this is more an observation than anything else, I am not talking about the servers or decisions by disney, but all this discussion makes me wonder when tipping became such a set in stone fixed amount? I have always taken "gratuity" to mean the money I am leaving the server because I want to show them I am "grateful" for the good service they have provided me during my meal and appreciate the extra effort to make my dinning nice. I do try to tip well for good service. I know that servers make terrible money and depend on tipping to make a living wage, however I want to be the one to decide what that tip will be. If a restaurant is asking me to pay a manditory % of my check to the server, then I am essentually paying a portion of that persons wage and that is the employers responsibility not mine. Somehow the trend of tipping a certain amount has morphed into you HAVE to tip 10/18/20% not just as Disney ( they are just the ones to list it on paper) I know this is disney policy now and they have the right to make company decisons as they please. I have just noticed that many people posting have spoken of tipping elsewhere in the same terms and wondered what others thought about it.
I think there are actually two different scenarios...at least.
At most destination resorts I have visited in the last 10 years or so, the restaurants usually have a
mandatory "Service Charge" of at least 15%. 18% mandatory is at least as common as 15%, and I have seen it as high as 22%.
When you go to a restaurant like that, you have a clear choice -- they've stated their policy, you either eat there and pay it, or you go somewhere else. That choice, incidentally, is exactly the choice parties of 6 or more and all DDE diners have at WDW -- the policy is 18% mandatory...eat here or not.
Most places we dine other than destination resorts there is no mandatory "gratuity." But there is an
expectation that people with good manners will leave a reasonable tip.
Why? Because the national minimum wage for servers is very low...I've seen as low as $2.19 per hour. In Florida, where WDW is located, the minimum wage for servers is $3.65 per hour. Add the fact that most servers are
not allowed to work a full 40-hour week, and you can see they have very little guaranteed income for a job which is both physically and emotionally demanding.
If you ask patrons of the restaurants, they will usually give you a range of 15-20% as being what they consider an acceptable tip. 10% is low -- not in my "good manners" range for acceptable service. 10% is actually the tip I would leave if service was really lousy and I wanted to
insult the server. Great service? More. Rotten service? Certainly less -- maybe zero -- and almost certainly a complaint to management as well.
