Spending $$$

Great tips, we are a party of four what should we rip is $40 too much?

Standard tipping rates in the states are 15%, 18% OR 20% of your total bill. Now this is not a receipt from Disney. This is from a local Applebee's here in PA. So for all those people out there that are appalled by Disney putting the recommended or suggested gratuity amount of the receipt, they are not the only ones doing it!

As people who are slighly naive to tipping it comes in handy if they give suggestions!!! especially if they give you all 3 prices saves me working it out!!!!

Yes Amy, but not everyone sees it that way, some are "offended" by Disney doing that, and won't even leave a tip because of that.

The only thing that makes me scratch my head about tipping in the USA is that, it's your server that your tipping,not your meal..Over here if my meal is pretty poor and not worth the price, then I don't tip..If my meal was excellent then I usually tip 10% of the total bill...But yes, if my server is awesome in Disney but the meal was pretty average, then I usually tip 15%.. I did tip 20% at Californian Grill on our last trip..Our bill for three of us was $220 and my tip was $44.00, that's almost PS30 to us.. LOL...

I like that Disney puts the percentages on the bottom of your bill. As a waitress myself I always tip 20% unless I get horrible service (which has never happened at Disney). Most waiters live on their tips what little they get paid per hour gets taken for taxes.

So if your server at home is awesome, but your food is poor, you still don't tip?

Well if I had an awesome server, but the food was poor, the server would still get a good tip because that would mean they tried everything they could to still make our meal enjoyable. I have had several meals that were not the best, but the wait staff was awesome. Now if I have an awesome meal, but my server was poor, thats when the tip goes down. We have had some that we thought the wait person had left for the night, thats how often we saw them.

Here we pretty much tip on service, if there is a problem with the food, you start with the waiter/waitress and if you don't get results,then go to the management. Your waiter/waitress is the one responsible for making sure that food is right, be it the right temperature, cooked to your liking or what ever, before it gets to your table.

Here, in the states, most wait staff depend on their tips as a large part of their wages. They also have to share usually with the busing staff that clean and reset the tables. Some also do share a percentage with the cooks, but not usually. The cooks usually get paid good money. Also that tip money is a taxable wage. They don't all just pocket that money and go home with it each night. In the states, you're pretty much just tipping for the service.

Please keep this in mind when tipping. You might think that 15-18% is a sizable amount of money for the server, especially if your bill is large, but keep in mind that they have to tip out bussers, bartenders and sometimes food runners based on the bill not what the tip was.. So say your bill was $100 and they have to tip out 10% of their total sales to other people, thats $10 that they already have to give away. So a $15 tip isn't as good as it originally seemed. As an ex-server nothing would hurt me more than someone saying "great service, we loved everything" and then leaving a bad tip. I know in other countries tipping isn't as prevalent or important but over here its how people live. Most servers don't even get pay checks, so a bad night of tips can greatly affect their income.

Okay, now I'll get off my soapbox.. To answer your question designedbydisney, unless the Bill is over $200, $40 will be a more than enough tip

Mr hub in the uk I just don't tip, I was a waiter for 12 years and most tables leave PS2 on a PS50 bill. The have to remember in the uk waiters get paid I used to earn PS10 an hour which is like $16 an hour, minimum wage in the uk is PS6.50 The way I see it here is I do an awesome job all day every day and no one is tipping my great service. Nurses are paid less that waiters in the uk and no one is tipping them.

The break down is really helpfully to Brits because we just don't understand it, it really isn't our culture.

Also I don't mean this to sound rude as I said I was a waiter for a long time and a happy one cause my boss padded me a fair wage, that is not the case in America, and I always tip very well on vacation.

Wow $16 an hour??? I can't even imagine the US ever coming close to paying that hourly amount to wait staff. Currently in the US, the federal minimum an employer must pay a waiter or waitress an hour is $2.13. The employer must make sure that the waiter or waitress makes at least $7.25/ hour once the $2.13 is combined with the hourly tips.

I was a waitress all through high school and college and it is hard work, with little pay here! I always tip well because I remember those years as a waitress very well. There was nothing worse than working so hard for a table for a few hours and they leave you nothing.

If waiters and waitresses made $16/hour here I think our country would seriously re-evaluate whether or not they should still receive tips. But since they only get $2.13/hr here in most states, if they are a good server I tip at least 20%.

Wow that is crazy low! does the us not have a minimum wage? I worked at a posh resturant when I was paid PS10 an hour most places pay PS7 but that is still around $10 an hour, $2 an hour on an 8 hour shift is $16 that is crazy

I totally agree with you Mr Hub..It's just the way we do things over here..As my fellow UK friend stated, the hourly rate looks to be higher than the USA...I once stayed at a hotel on the east coast of Scotland for one night...My server was smiling and chatting all the time about the sights to visit, then she brought the wrong wine, took it back and brought the correct wine,but it wasn't chilled, took it back and brought a chilled bottle, by this time my meal was cold, I asked it to be sent back and reheated,and when it returned to my table,it wasn't my meal, it was someone else's..She was awesome as she kept blaming other people in the kitchen and laughed about the calamities that was happening in the restaurant that night..Hmmm..

Our minimum wage in the US is currently $7.25. That is why the owner of the restaurant must make sure that the wait staff has made enough in tips to equal at least $7.25 an hour. They get paid $2.13 an hour on their paycheck so they must make $5.12 an hour in tips. The minimum amount the owner has to pay the wait staff on their paychecks is $2.13 an hour. If their tips didn't bring it up to $7.25 an hour the owner must make up the difference. Some restaurants pay more than the minimum $2.13 an hour but that is all they are required to pay. Some states do have their own higher minimum wage too. For example, here in Florida our minimum wage is $7.93 an hour. But I agree, it's crazy low!

I am in awe here... my soon to be hubby and I will be going to WDW in october, 2015 - 8 days, 7 nights. We have budgeted for the entire trip $5500... did a pkg with WDW for room, food and parks. We only need airfare and spending $ for tips souvenirs etc... I feel like i'm crazy with a huge spending budget. However we haven't been before... so maybe I'm ok lol

I was a server for MANY MANY years... people think its crazy to be paid the $2.13 or whatever a server makes these days. It all depends on a server how much he/she truly makes an hour. In my own personal case I easily made anywhere between $17-21 an hour on a 32 hour work week. But I love customer service... I would still be a server if my body would just agree. If your a crappy server your not going to make as much.

Both G and I tip 15 to 20% both here and in the US. If it is exceptional service and we had a great time it is worth every single penny/cent. We have TiW and will occasionally leave an additional tip if it was fantastic. Good for Disney for making suggestions, makes it easier.

I budget for a trip a bit differently. What I do is get the trip itself paid for (actually paid for such as airfare or money set aside for it such as food) so transportation (airfare & shuttles for me this could include rental car, gas, train tickets etc), hotels, food & any tickets, tours etc. that I need/want to purchase in advance & the cash I'm bringing with me. Once I have all of that either paid for or set aside then I start setting aside money for spending money while I'm on the trip and whatever I've managed to set aside between the time I get the trip "paid" for and the time I leave on my trip is how much I have to spend. I don't budget spending money per day. I do however budget the cash & food money per day.

This kind of where we are at.. I am paying for the disney my way package, which includes hotel, park tickets and all food. We are using the Disney Magical Express to get too and from the resort for our flights, so no cost there. He is putting an allotment into a savings account to cover flights, tipping and our spending money. Really I think this way (for us) splits the cost just about in half. Its also easier this way since I get paid weekly and the Fiance only gets paid monthly.

Since we were able to get the dining plan, our budgeting has become a good deal simpler. We will put a certain amount of cash into our magic bands upon arrival, have tip envelopes for mousekeeping, and extra cash for the parks.