Palo brunch tipping

[Yooper Writer]

I'm looking forward to doing Palo brunch on the Disney Dream soon. I'm confused by how much to tip. I've looked at older threads where some people seem to tip 50% of the meal cost! The way I look at it, my family and I have already paid for all meals on this cruise, so we're paying extra for a premium meal. I want to tip for good service, but not sure what to plan for.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I'm looking forward to doing Palo brunch on the Disney Dream soon. I'm confused by how much to tip. I've looked at older threads where some people seem to tip 50% of the meal cost! The way I look at it, my family and I have already paid for all meals on this cruise, so we're paying extra for a premium meal. I want to tip for good service, but not sure what to plan for.

You're going to get many suggestions as to "how much" to tip. But, basically, tipping is up to you. What YOU think the meal/service was worth. To some people the answer will be 50%, to others 10%, while others may think it was nothing special.

The answer is - there is no answer. It's up to you.

 

[tankin]

Personally, I tip based on what I think the meal would have cost at home and then a percentage (10 - 20% based on service) of that number.

 

[DCLDVC1]

I tip $20 for the two of us ($40+$40+$20=$100).

 

[clten]

This is a hard question for people to answer for you as tipping is VERY subjective. I find the tipping based on the "cost" to be hard to understand. What I do is use the suggested tips for the Main Dining Rooms as a guideline (we use this as our base and adjust accordingly from there). For brunch, we consider that it is partially serve yourself so we use the suggested amount of the MDR main server as the base - 4.50 per person. For dinner we consider that the Palo server is also covering what the assistant server in the MDR is doing so adding the $3.50 recommended for the assistant server to the server we are looking at a baseline of $8 per person. Like I said, we use this as a baseline (I'd hate to think the MDR servers are getting more tips than a Palo server since the service level is a notch above) and typically increase these.

 

[MrsInsG]

We tipped $35 for two.

 

[nutshell]

Do you tip with cash or will there be a receipt to add a tip to be charged to the onboard account?

 

[clten]

You get a receipt to sign so you can add gratuities to that to be charged to your onboard account.

 

[remlap]

We, as an earlier posted said, tip a minimum of $10 for brunch for two, and $20 for dinner, based on what the tipping guidelines are in the main dining room.
Most of the time, it's $20 bill at brunch for the two of us.(it's also easy) How much additional at dinner would depend on the service, how many courses we had and how much the auto gratituty was via the bar tab.

 

[SamFaniam]

Do you tip with cash or will there be a receipt to add a tip to be charged to the onboard account?

You can either tip in cash or add it to your shipboard account by writing down your tip and signing the receipt.

 

[xiphoid76]

Tip what you feel is appropriate. Lots of different thoughts here. It is a brunch, so the waiter/waitress doesn't do too much - they provide refills and do bring out an entree if you order one. At a buffet at home for a meal like this would tip a few dollars for the table - like an Old Country Buffet or Golden Corral. Since the waiter here does a little more, we tip about 10 dollars total for the table.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I tipped based on what a similar meal would cost me on land. My server did a lot of extra work. While there was a buffet, she walked us through it and took our orders for other items. She also brought us plates of items that she thought we'd like. It was an above average service experience.

 

[over50visits]

We have eaten at Palo about 25 times, and NEVER had poor service. We have been tipping $20 for dinner (less than that for brunch) each since Palo was (IIRC) a $5-10 service charge. Now as Platinum we don't have to pay for it, so the cost has come almost full circle!

I'm not sure what that meal would really cost on land, and frankly I don't care. Wherever I could get such a meal, the setting could not possibly be as beautiful/romantic, and the servers from around the world could not be as sophisticated yet absolutely down to earth friendly, and so absolutely attentive. We savor our meals there.