Pre Paying of tips-what do you think

[mecook]

but I took a different view of the OP's question. I thought he was trying to say that he was thinking of "sending money ahead" into his acct. to cover the tips, just as I've read of others sending money ahead for any other onboard expenses. I never considered that he'd actually give the tips earlier than the last night. The servers won't know how much money is in his stateroom acct. and what it's for. JMHO, Melanie

p.s. - I'm thinking of paying "over" my balance so I'll have some money in the "kitty" too. What if you overpaid early, OR overpaid with travelers checks, etc. on the first day? How would you get your credit back?

 

[Laurarn]

On our cruise in Oct., I had the suggested amount put aside in cash in seperate envelopes in the safe to give to everyone on the last night. However, I had some money left in my onboard acct. on the 2nd to last day of the trip and I decided to add alittle to 3 of the 4 tip envelopes (our Head Svr. was okay, but not as great as the Room Svr, Server, and Asst. Svr.). I went to Guest Svcs. and added to their tips (rec'd a receipt to put in their envelope). Anyway, BEFORE I handed out our tip envelopes the last night, our Head Svr. totally blew us off! She went to all the tables around us and totally skipped us and never greeted us at all that night or the next day. It was pretty obvious. The extra tip for the others wasn't a large amount, but I guess once you put something on at Guest Svcs, the CM's are aware. (Just not sure how she was aware of what other CM's got). In the end, since she never talked to us, I had to hunt her down just to give her the tip (suggested amount) that I did have for her. I think I ended up giving it to our server to give to her. Pretty sad, huh? This was our second cruise and we've had wonderful servers both times. However, on the nights she greeted us in the beginning, she seemed phony. Guess she showed her true colors. So, long story short, I prefer to just put my envelopes aside and give them on the last night and add or subtract during the week if needed. (Guess you can do that with the onboard acc't too, but I wouldn't prepay a tip to the CM's.) JMO.