Tipping for private excursions

[Kanga&TwoRoos]

Hi all,
We booked private excursions for all of our ports in Alaska because it made more sense for a group of 13. What should we do for tipping? I don’t want to undertip since we’re the only people on the tour.

 

[cedricandsophie]

Personally I would tip just like I would on any other excursion, $2 per person for a good guide and up to $5 a person for a great one. But I’m sure you will get lots of opinions including why tip at all.

 

[princessmommyx3]

For a private tour, we have always tipped 15-20% of the cost of the tour. If there is more than 1 guide, we split it evenly between them.

Edited to add: on a large group excursion (DCL or not) when we are grouped with people not in our party, we usually tip $5-$10 per person.

 

[daveyc150]

I’m interested on this even for the Disney excursions. Depending on the price of the tour I would do usually do something between $5 and $20 dollars per person on the tour but I don’t know if that’s right or not?

 

[TikiThunderPirates]

When in doubt if it's good service 20% seems to be a safe percentage. Most people seem to do the $2-$5 per person add on amount also. On that note I've seen tons of people NOT tip their tour guides. They always seem surprised when we do. I know some people forget to bring the proper currency, and that just happens. But an entire bus full forgetting... it felt a little embarrassing. We didn't know anyone else on the bus, but no one stopped to shake the guides hand (the typical way you pass off the tip at the end) but us. I honestly felt so bad, and they were a great guide and a great tour. People just pay up front and don't tip. So probably whatever you do will be just fine.

 

[Calantha]

We did 2 private excursions on the 8 day Fantasy last month. I did not give an extra tip on our first tour as it was privately arranged and I had essentially added in a tip when we were negotiating a price.

On the second tour, it was a bunch of different people (20-25ish) and there were 3 of us...with 3 guides...so we tipped just under 20% of the total.

 

[lilsonicfan]

Another time when I find tipping so awkward! Ha! The best was when we had a private tour arranged with another family, same size as ours, and there was some chaos in getting off the van such that we each approached our tour guide separately, but what I didn't realize is that he refused that family's tips rather ardently and so unknowingly, I sort of forced ours on him.... so awkward all around.

In terms of budget though, $5 ish per person sounds about right.