P & O Iona Tipping

[suecee]

I have a tipping question, hopefully this won't caused any controversy 🤞

I know tipping is included but wondering if people still tip on top. There are numerous restaurants so presumably we won't have the same servers each night. In light of this was thinking we'd just tip our cabin attendant?

If you've recently been on the Iona I'd be grateful for your input, what you did etc re tipping?

We're going with family who've never cruised before do we'd like to be able to advise them too. One is on a super tight budget - sadly our original cruise was cancelled & her personal circumstances have changed since.

[kateb78]

We’ve been on Iona and Azura and did the same both times - we tipped our servers only as they provided excellent service.

As tips are already included we chose not to tip anyone else, but we all agreed that our servers went above and beyond so they deserved a bit extra. We were a large group and so tended to have the same servers in the main dining room whenever we went there - and they looked after us so well. We simply handed our main servers an envelope at the end of the cruise.

We didn’t feel obliged to do it so everyone should do whatever they’re comfortable with.

[Smilesonfaces]

We went on Iona last year. As you say tipping is included in the price with P & O. There is no obligation to tip any extra. We ate in different restaurants and went to different bars each night and did not tip extra in these. We felt the service was good in the restaurants but I wouldn’t say over and beyond. But then we are not particularly demanding customers !
We left a small tip of about £20 for the cabin steward at the end of the week and that was it. She had been very good, bringing us wine glasses and an ice bucket every night.
Tipping is one of those emotive subjects and when you read the cruise pages on Facebook and Cruisecritic it does get heated. I think a lot of people on there are Americans and they don’t really understand the concept of cruises with the tips included and there is a lot of showing off going on. There is no need to tip any extra than you have already. We are going with Princess this year and have pre paid tips. Again I will probably give the steward a small extra tip and room service is free on Princess so I will probably tip whoever delivers this too, dependant on service.

Hope you all enjoy Iona. We had a great time last summer. She was clean and modern looking. Make sure you give the fish and chips a try on the Quayside !

[meboo]

If you have different waiters every night it is difficult. We haven’t been on Iona but on other P&O we tend to have the same table every night so we still tip at the end of the cruise. I will always tip the cabin steward (just as I would leave a tip in a hotel room). You are under no obligation to. My personal view is that I doubt the staff’s wages were properly increased to offset the lack of tipping and I do find the service to be very good. The one things about cruising (which I love and do frequently) which concerns me are the staff wages, especially those brought in from India and the Philippines, to work long hours.

[Smilesonfaces]

Originally Posted by meboo

The one things about cruising (which I love and do frequently) which concerns me are the staff wages, especially those brought in from India and the Philippines, to work long hours.

See more...

I don’t want to get in to a discussion about tipping. I believe in everyone following their own judgement. I do object to people on FB bragging about removing the auto gratuities though.

Out of pure interest what would be the average wage of cabin and waiting on staff ? The tips are an unknown quantity but they must have a basic ?

[Love*my*hols]

We have been on 3 P & O cruises recently and haven't tipped any extra. We did take a goody bag with sweets,toiletries etc for the room steward when they were not allowed to get off the ship but no extra tips

[JAF]

We had problems once on a Princess cruise whereby we were at the end of the run for our cabin steward and our cabin was almost round a corner and he forgot several times to make the room up plus when we arrived it had barely been cleaned with quite a few items of clothing and rubbish left behind. We spoke to him the first couple of times about this and he promised to remember us but eventually we did go to customer services to complain and see if his tip could be reduced. Problem is if you cannot just remove tips from one person it seemed to be all or nothing or reduce the percentage. Would be much simpler if you receive continuous poor service from one person you can reduce that person’s tip.

[meboo]

Originally Posted by Smilesonfaces

I don’t want to get in to a discussion about tipping. I believe in everyone following their own judgement. I do object to people on FB bragging about removing the auto gratuities though.

Out of pure interest what would be the average wage of cabin and waiting on staff ? The tips are an unknown quantity but they must have a basic ?

See more...

It is really difficult to establish that they are paid - which is a concern for me in itself. It seems from Glassdoor and recruitment agencies in India that it is around £800 to £1000 per month, but some reports are 50% less than this. I think, given the hours they work, it must be a very low amount per hour. P&O cruises made a great deal of making people aware that they are not P&O ferries, when the ferry company sacked their workers and employed them on less money. They did not make it clear that they paid their workers any more! I think European and US staff get paid more but they seem to do very different roles.

[YorkshireT]

They say tips are included, so tips are included. Why tip?
Having said that on the Disney cruise we went on where your servers follow you around, ours were so amazing (one even spotting me and wanting me to sit down and serve me in the lunchtime buffet) we gave them another £20 cash in hand on top of the tips Disney charge. Unfortunately it was a cruise out of Newcastle and that was all the cash we had as I was not expecting to receive such exceptional service I felt compelled to give more.

[suecee]

Thanks everyone that's really helpful. Very excited to go on this cruise after numerous holiday cancellations. We should have been on the Iona for her 2nd outing so a bit disappointed she won't be quite so new but at least most issues with a new ship will have been sorted.