Tipping Concierge...

[DuncInLove]

Hey folks,
Relatively novice cruiser (only been on one other cruise before....DCL Dream last September,) and have never stayed concierge level before. I know that we have a special "concierge team" and I've read that they are not included in the tips assumed on your onboard credit as typical stateroom attendants, dining hosts, etc. are. I was just wondering what the common protocol was for tipping who and how much (generally speaking). Just trying to get a ballpark idea before we leave!
Thanks!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hey folks,
Relatively novice cruiser (only been on one other cruise before....DCL Dream last September,) and have never stayed concierge level before. I know that we have a special "concierge team" and I've read that they are not included in the tips assumed on your onboard credit as typical stateroom attendants, dining hosts, etc. are. I was just wondering what the common protocol was for tipping who and how much (generally speaking). Just trying to get a ballpark idea before we leave!
Thanks!

Here we go....
Tipping Concierge (or anyone else on DCL) is entirely at your discretion. Some feel the upcharge to even booking Concierge is plenty extra cost. Others feel there's a "magic" number of how much should be tipped. From a daily cost, to a set number for the whole cruise.

It's up to you if you feel the service you receive is "above and beyond" what you would expect and tip accordingly, or not.

 

[Belleluvswdw]

Rather than give you the vague "at your discretion" answer, I'll tell you what we typically do... We've cruised concierge on the Dream 3 nighters, so please keep that timeframe in mind too.

Typically the bartender learns what you like, often has a drink ready for you when they see you arrive for cocktail hour, and offers things you might like based on your prior choices... he/she gets $20 on the last evening, as they are not part of the tipping pool as I understand it.

I always give more than the recommended tip to the room attendant. The 1BR has more real estate to clean. We often order dinner in the room too because a long dining room dinner with a toddler is not my idea of vacation, lol. So we usually have more dishes, garbage, diaper genie business and general mess to work around. I'll go around $20-$40 more depending on the number of people we have in the room and the level of service we received.

For the concierge team, I'll generally tip around $100. We have had good teams and great teams. If I felt we've had exceptional service, I'll go more. Again, you are already paying for the extra level of service, so you shouldn't feel forced to spend more. But I will say that the time saved and convenience the concierge team add to our vacation experience is well worth a token of gratitude for us!

Hope that helps
Happy cruise!!!

 

[bumbershoot]

I don't find "tip at your discretion" to be vague. I find it to be exact.

None of us have the same rooms and requests and expectations etc, nor do we spend the same amount of money, nor do we have the same value of money.

It's purely up to us and all of our specific situations.

 

[Mr. Johnson]

On four night cruises, we leave between $150-$250 depending on our experience.

 

[Laundress]

we usually do $100 for the team

 

[TestingH2O]

On our cruise in May, they gave a sheet that allowed you to look at it as $ per person per day much like the other tipped positions. When we did it that way, we found we tipped less than when we left a lump sum but we still gave an amount more than we did to any other position. We found the concierge team to be an active part in our vacation. We also tipped the bar tender and gave extra to our room attendant.

 

[belac]

You will get a number of different answers, so here's ours..... we tipped 500 (I think) on a b2b to consierge, 9 days, always tipped servers in the bar happy hours, on the wonder so no lounge, approx $5-10 a night, depending on what we ordered. Doubled the room attendant tip in cash, bc 2x the size of room. The consierge team was always around, always attentive, and very personable and genuinely nice. We didn't have very many requests and never rang them, they just seemed to pop up everwhere we were.

 

[saraheli]

On our recent 4 night I think we gave $150 to the concierge team and then my husband tipped the bartender in cash separately. I think he gave the bartender $20 or maybe $40..

 

[Bettyscruise]

Just my opinion of course but... when I compare the actual effort and time put into our comfort and needs, the housekeeping and food service people by far did more than the concierge team. We just didn't need much from them, nor was much offered. Not sure I've seen justification for a large tip to Concierge staff personally. Probably less than 10 minutes of contact time the whole 7 days.

 

[Suzieq0329]

We have stayed in concierge a few times. Most recently 7 nights on the Fantasy this past April in a royal suite. Our team was outstanding. They were able to change our Remy dinner reservation when we realized it fell on animation night in AP. They brought Palo brunch to our room even though you can typically only get Palo or Remy for dinner in your suite, not brunch. The bartender was excellent and knew what we wanted when we came in.
We ate breakfast and lunch on our balcony most days, because it's just easier with the kids. We ordered everything through the concierge. Our son has a food allergy and they always made sure he had something to eat that he would like. Our stateroom attendant was awesome! We tipped him well above the standard.
We tipped each of the concierge hosts $150. I think $75 for the bartender.

 

[firsttimemom]

We usually tip $5-10 per person in our stateroom per day. We have had cruises where we make little to no requests and cruises where they make phone calls and squeeze us in to sold out events.

 

[Uncleromulus]

We overtipped Concierge our last cruises--we won't do so again.

We paid quite enough $$$$$ for the service to begin with--and SHORESIDE concierge made most of our reservations.

This next cruise it'll be $100 for the team for the week.

 

[jdg345]

We usually tip $10 per person in our stateroom per day, but that is for the whole team. We also tip the bartender (for the days we partake) and concierge steward (when in the Royal) in cash separately at $15/day each.

If we are in the 1BR or the Royal, we will tip the Room Attendant a bit more as well since the rooms are larger: 50-100% more.

Sounds like we are over-tipping based on this thread ...

 

[jlemieu1]

Someone ran this arguement before. So this is for the newer ships.
There are 41 cabins. So if everyone gave $100 per cabin that would net them 1366.66 per week for each. I believe they are salaried being officers too but at a reduced level fairly recently.
To be honest I do $150 to $300 based on my level of service and my demands for a 7 day cruise for the 2 of us.
I know this is not everybody's experience but I never had bad service from the concierge staff. I truly love PJ, Amanda, Kemisha and Tracey

The cabin stewards are so great in concierge I always double recommend.

My 2 cents

 

[undertheradar]

We tip our cabin steward higher, as our stateroom is always at least double the size of a standard stateroom. Service team is at least double, and rises or drops depending upon our experience.
Concierge team is much tougher. We base it upon our personal experience and start at $25.00 per day for each team member. We tip the lounge bartender $40 minimum per cruise. We tip the lounge stewards minimum of $20.00 each

 

[FSU Girl]

I just booked my first concierge cruise too. For the tips to the concierge team is it something we can add to our bill like the normal tips or do we need to bring cash specifically for this? And who do you hand the money to?

 

[undertheradar]

I just booked my first concierge cruise too. For the tips to the concierge team is it something we can add to our bill like the normal tips or do we need to bring cash specifically for this? And who do you hand the money to?

For the concierge team members themselves, I go to Guest Services and add to our onboard account. For all lounge servers and the bartender, we put cash in envelopes and hand them out the last evening of the cruise just like you would to your MDR tip recipients and cabin steward.

 

[DCLDVC1]

I just booked my first concierge cruise too. For the tips to the concierge team is it something we can add to our bill like the normal tips or do we need to bring cash specifically for this? And who do you hand the money to?

The concierge team can take care of that for you. I just have them add their own tip to my onboard account.

 

[FSU Girl]

For the concierge team members themselves, I go to Guest Services and add to our onboard account. For all lounge servers and the bartender, we put cash in envelopes and hand them out the last evening of the cruise just like you would to your MDR tip recipients and cabin steward.

Ok good to know thanks!

The concierge team can take care of that for you. I just have them add their own tip to my onboard account.

Even better I talked to them today and they were so helpful already, I'm really excited