JimMIA
There's more to life than mice...
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2005
- Messages
- 21,168
I don't have any problem with this new policy, although it is probably more correctly called a service charge. In fact, I've always thought WDW should go to all automatic gratuities regardless of how a guest is paying for the meal.
Most destination resorts have a standard gratuity automatically added to every meal check. If you travel much at all, automatic gratuities should not surprise or offend you. Usually, we see 15-18%.
That's for two reasons -- one is that destinations like WDW draw visitors from all over the world. In many places, waitstaff are paid a living wage and tips are very unusual, and not expected -- or the gratuity is automatically added. People from those countries either feel no tip is expected (a little tongue-in-cheek, with a wink-wink in most cases) or they expect the tip to already be there. In the U.S. we do not pay our waitstaff a living wage, and they make their real living from tips. Like it or not, that's the way it is in the real world.
The other reason is that some people simply don't tip on vacation. And I think that is especially true at WDW. I think a lot of people arrive at WDW thinking they have their budgets figured out, only to spend the next week or so suffering "sticker shock" at the high prices. Many of those folks figure they'll never see that server again, so they stiff them. I think most of us who go often see that pretty regularly.
I think, with the removal of the gratuity from DDP for 2008, Disney servers were almost facing a perfect storm. They stood likely to get stiffed by a huge percentage of DDP customers, DDE guests were likely to rebel against the newly-included automatic 18% gratuity, and the switch from the group of 8 to groups of 6 for automatically adding 18% would bring a lot more families under the automatic tip...with the resulting uproar over that.
Making the policy consistent across the board removes the problem of penalizing some patrons (DDE and parties of 6 or more) while allowing others to stiff the waitstaff.
Most destination resorts have a standard gratuity automatically added to every meal check. If you travel much at all, automatic gratuities should not surprise or offend you. Usually, we see 15-18%.
That's for two reasons -- one is that destinations like WDW draw visitors from all over the world. In many places, waitstaff are paid a living wage and tips are very unusual, and not expected -- or the gratuity is automatically added. People from those countries either feel no tip is expected (a little tongue-in-cheek, with a wink-wink in most cases) or they expect the tip to already be there. In the U.S. we do not pay our waitstaff a living wage, and they make their real living from tips. Like it or not, that's the way it is in the real world.
The other reason is that some people simply don't tip on vacation. And I think that is especially true at WDW. I think a lot of people arrive at WDW thinking they have their budgets figured out, only to spend the next week or so suffering "sticker shock" at the high prices. Many of those folks figure they'll never see that server again, so they stiff them. I think most of us who go often see that pretty regularly.
I think, with the removal of the gratuity from DDP for 2008, Disney servers were almost facing a perfect storm. They stood likely to get stiffed by a huge percentage of DDP customers, DDE guests were likely to rebel against the newly-included automatic 18% gratuity, and the switch from the group of 8 to groups of 6 for automatically adding 18% would bring a lot more families under the automatic tip...with the resulting uproar over that.
Making the policy consistent across the board removes the problem of penalizing some patrons (DDE and parties of 6 or more) while allowing others to stiff the waitstaff.
since 20% is usually what we leave. It's easier to figure out 20% then 18%.... so 20 is what we've always left.
