On ships on which I am a regular passenger and am known by the crew, I tip bartenders on the last ni

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"A $10 per person, per day service charge will be automatically added to shipboard account." hotels houston intercontinental airport "No tipping required." "Gratuities included." "Envelopes and tipping guides available at the Information Center."
There is probably no topic more discussed onboard among novice cruisers and old salts alike than tipping: when to tip, how much to tip, whom to tip. Having sailed on more than 105 cruises over 45 years, let me weigh in on the discussion.
First of all, it's important to understand that, technically speaking, no tip is ever required. A tip is a voluntary expression of thanks. The gratuities distributed onboard the modern cruise ship, however, are not just tips. There are exceptions, but most cruise lines pay the men and women who serve their passengers an extremely low base wage (by Western standards). On nearly all big-ship mainstream lines, the service crewmembers are dependent on the generosity of travelers for the vast majority of their salary. Luxury cruise lines often have no-tipping policies. hotels houston intercontinental airport In these cases, the gratuities are built into the fares.
Part of the difficulty with tipping is the English language. Where other tongues have two words for tip, English has only one. The French draw a distinction between service and pourboire . The first is the unavoidable cost of being waited on; the second is an expression of thanks for exemplary service.
It is only somewhat recently that cruise hotels houston intercontinental airport lines began placing automatic service charges on shipboard accounts. They did this for two reasons. The first reason was the rising number of Europeans traveling on cruise ships. Europeans are accustomed hotels houston intercontinental airport to having a service charge added to their bills at first-class hotels. It is not in their culture to tip further. Likewise, it is not the custom in Japan to tip at all. As cruise lines attracted passengers from countries where tipping is not customary, they added service charges to guarantee their employees' compensation.
The second hotels houston intercontinental airport reason for the service charge was the proliferation of alternative dining venues. That a new ship will have multiple dining venues beyond the buffet and main dining room is now the norm rather than the exception. In the golden days of the ocean liner, passengers dined at the same table each day for three meals and tipped their assigned waiters, assistant waiters and head waiters. With programs like "Personal Choice Dining" and "Freestyle Cruising," passengers are no longer tied to one team of waiters.
Over the course of the week, they may encounter a number of servers in the process. Because it might be impractical for passengers to tip on each occasion and cruise lines have touted the advantages of cashless cruising the lines implemented service charges.
If you ask at the Purser's Office or Information Center whether the automatic service charge replaces traditional tipping, the answer hotels houston intercontinental airport you will receive is "yes." But it is anyone's guess just how much of the daily charge on your account will go to a particular steward or waiter. Tips are distributed on a schedule that includes those who previously went unrewarded like the servers in the Lido restaurant where most passengers eat their breakfast and lunch. To accomplish the admirable task of compensating the overlooked steward hotels houston intercontinental airport without causing undue complaint from passengers, the amount given to dining room and room stewards is less under this scheme than it was previously. I know this because hotels houston intercontinental airport I have asked stewards who have served under both systems. The top cabin and dining room stewards made out better before.
Because tips are technically voluntary, many cruise lines allow passengers to opt out of the automatic service charge and to tip by themselves. The chief reasons for this, according to fellow cruisers, is that they consider them too high. These cruisers invariably tell me they will tip only the people who serve them and save money to boot.
It is impossible to tip all the people in front of and behind the scenes whose efforts enhance passengers' shipboard experiences. Dining room waiters often take turns in the Lido restaurant, serve tea in the lounge and attend the midnight buffet. Does anyone tip the steward who serves him/her tea in the afternoon? I never have, and I don't know anyone else who has either. The exceptions are passengers hotels houston intercontinental airport who take their tea in lounges restricted to suite holders, who are served daily by the same steward.
As cruise lines court an increasingly international passenger base, some operators are beginning to wonder if a one-size-fits-all service fee is the best option. In a groundbreaking move, P&O Cruises Australia announced recently that it would be ending its policy of automatically adding gratuities to passengers' onboard accounts. Royal Caribbean also recently noted that it may reevaluate its policy in order to account for the culturally based tipping differences between its U.S. and European passengers. For now, however, service charges on mainstream mega-ships are here to stay, and they are a fair attempt hotels houston intercontinental airport to compensate employees and to allow for increased passengers mobility among bars and restaurants. Consider them a hidden cost of the cruise like port charges and government fees. They allow the cruise lines to keep fares low by shifting part of their costs to passengers. When considering hotels houston intercontinental airport a cruise, add the cost of gratuities that will be charged to your shipboard account when you plan your budget.
The guide that appears below, then, is not for tips as service i.e. auto-gratuities, which should in all but the most remarkable hotels houston intercontinental airport cases be left untouched (or adjusted upward) but for tips as pourboire. In all my years of cruising I can recall only once having received hotels houston intercontinental airport anything less than deft, professional hotels houston intercontinental airport service from shipboard service personnel, and I consider it a privilege to be able to thank them in a way they appreciate.
It is customary to tip cabin stewards and butlers, dining room waiters, assistant hotels houston intercontinental airport waiters and head waiters on the last night of the cruise. Alas, I have been present hotels houston intercontinental airport when tablemates have not shown up that night to avoid giving tips. I have answered waiters' hotels houston intercontinental airport anxious queries about the whereabouts of shipboard acquaintances and seen their chagrin.
On some ships, envelopes hotels houston intercontinental airport for gratuities are left in cabins. On others, you can pick them up from a display at the Purser's Office or Information Center. On others still, you must ask for them. While envelopes are certainly the way to go in giving most tips, it is much nicer to use your own. I always bring a supply of gift enclosure envelopes, available from stationers. These are smaller than the envelopes provided by cruise lines and can more easily be palmed to the recipient during a handshake. I always write thank you on the envelope, include my cabin or table number and sitting hotels houston intercontinental airport and sign my name. I want my waiters hotels houston intercontinental airport to know who tipped them and how much.
I have seen advice to the effect that it is permissible to leave a cabin steward's tip on the pillow when leaving for dinner the last night of a cruise. That is a custom whose time has passed. Today cabin stewards are assisted by helpers who do the heavy cleaning. These personnel are tipped in their turn by the stewards out of what they receive. It is not a good idea to tempt cleaners by leaving money in plain sight. It is better to hand an envelope to the steward, even if that means waiting for him or her.
The cabin steward and butler, the dining room waiters, and assistant and head waiter are tipped on the last night of the cruise. But there are exceptions to this rule. If you plan to do a lot of entertaining in your cabin, or if there is an infant or someone who is ill in your party, you will require extra service from your cabin steward. It is a good idea to give him/her a portion of his/her tip at the beginning of the cruise. You will be surprised how obliging that will make him/her.
On ships on which I am a regular passenger and am known by the crew, I tip bartenders on the last night of the voyage, using an envelope. On certain ships, I choose my bar by the bartender. If a bartender remembers me from previous sailings, knows my drink and asks for my family by name, I know he/she keeps a record book of regular passengers. The cruise line will have provided the names of returning passengers to the crew. A good crewmember will have gone over the list, compared it with his/her record book and be prepared for my arrival. These members of the crew are worth their weight in gold; I reward them accordingly.
I once cruised on a ship on which I did not care to return to the table to which I had been assigned. I dined half the remaining nights hotels houston intercontinental airport in the alternative hotels houston intercontinental airport restaurant and the other half in the dining room. For four nights, the dining room maitre d' obliged with a window hotels houston intercontinental airport table for two. Knowing I would be back with the same request, I tipped him each time he produced a table. He always feigned embarrassment, but he never failed to have a table waiting. Because I had different waiters each night, I tipped them each night in cash. Instead of a waiter thinking he/she had an additional table to serve and one that would not produce revenue, hotels houston intercontinental airport I had, as word spread, happy, hotels houston intercontinental airport cooperative waiters.
For the following guidelines, I am going to assume that there is a service hotels houston intercontinental airport charge added to the daily account, usually between $10 and $12 per person, per day and that passengers will pay it and not opt out. These, then, are pourboires for exemplary service. Looking at it another way, I always try to tip roughly 10 percent of the cost of my cabin, which includes the service charge and so I typically budget at least $15 to 20 per person, per day, on top of the service charge.
Room Service Stewards: I tip room service stewards $2 per visit. It is no easier hotels houston intercontinental airport to deliver for one than for two, so the tip would be the