About tipping on Golden

[Carol P.]

Hi I saw some posts and read that the tipping is automatic and billed to our account. If we want to do our own tipping( hand the envelope last day) as we have done on previous cruises, do we just go to the Pursers desk and tell them?? We tip generously if the service is tops, and since the staff works for tips, why not give the extra if they deserve it. We don't like the idea of same for everyone. There are some staff that go overboard in making your cruise a great one. Any help is appreciated. 25 days and counting 5/23. Thanks

[sea angel]

You can go to the pursers desk and have them remove the tips. If you have chosen personal choice dining, it would be impossible tootip, since you have different wait staff everynight. If you are set up for traditional (early/late) your fine.
Happy sailing,
Sea Angel

If you like the service you are getting, you are not doing the staff a favor by removing the auto-tipping. Here is how it works on Princess:

If you leave the tipping on, the auto-tip amount is pooled and anything you give over and above, the individual staff member will get to keep (after they report it). Say you left the auto-tipping on and tipped your room steward $20 extra on the last night. The amount in the auto-tip account is pooled. The Steward reports that you gave him $20 and once it is checked that auto-tipping is still in place, the extra $20 is returned to him, as well as whatever pooled amount he receives (say it's 80% of the $24.50 allocated for the steward or $19.60). In this example, the steward receives at total of $39.60 ($19.60 from the auto-tip and the $20 extra) of the $44.50 you gave.

If you remove the auto-tipping, EVERYTHING you give goes into the pool. Which means if you want to give an individual employee extra money for stellar service, he/she will not get the whole amount. In the example above, suppose you tipped the room steward the recommended $3.50 per day ($24.50 for a 7 day cruise) and an extra $20, for a total of $44.50. The steward must turn it all in and then he will only receive whatever percentage he gets from the pool. In this example, if the steward receives 80% of the pooled tips ($44.50), he gets $31.20. So, the steward gets $8.40 less than he would if you had left the auto-tip in place.

Either way, the money will be pooled. Thee is no way to avoid it. Employees do turn it in (if they don't they chance losing their jobs).

The only reason I would remove auto-tipping is toward the end of the cruise if you are not receiving good service. If service all around is good and you intend to tip extra, I would leave the auto-tipping in place.

Pea

[sea angel]

I had no idea it was done like that. I'm sorry for the misinformation I posted above. Thank goodness I never asked to remove auto-tipping.
Thanks Pea!
Sea Angel