Tips...Cash or Charge???

[chrisn]

I was wondering if the cast members preferred to be tipped in cash handed to them personally or do you think they prefer the charge slip thing? I believe most people charge their tips but the two cruises we have done, we just put the cash in the envelopes and handed them out on the last night. The envelopes are already stuffed and we just add to them based on the level of service we feel we received. The reason we do that is because we don't charge anything on our card. We just go down to Guest Services and pay the balance every couple days. I was just wondering if there is a special reason or advantage to charging instead or if the CM's prefer one way over the other???

 

[The4OfUs]

If it's charged, and they lose the envelopes somehow, they dont' lose the tip. That's one advantage I'd say.

 

[goin2disneyagain]

I have a question about this as well. A friend was telling us last night that on their cruise (not a Disney cruise) that their tip was already figured for them and basically it was mandatory that they pay that amount. How does it work on the Disney cruise??

 

[Jiffymom]

wow, mandatory. Not in my book. I always do pay what is recommended but if we were to get bad service I would not pay the full amount. Tips are for service in my book and should be earned. Now I have given a 20.00 phone card to cabin steward on arrival. Got great service. Probably would have gotten the same good service anyway. I still tipped the recommended amount at the end. I usually do not tip wine steward because we don't drink wine. I also take 40 one dollar bills and keep in cabin and give 2.00 when we get morning room service.

 

[gonna go cruising]

I have used cash both times. For one thing, it is more private and they dont have to account for it if they dont want to on their records. I think they would prefer the cash as we do not really know how often they are paid the other way at guest services. I put mine in envelopes before leaving home and add to it according to the service we receive. I also keep quite a few ones on hand for tipping room service, etc. That safe comes in very handy.

 

[tvguy]

NCL, for one, with their Freestyle cruising, automatically adds $10 a day per person to your shipboard account for tips. You can go in to increase or decrease it, my mom did, but discovered you have to go to guest services everyday to request that day's tip be changed. She wanted it reduced because she wanted to eat only at the self service buffets for every meal, not the dining room.
Disney puts out a suggested tip amount list, and you can tip whatever you want, by either charging the tip to your shipboard account, or paying it in cash.
HAL's policy WAS tipping is not expected. They would not recommend an amount, and their policy is "we pay our staff enough that they should provide excellent service without expectation of a tip" . We did tip using standard cruise guidlines, but I hear rumors that HAL may be changing this policy.
I have not done freestyle cruising, but the idea does not appeal to me because we like having the same servers every night, and the same tablemates. I REALLY don't like automatic or mandatory tipping.

 

[DisneyBill]

We've always had out of this world service. I'll usually room-charge the recommended amount, and include cash for whatever extra we add. That way the recipient knows how much extra they were appreciated.

 

[ciska]

Hi,

I booked a cruise for october 2005 on the wonder and I have already payed for the diningroom waiter and the cabin steward. The told me that on the phone and when ik checked my confirmation it was on there too.

Maybe they also have a new tipping policy like the HAL.


Ciska

 

[webray]

I use cash..because then the kids can use it immediately if they get a day off in port or whatever on the upcoming cruise.

 

[DisneyBill]

Originally posted by ciska


Hi,

I booked a cruise for october 2005 on the wonder and I have already payed for the diningroom waiter and the cabin steward. The told me that on the phone and when ik checked my confirmation it was on there too.

Maybe they also have a new tipping policy like the HAL.


Ciska

Wow! That has not been my experience. In fact, we have a 7 day in August that was booked last July and this wasn't mentioned. In addition I booked for 2/2005 on the 4 night Wonder just last week and this wasn't brought up either. Did you book through a TA or DCL?

 

[WDWLVR]

Originally posted by ciska


Hi,

I booked a cruise for october 2005 on the wonder and I have already payed for the diningroom waiter and the cabin steward. The told me that on the phone and when ik checked my confirmation it was on there too.

Maybe they also have a new tipping policy like the HAL.


Ciska

If I remember correctly European packages have the tips added already. Those of us who buy in the US it is not included yet and the DCL booklet shows recommended tipping amounts. We put our tips together in cash before we go using the guidelines as a base and adding extra in (since most times in our past cruises we felt they deserved more). We also bring phone cards to add to these tips. When we finally get our tip envelopes we just adust up and down as we feel (usually up) and add in the cards to those we feel went above and beyond.

 

[ciska]

I have booked it through DCL and I guess i already payed it because I live in the Netherlands.

Ciska

 

[moinab]

Just ask them what they prefer! We asked our servers and room steward. One said cash, the other two said it didn't matter to them, so we paid cash for all. (We didn't ask the head server, but just gave him cash.) They told us some prefer cash so that they have it available right away, and some prefer charged tips because they don't want a lot of cash on hand. They seemed to really appreciate that we asked.

 

[AnnaS]

I had also heard on our last cruise that they do not like to have a lot of cash around - they must have lockers, yes? Perhpas they don't want to spend it all too fast - who knows. But I think that is a great idea moinab - I think we will ask which they prefer - we have always charged (and given additional phone cards to our room stewards (sp?) with their tipping envelope.