Confused on tipping

Mom2Eli

Earning My Ears
Joined
Feb 8, 2009
Can anyone explain to me how tipping works on the Disney Cruises? We have done other lines and they were automatically added to our room charge. Seems Disney might do things differently.
 
You get envelopes and a tipping guide to give to the appropriate people on the last day of your cruise. You can also charge them to your stateroom and Guest Services will give you tickets to put in the envelopes instead of cash.
 
A day or 2 before the end of your cruise you will receive tip envelopes and tipping guidelines in your stateroom. The recommended amounts work out to be a total of 12.00 per guest per day. You may choose to put cash in the envelopes or you may go to Guest Services to have the tips added to your onboard account. If you do it this way, they will give you little receipts which list your tip amounts to put in the tipping envelopes. Guests typically hand out the tipping envelopes on the last night of the cruise or at breakfast in the morning.

The recommended amounts break down as follows:
Per guest, per day:
Stateroom host - 4.00
Server - 4.00
Asst. server - 3.00
Head server - 1.00
 
Here is the tipping info from the DCL website:

What about gratuities?

It is customary to give gratuities in recognition of service, which you will most likely be treated to in abundance aboard the ship. As a guideline, may we suggest the following:

Per Guest per cruise 3-Night 4-Night 7-Night
Dining Room Server $12.00 $16.00 $28.00
Dining Room Asst. Server $9.00 $12.00 $21.00
Dining Room Head Server $3.00 $4.00 $7.00
Stateroom Host/Hostess $12.00 $16.00 $28.00
Dining Manager Your Discretion
Room Service Your Discretion
Palo Gratuity included
Vista Spa & Salon Your Discretion
Babysitting Gratuity not expected
Shore Excursions Optional; not included in shore excursion price.

For your convenience, a 15% gratuity is automatically added to bar, beverage, wine and deck service tabs. All gratuities can be charged to your room charge.
 


The standard gratuities work out (currently) to $12 per day per guest (divided between the 4 tipped positions as outlined by prior posts).

So here is a real world example for your TOTAL standard tip cost...

3 people on a 7 night cruise at $12/day/guest = $252 (3x7x12)
 
Also, room service and Topsiders dinner tips aren't included in the suggested tips at the end. So we took a bunch of $1 bills with us to tip as needed. (we did room service a ton of times.) We gave a couple dollars each time they came to our room. We also brought tips for the porters who took our luggage on the ship and who got it for us at the end. We gave $2 per bag. We got these suggestions from the disboards ahead of time, and it worked out well for us.
 



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