Tipping on excursions

[Carie Baker]

Hey guys... I'm sure this is in many threads but I couldn't find the answer. We are doing several excursions in our upcoming Alaska cruise. Lairsville in Skegway, and Sled dog musher camp in Juneau, and Saxman village and Lumberjack show. My problem is these don't seem straight forward as other excursions we've done in the past where there is a bus driver and a tour guide to tip. How have any of you tipped in excursions with multiple people like this and how much?

Thanks for any info on this.

Carie

 

[MunFam]

From my personal experience working as a tour guide, the tour guides are often, but not always given a small gratuity from the tour free, but paid poorly so those tips really help. Drivers are rarely included. If I am going on an owner/operator tour, I do not tip as much to the guide when they are the owner, because you know they are paying themself well.

In my personal travels, I tip the bus driver if he/she is friendly, has the coach in a good location for drop offs and pick ups, has the temperature right inside (ie made sure the AC was on in advance of the pickup), and possibly helped to load cargo under the coach like shopping bags or strollers.

I give an additional gratuity to the guide if I enjoy the tour and feel like the guide does more than "the job". For me a tip is earned...especially on tours.

EDIT, I guess I did not completely answer your question...with regards to say a mushing camp. You will obviously have someone assigned to you to take you out, so that is who you would grat. At a lumberjack show, anyone that goes above and beyond could potentially get a gratuity from you...and you can base that on how/what they did.

For example, we went to a rodeo, and a worker there tipped us off to sit in a different area and sure enough, they were the best seats in the house. Afterwards, we found her and gave her $10 for the information because we had such a great time because of the info she gave us.

 

[sdjen]

We are doing a sled dog excursion in Skagway - on a dirt track- that includes a ride from the prt and back. Do you think that tipping the driver $5-$10 each way and the dog sled person $10-$20 total for both if us is acceptable or would it be too cheap?

We are also doing an owner operated helicopter tour in Ketchikan so I'm not planning on tipping more than. $20-$30 total with another $5-$10 for driver. Same thing - think that's okay?

I've researched this and can't find much info!

 

[MunFam]

We are doing a sled dog excursion in Skagway - on a dirt track- that includes a ride from the prt and back. Do you think that tipping the driver $5-$10 each way and the dog sled person $10-$20 total for both if us is acceptable or would it be too cheap?

We are also doing an owner operated helicopter tour in Ketchikan so I'm not planning on tipping more than. $20-$30 total with another $5-$10 for driver. Same thing - think that's okay?

I've researched this and can't find much info!

I think those are a good baseline and then go up or down a bit depending on how great the service was. Also...I take in to account if it is a self booked tour or a tour booked through DCL. If its booked though DCL, I tip less than if it is booked privately. But I am just one person. I am sure other people have other opinions and are very generous with gratuities. I know I reduced my gratuities on board when our stateroom hostess failed to leave fresh towels in our room multiple days in a row, refused to get us ice and neglected to leave us bandannas for pirate night...only to leave them the day after pirate night. Some DIS people would have given the full tip and not tipped extra. We reduced the tip to what I would leave if we were staying at a Marriott or Hyatt for basic housekeeping services. I think the reason there are no guidelines is because tipping is such a personal matter.

 

[sdjen]

Hey guys... I'm sure this is in many threads but I couldn't find the answer. We are doing several excursions in our upcoming Alaska cruise. Lairsville in Skegway, and Sled dog musher camp in Juneau, and Saxman village and Lumberjack show. My problem is these don't seem straight forward as other excursions we've done in the past where there is a bus driver and a tour guide to tip. How have any of you tipped in excursions with multiple people like this and how much?

Thanks for any info on this.

Carie

I'm hoping you get some responses from someone who has been on those excursions! From what little info I could find, it seems like a small tip to the driver (few $$ per person) and something if there is a guide involved is pretty standard. It's hard to know what to plan for when you don't have any idea how many people will be involved in helping you at each excursion!

I've been been told that at the lumberjack show they pass a hat and that there is a tip jar in the gift shop also. Hope that helps!

 

[Carie Baker]

Thank you all for your responses. I was hoping to have a few more. Its the excursions that don't seem to have a definitive person to tip that I'm struggling with. When you are doing an excursion that has multiple people instead of one guide its hard to determine if, what, or how much to tip. I'm a single Mom with a child and where I've worked in areas where tips help make the rent and I don't won't to short change people but I don't have a lot of extra either with the expense of the excursion. Tipping one guide and a bus driver a total $40 buck for an excursion for the two of us is different then tipping $5-10 pp with with upwards of 5 or more people and the driver.

I'm with you Sdjen... I was hoping some of the Alaska veterans would weigh in a bit more with their experiences.