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Fun Disney Gratuity Idea + Free Printable Mouse Ears Template
If you have ever left a tip for Mousekeeping at a Disney Resort, or a Disney Cruise tip to your waitstaff, here’s a fun Disney Gratuity Idea. Bonus if you have a pocket printer (though not required).
If you have ever stayed at a Disney World Resort, you are probably familiar with the term “mousekeeping.” Yes, that’s right, even the housekeeping staff in Disney gets a Disney-fied nickname. So yes, when you are in Disney and staying at a resort, your room is cleaned and stocked by the “Mousekeeping” staff. When you sail on a Disney Cruise, you will no doubt enjoy an incredible trip. Disney’s exemplary customer service is one of the key factors that make such magical voyages possible.
On a Disney Cruise (and similar to most other cruise lines), your family is assigned a dedicated waitstaff for your stay. This means that every morning and night you will see the same cabin steward in the hall. Your cabin steward tidies your cabin, restocks supplies, etc. Then there’s the dining room waitstaff. Every dinner you eat in a main dining room, you have the same server, assistant server, Maître D, etc. We really love this system and enjoy building a rapport with our servers, cabin steward, etc throughout the trip.
Tipping Disney Staff
While the amount that you tip mousekeeping at a Disney Resort is typically at your own discretion, tipping on a Disney Cruise comes with more of a standard guideline to follow. You can take a look at the suggested Disney Cruise tipping amounts.
On your Disney Cruise, gratuities are NOT included in the price of your cruise fare. They are typically charged at the end of your cruise. You can keep the amount at Disney’s suggested rate or lower or raise them at the Guest Services desk if you desire. It is important to remember that the Disney Cruise ship staff works very VERY hard for their tips, and tips make up the majority of their income. In fact, it’s not a widely known fact, but Disney Concierge staff does not earn a standard salary. Their salary is made up 100% from gratuities.
Disney Gratuity Idea
On our most recent Disney Cruise (to Bermuda!), I put together a pretty cute idea for handing out our waitstaff gratuities at the end of the trip.
I used my HP Sprocket Photo Printer to print several copies of one of our favorite family pictures from our trip. I love that the Sprocket prints pictures on self-sticking photo paper!
I tucked the gratuity slips of paper that Disney leaves in your cabin on the last day of the trip into the envelopes that they also leave for you to use.
I designed a Mouse Head Printable to use as the background. (Feel free to save it to your hard drive and print out some copies for your own personal use!). I highly recommend printing these on heavy white card stock to make them a little sturdier.
I stuck the family picture to the Mouse Head Printable. For the finishing touch, we used red paper clips to attach the envelopes to the Mickey Head.
You can grab our printable right here. Simply enter your email address in the box and opt-in to receive our free newsletter. Check your inbox for this printable, which you will receive as a subscriber bonus.
We let the kids hand out our tips and everyone loved them!
Do you do anything to “dress up” your tips or you just hand ’em out? No matter how dressed up or down your gratuities are, I can promise you this: they are incredibly incredibly appreciated!
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