Dh wants to cruise...questions About This Page:

[mamapajama]

First what exactly is the tip situation. I have heard that anyone & everyone gets tipped? Who gets tipped, why & how much & about how much total would that add to your cruise?

Second, the prices for school break-time cruises is SO much higher than other times. Is it horrible to have my kids (both good students...one high honors in middle school) miss a week of school for a cruise? We would not be able to afford the school-break prices so that would be the only way we could go.

TIA

Elise

[hktmom]

I take my kids out of school for our vacations....we just work extra hard to get most of their work done before we leave and buckle down straight away when we get home to finish. And it's law, no fussing, whining or argueing about it period.

To us it's worth it to not spend the extra cash on peak periods, have low crowds and choose a more pleasant weather season to vacation in.

We've not experienced a problem yet...I let the teachers know WAY ahead of time and they seem to not mind if they have a heads up.

I would do it if I was you, espcially since your children seem to be doing really well to begin with. No worries!

Heather

[barries5199]

And think of the learning experience that Disney is! They're actually going to another country when they go on the cruise, so it's a great opportunity. Even WDW itself is a great place to learn.

[Cats'N'Dogs]

I've taken DD out of school for our Disney vacations and its not a problem. We just fill out an educational leave form (fancy way to say family vacation) and touch base with her teachers.

There is a form that you get towards the end of the cruise that lists who gets tipped and has a suggested amount based on a formula. You can fill it out, take it to Guest Services. They can charge it to your room key/credit card and give you tickets that you slip into envelopes they provide. Or you can place cash into the envelopes. These are given out on the last day of the cruise.

The bars add auto-gratuities to the bar tab, you have the option of adding a bit more. It is also charged to your room key. You don't need cash on board and I believe most of the areas like bars and ship board stores don't take cash. It all gets charged to your room key and then you pay at the end of the cruise either in cash or its automatically charged to your credit card.
Hope that makes sense. The Disney cruise is wonderful so I hope you decide to go.

[Belle*]

Here is the suggested tip chart as seen on page 291 of the 3rd edition PassPorter's Field Guide to the DCL:
Crew Member/Service per night 3night 4 night 7 night
Dining Room Server ~3.75 $11.00 $14.75 $25.75
Ass't Server ~$2.75 $8.00 $10.75 $18.75
Head Server ~$1.00 $2.75 $3.75 $6.50
Stateroom Host/Hostess ~$3.60 $10.75 $14.50 $25.25

There are also tips for Palo servers (while your $10.person charge is meant to cover the gratuity I usually find the service so incredible that it warrants an additional amount), room service ($1 - 2/person), Baggage porters ($1-2/bag) and Shore Excursion Tour Guides ($1 - 2/person).

[Courtney892]

Tips usually work out to be around $10 pp per day. HTH

[DISNEYGOOF]

I've been on 2 Carnival cruises and they automatically charge gratuity. On our cruise in March, our room was charged $30.00 a day. We did not use the table service restaurants, only the buffets. Does Disney automatically charge gratuity?