Originally Posted by
exbayern
But it's long been known that at WDW and at Aulani Disney overcharges for crap food. And three is the norm at Disney for a child, just as ten is an adult in Disney's world.
Disney actually is one of the worst at demanding a mandatory tip in many situations, and having some of the highest tips in the industry for a comparatively poor product (ie their food, tours, hotel rooms) Having those mandatory tips reduced is extremely difficult, and considering how often the service is mediocre at best, that shouldn't be the case.
Have to agree..
But on the other hand, I'm quite surprised with the food costs in comparison to other hotels we frequented during this trip. For example, Fairmont Kea Lani charges $34 pp for their breakfast buffet which we attended everyday.. child is $15. We just had a character breakfast for $32 per adult and $16 per child. Anyday of the week, I'll take the character breakfast (even without the characters) over the Fairmont Kea Lani breakfast buffet.. which btw was the same spread as Hyatt Regency Maui, but at HR Maui, its only $25.99 pp.
At Aulani, you can get shaved ice with three flavors, condensed milk, and ice cream on the bottom of the bowl for $5.25. A bowl of frozen yogurt ice cream for $4. At Kea Lani pool side, a milk shake is $8. At Grand Hyatt Kauai, a milk shake is $10. Pool food at Aulani is relatively inexpensive compared to Fairmont Orchid. A burger is $14, chicken strips is $9.95, kids meals are all $7.. try about double at the Fairmonts, and the Grand Hyatt Kauai.
Dined at Ama Ama at Aulani today, and the lunches were fine dining exquisite.. about $19/$21 for the entrees.. ocean front. At the Fairmonts and Hyatts.. Try about $10 at least more per entree for lunch. Had the specialized Donburi and Soba noodle salad local lunch plate.. ymmmm.
With these prices, I was more than happy to tip 18%. The kids meals at Aunty's Beach House for the kids was only $8.55 with tip. Extremely inexpensive and surprising for kids meals.
Originally Posted by
nkedel
Disney parks and resorts seem per this thread to be their own weird world, so your guess is as good as ours as to whether something that would be perfectly normal and acceptable within the rest of the US is normal and acceptable there.
That said, I'd tip the way I usually do (which is anywhere between 15-20% depending on rounding, the service and the size of the bill) unless the service was particularly good or bad. I'd imagine Disney to be pricey enough that I'm paying via card and I'm more likely to aim for a precise percentage. For cheap places, on a hypothetical $20 bill the difference of 15% to 20% is going to be exactly $1, and on a bill around that size or smaller they're more likely to get a tip that rounds the total bill up or down to a whole dollar whether it's slightly big or small.
I've went to Disneyland a couple of times in the early 2000s, but have never eaten on-park anywhere but a walk-up snackbar -- too many cheaper, better restaurants off-park in Anahaim.
As far as I know, there's no legal requirement that they pass a service charge on to the servers.
Disney is its own crowd, even within Disney.. At Disneyland Paris, I thought tip was included, so I never tipped.. long and behold, it was expected I bring cash to tip employees.. I never bring cash, only have cc's on me.. So I never had money on hand to do what was customary. All employees acknowledged it was ok as their hands were tied to being able for me to charge tip onto credit card. There was probably 10 restaurants in Europe I mentioned that I had no money on, so the only way I can tip is on credit card. Half of those restaurants just said it was fine, because there was nothing they could do.
Well, if a restaurant pockets the service charge and doesn't pass onto to the servers what they collect.. the restaurant will quickly lose good service people. Even I would never tip beyond a mandatory service charge.. because my thinking is that the service charge is the required tip.. no more no less.