Thread: Gratuity question

Originally Posted by Cruise Planner

They've provided a personal service and should be given a personal gratuity. I've always felt pre-paying, although easier, is more impersonal and we've already become too much of an impersonal society.

Here-Here!!!

We have pre-paid the gratuities, but we will certainly add more as service warrants!

Linda and I are big proponants of rewarding excellent service at restaurants, and I look at it as the pre-paid minimum is a STARTING point.

Thanks for the ideas!

Originally Posted by Cruise Planner

When you pre-pay your gratuities, some cruise lines will give you a coupon to put in the envelopes you hand to your servers so they know you have already provided a gratuity.

As I mentioned earlier, I much prefer to hand them their gratuity in person - provides a more personal touch. They've provided a personal service and should be given a personal gratuity. I've always felt pre-paying, although easier, is more impersonal and we've already become too much of an impersonal society.

Plus by providing pre-paid gratuities, it takes away the initiative to provide good service. For some , it's a great way to do business, but for me, I hope they never make pre-paid gratuities mandatory.

Pete

I understand what your saying, but to me pre-paying gratuities sets a base of trust, like saying I know I'm going to get good service. I would think that it would have a positive affect on your servers, and would strive for them to go the extra mile for something extra. For us, even though this is our first cruise, after talking to many people who have been on many cruises, I know that what I pre-paid is just the starting point.

When we put our gratuities on a RCCL account, we did that in lieu of cash because we don't carry lots of cash with us. We did get the piece of paper to give to the servers and room attendants, but didn't do that until the last day of the cruise when everybody traditionally leaves tips. So I don't know that they knew we had already tipped. They were good servers nevertheless

But, I may be confused. I thought that somebody just suggested doing that far in advance, so that they could keep to their budget. Whatever works for you is the way that you should do it. We all have our personal preferences.

The worst thing is when people have the tips removed for some ridiculous excuse. For example, somebody at our table had the tips removed because she didn't know everybody who would receive the tips. In effect, she totally screwed our servers who were very good and who met her excessive demands. What was even more sad is that this person is a travel agent. So nice that she supports the industry. I wondered if she encourages her clients to remove their tips for the same reason.

Ma Cruise

Originally Posted by macruise

When we put our gratuities on a RCCL account, we did that in lieu of cash because we don't carry lots of cash with us. We did get the piece of paper to give to the servers and room attendants, but didn't do that until the last day of the cruise when everybody traditionally leaves tips. So I don't know that they knew we had already tipped. They were good servers nevertheless

But, I may be confused. I thought that somebody just suggested doing that far in advance, so that they could keep to their budget. Whatever works for you is the way that you should do it. We all have our personal preferences.

The worst thing is when people have the tips removed for some ridiculous excuse. For example, somebody at our table had the tips removed because she didn't know everybody who would receive the tips. In effect, she totally screwed our servers who were very good and who met her excessive demands. What was even more sad is that this person is a travel agent. So nice that she supports the industry. I wondered if she encourages her clients to remove their tips for the same reason.

Ma Cruise

Gosh Theresa...I'm sorry to hear that! That is so petty! One would think that a travel agent would know the way the tips work and be happy to reward those who have tried to satisfy her demands!

Now, if we could just get all the new cruisers to come to CLF to get all their questions answered and to hear from experienced cruisers about how the system works, then there would be a lot of happy cruise staff and happier cruisers!

That is too bad. If you go over to the dark side (risking the wrath of Hanna) you can read a lot of posts that are that way (oops, that's an admission of guilt isn't it?) Some people just go on cruises with the intent of finding problems. Why anyone would pay thousands of bucks to do that is beyond me.

For all of the lines that have pre-paid gratuities I think the staff know that. We think that every staff member provides a service and it is a rare bird that doesn't deserve the 15% that they get. Okay, maybe some maitre de.

We always give additional cash gratuities to the cabin stewards (except for Carnival Glory we have always had really good stewards, bartenders (when we find one we like we stick with him/her even if they move to a different locstion, waiters and assistants where applicable.