Celebrity asking to prepay gratuities

[Frankie Sue]

Anybody heard about Celebrity asking passengers to prepay gratuities with their final payment?

[Xport]

Prepayment of gratuities is a condition of doing Select Dining if that is what you have chosen... And it is always an option whether or not one is doing Select Dining...

 

I won't get into the debate as to whether or not the practice is appropriate but there are plenty of threads on this forum that do so if you would like to read the background...

[Denny01]

By the way, Celebrity is not asking, it is a requirement to prepay gratuities if you have Select Dining. For Tradtitional set dining, gratuities are added to you On Board Account daily.

 

Denny

[Frankie Sue]

I don`t have a problem with automatic gratuities, actually I prefer it as it takes away a lot of hassle. I just find it strange that it has to be "prepaid" for select dining guests. What is the difference between Select Dining guests and Traditional dinner guests? We all eat.

[steamboats]

With Traditional Dining you have the same table and same waiter plus assisstant each night. So it´s easy to tip them

 

With Select Dining you have a different table, different waiter, different assisstant each night (o.k., you can have the same each night too). So who are you going to tip?

 

That´s why X and RCI are requiring prepaid tips for Select or MyTime Dining.

 

steamboats

[GeriatricNurse]

I don`t have a problem with automatic gratuities, actually I prefer it as it takes away a lot of hassle. I just find it strange that it has to be "prepaid" for select dining guests. What is the difference between Select Dining guests and Traditional dinner guests? We all eat.

 

 

That would be my question too! Why, indeed, should gratuities be "prepaid" if one choose "Select Dining"? With HAL, "Select Dining" is called "Open Dining" & the gratuities are debited from your account daily, in the same manner as they are for "Traditional Dining"!:confused:

[Denny01]

Because that is how Celebirty has set it up. Write Celebrity and tell them you don't approve or tell them how they should run their business.....If you want Select Dining, you must prepay the gratuity...your choice. Or go with HAL, again your choice. Not trying to be smartalec...that's just how it's set up. The previous poster provided a rationale. Whether you accept it or not is academic, its how Celebirty has implemented open/select/mytime dining.

 

If it makes you feel any better, in your mind change the word from gratuity to Service Charge.

 

Denny

[derf5585]

My question is why we have to pay for the whole cruise before we cruise?

[KruzPrincess]

It doesn't make sense why the Select Dining should have to pre-pay. The only reason I can think of is that Celebrity is trying to discourage people from choosing that option. They probably prefer traditional dining but are trying to offer choices to be competive with other cruise lines. JMO.

[CathyCruises]

Really. Can't we just pay-as-we-go?

[sasset]

Never done select. Are you prepaying all gratuities, or just the dining portion?

[cb at sea]

If you do Select dining, and pre-pay the tips, you will be prepaying ALL of them...even your room attendant.

[derf5585]

Really. Can't we just pay-as-we-go?

 

Shh. Don't suggest that:eek:

[Denny01]

For Select Dining, you prepay all gratutities at final payment. It isn't just the MDR waitstaff gratuity - its all gratuities including your steward. Probably because of the way they have their bookkeeping/tracking set up. Who knows.

 

If you select 'Select Dining', you pay prior to the cruise. If you select 'Traditional Dining (Set times), your gratuity is added to your On Board Account, as auto-pay, each day. You can remove the Auto-Pay for Traditional (and of course those that do so will tell us 'for sure' they pay by envelope). You can not remove/adjust Select prepaid gratuities.

 

That's the system.

 

Denny

[lobster129]

Just wondering how travel insurance companies would look @ prepaid gratuities. My travel insurance is based on the plan I want/need AND the $$ I will be spending with cruise and air (or any other NON-refundable expenses).

 

So if someone has to cancel a cruise after final payment if made...can they get their pre-paid gratuities returned to them? :confused: If NOT, I would now need to include those gratuities in my non-refundable total and have to pay more for travel insurance. :( We will be booking assigned dining time because of this.

 

Do you think this will discourage others from selecting the open dining option?:eek:

[Albert Ross]

Just wondering how travel insurance companies would look @ prepaid gratuities. My travel insurance is based on the plan I want/need AND the $$ I will be spending with cruise and air (or any other NON-refundable expenses).

 

So if someone has to cancel a cruise after final payment if made...can they get their pre-paid gratuities returned to them? :confused: If NOT, I would now need to include those gratuities in my non-refundable total and have to pay more for travel insurance. :( We will be booking assigned dining time because of this.

 

Do you think this will discourage others from selecting the open dining option?:eek:

Travel insurance for $10 per day gratuities??

 

Anyway in the UK if you cancel you get a refund of your prepaid service charge, because you won't be benefitting from service on board; and you also get a refund of your port taxes, as you won't be visiting any of the ports.

I assume it would be the same in the USA.

[itsanita]

By the way, Celebrity is not asking, it is a requirement to prepay gratuities if you have Select Dining. For Tradtitional set dining, gratuities are added to you On Board Account daily.

 

Denny

 

I'm a little confused. We have always chosen tradtitional dinning and we had 2 choices about the gratuity. We could pay cash, and hand it to them on the last couple nights of the cruise, or we could choose to put a certain abount on our credit card and would then be given 'vouchers' of that amount to give to our stewards/waiters etc at the end of the cruise.

 

Are you saying that now, the recommended amount will be taken from my credit card on a daily basis? So at the end of the cruise we don't have to do anything as far as the gratuities are concerned?

 

If we had a great stewart/waiter etc during the cruise, we would always give more that the recommended amount.

[Albert Ross]

I'm a little confused. We have always chosen tradtitional dinning and we had 2 choices about the gratuity. We could pay cash, and hand it to them on the last couple nights of the cruise, or we could choose to put a certain abount on our credit card and would then be given 'vouchers' of that amount to give to our stewards/waiters etc at the end of the cruise.

 

Are you saying that now, the recommended amount will be taken from my credit card on a daily basis? So at the end of the cruise we don't have to do anything as far as the gratuities are concerned?

 

If we had a great stewart/waiter etc during the cruise, we would always give more that the recommended amount.

Not on Celebrity - this changed over a year ago IIRC.

You either prepay with your cruise fare balance

or it is automatically added to your on board account which you pay at the end of the cruise.

No vouchers or envelopes on X any more.

[Denny01]

Just wondering how travel insurance companies would look @ prepaid gratuities. My travel insurance is based on the plan I want/need AND the $$ I will be spending with cruise and air (or any other NON-refundable expenses).

 

So if someone has to cancel a cruise after final payment if made...can they get their pre-paid gratuities returned to them? :confused: If NOT, I would now need to include those gratuities in my non-refundable total and have to pay more for travel insurance. :( We will be booking assigned dining time because of this.

 

Do you think this will discourage others from selecting the open dining option?:eek:

 

The prepaid charge is returned/taken off your charge card if you cancel. It isn't part of your insurance reimbursing, just as your prepaid tours - this is from another poster, never done it myself.

 

As to discouraging using Select Dining - maybe those that want to stiff the waitstaff/stweards and now they can't. I know, a generalization. there are those who love to bring all that cash on board, put it in envelopes and give it to the staff....but the other 99% accept the auto or prepaid approach as a much better approach. by the way, you can still use envelopes by giving them additinal tips.

 

To anticpate the inevitable....no, few if any have reported a reduction in service because gratuities are auto/prepaid; if you have an issue, the best way to take care of it is to talk to the management/front desk, not take gratuities away from the entire team.

 

Denny

[terrierjohn]

Because that is how Celebirty has set it up. Write Celebrity and tell them you don't approve or tell them how they should run their business.....If you want Select Dining, you must prepay the gratuity...your choice. Or go with HAL, again your choice. Not trying to be smartalec...that's just how it's set up. The previous poster provided a rationale. Whether you accept it or not is academic, its how Celebirty has implemented open/select/mytime dining.

 

If it makes you feel any better, in your mind change the word from gratuity to Service Charge.

 

Denny

That's a bit of a harsh comment Denny, like all the others you are criticising I also think it would be preferable for Celebrity to charge the gratuity to your on board account for payment after you have cruised.

I also understand that Celebrity have fixed these pre-payment gratuities, meaning you are unable to amend(reduce) them. I can understand their desire to ensure the select dining wait staff are not stiffed, but what about the traditional wait staff, what sanction do Celebrity apply to passengers who under tip or refuse to tip at all!:eek:

I would imagine that all X wait staff will now want to be on Select dining.;)

[Denny01]

That's a bit of a harsh comment Denny, like ;)

boy, if you thought my comment that this is the way Celebrity does it was harsh, you'll go crazy over my comment that those that won't do Select dining because they can't stiff the waitstaff!

 

My comment is meant to be straitforward - we can explain it all we want, and we can say why we don't like it or that its 'unfair', but that is how it is implemented. Makes a lot of sense unless you don't want to pay a gratuity. We prepay for many things...make a tour reservation and you prepay. Heck, make a reservation for a cruise, and you prepay. I think I'll stop there. I've posted 5 times and that is way too many.

 

Denny

[Frankie Sue]

boy, if you thought my comment that this is the way Celebrity does it was harsh, you'll go crazy over my comment that those that won't do Select dining because they can't stiff the waitstaff!

 

My comment is meant to be straitforward - we can explain it all we want, and we can say why we don't like it or that its 'unfair', but that is how it is implemented. Makes a lot of sense unless you don't want to pay a gratuity. We prepay for many things...make a tour reservation and you prepay. Heck, make a reservation for a cruise, and you prepay. I think I'll stop there. I've posted 5 times and that is way too many.

 

Denny

 

Why on earth would you assume that questioning why gratuities for one dining option are charged differently than for other dining options has anything to do with "stiffing the waitstaff........ Indeed why would gratuities be handled differently with select dining than with traditional? I am quite happy with the auto tip.......... prepaid gratuities mean that my OBC cannot be used against the gratuities and some people may count on their OBC to help cover these gratuities. Actually when OBC are used to cover gratuities, passengers might be even more generous with extra gratuities. That is my opinion and questionning is how we improve things.

[Denny01]

Why on earth would you assume that questioning why gratuities for one dining option are charged differently than for other dining options has anything to do with "stiffing the waitstaff........ Indeed why would gratuities be handled differently with select dining than with traditional? I am quite happy with the auto tip.......... prepaid gratuities mean that my OBC cannot be used against the gratuities and some people may count on their OBC to help cover these gratuities. Actually when OBC are used to cover gratuities, passengers might be even more generous with extra gratuities. That is my opinion and questionning is how we improve things.

None of my comments were aimed at you or your question. You asked so you could understand - it was answered.

 

Denny

[Frankie Sue]

With Traditional Dining you have the same table and same waiter plus assisstant each night. So it´s easy to tip them

 

With Select Dining you have a different table, different waiter, different assisstant each night (o.k., you can have the same each night too). So who are you going to tip?

 

That´s why X and RCI are requiring prepaid tips for Select or MyTime Dining.

 

steamboats

 

Whether you prepay or auto tip, the money is put in a pot and distributed according to a scale set by X for each level of service. So either way I don't have to be concerned about tipping my own wait staff, it is done automatically through the system. So this is still no explanation. I gess the best explanation has to do with trying to limit the number of passengers choosing the Select dining. It seems to be the only one that makes any sense.

[brfan]

That's a bit of a harsh comment Denny, like all the others you are criticising I also think it would be preferable for Celebrity to charge the gratuity to your on board account for payment after you have cruised.

I also understand that Celebrity have fixed these pre-payment gratuities, meaning you are unable to amend(reduce) them. I can understand their desire to ensure the select dining wait staff are not stiffed, but what about the traditional wait staff, what sanction do Celebrity apply to passengers who under tip or refuse to tip at all!:eek:

I would imagine that all X wait staff will now want to be on Select dining.;)

 

While I see your point, I can also see that there is a better possibility for traditional dining staff to be given tips over and above the minimum while Select Dining staff will likely not be given anything more than the minimum since passengers will likely have a different team each night and may not be as likely to tip exta.