Carnival Tipping
 

Hi all.
Just trying to work out finances for our cruise. We have not prepaid gratuities. We would prefer to give individually.

Does anyonyone have an idea what would be a reasonable amount to give to the cabin steward and also the waiter.

I'm just looking at an average amount. Obviously we will give more for over and above service. There will be two of us.

Also. we are doing a 2 week back to back cruise. Would you give the tips at the end of the first week or wait until the end of both cruises? (We won't be moving cabins for the second cruise)

Thanks
James

Gratuities will be automatically added to your on board account at the rate of $13.99 per person per day inc children over 2yo. I think on Carnival it is added to your on board account on the penultimate day of each cruise if doing a b2b. If you wish to tip individuals you would have to ensure gratuities are removed from your on board account by visiting the front desk. In addition a service charge of 18% is added to all bar purchases including soft drinks.
Again, I don’t know about Carnival, but on other cruise lines within Carnival Corporation, if you tip individuals and removed the automatic gratuities, those staff are required to put the tips you give into the communal pot - it’s a requirement of their contract. If you leave the auto gratuities in place, staff can keep the additional tips you give.

Hi. Thanks for the information. We were going to prepay the gratuities, but when we worked it out, it came to almost the price of one of my cruises. So we decided against it.

We would prefer to tip the people that help with our cruise. Such as the waiter and assistant, and the cabin steward. We drink very little, and as you say, 18% is added to the drinks anyway. I just wondered if anyone had a ball park figure to tip cabin stewards and waiters.

I know this conversation has the potential to start a big debate about tipping, but that is not my intention. I just don't believe that part of my gratuities should go to people like the Head waiter.etc. We were on a Royal Caribbean cruise from Southampton 2 years ago, and prepaid the gratuities. The couple on the next table to us had the waiter and his assistant up the wall, complaining about everything to do with the food. After 3 days of this they had the head waiter at their table at every meal to make sure everything was to their satisfaction. (He never even said hello to us the whole 2 weeks)

At the other end of everything, the cabin steward was amazing, as was the waiter who served us for the whole cruise. They both went out of their way to help us, so we tipped them extra at the end of the cruise.

I really hope this does not cause a big debate about the rights and wrongs of tipping on a cruise. I just feel that I have already paid a lot for the cruise, and I don't think we should be expected to pay hundreds of $ or £s extra as tips.

Thanks again for your help
James

Seeing as the head waiter only gets about $1-2 per person,per day you wont be saving much if you still pay the suggested gratuity to the waiter,assistant and room steward even if you pay it directly to them.If you think this is too much well that is your opinion but you did say you were going to tip those who helped you .

As Omega1 said - by not prepaying (& they will know that you are not) they will most probably have to hand over any money they receive directly from you.
I agree thst over 2 weeks the total tip will be considerable but overall a cruise cost including gratuities is pretty good value.
Personally I dislike the 18% on alchohol as service on this can be pretty slow.

On an upcoming cruise, the gratuity that will be added to our on board account represents 23% of the fare we paid. That feels more like a tax to supplement staff wages than a tip!

I completely agree ,I wish they would include it in the fare and pay the staff a reasonable wage .

Hi Thanks for the replies. I knew as soon as I posted this question that it would cause some controversy. All I wanted to know was, if we stopped the gratuities and tipped those that we had interaction with, what would be a reasonable tip to give them. We are not mean by any means, and will always tip more for good service.

I did a search for cruise head waiter salaries, and it appears that Carnival pay a base salary of around $40000. For some strange reason, they are also included in the tipping system.

Please note, I do not wish to upset anyone on this forum. It was just a simple question. It took me a while before I decided to ask the good people on here. It seems I may have made a mistake. But we all have our own ideas about what we think we should do, so
please accept my apologies if I have annoyed anyone with my comments :(
James

You are correct, everyone has their own ideas. Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks just make your own decision. I will be perfectly honest I thought the suggested tip amount on Royal Caribbean was outrageous. We were 2 adults 2 teens in one cabin. I didn’t think the service was anything special except in the speciality restaurants. I paid 2 lots of tips at the end of the cruise, paid tips separately for the waiters in the specialty restaurants and the cabin steward. We had a drinks package so bar tips were included, I just gave a dollar per drink if the waiter brought the drink to the table or pool lounger.

Do what you think best.

You’re getting upset but I don’t think anyone is criticising. They are just pointing out that if you don’t tip the head waiter. The waiter will have to give him part of his tip anyway.

You can tip them whatever you are comfortable with.

Take a look here for a suggested breakdown

http://cruisetip.tpkeller.com/

Unfortunately over 2 weeks all the suggestions will add up.