First Disney Cruise - Tipping?

[hayesdvc]

This is our first cruise, Disney or otherwise.

I know my account will have a final charge on it for a gratuity percentage which will be distributed among the various cast members.

Where/who do you normally tip in cash as you proceed throughout the cruise?

TIA

 

[PrincessShmoo]

This is our first cruise, Disney or otherwise.

I know my account will have a final charge on it for a gratuity percentage which will be distributed among the various cast members.

Where/who do you normally tip in cash as you proceed throughout the cruise?

TIA

The auto-gratuity covers your room host, dining room server, assistant server and head server. You can add to the gratuities by upping the amount on your onboard account, or add cash to the envelope (provided) at the end of the cruise.

Bartenders/servers also have an auto gratuity added to each bill (18%). That amount is pooled to be shared by all bar tenders & servers onboard. If you wish to tip additionally, you can either add it to the bill when you close the bill, or give them cash. Any cash handed to bar servers/tenders may be kept by whoever you give it to.

Tips for baggage handlers when boarding, and disembarking are usually just handed to them as you see fit.

Also tour guides/bus drivers on excursions are often tipped.

 

[Geomom]

We just use cash to tip port baggage handlers, tour guides, room service, and to add extra to the tip envelopes.

The tip added to your account is $14.50/passenger/night and is broken down like this:
$4.75: Stateroom Host
$4.75: Dining Room Server
$3.75: Assistant Dining Room Server
$1.25: Dining Room Head Server

Bar tabs and spa have an auto 18% gratuity added and you can add more when you sign the slip,no cash needed. We don't tip anyone else. The theory is that everyone is tipping their servers so anyone serving you through the day is covered as they work different venues during the day, but you see your staff at night.

 

[shosh1530]

Thanks for asking this as I've been wondering as well.

My understanding is that people typically tip for room service? How much usually?

Is their a guideline (e.g. percentage) on tipping for excursions? On an Alaskan cruise those excursions are very pricey!

 

[Calantha]

My understanding is that people typically tip for room service? How much usually?

I tip about $1 per item or so, so usually around 2-3 dollars depending on breakfast or afternoon snack.

 

[Skittlesmom]

In addition to the normal gratuities and a little more for great service, we typically take a few boxes of girl scout cookies for the room attendants. All of the room attendants we've had were from foreign countries, so they really enjoy them and share with fellow crew members.

 

[happycamper47]

Any cash handed to bar servers/tenders may be kept by whoever you give it to.

Even when you add additional to the charge slip it goes to that server or bar tender, it is not pooled the same as the auto 18% from what I've been told.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Even when you add additional to the charge slip it goes to that server or bar tender, it is not pooled the same as the auto 18% from what I've been told.

True. Any tip over the 18% goes to whoever the server (or bartender, if no server involved) is.

 

[RivShore]

What about the waiter at a sit down lunch? Is that covered by the server tips or should it be cash?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

What about the waiter at a sit down lunch? Is that covered by the server tips or should it be cash?

The servers in the dining rooms for lunch (as well as breakfast) are the same ones for dinner (they rotate, so all the servers do a stint in the MDRs for other meals). Your basic gratuity covers all sit down meals.

 

[JoeFromSeoul]

I like to carry a stack of $2 bills for cash tips, both for room service and excursion guides/drivers. They often get fun reactions.

 

[MomOTwins]

Thanks for asking this as I've been wondering as well.

My understanding is that people typically tip for room service? How much usually?

Is their a guideline (e.g. percentage) on tipping for excursions? On an Alaskan cruise those excursions are very pricey!

We do about $5-10 for room service, and on excursions $10 per guide. But we usually do the big group excursions. I believe the going rate for private tour guides (if you have any of those planned) is 20%.

 

[OpieDoodle]

You can prepay gratuities which I love doing as it really helps me planning for the cruise. Then I'll be taking a stack of 1s and 5s for room service. Tip is added to bar drinks and such already. We don't usually have a whole lot of room service to anything left over from the budgetted "tipping cash" gets added to the gratuities envelopes at the end. We always have way more with us than we "need" for room service just in case

 

[Traveling on cc points]

This is our first cruise, Disney or otherwise.

I know my account will have a final charge on it for a gratuity percentage which will be distributed among the various cast members.

Where/who do you normally tip in cash as you proceed throughout the cruise?

TIA

Thanks for asking. Cruise tipping seems super confusing to me too.

From reading these threads it seems like people are tipping 30% to 40% for certain things. (Which seems a bit excessive)

18% is added to added to most places like Palo, spa services, alcohol purchases ect.. but people are adding an additional amount because the tips are pooled and the server isn’t really getting the tip.
I was reading the Palo thread the other day and people were saying to tip at least and additional $10 per person on top of the 18% that is automatically added because the staff was pointing out that they don’t get the tip.

If we ever decide to take a Disney cruise, I will definitely have to do some more research on this because I just don’t get it.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I like to carry a stack of $2 bills for cash tips, both for room service and excursion guides/drivers. They often get fun reactions.

I can understand the fun reactions. It's not unusual for those from foreign countries (as many of the CMs are) to be unable to use that particular denomination in their home country.

 

[Geomom]

Thanks for asking. Cruise tipping seems super confusing to me too.

From reading these threads it seems like people are tipping 30% to 40% for certain things. (Which seems a bit excessive)

18% is added to added to most places like Palo, spa services, alcohol purchases ect.. but people are adding an additional amount because the tips are pooled and the server isn’t really getting the tip.
I was reading the Palo thread the other day and people were saying to tip at least and additional $10 per person on top of the 18% that is automatically added because the staff was pointing out that they don’t get the tip.

If we ever decide to take a Disney cruise, I will definitely have to do some more research on this because I just don’t get it.

When I add more to the bar tab, it's just $1-$2, basically making it 20-25% which I would normally tip. We don't do Palo, no desire to spend money on food when we enjoy the MDRs! If we ever get to Platinum with the free Palo meal, we'll tip 20-25% on what the cost 'would have been.'.

Tipping is very subjective and the people you tip will be happy with anything. The room service people never seem to expect anything and are in a rush to leave, so we're scrambling to give them a tip (especially when we have an early port adventure and have used breakfast room service as our wake up call )

 

[kiford]

We always add an extra tip on drinks but we never use cash. I just add a small amount to the chit - either $1-2 per drink or round up the bill. If we increase the gratuity for the four standard positions, I always go to Guest Services to add that so that I don't have to worry about whether or not I'll actually see them to give them the tip envelope. We always add to the chit at Palo and have done for the spa - again we never use cash. I think the only tips where you might want cash is room service, porters, tour guides.

 

[Clarkson U]

Room service - we often only order items that are already included in the cruise fare so if we order coffee alone in the morning we might tip $2, similar if ordering a snack. If ordering more of a meal - like a lunch to our balcony/room then we usually tip at least $5 or even more depending on how much food is ordered.

Porters - generally speaking about $2 per checked bag

Bars- no additional tip beyond the 18% already added

Palo - have never been will be going for first time next sailing and I can imagine that if 18% is already added, there may be very little more I would add. I understand DCL splits it but it is something I can complain to DCL about but I don’t feel I need to make it up to the server with their own 15-20% extra. If everything is excellent at Palo - food, service etc then I can tip a little more to get Into thst 20-25% range. But it would have to be excellent service, taste of food and food temperature etc.

Room stewards - usually standard tip. We are 4 adults and we don’t make a huge mess and keep things generally tidy.

Servers- we start with the standard and adjust from there. Usually we would only adjust upwards but did have one sailing where the service was so bad on the Wish they actually had to lower tips. Apparently I wasn’t the only one as GS said most servers need retraining based on customer feedback on our sailing. We adjust based on service time, fast or slow, food quality and temperature (we have had servers tell us our meal is delayed because they sent it back for a fresh hot one- which I appreciate the server doing), and servers ability to meet our vegetarian dietary needs - after 10 cruises we learned thst some are a lot better at doing this than others.

Other servers: on rare occasion have given a cash tip to someone at breakfast or lunch for something exceptional they did for us.

I think that’s it. We don’t do concierge so don’t have to tip thst crew

 

[JoeFromSeoul]

I can understand the fun reactions. It's not unusual for those from foreign countries (as many of the CMs are) to be unable to use that particular denomination in their home country.

I honestly never considered that as a possibility. I’ve used them in the Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexico, Japan, and Korea without any problems. It would probably be a good idea to be more selective where I use them.

 

[Mathmagicland]

I asked some CMs on board recently about preference for USD cash vs cabin credit for gratuities. I was told if CM is from US, either is OK, but for those from other countries, cabin credit is preferred as it is easiest for those who send their $$ back home.