talk with the manager about it. Whether that gets me the right to leave a lower tip, or simply alerts the manager to a problem server, I will feel good either way. As I said...$60 for a month of eating expensive meals and having the tip taken care of is a bargain. Now...if only that card worked at more CS places in the parks....we aren't staying on site and I haven't heard of any CS being worth a ride into a resort, so we've only used it at Flame Tree in AK once (and no tip was added), then it would be a REAL discount card.