Tipping tips for first time Aussie

[aussiedaisy]

Hi everyone. It is our first trip to the USA in Nov to WDW. I have no idea about the process of tipping as we do not do this is Aus. How much do we tip housekeeping, we are staying onsite at the CR tower room. Do we tip everyday? or just at the end of the stay? How much do you tip for food? do you have to tip at mcdonalds etc?? Do you tip the airport bus drivers?
Also, what is the general check in time at most onsite hotels? Does someone take your bags to the room or can you carry them yourselves? I have sooo many questions as can see he he he he!!! What is the food like in the food and fun centre at the CR? Is there a shop where you can buy snacks like chips, doughnuts etc? Hope someone can help with my many many questions!!! Thanks so much.

 

[wfloyd]

Hi everyone. It is our first trip to the USA in Nov to WDW. I have no idea about the process of tipping as we do not do this is Aus. How much do we tip housekeeping, we are staying onsite at the CR tower room. Do we tip everyday? or just at the end of the stay? How much do you tip for food? do you have to tip at mcdonalds etc?? Do you tip the airport bus drivers?
Also, what is the general check in time at most onsite hotels? Does someone take your bags to the room or can you carry them yourselves? I have sooo many questions as can see he he he he!!! What is the food like in the food and fun centre at the CR? Is there a shop where you can buy snacks like chips, doughnuts etc? Hope someone can help with my many many questions!!! Thanks so much.

I will try to answer some of these.

Tipping--We generally tip housekeeping a dollar per person per day. We also leave the tip everyday because it is possible you will get different people each day. Tipping waiters at sit-down restaurants is standard with a value between 15-20% of the bill. Counter service (like McDonalds) is not required. Tip bus drivers about 10% of the bill if they take you to the hotel but if they just drive you around the airport from one terminal to another it is not necessary.

Checkin--I think the official time is 3:00 but you can check in earlier. I think the earliest we have done is 10:30 and we were able to get a room. If the rooms aren't available, they can hold your bags until the room is ready. There is a bellhop available to take your bags if you want. They usually get tipped 1 dollar per bag for taking them to your room.

I'm not sure about the food in the fun center but there are stores around the resorts where you can get snacks and such.

Hope this helps.

 

[TLinden16]

Welcome to the DIS, AussieDaisy!

I'll do my best to answer your questions with my own tipping habits:

Housekeeping--generally $1 per day per person left every day (there may be a different housekeeper on certain days). So, if there are three of you, $3 would be a good tip. I travel solo a lot, so I leave a minimum of $2.

Food--A minimum of 15% of your total bill in sit down restaurants for good service (you can leave less if the service is not good). For exceptional service, people tend to give 20%. There is no need to tip at McDonalds or fast food stands.

Airport bus drivers--this is one of those gray areas. Some people tip, some don't. I tend to tip $1 per person and $1 per bag. So if there are three of us with three bags, I'd give him $6. For taxi drivers, I usually do around 15% plus $1 per bag.

Bellhops--When you leave your luggage at the hotel, or a bellhop brings your luggage to the room, the standard seems to be about $1 per bag.

Check in time is either 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. You can check in earlier, and if a room is available, you can get it early. If not, you can store your luggage and head out to the parks.

I stayed at the CR a number of years ago. The Food and Fun Center serves things like burgers and fries, chicken strips, salads, sandwiches, and pizza. You can get chips and pastries there as well.

Karen

 

[kirkharrod]

Remember that we are big on freedom here in the US. That means freedom for big business to underpay their labor . We especially like FREE labor (circa 1400's-1860's ), but CHEAP labor is the next best thing.

So restaurant servers, valet parking attendants, bellhops and bartenders are paid, depending on which state they live, around $2.50 per hour. Big Business says if they had to pay their workers a decent wage, their food would be too expensive. Hmmm...Funny how Canada and Europe don't have the same problem . The rest they depend on tips. They rarely get health insurance or retirement benefits, though that may not be true of Disney employees. Keep in mind that people who survive on tips remember how much each guest has tipped them. Outstanding tips will get remembered . You may get special treatment because of it. Poor tips MAY get you poor service in the future, from that individual.

Housekeepers are paid a wage of between $6-9 per hour. However, since they are in my room, rummaging through my stuff, I especially want to keep them happy. I leave $5 per day in a very visible place with a note that says "HOUSEKEEPING."

DISNEY bus drivers are not allowed to accept tips (I was told, by a AK bus driver who drove us out of the way to drop us at AKL.)

I tip $5 per bag if I am at a deluxe hotel for the bellhop who brings my bags up to the room. The main reason is that my bags are usually HUGE with items strapped to the outside, coolers, etc.

The way I look at it is this. Five dollars out of my pocket for the bellhop is not going to break my vacation when I am already spending five grand for this vacation. However, it will certainly brighten the day of the person you gave it to. Go ahead and tip generously. I have found that it pays off dividends in good service and surprises in the end.

When I go on vacation, I tip like the character from the game Monopoly!

The CR Food and Fun Center has the basic grill fare, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken sandwich, etc. I personally would not eat it but my kids ate there twice and enjoyed it. You can get muffins, doughnuts, chips, etc. there. It is right next to the Arcade. Since it is right next to the front desk of the hotel, I felt safe enough to send my kids, age 9 and 7, down there by themselves a few minutes ahead of me to play games if they were anxious to get out of the room. They had no problems, however they are black belts in taekwondo and are educated in what to do if strangers approach them. None did.

 

[Chicago526]

I agree with all of the above. However, if you receive BAD service, feel free to reduce your tip, or not tip at all.

 

[aanthony03]

Hey There! Just wanted to say welcome. You can get more info from mousesavers.com, and mouseforless.com. The two places to buy tickets from is ticketmania.com and mapleleaf.com. As for travel agents there is one that was highly recommended by people on this site, dreamsunlimited. You can also try the one on the mouseforless website. My husband is from Sydney, Coogee are near Bondi. We just came back after a months visit. My girls didn't want to come back. They were screaming through the airport I hate America, I want to stay here. haha!

Christina
Wife to Andrew 02/07/98
Mother to Evangelia 01/21/99
Epiphania 02/14/01
Baby Harry 03/02/04

 

[vernon]

Hi Daisy,
tipping can be very confusing for people visiting the USA for the first time, as said above it is very much part of the service culture here.
You've already had some good advice, mousekeeping are always happy to receive a tip, leaving a small amount daily, IMHO, works best as it goes to the people who've done the room over your stay, as opposed to all going to the person that does it on the last day. Having an envelope for each day with mousekeeping written on it really helps those working, by making it obvious the money is a tip for them, not just loose change that's been left about.

Restaurant tipping is pretty much standard at 15-20% of the total bill. The only major exception is if you're eating at a buffet style meal where the waitstaff just bring you drinks and clear plates. I believe in these places it is more usual to tip in the range of 7-10%. Again it does depend on the level of service, I've been to buffet style places and ended up tipping up to 20% of the bill if the wait staff have been extra ordinarily helpful.

A couple of things to keep in mind, if you have a discount coupon or a 2 for the price of 1 voucher you should tip at what the meal SHOULD have cost at full price, not what it actually did cost. Keep an eye out and check your receipts, I've noticed that recently, although not yet around Disney, that a few restaurants have taken to adding the tip on your bill for you AND leaving a gap on your receipt for you to add a further tip. I think this is pretty shabby unless they make it VERY obvious they have done this. I noticed this was particularly happening in Miami.

Just to avoid any possible confusion, I'm not sure if in Aussie chips are like they are in England or like they are in the USA. In England chips are what most other countries call french fries. In America chips are what you'd buy at the supermarket under the brand names like Doritos or Walkers.

Hope you have a great trip and please feel free to ask anything else you're not sure about.

 

[aussiedaisy]

Thanks so much everyone for your replies. It is great to have a board like this to get advise from. I was wondering in regards to tipping in my resort, as well as the tip, I was going to leave the mousekeeping a little souvenier from Australia such as a little koala bear that they can clip on their cleaning cart. Is this acceptable to do? I think they do such a great job in the limited time they have, as I suppose they have many rooms to clean. I think it would be nice to show appreciation of their hard work. Do you think this is a silly idea? Has anyone ever done something similar?