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| Thank you to our Mousekeeper “Frances” at POP Century. |
The Canadian Diva family made a mistake when we first visited Walt Disney World. Instead of tipping every night stay of our trip at a Disney resort, we gave one huge tip on the last day.
We then learned from the other Diva experts: There may be different Mousekeepers (or resort “housekeepers” you may call them) for each day of your vacation!
So the poor mousekeeper who was doing our room in the beginning of our trip did not get the tips he/she deserved, and the person who may have just started at the end of our trip, reaped the benefits of a larger tip. We still received AWESOME service despite our mistake.
On this recent trip, we did it RIGHT!
Being from Canada, I exchanged some of our money into US Dollars in advance. I asked for $5 bills. I then prepared simple envelopes and printed “Mousekeeping – THANK YOU” and added $5 per envelope for each night we were going to stay.
If you want to be more creative, our friends over at Picturing Disney have some fantastic Mousekeeping Envelope ideas here http://www.picturingdisney.com/2012/10/mousekeeping-tip-envelopes.html
Usually, the standard tip is $1 per person per night (for Deluxe, perhaps more). There are only 3 members in the Canadian Diva’s family but we gave a bit more, as mentioned above, $5 per night. Nick the Devo and his wife also gives $5 per night stay for the two of them. Now, I understand that many larger families may have a tighter budget, so try to give at least $1 for each member of your family/group per night stay. When you think about it, the Mousekeepers have a pretty tough job and it shows a great appreciation for them.
We LOVED our recent “Mousekeepers” at POP Century. Frances was our first Mousekeeper. The first day we kindly asked if we could get extra soap (they have H2O soap which is a heavenly-scented and a great quality soap). Upon our request, she provided us with a few extra soap which was really nice. On another day, we mentioned how my daughter loves towel creatures. We were hoping for a couple of critters, and upon arrival from one of the parks, we opened our door to the surprise that you see above. WOW! She also included a note, “Welcome Back” and another very kind note on our table, saying, “I hope your daughter is enjoying her stay!” We were so touched.
On the latter part of our trip, we wanted to sleep in. We had the “Please Do Not Disturb” sign on our door. The sign kept falling off due to the high winds that week. Another Mosuekeepeer knocked softly on our door, and when I opened it with sleepy eyes, she apologized profusely. I think her name was Sallah (my eyes were so tired I couldn’t read her name tag properly). I said “It’s okay,” noticing the sign fell off the door on the ground that she didn’t see. She was very sweet. When were were leaving for the day to the parks, we saw her on our floor and thanked her for her patience since we knew she had a lot of rooms to do. When we arrived back, my daughter’s toys were so neatly and adorably arranged!
We also tip whenever we call mousekeeping (Diva tip: you can find the “housekeeping” button on your room phone and be directly connected to them) and ask for things to be brought to our rooms. Things like TOWELS. Towels at many Disney Resorts are not provided at the pools, so extras are always needed. Whenever we called to ask for more towels, we usually gave $1 – $2 to the person who brought it to our room.
Tipping is a very nice gesture for your Mousekeeper. Other ways to appreciate them is to tidy your room a little bit to make their job easier. I know, I know, you’re on vacation! If you have little ones, it’s just a huge job to just get out the door, never mind tidying up. But, if you have a bit of time before you head out, clear the room a bit. Leave a tip for gratitude and you may be surprised with some of the magic you will find!
