Tipping

[Pixie_Dust]

A couple of Sundays ago the SF Chronicle's travel section was about cruising. I just read my backlog of papers last night and was interested in two articles mentioning the Disney cruise. One was a woman's description of her cruise where their cabin steward left towels folded like an anchor, crab, etc. every night. I remembered our cruise where the steward did nothing of the sort (after reading how some of the stewards arranged stuffed animals, etc.) Also unlike what I'd read here, he refused to get us an ice bucket as that "wasn't his job," and never refilled the ice even when requested to do so.

The reason I remembered that is the other article was on tipping, and in the sidebar comparing all the cruiselines' recommendations, would you be surprised to know that the Disney's cruise's tip recommendations are the highest (for waiters etc. too) when broken down to a daily rate? Since we had never cruised before, we had no idea, but in retrospect I feel we overtipped a steward who was not good compared to others on the same cruise line, and an amount that turns out to be more than if he were working another line to boot.

The article was one lines that have gone to automatic tipping for cruises without assigned waiters. How do you feel about that? I have heard that cruise employees do not get much pay and basically make their living from the tips, so it is more like the cruise line is getting this money from us to pay their wages rather than the true spirit of a tip as appreciation for good service. One of the lines claimed that half of the people tipped beforehand. Do any of you do that on the Disney cruise, and in what manner?

Cheers

 

[alexandrew]

I think this is a topic that you'll get many different opinions...

On our cruise last year, for the first few days we did not have towel animals waiting for us when we returned to the cabin at night....As this is a particular thrill for my DS (6 yrs old), I promptly called Guest services, and they remedied this oversight immediately. The folks at guest services are very accommodating.

As for tipping, there was a recent thread about automatic tipping policies vs recommended tipping guidelines. In my opinion, if automatic tipping is the policy, where is the incentive for a crew member to extend great service vs just doing enough to get by. If they know they will receive 'x' amount at the end of a cruise, why would they go to great lengths to ensure outstanding service?

On the other hand, automatic tipping ensures that hardworking and deserving crew members won't get stiffed by the cretin who reconciles in his mind that he'll never see these people again....