Last minutes questions, mostly about tipping

[JSG]

Hi - We leave soon and I was hoping for some help from the experts, particularly about tipping.

I understand that Disney provides tipping guidelines and that these tips can be added at any time to the room account and that DCL provides a voucher slip to put in the tip envelopes they have supplied. I've seen the suggestion to do this early to avoid crowds at Guest Services and that extra cash can be added later for an exceptional job.

For other tipping situations, my questions:

Gratuity is included in bar fees, so am I correct that no one tips the bartenders in cash?

For Palo - is the $5/pp charge added to the room account? How does one leave an additional tip if desired? Cash? Also written onto room account?

Room service always receives a cash tip, right?

Spa: Can tip be added to the total spa charge? The spas I've visited at home all handle things differently. Some only allow cash tips (usually placed in a small envelope and left in a slot at the front desk), some allow the tip to be added to the spa charge. How does it work on DCL?

Do you tip the staff of the DCL bus transfer? I know that with Mears, etc. one usually tips the driver.

And, about trnasfers:

We're only taking DCL transport in one direction (MCO to the ship) and we're renting a car on the way back. Our flight comes in at 9 a.m., and the reservation agent seemed totally unsure about how things would work that early (since first bus usually leaves around 10:30). She said maybe they'd be there to get my bags, maybe not. Maybe we'd have to get the luggage and take it to the bus area, maybe not. I'm concerned that--if the bags aren't there--I won't know for a while if DCL picked them up, or if they're lost. Any experience with early arrivals?

Bags aside, since we'll have 1.5 hours to wait to leave, where can we wait once we're out of the terminal/baggage area?

Once we get to Port Canaveral, will they automatically take the bags aboard, or do we retrieve them and carry them through check-in?

Thanks!

 

[Señor Ferrari]

I'll give it a shot:

Bar tabs automatically add 15% to the bill. They give you a slip to sign, and you have the option of adding an additional gratuity, like on a credit card slip. My understanding is that the automatic 15% is divided equally between all of the bar staff, and any extra goes directly to the person who served you. I usually add a bit extra, especially if I'm going to be at that particular bar during the week. In either case, you don't need to bring cash to the bars.

The Palo $5 tip is similar to the bar gratuity, in that it is divided up between the wait staff at Palo. You sign for this at the end of the meal, and you can add to it if you like.

I always tip room service in cash unless we've ordered something to drink for which we have to pay (i.e soda, beer or wine). In that case, you have to sign for it, so I just add the tip to the slip.

The spa works the same as the bars, you can add the tip to your room account.

I think some people tip the bus driver, but I didn't see a lot of it. When baggage check at the port was suspended, the driver had to load all of our luggage on the bus by himself. I tipped him well that time. The times when the luggage went separate from the bus, I didn't tip.

Concerning the transfers, we always arrive the night before and stay at the MCO Hyatt, so it probably works a bit different for us than it will for you. In any case, your docs should explain what to do with your luggage. I thought ours did a good job in explaining what to do. In our case, we claimed it after getting off the plane, and then left it outside our door at the Hyatt the next morning. We next saw it in our room on the ship. I would expect that they will collect your luggage. If not, you probably only have to check it with the bus people, and won't have to deal with it at the port at all. At the very least, they collect bags from people as they arrive at the port, so you don't actually have to carry them into the terminal where you check in.

The airport at MCO has a big mall attached to the main terminal, so you could probably grab a drink or a bite to eat in the terminal before you have to get on the bus.

 

[sluggo]

You don't have to worry about the bags at the airport. As long as they have the DCL tag (Yellow for Magic, Blue for Wonder) and you arrive by 5:30 PM on a Thursday or Sunday, or by 3:00 PM on Saturday, your bags will be picked up by the hard working DCL baggage representatives and sent on their way to meet up with you in your resort or ship stateroom as the case may be. (Whew!, that was a long sentence.)


Sluggo