Sateroom attendant

[DVCSunDevil]

Wow. That makes me want to double my tips next time. Nothing like spending 6 grand on a vacation and then begrudging somebody 15 bucks for their hard work.

We just got off the treasure yesterday and I added another $30 in cash to the tip for the room attendant. They are always so nice and go over the top with any requests. We brought a couple bottles of wine for the room and our attendant saw that and brought two wine glasses and an opener for us, unprompted. Then we had room service bring breakfast on a couple mornings...don't forget that the room attendant is responsible for cleaning that stuff up. We always throw in some more money for the room attendants...they work their TAILS off!

 

[Djm_in_buffalo]

A mandatory tip is not a tip.

So, just skip the whole thing. Disney can pay their employees better and the rest of us can stop worrying about it. Everyone wins.

This exactly.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

This exactly.

I think DCL includes “mandatory” tips to let people who may not be aware (like people from European countries) know that they are supposed to tip these people. The tip DCL mandates is a starting point, and then you can tip more for exceptional service. I’m sure all the employees who are filling these roles are appreciative of this.

For someone to go out of their way to remove these tips is ridiculous. If someone can’t or doesn’t want to tip, then don’t go on the cruise. It’s pretty simple.

 

[Kwami]

I think DCL includes “mandatory” tips to let people who may not be aware (like people from European countries) know that they are supposed to tip these people. The tip DCL mandates is a starting point, and then you can tip more for exceptional service. I’m sure all the employees who are filling these roles are appreciative of this.

For someone to go out of their way to remove these tips is ridiculous. If someone can’t or doesn’t want to tip, then don’t go on the cruise. It’s pretty simple.

Yes, we know how it currently works.

The point is that the current system is stupid. Disney should just remove the pre-set gratuities entirely and increase the cost of the cruise and the salaries of those employees by the same amount. Save us all from the pointless "tip" game.

 

[happycamper47]

Yes, we know how it currently works.

The point is that the current system is stupid. Disney should just remove the pre-set gratuities entirely and increase the cost of the cruise and the salaries of those employees by the same amount. Save us all from the pointless "tip" game.

But it's not just DCL..most play the game.

 

[Djm_in_buffalo]

I think DCL includes “mandatory” tips to let people who may not be aware (like people from European countries) know that they are supposed to tip these people. The tip DCL mandates is a starting point, and then you can tip more for exceptional service. I’m sure all the employees who are filling these roles are appreciative of this.

For someone to go out of their way to remove these tips is ridiculous. If someone can’t or doesn’t want to tip, then don’t go on the cruise. It’s pretty simple.

Not sure why I’m being quoted here. I understand suggested gratuities. But, I don’t advocate for either mandatory ‘gratuities’ or opting out of said ‘gratuities’. I didn’t even comment on it.

Regardless of service industry setting, I tip when I receive a service competently performed. I tip in line with better American tippers, which is to say, I think percentage wise, I tip a good bit more than the average Canadian and most every European.

However, I continue to believe that a gratuity should only apply if a true service was competently performed. For a ‘gratuity’ to be akin to an expected, baked-in amount to be added on to the bill as an ‘option’, regardless of the quality of services performed, if they were even performed at all… in that situation, just pay the workers a fair wage and get rid of the charade of it being optional.

I suspect that on most cruises, the staff, predominantly from developing nations, make more pre-tip base money than they would be able to make at home (https://www.businessinsider.com/cruise-ship-workers-reveal-how-much-money-they-make-2019-5) . Then add in the perk of room and board.

So while $x might seem low for NYC, Miami, or somewhere in rural America, that exact same amount of money can go a lot farther in many other places. Likely places where tipping everybody/anybody at minimum 15, 18, 20%, regardless of if they even did anything, is unheard of.

If the cruise line expects its staff to earn $___ regardless of quality of service provided, then adjust the sticker price so that the staff make that.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

For someone to go out of their way to remove these tips is ridiculous. If someone can’t or doesn’t want to tip, then don’t go on the cruise. It’s pretty simple.

I agree with you on actually requesting tips to be removed when a cruise line charges them to your stateroom that's not fair to do that, people should look for a cruise line better suited to them in this case (as again there are lines that tips are already factored into the cruise fare).

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm assuming the OP is talking about additional tipping and not what is auto charged, when stating they didn't tip.

We've been on 10 DCL cruises. On all of them we left the 'auto' tip in place, so everyone received something. However, on 2 cruises we did not give the MDR servers any additional tip because we didn't use the MDR for those cruises so they received the auto tip for, I guess, services they provided on CC. Our first cruise we didn't leave any additional tip for the room attendant because in the 3 days we cruised it was a different person every day - sometimes twice a day - so we figured the person assigned to our cabin was sick. We found this confusing and didn't tip extra. One guy was in a white officer uni.

On two cruises we were all over the place with our schedule and a few times attendants missed our evening service but that was our fault. The service provided otherwise was wonderful so that additional tip was reflective on service that would've been provided if we'd've let them. One room attendant we tipped less extra because I constantly had to remake the bed along with having to put up with DH telling me to stop and call the attendant back. Apparently, some people don't mind sleeping on wrinkles but I'm not one of those. LOL

My last comment on tipping relates to the land portion of our vacations. We leave a tip even if staying for 1 night because we use everything - bathroom, kitchen, bed - we touch it all and the room definitely needs to be put back in order. So yes, IMO, a 1N stay needs a tip.

My comment on the Room Occupied tag is that when we hang that on the door we REALLY want to be UNDISTURBED. So all of those who hang that tag on the door all day are a PITA.

On our last cruise (not with DCL though) our room host just mentioned to us that if we wanted our room to be serviced to make sure to leave by 1:30pm. I plan on asking on our upcoming cruise what those room hosts say for the cut off time for them. It wasn't really an issue with us as we were always on an excursion or in port or at least away from our room but this time we have sea days when our last cruise we did not.

No need to presume something about passengers who leave it up all day so long as they know it means the room won't be serviced; there are a variety of reasons why someone would be in their room all day for example including sea sickness for one, needing to rest for another or maybe they plan on being in and out of their room too frequently for cleaning. In the case of the OP it was multiple days at a time for no-health related reason and that can much more easily be an issue and overly burden the employees once the passenger disembarks.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

Not sure why I’m being quoted here.

If the cruise line expects its staff to earn $___ regardless of quality of service provided, then adjust the sticker price so that the staff make that.

I quoted you because your comment of “This exactly” was a reply about how DCL could just get rid of tips altogether. I get what you are saying, but that isn't how the service industry works. Take servers and bartenders in your local city, for example. Those people earn an hourly wage, but a large portion of what they make is based on tips. In your (and others) suggestion, if the restaurant simply gave those bartenders and servers a higher hourly wage the restaurant would actually be hurting the bartenders and servers who go out of their way to provide great service (and thus EARN greater tips). In that model, if customers knew the tip was "built into" their bill then most wouldn't give an extra tip for exemplary service. The same things goes for anyone in a service job. So regarding DVC and other cruise lines, here is what would happen if they moved to that model (which has been proven out in studies and models on "regression to the mean"):
- DCL raises the rates to include the tips that are currently added, eliminating the tips and just increasing the salary for each employee (the model some on here have teed up as a good alternative)
- The tipped employees (stateroom stewards, servers, etc.) then start to see less added gratuities from guests because the guests are told that all gratuities are now included
- The tipped employees are then less likely to go out of their way for extra service, knowing that they probably won't get tipped extra for going "the extra mile"...so the level of customer service declines

I get that some don't like tipping and that other cruise lines use a different model than DVC, but DVC does it the way they do it (as well as other cruise lines). If the end result is the same cost of the trip (using the current model compared to adding the tip to the cost of the trip), then what does it matter? Guests can simply choose to tip only the amount that is added or add some extra for great service...it's up to each guest and it keeps the staff motivated to keep going above and beyond. Just like any other service industry in America. And if guests don't like it and prefer to use a cruise line that builds the tips into the fare of the cruise, then they should do that.

At any rate, it sounds like everyone on here agrees that the stateroom attendants should be compensated for their job (either via tip or having the tip added to the cruise cost and the attendant getting a higher salary). So, if someone decides to cruise on DCL (under the current model of getting tipped) then that person should NOT be demanding that the stateroom attendant's tip be removed from their bill. This threat started with the OP stating they demanded the stateroom attendant not get their tip, which is totally bush league.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

Yes, we know how it currently works.

The point is that the current system is stupid. Disney should just remove the pre-set gratuities entirely and increase the cost of the cruise and the salaries of those employees by the same amount. Save us all from the pointless "tip" game.

"Stupid" or not, that is how DVC does it. We can only deal in reality, not "what ifs" or "they should do it this way". So if someone doesn't like the way DVC does it, then they shouldn't cruise on Disney Cruise Line. But if they DO cruise on DCL, then do it knowing that the tip will be added and they have the choice if they want to tip more or not. Fairly simple.