Tipping the club counselors

[gshoemate]

I know it is not required to tip the club counselors or the sitters at Flounders but have read that it is a nice gesture. My question is how do tip when there is more then one counselor or sitter? When we would go to pick up DD at the club there would be 1-2 people at the desk, and many counselors at the club. Same at Flounders, there would be 3-4 people working when we would go to pick DS up. How do you know who to tip?

 

[Michelemouse]

The counselors in the Oceaneer's Lab and Club are not allowed to accept cash tips. Many here have given them small gifts from home, telephone calling cards, and WalMart and Target gift cards. You might want to pick up some of those before your trip.

I remember reading that non-tipped Disney CMs must refuse a monetary tip at least three times before they can accept it. IMO, that's a lot of offering/refusing to go through when the cards can be accepted the first time.

P.S. I'm not sure if the Flounder's Reef CMs can accept tips. Maybe somebody else knows.

 

[Michelemouse]

Oh, and to answer your question about who to tip, we would ask our kids if there were any counselors that they particularly liked or that went out of their way to have fun with the kids. Those are the counselors we tipped. We would make sure to take them aside to do this as we didn't want to offend any of the other CMs. I wish we could have given gifts to all of them but there were so many!

 

[gshoemate]

Thanks Michele, that clears up my confusion.

 

[dthogue]

What about a food type of gift? We live near Hershey and thought about bringing some bags of candy to give to the counselors. Do you think this is a good idea, or will they just discard it after we leave?

Tammy

 

[Michelemouse]

Discard chocolate! They couldn't, could they!?!

We brought small, maple-leav-shaped bottles of pure maple syrup and handed them out with our phone cards. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, although we had to explain what it was to some.

 

[laurenk]

On our recent cruise we asked our DD and DS if there were any counselors that especially stood out. My DD told us that Karen(UK) was especially kind to her. We gave her a phone card, and she was SO appreciative. Her last phone card had just run out that day in Key West while she was on the phone to her mother. I only wish I had given it to her before she went ashore. We also gave them out to a very special Guest Services friend, and to Jonathan the pin trading CM who was very kind to our kids. Of course we gave them to our wonderful servers Beckie and Adem.

 

[owenbyd]

We just took notice at Flouder's about where ds was and who seemed to know the most about his care (bottle, spit up incidents, etc.) We waited until the last day of the cruise and then tipped with a gift card from Wal-Mart. The ladies seemed awfully appreciative!!

Amy

 

[strasfamily]

We weren't sure which of the counselors to give phone cards to either. We gave a couple of them out to the counselors we knew took special care of our daughter. We mentioned to one of them that we didn't know who else we should give them to and she said they will give our remaining ones to the supervisor who handles dividing them up to make sure it was fair.

 

[jbix00]

Everyone talks about handing out phone cards as tips - great idea! But....what value card does everyone usually hand out? Do you buy a bunch of $10 cards? $5 cards? $20 cards? How much (on average) SHOULD a deserving castmember get tipped for the 7 day cruise at the kid clubs per kid?

Those of you who have handed them out before, please help us first-timers! Thanks!

 

[ivanova]

We gave all three counselors in the teen club cards last month when we got off the Wonder (and I was dubbed "the coolest mom" as a result LOL).

I don't know the $$ value of the cards we used, but they were for 60 (domestic) minutes. They could be used for international calls, although they'd get fewer minutes that way.

And I was told by a CM that if you get a nontipping CM (like a counselor) to accept a cash tip (through the 3 times offering/refusing stunt) they then have to declare the $$ to Disney and it's then deducted from there wages ... so in the end they don't get any benefit from the tip ... they MUCH prefer calling cards or any small token (be it from home, Walmart, Target, or one of the islands) of appreciation.

 

[zalansky]

The counselors in Flounders Reef took the cash when my hubby offered it, the first time! Is this not supposed to happen?

 

[AnnMorin]

(international is MUCH lower btw but even a few mins to call back home I would think would be a nice surprise)
We have no predermined idea as to who we will give them to it ends up being whoever impresses us. Last cruise I gave one to a councilor one to guest services , a bar tender, the shuttle guy at Avis and I forgot the last. These are of course on top of regular tips. (except for councilors who are not tipped positions and the guest services person)

 

[wdwdclfan]

Last time we cruised was the first time we used the club. I felt bad getting of the boat without tipping. This time I will be prepared with a few cards. We just booked for November and this time I will have two in the club.