When you book the Cheers beverage package on a Carnival Cruise Line ship, you pay an 18% gratuity for the package. Additionally, many passengers will tip an extra dollar or two (sometimes more) for good service.
It's not a rule, but in general waiters, servers, and bartenders remember the people who throw them an extra dollar here and there. If you add extra tips regularly, consistently good service can become spectacular.
That may mean having a bartender prepare your drink before you even order it and mobile servers being more attentive to your needs. It's not uncommon for roaming servers on the pool deck to find you with a bottle of water even when you haven't asked for one.
Many passengers, however, are curious about how tips and prepaid drink packages are divided between bartenders and bartenders. Carnival brand ambassador John Heald recently addressed that topic.
Image Source: Carnival Cruise Lines
Here's How Carnival Cruise Line Bar Tips Are Shared
Heald answered a key question about drink tipping as part of his daily post answering hundreds of questions.
“How are the tips from the prepaid drink package (Cheers) distributed to the staff? Sometimes I give an extra dollar or two, but if I only get a bottle of water I don't, so I'm curious to know how those tips are distributed. and “Whether it's based on what was ordered or the total dollar amount of the order?” Dougie Lourkie asked.
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Heald gave a direct answer that may surprise some passengers.
“Thank you, if you are served by a bartender, the bartenders will share all tips together,” he wrote. “If you give a waiter cash, he or she will keep it.”
Basically, the first part is that prepaid tips are pooled together. It's unclear if that means all bar staff on the ship or just in bars where you have a drink.
It's clearest when it comes to the roaming bar staff.
“If a waiter or bartender serves you, they keep the full tip,” Heald added.
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That means that the traveling staff who serve you receive a tip of 18% of the tips the passenger paid in advance.
Are you taking a cruise or thinking about one? Visit our Come Cruise With Me website to get answers to all your questions.
