Tipping & Room Service

[DisneyWitch]

Hi Seasoned Travelers! Tried to search for this topic, but it didn't turn out as well as I hoped - but I did try! We are cruising in May (it's our 2nd cruise - last one was in 2019), and I could use some advice and guidance.

Background: I know that meals are included in our trip, but my spouse and I are considering room service in the morning for coffee and hot water (for my tea) to jump start our day. From 2019, I remember that room service on DCL was free, but tipping was recommended. No problem with that, but I forget how I paid for said tips since I was quarantined in my room due to illness 6 out of the 7 days - what a way to spend my very first cruise to celebrate my 50th birthday, right? Needless to say, much of my Caribbean cruise was a bit of a hazy blur.

I have pre-paid my regular gratuities, but realize that tipping for things like alcoholic drinks, room service and other ad-hoc services are additional. As I'm preparing for my trip, I want to make sure I have everything properly budgeted and ready.

Question(s): Can I bill these additional tips to my room tab, to be resolved when I pay my room charges, or should I bring a wad of cash for these tips? This would determine if I need to visit our bank for a bunch of $5 bills or if I can just pay my tips digitally with our room charges - and do those tips then find their way to our servers? While I'm not thrilled about keeping an envelope of cash in my purse like I'm going to a strip club, I also want to make sure that the people who are taking care of us are appropriately compensated and don't feel like we're stiffing them because we weren't prepared. PS - is room service still free on DCL, or has that changed in the past 6 years?

What do you do, and what is the best way to handle additional tips?

 

[Bad Pink Tink 2.0]

Question(s): Can I bill these additional tips to my room tab, to be resolved when I pay my room charges,

Yes you can do this.

or should I bring a wad of cash for these tips?

Yes you can do this.

if I can just pay my tips digitally with our room charges - and do those tips then find their way to our servers?

When you get room service sign the receipt and add a tip. If there is no receipt, ask the CM what their name is, write it down and go to guest services and get them to add the tip digitally to your account. You will need the CM name, that it was a room service delivery and the time of the delivery.

PS - is room service still free on DCL, or has that changed in the past 6 years?

Yes room service is still "free", included in the price of your cruise. However there are items on the room service menu which do have a charge.

 

[DisneyWitch]

Thank you so much for your quick and so thorough reply! So helpful!

 

[RedHead0186]

Bad Tink Pink 2.0 covered a lot of it. Note that when you purchase beverages, an 18% autogratuity is added. You can add more gratuity to that if you like.

For room service, you can tip in cash or add to the receipt. Even for free items it's nice to tip a couple of dollars for each item. As Tink noted you can also add the gratuity via guest services if you don't want to do cash and you don't have a receipt.

I usually just bring a big wad of $1 bills and keep them near the door. Then whenever we do room service I can just grab a few dollars in cash as appropriate.

 

[Geomom]

For the free room service, we have never received a slip to sign/add tips. We just give them cash, generally $1/item. Or $5/$10 for a tray of stuff. I find they try to leave the food very quickly, especially morning when we use it as a wake up call to get ready for early excursions.

 

[DisneyWitch]

Super grateful for all this information - this will be SO helpful in my planning, especially giving the denomination advice (how much you normally give) so that I'm in line. I didn't realize there was an automatic 18% gratuity - which is in line with what I give normally - so that's good to keep in mind.

Even though I'm not a young chickie by any stretch, this is our honeymoon cruise (after 20 years together we finally got hitched), so we want to make sure that we have no unhappy surprises!

Thank you all - I love this community!

 

[BStieers]

We bring cash to tip room service & porters, it is just easier all around for us.

 

[sponica]

I usually just bring a big wad of $1 bills and keep them near the door. Then whenever we do room service I can just grab a few dollars in cash as appropriate.

I remember my husband thought I was bonkers with how many 5s and 1s I brought with me....well we ended up using most of them.

 

[tvguy]

I usually just bring a big wad of $1 bills and keep them near the door. Then whenever we do room service I can just grab a few dollars in cash as appropriate.

OLD TIME Disney cruiser here. The recommendation when I joined this board was to have a wad of $2 bills for tips for that type situation.

 

[BStieers]

OLD TIME Disney cruiser here. The recommendation when I joined this board was to have a wad of $2 bills for tips for that type situation.

We are still those $2 bill folks

 

[Skippyboo]

The room service breakfast order is in the desk drawer. Just mark it up and put it on your door the night before.

Small bills cash tips: Porter at the port, Room service, port excursions guide/drivers.

I have also stuck some extra cash in the tip envelopes for servers and room steward even though I prepaid. You can also go to guest services and add more tip which gets charged to your onboard account.

 

[tvguy]

We are still those $2 bill folks

I am still sorting out what to do about tipping for my next trip. It is on Princess, a week land tour of historic U.S. sites on the east coast, that ends with being dropped off at the ship in NYC to board for an eastern cruise with stops in Halifax, St Johns, Canada, and Boston and Newport USA.
There is no option to charge tips for the tour guide we will have for seven days on land. Suggested tip is $7-$9 per person for each of the 7 days. So will need roughly $140 cash U.S. for that.
We pre-paid our tips on the ship, but will probably add some individual cash tips for the cabin steward, server, assistant server and Wine Steward, Maybe $100 there U.S.. Cash.
We have two excursions in Canada, so will need tip money there, probably less than $50 Canadian cash. And I know I can likely put lunch on a credit card, but I feel odd charging a soda. I gather cards are more frequently used in Canada, but here, some places here have a 75 cent surcharge for charges under $10. I was in Vancouver Victoria in 2019 and U.S. currency was welcome on a dollar for dollar basis. That makes sense as the merchant makes about 40% more taking U.S. dollars, but not sure with the current political climate if that will still be the case. And my added issue, my mom was Canadian and kept Canadian currency on hand for emergency trips to Canada. So I inherited about $100 Canadian from her, HOWEVER it is all in small denominations, Canada phased out paper currency for coins over the years and as of January 1, 20021 $1, $5 and $25 dollar paper bills are no longer considered legal tender. I gather if I get time I can exchange them at a bank in Canada, but one and two dollar coins (loonies and toonies) are so much more cumbersome to deal with than paper bills, especially when having to go through metal detectors at airports and getting on cruise ships.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

We tip electronically in most situations, with the exception of room service crew, luggage porters at the port and airports, bell service and and parking valets at the resorts, and the bus drivers who handle our luggage between the port and resort/airport. For these, cash works best for us.

 

[unrequited23]

We always use cash for room service tips. For us, it's been hit or miss if they have you sign a slip. We just keep our envelope of small bills in the safe and pull out what we need when we make our room service call/put the door hanger order out.