Tipping is how we thank those who helped make our cruise memorable, but for many passengers, tipping is one of cruising’s touchiest subjects.
In the golden age of steamship travel — when you ate three meals a day at the same table and had the same waiter — tipping was a breeze.
These days, service at poolside grills, deckside buffets, alternative dining rooms, pizza parlors and other places — including opulent full-menu room service and suites that boast butlers — complicate the issue. Whether first-time or veteran cruisers, passengers often say that, when it comes to tipping, they feel they’re on shaky ground.
Tips are a fact of life, and you should factor them into your cruise cost. Cruise lines, of course, offer suggested amounts. The industry standard is about $9 a day per passenger: $3.50 each for your waiter and cabin steward and around half that for the busboy. These amounts, which have hardly increased during the past decade, are also pretty much the same industrywide, from Carnival to Crystal (though Renaissance Cruises’ new R1, which pools tips shipwide, suggests $15 or more a day.)
Aboard most ships, a 15 percent gratuity also is automatically added to your bar tab for everything you purchase there, from cigarettes to soft drinks. If you order wine at dinner, it’s customary to tip the wine steward and, when special services are rendered, the maitre ‘d.
Still, passengers can feel uncertain or intimidated about tips. According to George Devol, publisher of the newsletter “Ocean Cruise News,” no one in a shoreside restaurant would consider it customary to suggest to tip your waiter. Devol points out that the once-casual suggestion of tipping now has taken on an air of obligation.
Cruise line service personnel labor seven days a week to pamper passengers, and they earn pitiably poor pay in the process (major cruise lines pay room stewards and waiters less than $100 per month). So unless you get blatantly poor service, don’t stiff the staff.
In particular, Devol takes issue with the automatic bar gratuity that is added for, in cruise line jargon, “your convenience.” Says Devol: “We don’t know of too many people who believe it is for their convenience that the cruise line tacks on this additional charge. The cruise lines could easily do away with this silly practice by adding the tip to the cost of the drinks and state (on the bar menu) that all prices include gratuity.”
Even if you know what amount to tip, some lines’ suggestions about whom to tip can be baffling: Disney Cruise Line suggests tipping the dining room “head server,” a moniker for the maitre ‘d (who often does little else but point you to your table) that passengers easily can confuse for their waiter. Celebrity Cruises even urges passengers to tip the head housekeeper, someone you’re not likely ever to see. You are under no obligation to tip either of them.
Devol also says, “It will be interesting to see how the cruise lines handle the developing problem with the advent of flexible dining options.”
Indeed, a recent twist on tips is surcharges levied in alternative dining restaurants.These “mandatory tips” — usually from $3.50 to $5, depending on the line — bring out the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in passengers. As a result of these fees, some passengers now scrutinize more thoroughly how they tip elsewhere aboard ship. Those who once gladly tipped suggested amounts regardless of services rendered now calculate tips by how many meals they eat and where.
Cruise lines may find themselves having to deflect attitudes similar to Kathy Bradley’s, a cruiser from Massachusetts who, as a former waitress, normally overtips on cruises: “If cruise lines expect us to tip our dining room waiters for dinners we’re not eating, then they should not expect us to accept their service charge for alternative dining.”
A number of cruisers agree that these surcharges should replace the tip to your dining room steward that night.
On the other hand, veteran cruiser Steven Faber, associate editor and cruise board host on America Online’s Cruise Critic, advises: “Even when opting for dining in the alternative venues, I always tip my dining room food servers based on the quality of their service, not on the number of meals they serve. Once you start that type of calculation, it can be carried on ad absurdum. You don’t deduct for breakfasts not eaten when you oversleep.
“It is the quality of service — not the number of plates plopped down on the table — that for me dictates the size of the gratuity.”
Inevitably, some passengers consider cruise line tip tactics tantamount to strong-arming: They may object to envelopes greeting them on the bed the last night of a cruise and tip guidelines repeated daily in shipboard newsletters. (Regardless of which ship you’re on, however, no staff member ever should solicit or badger you for tips.)
Prefer to avoid the tipping issue altogether? Opt for a cruise line with a no-tipping policy, such as Seabourn, Radisson Seven Sea and Silversea. Some ships, such as Cunard’s Sea Goddesses, also have a no-tipping policy. Tips will simply be built into the higher price of these luxury sailings.
Holland America’s “no-tip-required” policy is not the same as tipping-not-required; it merely allows passengers the option to tip as little or as much as they please. Unfortunately, this tends to confuse passengers. Onboard literature says, “You may want to tip someone who has been unusually helpful,” but suggests no amounts in its brochures. When pressed, the line recommends half the normal amount suggested aboard other ships.
On some ships, passengers can prepay tips by credit card at embarkation. Some cruisers feel this ensures better service. Devol disagrees, saying that if you’re on a vessel where incentive is important, this method can backfire. In addition, invariably there is a particularly attentive staff member you might wish to tip a bit extra or, conversely, service and attitude that make you want to tip less, Devol notes.
Flexibility is key. If you feel your service was not up to par, don’t feel obligated to tip the full amount. If it was exceptional, by all means feel free to tip more.
Establish your own guidelines and consistently follow them. To help you, here are some other tips for guiltless tipping:
– Ask about the line’s tipping policy before you book. Most lines list these in their brochures.
– If someone doesn’t provide some direct service to you, there’s no need to tip them.
– Never tip the cruise staff, such as cruise director or purser.
– Tip in U.S. dollars.
– Tipping for room service is not necessary, but it is appreciated. A dollar or two is fine.
– Finally, remember that “tips” is an acronym that originally meant “to insure prompt service.” These days, it may be more synonymous with any service rendered, but if you don’t receive the service, nothing says you have to tip. When in doubt about a line’s particular suggestions, you should feel comfortable tipping according to industry standards.
