Comments on: Vacation Budgeting Hack – Don’t Forget About Tips!

By: nicole

nicole — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:44:02 +0000

Just thought I would give everyone a heads up on a app I saw in the itunes store called cruise card control lite. It is a free budgeting app for cruisers and it also has free countdown clocks and ship images, thought it was pretty cool and would share.

By: Back To Basics: 79+ Brilliant Budgeting Resources You’ll Love | My Super-Charged Life

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:05:34 +0000

[...] 53. Vacation Budgeting Hack – Don’t Forget About Tips! [...]

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:20:52 +0000

Katie, I agree, people work hard and should be compensated for that. I generally tip about $1 per drink. But, I drink beer that costs around $5 or less. If I lived in the city and drank $10 cosmos, I would adjust that accordingly.

By: Katie

Katie — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:43:10 +0000

Tipping is important. As a bartender going to school full time, my very exsistence is tied to tips. I would love to say I do not get upset when someone comes into my bar and spends $200 dollars on alcohol but zero in tips, but I do get upset.

It is also amusing to me that people who buy a $2 beer will tip $1… a 50% tip, but those who buy a round of drinks totaling $20 will leave a $1 tip… which is a 5% tip.

By: hank

hank — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 02:19:48 +0000

I actually just got back from Australia 3 months ago and just last week I got 6 pieces of mail from there – apparently I went through 3 toll booths without paying and ALSO apparently was speeding each time… All in total costing me another $460 that I didn’t plan on putting in the budget… Maybe a better tactic would just be to not speed, and I wouldn’t need to toss that into the budget…

By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 01:38:53 +0000

Excellent point. We don’t go out much and we go even less to places which require tipping (Chipotle, for example, has good food but no tips). But when we do, Mr. Micah and I both think it’s very important to tip unless the service actually sucked. Because we’ve had friends who wait tables.

I hadn’t connected it with a cruise, though. I normally think of those as pay-up-front and don’t worry about it deals.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:45:14 +0000

Cool. I thought about working on a cruise line, but I joined the AF instead.

The way the big cruise lines do it, is each group (waiters, assistant waiters, stateroom attendants, etc.) pool their money in their respective groups and split it amongst themselves. They also each receive an hourly wage in addition to overtime. The waiters make the most money by far!

And 9 grand for 3 months isn’t too bad – especially considering you have few costs during that time. Thanks for the comment.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:20:43 +0000

Great article. I always wondered how much they made on the big ships considering how many people there were cuz the big ships carry at max a few thousand cruisers.

When I worked the ship in Alaska, it was a small ship, 240 feet, 210 passengers max, 22 crew including officers. Basically, all the tip went into a pool and was split equally among each of us, excluding the officers.

So the tips varied from each trip because some trips we were filled to the max, others a little less.

I find it funny people say they don’t make much money on these ships but no one ever takes into consideration how much it cost the company to purchase food, store the food in their holds, transport the food, so the crew is fed three times a day for free. Not to mention free room, water, etc…

All the same, I made 9 thousand for three months, about 6 thousand in tip, and 3 in salary.