Tipping for infant

[momto2dkids]

My family(DH, DD 9,DS,4) and I were booked on the 11/1/03 Magic and since changed our reservations to 1/24/04 so that we may bring our new addition(due in September) with us. My question is do we tip for the infant the same as we do for the rest of us. I have no problem tipping the room steward for the infant as this person will be setting up and taking down the crib and so has some involvement. I am not sure about tipping the wait staff as they will probably have nothing to do with the baby since we plan on using Flounder's during the meals and possible some shows. Anybody who has traveled with infants, your advice is needed.

 

[Michelle]

Congrats on the impending arrival!

An infant is included in the party count for all tips, stateroom host and servers included. You may not be able to have your infant eat all meals in Flounders and your wait staff will no doubt fuss over the new little one should you bring him/her to dinner.

Have a great cruise!

 

[SuperDisneyDad]

We tipped for both our kids when they were each on cruises at 6mo old. The CMs pay more attention to them and make sure they're happy. They work very hard for the little ones. My DS fell asleep at dinner one night, so the waiter made a little bed for him using chairs and even went up and got some blankets for him. He then told all the other servers that they needed to be quiet when around our table or they'd have to answer to him!! We had no problem tipping for the infants as they were cared for better than we were!!

 

[pal2pluto]

Definitely tip!!! We cruised w/ds (2 1/2) last year and had excellent service. It took just a day or 2 to realize that my son was only interested in fruit to eat, , so when we would get to the table, our server had a bowl ready and waiting for him. Also, our room steward, Marlon, must have check our room 6 times a day for dirty diapers. It seemed we no sooner put them in the trash and left the room, that Marlon would appear and remove it! Excellent!!!

 

[momto2dkids]

When we traveled last October with my then 8 and 3year old children, all the staff(servers/hostess/etc.) were excellent and we tipped over the recommended amount. We will probably do the same on our upcoming trip. My only question is tipping the server/asst.server/head server for a 4 month old infant that will probably be in the nursery for that time(dinner) and even if he/she is not, will be exclusively breastfeed and therefore there is really nothing they will be doing for him/her such as warming up formula/baby food, etc. As I said I am definitely planning on tipping the room host/hostess because they will be directly helping a great deal with the baby by setting up and taking down crib, getting rid of trash(to include those sometimes very unpleasant diapers) and other things. I just wasn't sure about tipping the servers for the baby given their very limited role in caring for him/her.

Thank you for those that have already replied
To those that have traveled with young infants before, what did you do?

 

[Cruise]

I would think the deciding factor here would be if the infant is assigned a seat in the dining room. The servers should be tipped per person for everyone in their rotation whether they show up to dinner or not. If a seat is assigned to a person, then no one else can sit there, therefore the server doesn't make a tip for that chair if the person assigned to it doesn't show up and doesn't tip.

If the infant is not assigned a "seat" at the table, then I can't imagine they would expect to get tipped for it... that is, tipped for 11 people at a table that seats 10. I would think that an infant of 4 months is not assigned a seat at a table, however I'm not sure of this. You could call Disney to be sure.

Again, if you do take the baby with you to dinner (but it is not assigned a seat) and they do interact with your child, you may feel like tipping them a bit above the recommended amount for the rest of your family.

At the same time, I would definitely include the tip for the stateroom host/hostess since they will be working around the baby's things.

JMO

Julie

 

[DOCTORRICK]

I basically agree with cruise.
I would tip room attendent for every cruiser regardless of age.
Also, I would clearly tip waiters for all children, as they are often a lot more work than adults. However, I have a hard time justifying giving a hundred dollars (basically what the head waiter gets on a 7 day cruise) for a 3 mos old who'll be sleeping in a baby carrier, and probably won't even make several meals.

 

[dis4me]

Our son was 6 mos old when we cruise and we tipped the full amount to everyone.I honestly would have never thought not to, but I see your point. Our son came to every meal and they always offered to bring him something even though he didn't eat.They always fussed over hima nd my other children.Our main server even cut my meat while I held the baby one night. They really do go above and beyond.
I guess play it by ear and see how the interaction is.Best of luck on your upcoming addition. We had to postpone our Aug 2002 cruise for the same reson but our ds was a direct result of our 2001 cruise. Nothing like a delayed souvenir.

 

[momto2dkids]

Thanks to all of you for helping me out on this. I did call our travel agent to ask about whether our 4 month old would be assigned a seat for dinners. They explained that they did not assign him/her a seat because they figured the baby wouldn't be using it but could change that if we wanted. I ask them to leave it for now. Family friends will be going on the same cruise and we have asked to be linked up to the same table at dinners so adding a seat for the baby wouldn't be a problem I was told.

dis4me- I will take your advice and play it by ear. If the baby ends up coming with us to dinners and there is interaction then I also see no problem in tipping the server. As I said in my last post the servers we had on our last Wonder cruise were excellent (especially to our 3 and 9 year old)and it never occured to us not to tip over the recommended amount per person.
Thanks again to everyone.