We have a couple of riverboat cruises booked and find the issue of tipping on riverboats somewhat confusing and quite peculiar. Other than a Yangtse River cruise, all of our cruising has been on ocean cruise ships, most of them being "gratuities included" lines, such as Regent and Silversea. Therefore, we have some questions about the riverboat tipping policies.

We will, of course, happily offer whatever tips the riverboat line suggests. We do not find the suggested tip of 12-13 Euro per day per person for the crew to be at all unreasonable.

However, we do not understand the suggested tip of 3 Euro per day per person for the CD. Assuming a passenger load of 150, that would come out to between US$4,000 and $5,000 per week!! Even considering that most of the CD's compensation is in the form of tips, that is pretty good money. That would likely make riverboat CD's amongst the most highly-compensated personnel in the travel industry, I would imagine. That level of comp is certainly higher than that for the captain of the boat, would one not think??

Hmm, maybe I should dust off my French and Russian and try to get one on those gigs, even though I can't do cool puppets, like Ray Solaire on Regent can do. Geez, I'd be happy to do it for half the recommended tip amount, as long as they'd allow me to bring Pat and the two sweet little pooches along for the ride...

Am I missing something here? I welcome any clarification.

Cheers, Fred

Freddie, I am sorry I have no clarrification for you, but wanted you to know that I for one would sign up in a heartbeat for any cruise if you were the CD!

Fred,
The CD on the river boats is an independent contractor, not a cruise line employee and the gratuities are how he gets paid.
Jim

Jim - Thanks for confirming my understanding that many of the CD's are either contractors or "employees" of the line whose compensation is in great or total part made up of the gratuities. However, that does not address the level of such compensation, which seems to be disproportionate to the rest of the crew and to the degree of difficulty/responsibility of the position.

Recognizing that it is a highly demanding job which, if done well, may be of considerable value to many passengers, I remain somewhat at sea (or, maybe better, "at river") as to the justification for $4,000 to 5,000 per week for such a job.

Cheers, Fred

That is interesting. On the Amakarerina we were led to believe that the two cruise directors, both about 21, in addition to the chef who should seek a new career path, were the only AMA employees. The rest were hired and employed by the Russian company, Vohodod, who owns the ship and runs the operation.

Suggested tip for the three "AMA" staff was $4 pp and for the crew $15 pp. Had to be paid in cash (rubles, $ or euros only) in two envelopes put in a box at reception.

Leslie, the Russian AMA must be different from the European version. It was on 2 Christmas market cruises that we were told about the CD.

Fred, The cruises aren't always full and I thin the weekly stipend is closer to Euro 3000.00. Also, the CD doesn't work every week. He's at the hotel 2 or 3 days before the 7 day cruise doing the hospitality desk. He's also the travel dept managing all the tours, audio devices, transportation at the end of the cruise etc, so it's much more than just a CD. The ones we talked to run, at best, 2 cruises a month.
Jim

On Viking our CD was an employee. I don't remember what the suggest tips were.

Definitely me too Arlene - I just love Fred's sense of humour!

Tipping is not one of my strong points as we don't do too much of it here (unless in a high class restaurant or hotel). We're doing the river cruise on AMA and have been told we should tip but had we booked on Scenic from Australia, the tips would have been included. The cost of the cruise was pretty much the same except Scenic sells mainly to the Aussie market.

Lee

Frank said on Viking we tipped $20 a day for the cabin and it was not broken out by waiter/cd/steward