TIPPING
For those who have never cruised before, the shock of reading about the recommended tips can cause a few heart palpitations!
On DCL, the recommended amount (as of Jul 19) is $13.50 per person per day.
This includes ALL of your children, but before you decide this is unfair, please know the following ..
Your children will receive the same exemplorary service that you exepct and receive. Their beds will be made up in the morning and turned down at night, they will have their food cut up by the waiters (if necessary), they have the best childrens clubs on the high seas and seasoned cruisers will all agree that the stateroom hosts and servers are worth every penny of their tips.
Your dining room servers don't just serve you evening meals, they work all over the ship during the day too. They serve breakfast and lunch in the buffet or sit down restaurants, they work in the fast food outlets on deck and also on Castaway Cay if you're lucky enough to be going there.
There are 4 tipped positions on DCL, these are:
Head Server $1 pdpg (per day per guest).
Server $4.50 pdpg
Asst Server $3.50 pdpg
Stateroom Host $4.50 pdpg
They automatically deduct the recommended amount from the credit card you have registered to your onboard account. On the second to last evening, you will come back to your room to find some receipts and envelopes. You put the receipts in the envelopes and hand to your servers/stateroom host on the last night. If you wanted to add or deduct from the recommended amount, you could still do this at GS before you hand the envelopes over. You could also just add cash which is what we tend to do.
If you dont have a credit card registered, you will need to go to GS to pay your tips.
It is a cruise industry norm to give tips as above, so please don't shy away from them. Just see how well you are treated and how hard these people work .. then see how you feel. They work every day with no days off for at least 4 months - no days off at all!
Right or wrong, most cruise staff have tips as their salary.
Non tipped positions include the club counsellors who also work very hard to entertain your children. I don't know the exact ruling on giving them money, but a little bird did tell me that the American counsellors really like getting chewing gum and the British ones, of course, want Cadbury's chocolate and Jelly Babies!
One last thing about tips is the compulsory ones added to your bar bill. Order anything from a bar and you should expect to see a 18% gratuity added on. The 18% is shared between all of the Food and Beverage team, but you can add more to the receipt if you wish and that extra goes direct to the person serving you.
Alongside the tips, at the end of your cruise, you will also be given a comments form. At your last nights dinner, you may be 'encouraged' to give ratings of excellent for the staff you have encountered. Don't feel pressured, they do this as it's the only marking that's acceptable to DCL. If you feel a particular member of staff has gone above and beyond their normal duties, then you should report this to GS on a comment card. Each time a member of crew gets a mention by a cruiser, it helps them get little perks such as one shift off. It means an awful lot to the crew, so please make it known to GS if someone has impressed you.
We always ask GS for extra paper as you only get 2 lines to mention how great the crew were - rubbish space!
Equally, if you are disappointed with something or someone, please give GS a chance to sort it out. Don't keep quiet then moan about it when you get back ... they will sort it out if they can, give them a chance!
