Poll Time! Gratuity

Thank you! This will help a lot too! Bookmarking for my trip!

We tip for each day housekeeping services the room. One stay at WL we opted for turn down service so we did a separate envelope for that as well (it was years ago, do they still do that?).

To avoid the staff not taking obviously (to us) placed cash laying out for them, we placed each day’s tip in an envelope and decorated it. I mentioned in an earlier post that when the kids were younger they would write Thank You all over it in a variety of languages and then decorate w/ Disney themed stickers. It was rare that an envelope was not taken.:slight_smile:

For our family of four (who are normally pretty messy but leave hotel rooms fairly nice) we used to figure $1/person and then upped it to a $5 bill. Our last trip in 2018 was just three of us, and I still kept it at a $5 bill.

I haven’t stayed at DVC so I am not sure if you know ahead of time when they would visit, but you could prep envelopes for each instance. The kids really liked doing this as part of our trip prep when they were little, not as enthusiastic now that they are older!

ETA - I also found it helpful to set this up ahead of time so that way I knew I had enough cash for all of the tips and didn’t inadvertently use it for something else and come up short at the end of the trip!

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Each day because it could be different people each visit.

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Some people say to leave out each day before housekeeping comes so that they are getting directly tipped for their work, and also it might encourage them to do a better job. However, I have always tipped the last day only as a convenience on the theory that it will all average out.

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I love that idea with the thank you’s! I won’t copy, but I’m sure the staff loved it!

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Copy away if you so choose. I wasn’t the one who came up with it! :slight_smile:

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Years ago my son got sick in the room. I stripped the bed and wadded up the afflicted sheets, then left a note explaining what happened and what I did along with a $20 bill. I felt horrible for mouse keeping and my son!

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That’s definitely the kind of thing I was thinking of!

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We over tip. DH’s grandmother was a divorced single mom in an era when that was not even heard of. She struggled to raise 3 young children as a waitress. In her honor we always over tip and once a year DH picks someone to tip 100%. My favorite 100% tip was our first New Year’s Eve as a married couple and our waitress was VERY pregnant. We try to do it quietly and unnoticed (we do leave a brief note so that they know it is not a mistake), but this particular time she ran out and found us in the parking lot and hugged us both.

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:sob: That is such a great idea! I may have to do that sometime.

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Oh! My dad gave me a cash gift for my 60th birthday. I think I will pass it on next month! What a great idea regarding the 100% tip!

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Wait, bell services will deliver your bags? I thought they had stopped doing this? I am only asking because I am taking my very first trip with my daughter on the 31st and I thought they were no longer bringing your luggage to you.

My MIL is a notoriously horrible tipper. She’s also a terrible patron. She complains throughout the meal, will send food back for truly no reason, and will make passive aggressive comments to the server. She also likes to have meals with large parties and take up a table for a long time. It’s awful going out to eat with her and I rarely do so.
Any time we do, my DH usually picks up the bill. This will prompt MIL to say “I’ll leave the tip then.”
I ALWAYS sneak off to find our server to leave her extra tip money. I know MIL will leave a minimal tip and I also know anyone who puts up with MIL deserves the extra.

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Ironically my MIL is the same way! And it is her mom that we tip in honor of!

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My FIL isn’t bad as a customer, but doesn’t tip well. We use the same strategy of picking up the bill and adding more to the tip if we don’t get ut in time!

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I think you can still give your bags to bell services on arrival at the hotel, but they won’t automatically transfer from DME to bell to your room.

They are no longer taking luggage from the airport and directly to your room but bell services was still good. They took our luggage to our rooom when we got off of DME and then they picked it up from us when we left to go home and stored it until the DME picked us up for the airport. They do ask that you are in the room when they deliver as they will not enter the room

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Good to know! Is this something they automatically offer or did you have to request it?

When you get off DME just go straight to bell services which I believe for most resorts it is outside at the entrance. If your room is ready just give them your room number, if you are still wating for a room ready text they will hold you bags at bell services. Once you get to your room just call from the room phone and they will deliver. The day you depart just give them a ring when your bags are packed and they will send someone to get them. :wink:

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One of the very convenient facilities offered to those of us going on DCL cruises is the opportunity to prepay our tips.

That such an option exists surely puts paid once and for all to the lie that a tip is anything other than a compulsory service charge. If tipping is a reward for exceptional (Disney’s word) service then it is a nonsense to prepay this, since the exceptional service has not yet been delivered and may, in fact, never be delivered.

I think I would have less of a problem with gratuities if they were described honestly, i.e. (compulsory) service charge.

You see, this is an example of what so riles me up about all this. Storing my personal possessions and keeping them safe is exactly what they are paid to do. No more, no less. It’s not even hard. Disney provides its employees with trollies to move my bags around. It provides them with a lockable room to store my bags in. It further secures my bags with closed-circuit television cameras.

You make it sound like the bell-hops are doing me a favour for which I should be grateful. They’re not. They’re simply doing what they are paid to do. I pay Disney a huge premium to stay at their hotels. Some of that money trickles down (ha!) to the bell-hops. If the bell-hops don’t think it’s enough money trickling down to them, then they should unionise and demand more. Or quit and get another job.

I think it’s the dishonesty that irritates me so much. I’m from the North of England and we have a phrase to describe this: we call a spade a spade. In other words, we describe things as they are.

If tips are something other than a compulsory service charge, then I reserve the right to tip $0 for poor service, and you (generic you) cannot say anything about it.

Warming to my theme . . . This dishonesty in description continues in the way prices are marked on items for sale in shops in the US. Sales tax is not included. You have to know what the sales tax rate is and then be able to add that on if you actually want to know the cost of something. Other countries don’t do this. The price on the sticker is the price you pay. Simple. Clear. Honest.

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