Tipping for Mediocre Service

[Andrew DEREK UK]

In order for the argument that you should tip your dining room servers well even if you don't eat in the dining room to be correct, it must also work in reverse. If you get less than satisfactory service in the other eating areas, you should reduce your dining room servers tip accordingly.

Disagree. If you get poor service you complain.

 

[sbell111]

Disagree. If you get poor service you complain.

I do?

 

[sbell111]

Regardless of whether I complain about poor service, the tip should reflect the level of service received. That is it's very purpose, after all.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

In order for the argument that you should tip your dining room servers well even if you don't eat in the dining room to be correct, it must also work in reverse. If you get less than satisfactory service in the other eating areas, you should reduce your dining room servers tip accordingly.

I do?

Regardless of whether I complain about poor service, the tip should reflect the level of service received. That is it's very purpose, after all.

Yes, complain: if you do that is the best thing, the individual who lets the side down complain, and give their line managers the opportunity to give them feedback, to improve their service levels for the greater good, or consider a different line of work outside serving people.

Overall it doesnt work in reverse, what we need to understand is our dinner servers also serve at breakfast and lunch at various places. We are not asked or suggested to tip at these times.

It isn't correct to penalise the hard working people at dinner if one individual at a service outlet doesnt meet the very high standards of DCL, and their training.

We have a few things coming into play with these discussions. Here I am talking generally and not back to your quoted post in particular.

We all pay a lot of money for a good vacation, a cruise is considered a luxury, you should get good service, for your well hard earned cash.

The servers overall work very very hard, this is due to the majority of their income coming from tips.

Some cruisers, do not agree/ or want to pay tips, so they will look for any excuse to reduce their tip, to save money.

Tips are suggested and personal, we have a guide, we understand that from when we book, and thought the ticketing and information process.

Tips should not be expected, but nor should tips be deliberately avoided or severs stiffed.

So in summary if you get 'underperformance' you complain, they will put it right and you should get a good holiday. If you do not say anything, then the person on the next cruise also gets bad service. DCL doesnt know you were unhappy, and the servers can be confused why tip is low, speak up and enjoy.

I have only tipped below level once, that was my head server, mentioned before, his tip was added to my servers and I added more.

I have regularly tipped over the recommended amount but thats personal preference for excellent service and attention.

 

[♥sassy♥tink♥]

We do get the cold shoulder from a lot of the servers the morning of disembarking. We have always given over the recommended amount. It always hurts. I hate that morning!!!

This type of feedback is subjective at best... The CM's are required to get 2000+ people of the ship, and get it ready for 2000 more in a matter of hours!! The disembarking meal is not meant to be the highlight of the trip.. it is simply a breakfast for you to have before leaving. We have only sailed DCL twice, but on our last night on board, we had a wonderful experience with our servers AND from the servers that remembered us on our first cruise! Use the last night of the cruise to say thank you, take pictures and have a wonderful time with the CM's. That last morning is hectic for EVERYBODY!!!

 

[Disneynut25]

Regardless of whether I complain about poor service, the tip should reflect the level of service received. That is it's very purpose, after all.

Agreed!

 

[Mickeyhugger]

Regardless of whether I complain about poor service, the tip should reflect the level of service received. That is it's very purpose, after all.

Exactly Good service= good tip, great service= even better tip, poor/bad service = reduced/no tip

Rob

 

[outahere]

It isn't correct to penalise the hard working people at dinner if one individual at a service outlet doesnt meet the very high standards of DCL, and their training.

I completely agree. There is no way I would even consider reducing the tips I give to our dining room servers, just because I received sub-par service from someone else at another dining venue. Our dining room servers have absolutely no control over the actions of others and should not be penalized for something they personally didn't do, or have control over.

 

[Rominet]

Yes, complain: if you do that is the best thing, the individual who lets the side down complain, and give their line managers the opportunity to give them feedback, to improve their service levels for the greater good, or consider a different line of work outside serving people.

When I go on vacation, I'm not going to accept responsibility for the servers to earn their tips. They are adults experienced in the service industry. They know when they are not doing things up to par, or at least I did when I was a waitress. Why should I treat them like a child? When a waiter or waitress receives a poor tip they can easily think back and pinpoint why or quickly realize the people were just being cheap. If it's because they didn't do a good job, they will realize it and correct their behavior next time. If it's because the people were cheap there is nothing they could have done in the first place. I have my own family to keep in line, let alone take the responsibility for the server to do his/her job! Don't get me wrong, if I need something I will ask for it. I'm talking about overall poor service.

The last cruise we were on got so annoying because the server constantly asked what he could do to make it better. He kept saying please let me know, we really want our tips. At first it seemed like a nice gesture, but by the end of the cruise it was annoying.

That's my thoughts anyway. For today anyway. LOL!

Valerie

 

[ptk55369]

Apologies in advance for the long post. Perhaps this is bad form to ask but does anyone know how much they actually make?

Both our stateroom host (who was awesome) and our Server (who was also excellent) seemed to work at all hours of the day. We saw our Server in three different poolside locations (and she gave us special help and recognition when we saw her without asking, even coming out to our table to give us special dessert).

I just marvelled at how much/hard they worked and wanted to make sure we took care of them at the end of the cruise because I kind of assumed they were depending on tips.

That being said, if a stateroom host has 6 rooms, and we had ourselves and two kids, figuring that is standard the recommended tips alone would give them $112/family of four or approximately $672/week or . According to salary.com the average base is $18K or $346/week or approximately $1020/week or $53K/year. That seems pretty decent if they get minimum expected tips.

The US department of Labor says this about people who make tips:
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires payment of at least the federal minimum wage to covered, nonexempt employees. An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 an hour in direct wages if that amount plus the tips received equals at least the federal minimum wage, the employee retains all tips and the employee customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips. If an employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages of at least $2.13 an hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference.

So it their wage is 2.13/hour that would really make a huge difference.

Of course, they don't work on the cruise year long and again, most seem like they are busting their humps every day, 7 days a week for however long their contract was (our Server was on a 4 month that she had opted to extend to 6 months and 1 week). Phew!

Either way I was a little concerned not knowing how much their were dependent on tips and a bit bothered that I might have someone cleaning my room or serving me dinner that was being taken advantage of. I guess I still don't know that for sure. I'd like to think Disney is all about the magic but as an executive concerned with my bottom line and knowing how much labor factors into that, I'm still a little uneasy.

Thoughts?

 

[vicki_c]

I have no idea or how much they are paid, but I'm guessing they don't have to comply with the FLSA because they are registered outside the U.S.

I don't know that for sure -- it's kind of murky to me, not sure where DCL is incorporated or anything. I know a bit about FLSA and wage laws from my job in Govt contracts, but don't know how it applies to a cruise ship with a registry outside the US.

I really wouldn't base my tip on how much I think they are paid as a base wage anyway. I take the cruise line's recommendation and add to it as I saw appropriate. It would take a lot to cause me to give less than the recommended amount. Really a lot. I can't even think of an example of service so bad on the ship that I wouldn't tip the recommended amount, but I'm sure others have had experiences that would cause them to do that.

 

[tvguy]

I have no idea or how much they are paid, but I'm guessing they don't have to comply with the FLSA because they are registered outside the U.S.

I don't know that for sure -- it's kind of murky to me, not sure where DCL is incorporated or anything. I know a bit about FLSA and wage laws from my job in Govt contracts, but don't know how it applies to a cruise ship with a registry outside the US.

I really wouldn't base my tip on how much I think they are paid as a base wage anyway. I take the cruise line's recommendation and add to it as I saw appropriate. It would take a lot to cause me to give less than the recommended amount. Really a lot. I can't even think of an example of service so bad on the ship that I wouldn't tip the recommended amount, but I'm sure others have had experiences that would cause them to do that.

You're comparing apples and oranges on salaries.
Certainly, the salaries are far far below minimum wage in the U.S. for example.
But the reason thousands of people PAY to get these jobs and wait years to get hired is, that the salary alone per month is often equal to, or greater than the average annual salary in their homelands.
Our server on HAL had worked on the ship for 5 years, and planned to retire in 2 more years at age 30. He said the money he had saved from tips alone would be more money than he would need for the rest of his life. He had a wife and 2 kids.

 

[slg]

I sometimes feel a little intimidated by the servers and the hosts. They seem very intense, and I often feel they are working very hard for their tips, making jokes, remembering kids drinks, playing with the kids. I had a very,very nice assistant server on our last cruise, but she just couldn't get it right. Our drinks were always wrong, even by the last night. Sometimes she would forget completely. I often asked our server several times for our drinks before we would get them.

I like my coffee with my dessert, not a half an hour later. I know servers are busy, but I expect a level of service when I'm paying a huge amount of money for my cruise. What DCL pays its staff is between the employer and the employee, and the staff enter that contract knowing full well what is expected of them. It is not my responsibility as a customer to make sure that the staff are well paid, even if the service is not up to par. I feel that folks on these boards carry a giant burden of guilt on what they salaries of the servers on board. It is not our guilt, but DCL's. This is why I favour that they get paid a decent wage and that the get promoted based on customer response. DCL can monitor service and all this guilt and angst by customers would be eliminated.

Tips are for good service. Whether or not the servers are well paid is beside the point. I would never completely stiff someone (unless there was something totally drastic that happened) but trimming a little of the recommended tip to make a point on lousy service, and adding a little more for amazing service, is perfectly justifiable in my opinion.



I tipped that assistant server about $10 less than the recommended amount, and I feel okay with it, because she just wasn't up to par. She was very nice, but her level of service wasn't very good and I wrote it down on her comments.

 

[sbell111]

Yes, complain: if you do that is the best thing, the individual who lets the side down complain, and give their line managers the opportunity to give them feedback, to improve their service levels for the greater good, or consider a different line of work outside serving people.

Overall it doesnt work in reverse, what we need to understand is our dinner servers also serve at breakfast and lunch at various places. We are not asked or suggested to tip at these times.

It isn't correct to penalise the hard working people at dinner if one individual at a service outlet doesnt meet the very high standards of DCL, and their training.

We have a few things coming into play with these discussions. Here I am talking generally and not back to your quoted post in particular.

We all pay a lot of money for a good vacation, a cruise is considered a luxury, you should get good service, for your well hard earned cash.

The servers overall work very very hard, this is due to the majority of their income coming from tips.

Some cruisers, do not agree/ or want to pay tips, so they will look for any excuse to reduce their tip, to save money.

Tips are suggested and personal, we have a guide, we understand that from when we book, and thought the ticketing and information process.

Tips should not be expected, but nor should tips be deliberately avoided or severs stiffed.

So in summary if you get 'underperformance' you complain, they will put it right and you should get a good holiday. If you do not say anything, then the person on the next cruise also gets bad service. DCL doesnt know you were unhappy, and the servers can be confused why tip is low, speak up and enjoy.

I have only tipped below level once, that was my head server, mentioned before, his tip was added to my servers and I added more.

I have regularly tipped over the recommended amount but thats personal preference for excellent service and attention.

1. I'm on vacation. I don't plan to spend it complaining.
2. The staff is (or should be) trained to give good service. Therefore, it should not be the guest's job to correct bad service.
3. Service above 'good' should receive a better than recommended tip.
4. Service below 'good' should receive a lower than recommended tip.
5. If you accept the argument that you are tipping for all food service received, it logically follows that the service level received from all of these service contacts should be factored into the tip, for good and bad. Doing otherwise would certainly be hypocritical.

 

[sbell111]

I completely agree. There is no way I would even consider reducing the tips I give to our dining room servers, just because I received sub-par service from someone else at another dining venue. Our dining room servers have absolutely no control over the actions of others and should not be penalized for something they personally didn't do, or have control over.

I completely agree with the bolded part.

However, I don't buy into the argument that the tips to your dining room servers are related to all food service received on the ship. We tip each person based on the level of service received from that person (and only that person).

Further, my tips are not related to that person's annual salary, number of children, or other non-tipped duties that the individual is assigned by his employer. Similarly, I do not tip land-based waitstaff based on how well they do their sidework after I leave.

 

[pamrob]

The last cruise we were on got so annoying because the server constantly asked what he could do to make it better. He kept saying please let me know, we really want our tips. At first it seemed like a nice gesture, but by the end of the cruise it was annoying.

That's my thoughts anyway. For today anyway. LOL!

Valerie

this sounds like our server as well. He asked so often it became annoying. After awhile you just say everything's fine to keep things moving. Then on the last night he mentioned that he had asked everyday so basically he was expecting a good tip. Not quite that blunt but pretty close.

 

[Scotty69]

With everyone feeling this sad cold shoulder feeling what can be done? This will be my first cruise so I do not know what to suggest, but I hate the idea of leaving on a bad note. Would the other experienced cruisers speak up? If you have found away around this or have any ideas please share so we can brainstorm this. Is it possible to do a buffet for breakfast or order room service breakfast on the last day? I'm just guessing here...

WE had our first cruise experience this past January, I have to tell you over all I was very impressed with everything, the only problem I had was our service team where hard to understand at times, and they had a hard time understanding us. There where a couple of times that I got the wrong thing or something was missing, but I will tell you they did there bet to fix the problem promptly, We gave our service team the recomended amount and our hostess got some extra, she was fabulous. Out by the pools we had a couple of serverse from the bars and snack area that we tiped with Cash. you also have to remember these people work extremly hard with very little sleep they are working 14 or 16 hours a day, so on the last day they are dead on there feet as well.

 

[Scotty69]

Regardless of whether I complain about poor service, the tip should reflect the level of service received. That is it's very purpose, after all.

yes but if you complain about bad service you are giving them a chance to correct the problem, so long as they correct it they should get at least the suggested amount

 

[DisneyCruiser83]

Tips are per person per day. So if I get bad service on day one, my tips will reflect that. If the service improves after I mention the issue, the tips will reflect that as well. But if someone needs to be corrected, they are not earning their tips. These people go into their contracts knowing full well what Disney pays them and the rest will have to be made up in tips. If that was unsatisfactory, there are other non-tipped positions they could apply for. It is not my job to make up someone's salary. I am showing my appreciation (or lack of appreciation) with a cash gift.

 

[sbell111]

yes but if you complain about bad service you are giving them a chance to correct the problem, so long as they correct it they should get at least the suggested amount

I disagree. If my service was bad and I have to complain about it to get it corrected, then it wasn't 'good', by definition. Therefore, it should not be rewarded with the recommended tip amount.