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Think Practical When Giving a Waiter or Steward a Gift?

Written by T.I. Cruiser on September 30, 2010 · Leave a Comment

When on a cruise there are typically two members of the crew that will forever occupy a place in your memory; your dining room waiter and your cabin steward. These are the guys who will address you by name (usually preceded by a Mr. or Miss), you will interact with them more than any other member and usually you will either thank or blame them for your onboard experience. While all of them receive extensive training, their abilities will usually range from average to spectacular. If you cruise enough I guarantee there will even be some that you talk about years after you have left them. A great cabin steward or waiter can indeed leave a lasting memory. This leads me to the question what is the best way to thank them?

Cabin stewards and waiters both get tips and while I will always encourage you tip add a little something extra when it is warranted, some cruisers go a bit further by giving a special gift to these crew members. These gifts very in size, shape and utility but are they even appropriate? My belief is that they really are neither useful nor practical.

While I usually do leave a bottle in the room for my cabin steward this is usually done for my own reasons rather than for their benefit; sometimes you just don’t feel like lugging that fourth bottle of rum back home with you. While this goes against what I am about to say, I do know that deep down in the bowels of the ship there are usually raging parties going on so I know those bottles will get used. Even if the crew member doesn’t drink they can give it away or trade it to someone who does drink. However, most non-consumable gifts really are more of a burden than a gift.

Crew members stay in small cabins with up to three other roomates making space a limiting factor. Due to this space issue giving away knick-knacks isn’t the best course of action. You all know how small cabins are on a cruise ship. Now imagine having to live in that cabin with 3 other people for a period of 9 months. While it doesn’t seem like a souvenir t-shirt would be that big of a deal imagine if a couple of passengers gave them away on each sailing. You could easily be looking at over 50 t-shirts added to the already scarce closet space; not a good scenario. The same could be said about knick-knacks such as magnets, snow globes, scale models of the Sears tower or just about anything else you can think of; the gesture will be appreciated but in the end its really just more clutter.

What gifts are okay to give a crew member?

There are some things that crew members will find useful that do not occupy much space. Things like pre-paid phone cards, personalized notes and of course cash will always be useful and appreciated. Best of all they take up hardly any space and will be used. My personal preference is cash wrapped in a personalized note. While anyone can open up a wallet and hand someone a wad of dough, taking the time out of your vacation to write a personalized note really goes a long way to showing just how much you valued the memories they helped to create.

Remember the bulk of the crew members signed on to make enough money to support a family back home or at the very least earn enough money to provide a better life for themselves. The thought behind giving someone a “gift” is great but in the end unless its something they can sell on eBay it really doesn’t help them accomplish their end goal.

When Tipping How Much Is Enough?

Written by T.I. Cruiser on May 26, 2010 · Leave a Comment

The simple answer would be no, the recommendations are sufficient. The longer answer is an amalgamation of factors such as, do you think those who you are considering tipping extra merely did their jobs or went above and beyond the call of duty, how demanding were you as a passenger or even whether or not you stayed within your budget on that particular cruise (if didn’t spend as much as you planned why not spread a little of it out).

As most of you know all cruise lines have a certain amount they suggest you tip. Usually, the suggested tipping amount is just fine. In fact, most cruise lines make it easy for you to follow those guidelines by allowing you to have the tips automatically added to your account. If you want to go a step further you could pre-pay the gratuities before you even board, this is what I like to do as it reduces how much I spend onboard. The question then becomes, should I ever tip more than what is recommended?

While I have only experienced bad service once on a cruise I also rarely experience what I would call “exceptional service”, most seem to fall somewhere in the middle. First let me talk about the time I did experience “bad” service. I won’t say which cruise ship it was on or what the cabin stewards’ name was but I will say he made a terrible first impression and things never really got any better. In short, I will tolerate a lot of things but a rude cabin steward that gives zero effort isn’t one of them. The end result was a weekly tip that cut got cut in half and a bad review.

As I said before, most service you receive will be pretty good but nothing that makes your head spin and for those you will just want to stick to the recommended amounts. Those auto-tips take care of your cabin steward and dining room staff. Along the way there will be people who serve you that don’t fall under those categories mainly bartenders and room service.

Bartenders are easy since there is automatically a 15% gratuity added to the price of your drink, I never add any more to that amount. On the rare occasion where I actually sit at the bar I have been known to slip the bartender a little extra. In my experience this is only useful if you frequent the same bar as it will get you special service and most likely a stiffer drink if you make it know that is how you like it.

On the other hand I always without fail take care of room service. Imagine having to get hundreds of breakfasts up to cabins on different decks within specified time slots. These guys get up in the wee hours of the morning to race up several decks over and over again in an effort to deliver your food in a timely manner for literally nothing, unless you tip them. They are also responsible for getting that drunk guy on deck twelve his 5 trays of food at 3 a.m. fast enough that he won’t call down to yell at anyone, even though they know he won’t eat most of it or appreciate any of it.

As far as tipping extra for exceptional service is concerned, we all have different levels of standards. What constitutes exceptional service for me may not be the same when viewed through someone else’s eyes. However I will say that if in the past you have received treatment from someone that you still talk about 3 cruises later, anytime you come across someone who approaches that level they probably deserve an extra little something.

My Response to Anti-Puerto Rico Message Board Posters

Written by T.I. Cruiser on April 12, 2010 · 2 Comments

I spend a lot of time reading various message boards and am always surprised by the amount of posts stating how rude the people of Puerto Rico are on board the cruise ship. In fact, a couple of years ago I recommended a cruise to a couple of members of my family and they expressed those same concerns. In my opinion if you think they are rude you must have never been to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore or any other big city on the east coast. I have always been under the impression that if anyone thinks Puerto Rican cruisers are rude its because you either don’t understand or are unwilling to accept their culture. Here are some things you need to realize.

They probably will speak their native language, but they are on vacation with family and friends and have far better things to talk about than you. Get some self-esteem and stop being so paranoid
There will be a lot Puerto Ricans on board the ship, but I have never heard of people complaining about the number of Floridians on a cruise out of Port Canaveral. I don’t see what the big deal is about this.
At times they will cut in line. I have been on cruises out of many different ports and have yet to survive one without being “line jumped”. Additionally I have noticed that the Puerto Rican technique for line jumping is no different than the one used by most people from middle-America. Mom stands in front, dad stands in back. Mom keeps moving while dad stops as fifteen kids fill in the space in between.
Any time a cruise director says Puerto Rico they will cheer so loud you will think you are the only non-Puerto Rican people on board the ship, until the cruise director says either Canada or New Jersey.
The last thing you need to realize is that if we all spent more time enjoying what it is we like to do on vacation instead of worrying about what others are doing to enjoy theirs, we would all probably enjoy our vacations so much more.

Edit: This post was written in response to a couple of emails I received from people telling me about their nightmares of cruising out of Puerto Rico.