P & O Iona Tipping

[katiec68]

We have been on Iona twice and again on her next year.

We didnt tip in restaurants - but we did give our cabin steward a nice big tip at the end of both cruises.

Its difficult to tip the waiters/staff on freedom dining though as you will rarely have the same table.

We once spoke to our cabin steward when tips were "not included" and they informed us that if people complain they get their % of their wages (I think it was wages but it could have been tips - it was a while ago!) docked - with the % increasing if there are more than one complaint - and the complaint doesnt even have to be verified - just made.

Of course he was unable to say where they "retained" portion of the money went...

[SquishTheWhale]

Good question to ask here and not on sites like Cruise Critic which are full of people from the US! They would be suggesting you stuff $20 notes in the pocket of every crew member who passes you, just in case they serve you at one point.

In all seriousness, no I do not tip anything extra on P&O as they state tips are included, and I do not tip extra on top of the auto grats on other lines. In my book included/paid tips are included/paid tips and double tipping is totally down to your own choice and should never be expected.
The one exception to this would be room service where I would usually give a small tip for delivery.

[Leanne1977]

We have been on Iona twice now and just tipped the cabin steward extra. We tipped £50 on our 2 week cruise and £30 on our 1week cruise. They were wonderful both times.

[suecee]

Thanks everyone ☺️

[holidaysaver75]

No expectation to tip is created. There are no envelopes left in case you want to tip and as others have said, you rarely have the same waiter twice so that expectation isn’t there.

The only reference to tipping is if you buy a service you have to sign for where there’s a tip option on the receipt, but there doesn’t seem to be any expectation this will be used.

[suecee]

Thanks 🙂

[jas72]

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.

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I don't particularly like it either but the other side of the coin is what would some of these people be doing had they not signed up to work on ships?

On Royal Caribbean a room steward gets at least 15$ per cabin per day in tips on top of their salary.

Supposing they have 10 cabins that's 150$ per day, more if they have 3-4 berth cabins. Around 4500$/€ a month in tips alone. Many people tip on top of this as well.

I know many people who don't earn anywhere near that amount in full time jobs. I appreciate they work very hard for their money cleaning and tidying each room several times a day however let's not pretend that this isn't a great wage for someone from a relatively poor country.