Does no one hand out tips anymore?

I think the timing of how disney does this is not great. It adds a layer of surprise for people who don’t plan ahead and/or come from non tipping countries. I wish they would list the service charge along with the port fees and taxes when you book so everyone knows it is part of the cruise cost they should be prepared to pay
 
I think the timing of how disney does this is not great. It adds a layer of surprise for people who don’t plan ahead and/or come from non tipping countries. I wish they would list the service charge along with the port fees and taxes when you book so everyone knows it is part of the cruise cost they should be prepared to pay
Well, unlike other cruise lines, the auto gratuity is still optional on Disney. It can be removed at any time. Other cruise lines, it's a fixed charge (Daily Service Charge, or Hotel Service Charge) and more difficult to remove.

It's not actually part of the cruise cost.
 
Last time we cruised, we saw our server in the hall and took the opportunity to thank him and tip him there. Good thing too because we skipped dinner that evening. I don't do automatic gratuities. I tip according to actual service quality. Fortunately, we have almost always had wonderful servers.
 
I agree with you, mostly. It would be better to make it a mandatory service charge. But, as long as it is an optional tip, then it must indeed be optional. There is nothing wrong with wanting to know how that optionality works.


Also. I don’t think a tip should be expected. It should be earned. While we have not lowered and sometimes added. We have thought about lowering it in the past.

Having it automatically to some means that it cannot be changed. When it can.
 


If people understood how little the servers and room stewards actually make per hour without the tips, they would probably be more likely to tip. We have always tipped at least the minimum recommended, even before they started adding it automatically. And any extra, we add in cash to the envelope with the pre-printed slip.
 
Usually the only one I don't hand out is Head Server, I have never given extra cash to a Head Server, I rather give it to the server, asst. server & stateroom host.
Maybe one day if he/she did something exceptional I would change my mind about that.
I remember only one time where we did not give our Head Server any additional tip. That was our very first cruise and it was not on DCL. He came around only once at the start of the cruise and we never saw him again.
On our Disney cruises; I can't think of a night where he didn't come around and talk with us. We always had a nice (but short) conversation with him.

And we always hand out the envelopes on the last night of the cruise. To shake their hands and thank them for a job well done.


I too only remember one cruise where we only tipped the minimum for our head server; it was our first time cruising with DCL and our Head server never even gave me the time of day until that last night. But since then I have had spectacular head servers. Wit on the Fantasy is absolutely amazing, and works as hard as all the servers. He is my stand by request for dining - I don't request servers, only him. Faisal who was on the Fantasy and is now on the Wonder is also fabulous and we have had him more than once. The last 2 cruises on the Fantasy we had Cindy and Dennis and I would be over joyed to have them again. We have given them all additional because in my opinion they not only managed the dining room, but were there lending a hand to their staff every day and still took time to visit with us each day to see how our day went and make sure we had everything we need. And just like other staff, I am amazed at how they remember us. We walked on the Fantasy in April and Cindy saw us on embarkation day coming into the dining room and greeted us by name like old friends six months after she was our head server.
 
We do the pre-paid gratuities and tip extra in cash on the last night. We have food allergies in our family, so the head server stops by often. Because our daughter is also pretty chatty and engaging, she tends to form a relationship with the head servers who then stop by more often, so we do actually see them a lot. We tipped extra to our whole serving team on our cruise.
 


We also found handing out the tips on last 2 cruises was weird. The staff just quickly slipped them into their pockets and didn't even acknowledge them other than a slight smile. I too wondered if we were 'out of date' in our tipping method.
 
Everything would be so much easier if the cruise price is including the tip. And additional envelopes are given to hand out with the extra tip. I do not understand why people on the cruise boat need to be dependable on the tipping. But I am European... In my opinion a lot of the issues discussed above are solved in this way.
 
We only went on one cruise but we thought the empty envelope thing was strange. We didn't hand it to our room host as he already should know we tipped from the system. We put in a little extra for the head server so we gave her an envelope because she was fantastic. Otherwise I see no value in the envelopes. If we cruise again we wouldn't use them at all, just use the system to tip as long as we ate in the MDR's.
 
I too only remember one cruise where we only tipped the minimum for our head server; it was our first time cruising with DCL and our Head server never even gave me the time of day until that last night. But since then I have had spectacular head servers. Wit on the Fantasy is absolutely amazing, and works as hard as all the servers. He is my stand by request for dining - I don't request servers, only him. Faisal who was on the Fantasy and is now on the Wonder is also fabulous and we have had him more than once. The last 2 cruises on the Fantasy we had Cindy and Dennis and I would be over joyed to have them again. We have given them all additional because in my opinion they not only managed the dining room, but were there lending a hand to their staff every day and still took time to visit with us each day to see how our day went and make sure we had everything we need. And just like other staff, I am amazed at how they remember us. We walked on the Fantasy in April and Cindy saw us on embarkation day coming into the dining room and greeted us by name like old friends six months after she was our head server.
do you remember Denis last name? Sego? There may be more then one Dennis/Denis Denis Sago was our best head server, if its the same person we will be thrilled to see him again on the Fantasy this year.
 
We do. We only give cash, we have never placed our tips on our account.
This way we fully control how much we give and to whom.
 
I don't hand out the envelopes anymore. Just speaking for myself, I feel silly doing it. It almost feels like (again, for me) that it's a gesture meant more to make me look and feel magnanimous. "Grandstanding".

I just shake their hands (or in the case of the stateroom attendant, we leave a handwritten note), thank them for their service, let them know that I've taken care of them via my onboard account and wish them well.

Not that it hasn't happened to others, but I myself have never noticed an error with the names on our slips.
 
do you remember Denis last name? Sego? There may be more then one Dennis/Denis Denis Sago was our best head server, if its the same person we will be thrilled to see him again on the Fantasy this year.

Is this the same Dennis? He was great!

426171
 
do you remember Denis last name? Sego? There may be more then one Dennis/Denis Denis Sago was our best head server, if its the same person we will be thrilled to see him again on the Fantasy this year.
we had Deniz from turkey when he was on the Wonder. I understand he is now on the Fantasy. He was great!!!
 

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