Palo/Remy Tipping

[TL3]

Hello,
We will be going on our DCL trip at the end of the month on the Fantasy. This is our first time trying out specialty dining at Palo and Remy. I've read some prior discussions on whether to tip or not but did not find anything regarding how to tip the wait staff if you choose to do so. I would like to ask advice on how to do this. Do we leave a monetary tip on the table at the end of our meal as if we are at a regular restaurant or is there an option to add this to the stateroom gratuities? Thank you in advance for the helpful tips!

 

[Doingitagain]

Hello,
We will be going on our DCL trip at the end of the month on the Fantasy. This is our first time trying out specialty dining at Palo and Remy. I've read some prior discussions on whether to tip or not but did not find anything regarding how to tip the wait staff if you choose to do so. I would like to ask advice on how to do this. Do we leave a monetary tip on the table at the end of our meal as if we are at a regular restaurant or is there an option to add this to the stateroom gratuities? Thank you in advance for the helpful tips!

It is not part of the stateroom gratuities. But you are given a paper to sign at the end of the meal and you can add a tip there, to be charged to your stateroom. You do not need to use cash anywhere on the ship.

 

[TL3]

It is not part of the stateroom gratuities. But you are given a paper to sign at the end of the meal and you can add a tip there, to be charged to your stateroom. You do not need to use cash anywhere on the ship.

Thank you for the quick response to my question! This is very helpful information. We're looking forward to the dining experience and appreciate knowing we don't need to bring extra cash along.

 

[Doingitagain]

Thank you for the quick response to my question! This is very helpful information. We're looking forward to the dining experience and appreciate knowing we don't need to bring extra cash along.

You may want to have small bills available for room service tipping, that is the only time we use cash on the ship. But you can get a $0 receipt from them to add a tip to your room. We just find it easier to hand them money (we usually give $1-2 per item with minimum of $5).

 

[1200emily]

We had great experiences with our waiters at Palo and Remy on the Fantasy and tipped 20-25%. I believe you can request servers and in Palo we had Ian from South Africa. I have also heard great things about Paulo- I believe that is how you spell it, but his name sounds similar to the restaurant.

 

[SnowWhite2]

I find it odd that people are willing to tip their Palo server more for one meal than they do for their dining room server for the entire cruise. Just my opinion.

 

[TL3]

You may want to have small bills available for room service tipping, that is the only time we use cash on the ship. But you can get a $0 receipt from them to add a tip to your room. We just find it easier to hand them money (we usually give $1-2 per item with minimum of $5).

Great tip! We plan on getting Mickey bars through room service so this is good to know. Thank you

 

[TL3]

We had great experiences with our waiters at Palo and Remy on the Fantasy and tipped 20-25%. I believe you can request servers and in Palo we had Ian from South Africa. I have also heard great things about Paulo- I believe that is how you spell it, but his name sounds similar to the restaurant.

Thank you for the suggestion for servers! We’ll definitely check to see if Ian or Paolo is available for our dining.

 

[TL3]

I find it odd that people are willing to tip their Palo server more for one meal than they do for their dining room server for the entire cruise. Just my opinion.

I appreciate the thought. We’ve loved our experiences with the servers in main dining and try to be mindful of showing our gratitude in our tips.

 

[gatordoc]

I find it odd that people are willing to tip their Palo server more for one meal than they do for their dining room server for the entire cruise. Just my opinion.

We nearly always significantly increase the tip amount for our servers and room attendant. It’s easy to put this on your account at Guest Services, so you don’t need to worry about cash.

 

[Logan70]

Hello,
We will be going on our DCL trip at the end of the month on the Fantasy. This is our first time trying out specialty dining at Palo and Remy. I've read some prior discussions on whether to tip or not but did not find anything regarding how to tip the wait staff if you choose to do so. I would like to ask advice on how to do this. Do we leave a monetary tip on the table at the end of our meal as if we are at a regular restaurant or is there an option to add this to the stateroom gratuities? Thank you in advance for the helpful tips!

We did Palo dinner on our April cruise. We did the price fix menu. There was 18% auto gratuity added to the bill. You can add additional tip to the bill which you will sign for and will be added to stateroom account

 

[squirk]

I find it odd that people are willing to tip their Palo server more for one meal than they do for their dining room server for the entire cruise. Just my opinion.

Maybe that’s just people flying on autopilot a little bit. And it highlights how weird it is to tip as a percentage of the cost of the meal.

Like, a server at Denny’s can work just as hard and do just as good a job as a server at Ruth’s Chris, but with our default tipping behavior, the Denny’s server gets 20% off your $30 check while the Ruth’s Chris Server gets 20% off your $200 check.

$6 vs. $40 for the exact same level of service? It’s makes no sense and really isn’t fair, but again, that’s just what’s been ingrained into our behavior at restaurants, all our lives.

 

[mab2012]

Maybe that’s just people flying on autopilot a little bit. And it highlights how weird it is to tip as a percentage of the cost of the meal.

Like, a server at Denny’s can work just as hard and do just as good a job as a server at Ruth’s Chris, but with our default tipping behavior, the Denny’s server gets 20% off your $30 check while the Ruth’s Chris Server gets 20% off your $200 check.

$6 vs. $40 for the exact same level of service? It’s makes no sense and really isn’t fair, but again, that’s just what’s been ingrained into our behavior at restaurants, all our lives.

American tipping culture is absurd and irrational in so many ways, but we're led to believe - by threads like this one, for example - that only the cheapest of cheapskates would even consider reducing a tip below 18% for any circumstance outside of downright bad service... and maybe not even then.

So most people just do it without giving it much thought, perhaps because if they thought about it they would realize what utter nonsense the entire system is and wonder why we do this at all.

 

[cwis]

We did Palo dinner on our April cruise. We did the price fix menu. There was 18% auto gratuity added to the bill. You can add additional tip to the bill which you will sign for and will be added to stateroom account

This auto gratuity thing always confuses me. Don't remember if I took a picture of the actual bill, but as I remember it nowhere on it mentions there *is* an auto gratuity — which means if you don't know there is, it might easily be overlooked and you end up tipping twice, and if you think it is and it's not, bummer, you've just forgotten to tip.

 

[squirk]

This auto gratuity thing always confuses me. Don't remember if I took a picture of the actual bill, but as I remember it nowhere on it mentions there *is* an auto gratuity — which means if you don't know there is, it might easily be overlooked and you end up tipping twice, and if you think it is and it's not, bummer, you've just forgotten to tip.

Disney certainly isn’t the only outfit that does this. Lots of resorts and destination locations sneak that onto the bill. And, of course, many restaurants put an auto-gratuity on parties of six or more.

I really dislike it because if the service is poor, then the onus is on you, the guest, to have to ask the server to remove the tip, or track down the manager to remove it. Either option is awkward.

If the service is crappy (which is bad enough in itself), it’s extra-crappy to then also make the guest feel uncomfortable and force then to jump through a fiery hoop to get the tip removed.

 

[cwis]

Disney certainly isn’t the only outfit that does this. Lots of resorts and destination locations sneak that onto the bill. And, of course, many restaurants put an auto-gratuity on parties of six or more.

I really dislike it because if the service is poor, then the onus is on you, the guest, to have to ask the server to remove the tip, or track down the manager to remove it. Either option is awkward.

If the service is crappy (which is bad enough in itself), it’s extra-crappy to then also make the guest feel uncomfortable and force then to jump through a fiery hoop to get the tip removed.

I'm pretty sure the auto-gratuities for parties of 6 or more has an history of people abusing the system. Though at least in restaurants it appears clearly on the bill.

 

[squirk]

I'm pretty sure the auto-gratuities for parties of 6 or more has an history of people abusing the system. Though at least in restaurants it appears clearly on the bill.

Oh, absolutely. Parties of 20 people making the server tap-dance for two hours, racking up a $400 bill, and only leaving a $10 tip.

And if that happens too much, where the server’s wage+tips don’t add up to the federal minimum wage, then the employer has to make up the shortfall, which is a PITA for them.

 

[cwis]

Oh, absolutely. Parties of 20 people making the server tap-dance for two hours, racking up a $400 bill, and only leaving a $10 tip.

And if that happens too much, where the server’s wage+tips don’t add up to the federal minimum wage, then the employer has to make up the shortfall, which is a PITA for them.

Ha. I live in France, wages for people working in restaurants are actually high, but no one wants to work there. Also, people don't tip. Service sucks. I would gladly trade how it works here for the system in the US. Probably flawed for many reasons (first that comes to mind is that I don't like feeling rushed through my meal and obviously more customers more tips so…) but at least wait staff feels friendly and helpful.
I miss so much the spiel of “hi my name is Walt I'm your waiter today, feel free to ask if you have any questions, and just to let you know my personal favourite dish is the chili” when I get back to France and all I have is a blank stare waiting for me to list everything I want ordered.

 

[soniam]

Ha. I live in France, wages for people working in restaurants are actually high, but no one wants to work there. Also, people don't tip. Service sucks. I would gladly trade how it works here for the system in the US. Probably flawed for many reasons (first that comes to mind is that I don't like feeling rushed through my meal and obviously more customers more tips so…) but at least wait staff feels friendly and helpful.
I miss so much the spiel of “hi my name is Walt I'm your waiter today, feel free to ask if you have any questions, and just to let you know my personal favourite dish is the chili” when I get back to France and all I have is a blank stare waiting for me to list everything I want ordered.

That was totally our experience in ParisGlad to know it wasn't just because we are Americans.

 

[squirk]

I miss so much the spiel of “hi my name is Walt I'm your waiter today, feel free to ask if you have any questions, and just to let you know my personal favourite dish is the chili”

Just speaking from my own experience waiting tables, the majority of the time, your server’s “personal favorite” is whatever their manager told them to push that night.

Come back in a day or two, the same server’s “personal favorite” will no longer be the chili, but the sea scallops (which, for example, might need to get used up before they go bad and have to be tossed).

I agree that it’s a “damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t” kind of thing. Most people hate the U.S. tipping custom, but most people would also complain if tipping went away, causing restaurant prices to increase and servers to stop being solicitous.