What/how/why does a baby consider us a party of 6? And therefore the automatic tip

[kwlewis10]

My DD will be 17 months when we go. She's not yet on tablefood at almost 12 months, so it's not like I will be ordering her a plate of food when we are there. Granted I can forsee lots of cheerios landing on the floor so I would tip extra for cleaning up the mess. But should I / can I adjust my ADR's to only 5 and then when we arrive just request the highchair?

I am not ever happy when there's an automatic tip, but can understand the logic when you have 6 people who need meals and drinks brought to them / refilled. Just not when a baby is sitting there in the highchair.

Thanks for any advice!


ETA: 2 others in our party will be under 3 and 5, so not a lot more than milk refills for them either.

 

[Zeebs]

Totally agree, and my 5th and 6th persons will be 2.5 and 10 months. So while the 2.5 year old may have a meal, the 10 month will have what we have brought him in.

Guess it saves me from working out the tip. But I will certainly saying something if the service isn't up to scratch.

Kirsten

 

[disnut8]

A high chair takes up just as much space as a regular chair. It's not the amount of food, it's the space.

I can see your frustration with the child being the sixth person to add on the automatic tip. But you can always, always ask for that tip to be adjusted downward. You really do not have to accept it. Showing up at the restaurant with a seating for five and then adding a high chair is really not the way to go.

Why the cutoff at 6? Who knows. But that's the restaurant standard. Just like an 18% tip.

I've been saying it for years and years. Cut out the stupid practice of tipping and just pay the servers at least minimum wage!

 

[bytheblood]

You should write a letter to WDW Communications (email) and share your feelings with them on that.


'wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com'

Perhaps a cc to: 'robert.iger@disney.com'

 

[MadamMim]

Well the Dining agents have to book based on your party size, regardless of age so there's not much they can do about it. And unless your service was not up to snuff then I don't see why you wouldn't tip about that much anyway, so I guess it'll only become an issue when the service is sub-standard and then certainly speak with a manager and get the automatic tip reduced and let them know why. Sending an email to Communications is probably a good idea too, just so they're aware of this situation. I'm not so sure it's the kind of thing that Bob Iger would be cc-ed about though.

 

[ChelleinNC]

Keep in mind that the 18% gratuity is based on the total of the dinner bill. If you're only paying for 4 or 5 meals, that's all you'll pay the tip on, so it'll be the same amount you would've tipped if you were a party of 4 or 5. The only way that this is a problem is if you weren't going to tip at all.

 

[kwlewis10]

It's moreso being forced into the 18% tip and having to deal with getting it adjusted if need be............ only because of a baby. We are 20% tippers anyways, just adjust downwards to 15% should the service be lacking.

I guess we'll just go with the flow.

 

[Zeebs]

Keep in mind that the 18% gratuity is based on the total of the dinner bill. If you're only paying for 4 or 5 meals, that's all you'll pay the tip on, so it'll be the same amount you would've tipped if you were a party of 4 or 5. The only way that this is a problem is if you weren't going to tip at all.

Yes this is very true, I guess it just bothers me that, as someone else mentioned, you are really forced into 18% for what, someone to put a high chair at the end of the table. I suspect a lot of people don't like to make a fuss and wouldn't say anything if they thought their service was rubbish therefore server makes the percentage and doesn't do their job right.

But as we are only having 3 meals at WDW that will have the included 18% I guess I will just have to suck it up...

Kirsten

 

[TDC Nala]

I suspect a lot of people don't like to make a fuss and wouldn't say anything if they thought their service was rubbish therefore server makes the percentage and doesn't do their job right.

But if you want the automatic tip reduced, that is exactly what you need to do.

If the server is doing that terrible a job, management ought to know about it anyway.

The party size cutoff was 8 until this year, when it was changed to 6.

If it makes any difference, I was in a restaurant in New York City last month, and they had an automatic 18% tip for parties of 6 or more.

 

[liznboys]

I don't see any issue with this at all (and I am in the same boat as you). If we didn't want to tip the 18%, we would ask that it be reduced. 6 people are 6 people, I don't see how the age or needs of them has anything to do with it. It's not like you're paying a higher tip. THAT would be an issue! lol

 

[Zeebs]

I don't see any issue with this at all (and I am in the same boat as you). If we didn't want to tip the 18%, we would ask that it be reduced. 6 people are 6 people, I don't see how the age or needs of them has anything to do with it. It's not like you're paying a higher tip. THAT would be an issue! lol

No but other people with less than 6 get to just make a decision on the service and show their disatisfaction with a lower tip.. We have to make a point of asking for management, and pointing out exactly what happened etc. Some people don't like confrontation, me being one of them, I will say something if it is truely horrendous but if it is just a little off I probably wouldn't bother.

But hey I am going to get Stellar service so all this is just redundant isn't it.

Kirsten

 

[kaytieeldr]

I can see your frustration with the child being the sixth person to add on the automatic tip. But you can always, always ask for that tip to be adjusted downward. You really do not have to accept it.

Absolutely,,, but such a request should be for legitimate - i.e. service - reasons, not simply because one or more members of a party are not dining. And really, service-related problems should be addressed at (or as close to) the time they are occurring, rather than waiting until the check comes and disputing the service charge.

 

[time4Mickey]

We are in the same boat. I hate the fact that we are required to pay it. I tip well if the service is good. On our last trip we had the dining plan. On a couple of occassions you could see we were not waited on as well as those that weren't on the dining plan(with tip included). It frustrated me but I wouldn't say anything. I just don't want the servers to know that they are getting 18% and then provide less service. I know that all servers on not like that but we did run in to a couple last trip.

 

[annie1995]

I understand that you have a party of 6, but are you still not only paying the 18% tip for the actual cost of the meal? So really the baby wouldn't technically count?

 

[n2mm]

As a party of 6 most of the time with 4 adults and a 12 month old and 3 yo, we are very use to the auto tip. Not a big issue to us anymore. To the OP, you can change your ADRs to 5, but believe me, when you walk in with 6 it really won't matter what your ADR says....there will be 6 bodies there and there will indeed be an auto tip at the end of your bill. We've been traveling with the grandbabies for years and as we have another trip coming up we again expect the auto tips. Our youngest was 3 months old last August and yes the auto tips were on. No she didn't eat, actually she slept throughout most meals (if we were lucky). They have to have a cut off number and a system. There is no way around it. Now the baby is 12 months old and she's an eating machine. She only eats tablefood and probably eats more than 3 yo sister. We have no problem paying the tip as we have never had a problem with it in the past. Afterall, with babygirl's love of food, we may have to buy her her own meals and since 75% goes into her mouth, we know where the other 25% is going....we see an extra tip coming out of our pockets for our next trip in August just for the mess we'll unfortunately be leaving behind.

 

[*Wish*Upon*A*Star*]

We're in the same boat, too. We will have a party of seven for most of our meals, this includes four adults and three children, ages 2, 1, and 1. I, for one, am actually kind of glad that the tip will be added automatically. It makes for much less hassle and I don't have to pull out my calculator or put my math hat on just to figure out how much to tip. Of course if the service is lacking, we will most certainly mention it to management, but in our last seven trips to WDW, we've not had ONE problem with a server, so I'm not expecting any issues.

 

[SnowWitch]

We are a family of 6 and it annoys me to no end that a baby counts as a sixth person, even one who is in a baby sling. Someone give me some rational for that...... Anyway we had 7-9 TS during our April trip and only once did I ask for the manager to adjust the tip. We were at Boma and although the server was very nice we only saw her twice, drink order and check. I flagged down another server after my 2 yr old sat and rather loudly let everyone know she needed ketchup for 10 minutes. The rest of the time I had no issues with the 18% and on a few occassions let more for excellent service. I have no issue tipping it just P***** me off that a baby that takes up no space ie no high chair or booster seat is added in the party total. Its just aggravating and takes time out of my vacation to take to a manager about a less than adequate server.

 

[disnut8]

I dunno. Think about all of our jobs. And then think about having to receive a tip for every single thing you do every single day.

 

[HelenePA]

eh I'm not too thrilled about it either. Next year when we go our "newbie son" (name pending) will be around 8 months old... he might not even be on table food yet and because of him we'll get the automatic tip added on... yeah not too thrilled about it

 

[Tricia1972]

In our case with our not quite 2 year old and then 2.5 year old son the servers always brought an extra plate for him to eat off of, they brought him a drink (for free) if he was thirsty and were wonderful to him. Yeah he wasn't taking up much room and wasn't eating a meal but as others said that only means that we didn't have to pay an additional tip.

Though annoying, the difference between a 15% tip and an 18% tip is $3 per $100 spent. In the scheme of my vacation I don't see it as a huge hassle.