Tipping servers and room attendant

[crazylady]

If you plan to tip above the daily tip amounts, how do you decide how much? Is there a guideline somewhere?

 

[Dug720]

Per Disney’s website... These amounts are automatically charged to your account each day per person.

https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/faq/onboard-services/gratuities/

 

[lorimay]

Basically you give whatever you feel you want to give. I have never seen a guide for it.
They will appreciate whatever it is.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

If you plan to tip above the daily tip amounts, how do you decide how much? Is there a guideline somewhere?

As noted, tip as you deem the service worthy of.

There's no real "guideline" as to what extra to give beyond the standard auto gratuities. What's worth $5.00 to one person may be worth $50.00 to another. And both are correct.

 

[Dug720]

Sorry - misread. Yes, anything above is up to you. If you feel they have given you very good service worthy of additional money, please mention them by name on the comment card (or paper you attach to it) and/or a follow-up email. Those mentions are noted in their files and lead to things like extra time off, promotions, etc.

 

[coast2coastmickey]

It's truly up to you so there are no wrong answers, except for maybe reducing the default tip that is charged to your account. I'd say that's a wrong answer.

As an anecdote, on our last cruise, we nearly doubled the default tip for the room attendant, server, and assistant server. We have a messy toddler and all 3 of them were super accommodating and not annoyed. We only saw our head server once so I think I added maybe 5 bucks and called it a day for him.

On our next cruise at end Nov beg Dec, I have budgeted doubling the tips for everyone (attendant, asst server, server, head server), assuming we get the same level of outstanding service as we did before. If the service stinks I'll just leave the default tip and call it a day.

 

[mmouse37]

No guidelines for tipping above recommended amount. We usually add anywhere from $20 to
$30 above for the server, assistant server and room attendant depending on how they performed and interacted with us.

MJ

 

[TikiThunderPirates]

I've always wished for a guideline also. We have always added above the standard tip because we get what we feel is great service, but it would be nice to know if the amount we give is considered "good". The longer then cruise the more we tip extra too. If you have us for 7 days vs 13 days you've worked harder for us so you should get more.

 

[MickeyD]

I have always wondered this as well. Last cruise we really bonded with our servers and our room attendant. They were all so awesome. Also, for the first time in many cruises, we actually interacted nightly with our head server and he was great. I had no idea what an "acceptable" over the normal amount of tip was, but I added an additional $30 to each and hoped it would send the message that we really appreciated and loved our interactions with them all week.

 

[Karin1984]

I've always wished for a guideline also. We have always added above the standard tip because we get what we feel is great service, but it would be nice to know if the amount we give is considered "good". The longer then cruise the more we tip extra too. If you have us for 7 days vs 13 days you've worked harder for us so you should get more.

If you really want to know, you will have to ask them directory as this answer is different for each giver and receiver, but they will be too polite to give you an honest answer.

You also wouldn't want Disney to set a standard of what is considered good, as most likely, the servers will think differently from their employer. If Disney is convinced their service is worth $25 a day, they should make that the new standard.

I am sure they are happy with anything you give above the standard. They are not keeping scores of all the guests in case they will ever have to serve you again. Unless you request a server, chances of that happening are extremely small.

And if the server thinks ill of you because you haven't tipped enough in their books, what kind of person is he then really?

 

[lilsonicfan]

Such a personal question and such a difficult one too. I even think the question of whether you tip more on a longer cruise is a tough one (b/c they already get more of the daily gratuities, which apparently recognizes the extra days they have you on board). I know of someone who budgets double the amount of the daily gratuities for her family, i.e. she plans to tip an extra $13.50 per person per night when she cruises. I'm sure there are others who don't tip any extra at all. On our last cruise I did add extra (somewhere around $20-30 for each person) but I also wrote a very very long note to add to the comment card where I named those that really made our cruise special.

 

[Canadian Girl]

On my last TA cruise I saw a lot of people lined up to have tips removed. Some said they “preferred to pay cash only” I think. I spoke with the person at the desk who said many do ask to have them removed and really don’t tip at all after that. She also added that in some cases it is cultural for those who come from countries where tipping is not the norm. The people I saw were definitely from good old North America I think. I wish Disney would just charge the extra up front instead of calling it a tip if this goes to pay a large portion of people’s salaries. Calling them tips leave it open to interpretation.

 

[TikiThunderPirates]

On my last TA cruise I saw a lot of people lined up to have tips removed. Some said they “preferred to pay cash only” I think. I spoke with the person at the desk who said many do ask to have them removed and really don’t tip at all after that.

This just shocked me! Sure other countries don't tip, but you learn and do what the country you are headed to does..... I guess a cruise ship is in the ocean soo... but still. I am just floored.

 

[diznymom]

If I remember correctly, DCL started charging the standard tips to the cruisers' accounts automatically after some of their European cruises and the cruisers' were not tipping. My understanding is that Europeans don't tip.

 

[Dug720]

If I remember correctly, DCL started charging the standard tips to the cruisers' accounts automatically after some of their European cruises and the cruisers' were not tipping. My understanding is that Europeans don't tip.

They did, but people can still go and remove them.

 

[lilsonicfan]

Frankly the issue could be solved by cruiselines paying their staff more and not relying on tips or daily service charges to supplement their income. But the industry is unlikely to change, I guess.

 

[MickeyD74]

I have struggled with this as well. I sort of wish there was a guideline but understand why there is not. We gave any extra $20 for a 7 day cruise to our head server and I think also $20 to the assistant. Noting extra to your room attendant or head server. Our dining servers were amazing so I felt after the cruise we should have given more., but I was not prepared going into it. On our most recent cruise I think we gave $25 to both servers and room attendant and we did give something to the header server I just don't remember how much (he was the best head server we had so we felt he deserved something).

 

[Karin1984]

Frankly the issue could be solved by cruiselines paying their staff more and not relying on tips or daily service charges to supplement their income. But the industry is unlikely to change, I guess.

Only when all guests stop paying standard and additional tips, the industry will have to change.
Probably now the servers are at the break-even point or make a little bit of money.

For the cruise to pay more, they would have to charge the guests more. When the fares of the cruise increase, people will expect better service, for that you need servers willing to work for you and salary can be a major part in deciding who to work for.

It's an infinite loop.

 

[billyinlasvegas]

Chiming in from Vegas...

I was talking to a table games dealer once and the way he explained it to me is that all tips are welcome regardless of size, no such thing as a bad tip. He also said that you're usually making up for all the other people that don't tip (there's lots of them).

Also, another lesson learned from working in the casino is that word gets around. The minute someone leaves a nice tip everyone else in the building finds out and suddenly your lever of service gets a lot better.

So our personal preference is to tip everyone, but mainly because we work in the hospitality industry so our point of view might be a little different.

 

[JARNJ3]

I tipped everyone more on the recent cruise we were on. If it said $81 - I raised it to $100. It was arbitrary. I thought the room attendant & waiters really deserved a tad more - first because I hate cleaning & he cleaned up after us! And second because the waiter was friendly & really wanted us to be happy with our selections.

I went to guest services - told them the amounts I wanted to increase & they printed out the new vouchers.

I also tipped room service each time - as well as the Cove coffee makers (which I had each day).