Celebrity gratuity policy

[Jaddy]

If I understand it, if a passenger chooses Select Dining he has to pay gratuities upon booking. If he does not, they get charged at the end of the cruise. I'm curious as why it is done this way. Please help me understand this.

 

To be clear, I don't question this policy. I would just like to understand why it is done this way since the money gets forked over (pun intended) either way.

 

Thanks.

[yogimax]

If you have Select Dining, you may not have the same wait staff every night. You could even have different servers every night.

 

By prepaying tips, all of those who waited on you will be sure to receive tips since they will be in a shared pool. Otherwise, it would a logistical nightmare for Celebrity to keep track of who served you each and every meal and then allocate tips.

[keithm]

If I understand it, if a passenger chooses Select Dining he has to pay gratuities upon booking. If he does not, they get charged at the end of the cruise. I'm curious as why it is done this way. Please help me understand this.

 

To be clear, I don't question this policy. I would just like to understand why it is done this way since the money gets forked over (pun intended) either way.

 

Thanks.

This is to make sure the staff get their gratuity. You may not get the same staff as your table location/time may vary depending on the amount of pax attending dinner..

[ghstudio]

Gratuities are a significant portion of the crew's wages. If anything reduces the gratuities left by passengers, Celebrity has a morale problem followed quickly by a hiring problem (word travels fast). To avoid folks in select dining feeling they didn't need to tip waiters because there were different waiters every night, they collect the tips in advance. Not that anyone reading this would try to stiff the crew on gratuities....but it's all those other heathens out there.....

[robtulipe]

Gratuities are a significant portion of the crew's wages. If anything reduces the gratuities left by passengers, Celebrity has a morale problem followed quickly by a hiring problem (word travels fast). To avoid folks in select dining feeling they didn't need to tip waiters because there were different waiters every night, they collect the tips in advance. Not that anyone reading this would try to stiff the crew on gratuities....but it's all those other heathens out there.....

I guess Princess doesn't feel this is a problem as they don't require prepaid gratuities if you want to do their Anytime Dining, their equivalent to X's Select and RCI My Time dining. It's billed the same to your onboard account as is done for traditional dining.

The thing is if you change from traditional to Select or MY Time dining while on a RCCL ship, X or RCI immediately adds all of the gratuities to your onboard account. Why couldn't this be done for all who select the flex dining option prior to the cruise?:confused:

IMO it is a way for RCCL to get your money in advance and also eliminates the option of using your non-refundable OBC that these two cruiselines seems to be handing out quite freely to cover some or all of this expense. IMO that is the answer to my question above.;)

We are doing My Time dining on the Serenade of the Seas TA we are doing next month thus we prepaid our gratuities. We booked this cruise in $CAD so that was the currency we paid these in.

The funny thing is they shafted their own service staff with our prepaid gratuities as we were charged $189CAD each for this 16 night cruise whereas in $US it would have been $192, 16X$12US and the $CAD was valued at about $0.90US when it was billed so their staff is getting about 13% less. We typically give extra gratuities to the staff who provide our services, as long as they do a decent job of doing this, so we'll make up the difference by giving more. This includes the flex time dining staff since we try to reserve the same section and DR each evening.

Edited March 18, 2014 by robtulipe

[ghstudio]

Many, including me, have a problem with celebrity collecting gratuities in advance, but cash earns nothing today in the bank, so giving it to celebrity 90 days early isn't worth the aggrevation ....I just accept it as their policy and move on.

 

Heck..Viking river cruises wants full payment a year or more in advance....they have financed their expansion on passengers prepayments....now that's really scuzzy in my book and we have never booked a Viking cruise.

Edited March 18, 2014 by ghstudio

[youngreflection]

I, too, am wondering about this. For our upcoming cruise, we have traditional dining and have a 300 obc promo. I am thinking of changing to select dining since on some port days we might come in late. Does it mean I have to pay prepaid gratuities in full right now and cannot apply the obc? How about if I wait and change to select when aboard the ship, can I apply the 300 obc then and just pay the difference?

[CathyCruises]

yes, the $300 will just come off your final bill. the only downside to doing this is that sometimes Select is full--but I would see the maître d' as soon as you board to make the switch

[CHEZMARYLOU]

I, too, am wondering about this. For our upcoming cruise, we have traditional dining and have a 300 obc promo. I am thinking of changing to select dining since on some port days we might come in late. Does it mean I have to pay prepaid gratuities in full right now and cannot apply the obc? How about if I wait and change to select when aboard the ship, can I apply the 300 obc then and just pay the difference?

 

You can wait and try for select dining once onboard and your gratuities will be covered by the obc. If select dining is popular on your cruise then you may not get it. We've never been bothered by prepaying gratuities because we always find way to spend any obc we have.

 

If I understand it, if a passenger chooses Select Dining he has to pay gratuities upon booking. If he does not, they get charged at the end of the cruise. I'm curious as why it is done this way. Please help me understand this.

 

To be clear, I don't question this policy. I would just like to understand why it is done this way since the money gets forked over (pun intended) either way.

 

Thanks.

 

I don't know if anyone, including Celebrity, knows why it is done this way. As has been said, it is what is.

 

Mary Lou

[robtulipe]

You can wait and try for select dining once onboard and your gratuities will be covered by the obc. If select dining is popular on your cruise then you may not get it. We've never been bothered by prepaying gratuities because we always find way to spend any obc we have.

Mary Lou

Yes I agree. We tried to do exactly this to use our non-refundable OBC on our last two X cruises as we were on early for both and went immediately to do this but we were told Select dining was already overbooked prior to embarkation.:(

Remember you can always get cash from your onboard account in the casino and I like to play blackjack anyway. It's better to take a 5% loss with the service fee attached to doing this than to lose the non-refundable OBC completely.;)

[NYcruzzer]

Once quick question. If I pre-pay my gratuities and have to cancel the cruise after final payment will Celebrity refund the pre-paid gratuity portion ? BTW, I always take travel insurance. Just curious.

[cruisestitch]

Yes if you cancel the cruise you will get the prepaid gratuities back

[robtulipe]

You also get fully refunded any port charges and fees. It only the cruise fare that is lost either partially or completely if you cancel after the final payment date.

[dwhe]

This is to make sure the staff get their gratuity. You may not get the same staff as your table location/time may vary depending on the amount of pax attending dinner..

 

Strange because people on set time dining can go and remove all payments, no problem and not tip anything, and quite a few do.

 

There is nothing to make sure staff get their tips with set time diners so why make anytimers prepay to make sure they get their tips, it don't make sense.

[iheartbda]

Strange because people on set time dining can go and remove all payments, no problem and not tip anything, and quite a few do.

 

There is nothing to make sure staff get their tips with set time diners so why make anytimers prepay to make sure they get their tips, it don't make sense.

Unless I'm missing something, I think you make a good point. Wonder what the outcry would be if set time dining also had to prepay. Many non-tippers would probably be outraged along with those who "say" they want to tip the crew personally.

 

As for me, it makes no difference when I pay the tips.....pay now or pay later.

[elena7seas]

yes, the $300 will just come off your final bill. the only downside to doing this is that sometimes Select is full--but I would see the maître d' as soon as you board to make the switch

 

Select dining has been full upon boarding, on the last three Celebrity cruises that I have taken.

[CathyCruises]

Select dining has been full upon boarding, on the last three Celebrity cruises that I have taken.

 

I suspected that might be the case. We have never done Select, prefer late seating. This upcoming cruise we have a large-ish OBC that we'd never spend if we couldn't use it for the gratuities!

[Jayneykul]

On the cruise on Equinox last year I can honestly say that every other person we spoke with ( with the exception of a couple from NZ) refused to pay the fixed gratuities and were tipping those who served them. I think thats a British thing though

[upwarduk]

Cathy ,

Check out posts 126 & 127 here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1958631&page=7

[NCruiser2012]

Reading these posts, I am beginning to fret. We chose the perk for free gratuities for my kid's cabin. One is under age, so he cannot drink. We already have a lot of OBC. We chose select dining and pre-paid the gratuities. We have already made our final payment and no credit was given for the gratuities, so how is Celebrity going to reimburse us for the free gratuities? Are they just going to give us OBC? This is what I was trying to avoid.

[upwarduk]

Reading these posts, I am beginning to fret. We chose the perk for free gratuities for my kid's cabin. One is under age, so he cannot drink. We already have a lot of OBC. We chose select dining and pre-paid the gratuities. We have already made our final payment and no credit was given for the gratuities, so how is Celebrity going to reimburse us for the free gratuities? Are they just going to give us OBC? This is what I was trying to avoid.

NCruiser2012,

Check out the link that I posted above ( post #19) that explains your query.

 

Strange because people on set time dining can go and remove all payments, no problem and not tip anything, and quite a few do.

 

There is nothing to make sure staff get their tips with set time diners so why make anytimers prepay to make sure they get their tips, it don't make sense.

 

My husband & I have been the only people present at our table in the past, as other passengers avoid paying tips by eating at the Ocean View Cafe on the last evening.

Then Celebrity started to take the tips daily, thereby adding to the amount that I was charged, as there was a daily conversion rate by the ship from US dollars to GB £.

 

I therefore pre pay our tips, as it is in my own currency. At embarkation, I fill in the request for my credit card to do the conversion.

I make sure that I use a card where there is no charge by the C.C for the foreign currency conversion ( the Post Office C.C is one that I know of in the UK)

Edited March 26, 2014 by upwarduk

[Wine-O]

I just got my e-docs, and it shows the daily gratuity is $12.00pp, $12.50pp for AQ/CC, and $15.50 for Suites.

 

The cruise tip calculator shows $.50 less for each category. :confused::confused:

 

http://cruisetip.tpkeller.com/

[ghstudio]

I just got my e-docs, and it shows the daily gratuity is $12.00pp, $12.50pp for AQ/CC, and $15.50 for Suites.

 

The cruise tip calculator shows $.50 less for each category. :confused::confused:

 

http://cruisetip.tpkeller.com/

 

As an experienced Celebrity cruiser and CC poster...why do you find this strange :) :)

[Algebralovr]

Gratuities were increased in April 2013. I assume your online resource didn't update their site when that happened.

[sloopsailor]

As an experienced Celebrity cruiser and CC poster...why do you find this strange :) :)

 

And predictably, Celebrity is being criticized for another web site's incorrect information. :rolleyes: