Dining Plan Gratuities

[Luis Rodriguez]

Hi,

Going in September with DDP (DW, DD(5), Nephew(12)). I know that gratuities are NOT include in the 2008 DP. That said, how would I know the amount of each tip? Does it appear on a receipt? Can I charge it to my room?


How much (in percentage points) do you usually tip?




Thanks in advance,

Luis

 

[faindrops27]

At Disney suggested gratuity across the board is 18-20%.

Yes, you can have the tip charged to your room.

 

[JimMIA]

Hi,

Going in September with DDP (DW, DD(5), Nephew(12)). I know that gratuities are NOT include in the 2008 DP. That said, how would I know the amount of each tip? Does it appear on a receipt? Can I charge it to my room?


How much (in percentage points) do you usually tip?




Thanks in advance,

Luis

The normal expected gratuity is 15-20%. I believe at least some of the restaurants will give you a "guideline" showing suggested tips of 18% and 20%...just to make it easy for you.

If there are six or more people in your party (including babies who are not eating), you will recieve a bill for an automatic 18% gratuity. That has nothing to do with how you are paying for the meal -- it applies to ALL parties of six or more at table service restaurants.

 

[Think Pink Tink]

We are traveling to Disney this month and have a party of 6 that are on the dining plan. So how will the gratuity work? They will give us a bill for 18% gratuity? What if the service is awful and we don't want to tip that high? I would guess we could talk to a manager if that happened. I normally tip 15-20% anyway but after reading some of the not so great dining reviews I started to worry about service etc. I will go with a positive attitude and hope all our dining experiences are well worth the 18% gratuity.

 

[ReneeA]

We tip 20% for good service.

They will bring you a bill so that you can figure out a tip.

 

[catne]

We are traveling to Disney this month and have a party of 6 that are on the dining plan. So how will the gratuity work? They will give us a bill for 18% gratuity? What if the service is awful and we don't want to tip that high? I would guess we could talk to a manager if that happened. I normally tip 15-20% anyway but after reading some of the not so great dining reviews I started to worry about service etc. I will go with a positive attitude and hope all our dining experiences are well worth the 18% gratuity.

On the large parties, they will bill you for the 18%...if you disagree with it because of poor service, the manager of the restaurant can adjust it (but why wait until the end of the meal...if there is a problem, complain while there is still time for them to correct the problem!)

BTW, our family had 7 TS meals a couple of weeks ago, and had excellent service at 6 of the 7. The 7th TS had good-enough service...waitress was in training, so just a little slow but not rude or anything.

 

[JimMIA]

The automatic 18% gratuity is for all parties of six or more, and for all parties (regardless of size) using the DDE card.

These gratuities, incidentally, are set by labor contract, not by restaurant policies. You can ask a manager to modify the tip, but they may have limited ability to do so.

I haven't heard of anyone complaining yet, so it's hard to say whether that would be successful or not.

We've eaten many, many meals in Disney restaurants and have never had service bad enough to complain about. Sure, it could happen, but it's never happened to us.

 

[juligrl]

The automatic 18% gratuity is for all parties of six or more, and for all parties (regardless of size) using the DDE card.

I have 3 separate parties traveling together in December - as it stands now we have the dining plan. If we dine together we will be a party of 8, which mean automatic gratuity. Does that 18% tip get applied to each bill or is it to the table?
Weather we keep the dining plan or not depends on the answer to this.

 

[Tricia1972]

I have 3 separate parties traveling together in December - as it stands now we have the dining plan. If we dine together we will be a party of 8, which mean automatic gratuity. Does that 18% tip get applied to each bill or is it to the table?
Weather we keep the dining plan or not depends on the answer to this.

When you are sitting together as a party of 8 you will be charged an 18% gratuity, regardless if you're on the DDP or you're paying OOP. Each separate party will receive a receipt at the end of the meal for 18% of what they ordered.

For Example -

Group 1 is a party of 3 - Food/beverage bill would be $100

Group 2 is a party of 3 - Food/beverage bill would be $150

Group 3 is a party of 2 - Food/beverage bill would be $50

Group 1 would receive a bill for $18.00

Group 2 would receive a bill for $27.00

Group 3 would receive a bill for $9.00

As I said, regardless of how you're paying for the meal, if the three groups are sitting together as one party at the restaurant, you will be charged the auto gratuity of 18% of the food bill.

 

[momtomorgan]

This will be our first trip to Disney. Normally when we eat out at nice restaurants we leave the waiter/waitress a tip on the table when we leave, or when she comes to take the money for the bill we add extra money and tell him/her to keep the extra for the tip.

Since we are doing the dining plan, I guess it will be different. Do you just get a seperate bill with the suggested amount and you pay what amount you choose? We wanted to use cash for tips. I don't plan on linking any credit cards to the room key because I want to pay for all extra's with cash. I'm just curious as to how all this works.

 

[LilyPadd]

When the bill will come back the server will take your dining card and will just indicate to the gratuity and ask how you would like to pay for it. Its embarrassing to do but unfortunately its Disney policy. You can charge it to your room or ask them to just run the dining plan and circle the amount still due at the bottom of the cheque. Alternatively, and might be a little easier for you, is to ask them to split off everything not covered by the plan, onto a separate cheque.

 

[Tricia1972]

You do not have to pay a specific gratuity amount if you are on the DDP.

If you are a party of 5 or less, using the DDP or paying OOP, you will receive a bill that shows what the gratuity would be at 18% and 20%. You may tip whatever you choose. These are only suggested amounts.

Parties of 6 or more regardless of how you're paying are charged an 18% gratuity.

The DDE is a separate discount card that AP holders and FL residents can purchase for $60. This card gives them a 20% discount on all food at TS, adult beverages in restaurants and lounges, free valet parking for meals, and a few other perks. Those cardholders will be charged an 18% gratuity regardless of party size, but it has nothing to do with the DDP.

 

[Disney_Tall_Mommy]

Is the total amount of our meal shown on our receipt so we can figure out how much to tip? I know they show the suggested amount of what 18%would be, but to be honest I typically tip 15% unless the service is above average.

 

[Tricia1972]

Is the total amount of our meal shown on our receipt so we can figure out how much to tip? I know they show the suggested amount of what 18%would be, but to be honest I typically tip 15% unless the service is above average.

Yes, the total amount is shown on the receipt. You will be able to figure out how much to tip based on that.

There is a tipping thread that's new since this thread was originally started. It's a sticky and the 'official' tipping thread for the boards. There is a wealth of information there.

You can find it here.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1870320

 

[TDC Nala]

The link to the tipping info thread is in the previous post - all tipping questions on the restaurant board are to be addressed to that tipping thread.