18% Gratuity

[Bubbie Girl]

Quick Question- I have read that they will add 18% Gratuity to bills for parties of 6 or more, does this include a party of 5 adults and 1 toddler age 2 who is not ordering food. Just trying to figure that out. Thanks much.

[DizneyRox]

Yep

It's a head count, has nothing to do with who/what you order. It will be 18% of what the 5 people ordered, but will still be automatic gratuity...

[Terk24]

He's not ordering food? I hope you allow hi to eat at some point during the trip :secret: Just kidding

I must say this is one thing that irritates me. Even when our ds was 6 months (he didn't order either) ;) he counted towards out table capacity.

[MNNHFLTX]

Yes, they will undoubtedly include your son in the party count. That's pretty much standard practice at all the Disney restaurants.

[Dream'nDisney]

If service is good, we usually give a 20% tip. If one of you isn't eating, then your total will be less, making the 18% tip less. If you are looking for ways to cut costs on meals, WDW will let you share a meal. My DD and I aren't big eaters, so we do this all the time. WDW portions tend to be way too much for us to finish. :blush:

[LudwigVonDrake]

Six is Six :mickey:

[Bubbie Girl]

Thanks for the info. It isn't that I don't like to tip. I always do, I just like to tip what I want for the service I get. I sometimes think if they know they are sure of what they are going to get it can sometimes make a differance in your service. Oh well. I will be at Disney so no complaints!!
To the other comment, yes I intend to feed the little guy but due to his severe food allergies I take most of his food with me.

[Dream'nDisney]

I guess I can understand the complaint of "having" to give 18% even if the service is lousy. If the service is really lousy, I would just complain about it to Disney after the fact. For instance, we did the rehitching ceremony several years ago, and it was the most horrible experience we had ever had. I was in tears because of the way we were treated. Anyway, we had charged the dinner to our room. Because of that, when I went to our hotel in the morning to complain about our experience, the manager was apalled and said they were taking the charge completely off our room!! I did not ask for that, I guess I just wanted them to know what type of people they had working for them at that time. It still upsets me when I think back on what was suppose to be a nice memorable moment, and I would have gladly paid for the meal and had nice memories than to not pay for an aweful experience. Anyway, I hope you enjoy your trip, and have wonderful experiences.

[TheVBs]

If you get poor service, I would suggest speaking to the restaurant manager and insisting on a reduced tip, or have the tip removed altogther. Number of people is not a license for giving lousy service. If the manager doesn't comply, tell them you will keep going up the chain of command. You can do all this pleasantly and without putting a damper on your vacation at all.

Dream'nDisney, so sorry about your experience! Glad they removed the charge completely.

[wildernesslady]

We had horrible service once at CP. The manager did remove the automatic gratuity. We had left the 18% minus 40 cents and the server came back for that money. Then we knew we had to get the manager involved. It was an oversight on our part, but that was enough for us. We had dirty plates and no refills the entire time. Not acceptable. All other service was great and we had no problems leaving the required or more at many places.

[mom2morgan]

I guess I can understand the complaint of "having" to give 18% even if the service is lousy. If the service is really lousy, I would just complain about it to Disney after the fact. For instance, we did the rehitching ceremony several years ago, and it was the most horrible experience we had ever had. I was in tears because of the way we were treated.

What happened??! I'd never heard of it before so I had to google it. I don't know if they still do it but it sounded fun :-(

[finaldynasty]

They charged us for our baby last summer(we are a family of 5), but we have only had pleasant experiences. I pray that I have not jinx myself for our next trip. It gets expensive when you combine the pictures they peddle you with walking into some of the resturant.

[ThanxForNoticin]

Something to keep in mind - at least in my opinion. The gratuity, whether it's included on your bill or not, is optional ANYtime. If we have a group of 6 or 26, and we get lousy service, we're going to get the gratuity adjusted. Fortunately, when we've dined at Disney with bigger groups, we've never had a situation where I wasn't comfortable with the automatic gratuity (which has gone up to 18% over the years). Often we've even added a bit to it. But that is always the customer's option, if you wish to challenge it.

The only time I've ever had an issue with the auto gratuity was when, after the fact, I realized the I had given ANOTHER 20% on top of the gratuity that was already included because I forgot it had been added. That was my fault, however!