MDR servers

[Kwami]

Just got off NCL and tipping (Daily Service Charge) is added to bill. Very difficult to remove. Maybe they had too many guests from those "non tipping cultures."

Yeah, but I don't actually understand the NCL charges. They're for "the crew" rather than for the specific people that serve you on the cruise. That's mostly because you don't get assigned servers, I suppose, but then why bother with the service charge at all? Either charge a smaller amount for the cabin attendant and pay everyone else properly or else just pay all of them properly and don't charge the extra fee.

I suspect that NCL does it to make their cruise fares lower in order to look more competitive, but it's really quite misleading (like pretty much everything else on their website).

 

[tvguy]

I had a server from Indonesia on our HAL cruise. He said the base salary he gets is more than he would earn at home. The tips mean he will be able to retire at age 34 with 10 years on ships.

 

[FastPasser.]

The tips mean he will be able to retire at age 34 with 10 years on ships.

Speaking of retirement, does anyone know for sure if they are DCL employees or are they third party sub contractors hired by DCL and will not receive retirement benefits from DCL?

 

[tvguy]

Speaking of retirement, does anyone know for sure if they are DCL employees or are they third party sub contractors hired by DCL and will not receive retirement benefits from DCL?

They all sign personal service contracts, usually for 10 months. Not sure if those contracts are with Disney or someone else, but it really doesn't matter, since they are contract workers, no retirement benefits.

 

[dwg]

Yeah, but I don't actually understand the NCL charges. They're for "the crew" rather than for the specific people that serve you on the cruise. That's mostly because you don't get assigned servers, I suppose, but then why bother with the service charge at all? Either charge a smaller amount for the cabin attendant and pay everyone else properly or else just pay all of them properly and don't charge the extra fee.

I suspect that NCL does it to make their cruise fares lower in order to look more competitive, but it's really quite misleading (like pretty much everything else on their website).

Not just NCL. I have a BIL who is Pinnacle Club on Royal. Goes on 14 Royal cruises a year. He told me that his tips are added as an automatic charge like DCL but the tips do not go to specific servers like DCL. He ends up tipping specific servers while on a cruise so they get a tip from him. Sounds like it works similar to my days as a blackjack dealer in Atlantic City. All tips received were put into a tip boxes and we were given a check for our share of the pooled tips each week.

If that is the way most cruise lines work then what is the incentive for those servers to provide "excellent" service.

 

[71 Truck]

DCL probably covers the airfare, but not the rest. I had a server from Indonesia on my last cruise and he was saying that it takes him about two days to get home from Florida with some pretty long layovers.

My wife and have become good friends with a bartender that used to work on the Fantasy. Disney would fly him and others crew members in on a Friday and Disney put them up in a hotel near the airport for the night. I don't remember if he told us they gave them an allowance for meals.

The next day Disney would bus them out to port Canaveral to get on the ship. From what he told us the pay for the return expenses home as long as they finish their contract and they fly right home.

One time he wanted to stay in the United States for a few days at the end of his contract but was told if he did that he was on his own to get home.

 

[Lesverts]

My wife and have become good friends with a bartender that used to work on the Fantasy. Disney would fly him and others crew members in on a Friday and Disney put them up in a hotel near the airport for the night. I don't remember if he told us they gave them an allowance for meals.

The next day Disney would bus them out to port Canaveral to get on the ship. From what he told us the pay for the return expenses home as long as they finish their contract and they fly right home.

One time he wanted to stay in the United States for a few days at the end of his contract but was told if he did that he was on his own to get home.

This is why emirates is a popular airline for crew to go home on. They will happily delay the second leg of the journey by a day or two and Dubai has easy access to their saved money and they can buy things not available or affordable at home

 

[DisneyConvert]

Not just NCL. I have a BIL who is Pinnacle Club on Royal. Goes on 14 Royal cruises a year. He told me that his tips are added as an automatic charge like DCL but the tips do not go to specific servers like DCL. He ends up tipping specific servers while on a cruise so they get a tip from him. Sounds like it works similar to my days as a blackjack dealer in Atlantic City. All tips received were put into a tip boxes and we were given a check for our share of the pooled tips each week.

If that is the way most cruise lines work then what is the incentive for those servers to provide "excellent" service.

Great point. Valid concern

BUT we generally had very good, if sometimes leisurely service, on NCL.
Wrote up one Asst Maitre D (= DCL Head Waiter) for terrific service.
Spread a little cash around as well, why not?

 

[stkgator]

100% of the MDR cast members' salary is from gratuities and tips - with a certain amount "guaranteed" for each pay period.

For example, if the guaranteed wage is $300 per period and the cast member received $1,000 in gratuities in the same period, they will ONLY receive $1,000 for that pay period (NOT $300 + $1,000). On the other hand, if they only received $200 in gratuities, they would get paid the guaranteed wage of $300.

The guaranteed wage that I heard was around $300.00 per week for the Server.

Paying any additional gratuity is NOT required, but if your MDR staff provide excellent service, I would suggest an additional cash gratuity. If you are unhappy with the MDR service that you are receiving, speak with the Head Server. If you are still unsatisfied, speak with the Restaurant Manager. The entire MDR staff is motivated to ensure guest satisfaction.

Also, if you eat breakfast or lunch in the MDR, and the MDR staff provide exceptional service, you may want to consider a small gratuity paid directly to the breakfast/lunch MDR staff.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

The guaranteed wage that I heard was around $300.00 per week for the Server.

Not trying to be argumentative, but "you heard"? No actual knowledge of how it works?

 

[tinkerone]

100% of the MDR cast members' salary is from gratuities and tips - with a certain amount "guaranteed" for each pay period.

I'm pretty sure this is wrong. I have a friend who worked on DCL in the shops. I grilled this person about pay because I was curious about this very topic. Granted this was 10 or so years ago however I was told, at the time, they were salaried at $50 a month as well as having their room and board paid for.
While it doesn't sound like a lot, it has probably increased in that period but I don't see it changing to what you are suggesting.
Tips are the basis of their salary, that is true, but it has nothing to do with pay. Pay is separate.

 

[Lesverts]

Wouldn’t Disney have to pay the Bahamian minimum wage and follow Bahamian labor laws. Which don’t allow for employees to only be paid by tips.

 

[DisneyConvert]

$4.75 (suggested) per day, per guest for the Server. $3.75 for the Asst Server.
12~30 guests x TWO dining services, depending on how crowded the ship.

Some folks tip less, I am guessing/hoping most tip more?

$5 x 32 guests => $160/day, $4,800/month, perhaps US$60K/year.
Maybe more?
A good reason to throw in an extra $10~$40 per cruise if the service is great; Not much for most of us, but it adds up for those who work very hard.

For an Asst Server, perhaps 22% less.

Tax rate is 15% in Indonesia
Higher for Phillipines where an income > $45K/year is upper income.
They save and pay for their own retirement, health care (not on ship), etc.

Not sure who pays the hiring agency.

 

[Chrissy-Mickey]

I know I'm gonna get cr@p for this...but here goes.

1) They know what they're signing up for when they sign the contract. No one is holding a gun to their head forcing them to work for peanuts.

This is not a sob story and I wish people would not perpetuate it.

Agreed. We've spoken to a crew member (one of the automatic gratuity positions) who was retiring after working for DCL for 10 years. At first, we thought he was just leaving DCL and moving on, but no, he was very clear, he no longer had to work, and yes he had a house, wife, and kids. He explained that the cost of living was so low where he was from, that after 10 years of hard work with DCL, he didn't have to work another day in his life.

Should we pay our gratuities? Absolutely!
Is it great if you're able to add something extra to reward great service? Sure!
Are they poor people who need our charity? No.

 

[71 Truck]

Not to get to side tracked but has anyone ever heard officially how the tipping at Palo works.

We were told back in 2001 and for a few years after that, that the extra money you paid to eat at Palo weather it was for brunch or dinner was supposed to cover the tip for the server. This was something we were told directly by Disney when we made our reservations for Palo.

Then They stopped telling people this so for years it has been one of the questions asked on the forum.

Over the years, not knowing for sure if this was still the case, my wife and I have always tipped extra based on the cost of a similar meal at a Disney restaurant like when the California Grill used to still do their brunch.

Since we have been Platinum for several years and get one Palo meal for free each this has not been a big deal for us but in the past we never knew if we were double tipping.

 

[Dug720]

Since we have been Platinum for several years and get one Palo meal for free each this has not been a big deal for us but in the past we never knew if we were double tipping.

I have no clue, but I don't see it as that big of a deal if I add something on even though I'm not Platinum yet. I've always had excellent service when I've dined at Palo and adding a little extra is no big deal compared to the cost of the cruise.

 

[71 Truck]

I have no clue, but I don't see it as that big of a deal if I add something on even though I'm not Platinum yet. I've always had excellent service when I've dined at Palo and adding a little extra is no big deal compared to the cost of the cruise.

Oh I agree 100% service over the years has been well worth it. I always just wondered if we were double tipping by accident not knowing.

Years ago when we lived in N.J. my wife worked at a Disney store part time. When we would go to Disney for vacation we would go for two weeks and she got the cast member discounts at the Disney restaurants.

One night at dinner when we got he bill we noticed the tip was included. At the time I want to think it was 15%.

We had not notice this all week. When we asked the server about this she told us it had just started that day. For a moment we had thought we had been double tipping all week.
She told us the reason this was being done was that cast members were tipping on the discounted bill instead of the original bill.
I told her we always tip on the original bill and it was almost always more than 15% because of the excellent service we have always revived while on vacation.

 

[stkgator]

Not to get to side tracked but has anyone ever heard officially how the tipping at Palo works.

We were told back in 2001 and for a few years after that, that the extra money you paid to eat at Palo weather it was for brunch or dinner was supposed to cover the tip for the server. This was something we were told directly by Disney when we made our reservations for Palo.

Then They stopped telling people this so for years it has been one of the questions asked on the forum.

Over the years, not knowing for sure if this was still the case, my wife and I have always tipped extra based on the cost of a similar meal at a Disney restaurant like when the California Grill used to still do their brunch.

Since we have been Platinum for several years and get one Palo meal for free each this has not been a big deal for us but in the past we never knew if we were double tipping.

Palo servers currently are compensated like the MDR staff with their pay coming from gratuity added to the bill, along with the guaranteed minimum - except in Palo there are no Assistant Servers, so the gratuity is not split. One of our previous MDR Server now works in Palo said he enjoys Paol more than the MDR, but the limited number day/times/slots that Palo is available, can be a concern.

 

[Cfabar1]

I am glad to hear they are treated very well and if they are frugal can work 10 years and then move on. It seems like a hard job.

Idk about Palo but at Enchante we were told that the 18% tip that was assessed was pooled between the Enchante staff. Additional gratuity left at the table beyond the 18% would go to our individual server.

 

[Flcruising]

Using your own math, but allowing 20 guests over 365 days (no days off!), that's $34,675 per year. Half that for an assistant server. That's really not a lot. And, they're working 80-hour weeks with some months off contract, so they're actually earning a fair bit less than that $34,675. It's a good thing that they also get hourly wages.

(I know that $34,675 goes further in the Philippines and other developing countries than it does in the USA. I'm just pointing out that "not a sob story" isn't "really great", either.)

Are you saying the ,$34,000 are tips in addition to their regular pay? So they recieve their regular pay plus ,$34,000 tips? Just trying to clarify.