Everyone writes about tipping and the automatic tipping on some of the lines now. My question is this - what should we just expect from our steward? We were on NCL Sky in August and will be on Golden Princess next month. We've been on Disney and Carnival before that also. On Carnival we got towel animals, did once on Disney too. On the Sky, we only saw our steward twice - and no towel animals - no nothing special as far as I was concerned. I often saw other stewards in the hall on the Sky and had a running joke about the wonderful Alaska weather with a couple of them. When we leave our cabin in the morning and evening, we put out the "make up room sign" and when we returned, it was made up. But nothing special - bed made (sheets the same), towels in bath etc. Is that the bare minimum for the automatic tip? I'm hoping on the Golden that there's SOMETHING a bit special, especially since our 8 yr old is going with us and I'd like him to feel special. How does everyone out there handle this? Am I "expecting" too much? Should the room "just" be made up? Thanks for any insight on this.
Check out the cruise gripes section below. Go to older messages and look back to 11/22. There is a thread about cabin stewards that discusses
this topic in detail. Happy cruising. Hope you have fun with your 8 year old.
Hi Jenn,
Sorry to report, no towel animals on our Golden Princess cruise, guess some to and some don't, but our cabin attendant still did a wonderful job, did not have to ask for anything, but did request some robes and they were there the next day.
Sailed on Millennium in November, our cabin steward REFUSED to empty the mini bar to make room for my young daughters fruit juices and REFUSED to pull out the sofa bed for her - he said she could just sleep on it in its upright position. Needless to say, his tip was not good.
You had the same sheets for the entire cruise? ICK !!! To me, fresh sheets every night are one of the better parts of cruising. I sure don't get them at home unless I do it and I don't.
I don't think towel animals or nightgown swans (frankly, I don't like the idea of other people handling my nightgowns, but that's me) are part of the required drill.
I'm also not particularly fond of the waiters who are amateur magicians.
In essence your steward/ess is maid service. Make the beds, clean the john, put up new towels, turn down the bed at night, fill up the ice bucket and so on.
There are no automatic tips. You can request that tips not be added to your onboard account and then tip as you see fit. I haven't sailed on Celebrity since November, but there was no "automatic" tipping at that time. There ARE recommended tips.
As to making the cruise special for your son, why not do it yourself? A small book, a small toy like a Matchbox car, stuff that you can easily pack and stash on his pillow at night? They could be gifts from the "cruise fairy". Now, THAT would be special !!! And you'd know for sure he was going to feel good about it.
Hi, Liz ...
If I had been you, my first port of call would have been the office of the Chief Housekeeper. If I didn't get any satisfaction, I would have sailed over to pay a call on the Hotel Manager. Tipping low doesn't solve the problem because the guys in charge don't know what happened.
If we receive poor service in a restaurant, for example, we don't tip AT ALL and explain to the manager or maitre d' why we didn't tip. That way the person who gave poor service gets a double whammy. Otherwise, the waiter/ess would just think you were cheap and do some grumbling.
Balancing, the steward may have been doing you a favor by NOT folding out the bed, depending on your cabin configuration. When we were on Triumph, we figured out that if one of the people in the bed had to use the facilities in the middle of the night, he or she would, quite literally, have to climb over the fold-out. And this was in a top cabin. Did the steward make up the fold-out as a bed each night?
These are nagging questions. Everyone wants the best possible cruise experience and the staff is there to make it happen. If it's not happening, complain !!! But do it nicely.
Pamda, I love your cruisefairy idea!! He's still buying into the Santa thing - barely I think. The fairy will have to come up with something, although "she" didn't on his Disney cruise a couple years ago. but then, he was in Grandma's room - I can work with that somehow. I'm surprised about your comment re: the sheets. On a couple other boards people have asked me if I really expected the sheets to be changed. I got the feeling that they generally were NOT changed and I was strange. Now, by your comment- maybe they SHOULD have been changed. It was only our first 7 day cruise and I didn't know what the "usual" was. If they aren't changed at least once on the Golden, I'm going to ask.
Pam ...how dare you imply there is'nt a "cruisefairy"! I always have a small gift on my pillow everyday on cruise. My Deb would not lie to me! hehe
Semper Fi
Rick
I certainly expect MY sheets to be changed. I don't think you're strange at all. Or maybe both of us are strange.
It's something to tell your cabin steward ... that you WANT fresh sheets each night.
Once on NCL I detected that the sheets had NOT been changed and asked nicely if there was a reason why they were not. The pillowcases had been changed. After that, we had fresh sheets every night.
As to the Cruise Fairy, maybe she's a new addition to the fleet ???
When my kids were still in the phase of losing teeth, I was sternly instructed by my oldest that is was NOT the "Tooth Fairy" because that was politically incorrect. It was the "Tooth Gay" who was leaving the money.
Rick, the little note you find on your pillow each night of your cruise that says "Behave or else!" is NOT from the Cruise Fairy. It's from someone much closer to you. <g>
Pamda, I can't imagine what my husband would say if our son insisted on it being the toothgay. Our household resists all the PC garbage. There's too much "warm and fuzzy" out there. We were discussing your ideas at lunch today and what we can do as the cruisefairy.
And I do intend on getting fresh sheets this time!!!
I made the mistake of tipping the cabin steward the last day, and he didn't clean the room or anything. I saw him the next day(day of debarkation), and all he had to say was ...aww...sorry i forgot.....YEA RIGHT>
The cabin steward has a supervisor and the supervisors boss is the hotel manager. Maybe they can't clean out the mini bar, that I don't know, but the refusing to make up the couch as a bed should have been easy enough to FIX. If not sure how or where to complain, go to the pursers desk, briefly and calmly explain and ask where/how/who to talk to.
There isn't a reason in the world for a steward to refuse a basic service to
a passenger. Had you gone to the pursers desk on the first night , the night manager would have had an on call steward make up the bed. The next morning your complaint would have been aired in the morning management/staff meeting and a very chewed out steward would have provided excellent service from then on.
I can see refusing (or inability to satisfy) a special request, but, there is never a reason to be refused basic service (or to put up with it).
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What to expect from cabin steward
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