how much to tip in the dinning rooms?

[pearlieq]

I understand the logic reasoning behind docking the server's tip if you don't dine with them, but honestly it's all of $4! Why not just be a nice person, rack up a little good karma, and give the money to someone who needs it more than you, given that you're on a cruise and they're thousands of miles from home working 80 hours a week to make a living?

 

[Jay045]

here is one thing that bugs my gf, she is a baker/cook, and they are the ones sweating there butts off to prepare your amazing food, right?

do they get a % of these tips as well? probably not...

just curious...

 

[mott]

I understand the logic reasoning behind docking the server's tip if you don't dine with them, but honestly it's all of $4! Why not just be a nice person, rack up a little good karma, and give the money to someone who needs it more than you, given that you're on a cruise and they're thousands of miles from home working 80 hours a week to make a living?

Wonderfully put

 

[johare]

I understand the logic reasoning behind docking the server's tip if you don't dine with them, but honestly it's all of $4! Why not just be a nice person, rack up a little good karma, and give the money to someone who needs it more than you, given that you're on a cruise and they're thousands of miles from home working 80 hours a week to make a living?

Because it's not just all of $4. When you include the assistant server and the head server it's more like $7.31 and that's per person. We're a family of 5 so that becomes $36.50. If I've spent my time eating elsewhere and have already tipped the people who DID serve me, then there is no logical reason why I should give an additional tip to someone who did not provide any services to me.

 

[cali4niacruisin]

As long as you are being so cheap, stick the do not disturb card on your cabin door all week and you won't have to pay the cabin steward either.

 

[mott]

As long as you are being so cheap, stick the do not disturb card on your cabin door all week and you won't have to pay the cabin steward either.

 

[johare]

As long as you are being so cheap, stick the do not disturb card on your cabin door all week and you won't have to pay the cabin steward either.

I'm not being cheap, in fact I'll be using the ship's dining rooms on all 4 nights of our upcoming cruise so I won't be making any deductions. I was just asking a hypothetical question. As for cheap, I tip very well...probably better than most. I can afford to tip well because I don't throw away money giving it to people who didn't do anything to earn it.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

here is one thing that bugs my gf, she is a baker/cook, and they are the ones sweating there butts off to prepare your amazing food, right?

do they get a % of these tips as well? probably not...

just curious...

The midmarket cruise industry -- not just DCL -- has figured out how to shift the responsibility for the wages of a significant number of crew members from the cruise line to the passenger. The cruise lines pay crew members in "tipped positions" around $50 per month (not per day) to work long hours, 7 days week. The cruise lines expect the passengers to pay their real wages.

The cruise lines know we'll only tip those crew members who provide direct personal service to us. If they gave us a tipping envelope for a baker or a mechanic who maintains the diesel engines, we passengers would be likely to object. But we're happy to pay the folks in the dining room and the stateroom host/hostess who provide us with great, personal service.

The crew members who work in the kitchens, the laundry, the engine room, and other such places are paid by the cruise lines. These are not "tipped position."

Most of us treat the tip guidelines as the minimum, and we adjust upward for excellent service.

When a passenger tips below the minimum for whatever reason, the crew member effectively is getting their salary reduced. If the crew member provided substandard service, then the salary cut is justified. But if the passenger simply chose to eat a few meals elsewhere, then it's really not fair to the crew member.

Also, my understanding is that the dinner servers at Topsiders are paid out guests' tips. Presumably, some percentage of the tips that you provide to your dinner team go into a tip pool to pay those who do not receive tip envelopes directly..

 

[johare]

When a passenger tips below the minimum for whatever reason, the crew member effectively is getting their salary reduced.

...and this is the way it is with ALL jobs where the employee depends on tips for the majority of their salary. If a restaurant has a slow night, the waiters make less in tips. If a big convention in a city gets cancelled, the taxi drivers will probably make less tips. If I cancel a haircut appointment, I don't drive by next chance I get and drop off the tip I would have given...and I'm sure nobody else does either. There's no logical reason why cruise ship employees should be treated differently and receive the same gratuity whether or not they did anything to earn it.

 

[Par8hed]

I'm not being cheap, in fact I'll be using the ship's dining rooms on all 4 nights of our upcoming cruise so I won't be making any deductions. I was just asking a hypothetical question. As for cheap, I tip very well...probably better than most. I can afford to tip well because I don't throw away money giving it to people who didn't do anything to earn it.

I think if you'll carefully re-read everyones responses you'll determine that everyone is as tactfully as possible telling you that you are in fact being cheap. I'm sorry to blow everyones cover but apparently the subtle gestures are not sinking in.
Bottom line is that you are blessed enough to be able to afford several thousand dollars for a vacation while this individual breaks his behind for a few hundred dollars a month and you are worried about twenty or thirty dollars difference.

 

[johare]

I think if you'll carefully re-read everyones responses you'll determine that everyone is as tactfully as possible telling you that you are in fact being cheap. I'm sorry to blow everyones cover but apparently the subtle gestures are not sinking in.
Bottom line is that you are blessed enough to be able to afford several thousand dollars for a vacation while this individual breaks his behind for a few hundred dollars a month and you are worried about twenty or thirty dollars difference.

I know EXACTLY what a very small handful of people are saying....however they are all missing the point of my question, which is to ask why the dining servers on cruise ships treated differently from any other profession where a person bases a large part of their income in tips? Regardless of what I paid for my vacation, it's not my place to make up the difference if Disney is underpaying certain employees...even if they do attempt to disguise it as a tip. If it's really a 'per day service charge' that is expected whether or not services are actually provided, then it should be included in the cruise price and not refered to as a gratuity. Call me cheap if you want, but I think anyone who does pay a gratuity for services they didn't recieve is stupid...so I guess that leaves two 'clubs' here...cheap and stupid. You can decide for yourself which one you are in.

 

[mousebrat]

The flaming is uncalled for...

People have different views on things - no need to resort to name calling.

Unless things are just awful, we will tip the guidelines. We'll tip more if it's deserved. I pay for a lot of things I really probably should not, and I'm usually complacent moving through life throwing money away for other people's causes (taxes, $2 glasses of tea, hidden charges when I buy a car). It doesn't mean that it's not worth questioning what exactly you are paying for.

Sometimes people get persecuted for questioning the way things are... Just ask Galileo.

 

[atakaratemom]

No flaming here. Everyone is certainly entitled to his or her own opinion. My take on it is that servers on a cruise ship are very different from servers in a restaurant. As a server in a restaurant, you can try to pick up extra tables on a slow night, or work peak hours to maxmize your earning potential. Cruise ship servers are unable to do that. They are assigned their customers each cruise and if those customers choose not to pay them, for whatever reason, they have no way of making up that salary.

In essence I compare them to salaried employees. As a salaried employee I know my employer will pay me the same amount during a week when the demands of my job require extra effort as it will during a week when I might be less in demand due to the normal ebb and flow of job tasks that need to be completed. When we as passengers come onto a ship and are assigned to our servers, we in essence become their employers. They are ready, willing and able to provide their services to us to the fullest capacity. If we choose not to use those services on a certain day, that does not mean their salary should suffer as a consequence.

These people certainly aren't getting rich at these jobs and I know many of them are supporting families. I don't think the recommended tipping amounts are onerous even if someone doesn't eat in the dining room for every meal. To me it is part of the cost of an enjoyable vacation and I am glad to know that I am helping someone who is providing me with great service make a decent living.

Mary

 

[Jay045]

i was wundering how many people are in a dinning room? at a table?
and how many people or tables does a server and asst server serve?

just curious, I never noticed how many tables or people they serve, just wundering thank

 

[LoveMyLAP-BAND]

Perhaps I can solve this........

At a regular restaurant in your hometown, a waiter has a certain number of tables that he has for each shift. People come in and fill those tables up. He gets a tip from those people. If you don't go to that restaurant, someone else will and tip that person.

On a cruise, if you don't go, that table doesn't get filled. Therefore, he does NOT have the opportunity to earn his tip from someone else.

I own a business and when I schedule someone for a shift, I pay that person for their entire shift. Sometimes its slow and there's no work so she reads a book. I still pay her because I asked her to be there rather than be somewhere else.

Same scenario with the cruise.......by signing up for the cruise you have, in essence, asked for the wait staff to be in the dining room to serve you for all three meals. Whether there is "work" for them to do is irrelevant. You still have to pay them.

I know it may seem you are paying double for tips but you are paying for one person to actually serve you (that is, where ever you have chosen to eat that meal) and the other person to be AVAILABLE to seve you.

Did I solve it?

 

[IrishCowboy]

We have cruised 7 times on DCL and we received 'excellent' service from our dining team on 6 of those 7 occasions. We tipped above the recommended amount on those 6 and just the suggested amount on the 'un-excellent' cruise.

On two of those cruises, we requested to be moved from our scheduled dining assignment (time/room/table) for a better time, rotation or server from a previous cruise. On both of those occasions, our original assigned table went unused and was empty.

Should we have tipped our original assigned servers?

Of couse not.....

 

[TheWog]

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[johare]

Perhaps I can solve this........

At a regular restaurant in your hometown, a waiter has a certain number of tables that he has for each shift. People come in and fill those tables up. He gets a tip from those people. If you don't go to that restaurant, someone else will and tip that person.

On a cruise, if you don't go, that table doesn't get filled. Therefore, he does NOT have the opportunity to earn his tip from someone else.

I own a business and when I schedule someone for a shift, I pay that person for their entire shift. Sometimes its slow and there's no work so she reads a book. I still pay her because I asked her to be there rather than be somewhere else.

Same scenario with the cruise.......by signing up for the cruise you have, in essence, asked for the wait staff to be in the dining room to serve you for all three meals. Whether there is "work" for them to do is irrelevant. You still have to pay them.

I know it may seem you are paying double for tips but you are paying for one person to actually serve you (that is, where ever you have chosen to eat that meal) and the other person to be AVAILABLE to seve you.

Did I solve it?

No, not at all. I'm paying for a cruise, I'm not hiring people to serve me food for an additional fee. So, while some may feel obligated to PAY them their salary, Disney still refers to it a a gratuity and a gratuity is something you give for services rendered. You make it sound like I'm hiring contracted workers to serve me with a guaranteed salary, whether they work or not.

 

[johare]

We have cruised 7 times on DCL and we received 'excellent' service from our dining team on 6 of those 7 occasions. We tipped above the recommended amount on those 6 and just the suggested amount on the 'un-excellent' cruise.

On two of those cruises, we requested to be moved from our scheduled dining assignment (time/room/table) for a better time, rotation or server from a previous cruise. On both of those occasions, our original assigned table went unused and was empty.

Should we have tipped our original assigned servers?

Of couse not.....

I'm sure some here would say yes as it's no different from any other situation where a table that a server was counting on was left empty due to the customer. By the same token, if you ever have to cancel at the last minute or miss the ship, you really should mail the suggested tip amount to DCL so they can pay their employees.

 

[LoveMyLAP-BAND]

Okay, so I didn't solve anything. All I am saying is that when you go on a cruise, that is part of it. Fair or not.

I would rather see something like a Sandals resort- all inclusive. No tips, etc and pay the crew members better. But since it's not that way, the right thing to do is to tip them whether we use them or not.