‘Below Deck’: Captain Lee Says He and the Crew Were Insulted by the Worst Tip Left During Season 1
Although “Max and Dax” may have left a $12,000 tip on Below Deck Season 8, it certainly wasn’t the lowest amount the crew ever received. Captain Lee Rosbach and bosun Eddie Lucas recently recounted the lowest tip the crew received, which came during season 1.
The guests in question left a $5,000 tip, which was after the crew jumped through numerous hoops and faced a slew of extremely awkward situations. “They left us the worst tip of the year,” Rosbach told Bravo Insider.
Rosbach said he was insulted. Adding, “I think the whole crew was, especially given the fact that this group was very, very high maintenance, just because of their attitude. I mean, I even took the guy golfing — and I let him win.”
Captain Lee recalls the high maintenance guests
Rosbach and Lucas both recalled how tips during season 1 were pretty low in general. “Season 1 was like, ‘Why am I doing this? What? Like, this sucks,'” Lucas said, who appeared on seasons 1 through 3. He recently returned for season 8 as bosun. “It was frustrating. Season 1, we were working so hard, and I know I specifically was working my tail off. It really hurt to get a bad tip.”
Indeed the guests who left the seriously bad tip were painfully high maintenance. “I remember one group — and this was really a weird dichotomy that this group had going on — it was a daughter — probably 21, 22 years old — her mother, her mother’s boyfriend, her father, and her father’s girlfriend. And they were vegan, just to round it all off,” Rosbach said. “They were constantly picking at each other and fighting all the time. And I thought, ‘Who goes on holiday with your grown daughter, your girlfriend, your ex-wife, and her boyfriend?’ Like, what could possibly go wrong there? It was strange.”
“They caught the daughter eating an egg one morning,” he continued. “And they went off. I was just watching them from the main salon, and I’m going, you’re kidding me, right? Seriously? You’re on a yacht in the middle of the Caribbean, and you’re jumping all over your daughter because she ate an egg? An egg. One egg. But that’s why we get the big money.” Of course, Rosbach and the crew were floored when the envelope of cash contained only a few thousand dollars.
‘Below Deck’ Season 1 got the lowest tips thus far
Below Deck Season 1 crew definitely received the lowest tips ever. Decider did a comparison and the season 1 crew made a total of $56,650. Below Deck Season 5 crew made a total of $168,000.
“At the end of the day, we were already getting a salary, and a tip is just that — a tip,” Lucas told Bravo Insider. “That’s a positive, and I don’t think the tip Season 1 was a reflection of our ability to cater to the guests’ needs; I just think it was kind of something that a lot of the guests weren’t used to doing, and they weren’t the best. It was kind of a bummer, but we still had a job to do, and you gotta get it done.”
Below Deck is on Monday at 9/8c on Bravo.
