watch when leaving your tip!

Furthermore if the bill was 60.00 would you leave a 30.00 tip? that would be a tip of 50%, I doubt anyone of you leave a 50% tip.

I've tipped 50% at Disney before. Actually I tipped 100% once! If I'm not spending too much on the meal and the cast member is awesome I like to let them know that I appreciate it.
 
Dining Plan diners get one zero dollar receipt for items covered by the credits, and a separate balance due receipt for any non-covered items. Typical action, even when in somewhat of a hurry as at a theme park, should be to pay any balance and wait for the receipt for the purchase. Or hand the folder to the server and state how funds need to be allocated.

Then there's no confusion on the server's end.
Exactly. I'm really on top of things like this because I'm always thinking ahead and trying to avoid things going wrong. However, I could see my DD19 and her friend easily making this mistake when they are out and about. I will make sure that she knows to do what you said so that she doesn't have issues.
 
Wow this is interesting and I can see both sides. In most places emwe have dined, we payed several times leaving bill plus tip in the billfold and handed to server. But then again, we were not at disney on a ddp with mixed ddp and cash charges. I think its safe to say that we all just need to be clear in communicating with the servers so as not to have them make a mistake in where the cash should be allocated. Lesson learned, I am sure. I appreciate this thread because we will be at wdw in 45 days for the first time ever!!!! And now I know what I need to do to be on the safe side. :-)
 


This is more common then I thought.

We (3) ate at Narcoossee's a about 2 years ago. The Dining plan paid for our dinners and desserts, I paid OOP for an appy and a Manhattan. The entire bill came in around $200 with the dining plan picking up about $150. I Left a hundred dollar bill to cover the OOP portion and a >20% tip. I don't recall the exact words I spoke to him, but I made it clear that the money in the fold was to cover the balance and the tip. Check out day I checked my balance and there was a $50 charge on our room, the waiter kept the $100 as a tip and never applied any of the cash to the uncovered portion of the bill. When I called guest services they fixed it in less than 3 minutes, I'm usually laxed in checking for things like that, I'd bet they do this way too much.
 
This is more common then I thought.

We (3) ate at Narcoossee's a about 2 years ago. The Dining plan paid for our dinners and desserts, I paid OOP for an appy and a Manhattan. The entire bill came in around $200 with the dining plan picking up about $150. I Left a hundred dollar bill to cover the OOP portion and a >20% tip. I don't recall the exact words I spoke to him, but I made it clear that the money in the fold was to cover the balance and the tip. Check out day I checked my balance and there was a $50 charge on our room, the waiter kept the $100 as a tip and never applied any of the cash to the uncovered portion of the bill. When I called guest services they fixed it in less than 3 minutes, I'm usually laxed in checking for things like that, I'd bet they do this way too much.
We had similar problems last year at Yak & Yeti while trying to pay for our items not included in the dining plan and the tip. I was using a gift card to cover these charges but the server charged my gift card and a $75 charge to our room. I don't even know where the $75 number came from because it was way more than the $8 side and tip we left. He also charged my gift card twice but I had no way of proving that since the Disney gift card doesn't give you a break down of charges. He kept handing me things to sign- receipt for the dining plan, receipt for the side, receipt for the tip. I had a 5 month old in my arms so didn't pay as close attention as I should have I guess.

Anyway, we talked to guest services at our hotel (BC) and they reversed the charge, but it took a lot of convincing even though I had the receipts.

This year I was much more careful about keeping track of every charge and tip as well as the balance of the gift card.
 
Thanks for the heads up. Glad you caught the mistake. I am guilty of not really looking over my room charges.

I generally just do a room charge for any bar drinks and the tip. I think I'll stick to that. Sounds like there are several dishonest servers out there.
 


This happened to us last year at California Grill. Guest services resolved quickly the next day.
 
wow, I am new to this site, shocked at all the replies. for starters, our magic bands which you can put charges on your room are attached to my credit card. for the comments about waiting to the server to return, that would add significant time to leaving, generally the servers are very busy and they don't always return in a timely fashion. We did this practice in all our sit down meals, only 2 servers charged my credit card , they other servers had the common sense to figure out what was their tip. My daughter was a server through high school and college, she agrees that this is common knowledge when money is left, after the money owed is paid the rest is the tip. Furthermore if the bill was 60.00 would you leave a 30.00 tip? that would be a tip of 50%, I doubt anyone of you leave a 50% tip. BTW... if your reservation is held with a credit card yes they can charge to that card for a no show or late cancellation.

I agree with you. Any cash left in the folder goes to the bill first, and then the tip.

Pretty much every time we pay in cash, the server comes and takes it and says I'll be right back with your change, and we say no, its all for you, she says thanks, and we leave. I have never waited for a reciept. I have the customer copy of the bill, what would I do with a cash receipt? Throw it out on our way out.
Actually a receipt has never been offered in that case. The server doesn't come back with anything.
 
So to clarify, the best way to tip when you are on the dining plan is to charge your meal to your magic band with your dining plan credits, then also charge any out of pocket extras such as sides or drinks to your magic band as well and then write the tip in and charge to your magic band and then pay off the charges daily?
 
We have used the dining plan many many times.
1. You have to use your pin to use your credits.
2. The servers have always ASKED us if we wanted to put the other balance on the card attached to our MB.
3. In cases where we paid cash for any extras we have left enough cash for both the tip & extra food cost.

OP thanks for the information;as always we will be sure our servers know what our intentions are so there is no confusion at the end we will also check our charges to the MB frequently.
 
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Thanks for the heads up! I dont like to secure a visa to my magic band. I always pay cash. I think a couple of times I did add $200 or so to my account (so that i can pay for little things with my magic band). When I add the money (with either cash or visa), i always make it clear to the CM that i do not authorize any purchases beyond that amount.

While settling the bill at the restaurant, I always sit and wait to clear the cheque with the server. I don't like to just leave the table with money in the folder. Thats just me though.

But this is definitely a good eye opener for my upcoming November trip. Thanks OP!
 
After I check in I always ask that the credit card info be removed from my reservation. Also when using DDP I put cash tip on the tip line. Guessing the best way to do this is to wait until after the bill was paid and you got a receipt to leave the cash tip on the table.
 

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