What is the advantage of prepaying gratuities?

[Xmas515]

Do they return the funds in Canadian or US dollars? Just curious. Thanks!

 

I'm not sure. This is only our second cruise and first time on NCL. I am under the assumption that we will be refunded in $US. I can let you know in July or perhaps an experienced cruiser can let us know. :)

[trev71]

Do they return the funds in Canadian or US dollars? Just curious. Thanks!

 

 

Royal will return the money in US Dollars. From what I read from other cruisers having a little left over

 

Not sure how NCL does it

Edited April 14, 2015 by trev71

[Treven]

It makes no difference if you prepay or not. Prepay means you won't get a really large invoice at the end. Just like prepaying all your drinks. I remember always having a $400-$600 bill after a cruise. Now on the last day, I get a nice small invoice. Most cruises I seem to have about $100 OBC so my final invoice is about $0.00 or a few dollars. It's nice walking off the ship, knowing you will not have credit card bills coming!

I always send myself $500-750 to begin my cruise with a big credit balance. As days go by, my daily expenses are deducted. Generally speaking when my cruise ends I may have to pay a little more, or I may get a little back. At least I won't have a big credit card attack the next month.

[DRS/NC]

Do some cruise lines REQUIRE pre-paid tips for anytime dining?:confused:

[sparks1093]

Do some cruise lines REQUIRE pre-paid tips for anytime dining?:confused:

 

Some do, yes.

[lmares1968]

Do some cruise lines REQUIRE pre-paid tips for anytime dining?:confused:

Royal Caribbean does, I'm not sure about others.

[srlafleur]

As others have said, we prepay so that it's over and done with. Now, one may argue that that's like an interest-free loan to the cruise line. For convenience sake, that's fine with me, since the interest I would get from my bank for that same money is, what, maybe a couple of pennies?

If enough people do it that it actually generates some revenue for the cruise line, good! Maybe that'll help keep prices down and services from being cut.

[maywell]

I prepay mine since its one of the largest charges on my onboard account - one less thing to worry about while on a cruise.

 

Sent from my SGH-T399 using Tapatalk

[fairygirl1]

None other than you have paid it off in advance of your cruise so you go on the cruise ship with a zero balance as opposed to owing gratuities. You also need to prepay gratuities if you want MTD.

 

Im wondering, what does MTD mean? Thank you!

[Gardeneroflove]

The tipped service people do not GET the tips in advance...they get them after the cruise is over..so pre-tipping shouldn't affect service at all!

 

true, but if you get crappy service you can't adjust the tips.

 

We'll never prepay for that reason. We DO NOT just tip what's suggested. I tip based on tip. If dh passes me the slip to fill out, it's not looking good. I will not tip for bad service. the only reason the tips for our room steward wasn't decreased last cruise was because I was too lazy to get up and do it. I have adjusted before (up and down). But staying in with my kid won.

 

MTD means my time dining, which is offered on some ships, and I think tips are required to be prepaid for that. idk. MTD is on RC, in additional to traditional dining, and on Carnival. NCL ONLY has MTD, i think.

[Mokescaps]

Do you have to tip separately in the Steakhouse?

 

Or, part of pre-paid tipping.

[Gardeneroflove]

Do you have to tip separately in the Steakhouse?

 

Or, part of pre-paid tipping.

 

separate, it's a different service.

 

You'll also tip additional for any bar drinks your order (unless you have a package).

[Mokescaps]

Thanks, I thought so !

[GUT2407]

For any Canadians reading this thread there can be very good reasons to prepay your gratuities.

 

On our last 2 cruises it was cheaper tp pay our gratuities up front in CDN$ than it was to pay in US$ on the ship. Prepaid CDN was $82.65 vs $84 US on the ship.

 

Australia too, and with exchange rate gong south you might be in front by pre paying.

 

On the other hand if you have OBC it can come out of that if you have them added to your account once on board.

[GUT2407]

Im wondering, what does MTD mean? Thank you!

 

 

My Time Dining.

 

Where you don't have a set dining time and just rock up when it suits you.

[GUT2407]

Do you have to tip separately in the Steakhouse?

 

Or, part of pre-paid tipping.

 

It varies from line to line and even ship to ship.

 

Certainly on smaller ships the waiters from the MDR also do duty in the specialty restaurants.

[A2Mich]

There is one other potential benefit, in case anyone needs to do it for some reason - it allows you to pay your gratuities on one card and have your shipboard account charged to another. May be a good idea for anyone wishing to use a debit card for their onboard account if you are not planning to spend much onboard. A friend of mine did this on a previous cruise - paid the cruise fare and pre-paid gratuities on one credit card, had a few hundred dollars in OBC - then registered their debit card at check in, and only had about $100 charge at end of the week. They did this because they did not have a CC with a high limit at the time.

[GUT2407]

DW says that there is another advantage, if we pre-pay at the end of the cruise she can say "Well we only spent [let's say] $1200 so I can have a new pair of shoes". But if we don't pre-pay the bill is $1500.

 

She tries to trick me to get new shoes or bags or whatever. When everyone knows the money could be better spent on Camera gear.

[bakersdozen12]

There is no fee credit cards that do not charge the Foreign exchange rate of 2.5% out there.

 

 

That's actually not true. My Southwest VISA waives foreign transaction fees.

[trev71]

That's actually not true. My Southwest VISA waives foreign transaction fees.

 

 

I know I said there is no fee credit cards out there. As in you don't pay anything. Meaning no fees. Read it again

[jaybee1965]

I'm planning a cruise in Hawaii on Pride of America and one site is offering the choice of additional $50 OBC OR specialty dining package OR prepaid gratuities for two OR credit to shore excursions at each port (excluding start/finish). Depending on the fine print for the excursion credit which could be up to $300 the prepaid gratuities looks like a good deal and is valued at up to $30/day so I make that $210 on a 7 night cruise. Or am I missing something??

[Velvetwater]

I personally feel that the ultimate cons of pre-paying is the fact that if you are not happy with any part of service theres nothing you can do about it.

 

That out ways any pros for me.

[ducklite]

I have yet to have service so bad that I removed gratuities. I have not given extra, but have never removed them. If things were that bad I would speak to management long before it was time to hand out gratuities.

[ducklite]

There is one other potential benefit, in case anyone needs to do it for some reason - it allows you to pay your gratuities on one card and have your shipboard account charged to another. May be a good idea for anyone wishing to use a debit card for their onboard account if you are not planning to spend much onboard. A friend of mine did this on a previous cruise - paid the cruise fare and pre-paid gratuities on one credit card, had a few hundred dollars in OBC - then registered their debit card at check in, and only had about $100 charge at end of the week. They did this because they did not have a CC with a high limit at the time.

 

Why not just pay the gratuities a couple weeks in advance and make a payment to the card for them at the same time in order to maintain the credit line?

[Paulette3028]

I'm planning a cruise in Hawaii on Pride of America and one site is offering the choice of additional $50 OBC OR specialty dining package OR prepaid gratuities for two OR credit to shore excursions at each port (excluding start/finish). Depending on the fine print for the excursion credit which could be up to $300 the prepaid gratuities looks like a good deal and is valued at up to $30/day so I make that $210 on a 7 night cruise. Or am I missing something??

 

For me, it would be the pre-paid gratuities.....the least valuable would be the $50 OBC and the shore excursions might have too many items in the fine print for me.