Tipping Poll

schatje · July 9, 2006

If handing the money to the servers and stewards personally still goes into a pool then I will just keep the auto-tip on the bill from now on. :smiley:

popsec · July 10, 2006

We left auto tipping in place on the last cruise and then left extra cash in envelopes for those we felt deserved it.

Longboysfan · July 10, 2006

I do not Auto tip.

Wife likes to give the envelopes to each person.

We do not carry the extra cash - as smart travlers use the Casino as their ATM - with no fees.

schatje · July 10, 2006

Longboysfan.....I have never heard of being able to use the casino to get cash without a fee. I will have to check this out ....thanks

Joanandjoe · July 10, 2006

Policies regarding getting cash at the casino vary from line to line. Some charge, others charge unless you make a pretense of gambling, others don't charge at all. If in doubt, take travelers checks and cash them at the front desk.

schatje · July 10, 2006

I wouldn't use it to gamble so I better stick with travelers checks :smiley: thanks

Peddler · July 11, 2006

We "auto tip" if that's what you want to call it. We have thr gratuity added to our bill at the TA. We also "take care of" individuals as they deserve.

sailingrose · July 11, 2006

I don't like the auto tip but we use it on Princess. On all the others I prefer cash in hand. On Princess we auto tip and then give cash to whoever deserves extra. Cash belongs to them.........

I don't pretip because on occasion I've seen below par service and I don't believe in tipping just because I'm on a ship. I've only undertipped twice in more than 30 cruises. Once obnoxious head waiter got nothing........(long story & he doensn't work for the company any more) and one waiter got less then his norm (no service at all to speak of) but we did give the extra to his assistant as she was wonderful!

mccruiser · July 13, 2006

Royal Caribbean lets you use the casino to get cash without charging a fee, and I think the same is true of Celebrity. That makes it easy for us to get cash, and that way we don't have to worry about saving cash for the end of the cruise. Since everything we get from the casino goes on our sea pass card, it's just like charging the tips to our bill.

Royal Caribbean gives you the option to auto tip, but also gives you envelopes. (This is for the person who asked about Jewel of the Seas.)

This iswhat their website says:

We do self tipping, so that we can give it to the person who did the work.

On our river cruise, there is one tip for the cruise director (who really gets to know you - there were only 150 on the ship) and another group tip for the rest of the staff - housekeepers, navigation crew, restaurant staff including the cooks and dishwashers, front desk - whether you met them or not. It was OK, but I missed getting to know our cabin staff, and having a personal wait staff. I did get to meet more of the kitchen staff though, so that was good.