We have a couple of riverboat cruises booked and find the issue of tipping on riverboats somewhat confusing and quite peculiar. Other than a Yangtse River cruise, all of our cruising has been on ocean cruise ships, most of them being "gratuities included" lines, such as Regent and Silversea. Therefore, we have some questions about the riverboat tipping policies.

We will, of course, happily offer whatever tips the riverboat line suggests. We do not find the suggested tip of 12-13 Euro per day per person for the crew to be at all unreasonable.

However, we do not understand the suggested tip of 3 Euro per day per person for the CD. Assuming a passenger load of 150, that would come out to between US$4,000 and $5,000 per week!! Even considering that most of the CD's compensation is in the form of tips, that is pretty good money. That would likely make riverboat CD's amongst the most highly-compensated personnel in the travel industry, I would imagine. That level of comp is certainly higher than that for the captain of the boat, would one not think??

Hmm, maybe I should dust off my French and Russian and try to get one on those gigs, even though I can't do cool puppets, like Ray Solaire on Regent can do. Geez, I'd be happy to do it for half the recommended tip amount, as long as they'd allow me to bring Pat and the two sweet little pooches along for the ride...

Am I missing something here? I welcome any clarification.

Cheers, Fred