Pre-paid Gratuities

[RickEk]

Apparently, you can now pre-pay your gratuities in the Cruise Personalizer.

[cvpends]

Yep, works like a charm.

[Thrak]

In reality it's just gifting yourself OBC. It merely goes onto your folio and is deducted daily along with everything else you may charge to your cruise card. It isn't held specifically for gratuities despite how it sounds.

[Colo Cruiser]

Apparently several people found the pre pay option in the last couple of weeks.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2132323&highlight=pre+paid+gratuities

[bhopal21]

We used that feature on our October Canada and Colonial America Cruise.

 

After boarding I went to the purser's desk and told them that we would like to increase our gratuitites by $5 per person per day and they asked me to sign a form to that effect and immediately charged the $120 additional to our account.

 

No further daily charges were made for gratuities which greatly simplified the reconciling of the account at the end of 12 days.

 

Mike:)

[satxdiver]

You can also prepay your ship excursions if you so desire. Again though all it amounts to is giving yourself an OBC. Why anyone would want to give Princess the money early instead of keeping in your account is something I don't follow. I earmark the money in my account knowing that a bill will be coming to take those funds after I leave the ship. Paying the cc each month in full keeps any interest from being added. If an emergency should arise, the money still in my account can be used and then replaced before the bill is due. All that is required is financial self discipline which one has to use every day.

Edited December 22, 2014 by satxdiver

[JustinPlusLauren]

I noticed this feature as well - I think I might prepay them! Just another thing to get out of the way! :) Makes my bill seem less at the end of the trip haha.

[Treven]

As has been posted, you really aren't "pre-paying" anything. You are merely beginning your cruise with a credit amount on your cruise folio (account). Your daily hotel charge and excursions are deducted from your credit amount.

I often will send myself $500 or so to start my cruise folio. The nice thing is that when the cruise ends, depending on how much I'd sent myself, i won't owe Princess very much or I might even get a refund. I think on my last cruise my final bill was for a little over $9.

[iceleven]

Depending on the amount of OBC you get, why not pay your gratuities with that instead of paying it ahead of time which is money out of your pocket?

 

With stock, military, and TA OBC, we can easily cover a week's worth of gratuities and still have some change left for cocktails or a night in one of the specialty restaurants.

[RickEk]

Depending on the amount of OBC you get, why not pay your gratuities with that instead of paying it ahead of time which is money out of your pocket?

 

With stock, military, and TA OBC, we can easily cover a week's worth of gratuities and still have some change left for cocktails or a night in one of the specialty restaurants.

 

I would think that the majority of folks out there don't have stock and military OBC. I know I don't. I may have a small TA OBC, but that usually doesn't cover the gratuities...

 

As others have said, the prepaid gratuities is just a credit to your onboard folio, but it effectively takes care of those gratuities. On my recent Crown Princess voyage, my mother prepaid her gratuities and didn't buy anything onboard. She ended up with a $7.48 credit because of a port fee reduction.