Question Regarding Gratuity while on DDP

[klpotte3]

We are taking our first trip to Disney using the free Disney Dining Plan. I know that we can link our credit card to our Key to the World card and use it as the hotel room key, theme park ticket and charge card. I'm assuming a lot of people do this and just charge their gratuity...

But, we don't use credit cards anymore and really only have our Visa debit, which is linked to our checking account. I don't want to link this to the Key to the World card...it makes me nervous what would happen if we lost our hotel room key. In this case, when we're leaving a table service restaurant and want to leave gratuity, can we give an actual credit card and charge it, or will we need to leave cash? There are 5 in our party, so they won't leave the gratuity automatically.

Also, for buffets and such, is an 18% tip still customary? I worked at dinner theatre in college and food/show tickets were $35 per person and I never would have expected anyone to leave me $6-7 considering I just filled their drinks. But, I know that was a long time ago and want to do what is appropriate!

 

[sharonabe]

You could just use your debit card to pay the gratuity if you want, but I wouldn't feel very safe with that.

You could buy some Disney gift cards before your trip and use those.

You could just use cash. People do it all different ways.

 

[Cafeen]

We are taking our first trip to Disney using the free Disney Dining Plan. I know that we can link our credit card to our Key to the World card and use it as the hotel room key, theme park ticket and charge card. I'm assuming a lot of people do this and just charge their gratuity...

But, we don't use credit cards anymore and really only have our Visa debit, which is linked to our checking account. I don't want to link this to the Key to the World card...it makes me nervous what would happen if we lost our hotel room key. In this case, when we're leaving a table service restaurant and want to leave gratuity, can we give an actual credit card and charge it, or will we need to leave cash? There are 5 in our party, so they won't leave the gratuity automatically.

Also, for buffets and such, is an 18% tip still customary? I worked at dinner theatre in college and food/show tickets were $35 per person and I never would have expected anyone to leave me $6-7 considering I just filled their drinks. But, I know that was a long time ago and want to do what is appropriate!

The link goes to a room charge account, rather than directly to your CC/Debit card, so it's actually considerably safer than bringing your debit card around. It will automatically charge overnight after you hit certain levels (based on resort level, something like $500 for value, $1000 for mod, and $1500 for deluxe), but you can request a copy of the the current charges from the front desk and pay on the account/pay it off whenever you desire (and even pay on it with a different method than you attached to the account).

If you do lose the KTTW card, you can go to your front desk and report it lost and then view the current charges on said account to verify that you made them (or dispute ones you didn't make). All of this can happen before your actual card is charged and losing a KTTW card is usually far easier and faster to cancel and replace than a CC/Debit card.

Now, with all that said, any payment method is acceptable for gratuity: gift cards, cc/debit cards, and cash. The percentages can be personal, but they still recommend the same percentage for all servers no matter the type of meal (well, except CS of course ).

 

[TDC Nala]

I am going to close this because all tipping discussion on the Restaurant Board (including the sub-boards) is limited to the Tipping Information Thread on the main boards.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2300858

If you have fewer than 6 persons in your party, you can leave any amount of tip you prefer. Read the first post of the linked thread for the guidelines we've had to institute for discussing gratuities on the Restaurant boards.