Tip question

[connie1042]

I found a Disney site that said a 7 night cruise, the tips were about 100.00 per person. that's not counting room service and special dinners. So for our family of 6 it would be 600.00? Is it the same amount for kids, as it is adults.

 

[samily]

The auto gratuity is 12.00 per guest (children too), per night. So for a family of 6, it would be 504.00 for a 7 night cruise. You can adjust this up or down as you see fit. It covers your stateroom host, head server, server, and assistant server.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I found a Disney site that said a 7 night cruise, the tips were about 100.00 per person. that's not counting room service and special dinners. So for our family of 6 it would be 600.00? Is it the same amount for kids, as it is adults.

The amount of the auto gratuity added to your onboard account is $12.00 for each person on the reservation per night. So, for one person on a 7 night cruise it's $84.00. Multiply that by 6 it will be $528.00 for the 7 night cruise.

Just so you don't get too freaked out with that amount - be aware that covers your room host ($4.00 per guest per night); your dining room server ($4.00 per guest per night); your assistant server ($3.00 per guest per night); and your head server ($1.00 per guest per night).

Certainly well within most tipping guidelines.

 

[Dug720]

The amount of the auto gratuity added to you onboard account is $12.00 for each person on the reservation per night. So, for one person on a 7 night cruise it's $84.00. Multiply that by 6 it will be $528.00 for the 7 night cruise.

Just so you don't get too freaked out with that amount - be aware that covers your room host ($4.00 per guest per night); your dining room server ($4.00 per guest per night); your assistant server ($3.00 per guest per night); and your head server ($1.00 per guest per night).

Certainly well within most tipping guidelines.

Exactly.

And yes, for children too. They are using all the services of the stateroom host and the dining room team (probably even more there since they are pampering the kids like mad) just like you are.

 

[MunFam]

I questioned the tip for my kid...but then once I got on board, I was like, OH DANG!! We need to give them more for the kiddo. The servers always cut her meat, brought extra cherries, made her a bed WITH a tablecloth blanket when she fell asleep at dinner, did card tricks for her and essentially entertained her while we ate. It was incredible.

For housekeeping, your kiddo will likely be the messiest one of the bunch, so that makes sense as well.

My final note, most people add extra money to the tip and not the other way of reducing a tip.

 

[MUN]

My final note, most people add extra money to the tip and not the other way of reducing a tip.

I'm curious. How do you know most people add extra money to the tip?

 

[AngelDisney]

I'm curious. How do you know most people add extra money to the tip?

It's been discussed in other threads. I usually add extra as well if I have made extra requests such as replenishing my toiletries daily.

 

[Shanti]

I found a Disney site that said a 7 night cruise, the tips were about 100.00 per person. that's not counting room service and special dinners. So for our family of 6 it would be 600.00? Is it the same amount for kids, as it is adults.

Yes. Your basic cost to cruise doesn't pay for the work of your servers. You pay that through tips. As another poster mentioned, kids are typically a little more work for the servers than adults.

You can prepay the tips before the trip if you like, to avoid having that bill greet you at the end of the cruise. We always prepay gratuities, then add some extra cash at the end of the cruise. The amount the servers are being paid by the standard tips is low, in comparison to the work they do.

 

[Dug720]

Just as one more note, even if you opt to skip the MDRs at night (yes, there are people who do that), your servers are working the breakfast and lunch buffets and sit-downs as well as on Castaway Cay - even if it's not YOUR specific servers who help you, rest assured they ARE working somewhere. So unless you somehow manage to never eat anywhere other than Palo or Remy on the ship, you should leave the tip in place for the service team as you ARE using their services. (When you don't have "your" team, just think of it as you're tipping someone else's while someone else is tipping yours.)

 

[MUN]

It's been discussed in other threads. I usually add extra as well if I have made extra requests such as replenishing my toiletries daily.

OK, but most people that cruise DCL are not on disboards. I have tipped extra as well, but I suspect we are the exception instead of the norm.

MUN

 

[Flossbolna]

OK, but most people that cruise DCL are not on disboards. I have tipped extra as well, but I suspect we are the exception instead of the norm.

MUN

I agree with this. I also think that anyone reading here regularly knows that there is a very "tipping-friendly" consensus here on the DIS and people who have a different opinion might feel less inclined to share it because they don't want to raise a big issue about it.

While I have added to the tips for some crew members, when there was a reason for it, most of the time I have not added on to the tips. But usually I do not post that I don't add on just because there is no reason for talking about it. It is everyone's decision whether they feel like adding something to the tip. But no one should feel like it is a requirement. I would hesitate to claim that most cruisers on DCL add something.

 

[AngelDisney]

I think we should tip what we think is appropriate regardless of what most or some cruisers normally do. Tipping is always an arbitrary topic here. Just do whatever you feel comfortable, extra tip or no extra tip.

Have fun planning.

 

[connie1042]

Thanks everyone. So now if I want to tip one of them one of them more, do I just hand them an envelope at the last time I would be seeing them?

 

[TrySomethingNew]

OK, but most people that cruise DCL are not on disboards. I have tipped extra as well, but I suspect we are the exception instead of the norm.

MUN

I agree, sample size for "most" is limited to Disboards posters. At best, this is a modest percent of those on a DCL cruise on any given sailing. Personally, I've added to the tips once, kept them at standard otherwise. We had a head server we did not care for once - all interactions were negative (but not terrible), but at $1 pp/pd as recommended for that position, we did not take away from that tip. Had it been a position that impacted us more, we may have adjusted due to the consistency of the behavior we encountered.

 

[Geomom]

Thanks everyone. So now if I want to tip one of them one of them more, do I just hand them an envelope at the last time I would be seeing them?

Near the end of your trip, your stateroom host will leave the tip slips and an envelope for each person in your room--you can add extra cash to any of the envelopes if you'd like, or go to guest services to up your tip amount for any particular person. We just added extra cash to the envelopes and then gave out the envelopes either the second to last or last time we saw them. (We were trying to give the envelopes to the servers on our last night, but they were too busy to catch, so we handed them out at our final sit down breakfast.) Be sure to check your tip slips when you get them to see if they match your serving team, etc. We got a slip for a room 2 doors down from us and went to guest services to correct it as we didn't see our stateroom host out and about at that time.

 

[hanscarlet]

There is no way to know what most people do, but in the many DCL boards I frequent, I have observed that many mentioned how they add a little more on IF they get great service. Similarly I can count on one hand as far as observing the number of people who claim they removed the tip for bad service. That said, I wonder how many do remove the tips as it's likely something many wouldn't want to admit to doing in a social media environment (would be my guess).

Connie - you can either add cash to the provided envelopes or add more $ to the tip receipts... they auto print the tip amounts in the form of a miniature sheet about 1 inch high and 9 inches wide - something you can fold up easily in the provided envelopes so you can then present the tip to the person on the last night of the cruise.... for us we take these tip sheets, bring them to guest services, tell them how much more $ we want to add on and they reprint the tip receipts with the new tip amounts (charging to your onboard account/bill). We prefer this way because we like to get the credit card points vs traveling with a lot of cash.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

Thanks everyone. So now if I want to tip one of them one of them more, do I just hand them an envelope at the last time I would be seeing them?

Envelopes for the four regular tipped positions (statement host/hostess, head server, server, and assistant server) will appear in your stateroom before you go to dinner on the last evening before you debark the ship. You will also receive a perforated page that can be separated into sections indicating the tip amount (either the recommended amount if you prepaid gratuities or just let Guest Services add them to your stateroom account or whatever amount you asked GS to charge to your account if different). You can then place the separated printed tip summary in the envelopes and add additional cash gratuities as you feel appropriate for your host and various servers.

You can give the envelopes to the various servers either at dinner on the last night or at breakfast the next morning. The servers will get the gratuities prepaid or arranged with Guest Services credited to their accounts even if you don't give them the envelopes, but if you've added cash to the envelopes, you'll need to thank them in person.

We always prepay tips in the recommended amount and then supplement with cash on a case-by-case basis. I bring along cash for this purpose. In seven cruises, the only time we just tipped the recommended amount was for a stateroom host who seemed to be missing in action for most of a 7-night cruise. The only time he seemed to be able to service our room was when we had just returned to it after spending hours elsewhere on the ship, usually about 2 pm. In every other case, we've enjoyed showing our appreciation for the quality of service we've received. Our MDR service teams have frequently been particularly good with the head server managing DW's gluten allergy across breakfast and lunch dining and the assistant server doing a good job of managing my bottles of wine as we move between dining rooms (DW doesn't drink so I usually spread a bottle of wine across two dinners).

For room service and speciality beverage service, we always tip at the time of service, cash for room service and adding any additional gratuity to charge slips for beverage service.

 

[scgustafson]

On our October Western Caribbean cruise on Disney Fantasy, it became the inaugural 8-night cruise due to Hurricane Matthew. One thing that I found odd was that the system kept the tip amount the same as the 7-night cruise, meaning it did not automatically increase the amount of the tips to reflect and 8th night. I went down on my own and had Guest Services add an 8th night of tips to each of our accounts, as well as the additional amounts that we felt each Cast Member warranted. I do not know how many people accounted for this additional night of tips, but since it was not automatically increased, I am sure not many did it on their own. Also, since the next cruise was reduced to a 6-night due to our late return, the Cast Members only received 6-nights worth of tips automatically through the system (confirmed by a back-to-back cruiser we became friends with), which only makes sense since those guests did only received 6-nights worth of service.

 

[undertheradar]

We tip more due to sailing in suites. A 2 bedroom, 3 bath suite takes much more time to clean compared to a standard stateroom, so we tip accordingly. We also tip the concierge lounge bartender and food attendants. Then again, we tip the hotel shuttle driver and the porters who assist.

 

[Capt_BJ]

A few of comments

the DCL tipping policy and rates are right in line with most of the major cruise lines. We've been cruising for a long time and these numbers are consistent with today's normal. The hotel service workers get paid dirt .... tips are their livelihood.

cruise tipping is this way partly because it is "the way it is done on cruises" .... we started cruising in the 80's and our relatives cruised b4 then ... this is how the tipping was done in so far as x$ per day for the room steward, y$ per day for the waiter, and in the days of old you got envelopes on your pillow to present to the parties at dinner the night b4 you departed

Modernization brought in 'slips' to put in the envelope to say you applied the tips with your credit card .... which then morphed into tips being automatically applied to your ship account for 'easy payment'

As mentioned your tip is for services you might not see .... like when your team is working the buffet at lunch, or on CC.

There is much discussion {if you dig into it} as to whether tips get pooled and divided evenly, or how much "designation" works on a credit card tip, but I know that it is easier to keep a cash tip out of the pool than an electronic one!

We usually will do the recommended credit card tip, and may pass a $20 or two to those who were especially nice/helpful

If you REALLY want to thank a server or steward tho, the way to do it is thru the survey or comment card. Every line I'm familiar with takes these VERY seriously. Positive comments about your server is how they move to head waiter, or an asstn't server to server (which is more $$) Mentioning by name is highly recommended if you feel it is appropriate ... even drop a note at the purser desk for the hotel manager (hotel services captain on dcl ....)

BUT PLEASE BECAREFUL as well, because a negative comment can have huge consequences. Our server was in tears one night and when asked why they mentioned they had a very difficult party at another table who told the server they were gonna slam 'em in the survey ..... this would probably result in the server being demoted to asstn't server with significant loss of $$ ....

There are cruiselines that have done away with the traditional tipping and built this into the price. As you might expect these are cruises that cost a bit more than even Disney, which is already up there in the opinion of many. IME Windstar and Viking river cruises are this way .... but we still tipped a bit more to those who served us well.

Lastly: Your server or stew' does not want a box of candy from your home, or a phone card, or your left over toiletries .... they want $$$$