Have you ever NOT tipped your staff and why?

[rae519]

Originally posted by dianthus
Rae~ Now that's a situation that would warrant the Head Server's attention IMHO. I can't believe he dismissed your request like that! It's not like you were requesting anything unusual. I would certainly think less of him too.

Funny, but I never thought of dealing with the Head Server - maybe because that was the cruise that he was ABSENT ALL THE TIME!!! (tee hee hee).

The next night I brought myself tea from the 24/7 station - made the point well.

I always figure that if I can't handle something, then I'll get the "big guns out"....

Rae

 

[rae519]

Originally posted by Stepharoonie!
I've only NOT tipped once in my life on a cruise, and it was with Carnival Cruise Lines last year. The entire wait staff that we had was horrible. The head waiter was pretty nice, but we never saw him.

At first, I felt bad that I wasn't going to leave a tip...but after remembering that for 4 nights I had to flag down my waiter for water, send my food back constantly because it wasn't what I ordered, and completely missed salads and desserts twice...I didn't feel *as* bad.

Keep in mind, I was a waitress before, so I know exactly how it is. I left a complaint at the guest counter before we left with our address and phone number, in hopes that someone would check back with us to see why we had such a horrible experience...and nothing. So, bah on Carnival!

BRAVA! BRAVA! BRAVA!

Maybe this is the way Carnival always is so your comment was pretty normal!!! You just never know.

Stick with Disney, at least we know where we stand with them!

Rae

 

[Jeanny]

I have a question.... and this may have been asked before~
how many "head servers" are there per dining room? 2, 4? and how many guests are there per dining room? and if the head server gets X amount of a tip per guest, how much $$ are they getting in total? for doing "nothing" for some people, but a lot for other people.

And how many guests do the servers & assistant servers have in each dining room? yes, I know some guests don't show up everynight, but remember, those same servers are working elsewhere for us during the day.

So how much tip money do they end up with at the end of each cruise? It's a lot more than I make in one month, never mind a week! I still plan on tipping at least the required amount, if not more... depends on if they deserve more of my hard earned money. If someone doesn't bring me hot tea when I ask for it or if I have to go up to deck 9 to get it, well, let's just say that the Head Server is going to earn his tip!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

This thread has been extremely helpful to me in my planning. I had read here about tipping and how much for staffers (and times the number of people in my party). Getting some insight regarding figuring out when to tip more (or in unfortunate cases when to tip less) has been great!

You really do have to consider the *base* tip into your budgeting for a cruise. I was concerned about how it all worked - did you tip at each meal, if so, how much, etc. - and you folks have answered my questions without me having to ask

Thanks folks!


Cindy D.
Hopeful for 3/19/05 on the Magic

 

[Verandah Man]

Hi Jeanny,

I was told by a DIS'er friend that the server and assistant server have on average 18 guest per dinner that they are responsible for. So, for each night with the two seatings, that gives them 36 guests to serve. I'm not sure how many head servers there are, so I can't answer that question. I do know however that our head server, Tommy from Norway, came by our table each night except for one night, and that was the night that one of his servers was out sick, and he had to cover that server's tables for that night. Tommy was a riot, he had my DD blushing every night, he came by our table.

 

[Jeanny]

Hey Andy~
no work today either?? this is one day I actually don't have to work. My work study's are opening the Fitness Center for me at 1pm, so I can relax today.. yeah right, my list is a mile long of things to do, no day off for me.

I hope to see Tommy from Norway,,,he's the Austin Powers lookalike?? I guess it's as other posters say, some head servers are more visable than others and some head servers are there only when there is a problem, because they're making sure everything is going smoothly behind the scenes.

 

[Verandah Man]

Nope, no workie today for me, I have Columbus Day off, one of the perks of working for my local government, 13 paid Holidays a year!!!

Tommy (Austin Powers look and sound alike, according to my DD) should be back the beginning of November, he left for his two month vacation the day we disembarked on 8-30-03. BTW, we were on the APL rotation.

Head Server--Tommy from Norway

 

[BamaCruiser]

We did have a problem with our main server during our recent 7-day cruise. It seemed that as the cruise went on, his level of service and attitude went down with each passing day. After the second day, he quit telling us about the Chef's recommendations. He got my order wrong on several occassions. There was one time that he forgot to give us our menus. When he came over to take our orders, he was surprised that we didn't have the menus, and he made it a point to take the assistant server over to the side and berate her for not giving them to us. The assistant server apologized profusely, even though we told her that we knew it wasn't her fault. We had the best rapport with the assistant server but had a basic indifference towards the server. We all thought it to be very funny when the next to the last night, our server said that he expected to get an "excellent" rating because we hadn't complained about anything. Needless to say, he didn't quite get what he was expecting.

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

We were very fortunate on our 3/29/03 cruise to have wonderful staff waiting on us. Our server and asst. were absolutely fabulous! The head server did come by our table frequently. When my DH had a problem with his steak not being done enough she was very concerned and made sure that everything was corrected for him.

I wasn't terribly thrilled about the amount we had to pay for the tips when we were doing our cruise planning. But when in came down to that last Friday night when we had the tip envelopes out and were in the process of filling them, I felt that the wait staff and housekeeping were terrific! We ended up tipping all of them above and beyond what was required.

We had so much fun with all of them, even the room steward was great. We had rough weather a couple of nights and were in the room when he wanted to turn down our beds, but he would show the kids how he did the towel animals and was very nice.

I think if the staff had been less accomodating we might have tipped less, but I believe in rewarding them for their outstanding service. And, like someone else mentioned, you don't know what everyone else is tipping, and those folks work really hard for what they make....

 

[jrabbit]

how many "head servers" are there per dining room? 2, 4? and how many guests are there per dining room? and if the head server gets X amount of a tip per guest, how much $$ are they getting in total?

Two head servers per dinning room
25 stations per dinning room, therefor 25 Servers and 25 Asst. Servers
About 475 guests per dinning room
Server/Asst server has about 38 people per day (19 per seating)
875 rooms on the ship and the room steward has 10 rooms to service (32.5 people).

Suggested Tips
Server: $3.67/Guest/Day
Asst Server: $2.67/Guest/Day
Head Server: $0.92/Guest/Day (that 92 cents per day)
Stateroom Steward: $3.61/Guest/Day

Amount earned via tips per week assuming a "Full" ship. Remember wait staff has 2 seatings, and room steward have about 10 rooms each - average 3.25 people per room
Server: $976
Asst Server: $710 (This does not include the automatic 15% on beverages!)
Head Server: $3,059 - OK now I hope that there are more than two head servers per room because this seems excessive!!)
Stateroom Steward: $821

Anyone want to "check my math" or my "facts" that the math is based on?

Nike's slogan applies to tipping as well: Just Do It

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Originally posted by Horace Horsecollar
Actually, the system is good in that it provides an incentive for the servers and stewards to provide outstanding service. But passengers need to understand the system, which means that DCL needs to do a better job of explaining it to folks who don't read this board. The alternative would be to bake tip costs into the cruise price, but that would mean that the cruise price would go up and that servers would lose the incentive to go "above and beyond."

I agree! I do NOT think that it should be included in our cruise cost because then they may not work hard to give high-quality service. It is incentive to do a better job. We had a horrible experience this past summer at an all-inclusive resort where the servers and bartenders were forbidden from receiving tips. Needless to say, the service was horrible!

On DCL, we fall into the category of giving at least the minimum suggested tip in all cases (bad or mediocre service included) and giving an amount above minimum based on the level of service we received from that person.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Originally posted by Tesabat

Is that true on DCL? They have no way of knowing who tipped them what...only that this amount (or not) came from a particular table? ....

We take our own cute stationary and write a personalized note for each of the staffers we tip and include the DCL tip voucher inside the personalized envelope.

 

[webray]

Oh man...nope, there are only two head servers on the 7 day...so they make a pretty good income for what I consider a non-service position. Our HS...couldn't manage anything, except to come around on tip night..lol.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Our head server was on top of things, even a slight potential problem.... So, we did tip him.

Seems like there were three or four people (Head Servers) standing up front on our cruise???

 

[Trekker]

I know it has been said before, but if you have excellent service from your servers, that can be a direct reflection of what the Head Server has done.

You will see them spending more time at certain tables, not because they like those people better, but because those servers need the guidance.

If your trip is wonderful and you are happy with the service you received - the header server did their job. JMHO.

 

[crazy4cruises]

We were on the last 7-night cruise before dry dock, and we were a little disappointed with our servers. I'm thinking that they may have been looking forward to a break since both our main server and assistant server were going on leave right after our cruise. Our main server would disappear for several minutes at a time and return smelling of smoke. We were without fail the last tables served. In fact, tables around us would have dessert before we had our main course. He was extremely personable, though. We had to ask our assistant server for more to drink every night. We were starting to think that we were only allowed one soft drink per meal. In fact, one night, he brought us Sprite refills after we asked, and they were only carbonated water. When we told him, he said something about they had already turned off the machines. He did not apologize or offer us anything else. We tipped them both slightly below the recommend amounts.

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by Trekker
I know it has been said before, but if you have excellent service from your servers, that can be a direct reflection of what the Head Server has done.

You will see them spending more time at certain tables, not because they like those people better, but because those servers need the guidance.

If your trip is wonderful and you are happy with the service you received - the header server did their job. JMHO.

I'll say again. On most cruise lines the head servers are paid much better than the servers and assistant servers. Tips are only expected or recommended if they do something special. Just keeping things running smoothly does not qualify under these recommendations. Special things mean Birthdays, anniversaries, special deserts, getting you another entree and the like. Just coming by and saying hi and making sure things run smoothly does not qualify in the eyes of most cruise lines. That being said, the good ones go special things routinely and therefore earn a pretty good salary overall.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Originally posted by Dean
I'll say again. On most cruise lines the head servers are paid much better than the servers and assistant servers. Tips are only expected or recommended if they do something special. Just keeping things running smoothly does not qualify under these recommendations. Special things mean Birthdays, anniversaries, special deserts, getting you another entree and the like. Just coming by and saying hi and making sure things run smoothly does not qualify in the eyes of most cruise lines. That being said, the good ones go special things routinely and therefore earn a pretty good salary overall.

So, are you saying that if the Head Server doesn't specifically do anything special for you other than dropping by to say hello, that proper etiquette says we should not feel obligated to tip them?

 

[Windermere]

Heck, last time we not only tipped our own head server ( Ali ) who went WAY above and beyond, but we also tipped the man that was supposed to be our head server ( Jeff ) because he personally gave us up from his group to give us a table alone in a different station without us even asking.

( He was our server once when we had totally uncompatible tablemates and he remembered this - that is what prompted his offer. Now that is service - being remembered months/years later and you don't feel like you did anything special to merit that honor)

 

[rae519]

Disney shows tips for Head Server. Obviously, that means they expect us to tip him, our Server, our Assistant Server and our Room Steward!!

Aw, heck, we are on vacation, what's dropping another few bucks here or there!!!

Rae