Marv
I booked through
DCL direct, so I paid my tips on the last night of the cruise, I recieved wonderful service so paid the tips no problem, I have heard of people you have paid more for exceptional service and I have also heard that people have paid less or nothing at all when the thought the service was poor, but I have to say I think that is very rare. You dont pay any tips until the end of your cruise, so the servers and stateroom host would not treat you any differently throughout the cruise, because they would not know if you were going to tip them or not, but I think you will find that they more than earn their tips as most go out of their way for your enjoyment, after all they earn very little money and relay on their tips.
I dont think they it will state on your cruise line documents that your tips have already been included(if indeed they have, check with Virgin first)but if they have I would presume it does say so on your booking form from Virgin.
You will pick up a lot of information over on the DCL boards,and if you do a search on tips, you will come up with loads of peoples opinions.
If your tips are not included, when you get your documents, it will tell you in there how much each person (not stateroom) is recommended to tip and who to tip based on the number of nights you cruise. They are they same amount for Children as well as adults. You can also find this info over on the cruise boards. You pay them on the last night of your trip, you give them directly to the person you are tipping in little envelopes which are left in your stateroom on your last night with each persons name on, either in cash, or if you want to pay by credit card or travellers checks, go to guest services onboard and they will sort it out for you.
Hopefully all of this will already be included in the price of your cruise from Virgin, but it might just be worth checking with them.
If you need any more info,let me know.
Sue
