Prepay gratuties and dining for eight questions

[HALrunner]

Getting ready to book our first PCL cruise in a long time. TA asked if we would like to pre pay our gratuities when booking the cruise. I have never heard of this before and can't think of a good reason to do it. Am I missing something? Doesn't a standard amount just get charged to your cabin daily?

 

We will be a family of four traveling with another family of four for a total of eight. We typically do anytime dining on HAL for just the four of us and have been pleased. Has anyone traveled in a group of eight on PCL and had good luck with anytime dining? Any thoughts or advice on anything for a PCL newbie welcome:)

[Dudleydog73]

All this does is place an onboard credit in the amount of what the daily hotel charge (i.e. auto tip) would add up to in your shipboard account. The account will still show the debit nightly, but it will be drawing on the credit balance that you start with.

[Colo Cruiser]

You are correct, auto tips are charged to your account daily.

We never pre pay anything. :)

 

With your large dining group it might be best to meet with the MD on embarkation day.

The time/place is listed in the daily newsletter (Patter). Its usually in one of the DR's between 2p and 3p.

The MD can assist with your dining requests.

Edited February 4, 2015 by Colo Cruiser

[Pam in CA]

Getting ready to book our first PCL cruise in a long time. TA asked if we would like to pre pay our gratuities when booking the cruise. I have never heard of this before and can't think of a good reason to do it. Am I missing something? Doesn't a standard amount just get charged to your cabin daily?

 

We will be a family of four traveling with another family of four for a total of eight. We typically do anytime dining on HAL for just the four of us and have been pleased. Has anyone traveled in a group of eight on PCL and had good luck with anytime dining? Any thoughts or advice on anything for a PCL newbie welcome:)

You're not missing anything by "pre-paying" gratuities. If you do, all you're doing is sending yourself OBC and like on HAL, if you have OBC, anything charged to your folio will be deducted no matter what the charge. Nothing is really pre-paid.

 

Also unlike HAL, Princess does not require a hold on your folio when you enter your cruise card into your booking to print out your boarding pass and luggage tags.

 

With a group of eight, make sure your bookings are linked. Upon boarding, check with the Maitre d' and see if he will set you up for a table for eight at the same time every night. Otherwise, you will probably have a long wait for a large table to be clear. The Maitre d' will be in one of the dining rooms or at a table somewhere taking reservation and dining requests after boarding. There should be a notice in the Patter of where he'll be but if you can't find it, call the Passenger Services Desk.

 

One nice thing about Princess is that they allow TAs to discount fares. You can save quite a bit if your TA does. Hope your's is one of them. :)

[AZbeachboy]

Two important things have been mentioned.

 

When you arrive aboard-see the Matre D' to get everything straight.

 

Prepayment does nothing for you. Per chance, if you are booking a long way ahead of time and do not want have a large charge at the end, paying as you go will help. But if you do not pay your credit cardit card charges quickly, then you will have interest on the credit card and let Princess have intrest on you credit credit money.

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

For someI suspect it would be a convenience to have gratuities prepaid. I believe you can do it up to three days prior to sailing.

[Cruisin' Chick]

It's just simply a choice. We haven't prepaid gratuities (even though I don't remember it being an option on our last cruise in 2012/13), but I don't see a reason to do so. It's like shore excursions that you book through Princess, no prepayment.

[HALrunner]

 

One nice thing about Princess is that they allow TAs to discount fares. You can save quite a bit if your TA does. Hope your's is one of them. :)

 

Thanks all! Lots of great advice! I will stick with my initial reaction and NOT prepay the gratuities, but definitely talk to the MtD on day 1.

 

Pam in CA....tell me more about the TA being able to discount fares! The cruise is not until November and the rate right now seems high for an off season cruise.

[Pam in CA]

Pam in CA....tell me more about the TA being able to discount fares! The cruise is not until November and the rate right now seems high for an off season cruise.

Not much to tell you other than there are TAs that book a very high volume of Princess cruises so they get preferred pricing to start with. They offer their clients group rates and then discount their commission. How much of a savings depends on the cruise, cabin category and when you book. Princess does not allow TAs to advertise or promote discounts so you need to request a quote. Best way to find them is to ask around.

[dfields1814]

One advantage of pre paying your tips and excursions or anything else is if you use a Princess Credit card you get 2 for 1. If you have enough points you can get an OBC. Today, I am prepaying for all excursions for an upcoming cruise which will add 1400 points to my account . This will get me close to 5000 points you need for a $50 OBC. Of course the trick is you immediately pay off the credit card to avoid interest.

[Colo Cruiser]

One advantage of pre paying your tips and excursions or anything else is if you use a Princess Credit card you get 2 for 1. If you have enough points you can get an OBC. Today, I am prepaying for all excursions for an upcoming cruise which will add 1400 points to my account . This will get me close to 5000 points you need for a $50 OBC. Of course the trick is you immediately pay off the credit card to avoid interest.

 

You can't use your card to pay everything at the end of the cruise for the same 2 for 1? :confused:

[caribill]

You can't use your card to pay everything at the end of the cruise for the same 2 for 1? :confused:

 

You could wait, but then you would need to wait for another cruise to enjoy the OBC from the credit card.

[Colo Cruiser]

You could wait, but then you would need to wait for another cruise to enjoy the OBC from the credit card.

 

I can wait for $50.

[Orlando Vic]

Prepayment = an interest-free loan. I can not see any way this benefits the passenger.

[smtcan]

We travelled on Royal Princess with a family group of ten. We booked anytime dining and after the first night the Maitre d' asked us if we would like a table kept for us. The table was available until 7pm. We would have preferred later, but he explained that the table had to be turned twice each night, so we could have early or late (8:45 or later). Since we had children with us we selected the earlier time and it worked well for us. On some evenings we let him know that one couple would be eating elsewhere, but we kept the same table.

 

Hope this helps

 

Sheila

[LabGuy64]

What kind of OBC's is your TA giving you?...maybe you should ask the TA to pay your gratuities......

 

 

 

Getting ready to book our first PCL cruise in a long time. TA asked if we would like to pre pay our gratuities when booking the cruise. I have never heard of this before and can't think of a good reason to do it. Am I missing something? Doesn't a standard amount just get charged to your cabin daily?

 

We will be a family of four traveling with another family of four for a total of eight. We typically do anytime dining on HAL for just the four of us and have been pleased. Has anyone traveled in a group of eight on PCL and had good luck with anytime dining? Any thoughts or advice on anything for a PCL newbie welcome:)