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Gifting Stewards


morgaNhank

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Does anyone pack/ bring a gift onboard, to leave for your room steward? My parents have done this for as long as I can remember, so naturally I picked up this practice and assumed its what everyone does. Until... I was talking to some friends and turns out NONE of them do this.!! Are we just the weirdos that leave behind unwanted goods? or our fancy hand lotions and reed diffusers not the adored trinkets of gratitude we think they are?  My mom always said to bring your steward something they cant buy on the ship of themselves, something that will better their crew quarters or something they would want to give to their mom. But, now I think about it, this sounds like such a Mom thing to say..  🙂 🙂 LOL!! 

❤️ Thanks for your thoughts guys, sorry I keep asking questions  

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You are going to get a ton of varied answers on this topic. When we were on Oasis in December, our stateroom attendant could not get off the ship. The only time they were allowing crew off the ship fell during her work hours. We asked her if there was anything we could pick up for her. We specifically asked about snacks they couldn't get on board and she said chocolate was always nice. We bought a variety of candy in St. Thomas including some that is made about 2 hours from us and gave it to her. She said she would share with her friends. Knowing how small their cabins are, I wouldn't get anything that isn't a consumable. 

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10 minutes ago, kadmgs said:

You are going to get a ton of varied answers on this topic. When we were on Oasis in December, our stateroom attendant could not get off the ship. The only time they were allowing crew off the ship fell during her work hours. We asked her if there was anything we could pick up for her. We specifically asked about snacks they couldn't get on board and she said chocolate was always nice. We bought a variety of candy in St. Thomas including some that is made about 2 hours from us and gave it to her. She said she would share with her friends. Knowing how small their cabins are, I wouldn't get anything that isn't a consumable. 

So, we can buy pre-packaged food items at port and bring it back to the ship?  

If so, this is a GREAT idea!  Thank you for sharing!

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Now that they can get off the ship, I will no longer bring toiletries and personal care items for my waiter, the assistant, and my cabin attendant.  I plan to get a bag of miniature chocolate bars, cup noodles, and Cheetos (often requested), maybe Cheez-its too.  Oh and socks!

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9 minutes ago, CruisingNewb said:

So, we can buy pre-packaged food items at port and bring it back to the ship?  

If so, this is a GREAT idea!  Thank you for sharing!

Yes, you can. You're welcome. Most of what we purchased was for her, but we also grabbed a few things for ourselves as well to have in our room. 

5 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

Now that they can get off the ship, I will no longer bring toiletries and personal care items for my waiter, the assistant, and my cabin attendant.  I plan to get a bag of miniature chocolate bars, cup noodles, and Cheetos (often requested), maybe Cheez-its too.  Oh and socks!

Yes, chips are good as well. Now that you say that, we also got a few individual bags of chips as well. 

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@morgaNhankSport socks are always great because the room attendants go through so many pairs they say.  The wait staff love dark dress socks.  They say you can always use them especially when it gets close to laundry day.

Phone cards are good to now that crew do get some shore days.  But cash is always King!

Most toiletries they can buy in the crew store.

 

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20 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

Now that they can get off the ship, I will no longer bring toiletries and personal care items for my waiter, the assistant, and my cabin attendant.  I plan to get a bag of miniature chocolate bars, cup noodles, and Cheetos (often requested), maybe Cheez-its too.  Oh and socks!

They can't necessarily get off the ship though, at least in the short term. The shore leave program is very limited at first.

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Yes, my wife and I do put together a "care package" that includes mostly consumable stuff. We have found that scented bags/fresheners (Scentsy products are great!) for their lockers are especially appreciated since the crew areas can get a little rank at times and it is something they don't think about ahead of time. Hand gels/creams, lip balm, etc. are awesome and easy to bring in our carry-ons. Unisex socks is a great idea, too. And we usually tuck a gift card in there. Starbucks cards can be useful on a ship with one (crew has to pay for the SB habits, too.). The bottom line is that they don't have a lot of space (so we avoid t-shirts, hats, etc.), but anything they can use (or trade or share with other crew members) are usually welcome.

I do occasionally bring chocolates from home (Colorado, so Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory or one of our local chocolatiers). But this can get challenging sometimes. If flying, don't put chocolates in your checked bag as it can sit in the heat on the tarmac. If you have a large quantity in your carry on, well, let's just say that TSA might take notice. While solid chocolate is supposed to be ok, filled chocolates can be confiscated if you get the wrong agent - they can be considered a gel, I guess. I know people on a cruise in 2003 that had a few pounds confiscated, but maybe they aren't so bad about it now. I have successfully brought 2 pounds through with only a quick inspection by TSA. Smaller quantities usually don't have issues.

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So I know this is a "controversial" topic and cash is king (we do give extra $ above prepaid gratuities) but we also bring multiple types candy, gum and snacks from home.  Each night we give a different type to our room steward and waiters.  We also have our kids give out several a day to people they choose (Windjammer staff, person cleaning a bathroom, working at the pool, etc.).  

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2 hours ago, morgaNhank said:

Does anyone pack/ bring a gift onboard, to leave for your room steward? My parents have done this for as long as I can remember, so naturally I picked up this practice and assumed its what everyone does. Until... I was talking to some friends and turns out NONE of them do this.!! Are we just the weirdos that leave behind unwanted goods? or our fancy hand lotions and reed diffusers not the adored trinkets of gratitude we think they are?  My mom always said to bring your steward something they cant buy on the ship of themselves, something that will better their crew quarters or something they would want to give to their mom. But, now I think about it, this sounds like such a Mom thing to say..  🙂 🙂 LOL!! 

❤️ Thanks for your thoughts guys, sorry I keep asking questions  

We usually bring a big bag of assorted chocolates (think Halloween mix, which you can find year-round) that we hand out to the crew around ship, plus some Tide Pods.  Crew have to do their own laundry including paying for supplies and - especially when they could not get off ship - Tide Pods were a big hit.  Other than that we ordinarily just leave $$$$.

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I can't imagine if everyone did this how much "stuff" they would have and then have to figure out how to store it and have time to use it....week after week after week.  My sister is a teacher, when I had kids that were school age she begged me to not buy the teacher a coffee mug.  She said having a classroom full of kids giving a coffee mug was nice, but.......how many can you use? year after year after year......In this case it would be week after week after week.  Just my opinion.  Personally I prefer a bit of extra cash.  

 

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I wonder how many of us would sincerely appreciate it if our boss gave us a nice selection of lip balms, shower gels and assorted snacks that we may or may not like or be able to eat as a reward for excellent work? Since most of us work in order to earn a paycheck, I am guessing that the crew are doing the same - working hard to send money back home to support their family. The crew are trained to show appreciation and gratitude for gifts, but I imagine that cash would be their prefered gift. I personally do not need to feel I am the benefactor to crew by providing them with gifts of my choosing instead of additional cash. That is just me. 

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5 hours ago, Cello56 said:

I wonder how many of us would sincerely appreciate it if our boss gave us a nice selection of lip balms, shower gels and assorted snacks that we may or may not like or be able to eat as a reward for excellent work? 

You must not be a teacher. 🤣

These types of gifts are exactly what we are given as a reward for excellent work. We are lucky when we get a "Jeans Day" and can wear them during the week in addition to Friday. I have literally been given a pair of socks with a motivational quote on them, not once but twice for my hard work on writing curriculum. 

Btw, the snacks we gave our stateroom attendant were in addition to cash. We purposefully asked her what she wanted, if anything, and she told us. So, yes, it was sincerely appreciated. 

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I do money, then I ask my cabin stew what they would want from port. Olga asked for a pain relief cream. We could not find her Spanish language product, (in San Juan ironically) so we ended up getting Icy Hot with Lidocane. We got two. It was about 10 each.  I know we got our moneys worth as later that week she collapsed my two laundry bags into one. More than saved what we spent on her.

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Took some stuff on with my last cruise and left it in the room with some cash as well.  Going to do the same thing when I am on Adventure of the Seas on the 23rd.  While things are being relaxed for people going on shore it's not an all out everyone can get off the ship.  So a couple cheap packs of razors, some soap, some toothbrushes, and a few other things as well will be left again.  I picked up a bunch of the fruity KitKat bars and will leave a couple for different people as well as a couple bucks for those people who excelled in helping on the last night before getting off the ship.  Wrote a little note that was simple to print off and with a stapler that will make a nice little pouch to hand over as a way to say thanks.  

The way I look at it is there is likely someone that will need a couple things and I am sure that crew will trade a little here or there.  The only thing I ask in my note with the vast majority of stuff is to not let things go to waste.  I don't care if they drop something off with their family to use or take it with them when they head home for some time off.  Sometimes simple little things can bring a smile to a face or make their day better.  Now if EVERYONE did it I probably would scale back a little bit but picking up 10 bucks worth of stuff at the Dollar Tree with a couple food items seems like an OK thing to me.  And when I pick up soap I never know if the attendant will be male or female so I grab one of each and figure they will know someone else who can use the other.  And I am sure that there are people working in the mechanical area's of the ships who will likely benefit from something like this that I could never even see to give it to.

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  • 6 months later...
On 2/18/2022 at 5:23 PM, Cello56 said:

I wonder how many of us would sincerely appreciate it if our boss gave us a nice selection of lip balms, shower gels and assorted snacks that we may or may not like or be able to eat as a reward for excellent work? Since most of us work in order to earn a paycheck, I am guessing that the crew are doing the same - working hard to send money back home to support their family. The crew are trained to show appreciation and gratitude for gifts, but I imagine that cash would be their prefered gift. I personally do not need to feel I am the benefactor to crew by providing them with gifts of my choosing instead of additional cash. That is just me. 

I was expecting a great boss gift suggestion.

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