Princess Gratuities ex. New Zealand?

[bazshirl2]

I suspect if they prepaid, it would be credited to their onboard account (and refundable).

 

That said, I'm not willing to try myself. ;)

 

Would consider it very unlikely this prepayment would be credited to your onboard account and be refundable at the end of the cruise.

To reverse it suspect you would have to request at customer service desk.

You would have agreed to prepay gratuities and would have to reverse this instruction.

[Aus Traveller]

Would consider it very unlikely this prepayment would be credited to your onboard account and be refundable at the end of the cruise.

To reverse it suspect you would have to request at customer service desk.

You would have agreed to prepay gratuities and would have to reverse this instruction.

I disagree.

 

Australian-based ships are a small part of Princess, so I believe this item on the website is a generic item for the larger part of their business. Anyone pre-paying their gratuities (for American cruises) would have this amount credited to their on-board account to be off-set daily with the "Hotel charge". I can recall several questions on the Princess forum asking if passengers can pre-pay their gratuities as people can do with some other cruiselines. This new item on the website if probably in response.

 

Why should it be different for Australian-based cruises? I am confident this amount would be credited to passengers' on-board accounts and if their purchases on board didn't come to that amount, they would probably be able to get the amount refunded in cash at the end of the cruise.

[The_Big_M]

To my knowledge and reading on CC about tips - American's on our Aussie based ships and includes the Sea Princess when doing Australia - do get charged tips if booked in US. Their prices are different to ours (mostly cause someone will come back to let me know they found it the same):p

 

Yes, that's the cas for bookings outside Au/NZ.

 

Was referring to what happened to prepaid tips for AU/NZ passengers who booked, who also have that notice. I suspect it would be credited to their onboard account as OBC (refundable).

[The_Big_M]

that would be right and the americans would be paying a lot less than us

 

Not that I've seen. Haven't done a full comparison, but what I've seen has the overseas price similar, sometimes more, sometimes less. Certainly not a lot less consistently.

[The_Big_M]

Tips are required to make up the short-fall on ships where the crew-member's contracted wage is low and tips are required to make it a reasonable amount. When the stewards' wages have been increased to take the loss of tips into account, I don't see why autotips are still put on anyone's account. Are these passed on to the staff? I have read where Princess now puts tips into a pool that is either fleet-wide or at least a pool for the particular class of ship. What happens to auto-tips collected (from non-Aussies/NZers) on the Australian-based ships?

 

If Australian prices have an offset to incorporate the tipping cost, then other prices would still have the tips separate as those offices are not funding that pool. This is analogous to the situation RCL group follow where local ships drinks prices are adjusted to include tips, whereas others have them separately.

[The_Big_M]

Would consider it very unlikely this prepayment would be credited to your onboard account and be refundable at the end of the cruise.

To reverse it suspect you would have to request at customer service desk.

You would have agreed to prepay gratuities and would have to reverse this instruction.

 

The only difference is you think it needs to be asked for instead of automatic.

 

Given the finance office onboard already know the booking origin and have different processes to apply gratuities or not, I'd expect they'd also automatically cater for this related issue and not double charge passengers.

[bazshirl2]

The only difference is you think it needs to be asked for instead of automatic.

 

Given the finance office onboard already know the booking origin and have different processes to apply gratuities or not, I'd expect they'd also automatically cater for this related issue and not double charge passengers.

Yes - believe you would have to ask for reversal.

As daily charges are not made on Aus/NZ booked cruises it would not seem logical for them to automatically reverse a charge you have agreed to pay.

Agree this prepayment option would be best left off such bookings given the tipping element is included in the fare. People can continue to tip independently if they wish to do so .

[The_Big_M]

Agree this prepayment option would be best left off such bookings given the tipping element is included in the fare.

 

Yes, I believe it's a glitch on their website and likely to be removed in the fullness of time.