question about concierge tips....again? I know right?

Galun said:
I found this thread as I am on the tipping day of a cruise, and Disney gives no guidance at all. I asked the concierge and he told me that they were tip positions despite being officers.

So here is how I did it. $60k annual “tip” salary is reasonable for a guest service position, especially for those who don’t pay for room/board/food. Plus they probably still make a small salary on top of that.

22 suites on the wonder. 260 weekdays a year. That works out to $60000/22/260 = $10.50 per concierge host per day. So I just did $10.50 x 3 hosts x 7 days = $220 for the entire team for a 7 day cruise. I hate that Disney made me do this math on a vacation lol. But I think the concierge do just fine. They probably get the most generous tippers on the ship, and leaving it ambiguous will probably lead to a lot of over tipping.
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I’m sorry you had to math on vacation but I appreciate your logical approach. It’s actually quite helpful.
 
cgolf said:
All I will say is we put a bit more in the concierge hosts tip envelope than we put for our servers and room hosts, people that did much more for us. If I had my way I would have given less to the concierge hosts and more to the other folks.

I am not going to tip just because they are in the lounge and keep it clean etc, I tip for services provided above and beyond to my family. DCL covers the work they do, we tip for services provided, which in our case was next to nothing.

Go with your gut on tipping, you may find that server tip money is too much for each, or too little. Just go with your gut and don’t feel guilty regardless of how much you tip them:)

Edit - Have to say that the fact that DCL doesn't give any guidelines on this made the tipping stressful at the end, because while you don't want to be insulting, you also don't want to tip more than you felt they earned. They should to set the floor for the tip and then say tip more depending on the level of service.
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I completely agree with everything you said! My wife and I went on our first cruise on the Dream and i decided on concierge mainly to get a cabana on Castaway Cay. I researched the tipping aspect of concierge and found information all over the place. Anywhere from "You're already paying for it in the rate" to people who calculated it out to 1 days cruise rate.

I had them put a placeholder on a future cruise and we asked them for popcorn one night for the theater. That's it, that's really all we needed. I'm certain they would have fulfilled just about any request we would of had. They were a pleasure to speak with but the cabana, Palo reservation and other questions i had were all handled pre cruise by shoreside.

I keep reading that these are 100% tipped based positions and I find it hard to believe that Disney would not put a guideline out if that is the case. Also, for a 3 Day cruise for my wife and I, IFIRC, it was a about a $1200 price difference to go concierge. Seriously, there's no room in that mark up to pay the concierge team a salary?

As much as I wanted a cabana on our next cruise, I decided against concierge and part of that is due to the lack of guidelines on tipping. We were very generous with all crew that we received tip envelopes for and I hope my tip was generous for the concierge team but that fact that I'm uncertain after over a year leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
 
Galun said:
I found this thread as I am on the tipping day of a cruise, and Disney gives no guidance at all. I asked the concierge and he told me that they were tip positions despite being officers.

So here is how I did it. $60k annual “tip” salary is reasonable for a guest service position, especially for those who don’t pay for room/board/food. Plus they probably still make a small salary on top of that.

22 suites on the wonder. 260 weekdays a year. That works out to $60000/22/260 = $10.50 per concierge host per day. So I just did $10.50 x 3 hosts x 7 days = $220 for the entire team for a 7 day cruise. I hate that Disney made me do this math on a vacation lol. But I think the concierge do just fine. They probably get the most generous tippers on the ship, and leaving it ambiguous will probably lead to a lot of over tipping.
Click to expand...


We also struggled the last day about tipping. We were not aware that the concierge host were supposed to be tipped. For the premium you pay for the concierge cabins, I would think it should be included. We upgraded three weeks b/f our sailing, after we had booked our port excursions, tastings, spa etc.... and chking multiple times for either open excursions, tasting, etc Not our first cruise, we are gold, but never sailed Concierge

Just curious if you were on the Dream or Fantasy would the math be $60000/41/260 = $ 5.62 per concierge host per day? 3 host on these ships too

The bartender went above and earned her tips daily Not so sure I could justify tipping the concierge host hundreds of $$$ If shore side books activities ahead of time, what else do the host do? smile? say hello? give popcorn out? On CC asked families in Cabanas to start wrapping it up by 3:30pm??? We never leave the beach this early.
However our Cabin attendant earned every $$$ of suggested amount and more
 
allashore said:
We also struggled the last day about tipping. We were not aware that the concierge host were supposed to be tipped. For the premium you pay for the concierge cabins, I would think it should be included. We upgraded three weeks b/f our sailing, after we had booked our port excursions, tastings, spa etc.... and chking multiple times for either open excursions, tasting, etc Not our first cruise, we are gold, but never sailed Concierge

Just curious if you were on the Dream or Fantasy would the math be $60000/41/260 = $ 5.62 per concierge host per day? 3 host on these ships too

The bartender went above and earned her tips daily Not so sure I could justify tipping the concierge host hundreds of $$$ If shore side books activities ahead of time, what else do the host do? smile? say hello? give popcorn out? On CC asked families in Cabanas to start wrapping it up by 3:30pm??? We never leave the beach this early.
However our Cabin attendant earned every $$$ of suggested amount and more
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I totally got on the deck plans last night and counted out concierge rooms on the big ships for this same purpose! Same math. I kinda felt like maybe that seemed low. I dunno. I’m the same as you, shoreside has done so much! We also upgraded closer to sailing. I’m thinking I’ll budget $10 per concierge per day. So $70 x 3 = $210. If we drink in the lounge we can do like $50 (?) for the bartender. Or more. I’m not sure! Definitely would tip at least another $100 for the stateroom host for a 1-bedroom since those rooms are so much bigger.

I think having more guidelines would make the whole tipping situation easier. It seems as much confusion as there is all the concierge crew will realize that guests truly don’t know what is expected.
 


Galun said:
found this thread as I am on the tipping day of a cruise, and Disney gives no guidance at all. I asked the concierge and he told me that they were tip positions despite being officers.

So here is how I did it. $60k annual “tip” salary is reasonable for a guest service position, especially for those who don’t pay for room/board/food. Plus they probably still make a small salary on top of that.

22 suites on the wonder. 260 weekdays a year. That works out to $60000/22/260 = $10.50 per concierge host per day. So I just did $10.50 x 3 hosts x 7 days = $220 for the entire team for a 7 day cruise. I hate that Disney made me do this math on a vacation lol. But I think the concierge do just fine. They probably get the most generous tippers on the ship, and leaving it ambiguous will probably lead to a lot of over tipping.
Click to expand...

:thanks: Thank you so much for posting this! We will be concierge for the first time in a matter of days on the Fantasy and though I have already pre-paid my regular gratuities (definitely plan to give our cabin steward more as we have a Cat T), and have been going back and forth on what to plan for the concierge team. As others have said, I also upgraded late, in our case the end of June from the Gtd 5C I had booked mid May. And being experienced, I had already grabbed pretty much all the bookings I wanted. Shoreside concierge has been super helpful with odds and ends. If the onboard team ends up doing a lot for us, which I do not anticipate, then I'll tip more than I had planned. I was planning at least $200 for the team, more if they do stuff for us. I've read of some people giving HUGE amounts.

sweetpee_1993 said:
I totally got on the deck plans last night and counted out concierge rooms on the big ships for this same purpose! Same math. I kinda felt like maybe that seemed low. I dunno. I’m the same as you, shoreside has done so much! We also upgraded closer to sailing. I’m thinking I’ll budget $10 per concierge per day. So $70 x 3 = $210. If we drink in the lounge we can do like $50 (?) for the bartender. Or more. I’m not sure! Definitely would tip at least another $100 for the stateroom host for a 1-bedroom since those rooms are so much bigger.

I think having more guidelines would make the whole tipping situation easier. It seems as much confusion as there is all the concierge crew will realize that guests truly don’t know what is expected.
Click to expand...

Yes! I agree that they should offer SOME sort of guidelines. But I wonder if it just works out so well for the onboard teams as it is they don't want to mess with it? :scratchin
 
I am glad my math is helpful to others.

What I ended up doing was $10 per day x 3 hosts x 7 = $210 in the main envelope - the team shares that. Then I give extra cash to one of the hosts who had been particularly helpful.

I think the hosts may actually prefer the ambiguity as some really wealthy people may simply not care and leave very large tips. They cater to an international audience and some cultures can extremely generous. I am sure some don’t tip or tip a small amount since they barely use the service, offset by some that tip a lot. We did use them on board a lot but it’s their job. I did my math to give what I think is reasonable. They are highly educated and they seem to stay with DCL for years. I am sure they do just fine.

For the room attendant I just doubled the tip since it’s like cleaning two rooms but the automatic tip was just the same per person rate for one room.
 
Galun said:
I am glad my math is helpful to others.

What I ended up doing was $10 per day x 3 hosts x 7 = $210 in the main envelope - the team shares that. Then I give extra cash to one of the hosts who had been particularly helpful.

I think the hosts may actually prefer the ambiguity as some really wealthy people may simply not care and leave very large tips. They cater to an international audience and some cultures can extremely generous. I am sure some don’t tip or tip a small amount since they barely use the service, offset by some that tip a lot. We did use them on board a lot but it’s their job. I did my math to give what I think is reasonable. They are highly educated and they seem to stay with DCL for years. I am sure they do just fine.

For the room attendant I just doubled the tip since it’s like cleaning two rooms but the automatic tip was just the same per person rate for one room.
Click to expand...

For me, this is logical. And I need some sort of logic to analyze this situation! :cutie:
 


I also found this helpful as we are going concierge for the first time in two weeks. My question is, since our cruise is in Europe, if we tip using cash, what currency do you use?
 
I came here to research this topic (again!) before our next cruise next month. I was told by the hosts on the last cruise that they are salaried, and that confused me further. I have no idea if we over tipped or under tipped last cruise, and I am not happy that all these months later I still do not know. It is also annoying that this is causing me anxiety before the next cruise. I asked some people who work for the line, and they seem to be just as much in the dark as we are. I can't blame the hosts for wanting to keep any guidelines a secret, since it probably helps their bottom line. Is the consensus on here that about $10 per host per day is about right?
 
I have been totally checked out of Dis Boards since our cruise getting back into "reality". We were on a 4 night cruise July 30-Aug 3, two rooms consisting of two adults in one room and 4 messy kiddos in the other. I ended up going with my "gut" for everybody. I tipped $50 for two of the hosts that we had very little interaction with. I gave the third concierge host, Angeline, $75 since one day she walked us down and off the ship to our contact for our excursion. (and this was about $7 something per person per day) The concierge food server I gave $30 cash...he seemed super gracious...After our trip I found out he talked to my kids in the lounge alot about basketball and sports. I was glad to have given him something! I think I gave the bartender $40? We used his services a good bit. Again, I gave him cash....super appreciative. I had brought extra envelopes with me and just discreetly handed it to all these folks the last evening. Our room attendant got $50 on top of the auto, our server got $40 on top of auto and assistant server $20 on top of auto. Again, all cash in an envelope...of course with the auto tip receipt in it as well. Everyone was super super appreciative. Again, no math....just went with my gut. But I would like to say that I do feel like Galum said, that the concierge hosts like the ambiguity. I just didn't feel that leaving hundreds of dollars to the concierge hosts was warranted just because they are "concierge hosts". When totaled up, the room attendant, server and assistant server got more in tips than the concierge hosts....and they, in my opinion, worked very had for it, at least from our experience....(extra plus auto total: attendant-$146 total, server $146, assistant server $92) The only person I didn't tip extra was the head server, although I did give him the auto in an envelope. At dinner the last night, I didn't see anyone handing out envelopes..and I looked hard! Our servers were all very thankful. This is just what I did. I took notes when we were on the cruise of the amounts and I hope they are accurate as I haven't looked at it since our cruise) Everyone has their own opinions as to what to do....go with your gut! Have a great cruise and enjoy...no stressing about tipping lol!
 
Disney maygirl said:
I have been totally checked out of Dis Boards since our cruise getting back into "reality". We were on a 4 night cruise July 30-Aug 3, two rooms consisting of two adults in one room and 4 messy kiddos in the other. I ended up going with my "gut" for everybody. I tipped $50 for two of the hosts that we had very little interaction with. I gave the third concierge host, Angeline, $75 since one day she walked us down and off the ship to our contact for our excursion. (and this was about $7 something per person per day) The concierge food server I gave $30 cash...he seemed super gracious...After our trip I found out he talked to my kids in the lounge alot about basketball and sports. I was glad to have given him something! I think I gave the bartender $40? We used his services a good bit. Again, I gave him cash....super appreciative. I had brought extra envelopes with me and just discreetly handed it to all these folks the last evening. Our room attendant got $50 on top of the auto, our server got $40 on top of auto and assistant server $20 on top of auto. Again, all cash in an envelope...of course with the auto tip receipt in it as well. Everyone was super super appreciative. Again, no math....just went with my gut. But I would like to say that I do feel like Galum said, that the concierge hosts like the ambiguity. I just didn't feel that leaving hundreds of dollars to the concierge hosts was warranted just because they are "concierge hosts". When totaled up, the room attendant, server and assistant server got more in tips than the concierge hosts....and they, in my opinion, worked very had for it, at least from our experience....(extra plus auto total: attendant-$146 total, server $146, assistant server $92) The only person I didn't tip extra was the head server, although I did give him the auto in an envelope. At dinner the last night, I didn't see anyone handing out envelopes..and I looked hard! Our servers were all very thankful. This is just what I did. I took notes when we were on the cruise of the amounts and I hope they are accurate as I haven't looked at it since our cruise) Everyone has their own opinions as to what to do....go with your gut! Have a great cruise and enjoy...no stressing about tipping lol!
Click to expand...
Thanks for all your hard work keeping track of your tips. Your explanation makes a lot of sense to me.
 
allashore said:
We also struggled the last day about tipping. We were not aware that the concierge host were supposed to be tipped.
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Flying Fish said:
I was told by the hosts on the last cruise that they are salaried, and that confused me further.
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They are salaried and originally were not allowed to accept tips. This is why there are no guidelines.

'In the past, the concierge team was strictly prohibited from accepting gratuities from guests (trust us, we tried and they wouldn't!).'

https://www.*****************.net/PublicForms/CruiseGratuityCalculator.aspx
 
Thank everyone for your help. I hate that this stress takes away from the excitement, and it shouldn't. I wish I could say that I'm surprised you, Maygirl, didn't see anyone handing out envelops on the last night, but I am not. It seems to me that a lot of people don't ever think about going any beyond the auto tips. Some of the people on this ship don't seem to go out of their way, but there are some who really do make it that much more magical either for us or the kids. I think the surest way to encourage them to continue that for the next cruisers and maybe for us one day is to give them a little extra. It's easy to say, "I've already paid so much," and that's true. It's also easy to say, "I've already paid so much, what's another few dollars to really make someone happy?" I'm still a little unsure of what to do, but I think I'll figure it out when the time comes. On our last cruise, there were four concierge hosts, because one was training. That made it a bit more complicated, but you're right - there is no reason all the tips have to be the same and lots of reasons they shouldn't.

Does anyone remember if DCL gives tip envelopes? I just can't remember, but I want to bring mine if they don't.
 
Flying Fish said:
Does anyone remember if DCL gives tip envelopes? I just can't remember, but I want to bring mine if they don't.
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Nice post, Flying Fish. :cutie: As for the envelopes, I assume you mean for concierge since the envelopes for servers and cabin steward are left in room on the bed late in the cruise. I'm just getting ready for our first concierge sailing this Saturday but I'm pretty sure I've read here there are envelopes on the concierge desk in the lounge? Or that they have them if you just ask. :flower2:
 
Disney maygirl said:
does anybody know if the concierge team is automatically tipped a certain amount as well?
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No they aren’t.

Disney maygirl said:
is this something that is entirely up to my discretion and done on my own?.
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Yep. If I recall correctly there’s a letter left about tipping concierge and how to do it if you wish.


cgolf said:
The one thing I want to add is don't feel guilted into tipping big by reading the threads. For us the bartender, room hosts, and servers did more for us, we didn't really have any special requests we needed fulfilled.
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YES.

The hosts are kind and gracious and I can’t imagine them wanting us to worry about this or tip more than we can.

Compared to many who post what they tipped, we tipped on the lower side on the two concierge cruises we took.

And yet on our second Disney Cruise, in an inside cabin, when my then-husband saw our wonderful host from the previous cruise on the deck somewhere, she recognized him, asked about us, and was lovely. He mentioned that I was having trouble sleeping bc of the pillows, and she offered the concierge pillow menu. Again, we were in an inside cabin that cruise, and hadn’t “made it rain” for the hosts on the previous cruise, but she did that. (Didn’t work. Pillow menu goes from huge to huger pillows, and I actually need and now use a side/belly-sleeper pillow despite sleeping on my back. I now bring my own pillow everywhere)


southerngirl528 said:
OY!!! That is $660 to $750 in gratuities just for the concierge team??? WOW.
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Agreed.

We tipped WAY less and were accepted on the second concierge cruise and were treated very well.

cgolf said:
If I had my way I would have given less to the concierge hosts and more to the other folks.
Click to expand...

You certainly can do that. We did.

MIDisFan said:
I keep reading that these are 100% tipped based positions and I find it hard to believe that Disney would not put a guideline out if that is the case.
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I don’t believe it for a second.

The tips-only positions are held by people living in third world countries where money goes far.

Concierge hosts for the most part are from 1st world countries. Unless they are living in poverty back home in England, etc, they are getting a salary. Well, unless they are tremendously un-bright. And they all seem to be intelligent. Too intelligent to take those jobs with no salary and only tips, with no auto-tip.

Eeyore54 fred said:
I also found this helpful as we are going concierge for the first time in two weeks. My question is, since our cruise is in Europe, if we tip using cash, what currency do you use?
Click to expand...

I would just charge it to the room. If you don’t feel awkward you can do this with a host or you can go to guest services for it.



And please know that although cruiselines tend to provide envelopes, you do not need to use them! So don’t be weirded out when/if you don’t see people handing them over, since the crew will get their tips anyway with the automatic charges. Not giving out envelopes doesn’t mean someone didn’t tip.
 
Eeyore54 fred said:
My question is, since our cruise is in Europe, if we tip using cash, what currency do you use?
Click to expand...

I auto tipped I believe for one host who was staying on the ship so it would be added into whatever (if anything) he received from DCL. Our other host, was leaving on vacation the day we left too (back to Italy) so I made sure she received Euro in her envelope.

southerngirl528 said:
I'm just getting ready for our first concierge sailing this Saturday but I'm pretty sure I've read here there are envelopes on the concierge desk in the lounge?
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They are out on the concierge desk on the day before the cruise ends.
 
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