SteveinSC

...and Dad's. I am married with 2 boys. I do all the cooking for my family, as my wife is a Nurse and doesn't get home till later than us. I am looking forward to doughnuts, bagels, fruit and COFFEE delivered to my room EVERY MORNING, no meal prep (i cook my personal meals for the entire week) on Sunday,  and no nightly dinners for the family, followed by the DISHES! Its the small things...ill worry about being back to Mr. Mom post cruise.  

...and Dad's. I am married with 2 boys. I do all the cooking for my family, as my wife is a Nurse and doesn't get home till later than us. I am looking forward to doughnuts, bagels, fruit and COFFEE delivered to my room EVERY MORNING, no meal prep (i cook my personal meals for the entire week) on Sunday,  and no nightly dinners for the family, followed by the DISHES! Its the small things...ill worry about being back to Mr. Mom post cruise.  

...and Dad's. I am married with 2 boys. I do all the cooking for my family, as my wife is a Nurse and doesn't get home till later than us. I am looking forward to doughnuts, bagels, fruit and COFFEE delivered to my room EVERY MORNING, no meal prep (i cook my personal meals for the entire week) on Sunday,  and no nightly dinners for the family, followed by the DISHES! Its the small things...ill worry about being back to Mr. Mom post cruise.  

If you have to tell everybody what a big deal you are.....you're not.

Even if we eat breakfast at WJ or the MDR, we like to order the continental breakfast from room service early, which is complimentary.  It's nice to have coffee and some fruit or a muffin while we get ready for the day. We like to think of it as "breakfast appetizers."
Happy cruising!

I have been watching a lot of videos of people ordering room service on their cruise. The room service menu has a lot of good looking food on it! Sad to say, I am so excited to order room service and just eat it in my room or on the balcony. Just relax and chill doing nothing. This may be one of the highlights of the cruise for me! LOL....BTW, I am a mom who will be taking a vacation from cooking too!

...and Dad's. I am married with 2 boys. I do all the cooking for my family, as my wife is a Nurse and doesn't get home till later than us. I am looking forward to doughnuts, bagels, fruit and COFFEE delivered to my room EVERY MORNING, no meal prep (i cook my personal meals for the entire week) on Sunday,  and no nightly dinners for the family, followed by the DISHES! Its the small things...ill worry about being back to Mr. Mom post cruise.  

...and Dad's. I am married with 2 boys. I do all the cooking for my family, as my wife is a Nurse and doesn't get home till later than us. I am looking forward to doughnuts, bagels, fruit and COFFEE delivered to my room EVERY MORNING, no meal prep (i cook my personal meals for the entire week) on Sunday,  and no nightly dinners for the family, followed by the DISHES! Its the small things...ill worry about being back to Mr. Mom post cruise.  

I'm a full time working mom of 4, and our evenings consist of running kids to swim practice and rushing to put something on the table when they walk in the door - then clean up, bathe them, shove them in bed. Then do it all over again the next day. On cruise - I get to NOT do that- and actually enjoy time with my kids. It's perfect. 

I am not a stay at home mom but I am one of the few cooks on my shift at the fire department, and I also end up cooking when I get home as well due to me being the first one home when I work at my part time job. I completely feel your pain, I enjoy cooking but sometimes it is nice to sit and let someone else cater to your needs and allow you to sit back and relax! Enjoy your cruise I am sure that you deserve it!!

"Tipping is not a Chinese city."
Annnnnd swing and a miss on humor. ?
If you're the kind of person who has to announce to a huge group of strangers how much you (supposedly, per you...) are giving to the staff, you're not being a good person -- you're tipping for you, no matter what you try to tell yourself.
And the tips were in the casino? Oh, look...yet another way to say "look at me -- I have oodles of money to throw around and make a spectacle of myself..." ?

Me....with Honduran Lempiras....

Yeah, I would love to go on that one day too. I bet it's a ton of fun. 

I-O,  we have looked at booking a b2b to even out the cost per day. Maybe some day!

Just for fun, share if you have ever had these cruise experiences.
--Sailed alone - Truly solo, no. Without a significant other, yes. As a single man in my mid 20s, and had a BLAST. 
--Sailed with a sweetheart/spouse - Both. Very first cruise was with my GF at the time, then sailed again with my GF that became my wife, then on our honeymoon, then with my wife. 
--Sailed with other family members - multiple times....parents, siblings, cousins, grandma.....
--Done a repositioning cruise - never
--Missed a port call because of weather - Coco Cay ONCE, then got booted off Coco Cay another time to leave early because of rough seas. That was back in the tender days, and hopping onto the plank from the tender was.....dicey. 
--Had your port of disembarkation changed because of weather - never
--Sailed in or out of a port in your home town - never
--Sailed in or out of a port in foreign country - kind of confused by this one....arent most ports in foreign countries? Bahamas, Mexico, Grand Cayman, Belize, Honduras for me. 
--Gotten sick on a cruise - not yet
--Ate at the midnight buffet - yes
--Had formal tea on a sea day - no
--Visited a cruise line's private island - Coco Cay 
--Toured the ship's galley - no
--Toured the bridge - no
--Had a wardrobe malfunction on board - no
--Sailed on a cruise line other than RC - Yes (shhhhhhh)
--Had the chef make something special for only your table - no 

Me....with Honduran Lempiras....

Just for fun, share if you have ever had these cruise experiences.
--Sailed alone - Truly solo, no. Without a significant other, yes. As a single man in my mid 20s, and had a BLAST. 
--Sailed with a sweetheart/spouse - Both. Very first cruise was with my GF at the time, then sailed again with my GF that became my wife, then on our honeymoon, then with my wife. 
--Sailed with other family members - multiple times....parents, siblings, cousins, grandma.....
--Done a repositioning cruise - never
--Missed a port call because of weather - Coco Cay ONCE, then got booted off Coco Cay another time to leave early because of rough seas. That was back in the tender days, and hopping onto the plank from the tender was.....dicey. 
--Had your port of disembarkation changed because of weather - never
--Sailed in or out of a port in your home town - never
--Sailed in or out of a port in foreign country - kind of confused by this one....arent most ports in foreign countries? Bahamas, Mexico, Grand Cayman, Belize, Honduras for me. 
--Gotten sick on a cruise - not yet
--Ate at the midnight buffet - yes
--Had formal tea on a sea day - no
--Visited a cruise line's private island - Coco Cay 
--Toured the ship's galley - no
--Toured the bridge - no
--Had a wardrobe malfunction on board - no
--Sailed on a cruise line other than RC - Yes (shhhhhhh)
--Had the chef make something special for only your table - no 

...AAAAAAALL of this.  Kudos to those that tip big....I just dont. But its because I dont ask a lot. I try to make service peoples jobs as EASY as possible. Me and my fam are very low maintenance and feel wrong for asking things of others. I figure God gave me two arms, two legs, and half a brain, so I can do most things myself...I prepay gratuities and will tip above that if service goes above and beyond.   

First, I agree with everything that everyone has said.
Now, let me come at this from a different direction. Once upon a time, I was a cocktail waitress in college. Meaning, I have worked in an environment where tipping is done. And I saw ALL sorts. From the entitled "you should be paying me for the honour of waiting on me" types to the "hey, you're pretty, here's a hundred bucks for existing" types. And everything in between.
I think, at the end of the day, people who are in the service industry (at least myself and those I worked with as a waitress and later on when I was a bartender) get that not everyone is loaded with cash to throw around. I do think there is a general expectation from those who wait on you to have you pay your bill for what you have ordered and (where/when appropriate) leave a gratuity. And, yes, on the rare occasion, it's super nice if someone rich gives you more out of the kindness of their heart (it happens) or because they are trying to show off.
But here is the thing. On the other side, they can tell usually (especially after spending a week dealing with them) who is showing off, who is being kind, who is being an ass, and who is giving what they can. While you have entitled people everywhere, when working in the service industry personally, I would tell you that if you were a decent client who didn't berate me or demand ridiculous things or constantly complain then I'd already feel like I'd won. If you paid your expected RC gratuity then, excellent. Good to go. If you'd tipped me ON TOP of that, even if only $10, then I'd have been super appreciative that you'd thought enough of my time and attention to go above and beyond.
At the end of the day (as I think you have gathered from the other responses) you have nothing to be ashamed of. Anyone trying to make you feel ashamed has their own issues they are dealing with and chances are you could have tipped double what you tipped and someone would have said it still wasn't enough. There are some people that it will never be enough for. From the other side of the table, from the service side, I'd rather have a kind client who tipped me the absolute minimum but wasn't a PITA all week. Having dealt with PITAs, I can say there is no amount of money in the world for putting up with some peoples' *ahem*.
I'd be like, "Here's your money back. GTFO."
No shame. You were more than generous.