Calculation of Tips, 07 dining plan

[slindamood]

We head to WDW on Friday with DDP. We did DDP once before, and being unsure of the basis of the tip calculation, we always left something extra. After reading this board, I think that was not necessary.

Is the tip calculated at 18% of what the bill would have been?

Any help and advice appreciated!

suzanne

 

[jjk1107]

That depends on if it was a Disney owned restaurant or not. If it is a Disney owned restaurant, then yes. If it is not, the tip is calculated as 18% of the amount that Disney reimburses the restaurant for, not sure how much this is though. I only left extra at 2 meals because the service was exceptional. In my opinion, 18% is a good amount if the service is just okay, so I did not leave extra in those situations.

 

[slindamood]

Thanks!

How do we know which are Disney restaurants?

Is everything in EPCOT, even the new Italian restaurant, Disney?

 

[jjk1107]

From what I have read, most of the restaurants at EPCOT are not Disney owned. I know that the Italian and Japanese restaurants are not owned by Disney. Honestly, if it was me, I would not worry too much about whether the restaurant is owned by Disney and just focus on whether the service is good or not. If the service is above average, leave an extra few dollars per person. For 2 adults, we left $5 more if the service was excellent. Of course, if there were more people, we left more. The great thing about the 2007 DDP is that it included the tipping to relieve the stress of determining how much to leave. Just go and have a great time!

BTW, I will be there Friday through Sunday too!

 

[JimMIA]

The tip is calculated at 18% of the menu cost of the meal. That's the tip that is included in your DDP, and at almost all of the restaurants, the server will receive that full 18%.

Where that 18% actually comes from is a little complicated. Part of the tip comes from DDP; the rest comes from the restaurant itself. But that's really not your concern. You are paying $38.99 per adult per day to have the tip included.

There are a few non-Disney restaurants (I'm not sure which ones, and don't want to name one incorrectly) who choose to short-change their servers on the tip. I don't think that's your problem -- it's an issue between the restaurant and their employees -- but you will hear some complaints from a few of the servers.

Some of those servers will try to make you feel obligated to "make it up to them." IMHO, that's a bogus complaint, very unprofessional, and I wouldn't fall for it.